Pure Passion and Sue Moorcroft (well Sue's book) In Dubai

Today I was in the Kinokuniya book shop in Dubai Mall and much to my delight I saw Sue Moorcroft's latest book - STARTING OVER on the table just as you walk through the front door and near by I saw all Rachel Hore's books including her novel THE GLASS PAINTER'S DAUGHTER which was short listed for the Romantic Novel of the Year and it had its PURE PASSION sticker on it!

I was so pleased I had sneak these photos!

Today I printed off the first40 pages of PENDEROWN, looked through my notes, mind mapped my thoughts on where I thought the book should be going. I also allowed my self to rewrite in long hand the first page - magic again. Tomorrow I will write the synopsis as I see it at the moment and read what I have printed off without editing (this will be difficult) then as a reward I can rewrite page two.

It looks like ds2 can fly out tomorrow - now I am filled with worry. What happens if he's diverted? He's only 15 although he towers over the rest of the family at six foot two. Will he be able to manage the chaos that will be on the other end?

I Am Alive - promise

It's been a long time since I've been here - sorry. I could give you explanations, but I don't want to bore you.

So rather than looking backwards I want to look forward. Next week bring the Emirates Airlines Festival of Literature to Dubai and no of course I'm not excited - hah. Can't wait. This has been marked on my diary since they announced the dates last year. The only downside is that I won't be here for the whole thing - no, only two days, in fact missing the main days. However this is balanced with the fact that I will be in Cornwall a week from today and will be celebrating the christening of my great nephew - I do keep telling my niece I'm not old enough to be a great aunt but she just laughs....

Then the week beginning 15th March - well, a dream comes true. We complete on a flat, or more correctly a shoebox in London. When DH and I sold our flat in London 21 years ago I never thought we would be able to have a foot hold in London again, but dream do come true and from the 15th we will have just that a foothold or a shoe box which should make this crazy traveling life of mine much easier.

On the 16th of March it is the glittery affair - the RNA's Romantic Novel of Year Award Lunch! This years it's even more glam as it's the 50th anniversary. The stress of what wear and what shoes to wear has nearly done me in.

Now there is lovely link back from the lunch to the lit festival as one of this year's short listed authors, Rachel Hore will here at the festival!

Now have made that nice link I will give you another one or rather two which go together nicely. The are one making your hero likeable....

Sarah Duncan

Guide to Literary Agents

Finally I'm polishing up the synopsis for A Cornish House for two pitch sessions a the York Festival of Writing. I will try and blog the process about tomorrow as it has been an interesting exercise but right now I am off to read Chapter One again to make sure I saved the cat!(see above links)

Now there are loads of things I want to blog about and everything is rushing about in my head so I will try and make some order of it. First a huge thank you to Phillipa Ashley who kindly posted a photo for me of my beloved Cornwall here.

I am sadly behind in my blog reading having been enjoy the Eid holiday here. When we were away for a few days i was without Internet access which the DH thought was a very good thing but now I have so much to catch up on..........So here's a wonderful link over at Ray-Anne's blog on beats. I couldn't begin to explain it but she does the most amazing job. I don't think I could write this way but I do think as she points of a fantastic tool for writing if a scene isn't working.



I have been tagged by the fabulous Lisa at http://eudaemoniaforall.blogspot.com/. It is a fabulous book meme which I look forward to doing but I realize that without my books with me I can't really do this properly so I will have to wait a month until I am in the villa and the boxes of books are unpacked......so I must post a reminder in the my diary as my brain is not too good at remembering these days.



Now for a bit of a rant. I have spoken about the refresh problem and the wonderful J came to my rescue. I have discovered that doesn't always work ( a 75% success rate) so I am doomed while living here to be behind. I will learn to live with it. I have also found that on Facebook I can't update my virtual bookshelf as that is a banned site. I am also finding that I can't google certain people. The wonderful author Rachel Hore is one. I hope she will find this amusing but I wanted to check to see if she listed who her agent was on her new website( which is beautiful btw) and couldn't remember her web address so I googled it - hah. Big red sign saying banned. Fortunately I remembered that it's was linked from Hilary Johnson's web page and I made it there in the end. This morning it won't let me go to Lisa's blog??? Or visit one of the people who commented on my post below. Arghhhhhhhhhhhh.


Having said all the above living in Dubai is great......I just want to get into my own home!!!! Enough rant. I must catch up on blogs........BTW dd is on half term this week and ds2 arrive Thursday and dds1 arrives on Sunday so posting and visiting may well be erratic at best.

Hello

I haven't fallen off the face of the earth but to my parent's house in Florida, poor me! It is wonderful and the jet lag is fading. However writing has been curtailed but I have managed a few hundred words.

The compensation for the lack of writing while on holidays and traveling is reading. I finished Rachel Hore's The Dream House. It was a great read with lots of twists and turns. I really felt for the heroine, Kate in her struggles to find out what she really wanted in life. Definitely one to read and enjoy.

Next book out of the bag is Jessica Raymond's Haunted Hearts so I'll keep you posted. Now its back to the pool :-)

What books Are Your Characters Reading

This whole topic of books we have read and book lists lead to the possibility of classifying your characters by what books they are reading or have read. So I asked myself what books are the characters in A Cornish House reading? The answer is I'm not sure. This clearly means I don't yet know my characters well enough yet.

I'll start with the most straight forward - Serena, the bolshy 15 year old. Now I know what a teenage boy of that age reads but I am clueless as to what a teenage girl of that age is reading. Any help would be gratefully received. At that age I was knee deep in romances but I don't see that as Serena at all.

Next up is Madde my 38 year old widow who is an artist. She would be reading the works of Daphne du Maurier at present to help her feel the landscape so that she finds its essence for painting. Also on her bedside table would be how to parent a teenager possibly the one by Alison Baverstock (Whatever - A down-to-earth Guide to Parenting Teenagers).

Next up is Mark the 36yr old architect. He's into thrillers (as most men I know are) and maybe the biography of Wilfred Thesiger or on of his books.....I'm guessing here as at present I haven't spent anytime in his bedroom!

Next up is best friend Tamsin and she is easy. She has Nigella's Feast and Katie Fforde's Practically Perfect sitting bedside her bed.

Finally Old Tom, the 76 year old retired academic. He has a selection of research books on furniture restoration and a collection of Emily Dickinson's poetry.

I really haven't thought this through enough. Just this quick exercise has made me rethink some of the things the characters have been revealing to me. So what are your characters and you reading at the moment? BTW I have given up on The Age of Innocence and fallen into Rachel Hore's The Dream House which I am loving.