Monday, July 13, 2009

elsewhere again - and overexcited!

Current work: Medical
Listening to: Nick Drake
Reading: Bernardine Kennedy, Old Scores – finished over the weekend and enjoyed; also Jim Lynch, The Highest Tide, which was fabulous. Sort of a coming-of-age story; I also learned tons about the sea, the characterisation was superb, the dialogue was spot on, and I will be watching out for his future books.

I’m blogging in two other places again today. Firstly I’m at Love is the Best Medicine, talking about fantasy houses for characters in books. (There’s a chance to win a free book, so do go over and comment.) And secondly I’m at I Heart Presents (that’ll be later today US time), talking about how I became a writer.

And why am I overexcited? Three reasons. Firstly, I discovered that Playboy Boss, Pregnancy of Passion was at #1 yesterday in the Harlequin chart (thank you very much to the readers who put me there). Number two, I’ll tell you about tomorrow. And number three, the really big one, is that my ed liked the revisions to my 40th M&B (my 12th Modern Heat), so ‘Good Girl or Gold Digger?’– aka the fairground book – will be out in the UK in March 2010.

The title’s quite different – not a hooky one, but I hope it gives a fun, flirty, tense feel. My working title was ‘Something About You’, which I guess wasn’t quite catchy enough (and kind of reminds me of ‘Something About Mary’, which has slapstick connotations – not my style). I did suggest something to do with steam (to tie in with the setting), but maybe not. Anyway, it feels wonderful to get to another milestone. Especially after a bad crow day on Friday, when I’d managed to convince myself that my creativity was in permanent hibernation.

Weekend – well, I have a deadline, so I was nose to grindstone for most of it. But I did skive off on Saturday to go to the beach (more about this later in the week, because it was research-related) and spent Saturday evening watching ‘August Rush’ with DH and the kids – thoroughly enjoyable film, and there were quite a few bits that resonated with me. Reckon that might have sorted my next Friday PHS slot…

Have a nice day!

10 comments:

Bluestocking Mum said...

I'm going to an agricultural show on Saturday - research related too!

Well done on the chart success - well deserved.
You always make me smile when you talk about 'crow days.' (As an unpublished writer I have plenty of those!) Even with all your successes it must be so rewarding to be at No 1 - makes everything worthwhile.

best wishes

Unknown said...

Number 1! Brilliant. And thoroughly well deserved. It's a wonderful read.

Susan Rix said...

Fab news on the #1 slot!! Great news too about your 40th - congrats!

Lacey Devlin said...

Congrats on being number one and your 40th book! I hope there's strawberries and champagne somewhere :) I actually found your I Heart Presents blog all by myself (yes I am very proud) and I loved your story (I actually read it twice lol!) I'd also quite happily move into one of those houses especially if McDreamy is part of the package(is he?) Do you get to keep your titles more often then they change them?

Kate Hardy said...

Angel - hope you enjoy your show. And thanks for the compliment.

Most authors get crow days, published or not! I think it goes with the territory.

And yes, it's really rewarding to be #1. But what's more rewarding is getting an email from someone the book's really touched: that's when I know I've done my job well and put a bit of sparkle in someone's life.

Kate Hardy said...

Shirley - thanks for the compliment :o)

Kate Hardy said...

Sue - thanls very much :o)

Kate Hardy said...

Hi Lacey - thanks very much. There were strawberries involved (but champagne will wait until we're on holiday and can chill out, i.e. it doesn't matter if Mummy Has A Hangover *g*)

Sadly, no, McDreamy isn't part of the package. (Nice inspiration for the current book, though!)

As for titles... I hardly ever get to keep them because Marketing pick buzzword titles that sell better. Doesn't stop me trying, though!

Anonymous said...

Many many congrats on the chart success - and richly deserved. AND the readers loved it.
hope you celebrated!

Kate Hardy said...

Nina - thanks.

Celebrating... um, will be. (D-word. 'Nuff said.)