would like to thank Emma Calin for nominating me for this award, which is the trigger for my post today.

Its purpose is both simple and important…to introduce authors, and particularly readers, to other authors who are producing some of the finest blogs on the Web today. In fact, you should check out the work of Emma Calin at http://www.emmacalin.blogspot.com

Here are the rules for the contest:

• Thank and link back to whoever who nominated you.
• List the rules and display the award.
• Share seven facts about yourself.
• Nominate up to fifteen other amazing blogs, and remember to comment on their blogs to let them know you have nominated them. Also, follow the blogger who nominated you.

So, here are my Seven Facts:

1. I have a phobia of bells in belfries – if they appear on TV, I shudder and look away. I have no idea why – unless I’m the reincarnation of Quasimodo…
2. I used to do a lot of voiceover work. My voice has been on several corporate answer-phone systems, on a children’s alphabet learning toy and was once on an electronic shopping machine in Argos.
3. Several years ago, I won £250 worth of silk clothes for suggesting the name ‘Peaches’ for a new range of silk underwear. At the time, £250 equalled ten items of clothing. It was heaven. They showed me a warehouse full of clothes and said ‘help yourself’.
4. I returned to college in my thirties to study Theatrical and Media Make-up, which was an absolute blast. It tapped in to my love of theatre and my artistic side. If I had my time over again…
5. I’ve been known to read tea-leaves with surprising accuracy – none more surprised than I was.
6. I spend about five months of the year in southern Spain. My other half (Chris) and I are able to work from home – which means there’s no reason why home can’t be Timbuktu or, in our case, southern Spain.
7. Chris and I recently started going to modern jive classes, requiring a lot of practice which we don’t do. Although we have stuck a list of moves to the cooker hood as a reminder. I actually thought I was doing okay until one guy told me I was ‘all over the place like a drunk.’ Well, all that twirling does make me dizzy.

THE IMPORTANT BIT….

This is where I am listing my own nominations for this award. Find them and read their blog posts. You’ll be glad you did.

http://regencytales.blogspot.co.uk/

http://www.hannahmdavis.com/blog/

http://wendycartmell.webs.com/apps/blog/

http://recedingviews.wordpress.com/

http://janiemillman.blogspot.co.uk/

http://www.carolroseauthor.com/blog.html

http://terrytyler59.blogspot.co.uk/

http://www.stairlifttoheaven.com/

Hit Lit Pro has hand-picked ten romance authors to support and promote over the coming year…and I’m thrilled to announce that I’m one of them!

We’re writers of romance in all forms – be it poignant, romantic comedy, emotional dilemma, romantic thriller, historical or erotic.

Also on board is the prestigious book promotion company, Candlelit Author Services, who will be involved with us throughout the year. And they’re kicking it all off with a competition, beginning on July 1st 2014, with a long list of fabulous prizes.

So it’s no surprise that I’m really very excited and looking forward to ‘meeting’ new readers.

To learn more about Hit Lit Pro and the other fabulous romance authors, whose novels are creating quite a stir, please checkout their Facebook page.

You’ll find out more about great events, book tours and book launches, HERE.

And here is my interview on Jenny in Neverland’s blog.

Happy Dance!

I don’t just mean they’re both creative but that developing a book is like producing a painting.

I went to a painting class on Friday. It was time. I hadn’t painted in over two years – and even that had been at another art class.

My heroine in Vicki’s Work of Art is an art teacher. I used to teach art and pottery. Well…they do say, write what you know. (Mind you, it has to be said, painting was never my forte and, on Friday, I remembered just exactly why I chose pottery and sculpture over fine art.)

After spending the last few months writing Vicki’s story, and identifying with her passion for moving paint across the canvas, I confess I could feel the nip of the painting bug. Hence the lesson.

It was just a two-hour session and, unless you’re a prodigy, that ain’t gonna deliver fantastic results. My first attempt was torn from the board in minutes. (By me – I wasn’t being taught by Miss Trunchbull.) My second attempt started out very shakily; I didn’t have a wide enough selection of colours, my brushes were the wrong scale for the size of paper, my hand-eye co-ordination was out of whack, and I was totally lacking in self-belief. However…as the session came to an end, I found I was getting into the groove. I was feeling the same kind of excitement Vicki felt when her pictures started to come together. And, as I packed away, I resolved to invest in more paints, increase my range of brushes and buy larger paper. (No, I’m not blaming my tools…honest.)

The piece I produced is rough; the perspective on the table is all to cock, I need texture on the brickwork and there’s heaps of work to be done. It’s like the first draft of a book. Now, the beauty of working with acrylics is that you can keep working on the canvas. Layering the paint can add qualities you hadn’t anticipated and mistakes can be covered up or reworked. Adding highlights and accentuating shadows can add depth to the whole image. It’s editing with colour.

Our teacher spoke about working with an analogous palette – i.e. a palette with similar colours – perhaps only shades of yellow and shades of blue rather than the full spectrum – to create an image held together by these repeating colours. She likened it to music, where an identifiable theme is repeated. And immediately I thought, that’s like writing, too. A book has a theme – which affects the central character’s situation and, possibly, that of a secondary character, giving us recurring imagery which helps tie the whole together.

The upshot of all this – I’ve decided that my writing might benefit if I continue dabbling with paint.

Just so long as there are enough hours in the day.