There's something about September...

I don't know what it is about September - it's not as if I've children at home and I've got that whole back to school rush going on. You know how it goes, new shoes, new uniform, new everything...

I've just watched my daughter handle that with her oldest (5), while settling the middle one (3) into pre-school and coping with the littlest who's just discovered that he get where ever he wants to be the minute her back is turned.

September should be a time when I can ease off a little in the garden as the grass slows down, enjoy those last warm days that always seem to arrive the minute the children are back in school. It is absolutely lovely here in Wiltshire at the moment.

But...

Two more appointments have just gone into my September diary. The eye clinic (an appointment 40 odd miles away at 9 am is really not fun). There are two meetings at the U3A (University of Third Age) this month and I'm on flower duty at the WI. I've just booked in to have a manicure and pedicure before heading off to London for the annual Mills and Boon Author Lunch. And of course there's the hairdresser for a trim, ditto. I'm starting an Italian class and I'm hoping to get a place in the pilates class, too and there's an evening of fun in Southwick Village Hall with another group.

Most of it - apart from the eye clinic - is fun. But there's this other thing going on. The book deadline is looming. I told my editor that I was going to have it on her desk by the end of September

I'm stocking up on the chocolate...

Liz Fielding's latest book - the last of her Ice Cream Trilogy charting the lives and loves of Elle, Sorrel and Gel Amery - Vettori's Damsel in Distress is a Romantic Times TOP PICK.

"...as sparkling as the finest of champagnes and 
delicious as ice cream on a sunny day..."

Rosie's Little Tote Bag

Well, golly, this seems appropriate!

To launch Vettori's Damsel in Distress, the third of my books about the Amery sisters and their adventures with ice cream (available for pre-order now!), I've created two special treats for my fans.

The first treat - for one lucky subscriber to my newsletter - is this fabulous "Rosie" tote bag. It's a one off and it's really good quality, printed on both sides with straps long enough to carry it on your shoulder.

Perfect for trips to the library, roomy enough for a visit to the beach. Or just a little shopping.

I'll be drawing the winners name from the dh's panama hat on publication day - 7th July so make sure you're signed up now - there's a form on the sidebar here.

And if you're not sure who Rosie is, everyone can download my second little treat for free.

Rosie's Little Book of Ice Cream contains all the wit and wisdom collected by Rosie (the vintage ice cream that started it all), a little history, some recipes from the books and the first chapters of Tempted By Trouble, Anything But Vanilla and Vettori's Damsel in Distress.

This is the Smashwords link which will work for everyone but it's also available at Amazon, iBooks, Nook and Kobo.

Research - the fun part of writing!

Having finally delivered my latest KISS romance to my editor (For His Eyes Only, March 2014), I’ve embarked on the last book in my “ice cream” trilogy. This will be Geli’s story, the youngest of the Amery sisters, the one who went to art college, designed the website, but apart from helping out at gigs when needed, doesn't get hands-on involved with the business..

I thought that I’d probably wrung the most out of the Maybridge ice cream event scene and have decided on a new location for Geli. In the serendipitous way that these things happen, I picked up a copy of Italia at the supermarket – mostly for the recipes – and read a fascinating article about the Isola area of Milan. Artists, designers, fashion but with a gritty working class background. So often, when you’re planning a new book, things seem to come up and hit you in the face.

Art, clothes, food… And we all know that Italian ice cream is out of this world. J Perfect.

I’m deep into research mode now. I’m watching vids on YouTube, reading travel guides, blogs, finding fabulous pictures on Pinterest – check out my page for Geli’s story here - and yes, planning a long weekend in Milan. I want to walk the ground, get the feel, the smell of the place and of course, I’ll be taking wander along the fabulous Belle Epoque shopping mall - the stunning Galleria Victorio Emanuele II – nicknamed Milan’s “drawing room”, with its designer boutiques, cafes and bookshops.

Writing is hard work. It makes my brain ache. But research is just so much fun!

The ice cream trilogy –

Tempted By Trouble (Elle’s story)

Anything But Vanilla (Sorrel’s story)

More Ice Cream

I’m so excited to be able to finally talk about my latest book, Anything But Vanilla, which is being released in Harlequin’s exciting new KISS series in May (although like all HQ titles, it will be available on their website in April).

Kiss has been the most enormous success since its launch in February, regularly topping the bestseller chart at Harlequin. It has a really starry line-up with books across the range of “heat” but all with that flirty, sexy, modern feel to them. They are about modern young women, living real lives and having their HEA come up and smack them in the eye rather than hunting it down.

Anything But Vanilla is the second of my ice cream stories  - Tempted By Trouble was the first. It’s Sorrel’s story. She’s the Amery sister who plans to be a millionaire by the time she’s twenty-five. She’s expanded “Scoop!” to include high end events and things are looking up until the woman who makes her specialist ice creams disappears a day before a make-or-break reception.

Worse. There’s some man in her place with only one thing on his mind. Shutting the place down. Well, two… He’s taking a lot of interest in her legs.

I have twenty advanced reading downloads of Anything But Vanilla for those of you who enjoy fun, flirty romance and are prepared to post a review on Goodreads or Amazon, or on your blog or all of them. If that’s you, email me at liz at liz fielding dot com (no gaps) with ARC in the subject line and I’ll draw the names out of a hat next Friday.

Have a great weekend!

Building a heroine...

To write their story you will have to know your characters intimately. For this, you need to do more than fill out a character worksheet with all their physical characteristics, their birth sign, their place in the family hierarchy, the names of their siblings. — from Liz Fielding’s Little Book of Writing Romance

My new book, started at the beginning of the year, has a ready-made heroine (always a help!) Sorrel is the younger sister of Elle Amery – the heroine of Tempted By Trouble – so I know quite a lot about her before I start. She’s tall, willowy, with dark red hair and a wicked sense of humour that she does her best to keep strapped down.

She’s totally focussed on her career, determined to be a success and to never have to rely on anyone else. To never be poor. (She’s been there, done that…) She was a student when we last met her, taking a business management degree and determined to make her first million by the time she’s twenty-five.

Her sister’s creation of Scoop!, an ice-cream events business, gave her big ideas and by the time Elle is ready to take a back seat and concentrate on being a mother, she is ready to take over the management of the business and propel it out of the local, small business category and into the big time.

But it takes more than a driving ambition to make a heroine. She has to be someone your reader can empathise with, someone with those little failings, weaknesses that we all have. She has to be human.

Sorrel has always had style — she’s an expert at spotting classic bargains in charity shops and wearing them like a model. The budget isn’t as tight as it once was, but she’d still rather hunt down a great “previously owned” find in the local Oxfam shop, or on eBay than shop in the local high street (one of the suits she finds gets her into trouble from the word go). For clothes, that is. 

Shoes are something else and the minute I saw this pair of gorgeous Mui Mui sandals, I knew she would live on bread and water for a month in order to have them.

What heroine weakness would make her your natural best friend? 

What would you give up your lunchtime chocolate bar, your double skinny latte, for?

I’ll put all the comments in a hat and draw one on Monday. The winner will get the book of her choice from my backlist.

Liz Fielding: Twenty Years

TWENTY YEARS

This month sees the anniversary of the day I signed my first contract with Mills and Boon – “Whereby it is mutually agreed between the parties hereto as follows respecting a work of fiction of approximately 50-55,000 words entitled AN IMAGE OF YOU (hereinafter referred to as “the work”) the complete typescript of which has been delivered to the Publisher and accepted by the Publisher.”

Even now, reading that, I get a bit goosey. Remembering the phone call from my first editor to say they’d bought it, signing the contract, the day the first box of books arrived. My first sight of the cover. Holding my book. Opening it and reading the first few lines and knowing that it wasn’t all some mad mistake. Rushing to my parents to show them.

It has been a long journey, with a few ups and downs on the way. Some rejections — yes, contracted authors do get rejections — and a few books, not many, that have whizzed through without a word being changed, which is wonderful and yet vaguely disturbing. I miss that chance to give it a final tweak.  

There have been covers that I’ve loved — my latest, a Riva called Tempted By Trouble is coming out very near the top! — and some I’ve hated. I’ll gloss over the titles. We all know that they are nothing to with the author and everything to do with marketing.

There have been award nominations, I have two Rita statuettes tucked away on the shelf under the stairs; sadly I had to give back the Betty Neels Rose Bowl at the end of the year. And I’ve been fabulous conferences in New York, Denver, Washington, Leicester and Egham and this weekend I’ll be at Caerleon for the Romantic Novelists’ Association conference. Forget “messing about in boats”; there is nothing, absolutely nothing, to beat spending a weekend with romance writers en masse.  

And in April I delivered FLIRTING WITH ITALIAN, my sixtieth story, to Mills and Boon. A diamond moment if ever there was one.

What I remember most, though, are the wonderful friends I’ve made during the last twenty years. Writers, who are the only people who understand exactly how you’re feeling when the words won’t come. Or when they do. Editors who have taught me so much, made me write better than I knew I could. But most of all readers. God bless you for buying the books. Thank you for posting lovely reviews on Amazon. For befriending me on my blog and on twitter and writing to me when a book has delighted you. Rushing to buy the latest title.

You are the ones who keep this industry going. Your enthusiasm, eagerness for new stories, your joy, anticipation as you open a glossy cover, click “download” onto to eReader. We do it for you.

So here I am, raising a glass of champagne to all of you.

Thank you for twenty wonderful years.