Find Some Sunshine! - Christina Hollis

I hope it’s not too late to wish you a happy, healthy and productive New Year! Going back to work after a break is always difficult, especially after the long midwinter holiday season. Here in the UK, dark cold mornings make it feel so much worse. It will be a week or two yet before the days get noticeably longer, although the birds are already looking forward to St Valentine’s day. Tradition says that’s when they choose their mates, but an optimistic dunnock is already staking his claim to a bramble patch in our garden. He tunes up each morning, which starts off the local robin, too. This has already been a hard winter - we were snowed in for the best part of three weeks, and the weathermen say there is more cold weather to come. That’s why I was so glad that January sees the US release of my latest Harlequin Presents Extra, The Master of Bella Terra. I love Italy, and this book brings back a lot of happy memories. The setting is loosely based in an old villa where I spent a wonderful holiday. The perfume of citrus flowers was intoxicating, the sky was absolutely cloudless and it was the clear, intense blue of plumbago flowers. All the experts say ‘write about what you know’ and the olive groves and sweet chestnut woods of that ancient estate were just made for romance.

Kira, the heroine of The Master of Bella Terra, loves the magical Italian valley she has made her home. Then billionaire Stefano buys the beautiful villa which overlooks her little cottage and they’re set on a collision course...

“The landscape was poised, waiting for something to happen. Then Kira felt a vibration.Faint at first, it rose from the ground at her feet like an earthquake. She started forward as a roe deer bounced through the trees behind her.With one bound it crossed the track and was gone. Still the shuddering increased, rising up through Kira’s ribcage until she looked around for somewhere to run. Instinctively, she headed out into the summer-rich pasture.The trees surrounding it had been still in the oppressive heat. Now they swayed and bucked like a wild green sea. It wasn’t an earthquake, but something even more alarming. A helicopter was sweeping in from above, and tearing Kira’s valley apart.”

Copyright, Harlequin Mills and Boon Ltd. 2011

Stefano has come to inspect a grand estate that is for sale. He likes what he sees - including Kira - but she isn’t going to make life easy for him. Stefano is threatening her whole way of life, but she isn’t the only one who is going to have to make some changes!

I loved writing The Master of Bella Terra, and hope you’ll enjoy its sun drenched countryside and torrid romance. What’s your idea of the perfect romantic location?

Christina Hollis write Modern Romance for Harlequin Mills and Boon, which appear as Harlequin Presents Extra in the US.You can catch up with her at  http://www.christinahollis.com, on Twitter, http://www.twitter.com/@christinabooks and on http://www.christinahollis.blogspot.com

Christmas Cheer - Christina Hollis

Winter in the UK is usually mild. That means there's little point in councils investing in expensive machinery to keep roads and paths clear. That's reasonable - until it snows. Then it only needs a light dusting, and the whole country grinds to a halt!

We've been snowed in for the past ten days, as our drive and the half mile of lanes between us and the nearest gritted road is a switchback of sharp turns and one-in-three gradients. It's been wonderful. With traffic unable to reach us, it's been even quieter than normal - and that's saying something. The surrounding woods look like a Christmas card. It's lovely, but it also drives the deer and wild boar toward the garden. We have to make very sure all the fences and gates into the garden are checked regularly.

The bad weather has meant shopping for Christmas Presents on line. This is great - as long as the postman can get through to deliver it! Luckily, this year our bees have produced plenty of honey and comb, which will make ideal presents. Computers can be a curse, but they are brilliant for making personalised labels. Sparkly gift bags holding a jar or two of home made preserves makes a unique present which needn't cost the earth. When you take time to find out what someone would really like, it doesn't matter how much or little a present costs. I'm hoping against hope that Number One Son has taken my not-so-subtle hints on board. Telling him I need a new pastry brush for Christmas each time we're cooking together has laid the groundwork. I just hope I don't need to resort to leaving stray bristles on the mince pies, or worse, leaving off the egg-wash that gives them that lovely golden brown glow.

What do you hope to find in your Christmas stocking this year?


Christina Hollis writes Modern Romance for Harlequin Mills and Boon Ltd, and her latest title "The Master Of Bella Terra" is released in the US in January 2011. Catch up with her at http://www.christinahollis.com

Warm and Wonderful - Christina Hollis

Autumn is really closing in. It doesn't get light here until after breakfast, and it's dark by teatime. The advantage is the wonderful autumn colours we've enjoyed this year, and when the wind blows the clouds away, extravagantly starry nights. If you're lucky you might see a shooting star, or even Comet Hartley  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/103P/Hartley, but there are lots of distractions, including firework parties!  When you come in from the cold, it's great to curl up in front of the fire with something comforting. My favourite roast pumpkin soup recipe is really easy. Splash chunks of pumpkin (no need to peel, but discard the seeds and tough fibres), crushed garlic cloves and a thinly sliced onion with a little olive oil, salt and pepper. Roast at 180C for about 40 minutes or until soft, then (taking care not to burn your fingers) scrape the flesh into a saucepan. Add enough vegetable or chicken stock to produce soup with a good consistency then  mash or blitz until smooth. A pinch of smoked paprika is a good addition. Heat the soup through, then serve with cheese topped rolls.
That's great for nights when you've been out getting chilly, but sometimes it's lovely to just snuggle down with a book and something chocolatey. Grannie's Gateau (crushed cookies stirred into a melted mixture of butter, syrup and cocoa and chilled until set) is a real treat, but so rich it's only for special occasions - especially when given a chocolate topping!
What's your favourite fireside snack at this time of year?

Christina Hollis writes for Harlequin Mills and Boon's Modern Romance/Presents Extra. Her latest UK release, The Italian's Blushing Gardener, will be released in the US in January 2011 under the title The Master of Bella Terra. Visit her website at Http://www.christinahollis.com for details of her Christmas Holiday Competition!

There Goes The Neighbourhood... - Christina Hollis

As a teen I lived on the wrong side of town, in a flat above a laundry. It was a great community on the outside, but the walls of our maisonettes were paper thin.  I soon knew all about the things Charlie Rich didn’t explain about what goes on ‘Behind Closed Doors’!  

I lived in Flat 71. Next door, in Number 72, a respectable shopkeeper made his family’s life misery - but only after hours. The whole place shook with his rages, and you could hear every word. One night, he threw his family out, locked up and went to bed.  It was during a very hot summer, so all the windows were wide open. We took the family in until they could hear their father snoring, then the youngest son climbed out of our window, crept along a narrow ledge twenty feet above the ground, clambered into their own flat and  unlocked the door from the inside. 

The nice twentysomethings living on our other side in Flat 70 worked from home. They kept themselves to themselves, and the only thing anybody knew for sure was that they must feel the cold really badly. Why else would our party wall be warm to the touch all year round? That was in the days before the police got thermal imaging cameras. It wasn’t until that lovely couple did a moonlit flit leaving behind an enormous unpaid electricity bill that we all found out what their cottage industry was - growing tropical plants of the smokable kind.

In my latest book The Italian’s Blushing Gardener, Kira has escaped a disastrous affair and has found her perfect home - a tiny cottage in the beautiful Italian countryside. The last thing she wants is rich, self-made Stefano moving into the neighbouring villa. He promises to be the neighbour from hell - but there are surprises in store for both Kira and Stefano.

The Italian’s Blushing Gardener is a November Modern Romance for Harlequin Mills and Boon.  It will be released in the USA after Christmas, as a Harlequin Presents Extra called  The Master of Bella Terra, but if you visit  my website, http://www.christinahollis.com right now I’m running a competition with signed copies and other goodies as prizes. Click on the ‘My Books’ link and you can get a sneak preview of the book and its lovely new style cover, too.

Have you ever had trouble with the people next door?

Christina Hollis writes Modern Romance/Presents Extra for Harlequin Mills and Boon. Since moving out of town her human neighbours are all from heaven, but the squirrel, deer and wild boar  in the surrounding forest can be demons if they break into her garden! You can follow her on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/christinabooks and Facebook at http://bit.ly/9ry4df