BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

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On Tuesday 18th November, I shall be on the beautiful and talented Sue Dougan's programme on BBC Radio Cambridgeshire to talk about Fair Deception and Regency Newmarket.

My slot will be between 3pm and 3.30pm, so pop the kettle on and have a listen.

With any luck the studio webcam won't be working, but I'll put on a posh top, just in case...
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I Love Libraries

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Look what lovely Haverhill Library made for me!

Isn't it gorgeous? And what's more, it attracted a very nice audience indeed for my talk there on Wednesday night. They were interested (and interesting) and asked so many intelligent questions that the time flew by.

A display, a good evening and a couple of cups of tea. What more could a writer want?


My thanks to Sanphra and her team at Haverhill, and to Linda, the Suffolk coordinator for the National Year of Reading (oh, and if the photographer could give my hair a trim and airbrush out the bags under my eyes, I'd be very grateful).
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Fiction Feast anyone?

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Anybody out there got a November '08 copy of Fiction Feast? Apparently I had a story in it (retitled The Magic Garden) but because I hadn't been told and have had a rather hectic month what with the new book being out and all, I didn't buy a copy or few.

So if anyone does happen to have that issue and has finished with it, I'd be happy to buy it from you. Contact me via my website, please.
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The Eleventh Hour of the Eleventh Day of the Eleventh Month

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I posted this last year on the Transita Authors blog, but it is just as apposite this year.

And every year.



Flanders meets the High Street
by Jan Jones

Standing in Waitrose at eleven o’clock
All life suspended
One woman reaching for a steak&kidney pie
An old man gripping his wire basket
Me with my trolley as thousands of cheerful, too-fast soldiers
March before my eyes in jerky shades of grey

PALs: joining up together, fighting together
Dying together.
A village wiped out. A community blasted.

The cashiers sit down again
People move
Two minutes of life, gone in the blink of an eye.
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Now, that's what I call a tea bag!

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As anyone who knows me will testify, I am somewhat partial to the odd vat of tea. So when I was perusing the special offers in Waitrose this week and I noticed a sign saying "Free BIG tea bag with every box of Good Earth purchased", my attention was caught.


How big, I wondered?

Enough for a teapot?
A thermos?
A couple of large flasks?

So over I wandered and found this. Looks like my kind of carrier!

Talks

I have got various events planned to go with the launch of Fair Deception, and have just realised, belatedly, that I should probably have a list on here of where I am going to be when!

Thursday 6th November - 10.30am to 11.30am - Talk to the Top Timers at Newmarket Library

Wednesday 12th November - 7pm to 8.30pm - a talk at Haverhill Library

Friday 14th November - 3.30pm to 5.30pm - book signing at the Community Association Fair at Cheveley School

Saturday 15th November - 10am to 12 noon - chat, book signing and Regency nibbles at Newmarket Library

As well as my Newmarket Regencies I'll also be talking a bit about Stage by Stage, short stories, and where my ideas come from.

If anyone is in the vicinity - you're more than welcome!
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Ms to go

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There. In the interests of sanity, Fortunate Wager has been polished, printed and packaged ready to post to the publisher tomorrow.

Wish it well.

(Mind you, I'm not sure it's really ready to be sent - I mean, I'm not throwing up at the sight of it yet.)
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Cat O'Lantern

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Happy Hallowe'en!!!

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Short Story Alert!

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And as if Fair Deception coming out this week wasn't enough good news, I also have a story in Woman's Weekly!

Building Up A Story had its origins several years ago when the then owner of the-house-next-door got the builders in to gut and modernise it in order to sell it on. I lived with those builders for MONTHS! Believe me, the stereotype image doesn't go nearly far enough.

However, the pain has receded and I now have really lovely new neighbours - and a short story to boot! It just goes to show that a writer never throws any experience away.

(WW on sale 29th October to 4th November - and in addition to my story you get gratuitous pics of Sean Bean as well!)
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Another nice reveiw

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I'll be getting a swelled head if I'm not careful. Elaine over at Random Jottings has read Fair Deception and loved it. She thinks I write with "great style and verve and pace" and thought that the book was "sheer delight from start to finish".

The cheque's in the post, Elaine.

Easy - not!

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My manuscript is 67,695 words.
Ideally, I'd like it to be 70,000 words.

2305 words short
272 pages

So that's an extra 8 or 9 words per page needed.

Sounds easy, doesn't it?
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It's Here!

Yippee! I'm now surrounded by lots of copies of Fair Deception.

Even better, the perfectly lovely Nicola Slade has read it and says it is sparkly and spangled and sheer, unadulterated fun!

Lori loved it too!

Thanks, girls, I couldn't be more pleased.
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Eeek!

There I was, peacefully minding my own business in the library, when I turned around and saw...

A poster advertising ME!!!

It wasn't that I didn't know I was giving a talk, you understand, I just hadn't expected there to be a poster advertising it. Made me come over all of a dither.
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Journey to the bottom of the freezer

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You know how you get days when something snaps and you look at a job you've been meaning to do for, er, months and think, "Today's the day!"

Well, today was one of those days. The day when I would chip away at the ice around the top of the freezer so the lid would fit properly again. Ten minutes, I told myself, and I could reward myself with a mug of tea.

Yes.

Only, it's just so satisfying when you ease a whole chunk away from the side, isn't it? So I fetched the sledge-hammer and chipped away some more. And then the basket was in the way, but when I tried to move it, it was actually frozen in, so... you get the picture.


By the time I'd finished the sink looked like this.


And under the basket ...

Suffice to say that I decided I no longer needed beetroot from 1994, tomatoes from 1992 or turkey gravy from 1991.

And look - I found the bottom of the freezer!


So - what's lurking at the bottom of yours?

Losing it!

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Aaarrghhh! I've lost a timeline.

I'm having a last-ish surge through Fortunate Wager and am at the checking all the dates and all the facts stage - and I can't find the timeline!

I know I've made one because I can't not have done. I make one for all my books as I go along. Being just slightly control-freakish, I need to know when I am as I write (one of my pet peeves are books where it isn't clear how much time has passed between one scene and the next). It's also helpful to know which character is appearing too much or too little. Or if the hero and heroine are spending more time apart than together. Plus it's a tremendous way of procrastinating whilst still legitimately claiming that I'm working.

So I know I've written/drawn/annotated this one. I can even see it in my mind's eye with large arrows swooping all over it where I needed to move scenes around. BUT I CAN'T FIND IT NOW!

It's obviously been misplaced somewhere in this lot.


I'm going to have to make another one, aren't I?
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