May Releases

Freda Lightfoot ANGELS AT WAR

Allison & Busby

7.99 Paperback

Livia dreams of resurrecting the neglected drapery business, but with the determined Matthew Grayson standing in the way of her ambitions, Livia must stay true to her heart, or risk losing everything.

Amanda Grange HENRY TILNEY’S DIARY

31 May

£18.99 (£11.49 on Amazon) Hardback

A retelling of Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey, including a prequel, from the hero's point of view.

Alex Beecroft SHINING IN THE SUN

Samhain Publishing

3rd May 2011

£7.42 Paperback

A rich boy/poor boy holiday romance set in the gorgeous Cornish countryside. Because love can make heroes out of the most unlikely material.

Chrissie Loveday A LOVE SHARED

Gale in US and AudioGo(ex BBC) in UK

18/05/11

Sarah is happy being a career woman until she meets her new colleague. Fortunately, he adores horses too.

Gilli Allan TORN

April 1st

£2.59 (ebook)

Escaping the turmoil of her London life, Jessica looks for sanctuary. In the country she can put her child first. But old habits die hard. She’s torn between the suitable man and the unsuitable boy.

For an extract go to www.gilliallan.blogspot

Hazel Osmond WHO’S AFRAID OF MR WOLFE?

Quercus

14th April 2011

£6.99 Paperback

Ellie Somerset finds herself both repelled and attracted to the sexy and dangerous Jack Wolfe when he becomes her boss. But this particular wolf has an awful lot to hide.

Read an excerpt at www.hazelosmond.co.uk/page3.htm

JL Merrow CAMWOLF

Samhain Publishing

May 17th

£3.14 on Kindle

To save his lover, he must become his own worst nightmare.

Link to publisher's site for excerpt:

http://store.samhainpublishing.com/camwolf-p-6318.html

Linda Gillard HOUSE OF SILENCE

2 April

E-book for Kindle

A romantic comedy-drama from the author of Star Gazing. A decaying mansion... A decaying family... A determined young woman wants to know the truth about her lover. Whatever the consequences. Cold Comfort Farm meets Rebecca.

Margaret Mounsdon A MATTER OF PRIDE

Ulverscroft Large Print

May 1 2011

£8.99

Following a broken engagement Rhianna O'Neill  inherits a wilful half sister just as old flame Luc Fermier comes back into her life. That is when her problems really begin.

Paula Williams PLACE OF HEALING

Ulverscroft Large Print (Linford Romance Library)

1st May 2011

£8.99Paperback

When talented cook Jess flees to Somerset after being betrayed by her boyfriend and best friend, she finds herself  caught up in old rivalries and family quarrels, an abandoned dog and, eventually, a new love.

Christina Courtenay DESPERATE REMEDIES

Dales Large Print

1st May 2011

£11.99 (paperback)

A stolen kiss, a captured heart - Lexie can't forget the man she fell in love with all those years ago.  How can she make sure the aptly named Lord Synley notices her second time around?

Romy Gemmell DANGEROUS DECEIT

Champagne Books

May 6th

e-book (followed by print); Price TBA

Enigmatic Marcus Sheldon unsettles spirited Lydia Hetherington. But spies, villains and a tangled web of deception bring danger until a traitor is unmasked.

Link to Blog and Trailer: http://romygemmell.blogspot.com/2011/04/making-video-trailer.html

Susan Palmquist/Vanessa Devereaux WHAT THE LADY WANTS (Story Three of The Brazen Ladies Trilogy)

Cobblestone Press

May 20th, 2011

$2.99

Erotic Regency Novella

Marriage to Lord Davenport isn't want Fiona planned. While he has good social standing, her husband to be is impotent. However, when Fiona meets the dashing Henry Dalglish it seems things are about to turn in Fiona's favor. And when she offers him a deal he can't refuse, she gets exactly what she wants.

Short Stories

Portia Da Costa GLINT - an erotic short story

Walk on the Wild Side Books [an authors' co-operative] 9th May 2011

99 cents  - ebook

Lazing at the beach, sexy holidaymakers Suzy and Gavin see a flash of light from the headland. Somebody's watching them through binoculars, and deliciously turned on, the hedonistic pair decide to put on a wicked erotic performance for the voyeur!

http://www.portiadacosta.com/glint.html

Victoria Connelly ANDANTE

Sunday Express

May 1st

For one girl, nothing else matters but her violin.

Linda Gillard on Winning the Woman's Weekly Favourite Romantic Novel 1960-2010

So there I was, standing on the quayside, staring at the distant Scottish mainland, wondering if I knew anyone with a boat. And nerves of steel...

Pondering the uncertainties of island life, I texted the organisers of Woman’s Weekly’s Favourite Romantic Novel 1960-2010, for which my novel STAR GAZING was short-listed, telling them I might not make it to the champagne breakfast for short-listed authors as the last two ferries from the Isle of Arran had been cancelled due to bad weather. As it was, I’d miss my London train connection and would have to fly now. If I ever got off the island.

But after a tense couple of hours, the skies cleared, the wind dropped and Calmac declared that the MV Caledonian Isles would depart. Twelve hours later (oh, the joys of flying Easyjet!) I checked in to the New Cavendish Club in London, unpacked and started to worry that my outfit was the wrong colour. (Or was it my hair that was the wrong colour?…)

The following morning I met Trisha Ashley, fellow short-listee (EVERY WOMAN FOR HERSELF). Barbara Taylor Bradford was also short-listed with the legendary A WOMAN OF SUBSTANCE, but she lives in New York and wasn’t attending.

And then it was mingling time… I was handed a glass of champagne but I can't say I tasted it. This is how nervous I was: when they were offered, I said “No” to a tray of Danish pastries. But everyone liked the colour of my Oska top and said it suited me. (Memo to self: fix hair colour.)

I introduced myself to the Woman’s Weekly reader who’d won a trip to London. She said she’d read all three short-listed books, but had actually voted for Victoria Hislop's THE ISLAND. Moving swiftly on, I gave her a signed copy of STAR GAZING, just to show there were no hard feelings.

Then announcement time… OhGodOhGod… And the winner is… STAR GAZING!

Nooooooooooo!

But yesssss!

A beaming Katie Fforde presented me with the star-shaped crystal trophy and looked on while I improvised an incoherent speech, short on wit and long on gratitude. Applause, flash bulbs, refills… Dizzy with happiness and champagne, possessed of a sudden, ravening hunger, I looked round for that magnificent selection of Danish pastries…. Gone. Only crumbs left to bear witness to their brief existence.

Linda and Trisha Ashely

Clutching my empty glass and my beautiful star trophy, I concluded that you can’t win them all. 

ALWAYS THE BRIDESMAID, NEVER THE BRIDE

Linda Gillard talks about being short listed for awards...

In conjunction with the RNA, Woman’s Weekly has just published their list of thirty of the best romantic novels published in the last 50 years, inviting readers to vote for their favourite. My third novel, STAR GAZING is on that list and I’m rubbing shoulders with my literary idols – Mary Stewart, Georgette Heyer and Dorothy Dunnett. Gosh.
I’m thrilled to bits, of course, but if I’m honest, my excitement is tempered with a sense of déja vu. You see, two of my three novels (EMOTIONAL GEOLOGY and STAR GAZING) have already been short-listed for five awards, none of which I won.

But surely just being long- or short-listed is wonderful? Well, as my friend Adèle Geras said, “Being on a shortlist is a thousand times better than not being on a shortlist”, but it can be something of a mixed blessing.

Book awards present wonderful PR opportunities that won’t necessarily be grasped by your publisher, so if you exploit its potential, a short-listing can make drastic inroads into your writing time. If you’re lucky enough to be short-listed alongside a famous author (in my case Cecelia Ahern for Romantic Novel of the Year in 2009) you’ll find publicity generates itself. It’s tougher if the short-list includes no big names. STAR GAZING was short-listed for the UK’s first environmental book award, presented at the Edinburgh Book Festival, but as the short-list was a celeb-free zone, there was no press coverage at all.

Being short-listed for awards may not boost your sales significantly. There’s usually only a few weeks between the short-listing and the announcement of the winner and it’s difficult to organise author events at such short notice. To maximise the benefits of being short-listed you need to be internet-savvy and publicise your book using Facebook, Twitter and blogs.

Personally, I wish the whole process stopped (with a huge party) at the short-list stage. Award ceremonies are stressful and if you lose, your “failure” is very public. It doesn’t matter how many people say it was a wonderful achievement to be short-listed, when they read out someone else’s name, you feel like a loser.

Paradoxically, I found the accolade of STAR GAZING being short-listed twice in 2009 led to a big loss of self-confidence and in the tired and disappointed aftermath of the award circus, I got very little writing done. I lost focus. When you’re trying to immerse yourself in the fragile world of a new book, it’s distracting to have to promote another, one that you maybe finished writing two years ago.

But the upside of being short-listed is making contact with a lot of people who are passionate about books, especially yours. You meet other authors, librarians, booksellers, readers and the indefatigable volunteers who organise the award. In cyberspace you befriend book bloggers who will follow your career and keep your books in the public eye long after a winner is announced.
Being short-listed for an award can be a time-consuming and emotional business, but ultimately I’ve found it rewarding – not in terms of sales, or my standing in the book world, but because it was exhilarating to have my work celebrated and acknowledged publicly as outstanding. And that’s what a short-listing means: your book stood out from the crowd. It still means that, even if you don’t win.

I’ll try to remember that the next time I lose.

www.lindagillard.co.uk