February Releases

Katie Fforde A PERFECT PROPOSAL

Arrow Books

17th February

£7.99

When Sophie realises her family see her as general dogsbody, accepts her old friend’s offer of a chance of a lifetime to head off to the Big Apple.

Carol Townend BOUND TO THE BARBARIAN

Mills & Boon

February 4th 2010

£3.99 Paperback

Once a slave, maidservant Katerina has promised to convince Commander Ashfirth Saxon that she is an Imperial princess, but the longer she keeps up the  deception, the less she wants to deceive him… This novel is set in medieval Byzantium - for further details see Carol’s blogsite: http://www.caroltownend.co.uk/

Christina Jones  THE WAY TO A WOMAN’S HEART

Piatkus/Little,Brown

3rd February 2011

£7.99 paperback

Hoping to find solace in country cooking, Ella leaves her corporate life for rural Berkshire and finds instead a houseful of homeless foodies, a television crew shooting a top-rated cookery programme, a flurry of flower fairies - and the sexiest chef in the world.

http://www.christinajones.co.uk/

Fay Cunningham SNOWBOUND

Linford Romance LP

1st February

£8.99 (Amazon)

Stranded over Christmas, Amy discovers Ethan's secret and passions flare as the snow deepens.

Imogen Howson BLOOD OF THE VOLCANO

Samhain Publishing

February 22nd 2011

$5.50/ £3.17

Sworn virgin, instrument of the god’s vengeance—helpless in her target’s arms. 

Excerpt link: http://store.samhainpublishing.com/blood-volcano-p-6262.html

Jean Fullerton PERHAPS TOMORROW

Orion

3rd February

£9.99

Life has been tough for widow Mattie Maguire but very soon it’s going to get a whole lot tougher.

Jo Beverley A DEMON’S BRIDE

A Penguin-NAL e-special.

£1.72

A Georgian rake, a vicar's daughter, and a pagan ritual in rural Suffolk. When the great earth demon Waldborg rises in truth, everything changes in this reissued novella.

Read more at http://www.jobev.com/tdbexc.html

Jo Beverley FORBIDDEN MAGIC

Penguin NAL trade paperback

Also in e-book.

£9.45

When she and her siblings are to be thrown onto the streets of Regency England, Meg Gillingham turns to a magic statue for help.

Liz Fielding ALL SHE WANTS FOR CHRISTMAS

Linford Romance Library LP

£8.99

Escaping Christmas with a trip to the Caribbean is just what Maddy needs, but first a besotted bloke with a ring burning a hole in his pocket turns up. No! Then her godmother with a gigolo in tow. Fake snow and tinsel is beginning to look appealing...

http://www.lizfielding.com/

Louise Allen REGENCY PLEASURES (Containing A Model Debutante & The Marriage Debt)

Mills & Boon

Feb 2011

£7.99

Two novels with unusual Regency backgrounds - an artist's studio, complete with nude model, and the condemned cell in Newgate and a marriage of desperation.

See http://www.louiseallenregency.co.uk/books/index.php for an extract.

Maggi Andersen THE RELUCTANT MARQUESS

Embrace Books

14th February 2011 

Can Charity ever make the rakish Lord Robert love her, when he’s convinced a husband should never be in love with his wife?

Margaret Mounsdon THE MOUNTJOY SECRET

A People's Friend Pocket Novel

10 February 2011

£1.80

When private enquiry agent Sophie Blaze bumps into her old school adversary

Emma Mountjoy the encounter leads to an old scandal best kept hidden.

On the way she meets the charismatic Jack West who has no reason to trust her.

http://margaretsromanceworld.blogspot.com/

Nell Dixon MAKING WAVES

Astraea Press

8th February 2011

New company, no further info at this stage

Cassidy Jones needs a holiday and her friend, Tammy’s cottage in New Bay sounds perfect. The beach could heal the bruises from losing her job and her fiancé. Josh Parker is also looking forward to a much needed break after eighteen months of non-stop work. His friend Tammy’s cottage would be just right for some time alone. Or would it? (This is a reprint of A Taste of Summer)

Sheila Newberry THE POPLAR PENNY WHISTLERS

Robert Hale

£18.99

Hester, a laundry maid at the old Poplar Hospital, is already caring for her twin siblings, when her widowed father is badly injured at the docks.  Her dreams of becoming a nurse are put aside. The irrepressible Polly, Harry and disabled father determine to help, and with their pet dog Puglet, become The Poplar Penny Whistlers.

Susan Palmquist HER INDISCRETION

Noble Romance

February 7th

A foolish mistake has put Lydia James in a predicament, marry Lord Likely or become the scandal of Bath.

Susan Palmquist WHO’S THE BOSS

Cobblestone Press

February 11th, 2011

Getting caught in a compromising position at work leads to the unexpected.

Freda Lightfoot LUCKPENNEY LAND - LP

Jan 2011

W F Howes Ltd

£18.95

Life is hard for Meg Turner living on a lonely farm in the bleak but beautiful mountains of the Lake District with a bully of a father and a brother who resents her. She loves Jack, but loyalties are threatened as World War II approaches, and Meg gradually realises that the only thing she can really count on is her passion for the haunting land she loves so much...

http://www.fredalightfoot.co.uk

Fenella J Miller MISS PETERSON & THE COLONEL
Aurora Aspen Mountain Press
February 11th.
e-book
A Regency romance with spies, horses and a dashing hero.

Sally Clements BOUND TO LOVE
Embrace Books
ebook
£4.59

Security expert Jake Forrester must accept the help of impulsive, spirited goldsmith Tempest MacKenzie when they find themselves kidnapped together, despite his misgivings!  

Author Interview - Jean Fullerton

Jean, I'm delighted to welcome you as the first author to be interviewed for the RNA blog. I know you grew up in the East End of London, which explains your convincing sense of place but I'd love to know how you got into writing about it.

Please tell us how you got started.
I am a District Nurse and eight years ago I was a manager in the NHS in charge of six community clinics when my boss sent me on a stress management course. In order to unwind at the end of the working day the tutor advised us to take up a hobby. A good friend of mine had just signed up for a creative writing course and as a life-long reader of all types of historical fiction I thought I’d have a bash at writing a story- just for fun. You know. Nothing serious! Anyhow, I sketched out a rough plot on a sheet of A 4 and opened my lap top on the kitchen table and typed Chapter One. After just a dozen or so pages the story just seemed to pour out as if someone had shaken up a bottle of cola and undone the top.

I finished that book in about four months – it takes me considerably longer now I can tell you- then I started another. Again the story flowed. Of course, I had no idea about technique or formatting, I learnt that later, I was just telling the story.After I’d written three books my hero-at-home encouraged me to send one off to see if they were any good, which I did. With trembling hands and naive dreams of agents and editors fighting over my brilliant book, I would post a handful of submission out on Monday morning only to have them fall back through my letter box on Thursday with a photo copied rejection letter shoved inside.

Then in 2003 I joined the RNA via the New Writers Scheme and sent in my second novel. Thank goodness it landed on the mat of Rachel Summerson who in her reader’s report opened by saying ‘before I say anything else you have what it takes to be a novelist because you create believable characters and put them in gripping plots that makes the reader want to turn the page but…’ I still cherish that report.

But, I suddenly realised I knew nothing about the craft of writing, formatting or any of the other skills that are essential to produce a publishable novel. So I spent the next 5 years learning them which wasn’t easy as I’m dyslexic. I had to work a night shift in a local nursing home every other week to afford to have my manuscripts copy edited in full before I could submit them.

After writing 10 books, submitting to umpteen agents and editors I finally wrote No Cure for Love which won the Harry Bowling Prize in 2006. That got me my first two-book deal with Orion and when A Glimpse at Happiness was shortlisted for the 2010 Romantic Novel of the Year, I got my second two-book contract. Winning the Harry Bowling was my big-break but the hard work goes on. In fact, it never stops.

How much of a planner are you?
Because I have so many points of view in my book and my publishers require a detailed synopsis from me, I plot and often sketch out the whole story scene by scene before I start. However it’s not written in stone and the plot very often changes as I go along.

What do you think an editor is looking for in a good novel?
It doesn’t matter whether you’re writing romance, sci-fi or a political thriller what all editors of popular fiction are looking for is a riveting, page-turning story.

Where is your favourite place to work?
As long as I’m by myself I can work anywhere, train, plane or café but my favourite place is my office, which is the fourth bedroom. I have all my research books to hand and no one else uses my computer. As well as the desk, bookcases and filing cabinet I have an easy chair where I sit and think.

Do you write every day? What is your work schedule?
I try to write every day and aim for 1500 words which is about the length of most of my scenes. My day job is teaching nursing studies at a London university so I dash in from work at 4.30 and have to do the domestic goddess thing, which I’m appalling at. Have dinner at 6-ish then I disappear into my office for 2 hours to write. I usually surface about 9.00 to 9.30 and watch a bit of TV then when the Hero-at-Home goes to bed I’m back on my computer until 1am.

I also work most Saturday’s but try to limit it on Sunday to a few hours in the afternoon.

Which authors have most influenced your work?
Anya Seton in the first instance as it was her book Katherine, which is almost a seminal work for women, as it sent me off on my lifelong love of historical fiction. I like Bernard Cornwell, Elizabeth Chadwick and C J Sanson but I have to confess working full time and writing a book a year doesn’t leave much time for reading and most of the books I read now are for research.

What is the hardest part of the writing process for you?
There are two actually. The first is sitting down and starting a new scene. It’s not that I don’t know what I’m going to write it’s just getting into the swing of it and I can usually do that after a paragraph or two. But the worse part of writing for me, as it must be for many writers, is the edits where you have to sometimes deconstruct you plot or rework characters. Mentally I’ve done with the story and my head is already in the next book, but the editing has to be done.

How do you promote your books?
Although I do have a publicity person at Orion I spend a lot of time promoting my books. As a new author you can’t expect much of your publisher’s promotion budget so you have to do everything you can to get your name out there. As my books are based in East London I put a great deal of time and effort into pushing my books in Essex where many East Enders migrated to after the Second World War. I am an official speaker for the Essex WI and have done numerous talks to libraries, women’s and writers groups throughout the area—30 + last year. It’s paid off because recently when I’ve arrived to give a talk, people in the audience have already read one of my books, often because someone recommended it to them. I also try to get onto local radio when I can. I have had some real fun and I love meeting readers but it cuts into writing time so I try not to do more than two a week.

Do you find time to have interests other than writing?
I’m interested in history, as is the Hero-at-Home so we often have days out visiting an art gallery or museum. I also have three grown-up daughters and three grandchildren and another arriving soon so the family keeps me busy as does Molly our Bernese Mountain dog.

What advice would you give a new writer?
Believe in yourself. Don’t try to chase bandwagons. Listen to constructive criticism. Work hard and never give up.

Tell us about your latest book, and how you got the idea for it.

My latest book Perhaps Tomorrow. It's the third in the Wapping series, set in 1847, three years after the last one, A Glimpse at Happiness. The idea for Mattie’s story came to me as I was writing the previous book as I felt she needed a story and a handsome hero of her own.

The heroine is Mattie Maguire and life has not been easy for her since her husband died three years ago. She has struggled to keep the family’s East End coal business solvent, as well as raise her young son and take care of her troubled mother-in-law by herself. And now everything that Mattie has worked for is under threat. Maguire’s is in the path of the proposed Wapping to Mile End railway extension and the coal yard deeds are firmly in the sights of corrupt local benefactor Amos Stebbins.

Fugitive Nathaniel Tate is a man who knows just how ruthless Amos can be: he was wrongfully imprisoned for embezzling money that Amos stole. After learning of his family’s tragic death, Nathaniel escapes and returns to London to bring down the man he holds responsible for his family’s destruction. Tracking Amos down to Maguire’s, it is there that Nathaniel meets Mattie, who offers him work.

As Nathaniel begins to help Mattie turn around the fortunes of the business, and the pair grow ever closer, he starts to think less of revenge and more of the possibility of a new future with Mattie. But then his true identity is revealed. On the run from the police, Nathaniel has to prove his innocence, expose Amos, and win back the heart of Mattie. But a furious Amos has other plans…

It’s released on the 3rd February as a trade and hardback. The mass market paperback is out in October 2011.

Can you tell us something of your work in progress?
I am finished the edits to book four, Hard Lessons, which is also set in Wapping and Shadwell, and after a month or so of planning and research I’ll be starting on my fifth novel at the beginning of March.

Thank you Jean, that was fascinating and your work schedule makes me tired just thinking about it. But what an inspiration your determination is to any aspiring writer. The hard work has most certainly paid off and I wish you every success for the future. Hopefully you'll come back another time and tell us how you're getting along.

If you want to know more about Jean and her writing, visit her website at  http://www.jeanfullerton.com/

Thanks again, Freda

January Releases

Jan Jones THE KYDD INHERITANCE
Hale
January 2011
£18.99
Secrets and skullduggery in Regency England  -- a 'Newmarket Regency' prequel.
http://jan-jones.blogspot.com

Benita Brown MEMORIES OF YOU
Headline
06 January
£19.99
As the thirties lead into the Second World War four siblings face an
uncertain future in this novel of love, loss and the enduring strength of
family.

Anne Bennett KEEP THE HOME FIRES BURNING
Harper Collins
6th January 2011
Cost - £6.99
The story of a family torn apart by war

Isabelle Goddard REPROBATE LORD, RUNAWAY LADY
Harlequin, Mills and Boon Historical
11 January 2011
£3.99
London 1817: one woman, one man, two escapes, but what will happen when their old lives catch up with them?

Chrissie Loveday FOR THE SAKE OF LOVE
Chivers
January 2011
Passion and intrigue awaited the ambitious journalist Amanda but could she
abandon her career for the love of a tennis star?

Chrissie Loveday FRAGILE STRENGTH
People's Friend Pocket Novel
January 27th 2011
£1.80
Nellie Vale fights to support her family through the 1920's depression in
the Potteries. Talent, determination and many jobs finally lead to success
and romance.

Lily Baxter WE'LL MEET AGAIN
Arrow Books
6 January 2012
£19.99
Meg Colivet falls in love with a charismatic German Undergraduate at an
Oxford May Ball, but when she meets him again he is the enemy who has
invaded her peaceful island of Guernsey.


Karen Abbott THE NEW LORD WESTLAKE
Thorpe - Linford Romance
January 2011
£8.99
Timothy Harding, the acknowledged heir of his grandfather, the late Lord
Westlake, is shocked to discover his grandfather had an elder son who was
sent away in disgrace, following a series of scandalous incidents. When a
stranger is seen riding on Westlake land, the whole of Kelsham is thrown
into a frenzy of curiosity....


Margaret Mounsdon AN ACT OF LOVE
Thorpe
£8.99
When Abbie Rogers decides to invertiew glamorous actress Diana LaTrobe in a
quest to find out why she gave her father a diamond brooch, she unearths a
family secret that will changer her life forever.

Susan Palmquist A THIEF TOO MANY (Regency Historical)
Noble Romance
January 24th, 2011
Sasha and Philip both have the same goal; recovering the necklaces stolen
during a game of cards but eventually discover they need something more
valuable in life...each other.

December Releases

Louise Allen THE OFFICER & THE PROPER LADY
(#7 in Regency Silk & Scandal continuity)
Harlequin Mills & Boon
December 2010
£4.33
The worst rake in the army, a proper young lady in search of a respectable marriage - and the battlefield of Waterloo. Two lives are changed forever. 

Elizabeth Chadwick THE LEOPARD UNLEASHED
Sphere paperback (new edition re-issue)
6th December 2010
£7.99 Also Available in e-format.
The 12th century. Renard FitzGuyon returns to England from the Holy Land, bringing his exotic mistress with him. But he’s about to be married to his betrothed, jealous rivals want to kill him, and the
country is going to hell in a handcart.

Talli Roland THE HATING GAME
Prospera Publishing
1 December 2010
£1.90 For Mattie Johns, reality TV just got a little too real.








Jan Jones THE PENNY PLAIN MYSTERIES
People's Friend (weekly magazine)
Part 1: 27 Nov 2010 (on sale Wednesday before)
Part 2: 4 Dec
Part 3: 11 Dec
Part 4: 18 Dec
85p or thereabouts A jigsaw from the past propels Penny to a puzzling future.

Janet Woods STRAW IN THE WIND
Severn House
30th Dec
£11.99
18 years after her birth Serafina Finn learns that she's not an orphan. But will her newly discovered family accept her as one of them? 

Charlie Cochrane LESSONS IN SEDUCTION

Samhain Publishing

£8.99 

7^th December 

The suspected murder of the king’s ex-mistress is Orlando Coppersmith and Jonty Stewart’s most prestigious case yet. At the hotel where the body was found, Orlando goes undercover as a professional dancing partner while Jonty checks in as a guest. It helps the investigation, but it also means limiting their communication to glances across the dance floor. It’s sheer agony.

A series of anonymous letters warns the sleuths they’ll be sorry if they don’t drop the investigation. For Orlando, the letters pose a more personal threat. He worries that someone will blow his cover and discover their own deepest secret… The intimate relationship he enjoys with Jonty could not only get them thrown out of Cambridge, but arrested for indecency. 

Carol Townend BOUND TO THE BARBARIAN
Mills & Boon
December 4th 2010
£13.99
Once a slave, maidservant Katerina has promised to convince Commander Ashfirth Saxon that she is an Imperial princess, but the longer she keeps up the deception, the less she wants to deceive him…

Sarah Mallory DISGRACE AND DESIRE
Mills & Boon
December 2010
£3.99 Eloise Allyngham is known as the Wanton Widow, but she is not what she seems and Major Jack Clifton is determined to discover the truth…..

R. F. Long SONGS OF THE WOLF
Samhain Publishing Ltd.
7th December 2010
$15.00 / £9.46
A love transcending race and culture…a love worth a fight to the death.

Freda Lightfoot HOSTAGE QUEEN
13 December
£10.79 and available in ebook format
The first in the trilogy of Marguerite de Valois; a spirited, voracious beauty of the sixteenth century French court.

Victoria Howard RING OF LIES
Vanilla Heart Publishing
1st December 2010
$14.95

Grace isn't aware her husband died under mysterious circumstances until he leaves her a Florida beach house. Now a handsome FBI agent is her protector and her sister appears with suspicious intentions.

Vanessa Devereaux MISTAKEN IDENTITY

Cobblestone Press
December 3rd, 2010
Hannah gets more than she bargained for when she agrees to a night of fantasy with a total stranger. 

Cara Cooper TANGO AT MIDNIGHT
My Weekly Pocket Novel
December 2010
£1.60
When tango and salsa dancing ignite passion in a sleepy market town, Nicci Tate has secrets to hide if she is going to save her fledgling business. 

Nell Dixon CRYSTAL CLEAR
Ulverscroft Large Print
1 December
£16.99
When it comes to love, nothing is ever Crystal Clear

Jan Jones FORTUNATE WAGER

Ulverscroft Large Print
1st December 2010
£16.99
Secrets and subterfuge on the Regency racecourse - a Newmarket Regency

Margaret Mounsdon MEMORIES OF LOVE
People's Friend Pocket Novel
18 November 2010
£1.85
James Bradshaw was Emily's new boss, a man she had got sacked from his deckchair attendant's job by spraying details of his love affair in pink graffiti over Madame Zara's caravan.

Louise Allen INNOCENT COURTESAN TO ADVENTURER’S BRIDE
(The Transformation of the Shelley Sisters #3)
Mills & Boon
December 2010
£3.19
An innocent from a brothel fleeing from the law, an adventurer with a score to settle - two scarred souls who have to learn to trust before they can love.

Louise Allen WALKS THROUGH REGENCY LONDON
Non-fiction
Obtainable via www.louiseallenregency.co.uk
December 2010
£8.50 UK (incl p&p)

Ten walks through modern London to find the ghosts and relics of the "long" Regency. Illustrated in colour with original prints 

Short Stories

Sheila Norton  ‘A Christmas Story’
‘Yours’ magazine
14 December
Christmas Day isn’t going well for young Sophie or her estranged parents, but the discovery of an abandoned newborn baby on their doorstep changes everything. 

RNA Winter Party - A Celebration of The New Writers' Scheme and Fifty Fabulous Years

Your scribe fell down (not literally) on her duty last night and didn't take as many pictures as she should have and far too few of the wonderful shoes....humble apologies.

Two hundred people attended an evening which celebrated the New Writers' Scheme. The RNA does many things well (including its parties) but it has excelled at encouraging and nurturing new writers.... Joan Hessayon New Writers' Scheme Award winners sparkled in the crowd and we toasted the continued success of the NWS and RNA. The party rounded off a fabulous year marking the association's fifty years.

Howzat? A Hat-trick! by Sue Moorcroft

I’ve been so focused on the publication of Want to Know a Secret? (Choc Lit, 1 November 2010, £7.99) that a happy truth has only just dawned on me.

In fact, I have THREE books being published on one day!

This is because the hardback large print version of Starting Over and the softback large print book of what was originally a serial for The People’s Friend, One Summer in Malta (both Magna), also have a publication date of 1 November 2010, too. So, I have a hat-trick.

The synchronicity is completely out of my hands, of course. Choc Lit had decided on the publication date of Want to Know a Secret? ages ago. Equally, they placed my large print rights with Magna ages ago. And I sold the large print rights to One Summer in Malta ages ago. But it has given me a day to be proud of.

For anybody who doesn’t know about subsidiary rights, in publishing, this is a good time to explain that books can come out in many forms: hardback, paperback, trade paperback, audio, large print, all the various ebook formats etc. And that’s before you get to the foreign rights: the US version, the Australian, the South African, and then different languages, too.

Subsidiary rights can really earn you money, because you don’t normally have to do much more work to get a whole new fee. Subsidiary rights can make the difference between an author being able to make a living, or not. So let’s hear it for subsidiary rights sales! Yeahhhh!

And that’s why writers get excited when their publisher or agent goes to a book fair. Because rights get sold.