Does an ARC guarantee a review? I get a lot of the books I review from Netgalley. Others I buy myself. Very occasionally, I might get one from the author, but that doesn’t happen often. If I buy the book myself, I choose whether to review it or not. When I get the ARC for [...]

I’ve been good. I’ve been really, really good because some of the people I know and care about are involved in this. But here we go, foot in mouth. Again.

Interesting times afoot. Dennis Potter must be smiling from heaven.

One of the accusations frequently leveled at romance books is the amount of tropes we have. Things like secret babies and big misunderstandings. They crop up all over the place, but I’m not totally against them, because when they’re used properly they concentrate the reader on what matters most – the characters involved. In fact, [...]

I read an article today by an a guest on an agent blog that I follow. She said that writers should find their “voice” and their writing identity and stick with it. A well-written article that gave the accepted facts about writing for major publishers.

A strange anomaly. I wrote to Mills and Boon about it, but they haven’t replied yet. There’s a new series from Mills and Boon Modern called Bad Blood Collection. They’re part of the May releases in the UK, and can be bought as a collection on Amazon.co.uk (be warned, though, it comes as one ginormous [...]

Friday – the fourth day This was the day of the Expo. It used to be on the Wednesday, I have no idea why they changed it. This year it was held in one of the ballrooms, and was good, at least it was for me. I did a lot of signing, talked about my [...]

The first day – Tuesday This isn’t really officially the first day, but it’s the day people start arriving and getting stuff organized. I checked out of my Hollywood hotel today and came over to the Westin Bonaventure. An impressive hotel with an awful lot of concrete. The lobby area is nicely designed, but there’s [...]

So here I am, the night before I move to the RT hotel, ruminating. Which did I like the best? They both had strong points, and both had lousy points.

And they are adventures. Great big ones. While I can’t say my income is in the realm of the Rowlings, or even the Novaks, I’m not complaining (much) because it means I get to go places and see things I could never have done without it. I’ve made some good friends, seen things and done [...]

It’s probably not escaped your notice that there have been a few author blowouts recently about reviews and authors who review and reviewers in general. I’m not going there, I’m just not, although I’m prepared to explain what I do and why. I’m an author, I’m a reader, I review. Deal with it.

The recent screening of “Downton Abbey” on US TV has created a storm on the blogs about entail, what it is and why. Reading the comments has proved deeply illuminating, about the way the entail is understood by an American audience. So I thought it might be a good time to try to explain a [...]

Like our Gwen, the last year has not been all that peachy keen for me. Actually, the last three years have been full of crappiness from betrayal by so-called friends resulting in the loss of my job, among other things, to filing for disability, which has led to my recent move from a county boasting [...]

When anyone asks me what I am waiting for, there is really only one book that I immediately think of. I am pretty blinded to anything else, so I had to look at what’s coming out. These are what I found, which I mostly knew about, but they just got shoved into the back of [...]

I always have such a hard time pulling out the books I really like from a previous year. Yes, there’s too many, but it’s also difficult because sometimes you can’t choose because you can’t compare books in different genres. Though I read mostly historical and paranormal, I also enjoy contemps and romantic suspense a lot. [...]