work in progress

I've been having a bit of fun creating  a Pinterest board for the book I'm currently working on - the working title is Dirty Dancing which just makes me grin everytime I see it!

I'm loving the heroine - who's a little tougher than I usually write, and the hero who has no idea what he's in for!

Check out the Pinterest board for more.

ebook of the month... the working title

First published June 2007
eBook out now!

BILLIONAIRE ON HER DOORSTEP ::  ebook

The working title:

The working title of BILLIONAIRE ON HER DOORSTEP was Sunsets Over Sorrento, and as my working titles tend to be, it summed up the emotion, the tone, the feel of the story in one short hit.

Sorrento is a beach town I visited a plenty during the ten years I lived in Melbourne.   Visited and loved to absolute bits.  Its peaceful, elegant, with great food, gorgeous little shops, and some of the most opulent real estate in the country.  My heroine, Maggie Bryce, is a portrait painter who gets stuck trying to paint those darned sunsets in an effort to reinvent herself.  Who knew all she needed was gorgeous Tom Campbell to love her for her to realise she was fine just the way she was.


The title nearly stuck too!  Their Sorrento Sunset was very close to nearly the final title, until the powers that be became concerned that  readers might mistake it for an Italian story rather than one set in a big rambling ramshackle house on the Mornington Peninsula bluff south of Melbourne.

The excerpt:

Her stomach took a small happy trip as she experienced the thrill that came with seeing someone making a connection with one of her paintings.

‘It’s really growing on me,’ he said.  ‘Yep, this one’s going to look just right on the wall in my john.’

Maggie coughed out a laugh.  It was so without warning that her stomach kind of clenched.  The sensation wasn’t in any way uncomfortable but it made her feel off kilter all the same.  She crossed her arms low over her belly.

‘If you’re even thinking about putting this painting on your toilet wall, Tom Campbell, the deal’s off.’

‘Fine,’ he said.  ‘Okay.  Though more people would get to enjoy it there than anywhere else in my house.’

He turned to face her so quickly she hoped he didn’t realise she had been staring at him rather than the subject of their conversation.  She glanced away quickly, but not in time not to notice the solid crease appear above the corner of his mouth.

‘I’m kind of glad my agent won’t get to see this one,’ she admitted.

‘You have an agent?’

She faced him fully and glared.  ‘I thought we had decided you thought I was talented.’

He laughed, his eyes creasing, every part of him seeming to overflow with amusement.  Beneath her crossed arms it now felt as though her stomach had flipped all the way over.

‘Sorry,’ he said, his eyes dancing, ‘of course we had.  That came out wrong.  It’s just that we get painters out here all the time.  In summer they line the beaches painting beach huts and sunsets over Sorrento.  But I just never knew anybody personally who’d actually sold anything.’

Maggie shrugged.  ‘Well now you do.’

Buy the eBook.  Buy for Kindle.  Buy from iTunes.  More about the book.

that new idea glow!

So I'm itching to get started on a new book.

As per usual with me I'm flush with ideas. For me they're the easy part. I have a slew of cute meets just waiting to be written! The problem at the beginning is picking which one.

Which one will sing? Which one has legs? Which one has chemistry? Then yesterday afternoon, out of nowhere, BAM!

A heroine who makes me grin, a hero who gives me delicious chills, and a set-up to die for! The Working title - PANTS ON FIRE, seriously! - gives me all I need to lock me into the feel of the story. So now I just have to toddle off and write 50,000 words and I'm done!

Picture me squirelling away notes on random pieces of paper in between baby feeds, and cleaning up toddler feeds, and colouring in pictures of Humpty Dumpty, and changing nappies and... you get the picture.

Here's my heroine Dahlia. Boy is she about to do something to get herself into loads of trouble! Watch this space for pics of the hero. Oh...my...word!

cooking a book :: the name and the glossy picture

This monthy sees the release of my latest Harlequin Romance, FALLING FOR THE REBEL HEIR in the UK and North America which is so exciting as I loooove that book. It's my fairy dust book. And at the same time I am about to set forth and write my next Harlequin Romance. So - big deep breath - here goes!

Before I could even start to cook my book I needed a working title. To me this comes part and parcel with the creation of a collage. As both things are all about creating the mood of the book.

My last Harlequin Romance working title was "Ring a Ding Ding". It's a fun book, with a hero who looked in my mind like a 1950s dreamboat. The Modern Heat I sold next had a working title of "Hanky Panky". Sexy, flirty, a more than a little bit naughty. The working title gave me that feeling every time I saw it which helped keep that feeling through the writing of the book.

The book I am about to begin is a Harlequin Romance, a story with depth and heart and hope and sweetness and softness. There is a kind of "pretty" feeling I get in the back of my head when I think of it.

As I sat down to work on my collage, I found a picture of a couple kissing in the sunshine. It seemed to have all the warm feelings I was having about the story. The name of the article attached to the piccie? TREATS, TREASURES AND SIMPLE PLEASURES. (Or a version thereof.) Done!


Do you think the working title suits the collage? I really do. The whole thing gives me a warm fuzzy feeling which is what the aim of a working title is all about!

Ooh, and that reminds me, for members of Romance Writers of Australia, I have an article coming out in the April Hearts Talk called, "A Working Title by Any Other Name" in which I discuss how important, or not, a working title can be. So look out for it!

Now don't forget to head on over to Liz Fielding's blog this weekend because whoever gives me the winning name for the gorgeous daughter of this next hero will win a signed copy of this month's Harlequin Romance release FALLING FOR THE REBEL HEIR!