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Oh Superman! - I need a hero...

26/1/2015

Today I'd like to welcome Teresa F Morgan to my blog. Teresa is wonderful author just having published her second book with HarperImpulse. I haven't read it yet, but her first was one of my favourite reads last year. Teresa, who is your favourite hero? Is there anyone in particular that springs to mind?

We have lots of arguments in this household over who is our favourite super hero.
   My youngest loves Spiderman, my partner is a huge fan of Batman, but my eldest son and I love Superman (I think I’ve swayed him).
   Superman has been my favourite super hero ever since my childhood days, watching Christopher Reeve play this wonderful part. I suppose I’ve always loved Superman because I wanted to be Lois having the perfect hero come to my rescue. As a teenager, I grew up watching Lois and Clark with Terri Hatcher and Dean Cain – and rather fancying Dean Cain, it must be said.
   When Man of Steel was released, I had to watch it, to see if it lived up to the standard of Reeve’s Superman. Henry Cavill did an amazing job – I LOVE this film. He had big boots to fill, and boy, did he fill them – well, in my opinion.

Admittedly, I’d already started planning/writing One Fine Day before Man of Steel was released. I knew I needed a character who had to go under a disguise like Clark Kent, and I thought the closest thing to a super hero would be a Hollywood actor, trying to hide who he really was to live life normally. Bradley Cooper is my inspiration for my Hollywood actor, Steve Mason – maybe in another blog post I’ll tell you why.

So tell us a little about One Fine Day, your latest book...

Okay.

Just a boy standing in front of a girl…
Steve Mason returns from Hollywood after 15 years to catch up with his sister, Ruby. He’s miserable because the woman he was planning on marrying has dumped him.
He’s now worried that with his A-list celebrity status he won’t find a woman who genuinely loves him. Ruby devises a plan to disguise Steve, so that he is unrecognisable as the famous Hollywood actor, in a hope to help him find true love. It worked for Clark Kent, right?
As Steve searches for his not-so-perfect woman and has a taste of normality, his relationship develops with his sister. But will he find the right woman before he has to head back to his real life in Hollywood?

And if you're tempted to give it a try, One Fine Day is available now...

Amazon UK
Paperback
Amazon UK Ebook
Amazon US
Kobo
Add On Goodreads
Harper Impulse

Enjoy!

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In praise of e-books.

19/1/2015

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I have read, this year, that e-books are on the decline. Apparently everyone has bought their e-readers and stuffed them with free books and no longer needs to buy any more. This may be true for some, but, as with anything new, there will be those that jump on the bandwagon and fall away after a while and those who truly convert.

I suppose I cannot claim to have converted. Instead, my Kindle - bought because my eyes weren't what they once were and I couldn't read normal books unless they were under a 20,000W light and on a good day - has been a new beginning for me. Forget the ease of use, the shop in my lap and the savings made by buying this way, I have read 20 times more books than I ever had before.

I now have a back-lit Kindle - obtained for free with Nectar points, or some such like - whose font I can change and enlarge as needed. I can buy books whenever I am near my WiFi. I can look at covers (sadly only in black and white on my version), read snippets and try a book to see if I like it, all from the comfort of my own front room, and best of all, I can read late into the night, while my husband is asleep, because I can turn the lights out and the screen on.

I do read a real book now and again. I prefer them really. But my arm aches, as I tend to lie flat and the pages don't turn when I tap them, which, although exceedingly amusing to my husband, can confuse the 40 something mind late at night. ;-)

I have an upper limit at the back of my mind where I think, 'I'm not paying that for an e-book', but few of them go above this. So I won't be deserting the e-book world any time soon and I'm always interested in finding new books. And so to Kindle and all from the industry who have played their part in bringing about the e-book revolution, I thank you for giving me a second chance at the world of books.

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Death by sleepover!

12/1/2015

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As I sit here, blankly staring into space, trying to analyse why the words won’t come, I decide to make a list of the things that help me into the creative mood and by doing so, the ones that don’t.
     It is the day after my 5 week onslaught of Birthday-Christmas-Birthday. Both boys, knowing my aversion to sleep-overs, asked for one for their birthdays this year. Drat their sneaky ways! How could I say no? It has been 7 years since my last sleepover and, like my ex-boyfriends, who were forced to abstain while going out with me, who subsequently got their next girlfriends pregnant, I guess I had this coming. 24 hours of hype and catering and noise, worrying if everyone’s okay and never able to relax. I’m wrecked and the boys have been better too! So…
     Sleep. Sleep has to be top of my list today. My mind doesn’t work in a tired brain.
     Time. With the busy pace of life these days, finding the time to sit down and just think can be difficult. I’m fortunate that I don’t have to work in the day as well, like a lot of people do, but even if my kids think all I do is sit around with my feet up, eating chockies and watching telly all day, actually, the tidy-up fairy and the shopping fairy and the laundry fairy etc. are pretty hard to get hold of, so, sadly, I have to run the house / garden / kids / mother by myself.
     Contentment. I cannot write when I’m unhappy. This may surprise you as my stories do tend toward the sad side, but it’s true. I lose the will to write if I’m not happy in myself and if I’m stressed and up against it with other things, it won’t work either.
     Faith. When my belief in myself wains, or I get a scathing review, or just get a snapshot of perspective and see what a huge business this is and how the odds of doing well are so stacked against you, it’s hard to let your imagination fly. It’s usually best at these times, I find, to wear blinkers, force myself to write and soon enough I get back into it.
     That said, amazingly enough, sometimes the planets do miraculously align, work does actually get done, words are written and ideas spring to life. This could, of course, all be complete b*$%*cks, as point one is affecting me greatly today, so I’m off to the settee now, to put on a DVD and eat chocolate. Don’t tell the kids!

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I need a hero! - Blazing Hot firemen :-)

5/1/2015

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With me today is the author Romy Summer - writer of wonderful books (I've read every one!) - and she feels that firemen need a little more coverage, and who am I to deny her that? And. yes, by necessity, I think this is going to have to be a very visual post. :-)

It’s a tough job doing a blog post on hot firemen when Jane Linfoot has already done such an excellent job… but I’m going to do it anyway.

Apart from all the obvious reasons why firemen make such gorgeous heroes (abs, adrenalin, and all those inescapable jokes about being able to handle his hose), I think the fact that they are the first responders in any dangerous situation gives them a dark and exciting edge.

What mere mortal runs straight into the face of danger? He has to be either superhuman or insane, right? And in both those scenarios that makes him pretty interesting.

But I’m a bit of a closet feminist, so as much as I like to drool over shirtless firemen, I’d also love to see more female firefighters. Which is why, when I wrote my contribution to the Minxes of Romance’s Blaze anthology, I made my firefighter a woman.

I was very cheered when researching this blog post (what’s the point doing a blog post on firemen without research?!) to discover that the 2015 version of the famous NYC Firefighters Calendar features a woman for the first time. After all, women can be every bit as heroic as men!

But usually have more sense. Maybe that's where the disparity in numbers lies? ;-)

You go girl!

But let’s be honest here, what would a blog post on heroic firemen be without a bit of eye candy? Enjoy these from the 2015 calendar…

PS: The launch of the calendar happens in July each year, and there’s a calendar signing where you can get your …um… calendar autographed. In 2015 that will dovetail nicely with the RWA’s big annual conference, so I foresee a lot of drooling romance writers at the next calendar launch…

Sign me up!

Romy has been involved in an anthology of firemen tales, so you can be sure that she's done her homework thoroughly! And if you're in the mood for some pants on fire, here's a taste of it below...

BLAZE (A Minxes of Romance Anthology)

8 scorching tales from The Minxes of Romance.

Coombethwaite, the lakeside town where passions run deep, is the setting for the stories in Blaze, the first anthology from The Minxes of Romance.

Romance is in the air for Coombethwaite’s retained firefighters, and none of them will escape its heat unscorched!

Available from Amazon: http://smarturl.it/BlazeMinxes
Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/blaze-maya-blake/1119931365?ean=9781501441219
Kobo: http://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/blaze-a-minxes-of-romance-anthology
and Scribd.

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Oh Superman! - I need a hero...

In praise of e-books.

Death by sleepover!

I need a hero! - Blazing Hot firemen :-)

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