Time to Party!

Because it's Friday, but also because we deserve a party as a reward for our hard work during the past few month, whether we entered the New Voices Competition or held the hands of contestants.
For this party there are no burly bouncers and no guest list, just an open house for anyone who's suffering PTRSD (Post Traumatic Rose-Stress Disorder), Waitingforthelistitis or just fancies a nice party :-)

Help yourself to champagne and cake and mingle with the celebrities - Michael Weatherly and Daniel Craig have dressed up for us,

Simon Baker has gone for smart casual but Gilles Marini can't seem to keep

his clothes on and has made himself at home :-) So, get out those pink

feather boas, Ugg boots or whatever

takes your fancy. It's time to let off some steam and recharge those batteries for the next stage of our writing journey...

If anyone fancies a party game how about writing a story in ten words for Chick Lit Shorties? There are fab prizes - critiques, blog overhauls, Amazon gift cards... And we're not going to mention the 'c' word because this is about having fun. So while 'I entered New Voices and now I'm a nervous wreck' is a story in ten words and meets the requirements of the 'c' word it's not quite in the spirit of things. If you want to know more click here.

In keeping with the party spirit we also have a prize to award - Tami has won a copy of Suzanne Brandyn's 'Heat in the Outback'. Tami please pop over to Suzanne's website and use the contact info to let her have your snail mail address, the link is here.

Now, what music shall I put on, any requests?

Author Spotlight: Suzanne Brandyn

Today we have Australian author Suzanne Brandyn here to tell us all about her books, and answer the Minxes questions - take it away Suzanne!

Where were you in your writing career 5 years ago?

Five years ago I had a dream, a dream to be published. I learned everything I could about writing romance. I wanted to see my name in the Romance Writers of Australia’s Hearts Talk magazine. I studied and studied ‘how to’ of romance writing. Last year I had my first romance novel published. My name not only appears as a published author in the magazine, but I’m now also a member of their editorial team.

Where did you get the idea from for this particular book?
It is based around the town I was born. I love the area; love the mountains and the wide river. So I took my heroine back home, where she faces her past and obstacles arise making her think twice about her life.

Where do you hope to be in 5 years time?
I think a lot of authors would say a famous author. But to be sensible, I’d love to have at least another ten novels published with a bigger publishing house.

Which was the last book you read that you wish you'd written?
I had to laugh at this question. Lol. Still grinning. The Twilight Series, who wouldn’t?

Was there any particular author or book that made you want to be a writer?
Nora Roberts’s stories and style inspired me to want to write my own novels.

Do you find writing love scenes giggle-worthy or cringe-worthy?
I have no trouble in writing them at all. They are worthy to a story if that story requires one. Love is universal. I don’t feel it different to writing a passionate kiss scene.

What's the most romantic moment of your life so far?
I think getting married in Hawaii two years ago was very romantic. It was a perfect, romantic time. The weather, delivered on a blue platter, the music romantic. It was my dream come true.

What do you wish you'd known about being an author before you were pubbed?
I wished I knew more about the promotional side of publishing. It takes a lot of writing hours away. I enjoy it though and I’m having book signings and library talks within the next few months.

What's the best writing advice you've ever been given?
Trust your gut feeling. Write what you like reading. If you believe in your manuscript, so will an editor.

Tell us about your latest release.
Have you ever misplaced something? Has it taken you ages to find where it is? ‘Usually what you’re searching for is right before your eyes.’
Thinking she has it all, the perfect life, the perfect career, and the perfect fiancé. Sarah Munro questions all when she returns to her hometown, and to the man she left behind so many years ago.
Both characters have a secret, and it’s up to them to come to terms with the past or grab onto it and yank it into the future. They try to settle their differences but a raging attraction ignites. That attraction has been smoldering for years.

What’s next for you?
I hope that my next manuscript will be published. It is set on a property in the New England Region of NSW, Australia, a property where I lived. It is a suspense novel with romantic elements, about a woman escaping domestic violence and returning to a property she inherited by her recently departed mother. She faces many obstacles. It will be a great read. I’m also about to start another. So I’ll be busy. Lol.

You can find out where to purchase Heat in the Outback at Suzanne's website, http://www.suzannebrandyn.com/  and Suzanne is giving a free print copy to one lucky commenter.

Heat in the Outback is available now from Eternal Press, and Passion in Paradise is available from The Wild Rose Press.

Thank you so much for joining us here at the Minxes of Romance today, Suzanne!

Monday Minx Newbie

Today’s special minx announcement is…

ME!

Lacey Devlin has joined the Minxes in all their glory, and no, I didn’t have to bribe them with money!

I’ll admit I’ve shied away from CPs in the past because I was sure that I didn’t have enough time to stop them from trying to murder me when I wasn’t able to get a critique done on time, but that was before I was introduced to the Minx system!  I’m a lucky girl and I’ve got all their emails now, so there are no “take backs”.

As this is my first official post as a Minx I’m suppose to dazzle you with fascinating facts about myself, and oh boy, where to start ;)

For anyone who doesn’t know me, I’m Australian, and in my spare time I wrestle crocodiles… or perhaps I write.  Actually, I think the more people between me and a crocodile the better.  That also applies to snakes, spiders, sharks and politicians.

Because I live such a fascinating life I struggled to come up wit a dazzling tid bit about myself that’s never been blogged before, and I came up with two tid bits.  So today I’m going to introduce you to my fur children Lucy and Zoe who are miniature Maltese terriers weighing less than 3kg each.  They are fearless in the face of a dog ten times their size as long as there’s a fence between them.  I’ve spent many hours with them balanced on my lap while I write what will hopefully become a published manuscript.

Zoe and friend.



Lucy who likes to sleep in
contorted positions best





To give you an idea of their size against a pig ear.

I started writing as a wee lassie no bigger than your thumb and those stories were fantastically terrible—a child genius I am not.  Then, I discovered the romance genre and Mills & Boon.  Thousands of books later my obsession has grown and there’s a lot less room in the house.  As I continue toward my dream of being a published M&B author I’m thrilled that I’m now surrounded by wonderful women who are willing to read my work, however fantastically terrible it may or may not be.



Fur children



Weekend Round-Up

Wednesday Winner!

The lucky winner of Wednesday's giveaway with Paula Graves is Jo Gilliver. Congratulations, Jo! Please contact Paula directly at paulagraves@charter.net to claim your prize!

Monday

Coming up this week on the Minxes blog, we have a very special announcement tomorrow--come back to join us for the news. We've learnt everything we know about keeping our readers in suspense from the lovely ladies at Mills & Boon :-)

Wednesday

This week our author spotlights highlights Australia's Suzanne Brandyn, come by Wednesday to see Suzanne's answers to our Minxy questions and there's another giveaway!

Friday

A 'pot luck' posts from one of the Minxes.

Kate Hardy's Guide to the Joy of Research

First of all, thank you very much to the Minxes for inviting me back to talk about a subject dear to my heart – my favourite bit of writing a book.

Which is… (cue drum roll) research.

Why do I love research so much? I guess it’s because I’m a nerd who just loves learning new things. Better still is when I get to do location research and actually see the place I’m talking about - and it can be really important, because if I hadn't visited Venice earlier this year then I wouldn't have known that their stained glass is very different from English stained glass, and my book would have been completely wrong. (The eating of lots of ice cream in Venice was also research, albeit for a different book that I haven’t started yet and needs, um, another research trip.)

Actually doing the research is one thing; putting it into your book so it doesn’t show is quite another. It's quite tricky to walk the line between putting enough research into the book so that my readers get a flavour of the background (whether it's a place or a profession – or, in the case of my Medical romances, the patients’ illnesses and how to treat it), but not putting in so much that it's an infodump or drowns the romance. Although I’ve had plenty of readers tell me that one of the things they love about my books is that they learn something new, at the end of the day, I know that their main concern is the journey between the hero and heroine (and all the stuff I find absolutely fascinating gets in the way of said journey. I still need to know it before I write, though, because it does affect how my hero and heroine think).

My current release, Champagne with a Celebrity, has a parfumier as a hero. And you can't write a book about someone who develops new perfumes unless you know how it's done, can you? And when I discovered that there was a one-to-one course on designing your own perfume, literally 20 minutes down the road from me... Well, I just had to do it, didn’t I? I learned some really interesting things about perfume – and I did manage to work some of them into the book, when the hero guides the heroine through making her own perfume blend. (I would tell you more here, but then you wouldn’t learn something new when you read the book – and I couldn’t possibly disappoint you like that!) I also made my own bottle of fragrance; though I will admit that, despite my best intentions, it turned out to be a clone of my favourite perfume.

So my question to you is: research. Love it or hate it?

Kate Hardy’s latest book, Champagne with a Celebrity, is the second in a duo about the Lefèvre brothers. It’s available now at bookshops, Amazon or at the M&B website. Click here for the Amazon link

And in other news, we have an exciting Minx announcement here on the blog on Monday - Don't forget to pop in and read it!