BRENDA NOVAK'S ONLINE DIABETES AUCTION

Hurry, hurry, hurry! Roll up and see the fabulous bargains at Brenda Novak's Online Diabetes Auction.

Get your manuscript critqued, or spent time with world famous authors, agents, publishers. Buy gorgeous stuff.

You only have a few more days to bid on this fine Welsh Love Spoon (carved from a single piece of wood), and you'll get a signed copy of my July book, SOS: CONVENIENT HUSBAND REQUIRED thrown in for good measure.

Hurry, hurry, hurry - loads a great stuff on offer from authors and publishing professionals you know and love.

Just click here and put in this auction number - 1801961

There is, I've just remembered, a lot comprising signed copies of the Trading Places duet - and this is the number for that - 1765087

LIZ FIELDING GOES WILD!

There's an Author Spotlight on the Romantic Times website today, featuring photographs of me when I was young and thin and living in Africa, and talking about Botswana. There's stuff on there you won't see anywhere else so if you want more background, a little slice of my life, click on Romantic Times.


I'm still waiting to hear from one of the winners of my last competition, by the way, so Ginette, if you're out there, get in touch!

We're having gorgeous weather here at the moment (after what seems like an eternity of the bad stuff).

It isn't going to last so I'm off down the garden now to get some writing done while it's still cool. Have a great day.

Well, that was fun.

Thanks to everyone who came up with names for the new gadgets.

The camera is going to be "Rosie" and the Sony eReader "Kitty". Thanks to Lois and Ginette for those - an advance copy of SOS: Convenient Husband Required (retail July in the States, August in the UK, September in Oz and New Zealand) will be in the post to them as soon as I have their snail mail addies.

I'm feeling pretty rosy about this book, actually, having just heard that Romantic Times have given it a stonking 4.5 star rating. Here's what they say: -

"The premise isn’t new, but Fielding’s deft handling of it is a triumph. The characters are fabulous, the relationship between them complex and nuanced…and keep a tissue handy at the end!"

I'm also going to be featured on the Romantic Times blog, talking about A Wedding at Leopard Tree Lodge (out now!) and my time in Botswana - I'll post a link when it goes live.

Right now I'm having a lovely time researching ice cream for the new book.

The history of ice cream. Vintage ice creams vans. And ice cream recipes - imagine me smiling here.

Talk amongst yourselves. I may be some time... :)

THINK PINK...

This week I realised that my digital camera had died. It wouldn't recharge - to be honest it hasn't recharged for some time. When I needed a camera I grabbed the dh's, but I like to have my own camera. One I can put in my pocket, or my handbag. That's always there.

I informed the dh - camera buyer extraordinaire - and he went online to look for something small and slender. He got v. excited about a black one, talking mega-pixels and zooms. I said I wanted a pink one.

I got the look.

"Pink?"

"Pink. To match my eReader."

He tried to find the model in pink. They didn't make one. What a mistake...

Meanwhile I went online and asked Google to find me "pink cameras". Google understands a girl. Up it came with this sweet little Canon Ixus with terrific pixels and loads of mega-thingies and a zoom that is a whizz. And I could have had it in any colour I wanted.

It arrived today. This is it. I am in love - and the dh is seriously impressed too. You can be frivolous and still get the goods.

Now I have to name her. And the Sony eReader.

It's competition time. The netbook is Delores, my memory stick is Freddie - I only name the portable stuff - so I have copies of SOS: Convenient Husband Required for the two best suggestions - one for the eBook and one for the camera.

Off you go!

Oh, PS There are pics of the Snap & Scribble on Shedworking including a pic of our mate, the fab Les - Picus Crafts - helping to put it up! (And me bending over Delores!)

GIDEON MCGRATH

Okay, I've told you about the setting for A Wedding at Leopard Tree Lodge.

Now it's time to introduce you to Gideon McGrath.

When I was looking for someone to show you the hero in my head, this was the photograph that leapt out at me. Serious, intent, a man who has lived a full and exciting life, enjoyed danger, enjoyed a challenge until a cruel blow turned him into a man who's only joy was work.

Building his empire of hotels, resorts, taking old and young on adventures that would change their lives.

When he arrives at Leopard Tree Lodge he has come to face up to demons that have been haunting him for a long time. That done, he'll be free. Twenty four hours and then he can walk away.

Except that nothing is ever that easy. His back, which has been causing him a lot of trouble, decides it's had enough.

He isn't going anywhere.

And when he meets Josie Fowler, he doesn't want to.

Here's the moment: -

Gideon had watched her walk towards him. Until ten minutes ago, he would have sworn he wasn’t in the mood for company, particularly not the company of a woman high on getting her man to sign up for life – or at least until she was ready to settle for half his worldly goods. But then the tantalising scent of coffee had wafted towards him.

Even then he might have resisted if he hadn’t seen this extraordinary woman sitting on the deck, raking her fingers through her hair in the early morning sun.
If he had given the matter a second’s thought, he would have assumed anyone called “Crystal” to be one of those pneumatic blondes cloned to decorate the arms of men who were more interested in shape than substance when it came to women.
Not that he was immune. Shape did it for him every time.

But she wasn’t blonde. There was nothing obvious or predictable about her. Her hair was dramatically black and tipped with purple and her strong features were only prevented from overwhelming her face by a pair of large, dark eyes. And while her shape was blurred by the bulky robe she was wearing, she was certainly on the skinny side; there were no artificially enhanced curves hidden even in that abundance of white towelling.

In fact she was so very far from what he would have expected that his interest had been unexpectedly aroused. Rather more than his interest if he was honest; a sure sign that his brain was under-occupied but it certainly took his mind off his back.
An effect that was amplified as she stepped up onto his deck, paused there for a moment.

Straight from the shower her face bare of make up, her hair a damp halo that hadn’t seen a comb, without sexy clothes or high heels, it had to be the fact that she was naked under that robe that momentarily squeezed the breath from his chest as she’d walked towards him.

‘You’re an angel, Miss Blaize,’ he said, collecting himself.

‘Not even close,’ she replied.

She’d worked hard to scrub the inner city from her voice, he judged, but it was still just discernible to someone with an ear for it.
‘On either count,’ she added. ‘I’m sorry to disappoint, but I’m plain Josie Fowler.’

She wasn’t the bride?

Nor was she exactly plain but what his mother would have described as “striking”. And up close he could see that those dark eyes were a deep shade of violet that exactly matched the highlights in her hair, the colour she’d painted both finger and toenails.

‘Who said I was disappointed, plain Josie Fowler?’ he said, ignoring the little leap of gratification that she wasn’t Crystal Blaize. It was her coffee he wanted, not her. ‘I asked if you’d share your coffee and here you are. That makes you an angel in my eyes.’

‘You’re easily satisfied…?’

On the contrary. According to more than one woman of his acquaintance, he was impossible to please – or maybe just impossible -- but right now any company would be welcome. Even a big-eyed scarecrow with purple hair.

IN HER SHOES...


I love these mini-themed series from Harlequin Mills & Boon. My stable-mate for this month's May Mills & Boon release, A Wedding at Leopard Tree Lodge, is Three Times Bridesmaid from Nicola Marsh.

A delightful story about two people who knew each other at school, but in that tangled teenage way misunderstandings got in the way of something that might have been special. But the last night they met, at a birthday party, made them both face up to problems in their lives and since then, neither of them have looked back.

But Eve needs a date for a wedding and Bryce, successful, gorgeous and needing to make a mark - quickly - at the advertising agency who have lured him back home with the job of his dreams. She offers him a deal - he stands up for all the "bride" parties where he can make the kind of contacts he needs to hit the ground running.

This is a warm, lucsious story about two people who, on the outside, are successful, smart, have it all. But inside Eve is still the desperate teen cooking up a storm whenever she's struggling with her emotions. And Bryce - gorgeous, clever, going for the stars, Bryce - well, he has his own demons. You can read all about it here at Nicola Marsh's website