News for September!

I’ve decided blogging and school holidays don’t mix very well. But the Harper chicks are slowing trickling back to school this week and it’s high time I reappeared in cyber space!

I have two good bits of news!

First of all – and I have had to keep quiet about this for months – I can announce that the Sony Reader eBook launches in the UK on Thursday and a copy of my Feb 08 book, English Lord, Ordinary Lady is going to be pre-loaded on every one sold in the UK! How cool is that? I’m very excited.

Secondly, I have a new cover!!! This is the North American cover for my November release Christmas Wishes, Mistletoe Kisses. Isn’t it lovely? And here’s the blurb, just because I love it:

Three Christmas wishes…

1. A new life in the country:

It’s taken all of Louise Thornton’s courage to start again with her young son. This will be a different life, one away from the paparazzi – and her cheating celebrity husband!

2. Someone to help decorate the Christmas tree:

Louise is determined to make this Christmas perfect for her son. But it’s not until she meets meltingly attractive landscape architect Ben Oliver that she starts to sparkle again.

3. A proposal under the mistletoe?

Single dad Ben puts his daughter first. But when he catches Louise under the mistletoe, Ben realises only he can make Louise’s wishes come true…

Behind the Scenes: Saying Yes To The Millionaire - Chp 8 part 1

Chapter 8 also brings enough locations to split it into a couple of posts. Fern and Josh’s first clue leads them to another tube station, but since they only make a pit stop at this point and return to it later, I’m going to skip on to the next couple of locations first.

The first destination is Old Billingsgate fish market. It lies on the north side of the Thames between London Bridge and Tower Bridge and was the city’s main fish market for more than 900 years, renowned for its noise and foul language. The market moved to new premises in 1982, but old building remains, although it is not open to the public.

This is where Fern has her least favourite challenge – eating yucky things! There is a large terrace in front of the building, where I placed my imaginary fishmonger’s stand. And as Fern leans over the railing, feeling a little green, she gets a fantastic view of Tower Bridge.

From there, my hero and heroine race to the most romantic destination in Saying Yes To The Millionaire – St. Dunstan-in-the-East. I wandered into this ruined church completely by accident more than 20 years ago and was entranced to find a beautiful garden inside. It truly is one of London’s hidden treasures, tucked away inside the old city. The spire was built by Christopher Wren, the architect responsible for St Paul’s Cathedral, and is one of the surviving features of the Blitz in 1941.

“Instead of the musty air and vaulted ceiling of a centuries-old church, it was as if she'd stumbled into a corner of Eden. The ancient stone walls were still in place with their ornate arched window frames, but where the pews should have been was a garden—stone paths, drooping shrubs and a softly gurgling fountain. Another world amidst the pollution-stained buildings and grimy streets.”

Chapter 8 , Saying Yes To The Millionaire.

A thunder storm rolls in and things get a little hot and steamy between Fern and Josh in this very spot in one of the ruined towers:

"She found a spot under a thick branch thrusting through one of the glassless windows where the rain wasn't falling so hard. She reached out and grabbed a handful of Josh's T-shirt and pulled him close so he was covered too.

Still concentrating on the camera, he shook the water out of his hair. Her pulse began to gallop. He was very sexy when he was damp, and he was only a few inches from her.

He stopped checking the camera and smiled at her. ‘Back to Aldwych tube station. Do you want to wait here for a minute or two or shall we just get going?’ he stuffed the camera into his pocket, then flinched and let out a yell as a big drop of water hit him on the back of the head and rolled down between his shoulder blades. ‘Not much shelter here, is there?’

She looked at him, suddenly feeling very serious.

‘It's enough.’

Rain was running down his face and she reached up to smooth it away from his cheeks, to explore the damp spikes of his hair with her fingertips.

Josh froze. The look in her eyes totally floored him—so full of warmth and tenderness and... desire... for him. He shouldn't want her to look at him that way but, oh boy, he did."

Behind the Scenes: Saying Yes To The Millionaire - Chp 7 part 2

Every good treasure hunt needs a map, doesn’t it? I think the clue involving the London Underground map was my favourite bit of the treasure hunt element of Saying Yes To The Millionaire. I had an idea early on that I would like to send them on a photo scavenger hunt on the London Underground system as it’s such a vital part of the city.

I remembered reading about the Henry Beck’s design for Tube map and how ground-breaking it had been. Before Beck’s map, the stations had always been depicted in their geographical locations. Take a look at this:

Confusing isn’t it! Henry Beck came up with the idea of showing the stations in relation to each other, ignoring the geographical distances and kept it simple by only using horizontal, vertical and diagonal lines. The ironic thing was that Mr Beck, an engineering draughtsman by trade, was unemployed at the time he came up with his idea, after having been made redundant by London Underground. He was paid five guineas for his work and was often not credited for his idea, even though it was the basis of many modern transport maps.

Here’s a copy of Henry Beck’s original drawing that I printed out while I was writing the book. It is little more than a doodle, with a few sketchy lines representing the different Underground lines and a few dots to represent the stations. It wasn’t easy working out a trail of ten stations that would tax the treasure hunt contestants because, if you look closely, you’ll see there aren’t that many dots and they are on just one or two lines.

I wanted to map out the ten stops on the trail, even if I didn’t use most of them in the book. The first challenge was to work out which stations the blobs were. I got out my trusty pocket tube map and almost instantly got stuck. Some of the stations were obvious, but I couldn’t work out the rest. It wasn’t until I took a good look at the 19030s version of the map, which resembles Beck’s sketch much more closely, that I could identify the stations.

Noticing the differences between the original map and today’s map – changes in names, stations that had appeared or disappeared - gave me an idea for Fern and Josh's final destination for this day of the race, but more about that in the post about chapter 8…

Behind the Scenes: Saying Yes To The Millionaire - Chp 7

After the Covent Garden busking challenge, day 3 of the treasure hunt leads Fern and Josh all over the place. They find themselves in the Greenwich Foot Tunnel, which runs under the River Thames between Cutty Sark Gardens and Island Gardens, on the Isle of Dogs. It is 1,217 feet in length and approx 50 feet deep. Its original purpose was to allow south London residents to get to work in the docks on the Isle of Dogs without having to rely on the ferries and was opened in 1902.

Twin glazed domes sit on either side of the river. Inside is a circular lift, which used to have wooden benches all the way round. I’m not sure if they’re still there, as the lifts were updated in the 90s and I’ve never been there while the lifts have been open in recent years. No lifts means you have to use the stairs. If my daughters and I counted right on our last visit, there are more on one side than there are on the other, but there are more than 300 steps on both sides. The tunnel itself reminds me of some of the tunnels that join various sections of the London Underground, with its uniform white glazed tiles.

Once on the south side of the Thames, Fern and Josh visit the Cutty Sark, a fabulous old tea clipper that has been a popular tourist attraction there for many years. You can walk on the deck and go below to see how the sailors lived. This was a favourite place for my grandmother to take my sister and I when we were small and my favourite, favourite bit was the display of old figureheads that almost completely filled one of the lower decks. There are the traditional type carvings, beautiful women or spirits to guide the ship safely home, but there are also more unusual ones – Florence Nightingale, Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli and a fox hunter, complete in riding pinks.

While I was writing Saying Yes To The Millionaire, I was horrified to catch an article on the news which showed the beautiful old ship on fire! I was so saddened to think of all those wonderful artefacts – especially the figureheads – going up in flames. I later learned that, because the ship was undergoing renovation, most of the items of historical value had been removed and were elsewhere, but part of the hull and ship’s support system had been damaged. I decided to keep my scenes on the Cutty Sark in the book, because I think it’s a fantastic location, even though, in reality, Fern and Josh would probably not be able to visit the ship in it’s full glory until at least 2010. Although the police originally suspected arson, the cause of the fire has never been confirmed.

Behind the Scenes: Saying Yes To The Millionaire - Chp 6

The beginning of Chapter 6 sees Fern and Josh navigating their way out of Chislehurst caves (see Chp 5 post for info). All Fern’s confidence has evaporated by the time they reach the sunlight. She’s started to realise that she can’t plan for everything and that to move forward, in the race and in life, she is going to have to take risks.

The first challenge of the day is busking to raise money for the day’s race in Covent Garden and it starts in Chapter 6 and concludes in Chapter 7. It’s an area of London filled with open-air cafes, street performers and markets. In the centre is the Piazza, with its covered central market which houses little shops and boutiques. Prices are not for the faint-hearted! There are also arts and crafts stalls here an in the nearby Jubilee Hall.

Covent Garden is a great place to hang out on a sunny summer’s day and people watch. If you like street entertainers, this is the place to come. The portico of St Paul’s church (see above) on the west side of the Piazza. Originally, this was to be the grand entrance to the church, but this meant placing the altar at the east end of the building, which caused a furore, and it the altar was moved the conventional position at the east end of the church, meaning the portico on the Piazza is now a fake door as the church is entered from the other side of the building. It provides a great backdrop for street entertainers, though, and this is where Fern and Josh, with the help from another team of twin brothers, wow the crowds with some hot salsa dancing. Josh starts to see a side to Fern she wasn’t even aware of herself, especially as they end the dance with her hand on his rear end and she really, really doesn’t want to let go!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

She shoots, she scores!

A million billion thanks to all of you who cheered me on while I almost totally rewrote my last book in 10 days. Just had an email from my editor to say 'fabuous job...no more revisions needed.'

So relieved and overjoyed I have gone slightly hyper and the kids are giving me funny looks. I don't care. Rosemary's Blind-Date Baby has sold!

Behind the Scenes: Saying Yes To The Millionaire - Chp 5

Now I've sent the current book in (again!), I'll get get back to the buisness of locations and inspirations for Saying Yes To The Millionaire. Here's a quick re-cap of the locations with a little bit about what I was trying to do with the story at the same time:

Chapters 1 & 2 found Fern and Josh on the banks of the Thames - either high on a crane about to bungee jump, or walking along the Thames Embankment.

Chapter 3 was where the race started in Trafalgar Square.

At this point I wanted Fern to be terrified out of her wits. She doesn't like spur of the moment, high adrenaline things, so she's struggling, and happy to follow Josh around and do what he says.

Her lesson for the first day of the race (Thursday) was to be open to the world of glorious possibilities. Even though she might not enjoy all her experiences during this day of the race, at least she is experiencing something! I wanted her to see that even having a negative reaction to something was better than no reaction at all - it let her know she was alive rather than just hibernating!

Chapter 4 took them to Berwick Street Market, Speakers' Corner and the National Gallery.

In the market, Fern totally relies on Josh, even when he doesn't have the best ideas. But at Speakers' Corner she has to think for herself and finds that she can do something she's really scared of. By the time they get to the gallery clues, she's starting to feel more comfortable, starting to find her feet. She's actually starting to enjoy herself. By the time they head off into chapter 5 she's feeling pretty confident. Maybe over-confident? Time will tell.


CHAPTER 5
The first part of this chapter covers the finding of the painting clue that has all the other teams flumoxed (see chapter 4 post).

Fern and Josh travel to Chislehurst Caves in South East London. Under a leafy, affluent suburb lies a network of caves that stretches for 22 miles. They are not actually caves, but mines. Although some people theorised they were made in the time of the druids (and there are plenty of spooky stories the tour guides tell) historical records first date mining for flint, chalk and lime in the 1200s.


This place used to seriously freak me out as a child. It was cold and damp and local legend mentioned a ghost of a woman who haunted a pool in the middle of the caves, and of people who had tried to stay the night there alone, but had died trying to find their way out of the maze of tunnels, screaming in fear after seeing the ghost.

Actually, getting lost in there would not be fun, as the tunnels all look the same and it's very difficult to work out where you are sometimes. However, this didn't stop the place being used as an air raid shelter during the Second World War, where it became like an underground city with 15000 inhabitants. In fact, the caves' history attracted artists like Pink Floyd, The Rolling Stones, David Bowie and Jimi Hendrix, who all performed down there in the 1960s.

Fern, at this point, has become too comfortable. She's dug herself another little rut and she's going to stick in it, no matter what. And Fern's refusal to follow her instincts causes her team to miss and opportunity to maintain their lead. Her first lesson of this day of the race is to grab chances as they happen.