STOP PRESS!!

Just when I was thinking that actually I had nothing new at all to report for this month, I had a very exciting phone call! It was from the Romance Writers of America on Good Friday to tell me that Christmas Eve Marriage was a finalist in the Traditional Category for the RITA awards – a huge thrill for me as I have never been short-listed for anything before.

I so nearly didn’t pick up the phone, too. I was turning my compost (the way you do) before I went away and debated with myself whether I could be bothered to take off my gardening gloves or not. Fortunately I did in the end manage to wrestle one off, or I would have missed the deadline to send in five more books for the final judging. I was due to leave for a couple of weeks in Scotland the next day, so wouldn’t have got the letter in time … am now going hot and cold all over at the thought of the opportunity I so nearly missed. As it is, I heard ‘reader’ for RITA throughout the conversation, and so, like a fool, I have sent off my precious books marked ‘reader finalist’ to make sure it gets to the right person … what a clot!

Oh, well, the main excitement is to be among the five finalists, and I am really delighted that Christmas Eve Marriage went down so well. A little surprised, too, to tell you the truth, as although it is one of my favourite books, it is full of in-jokes – it was great fun to write, but I wasn’t sure that anyone else would find it as funny as I did!

Don't forget - if you (or if you know anyone who would) like to read a Jessica Hart in Spanish, or German, or French … or in any one of more than twenty languages ranging from Arabic to Italian, Hungarian to Korean, Danish to Turkish? I have boxes of foreign editions that I would dearly like to give away so that I can clear some space in my study. You can have books in a range of languages, or just the one – simply let me know what you’d like and I will post to anywhere in the world!