I have just sent off a first draft of the short story to be serialised weekly in July on www.eHarlequin.com. It’s to be called Just One Kiss, and I enjoyed writing it rather more than I thought I would, although it was difficult sticking to the 10,000 word length. My first version ran to over 13,500 words, so some pretty brutal cutting went on yesterday! I had some trouble, too, putting a “cliffhanger” at the end of each chapter, and remembering to recap the essential points of the plot each time for any readers joining half way through. But for someone as verbose as I am, it was a good exercise to write to such a tight formula, and fun to revisit the characters from the City Brides series, even if I ended up cutting most of their best lines. I even managed to get in a mention of Martha, the heroine of The Boss’s Baby Plan (which I had just finished the last time I updated the diary), making her Caro’s boss, so it felt as if everything came together nicely!

Just One Kiss is a prequel to the City Brides trilogy, which kicks off in the UK this month (July in North America) with Fiancé Wanted Fast ! That’s followed by The Blind-Date Proposal and A Whirlwind Engagement, so add them to your summer reading list! The series is going to be featured and hopefully reviewed on a new website, www.romancejunkies.com , in July, to promote the launch of the series in North America. There should be an interview with me, too.

If you haven’t already visited, take a look at www.harlequinromanceauthors.com , the website we’ve set up to promote Harlequin Romance®, Mills & Boon® Tender Romance™, and Mills & Boon Sweet Romance® – the lines we feel are about real romance! The site is evolving gradually, and we hope to have more pages up soon, but in the meantime there’s a chance to meet fellow readers at “Meet Our Readers” – check out the photo of Mavis B. and see if she looks familiar! An in-joke, I’m afraid, but it’s supposed to be a fun page. However, the prizes offered are real, so if you’d like to send in a picture of yourself reading one of our books, you could be getting some free copies through the post. See the page for instructions – it’s very easy, so get yourself snapped and have a go!

I’m about to take a break from writing romance until September, so won’t be updating the writing diary until then, but I will be keeping an eye out for photos as above, and I always check my email, so let me know how you get on with Phoebe, Kate and Bella, not to mention Caro, the heroine of Just One Kiss … I would love to hear from you!