What a difference a month (and a prize!) makes, eh? I can safely say that I’m enjoying being a romantic novelist again now, so let’s just ignore my gloom in March!

I struggled to the end of my manuscript just before Easter (phew!), and then was delighted to go away for a couple of weeks and forget about it. I had a lovely time in Scotland, and then back down in Wiltshire, and then, of course, it was April 20th and I had to get myself to the Savoy in London. I had to get up very early that morning, with much grumbling about not wanting to go ( I won’t know anyone/no one will want to talk to me/I hate wearing tights etc etc, the usual pathetic stuff that I should have grown out of, ooh, about forty years ago) but I made it to the train on time. My heels were so high that I could only totter a few yards in them, so I had to wear my ugly, but extremely comfortable, drongo sandals ( not a good look) until I made it to the National Gallery where I was meeting a friend for coffee and could change.

Then all I had to do was teeter precariously down the Strand to the Savoy, where, of course, there were plenty of people to talk to once I arrived. In fact, there seemed hundreds of people there. I had no idea there were so many romantic novelists around. It was a very good lunch, in a subterranean ballroom but so hot that I was soon red-faced and blotchy (oh, for cool, creamy skin that only ever manages a faint, dewy blush!) and I am very grateful that when Nikki found Fiona Harper’s picture of me (below) it turned out to be such a long distance shot!

I had never been in the running for a prize like this where I was actually there at the announcement of the winner, and I have to say that I did find it very exciting. Norma Curtis’s comments on all the books on the short-list were generous and thoughtful, and completely lacking in the patronising tone that’s usually reserved for romantic fiction in general, and Harlequin Mills & Boon in particular, and there was no way of guessing which book she would announce as the winner. It was only when she started talking about the slow development of the relationship between the hero and the heroine that I began to think ‘ooh, I think she might be talking about my book …’ and my heart started to thump …

It was a wonderful feeling to hear my name announced, but I have to confess it’s all a bit of a blur after that. I really wished that I had considered the possibility of winning in advance so that I could have made a more coherent speech of thanks, but apart from that, it was just great, and everyone is so kind and generous with their congratulations that it is really quite humbling. Clutching my rose bowl, my cheque and my bottle of champagne, I tottered back down the Strand at last to the Charing Cross Hotel, where I met Diana, my best friend and the prototype for Lou, the heroine of Contracted: Corporate Wife , who got to wear all her clothes. More celebrations then, of course, so by the time I finally made it back to the cottage, I was quite tired and emotional from all the excitement. Here I am, looking dazzled by my luck and more than a little dishevelled after a fantastic day!

Now I’m back in York and supposedly putting the finishing touches to my manuscript, but in fact spending more time celebrating and arranging my roses. All I have managed to do so far is to reread the draft, and in spite of two weeks’ distance from it, I still can’t decide whether it’s OK or not. Some bits are a lot better than I thought they would be, while others make me think ‘hhhmmnn, not sure’, so it’s obviously time for an editor’s eye. I’m just going to make some minimal changes tonight – I have to change a character’s name throughout, for instance, and I did pick up a few cases of repetition that I can do something about – and then send it off. I may well have to do some revisions, but it will be easier with her comments in mind, and then I hope I’ll be able to put another one to bed …