New Cover Reveal

SO excited that I can  now reveal the cover of my very first contemporary romance book for the Harlequin KISS line which will be available online from late May and in book shops from June.

And for the first time, the book will be released at the same time in the UK as a RIVA title and in Australia as a Sexy Duo with Shoma Narayanan.

I am particularly thrilled about this book since it is the first in a trilogy featuring three friends who lost touch after high school and are re-united at a school reunion in London. They may have changed – but their friendship is as strong as ever.

Three very different girls and all looking for love.

How could I resist telling their stories? It was great fun.

Books 2 and 3 will be released in August and October so do look for them.

 

 

 

 

Back of the Book

You never forget your first…
Sam Richards was Amber DuBois’s first crush, first kiss and first love. Until he broke her heart and left town.

Now older and wiser, world-famous concert pianist Amber is at a crossroads in her life. But the sweetheart who spurned her is back—hotter, richer and in need of a favor! Glamour, romance and old heartaches resurface, but will her first crush stand the test of time?

Look for the second book in this trilogy by Nina Harrington Last-Minute Bridesmaid

Extra bonus: included in the KISS edition is The Wedding Dress Diaries by Aimee Carson, the prequel to our fab new quartet!

 

Available from June at  Amazon UK, Amazon.Com., Mills and Boon Australia and Harlequin.

How to Revise your romance novel

 The Revision letter

So you have a contract with a publisher, you submitted your manuscript within the deadline [ Gold medal] and your editor sends you an email with – gulp – several pages of suggestions and explanations about why she thinks that the story she loves and was excited about is not a heap of stinky brown stuff and does not work.

It needs to be completely rewritten. From scratch.  [ Rips off gold medal]

Receipt of this communication has been known to lead to the following reactions:

1. much screaming and weeping and renting of garments as is befitting for the apocalypse and the end of your world as you know it.
2. consumption of food substances containing liver threatening and diabetes inducing amounts of fat and sugar.
3. internet searches for the local job market because clearly you are pants at this writing lark and anything would be better than this.
4. long sessions watching box sets of DVDs. Copious volumes of wine and fatty snacks are essential companions.

These activities may also be accompanied by sobbing telephone calls to other writers, rants on the private author loops about how unfair the world is and a total disregard for personal hygiene. Why should you care when you are such a failure?

Your family and loved ones do not understand. You have had revisions before. You can do it. HAH! They don’t get it.

Relax. This. Is perfectly normal.

In fact it is to be expected. Because you CARE – and you care desperately about your work and making it the very best that it can be.

If you did not care, it wouldn’t bother you. But you have invested your love and care and attention for weeks or months in these words, and a criticism of your work is a personal sock on the jaw. Painful and real. And definitely leaves a bruise.

So overall, pretty much the standard five stage pattern for the emotional roller coaster of grief.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_stages_of_grief#cite_note-Santrock-2

 *Denial. I am fine – this cannot be happening to me. There has been a mistake. My ed loves my book.

*Anger. Why me? This is not fair. How can she not love this anymore?

*Bargaining. I can change it a little and make it work.

*Depression. I am doomed. Time to gIve back the advance. Forget about it.  Move on.

*Acceptance. I have to find a way to make this happen. This story is too important to me to give up on.

I remember explaining to an editor that for me, revising a book is like sending the infant you adore to an orphanage because you cannot love it any longer and the other kids need you.

Nine weeks or nine months in the making, your book is the precious object which is perfect in every way in your eyes,

Then the editor peers into the pram and says: I was expecting a blonde blue eyed girl. This is a brown eyed boy. Make me another one.

Coloured contact lenses and hair dye? Shake of head from the ed. Hard woman.

So you sniff and hand your baby to a stranger, wave them off into the archived files folder, and never see them again.

Then with tears still in your eyes you have to go to the ideas room and scrabble around on what is left on the shelf in the hope that you have something which will make the story sing and your ed will love it again. Love you again.

And you will make the book sing. Eventually.

Am I the only who thinks like this? 

Carina UK

It is wonderful to finally be able to share the news that I have signed a 3 book deal with Carina UK for my single title contemporary romances with a twist of mystery.

I have been waiting for years to find the perfect home for these books and to be in the first wave of authors for this new Digital Publisher is an amazing opportunity.

SO exciting! *Doing a happy jiggle dance- in private*

http://www.booktrade.info/index.php/showarticle/46391/nl

Emotional Moment

In July 2009 my very first Harlequin romance was released to the world.

‘Always the Bridesmaid’ will always be a very special book for me.

It was a joy to write. It made my editors cry. And it went on to be shortlisted for the RNA Love Story of the Year Award in 2010 and had great reviews all over the world.

Yesterday I received author copies of the latest release in Italian and the cover was scanned, printed out and added to my collection. 

In the years since then the book has been published around the world from Japan to Denmark which is both a huge privilege and delight.

As a complete newbie I asked the other romance authors how many foreign translations I should expect and the general opinion seemed to be about 15. So I took myself off to the Department store and bought two huge picture frames with 16 slots. Of course I had no clue that some of the 14 books I have written since then would be far more popular than other and 16 was nowhere near enough – but it was a start.

And today the cover of my Italian translation has filled the last available slot in the frame. She is a baker, he is a property tycoon. I like it.

16 covers since July 2009. 

Sometimes it seems like only yesterday. *Sniff*

When Chocolate is Not Enough. One Book. Many covers.

One of the many great things about being published in foreign translation is that boxes of author copies of your books arrive on your doorstep and, unless you hunt down every foreign website in advance, you never quite know what you are going to find.

Some of the covers have no link whatsoever to the text or characters of the book.

Other are absolutely right and the design team has actually read the art fact sheets each author completes for their Harlequin Book.

‘When Chocolate is Not Enough’ is a great example. What is the book about?  Here is the back cover text:

A shared passion for…chocolate!

One taste of Daisy Flynn’s delicious confectionery and Max Treveleyn is hooked! This quirky chocolatier is just the person to showcase the cocoa from his plantation.
Daisy jumps on the idea—she’s always dreamed of having her own chocolate shop, and with Max’s offer, that dream can become a reality. But Daisy finds sexy single dad Max very distracting!
Keeping focused on work isn’t easy. But Daisy has learned the hard way that she’s safer indulging in chocolate than in relationships. She mustn’t be tempted by something even sweeter….

Max has a cocoa plantation on St Lucia. Daisy works in London. Both live for chocolate.

And here are some recent covers and I have to say that the “Amelie” girl on the Sweet Romance cover is my favourite so far. What do you think?

As for the winter baby duo? The lovely Shirley Jump has the lead story.

You can find out more about this book and read an extract HERE.

 

The importance of community for writers

From my garden last May – and the spring to look forward to.

Yesterday I had to cancel a work party of my local Conservation Group, due to the sodden conditions and weather and it led me to thinking about how so many of my neighbours join together to celebrate our common interest in preserving the heritage of the area where we have made our homes.

We are all ages, shapes and sizes and backgrounds, but we come together with a common passion. We are a community. And I have the honour of calling many of them my friends.

We give the most precious commodity we have to the common good – our time and energy.

It did make me consider the nature of the communities where we spend our lives. One of the most important for me has been – and very much still is- the community of romance writers and readers who I meet virtually every single day.  My life would not be as rich and rewarding without that very special interaction, and to be honest, as a work from home entrepreneur, I spend more time ‘talking’ to people online than people I meet face to face.

I think the word community comes from two greek words meaning ‘coming together’ and ‘gift’.  The gift of coming together – I rather like that.

Where ever you are I wish you a peaceful and safe and above all healthy 2013 in the warmth of your community.

Love. Nina.

Sensory delights

Just in case you missed it, I posted one of my favourite winter soup recipes over at the sparkly new Harlequin Romance Authors site – Cardamon scented caramelised sweet potato and parsnip soup. Go HERE for the recipe.

One of the reasons I love this soup is the cardamon, which has to be one of my favourite spices. I always use green or black cardamon to make savoury rice and curry dishes. Fresh ginger and fresh garlic – both crushed into a paste or finely chopped – and cardamon pods, sizzling in the pan – oh, that aroma. Delicious.

And that is before I add the onions and other spices such as cinnamon, cumin and coriander. Wonderful.

Sensory anticipation of the meal ahead. Smell, touch, taste, sight, sound.

And if you love Indian food, the mega talented Nicola Marsh is sharing some of her Indian recipes over on her blog and guest sites as appetisers or ‘Bolly-Bites’ for her first single title book ‘Busted in Bollywood’ – which is still available. Neither are to be missed.

And you wonder why I write romance… snigger.