The Next Big Thing

I've been tagged by the lovely Kate Hardy to be part of The Next Big Thing blog.  You basically answer a series of questions about your latest book.  But before I get to that I want to let you know that I was SUPER excited to find out my February release is going to be paired with Kate Hardy's next book.  I've read Kate's books for the last five years and she was one of the people who encouraged and inspired me to write for Mills and Boon, so sharing a book with her is just awesome!  Her Inescapable Temptation comes out in February.

But in the meantime on to The Next Big Thing

What is the title of your book?

Her Christmas Eve Diamond

How did you come by the idea?

I begged my editor to write a Christmas story as I love all things Christmassy.  I also wanted to set my story in Glasgow and introduce some Scottish words and foods!

What genre does your book fall under?

Medical Romance

Which actors would you choose to play your characters if it were a movie?

My hero is based on the delicious Bradley Cooper and my heroine on the actress Stana Katic who plays Kate Beckett in Castle.

What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

When The Grinch meets the Christmas Fairy who will come out on top?

Will your book be self-published or traditional?

It was published by Harlequin Mills and Boon in November in the UK, USA, Australia and France.

How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?

Around 2 months.  I tend to write 1000 words a day.

Who or What inspired you to write this book?

My definite love of Christmas!  I'm just about to start next year's Christmas book!

What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?

This story also focuses on a dad who has been separated from his child and a woman who is struggling to adjust to her Gran's worsening dementia.

Nurse Cassidy Rae is a stickler for rules, but even she revels in the magoc of Christmas! This year, however, new registrar Brad Donovan's surfer-boy good looks and cocky charm are severely testing her goodwill to all men.  But in the festive season miracles can happen, and Brad's about to give Cassidy a Yuletide to remember...

Beginnings, Middles or Endings??

What's your favourite part of writing a book?  Is it the beginning - where everything is new and fresh and there is a whole world of opportunities?  Is it the middle where things are tying together, you have two fully-fledged characters that feel real?  Or is it the end - the happy ever after - the bit everyone is waiting for?
Or maybe you're a little bit bad.  And your favourite part is the big Black Moment.  That horrible bit of the book where it seems as if there is no return??

I'm in a happy place.  Last night I started a new book.  And you might have guessed it but my favourite part of the book is the beginning.  I love the ideas, the potential developments, the little sentences you drop in that let the reader know there is something in this characters back story that will stop his or her path to a straightforward happy ever after.

I also love the drama.  Starting in the middle of something.  And not always with the two main characters on the page.  My first book It Started with a Pregnancy, began with my hero and heroine meeting in a bar and a night of passion followed.  Not the most unusual start.  But I learned from this.  And I developed.

My second story had drama.  The Boy who Made Them Love Again started with my hero pulling up outside a small hospital with the First Lady in premature labour in the back of the car!  He comes face to face with the woman he walked away from five years earlier and so the drama continues.

My third book was a follow up - still using the President and First Lady.  In this one my heroine turns up at the police cordon, heavily pregnant and trying to reach the doctor that's looking after the President's premature daughter.  She promptly collapses and is taken inside to meet her ex - the hero - and the only man she can trust to rescue her much-wanted child.  Sigh.  I love a bit of drama.



Book four, A Bond Between Strangers, starts with my hero receiving a letter telling him there has been an IVF mix up.  The embryos that had been created for him and his wife (with his sperm and a donors egg) and were due to be destroyed, have been mistakenly implanted in someone else.  His wife is long gone - but this is his baby - and all he's ever wanted is a family.  Someone else is carrying his child.  And he wants it.

Book five is the christmas story.  Her Christmas Eve Diamond starts with my heroine going to get her fortune told with her friends.  She doesn't believe in all that and is less than impressed when the fortune teller predicts she will be a Christmas bride.  It's August and she doesn't even have a boyfriend.  What's more she's vowed her next man will be a fellow Scot, but the fortune teller has other things in mind.....

Book six is the cruise ship story.  An Inescapable Temptation.  This one starts with the hero jumping in to rescue a child in Venice harbour.  He gets knocked out and my heroine ends up resuscitating him!

As for Book Seven????  Well, I'm not going to give too much away.  But again there is drama.  My study currently has a very important algorithm for a certain disease pinned on my wall.  Something big is going to happen in Chicago - something very big!

So, you can see a pattern forming here.  It's a bit worrying to be honest.  Apart from my first story, do I know how to write a story with a quiet build up?  I try not to do the backstory dump thing, and I do always try to start in the middle of the action.

What's interesting is that the middle of the action doesn't always have the hero and heroine on the first page.  It was one of the things I noticed about the New Voices contest.  I wanted to see the hero and heroine together straight away and yet I don't always do it myself.  Granted, it happens within a couple of pages, but maybe I still have a few things to learn.

So what's your favourite part?  Are you all about the middle and the developing characters?  Are you a wrung-out sort of person and all about the Black Moment?  Or, are you hearts and roses and all about the Happy Ever After?  Or are you like me, all about drama and all about beginnings?