Jo Talk

Finalists for the UK Romantic Novel of the Year

2009-12-14T04:53:00.000-08:00

The "long list" of finalists for the UK Romantic Novelists Association's Romantic Novel of the Year award is out. Congratulations to all!

Use the above link to visit the RNA site and learn more about everything it does.

If you're not from the UK and would like to read some of these books, the easiest way might be to order a copy from The Book Depository, which is a UK company that ships free around the world.

Jo

The Very Thought of You	Rosie Alison	Alma Books
Passion	Louise Bagshawe	Headline Review
Beachcombing	Maggie Dana	Pan Macmillan
Fairytale of New York	Miranda Dickinson	Avon (Harper Collins)
Lost Dogs and Lonely Hearts	Lucy Dillon	Hodder & Stoughton
A Single to Rome	Sarah Duncan	Headline Review
A Mother's Hope	Katie Flynn	Arrow (Random Hse)
A Glimpse at Happiness	Jean Fullerton	Orion
10 Reasons Not to Fall in Love	Linda Green	Headline Review
Marriage and Other Games	Veronica Henry	Orion
The Glass Painter's Daughter	Rachel Hore	Simon & Schuster
It's the Little Things	Erica James	Orion
I Heart New York	Lindsey Kelk	Harper
The Heart of the Night	Judith Lennox	Headline Review
The Italian Matchmaker	Santa Montefiore	Hodder & Stoughton
The Summer House	Mary Nichols	Allison & Busby
One Thing Led to Another	Katy Regan	Harper
The Last Song	Nicholas Sparks	Little Brown (Sphere)
Last Christmas	Julia Williams	Avon (Harper Collins)
The Hidden Dance	Susan Wooldridge	Allison & Busby

The men of Leeds

2009-11-17T15:48:00.000-08:00

The final stop on the tour was the Yorkshire city of Leeds, which is a great shopping centre. Also busy and it's hard to find parking, but we made it to the Borders store there. There were two new men in regimentals there, and I think the one on the right here, Richard Massara, is my pick for a Jo Beverley hero of the darker type.

He has the lean look, but he was also doing a great job of acting the part. As you'll see from the link above, he is an actor.

The other soldier was a fine specimen, however, and suitable for some of my more trusty and stalwart heroes. Con Somerford, for example, from Dragon's Bride? I'd have uploaded more images if Blogger hadn't got in a twist.

I'll get a greater selection in my photo site soon.

I hope you've enjoyed these fine gentlemen.

Jo

More touring fun

2009-11-15T14:45:00.001-08:00

This is the charming Whitby Book Shop, in a very old building in the oldest part of Whitby.

Right next door is a very old inn. I do like inns. I also like inn names. This one is the White Horse and Griffin.

Of course I was in the Whitby Book Shop for a signing, complete with handsome heroes. One had also been along for Stockton and Newcastle, but another was new.

Apologies that I keep forgetting names! But they wanted some pictures against a period setting -- the old market hall. Excellent choice, gentlemen!

From Whitby, we went on to my home town of Morecambe, and did signings there and in Blackpool, where I went to school.

Then we went on to Leeds, where one of the men was my first choice for a Jo Beverley hero! I'll share his pic tomorrow. This pic is from Scarborough, where the Morrison's had a strange current of air near where I was signing. I think I'm about to take off! Good job I was wearing a heavy skirt, isn't it?

And yes, I did choose the red velvet jacket and brown top boots to go with the men's uniforms. :)

Best,

Jo

More men

2009-11-12T01:59:00.000-08:00

Just a quick blog to post a picture of the handsome gentlemen from Newcastle and Stockton. I get to hang out with the younger one, Lewis, in Whitby this afternoon!

Off to Scarborough now.

Jo

Wales

2009-11-09T12:46:00.000-08:00

My UK publisher, Everlyn Books, is based near Cardiff, so we shot over into Wales for a signing there. We didn't have time to explore the history of the place, but I did have Mr. Wales (blond) along to wear one of the uniforms, and a charming local lad (dark haired) as well.

The photographer had us trying for a kiss on each cheek, and we were breaking up, especially given the wind and occasional rain.

But here's a more straightforward picture inside.

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And another of the lovely display in the store.

I wonder what handsome gentlemen will be recruited in the North East and the North West!

I hope no one's forgotten that my very first book, Lord Wraybourne's Betrothed is out again now. It's been very hard to find for a long time.

And if you've missed the recent rakes trilogy, set in my Malloren World, they're still available, and the last, The Secret Duke, will be out in April.

Jo

Winchester onward!

2009-11-08T13:32:00.000-08:00

We had a lot of traveling as well as events, so I've fallen behind here. I'm back home now, which at least means I have my desk top computer, which I prefer.

Here's the Wyckham Inn in Winchester, which is an old 18th century one, and has preserved a lot of the original features, such as the coaching yard, in this case approached by a narrow lane, and now used for modern coaches -- cars. The stables and coach houses are thus put to other uses, and prettied up, but you can still see the basics of the back of the inn.

We also had the opportunity to explore Winchester a little. It is a very historic town.

The next day we headed, like the characters in the book, for Maidenhead, via East Green. I think the village now called Bentley might once have been East Green. In any case, it has two period inns, though one is now offices.

We did find a place that just might be a stand-in for Rothgar Abbey -- if the Abbey had burned down in the 19th century and been rebuilt, as happened to Elvetham Hall. It is certainly grand and elegant with stunning grounds. One day we'll visit.

It's now a luxury hotel, and I took the image from their web site

Then we went on to Maidenhead. The Saracen's Head, where the characters stayed, has gone, but the Bear is mentioned, and here it is. You can see the old arch into the coaching yard on the right.

We had a delightful lunch there with some fans.

Next week we visit various places in the north -- Stockton, Newcastle, Scarborough, Whitby, Blackpool, Morecambe, and Leeds.

You can check out the itinerary and other details at my UK publisher's site.

Lady Notorious is now available at good bookstores throughout the UK. If they've sold out, they can order you a copy at no extra charge.

Cheers,

Jo

With dashing young men in Southampton

2009-11-05T15:11:00.000-08:00

Here I am with the two handsome heroes who were promoting my signing in Southampton.

Southampton is a large coastal city and port on the Southern coast. Lady Notorious doesn't specifically mention it, but the characters do swing south to avoid pursuit, which would have brought them close to Southampton. We certainly had a fun signing there at the Waterstones.

My publisher had the clever idea of running a hero contest and of the entrants picked two to dress in regimentals (military uniform) of the sort Cyn would wear when he put on his uniform. Passersby

were invited to vote for A or B, which brought customers into the store and many bought a book. It was all great fun.

There was also a lovely display put together by the publisher. I'll upload more pictures to this blog tomorrow because my connection's slow and I'm tired.

It didn't go quite so well in Winchester as it was quiet. We suspect Bonfire Night had something to do with it. People were eager to get home and join in the festivities.

Now we're at the lovely old inn the Wyckham Arms, and tomorrow it'll be Maidenhead, where the chase ends -- except that they then have to seek Rothgar's help at Rothgar Abbey, so we'll be off to the Farnham area, where we've found a pretty good candidate.

More tomorrow,

In Shaftesbury with Cyn and Chastity

2009-11-04T15:37:00.000-08:00

On Monday I traveled down to London on the train -- and I love being able to do that!

On Tuesday, I did a bunch of radio interviews for stations around the country. OVerall it was fun, and the interviewers were great, and anyway, I enjoy talking about my books.

Then we traveled down to Shaftesbury. (The above scene is over beautiful countryside from Shaftesbury.) We would have stayed at the Crown, mentioned in Lady Notorious, but it's closed. In any case the building there now is Victorian. Alas even in the past they tore down the old to put up the new, improved version. Perhaps I shouldn't say alas. Probably people appreciated higher ceilings, larger rooms, and safer staircases.

We stayed in a lovely places called La Fleur de Lys, which describes itself as "a restaurant with rooms." It's a n old house, and I was told it was once a small school., but I haven't researched the history.

Shaftesbury is a small town but it was a busy coaching town and many inns remain, some now shops or offices. The one shown on the left didn't seem to be used for much.

Cyn and Chastity visit Shaftesbury in Lady Notorious and buy various things, including women's clothing for Cyn to wear. Perhaps going down an alley like this one?

Then we drove the 15 miles or so to Salisbury, which still has wonderful old parts, but is much more a modern city. And it rained on us. Not Salisbury's fault, but we couldn't hunt down the bits most relevant to Lady Notorious.

However, we had a lovely reading and book launch at the Black Horse, where the travelers stayed. (It once was much larger, expanding three times as far to the right.) But only for a while, because they spot one of the villains and rushed onward, as we will do tomorrow, to Winchester.

This is the room where we help the intimate event. It is typically Georgian in being small. We were delighted that Mrs. Bobbie Chettleburgh, Madam Mayor of Salisbury attended and contributed her deep knowledge of Salisbury's history.

Tomorrow, Southampton and Winchester.

Having fun,

2009-10-29T02:53:00.000-07:00

I've just put some photos of Whitby on line. It can be very photogenic!
http://photosjo.shutterfly.com/

The UK book tour is coming up, so if you're in the UK, check out my itinerary.
http://www.jobev.com/appear.html

Cheers,

Jo

Quebec city and beyond

2009-08-25T18:31:00.000-07:00

It's been a while because we spent two weeks in Ottawa, not doing much that was picture or even comment worthy, then we moved on to friends in Montreal and finally set out on our travels proper again, heading to Quebec City.

This is a famously old Canadian city, and the heart of French Canadian culture. We stayed at the Loew's Hotel,
which is by the Plains of Abraham of battle fame (Montcalm and Wolfe. Wolfe (British) won.) It was a pleasant walk down through the gates and towers of the old defences to the old town.

There truly is a French French feel about this bit of Canada and we enjoyed a pleasant meal in the evening at an outdoor cafe beneath the trees. Here's a picture of it by daylight.

This morning, we came across a demolition of what I assume was a convent. Some of the women watching were crying and you can see traces of past glories, but it seemed as if it had stood empty a while.

They'd removed some parts for preservation, including this roof or cuppola. It looks a little like a strange UFO that's crash landed!

We left to drive toward the sea. Here's another road. They don't change much, do they?

Now we're in Grand Falls, New Brunswick in a motel by the river. Tomorrow we'll take the walk around the gorge. I love the energy of rapid water.

There'll be a blog up soon at Word Wenches in which I interview the wonderful historical novelist, Elizabeth Chadwick.

Onward!

Jo

World Con

2009-08-08T08:47:00.001-07:00

I've missed a few days, what with arriving, dealing with things, and shooting off to World Con, but it's proving a great change of pace. I've done a few panels, but mostly I've been going to them and connecting with old friends.

The above is one of the fantasy costumes on display.

Best,

Jo

end of first stage -- in Ottawa

2009-08-05T18:14:00.000-07:00

So we've pushed on and arrived in Ottawa. Later tomorrow we'll be off to World Con in Montreal.

Today was not dissimilar to previous days -- that's driving across Canada for you! -- but there's always Sudbury with its huge stacks.

And slag.

But a bit later we find scenic views

And pretty cottage towns.

As we got into the Ottawa valley things smoothed out and there were farms and such.

Jo :)

Sault Ste Marie

2009-08-04T18:56:00.000-07:00

Or the Soo,as it's called. (It's pronounced soo sainte marie)

We're in the Knight's Motel, which is basic, but cheap, and the only place I could find on the internet that's a true motel -- ie units with parking outside. I think places should be clear in the names and if all the rooms are internal, call them hotels. This place is fine, and very friendly. I like it. Took a short walk to restock on wine, cheese, and salad and all is well with the world. The walk was particularly welcome after a day sitting. :)

I didn't post yesterday because I was tired, and I didn't have great pics because it rained just about all the way. It was empty road like this, with rain splatters on the windscreen!

Today was a pretty drive down the shores of Lake Superior, so here are some scenic shots. Clouds. I like clouds. And trees. There are so very many, many, many trees.

Here's a roadside of trees. Multiply by about 500 kilometers.

A glipmse of lake.

A pretty river scene where we stopped for a quick lunch. Many mosquitoes. Bit of a problem that. Most of those trees are in or around swamp. Mosquitoes and blackfly.

Eastward!

Jo

Winnipeg

2009-08-02T18:06:00.000-07:00

We meant to make Kenora, but somehow here we are in Winnipeg with a long day's driving tomorrow. The picture above shows most of what we saw today. I didn't try very hard to take scenic pictures.

Today was pretty much more of that wide open spaces until we began to see trees in Manitoba.

The above picture is from yesterday. I missed a field full of oil thingies. (Are they rockers?) so had to content myself with a solitary one.

The Trans Can is a strange road, often empty, which is probably why there are so few amenities along it, but there did seem to be a lot of missed opportunities in small communities. There were plenty of places where we'd have stopped for a coffee, a snack, an ice cream or a meal, but... nothing.

Then there's the shortage of motel rooms. Last night we had trouble in Regina. Today we got the last room in a Travelodge on the eastern side of Winnipeg. i even asked in a Safeway where I bought some food. Everyone was very friendly, but they agreed that there were only two places nearby. The motels were on the west side. Or near the university. Where's the sense in that?

But here we are and all is well.

Heres me, working with a bit of wine to help.

And a still life, with fine cognac being drunk out of a plastic glass. Helas!

If the odd HTML turns up in this blog, put it down to the wine and brandy.

Jo :)

Strathmore to Regina

2009-08-01T19:47:00.000-07:00

Flatland is us! I could post many pictures of a similar nature. About 8 hours of it. Canada is huge, but a lot of it is "empty." I know there are people who call the open spaces home and farm them, too, but they are very flat and lacking interesting variety.

Mind you, coming across what seems to be a small ice field in the middle of Saskatchewan in August is a surprise. Turns out, it's salt. Check out Chaplin here.

I would note: "Chaplin consists of eight streets, two crescents, and four avenues (including the avenue on the 'other side of the (train) tracks'). At the 2001 census, it had a population of 292." This is a long way from anywhere else.

We we're sure what this desolation of Smaug was, but we think it was doing something to minerals for the road improvements, for which we were duly grateful.

This is the iconic picture of the prarie grain elevator.

And this is the moose in Moose Jaw. A little voice was telling me we should stay in Moose Jaw, and it felt like a nice place, but we couldn't see a motel by the highway. Mind you, we missed something called, I think, the Prairie Oasis because it wasn't obvious in the accomodation listings. I noticed later that it calls itself a resort.

Note to Prairie Oasis, please duplicate your listing under motel. We'd rather be there than in Regina, where we had to check a number of places before finding a room.

But here we are, with the traveling deities looking suitably zonked. Tomorrow, eastward to Kenora!

Jo :)

Reached Strathmore

2009-07-31T19:13:00.000-07:00

We're in a Super 8 motel in Strathmore Alberta, having failed to find a reasonable place to stay by the Trans Can in Calgary, which is a bit surprising.

Most of the day was spent going through the Columbia or Monashee Mountains and then the Rockies, which are magnificent, but to be honest it begins to be, oh, more humungous mountains. I'm a geographical philistine!

We passed over into Alberta before the Rockies, and eventually headed down into Calgary and more or less flatland. The plan was to stop on the far side of Calgary, but nothing suitable came to view. We want motel type places to stay because we have a lot of stuff in the car.So here we are in Strathmore, a small town of 11,000 people, where they're having their Horticultural and Creative Arts Show. I wish we could stay. They're having jousting and draft horse exhibitions tomorrow, and tonight, if we hadn't both drunk too much wine, we'd have gone to the pig races.Not to mention the ever-popular pasture bingo!

Eastward ho!

Jo

On the road

2009-07-30T21:46:00.000-07:00

After some hellish days of record temperatures and movers who'd overcommitted their time, we're finally on the road and things went well today. We were intending to catch the 11 am ferry off Vancouver Island, we woke up early and packed the car. Glanced at the clock and decided not to have breakfast and have a try at the 9 am. Raced up the highway and were one of the last on. :)

Went to the Pacific Buffet for breakfast and stayed there, looking at the passing seascape and, in my case, working at tidying up The Secret Duke. Headed out and made it to Kamloops without too much trouble, grateful to have air conditioning in the car! Now in a room at the Country View Motor Inn, which is very nice. Large room, good air conditioning (do we see a theme here?) fridge, microwave and free wi-fi. Friendly people, too. Recommended.

Stopped in Hope at the Blue Moose Cafe, which we discovered on our last trip this way. Also excellent.

Truly, though, it would have been nice not to have record heat wave right now.

Tomorrow, Calgary area.

I'm going to try to attach some photos, but I like to take my photos at high res and cut them down. This is easy with my regular photo edit program, the excellent XN View. However, I am on my Mac Air, and despite the Apple claim of user friendly, I cannot find an easy one-click way to reduce the pixel size of an image. Mind you, I can't find an easy way of deleting an image in IPhoto. If anyone knows these things, please e-mail jo@jobev.com.

Onward!

Jo :)

The move begins

2009-07-26T08:19:00.000-07:00

In the next while, I'm going to try to blog here about our return to England. It'll be slow because first we're driving across Canada in one last long hurrah, stopping off at various places, including Word Con in Montreal in early August. If anyone reading this is there, try to find me and say hello!

Some of our stuff is packed today, and it'll be finished on Monday, which means I lose the 486 for a few months! (My old DOS computer on which I write.) The biggest loss.

I think we get to take the Christmas tree, though. That's an old and really, really a beat up tree, and it's in a huge box, so we'd marked it "last on the van."

But for one thing, the packers thought we'd have no trouble getting everything in, but we realized we could put the branches in the two filing cabinets.Nice and light, but take up a lot of space.

Let's hear it for Christmas traditions!

I was thinking it'd be fun to print out pictures of the tree through the years -- the first has #1 son at almost one year reaching for something --and putting them up as a Christmas tradition.

As I haven't sold my Perfect Chair and they think it'll fit, they'll dismantle it and I'll take it. Funnily enough I clicked on an article about an English author and it showed his Perfect Chair saying they were the latest rage due to numerous articles about them. If I don't want it, perhaps I can sell it at a good price! They're $2000 and up.

And another Whitby endorsement. One of the packers is from nearby Middlesborough and her eyes lit up. Oh, Whitby! If I ever went back, I'd go to Whitby.

At the conference I met an American who went to school in Scarborough and raved about Whitby. I should start actually listing all these encounters. I truly can't remember much mention of Whitby until about 4 months ago when we said, "if not Devon, where?" Swept up in an elemental force here!

Did I point you to the Whitby webcam?
That's looking inland. The next is looking toward the sea with the 9th century monastery (ruins of) on the right. You can check back and watch the wharf through the day.

Like most of these old towns, it's along the river rather than the shore, for protection from rough weather. It is a working fishing port, which is probably why it's so famous for its fish and chips. Fish fresh off the boat,

Jo.

The big move

2009-07-24T07:29:00.000-07:00

It gets underway this weekend. We're packed on Saturday and Monday. Mind you, I think they've overestimated the packing time, but we'll see. Tuesday the stuff goes into the container and on the road. So I'm going to try to begin my journey blog here.

For now, check out our destination on this webcam of Whitby.

Check out the sunrise and sunset pictures, too. It's supposed to be a rare spot where you can see both. Here's one, but they have a whole sequence.

I'll try to post a snippet and pictures every day -- internet connections willing!

Jo

Ads and videos

2009-07-11T16:09:00.000-07:00

Check out my friend Mary Jo Putney's video for her current book, Loving a Lost Lord.

I'm not always that keen on such videos, but I think this one is just right.

Any opinion on promo videos?

I thought I'd tack on a print ad I did ages ago for my book An Unwilling Bride. I'm not sure if the text will be readable, but it's sort of cute.

Jo

Hilarious -- and scary -- vintage ads

2009-07-08T08:43:00.000-07:00

Click here.

Here's a nice ad to compensate.

Jo
PS, I tweet occasionally, if you're following things at Twitter.

Best/worst covers

2009-06-28T17:02:00.001-07:00

The Cover Cafe contest results are up. Always interesting to see what readers pick.

Jo

Flying into the Mist

2009-06-27T15:25:00.000-07:00

Pictures are here simply because I like them. This one's of Whitby, where we're probably going to live.

A while back I coined the term "flying into the mist" (at least, I think I did) for the style of writing where the author doesn't pre-plot the books. That's pretty well the only way I've been able to work. I came up with reasons why it works for me and gave a talk at the RWA conference, and it seems to have helped a lot of people because sometimes authors giving "how-to" talks talks will imply that not pre-plotting a book is lazy, inefficient, and even stupid,

Hey folks, there are no rules. No rules!

And there's no stupid way to work that ends up with a good book.

There are people who still write longhand. That has to be inefficient in one sense, but no one seems to berate them for laziness or stupidity.

But the purpose of this blog is to share a new insight into why I it works for me to write this way.

Strangely, I have a synopsis for The Secret Duke. When I sent in the first couple of chapters to my editor, I expected to include my usual excuse for a synopsis that paints the major goals and problems but is very thin on details, because I simple don't know. However, this time a storyline poured out.

It almost scared me because I'm definitely of the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" school, plus the one time I came up with a complete synopsis for a book, thinking it would make writing it easier, it strangled my creative flow. But perhaps my muse was being kind, knowing I have a lot in hand this year, what with moving country etc. (Moving day one month tomorrow. Ackkkk!)

(That's an 18th century dress, by the way, of the sack of saque style -- with the flowing panel down the back.)

And I've sort of followed it. Nuances have changed as have specific actions, but none of them have sent the book in a completely new direction. That's my problem. Usually, when one thing changes, everything changes.

However, Bella, my heroine has a particular, driving goal and I had no idea how she was going to achieve it. I skipped over that in the synopsis. I worried about it a bit. What if I got to that point and still couldn't come up with a way?

As I came to the brink of the moment, Thorn and Bella came up with a plan that IMO works brilliantly. And that was when I got the ah-ha moment.

If I'd come up with that at the beginning, it would have been my solution. By waiting until then, it was theirs. And that dynamic is true throughout the book. I need the characters to come up with their own actions and decisions, but especially about the major moments.

Happy summer!

Jo

Amazing marionettes.

2009-06-07T09:08:00.000-07:00

This is a video of one of the amazing huge marionettes created and operated by company Royal de Luxe. I love that people take the time to create something so splendid and that gives wonder and joy to so many.

Giant Marionettes

There are still photos of a new one here.

May you enjoy many wonders,

Jo :)

Need a laugh today?

2009-06-02T16:38:00.001-07:00

Truly funny You Tube video. Clever, too.

Enjoy,

Jo