Turning up the heat ?On Curry Friday? Nom nom.
Hooray for Thaal, a great fusion restaurant, where you can have your alcohol burned off, or take it straight from the bottle. (Preferably both!)

Rainy Saturday? Chucking it down. But even when the weather does its worse, there are moments of exquisite beauty up here…

Wishing you good food and good weather to enjoy the great outdoors this weekend.

Love

Susan xx

Totally addicted to Jean Plaidy’s books, and currently re-reading all of them. I can’t analyse the magic, except to say that for me it is there!

Well into the ‘Georgian’ series, I have reached Mrs Fitzherbert and Prince George- who will soon become Prince Regent.

’I’d crown resign to call thee mine, sweet lass of Richmond Hill.’ I used to sing this song, which was made popular when the prince was madly in love with Maria Fitzherbert, a catholic, whom he could not have married under laws governing the royal family at the time.

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Short Blog today as under the deadline cosh, but I did want to mention that as Christmas Day falls on a Monday, the last delivery date for many companies will be Friday, December 22 – so do get your delivery slots booked for food etc if you need to ?????

Happy Friday!

Susan xx

Okay, so this is my pet. Not much to look at, but she takes me out in all weathers, and makes sure I have a nice meal when we get back in the morning, or a chew if it’s later in the day, so all in all, I’m not complaining.

This is me…

A bit of a Heinz 57, but rather regal, I think you’ll agree.

We don’t talk about my early life, because that left me hating men and hating bangs and hating loud voices and hating…well, just about everything that doesn’t come in a nice, calm, quiet package. Also I had a sister called Molly, but I guess my pet must have preferred me, because one day Molly got sick and left the pack house, and didn’t come back. I sniffed her one last time when my pet scattered dust on an old stone in our favourite field, but the rain soon washed that scent away, so now it’s just me.

My pet cries at sad films, especially if animals are involved. We watched one called, A Dog’s Purpose and she sobbed the entire way through – and then said it was the best movie she’d ever seen and everyone should watch it. So they can cry too? I don’t get humans. She made my fur wet, but I did get 2 treats and lots of hugs when the film ended.

My pet snores with her mouth open – not a pretty sight. Sometimes it’s so bad I have to jump up on the sofa and nudge her awake so I can get some sleep.

But I love her and I guess she loves me. She says I should sign off with a big hug and lots of happy licks, but as I’m not sure how to do that, I’ll just bark for a bit, to prove I’m doing a good job here, and then wish you all a happy and peaceful goodnight.

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Trying – and massively failing – to look cute for your editor, won’t work, Susan. (did you check if she’s allergic to cats?!?!)

Today’s surprising fact, is more of the ‘And now I’m a gibbering wreck’, day, because my ed returns from her annual break today. Picture the scene as she cheerfully logs on, in full expectation of, yes, a full manuscript from yours truly, only to discover that there ain’t one.

 (I just put this cover up for no better reason than to remind me how lucky I am to do this AMAZING ‘work’ and share my dreams with you)

I’m not being deliberately slow with my writing, it’s just that I discovered I’d left out a scene (please don’t ask why as I don’t have a Scoob) – thankfully, I found it on another draft and was able to put it back in – but at the expense of getting in to a muddle with what I had already said, what I should say, and what I might want to say. And putting all that right takes time.

Another hunky-chunky to soothe our frazzled nerves…

Yep. We’re all frazzled about something.

And yes, I make mistakes – hundreds of them. And yes again, I get revisions – loads of them. Anyone who says they sail through life – or writing – without a hitch, is a) more insecure than you and me, so has to big themselves up, and actually needs our support, or b) has undergone a medical reality-avoidance procedure.

Basically, they’re just kidding themselves, so take heart.

Will this pic help?

We can have as many hot men up here as we like, ladies, so I’m not going to stint!

Don’t let anyone ever make you feel like you’re not keeping up, or your kids aren’t keeping up. Believe me, we’re all the same little ducks, paddling like crazy beneath the water in an attempt to keep up – it’s just that some of us (not me, I hasten to add!!!) manage to look a little more ‘swan-like’ while we’re doing it.

Love to all, from a slightly more frazzled than usual, Susan.

Well, I really don’t like to let anyone down, but sometimes life gets the better of me too ?

But not for long ?????????

xx

Too soon for Christmas? Nonsense!

It’s never too early to start planning. I hit the sales each year on the 26th – which has led to an overload in the loft – Apparently I’m NOT allowed to put any more Christmas stuff up there…8 trees at the last count.

OK. So I have this nifty cupboard in the snug, full of…well, I can’t even remember what it used to be full of, but whatever it used to be, is long gone.

I do have an overflow shelf in the drinks’s cupboard for sparkly Christmas mats 🙂

And I have another nifty cupboard up on the landing for Easter stuff… and there was a bit of room there, so…

Now I have to find a new hidey-hole for all this stuff before DH discovers I’ve been Christmas shopping again…

Not sure I can hide it away in this drawer…

And of course ?

I’m being a rebel this year. I used to live in a village where, believe it or not, coloured lights were not allowed. Apparently, they are very non-u – whatever that means. Well, I’m going all out this year with coloured lights Ev-Er-Y-Where! So there! ?

And please can I start putting things out on the 1st November? Or it will be like last year when my Christmas seemed to last for around five minutes before the decorations came down again ☹️

Is anyone else completely crazy for Christmas? ??????????????????????????

Love and happy Christmas every day!

Susan xx

Always excited to sit down at my desk and think clearly and write without interruption (apart from ten thousand phone calls, which I love to receive) ?

Having left my ?and ? in the most compromising of positions, it’s time to take them on from ‘Oh!!!!’ to ‘Oh dear me!’, culminating in a blissful happy ever after.

‘And here’s my lovely neat desk waiting for me’, she lied.

And here is the truth…

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Not scarily neat as my lovely friend and fab author, Kate Hardy suggested, but a cunning ploy to focus tightly on the screen so none of the chaos that surrounds me, (both above and below, where I have to rootle through the mess to find a place for my feet), can be seen. But it all makes sense to me ?

Wishing you an amazing Monday that delights and surprises you with lots of good news and good things.

Love Susan xx (who is off to do battle with ‘a very bad man’ – this time thankfully, kept safely within the pages of a book. Enjoy❣️

Feeling floppy this am, so there’s only one thing for it: write a list. Challenge yourself, I tell me firmly. Then, get it done!

Meanwhile, ‘What are we going to eat today,’ rings out plaintively from across the room

Do you have a Scoob, ladies? I don’t.

Another plan to make. If I feed the ravening hoards they might actually allow me to do some work today ? which means I will get my book in – sort of on time – flu did get in the way ???

Excuses Excuses!

The Sheikh’s Shock Child, opens dramatically eight years before the drama begins. My heroine is just fifteen at the time, but Millie’s character is already strongly drawn, as is the hero of this book. If Khalid thinks he can seduce the beautiful Millie to salve his conscience when a chance meeting brings them together eight years later, he’s in for a big surprise. Though Millie does have her own battles to fight…

She couldn’t think straight, or calm down, and it wasn’t anger driving her now, but emotion she’d kept contained for far too long. It was almost as if she’d been hypnotised by the sheikh, and he’d turned her feelings for him from bitter disappointment, even hatred, into something that left her racing toward an unknown destination at a pace beyond her control.

Well, I hope your weekend doesn’t fly away at a ‘pace beyond your control’ and that you enjoy every single second of it.

Love

Susan xx

Seriously, I used to dream that the song, ‘Some Day my Prince will come…’ was totally written for me – and that my prince would come to find me – cantering in on a white horse, obviously, (which I reluctantly learned to call a grey later in life when my horse education became a little more refined)

Two things here:

1) I was an only child, so I did a lot of dreaming

2) I loved the song and the singers who made Disney songs so memorable and unique

So

1) My biggest ambition was to find that prince and build a tribe

2) I made singing my first career

There is nothing more important to me than family. Never was, I suppose, though from small beginnings dreaming in my ‘special’ chair, (that I later discovered had one leg propped up on a copy of Grimm’s fairy tales – but that’s a whole ‘nother story),  that family has now grown into a clan so big, I no longer have to worry if anyone ‘will come to the party’- they just have to turn up and there’s a ready-made crowd ???????????

Never was a truer word spoken *see above*

And yes, I did find my prince – or he found me…signing me up for life with the disgraceful taradiddle that his car didn’t have any petrol. Of course it didn’t – it was a diesel car.

Ladies, as Bridget Jones would say….’there are some very bad men in this world’ and he’s one of them ?

Wishing you a wonderful weekend with those you love,

Love

Susan

Thinking back on my Blog yesterday and the hunt for a dental hygienist who a) didn’t frighten the bejesus out of me b) is good at their job and c) is actually a pleasant and engaging person, it made me think. Why should we settle for 2nd best?

I know. We don’t have time to mess around. Take what you’re offered and get on with it. I have to admit that’s how I react more times than not. But…I would never accept that for one of my heroines. In fact, when I’m writing romance my heroines would turn themselves inside out, rather than accept second best.

And you know what – in the long run, taking that extra amount of trouble at the front end is worth the world of angst that follows if you don’t.

No second best for us, ladies!

Get it sorted!

Love to all,

Susan

Someone needs your warmth and encouragement today ?

‘Smile, though your heart is aching’

Wonderful lyrics – and with such meaning. Hearts can be soothed by a smile.  I should know. Off to the dental hygienist today ? Having searched the country for someone simpatico, I have settled for – you guessed it – a hygienist who smiles. It’s impossible to sit in The Chair shaking when someone is so upbeat, so good at their job, and so encouraging.

Here’s some inspiration for you!

And if that doesn’t work, try this…

Or this…

Note how happy, enthusiastic and approachable Mills and Boon editors Flo and Megan are * get writing, squad!!

Or even this…

(pulling faces obviously runs in the family!!!)

Wishing you a wonderful smiley day!

Love

Susan xx