The Shadow of Her Smile… 21st November 2016
So… thanks to my clever daughter, with a little bit of help from ‘him indoors’, my new short story is now available to download for free by clicking on the *FREE short e-book* link on the menu. I hope you will like it and would appreciate your feedback. I am intending to do more short stories and eventually put them all in a short story collection but, for the time being, these stories will only be available on my website.
It has been a particularly busy time for me lately both at home and at work which has meant I haven’t been able to get much writing done – honestly, it’s not an excuse – but, after attending the Romantic Novelists’ Association winter party last week, I felt inspired to get back to a manuscript I started in September but put to one side in favour of a Halloween/Bonfire Night story. I have now decided to keep that story until the appropriate time next year and get on with the new book which is set in 1970’s London.
It’s a period I know plenty about, having lived through it, so thankfully I won’t have to do too much additional research. I don’t want to give anything of the story away at this early stage but I have a brilliant title which I hope I can do justice to. Depending on how much time I have, I am aiming to have it ready for April 2016 and I already have a very clear image of what I want the cover to look like. Don’t worry, you won’t have to wait that long for new material from me as I will be doing more short stories between now and then.
It was the first RNA winter party I have attended and a great opportunity for me to meet in person some of the authors I communicate with on social media. I hope I didn’t look too weird peering at people, trying to recognise them from their avatar pictures on Twitter. I did quite well recognising Mandy Baggott, pictured second from the right, Helen J Rolfe, in the centre, and Sue Moorcroft, not in the photo. I also recognised a lady called Hilary, who I assumed I had met at the RNA summer party. It turned out that I had actually met her at an RNA south east chapter lunch where she had won a copy of Life’s a Beach and Then… in the raffle! Fortunately she enjoyed it and is passing it on to her daughter to read – phew!
Talking of recognising people, the party hadn’t really started when a gentleman pointed his finger at me and said, ‘QVC Julia – you’re my favourite! Can we have a picture together?’ Believe it or not, I am quite shy, so I dragged Debbie Flint in to the picture too – two QVC presenters for the price of one!
I also finally met Kim Nash from Bookouture. We spoke at length around this time last year as Kim was going to organise a blog tour for the second book in my Liberty Sands trilogy, If He Really Loved Me… Kim very kindly read it as I was anxious to know whether the book was a standalone sequel. I didn’t want people to feel that they had to have read the first book to understand the second. Kim confirmed that she did not feel she had missed out by not reading the first book although, if I’m honest, I would prefer people to read the whole story. In the end we left it a bit late to do a blog tour but maybe another time. Kim and her boss, Oliver Rhodes, won awards on the night so congratulations are in order for both of them.
Well, I’d better get back to writing my new novel now that I have got the bit between my teeth again
until next time
Julia x
