Minx Jo published by Authonomy, a paperback cover reveal and a freebie alert!

First up - breaking FAB NEWS! Minx Jo Pibworth - aka Jodie James, has just sold to Harper Collins!!! WOO!
Find out all about it on the Authonomy website - where they have just announced that they will be having a competition to give her fabulous book, The Lighthouse, a new title. Minx success is coming hot and fast this year - and I'm delighted to be able to congratulate Jo on her achievement. There'll be more about it on the Minx blog tomorrow, and I'm sure she'll be blogging today too!

Competition details:

A book's title is just as important as its cover - these are the first things you notice, whether you're shopping for an ebook or a physical book. Jodie James' brilliant women's fiction needs a name that really does the story justice. And, we want you to help us choose it! We're inviting authonomy authors to use their creative minds and suggest a fitting title for Jodie's book.
The winning submission will win its creator a brand new bookshelf: 20 of HarperCollins' best titles from the genre of their choice. Oh, and they may just see their suggestion gracing the shelves of bookstores in a few month's time.To enter:
 Send your suggestions to yourauthonomy@harpercollins.co.uk
All entries must be submitted before UK midnight July 13th
The subject line needs to include the words Title Competition and your suggested title - e.g. Title Competiton: Little White Wedding chapel'
Please put your details in the body of the email. 

Good luck!

Sometime next week, Challenging Andie will be available everywhere in a paperback version, and I thought I'd share the paperback cover! I'm very excited about this, going self-published paperback is a new departure for me, and Challenging Andie will be followed by paperback versions of Bound to Love and Catch Me A Catch.

In early July, I have another new release, Love on the Vine will finally be available, so my next blog post will be all about that!

And to celebrate I'm having some giveaways!
Catch Me A Catch is going free on Amazon on 23 and 24 June - so do go and grab a copy, or if you've already got it, tell your friends!
And to launch Challenging Andie with a roar rather than a wimper, it will be going free as an ebook on Kindle on 25 and 26!

New Book Out!

My new book, Challenging Andie, is out now at Amazon in kindle format, and in a couple of weeks will be also availabe in paperback. It is the story of a war correspondent who considers himself incapable of love - until he meets the heroine!
Andie Harte has suffered the loss of the two people most dear to her, and knows she must confront loss head on in order to continue living. She wants to conquer her fears, and has drawn up a list of challenges to do so.
Originally, I'd intended to publish Challenging Andie with a publisher, but my self-published success this year changed my mind, and I decided to stay with the 'dark side', and add it to my self-published stable.

Here's the blurb:
Is loving Ryan a challenge too far?
Jaded war correspondent Ryan Armstrong reports terrible events without letting them pierce the armor covering his heart. When his colleague Emily Harte is murdered, he feels responsible for her death, and travels to England to return Emily’s effects to her daughter.
Bereaved, primary school teacher, Andie Harte has set herself a list of challenges to prove she can be as brave as her recently murdered mother, but when she’s hounded by the press the need to escape means she must accept help from Ryan. During their time in seclusion, attraction blossoms into an affair. Their relationship was only supposed to be a fling. When the time comes for Ryan to return to Bekostan, can she risk loving a thrillseeker, or is that a challenge too far?

Ryan avoids love, knowing the pain losing it can bring. A life without Andie is sensible, but is it possible?

I hope you all like it!

Available now from Amazon.com here

And Amazon.co.uk here.

Dear Julia Launch Wave - Stop Two

It’s launch day for Rae Summers’ new historical novella, Dear Julia, and to celebrate she’s having a Launch Wave of excerpts! You can keep up with the wave’s progress on the Twitter hashtag #DearJulia. If you enjoy the story, feel free to tweet your comments and chat to other wave surfers.

By clicking on the links below each excerpt, you’ll be able to follow the wave across 8 blogs to read the entire first chapter - or you can click on the buy links below to get your own copy!

* * *

Dear Julia is set in the English countryside in the early 1920s, and is part of the Love Letters series from The Wild Rose Press.

Read the opening extract here.

The tiny Somerset village of Stogumber lay amidst green fields, almost within sight of Exmoor. It was a pretty place, soft and sleeping beneath the pale sky, a world away from the bustle and noise of London.

Rosalie strode across the cow pasture that lay beyond their tangled garden, her heeled boots sinking into the soft earth, then climbed the stile into the narrow and winding lane that led into the village. Dappled light slanted down between the trees, casting intricate patterns across the ground, a reminder of the ring and letter she’d locked carefully away in her jewellery box.

A bell chimed as she entered the general store that doubled as a post office, and the grey-haired woman behind the counter looked up. “Good afternoon, Miss Stanton. How may I help you?”

Rosalie smiled engagingly. “I’m looking for a little information on our house, and my housekeeper suggested you might be able to help.”

The older woman leaned forward across the scarred wooden counter, eyes bright with undisguised interest. “I hear you’re installing electric lights, and an electric water heater.”

If she’d already heard about the water heater, then Rosalie had come to the right place. Mrs. Wallace was without a doubt the village gossip.

Which meant she had to tread carefully. She’d tell Rosalie what she wanted to know, but she’d also spread the news of the ring around the village before Rosalie had walked home. And Rosalie had no intention of facing down a line of doubtful claimants.

So instead she perched on the high stool before the counter, as if settling in for nothing more than a cosy chat. “It’s the history of the house I’m interested in. I gather it’s stood empty for a couple of years. Before that, who lived there?”

“Alice Peabody stayed there a few years, before she got sick and went to live with her son, down Devon way.”

“Did she live alone?”

“There was a companion. Now what was her name?” Mrs. Wallace’s nose wrinkled as she thought.

“It was a flower name. Violet, or Ivy, or something like that.”

“And before them?”

“Before them was the Fortescues. Gentry, they were. Old Grandfather Fortescue built the house with money he made out of the railways.” Mrs. Wallace dropped her voice, as if discussing something scandalous. “He’s the one who insisted on the bathrooms.”

Rosalie sent up a prayer of thanks for the long dead Mr. Fortescue’s forethought. And for Mrs.

Wallace. At least now she knew Julia must have been a Fortescue. But how could she ask outright without arousing Mrs. Wallace’s curiosity? “Where are they now?”

* * *

For the next instalment, click here to go to the blog of bestselling Desire author Rachel Bailey.

Here is the full list of participating blogs:

Stop 1 – Minxes of Romance

Stop 2 – You are here!

Stop 3 – Rachel Bailey

Stop 4 – Scarlet Wilson

Stop 5 – Olivia Miles

Stop 6 – Jennifer Shirk

Stop 7 – Suzanne Jones

Stop 8 – the last stop, at Romy Sommer’s blog.

Thank you to all these lovely ladies for hosting me today!

Dear Julia is on sale through Amazon, Amazon UK, Barnes & Noble, AllRomance eBook and The Wild Rose Press. You can find out more about this novella here – and don’t forget to tweet your feedback using the hashtag #DearJulia.