My Guy

Excuse me if I FREAK OUT just a little, won’t you? My keyboard should be smoking with activity, but today I’m having a bit of a moment. We’re off to the south east on Friday which is good because I’ll catch up with Ma. My sister and I are both trying to sell our houses at the moment so Ma’s been something of a Freak Control Red Centre, fielding calls from both of us and handling all the ‘It’s on/off/pile-of -cr*p/best-thing-I’ve-ever-seen/b*stards/heroes’ calls with appropriate pigeon noises. A very diplomatic approach, actually, since neither of us can throw her words back at her.

But what’s really creeping up on me is Saturday, Day Two of the Romantic Novelists’ Association Conference 2010, because I’m joining the Choc Lit panel where we’ll be talking about our heroes. ‘But, mummy!’ said Rose. ‘The expert on your hero is you! What are you worrying about?’ And the answer is that I don’t know really, after all I’ve got up on my hind legs in a previous life and talked about such thrilling topics as sick pay and millennium payments and I knew a lot less (there, I’ve admitted it now!) about either of those than I do about Matthew Corrigan, the hero of ‘Turning the Tide’.

I suppose the answer is because I really care and I really want people to engage with my guy and to see why he and my heroine, Harry, would be attracted to each other. On that subject (terrible trumpet tootling alert), my Mslexia magazine arrived yesterday, (would heartily recommend it – and not just on a sucky-up note; every issue is packed with useful information and writing exercises... although they never pick my poems when I send them in. Sigh.) and it included a really wonderful write-up about ‘Turning the Tide’ (page 51 ‘Independent Press: Choc Lit’) which set me up for the whole day. I must remember to think about that before I do my bit on Saturday.

Painting is 'Late Light - Preseli' by Tom Tomos