Celebrations

‘Erm, I was wondering if you’ve done anything for our anniversary?’
‘No,’ says Tom, looking anxious. ‘Have you?’
‘No,’ I reply, thinking phew!
It’s not that we’re unromantic and, of course, it would be lovely to splash out on something frivolous like an iPad each – except that’s the best part of year’s heating oil - but money’s not really what it’s about. Which is just as well.

Luckily for us, Lily and Rose and their other halves have very kindly made sure that our anniversary will be memorable. Our Christmas present from them is a night in a swanky boutique hotel (‘Well, we knew you wouldn’t do it for yourselves.’). Yippee! So we are heading north on our jaunt soon and greatly looking forwards to it. We’ve even decided to see a bit more of the area courtesy of a Premier Inn special offer… should be an interesting ‘compare and contrast’, shouldn’t it?

In other news ...
Monday 5 March sees the announcement of the category winners of the Romantic Novelists’ Association Awards 2012. Each category winner will then go on to form the shortlist for the Romantic Novel of the Year Award, which will be announced on 17th May. My Choc Lit friends with eligible books have done rather well in the shortlists and, conveniently, have spread themselves across three categories. Kate Johnson’s The Untied Kingdom has been shortlisted in the Contemporary Romantic Novel category. Christina Courtenay’s Highland Storms features in the Historical Romantic Novel shortlist and Jane Lovering’s Please Don’t Stop the Music has been shortlisted for the Romantic Comedy Novel category.

All of which is great news for everyone at Choc Lit, especially Kate, Christina and Jane. Alas, I can’t make Monday but here’s wishing you a brilliant evening! Good luck to you all!

It’s also great to see fellow Novel Racer, Tamsyn Murray, whose novel, My So-called Phantom Lovelife has been short-listed for the Young Adult Romantic Novel Category and fellow RNA Carmarthen Chapter member, Liz Fielding whose novel Flirting with Italian (Mills & Boon) has been shortlisted for the RoNa Rose Award. At the RNA Carmarthen Chapter we’re also celebrating the publication of Toni Sands' debut novel, Orchid Pink (Xcite). I’m hoping that Toni will find time in her busy schedule to visit Home Thoughts so she can tell you about more about her novel then. Although I may have to hide MiL’s eyes.

And after all that good news, it’s time for me to pack… hurray! Thank you so much Rose, Si, Lily and Russ!

ePainting is 'Bedroom Window View, Morning' by Tom Tomos

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