Tuesday 23 October 2012

More Champagne Anyone? by Valerie-Anne Baglietto

 
 
And so here we are again . . .   
 
 
 
 
 
Champagne on ice, and wasabi-flavoured KitKat all the way from Japan

Louise Marley & Trisha Ashley
 
You might be forgiven for thinking all the Novelistas do all day is lounge around drinking champagne and consuming cake and exotic chocolates. We had yet another reason to celebrate at our last meeting in early October (which was also the official blog launch), as we toasted the success of our bestselling Trisha Ashley, racking up over half-a-million sales of her novels.
 
Surely, all the wonderful achievements the Novelistas have come together recently to drink bubbly over have clearly been due to the fact that we are a lazy bunch who just drape ourselves decoratively on our chaise longues dreaming up plotlines and updating our FB or Twitter pages to keep in touch with our adoring fans.

Yeah. Right.

Ladies who launch. And lunch.
Behind the chocolate-cake-loving façade hides the years of hard slog, dedication and downright looniness that binds all the Novelistas together, and hopefully always will. We all know what it's like to hit rock bottom, just as we know the caffeine-induced highs* when a story is going so well it's practically writing itself and our fingers are skimming over the keyboard like a professional surfer hitting the waves off a Cornish beach.
Erika Woods and Cheryl Lang,
trying to hide from the camera behind
June Francis' latest book for Mills & Boon
It's only fitting that when we all get together we share our trials and tribulations, but ultimately we take the greatest pleasure from being in the company of like-minded people and taking home the warm and fuzzy feelings we somehow always manage to generate when we're together.
 

Anne Bennett, temporarily incapable of feeding herself
 

So, yes, we have fun at our lunches.
Damn right we do.
We deserve it. Collectively and as individuals.


Stay away from the light Trisha!
(Trisha, Louise, Johanna Grassick and June Francis)
How many uses can you find for an empty chocolate box?

Check back soon, when we might have something more serious and literary on our blog.

Or maybe not . . .

Love Valerie-Anne ;-)

*Disclaimer - not all the Novelistas are coffee addicts.



Erika wouldn't let me sneak off without modelling The Hat
 


Sunday 14 October 2012


Echo of Summer



Hello, I'm Cheryl Lang.I love writing and I'm an author in waiting! I particularly enjoy using anywhere hot as a background to the story, it gives an added dimension for the characters to cope with as well as the problems they encounter.(Who am I kidding? I just love the contrasts a tropical setting allows) I'm currently writing a novel set in Tuscany among fields of cheerful sunflowers and   hillsides of lavender. The necessary research often diverts me along some interesting routes and I tend to keep a fair bit of information as it might prove useful later on.