A happy New Year.

Christmas is finally winding down and most of us are looking forward to the New Year, more alcohol, food and eventually weight loss. This is a very special time of year for me,It’s my DS birthday on New Year’s Eve and as promised we are off to Keswick to celebrate his 6th birthday and bring in 2007.
Also, my youngest is starting school January 3rd. This is something I am not looking forward to *sniff*. But, there is nothing I can do to stop it as its all part of growing up and I know Olivia will love school (at least until the novelty wears off!). So I am enjoying this holiday and staying away from the W.I.P. Times like this put my priorities in order and makes me sit back and think of all the fantastic things I have achieved this year. Things like passing my PCV licence to drive a mini-bus, completing my first historical romance and then submitting it. In 2006 my aim was to have a full manuscript requested by an editor and luckily this has happened, if I sell ABK or not, I am darn proud of that fact.
What do I want for 2007? I’m not going to say published because ultimately that’s out of my control. What I want is to continue to grow as a writer and strengthen my craft, submitting manuscripts that are strong, with great writing and characters that make you laugh and cry and take you with them on their journey to their own happy ever after. I know the line I’m targeting, I know what that line should deliver to its readers and there is an editor that thinks I have potential.
The rest is desire and determination.
I also hope Edward has a great birthday and Olivia enjoys her first day at school.

Merry Christmas!

I have so much to be thankful for this year, both family and Friends who are very dear to me have achieved their dreams. Nell Dixon has sold more books to more publishers, Anna Lucia has sold her first book. Julie Cohen is about to start on possibly the most exciting and tiring time of her life, Michelle Styles has sold both Viking and Victorian romances to HM&B and finally, my crit partner, Michelle Willingham has sold her first book. Proud. That's what I am and honoured to know so many gracious and talented people.

So, here's hoping everyone has a merry Christmas and an even better 2007!

Four things...

Okay, no one tagged me but I thought I’d give it a go anyway!

Four jobs I’ve had:
1. Veterinary Nurse
2. Sales representative for Pedigree Masterfoods
3. Slimming World consultant
4. Falconer (well, that one wasn’t paid)

Four places I’ve lived:
1. Bridgnorth, Shropshire
2. Rodbaston, Staffordshire
3. Craven Arms, Shropshire
4. Ratlinghope, Shropshire (so, I’ve lived a sheltered life…)

Four favourite foods:
1. Lobster
2. Steak
3. Chocolate
4. Ice Cream, really, really good Ice Cream

Four movies I could watch over and over again:
1. LoTR
2. Last of the Mohicans (Daniel Day Lewis…sigh)
3. The Green Mile
4. Pretty Woman

Four TV shows I enjoy:
1. America’s Next Top Model
2. Rome
3. Any Period Drama
4. The Secret Millionaire

Four places I’ve travelled:
1. Florida
2. Barbados
3. Germany
4. Paris

Four places I’d like to visit:
1. New Zealand (If I could live anywhere in the world it would be here, even though I’ve never been there!)
2. Canada
3. South America
4. Africa (I have a lot of travelling to do!)

Four websites I go to daily:
1. eharlequin.com
2. Romance Writers Unlimited (my crit group)
3. Pink Heart Society
4. Blogs (far too many)

More research....

Sometimes just a picture is enough to transport you back in time. This is true of many of the books published by www.ospreypublishing.com But it’s not simply the evocative illustrations in this series of books that recommended them, it’s the sheer volume of items covered, everything from World War II to the ancient world, combat aircraft to Iron Age ring forts. Concise and detailed, these books definitely have the thumbs up from me.
Currently I have Rome’s Enemies (2) Gallic and British Celts.

Another fantastic resource, if you can find them, are diaries or letters written in that time period. They give you a taste of how people thought of the world around them. Very interesting. Have you found any interesting primary sources?

In other news, my fantastic coffee-mate and friend, Nell www.nelldixon.com has just had HM&B ask for the full of her medical romance, so go and congratulate her. She deserves it. She should have sold to them years ago…but that’s another story. I just need to remind her of a certain promise to query a certain agent…..

R...is for ready or not here's my first research book!

Research is always important, whether you write historical romance or not. The wrong description of a city or road name can pull you out of a story just as quickly as writing a 1st century Roman cavalryman used stirrups. So, you need to be accurate, but shouldn’t obsess over things so much that it overshadows the story you are trying to tell. One valuable piece of information I learnt is that you should never, ever information dump. It kills tension and pace. What you see in your finished draft should just be the tip of the iceberg, enough to give your readers a flavour of the period.

*Allison rubs her hands together* sooooo, research books. One of the first research books for the Roman period I brought was Roman clothing and fashion by A.T Croome.

It’s very easy to read and the illustrations give you a great sense of how the clothes worked and what they did. It also covers the issue of colours used for dying and clothes worn at weddings and funerals. It’s published by http://www.tempus-publishing.com/
The books on the site are expensive but a great investment, I think.

Still no news on the agent or publisher front. I’m gearing up to send out a few more agent queries in January. As I might have said before, on the agent side, I’m not stressing too much. A full manuscript can take ages to be read by those busy agents and I don’t need an agent to submit to Harlequin, indeed I’d already had the full manuscript of A Barbarian’s Kiss requested by HMB before I embarked on the agent hunt. But contracts and clauses send my head into a flat spin and long term, I know I’ll need one.
I want one that’s with me for the long haul, not one book.