Heidi Rice's Blog

Having a little whoopee party today with three bits of coolio news.

First off, my July Harlequin Presents Extra release, The Good, the Bad and the Wild, has got a whopping 4.5 stars from Sabrina Madan at RT Book Reviews Magazine. Always a nice little boost to the ego when a reviewer enjoys your story. So I'm gonna share the love here:

THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE WILD (4.5) by Heidi Rice:
Eva Redmond, a “risk-averse academic,” and Nick Delisantro, a Hollywood scriptwriter, can’t resist indulging in an intoxicating night of passion. But Nick’s distress at discovering Eva was a virgin is nothing compared to his fury when he discovers her true motive for seeking him out. Nick believes his rebellious youth makes him unworthy of love, but his body can’t stop craving the sweetness of her touch. Can Eva persuade him that he really is a good man? Opposites attract as Rice takes readers on an emotional roller coaster in this funny yet passionate story.

Reviewed By: Sabrina Madan

Merci beaucoup Ms Madan, you made my day!

In another piece of exciting news my next book, One Night, So Pregnant - the story of freelance event planner Tess Tremaine and the fall-out from her one night of passion in a San Francisco closet with hot CEO Nate Graystone - has been given a November release date to coincide with the re-launch of Riva here in the UK in October (fingers crossed).

Can't wait to see the cover for this one, and as soon as I do I'll be posting a sneak peek on my website.

And last but not least, my lovely postman delivered a huge box of my Special Releases book P. S I'm Pregnant yesterday which is currently cluttering up my study...

So it's BOOK COMPETITION TIME again.

You have til Friday 1st June to send me the answer to this question at heidi@heidi-rice.com:

Q: Where do my two heroines, Daisy and Juno, in PS I'm Pregnant work?

(hint: check out the back blurb here)

And then I'll put names in a hat to give away two copies of the book.

Super excited to discover I have two  reprint anthologies coming out in June and July as Mills and Boon Special Releases here in the UK with wonderfully fun flirty covers and titles...

In June there's B.T.W. I Love You


No strings attached… No chance! 

Maddy Westmore is fed up of being Miss Fixit. This year will be different; no more Miss Nice Girl, no more Miss Pushover! She’s finally going to get what she wants. And, when it comes to relationships she’s going to try being the user! A hot fling with a gorgeous surfer – no problem. She’s going to leave her emotions at the door. 

Ruby Delisantro is the complete opposite! She’s feisty, challenging and always in-control. So, when Maddy’s brother, Callum Westmore - cynical but drop dead sexy - crashes his convertible into the back of her car on the busy streets of London she decides he owes her compensation…and she will decide how he pays it! That should wipe the smug, butter-wouldn’t-melt smile off his gorgeous face or so she thinks…

For those not in the know this is a compilation of my linked books Surf, Sea and a Sexy Stranger and Cupcakes and Killer Heels.

While in July we have, P.S. I'm Pregnant


This is a compilation of my two Brody Brothers books, Hot-Shot Tycoon, Indecent Proposal and Public Affair, Secretly Expecting, about two gorgeous (and exceptionally fertile!) Irish brothers - Notting Hill property developer Connor Brody and his Hollywood film star brother Cormac - and the two women who capture their wild Celtic hearts - Portobello Road market stall owner Daisy Dean and her tomboy best friend Juno Delamare.

I was so excited by this news in fact that I got my lovely web lady Heather at HR Web Concepts to update the Books page on my website with all the details. so if you want to read reviews, sneak peeks, etc, check it out!

I have no author copies as yet, but as soon as I do... It'll be Competition Time again here on my blog!!!

So I've been given a Sunshine Award by the absolutely fabulous Sharon Kendrick... What does it all mean, I hear you asking. Well, it's my chance to spread a little sunshine by talking about some of my favourite things... (Oooh, I feel a Julie Andrews song coming on!)


So here goes, in no particular order.

Navajo Frybread in Monument Valley, Silver Dollar pancakes by the Shenandoah River, the morning dew in Wiltshire, a cold frosty day in North London, the open road, my youngest son when I wake him on a school day (not just for payback purposes, but because he looks just like my baby boy again when he's fast asleep), Breaking Bad, being naughty with Ms Abby Green at the RWA conference (I take no responsibility for the kilt incident btw!), bad boys, Mad Men, old soul music, new story ideas, dancing the night away with my favourite peeps, giving both my boys a cuddle, reading books that make me say "Damn, I wish I could write like that", the Marfa ghost lights, home-made margaritas with my best mate in her orchard in Kildare, writing epilogues (always the best part of writing for me, all gain, no pain!), feeling fabulous in my posh frock, Christmas morning and evening and everything in between (even the potato peeling) with my huge extended family and last but by no means least my gorgeous husband (who always makes me smile!)

Actually, those are just a few of my favourite things.... But it's time to shut up now, Julie! And pass the buck... I mean, the Sunshine Award, to my dear mate (and partner in naughtiness) Ms Abby Green.

Take it away, Abby...!

I'm at it again, doing another Goodreads Giveaway of The Good, the Bad and the Wild, this time for the US edition which is due out in July as a Harlequin Presents Extra - and it's open to everyone in the whole world!!!

Last count 241 peeps had already entered so get your skates on, just click on the Enter To Win button in the Giveaway widget on your right. Easy peasy.

Right, back to my gorgeous Mexican-American private detective and my cute Scottish wildlife artist. Discovered the other day that my hero Zane Montoya has a dog called Cookie Dough! How did that happen? I'm so not a dog person, and now I've got to write about a dog! Arghh.

Phwoar...! So have I got your attention? Good, because, as you may know I am a professional writer and I do not print nudie pictures of delicious men without proper cause. So here's the excuse... Er-hem, I mean, the perfectly appropriate and scrupulously professional reason.

Firstly, that gorgeous hunk is my hero Nate, from Nate and Tess's story, which I just had accepted, and which *Drum Roll Please* now has a title.

One Night, So Pregnant!

That catchy title pretty much sums up the plot! But just to tweak your interest a little more.
Tess Tremaine is a British event planner living in San Francisco who, after getting dumped by her boyfriend, had a torrid closet encounter with sexy stranger Nate Graystone. She ran out on him and she hasn't seen him since — but six weeks later she's sitting in the reception area of his company headquarters with news that has left her reeling, and is about to come as one hell of a shock to him too! I will be posting a sneak peak on my website shortly (with more delicious pics!) when I have a release date. At the moment the story is scheduled for November 2012 in the UK but as visitors to M&B's site may know, Riva is currently undergoing a makeover so you'll have to stay posted for a confirmation.

In the meantime, I also got tagged a few days ago by the lovely Ally Blake in the Lucky7eme on Twitter. At the time I did not have a clue what it was (Duh!) but after a visit to Jackie Ashenden's blog (which I like to pop into regularly cos she has loads of cool insights and advice for those of us who have chosen to pursue this insane profession) I discovered that it means you're supposed to go to page 77 of your current ms find line 7 and then print the next 7 lines. Well unfortunately Zane and Iona's story (which is my current ms) is still in its infancy (nowhere near page 77 yet, more's the pity!) so I turned to Nate and Tess's story.

Then hit another snag, because page 77 is at the end of a chapter and there were only 5 lines.... Cripes, this is getting to be a bit of a saga. So in the interests of full disclosure, here are the first 7 (or so) lines from page 78. Confused? Hopefully not for long.

 
As the jeep ate up the miles along Highway One the next afternoon, Nate squinted at the bug-cemetery on his windshield, his eyes gritty with lack of sleep. He’d woken up three times in the night, rigid with desire, after the sort of lurid dreams that hadn’t troubled him since puberty. And Tess Tremaine’s soft, supple, fragrant body, the heavy weight of her breasts and the tight, wet clasp of her fisting around him had been the star attraction in every one.He tapped his thumb on the steering wheel as the rush of heat hit his groin. Shifting in his seat, he stamped on the accelerator and cruised around another tight bend, the road hugging the rusty red earth of the cliffs. The ugly swear word whisked away on the wind.

See, what did I tell you, perfectly appropriate and scrupulously professional reason! And because it's Friday and I'm generous like this, to finish I have another hawt pic of Nate, which was the inspiration for a certain very sexy pool encounter later in the book! 

Enjoy your weekend....

I'm over at I Heart Presents this weekend talking about my heroine Ruby Delisantro from Cupcakes and Killer Heels... And why I loved her curves so much! The book is out in the US this month as a Harlequin Presents Extra, btw..

In other news it looks like Nate and Tess's story will be an autumn release and (hopefully) part of the Riva relaunch at the end of this year... No title yet though, so stay tuned for that.

Also, if anyone has been following my Pinterest page, I had a little panic this week and have deleted my boards for the time being. I thought I was allowed to pin any pictures I found on the internet, but it turns out it's not quite as simple as that (Duh!!). But I hope to be pinning again soon once I've read the terms and conditions properly! If anyone else knows for sure what you can pin and what you can't, I'd love to hear from you....

Wow, just got hold of the US cover for The Good, the Bad and the Wild... And I love it to bits, not only do Nick and Eva look exactly like they do in the book, but I've even got a balcony and Lake Garda in the background.. How cool is that?

The book's out in July as a Harlequin Presents Extra and it's in a duo titled 'How to Flirt in Italian'. Love it!! Of course, Nick's not strictly speaking an Italian, but he certainly knows how to flirt like one so I'm fine with it.

Still waiting to hear the final word from my Ed on Nate and Tess's during which time I've gone a bit Pinterest crazy and done a mood board for the story... So if you want a sneak peek about what the story's about, you can always go check it out! Amazing how you can persuade yourself you're working while you're actually just looking at extremely hot pictures of good-looking guys.

So it's Charles Dickens's 200th birthday today... And as he's one of the writers who inspired me to become a writer I celebrated in style by sending off the epilogue to Nate and Tess's story this afternoon.

After my editor's very positive feedback, I'm hoping that the news will be good when she reads the revised manuscript with the epilogue attached.

But I have to be totally honest with you and say this wasn't the easiest book to write. Accidental pregnancy stories have always fascinated me not just because of the instant ramping up of the conflict, but because of all those obvious questions which it's sometimes easier in romance (and especially the sort of lush romantic fantasy that I write) to shy away from because, well, they're not very romantic. Such as, if the heroine's accidentally pregnant, wouldn't she consider having a termination? And wouldn't the hero be likely to question whether he is the father, especially if he's only made love with this woman once, and hardly knows her? And if two people are thrown together because of an accidental pregnancy, wouldn't that make them more cautious about committing to a long-term relationship rather than less cautious? Wouldn't the shock of having a major life change like parenthood thrust upon them make them want to avoid any other emotion complications? I wanted to have my couple wrestle with those very real questions in a believable way while at the same time keeping them sympathetic, giving the romance that fun flirty edge that Riva demands  and having them eventually fall in love.

Well folks, it wasn't easy. And once I'd started writing, I realised exactly how not easy a set-up it was. Because apart from trying to give my hero and heroine that contemporary edge, I'd also given them one heck of a lot to resolve in 50K words. Not just their own unique internal conflict, but also enough external conflict to fell two much lesser mortals. Luckily for me, Nate and Tess came through in the end - after having to give me several stern talkings-to during the course of writing the book - and I'm very pleased with the story now. But I won't lie to you, I had several moments when I wanted to kill them both (not to mention the baby, to my eternal shame!).

And for all those peeps considering the 'accidental pregnancy' trope as an easy way to ramp up your couple's conflict.... All I can say is... It ain't! Now I know why Dickens never used it... Smart man.

Hi all

Well, the competition is now closed, many thanks to everyone who entered. Did the draw this morning with a little help from my first born (who was not too ecstatic about being dragged out of bed on his half-term!!).

The winners of a copy of The Good, the Bad and the Wild are:

Aimee Duffy


Henza Richard

So you two just email me your snail mail addresses on heidi@heidi-rice.com and I'll post off a copy asap.

To everyone else, do not despair, (shameless plug alert) copies are available to buy in paperback and ebook at the M&B website NOW. And the book will be on the shelves in the UK and Ireland next month and in North America (as a Harlequin Presents Extra) in July. I'm also doing a Goodreads Giveaway for the UK edition (you can enter to win on the right) and I will do another Goodreads Giveaway (for all territories this time) for the US edition in June!

Right, still waiting to hear back on my current ms from my ed... And taking my mind off it by joining Pinterest courtesy of fabulous fellow Riva author Nicola Marsh. I'm not really a visual author, more of an auditory one (it's the voices in my head that help me create!) but I've had great fun doing a Pinboard of photos for The Good, the Bad and the Wild with selected quotes from the book - amazing how you can persuade yourself that trawling the internet for that perfect picture of Colin Farrell's tattoo is actually extremely valuable book promotion!!

Can you tell I'm waiting to hear back from my ed on my latest offering?? Yes, this is why I'm currently blogging like crazy, because I've already bitten off all my nails. Hate this bit... How is it that as soon as you press that send button you then go back and re-read your ms and discover all those things that need to be corrected that you should have spotted in the edit! Groan

Anyway, enough about me. I have now got a sneak peak of The Good, the Bad and the Wild up on my website... Go have a read and tell me what you think. And in honour of it, I've added a lovely istock photo of San Francisco's iconic Golden Gate Bridge, anyone want to guess where Eva and Nick go for their bike ride after meeting in that art gallery???