Janice Horton's Blog, page 32

Kicking back….

This week I’ve been kicking back and relaxing after the launch of How Do You Voodoo?
Mr JH and I took ourselves off to the cinema in Glasgow to see Skyfall and both of us remarked how the scene with Bond and M standing beside the Aston Martin in the remote Scottish countryside - looked as though it had been filmed at the Dalveen Pass – an area very close to our cottage. I got quite excited at the thought that Daniel Craig might have popped in for a cup of tea!
 
I also caught the BBC Scotland programme ‘Imagine’ featuring Edinburgh author Ian Rankin. It’s up on the iPlayer just now here and is really worth watching. It follows Ian over the course of writing his new novel ‘Standing in Another Man’s Grave’ and it was fascinating to see how he worked. I also found it reassuring that he gets stuck (in his case usually at page 68) and that he doesn’t plot his stories beforehand. Indeed, with this particular novel, he got almost to the end without knowing himself who the killer was!  The interviews with his editor and his wife were also illuminating from a writerly perspective and I enjoyed seeing how he researched the details in his stories. This weekend is Mr JH’s birthday and we are having our friends over to celebrate with us. So, this afternoon, I’m not writing or going anywhere near my laptop - I'm making birthday cake!  Happy Birthday to my real life hero - Mr JH! So until next week (when I’ll be back to work on my WIP) I’m wondering if you like to take a break and kick back a little after completing a writing project - or are you a writer that gets straight into the next book without a single pause? Love, Janice xx 

What a Voodoo Week!

Thank you to everyone who took part in the Spellbindingly Fun Blog Party last Friday – it was great fun! Lots and lots of party peeps look part and I was amazed at how imaginative and clever you all where with casting your spells.In the prize draw for Spellbinding Bloggers – Caroline James won the Highland scented candle in the exact purple tartan to match the cover of How Do You Voodoo?

Caroline kindly uploaded this photo to Facebook and wrote: So thrilled - I won this lovely candle at Janice Horton's Spellbinding Fun Blog Party!
Sheryl Browne and Nicky Wells were the Twitter draw winners and each now have a Voodoo Love Doll complete with pins!How Do You Voodoo? was free on launch day and downloaded over 500 times – reaching number 20 in an Amazon Top 100 Chart. Amazing!     Over the past week, I’ve been on tour promoting How Do You Voodoo? I’ve been interviewed on some fabulous blogs about my writing, my research, where I get my story ideas from and I have also been fortunate that several very well respected Book Bloggers have pulled out all the stops to read and review How Do You Voodoo?  during my promotional week. So if you have a few moments in your coffee break - do pop over to each of the blog links below to visit these fabulous blogs and see what I’ve been up to on my Voodoo-tastic blog tour! Victoria Connelly’s Author Blog Romantic Novelist’s Association Blog Lou Graham’s Book Blog Today I’m Reading Book Blog Jera’s Jamboree Book Blog Rea Book Reviews The Romaniacs Blog Nicky Wells’s Centrestage Dizzy C’s Book Blog The Little Reader Library
And as if that wasn’t all fabulous enough this week More Than A Review.Com included How Do You Voodoo? in their list of Recommended Halloween Reads!


And Kim The Bookworm discussed How Do You Voodoo? on her Stafford FM Radio Show Book Club slot last Thursday. Thanks Kim! I’ll add the podcast link as soon as I have it. The Dumfries and Galloway Standard – my local newspaper is running an article on the launch of How Do You Voodoo? today (Friday 2nd Nov) I’ll post a link to the online version of this article as soon as I have it. And, last but not least, this week I launched my brand new Bookshelf Reviews feature on the innovative magazine style website loveahappyending.com. I’ll be presenting this feature twice monthly to bring you the latest reviews and reader opinions on one of the loveahappyending.com’s featured author’s books – helping you to discover an outstanding new book, an exciting new author and a fabulous new writing talent!
That’s it for this week (I think I need to lie down now!) See you all next Friday!  

Spellbinding Fun Today!

Today I’m celebrating the launch of my romantic and humorous Halloween flavoured novella How Do You Voodoo? and I’m delighted to have so many fabulous party peeps taking part in what I’m sure will be a spellbindingly fun event both here and on Twitter! #voodoo 

Blurb: How Do You Voodoo? Loveless fashion model Nola Nichols thinks being beautiful is a curse; that is until she is cursed and her looks begin to fade just a week before the most important photo shoot of her career.
Nola rejects all rational explanation on what might be causing her lost looks and decides she has to find a way to get uncursed. This imaginative quest takes her from the Caribbean to Glasgow’s own City of the Dead. Along the way, she finds herself taking part in a rather unconventional funeral, involved in a voodoo ritual, reveals one or two unrests in her own past and falls madly in love with a doctor. Erm, that would be a witch doctor, right…?
How Do You Voodoo? has already been attracting some fabulous reviews on Amazon UK and Amazon US and has been described by top book bloggers as “areally fun and heart-warming read to curl up with over Halloween” (Love Reading Love Books) and for its novella length “perfect for commuting” (Jera’s Jamboree).

How Do You Voodoo? is available FREE OF CHARGE TODAY

It’s my party gift to YOU. So please click on the links and download it to your Kindle today and be sure to tweet and share and tell all your friends to do the same. It will be back at 77p / 99c tomorrow.

Amazon UK and Amazon US
FREE TODAY
Other Amazon sites are also included! No Kindle? No problem. Simply download the Kindle app from Amazon first – it’s free too. Click Here to go to Amazon to get a free app for your iPhone, your tablet, iPad, Laptop, Mac or other electronic mobile device.



I’ve invited you all here today to cast a magic spell – it can be anything you wish – and I can’t wait to see what you’ve all been cookin’ up!

This is my spell: It’s a Spell of Scottish Sunshine! It’s been a very wet and dreary summer here in Scotland or as we like to complain “a dreich and dour” one. So I’m going to rub some suntan lotion into my hands and chant this spell while I evaporate a drop of toads sweat from a silver spoon over a candle flame – and hope it works! 
 
So now it’s almost time to visit all The Spellbindingly Fun Party Peeps! Each has a magical spell cast on their blogs today, so do pop over and leave a comment, share their links and click on their Twitter button.
On Twitter do remember to include the #voodoo in all tweets and please RT those you see in your Twitter stream today – as there is a prize draw for two of these voodoo love dolls just for #voodoo RT’s and MT’s!  Love is bewitching! Sometimes love needs a wee nudge.
Set your sights on your goal.
This voodoo doll gives you a way to spear him like a cupids arrow! There is also a fabulous grand prize draw for all those party peeps who are casting spells and listed below. The prize is a beautiful Scottish Candle from The Highland Collection that reflects the contemporary essence of Scotland. It is a scented candle mixing delicate white heather with sweet Highland honey to produce a sensuous scent evoking the feeling of romance. It is a scent capable of transporting you to the beauty of the heather-covered hills of the Highlands. This candle is beautifully packaged in tartan and in a shade to exactly match the colours and the tartan cover of How Do You Voodoo? This scented candle, beautifully packaged in tartan and and in the exact shade of the cover of How Do You Voodoo? is capable of transporting you to the heather covered hills of the Highlands!
 
Do click on each of the Party Peeps names below to see what spells they’ve been cooking up. I too will be visiting each and every one of them during the day to read the spellbindingly fun post and to leave a comment. I’ll also be popping onto Twitter using the hashtag #voodooto keep up with the voodoo chatter until I need to pop back and refill my chalice with a Voodoo Cocktail (see the fun recipes below for ‘The Voodoo’, The High Priestess’ and ‘The Witch Doctor’!) but take it easy – they are all incredibly potent!
Music: Join me in a wee dance about to ‘The How Do You Voodoo Playlist’ which contains such classics as ‘Black Magic Woman’, ‘I Put A Spell On You’, ‘Devil Woman’, ‘I’m Your Witch Doctor’, ‘Evil Ways’ and ‘That Old Devil Called Love’. Well, a party’s not complete without some magical music, is it?
    Drinks: Grab a drink from the Voodoo Cocktail Bar:The Voodoo: Dark Rum (to ward off dark spirits), Apricot liqueur, Blue Curacao, Tropical Fruit Juice, Grenadine. Serve tall over ice.
The High Priestess: New Orleans Vodka, Mango Juice, Anisette Liqueur. Serve with ice and mint leaves (to ward off evil spirits). The Witch Doctor: (Recipe courtesy of the Voodoo Lounge in Las Vegas) Light Rum, Dark Rum, Peach Schnapps, Cruzan Raspberry Rum. Pineapple Juice. Grenadine. Sour Mix. Stir and serve over ice.   The Spellbinding Party PeepsCarol E WyerNicky WellsMelanie Robertson-KingKit DominoSue FortinLinn B HaltonSheryl BrowneRosemary GemmellKim NashAndrea BuginskyJean BullJenny HarperCarol WrightJennifer JoyceSuzy TurnerJude RoustLindsay HealyAli Bacon


Hikma
Caroline JamesMore Than a ReviewAviva OrrAbbey LiddleRobin MurphyLada RayAlison MortonStephanie KeyesPauline BarclayGina DickersonNatalie WrightLizzie Lamb (RNA Page)Lynda DunwellDavid LoudenRhonda BaxterMary SmithEmily HarvaleDebdatta Dasgupta SahaySue WatsonAnne StenhouseGrahamSharon BoothGwen KirkwoodLinda DicksonJanet BeasleySusan BreeceCecilia RobertKate JacksonFishduckyMyra DuffyGill StewartJoanna LambertDeborah PalumboSarah TaylorFrancine Howarth Lawrence Boarer Pitchford
 CarolineJames

Louise Graham
  
So please do have a voodoo drink, have a wee voodoo dance, visit as many blogs as you can over the day and make your presence known to all the spellbindingly fun party peeps. Pop onto Twitter and use the hastag #voodoo to get together with other voodoo tweeps. Do send and RT tweets in your timeline with the hashtag  #voodoo to be entered into the draw for the Voodoo Bewitching Dolls.
If you are curious about the research I did for this novella at Glasgow’s ‘City of the Dead’, I’m talking about it over at The Romantic Novelist’s Blog today while over at the wonderful magazine style blog Loveahappyending.com there is a special promotional voodoo post that you might want to tweet and share.Lastly, don’t forget to download your FREE copy of How Do You Voodoo? today and spread the word to your friends and followers.It’s FREE for TODAY ONLY!Get How Do You Voodoo?on Amazon UK and Amazon US Other Amazon sites are included!Oh - and please leave a comment here on my blog – I’d love to know if you’ve enjoyed the whole voodoo party thing and, if you do read and enjoy ‘How Do You Voodoo?’ I’d also love you to consider leaving a favourable review on Amazon. Thank you for all your support. Love, Janice xx   

It’s only one more week...!

   
It’s only one more week to The Spellbindingly Fun Blog Party – hurray!
Lots of you are now signing up for the party but it’s not too late to do so right up to the day itself as I’ll be adding to the list of spellbindingly fun party peeps all this week. See the guest list at the end of this post to see who has signed up so far!
Next Friday, 26th October, I’ll have added the hyperlinks to all the names below so that with one magic click we can all pop over to the blogs taking part to see what Spellbinding Spells have been cooked up! Every participant will be in the draw for a fabulous prize and there will be Twitter prizes for RT's & MT's too. Hashtag #voodoo
This is how it works:
You make up whatever spell you want to – but fun ones only – no curses allowed.
Choose your ingredients – as many or as few as you like - from the Magic Ingredient List below.
If you want to add a spellbinding verse or show a picture of your object of desire that’s great too!
Post or schedule your spellbindingly fun spell to YOUR blog next Friday 26th October.
But please let me know you are taking part by signing up on the form so that I can add YOUR name and YOUR blog link here at Spellbindingly Fun Blog Party HQ.
 Sign Up Here
There will be fun and there will be prizes!!    You can also follow the party on Twitter using hashtag: #voodoo Spellbindingly Fun Party Peeps Carol E WyerNicky WellsMelanie Robertson-KingKit DominoPatti DelValleSue FortinLinn B HaltonSheryl BrowneRosemary GemmellAndrea BuginskyJean BullJenny HarperCarol WrightJennifer JoyceLouise Grahamsuzy turnerHikmaJudeLindsay HealyAli BaconCaroline JamesMore Than a ReviewAviva OrrAbbey LiddleRobin MurphyKim NashLada RayAlison MortonStephanie KeyesPauline BarclayLucinda FountainGina DickersonNatalie WrightDarlene JonesLizzie LambLynda DunwellDavid LoudenJan BrigdenRhoda BaxterMary SmithRichard HolmesEmily HarvaleSue WatsonAnne Stenhouse GrahamLauren HowellLiz HarrisSharon BoothGwen KirkwoodLinda DicksonJanet BeasleySusan Breece

Eliza Green


Henriette Wulff Gyland
 
Debdatta Dasgupta Sahay  Party On!
 

Exciting Times...!

It’s been an exciting couple of weeks - with so many fabulous author friends launching books and hosting parties - some with debut novels and others adding to their repertoire!I’ve been busy preparing for The Spellbindingly Fun Blog Party which is taking place here in two weeks’ time – it’s not too early for you to sign up – in fact, it will give you time to collect your spellbinding ingredients and think up that spell you want to cast. No curses though – only spellbinding fun allowed!

To find out more CLICK HERE  While preparing for the launch of How Do You Voodoo?I’ve been sending out ARC’s (advance reading copies) to those who expressed an interest in reading and reviewing before launch day. I must admit to feeling a wee bit nervous as those copies went out to readers and book bloggers. Novella length fiction is new for me and writing in only one viewpoint (the heroine’s) is new too, as I usually use several viewpoints in my longer length fiction to tell the story. So you can imagine my delight when reviews popped up on book blogs and on Amazon this week. You can find out more about How Do You Voodoo? and read some of those reviews here: 
Lovereadinglovebooks Morethanareview.com Jontybabe Book Reviews Amazon.co.uk
I’ve also been writing up lots of launch week guest posts and answering lots of questions about being an author, about research and about the writing, and what I love about being an Indie – the pros and the cons. Well, I’ve answered that particular question more fully on Victoria Connelly’s blog , where next Thursday 18th October, I’m a guest as part of her fabulous ‘Indie Month’ feature. There are some cons of course but there are mostly pros – and especially over these past couple of weeks - being an Indie author is proving to be a very exciting career indeed. Please check out and 'like' my Author Facebook Page for midweek news features and links.
So what are your plans over the next couple of weeks? Will you be atending the Spellbindingly Fun Blog Party perhaps and casting your own spell…?Love, Janice x

 

Author Showcase – Carol E. Wyer

Carol E. Wyer is an award winning author whose humorous novels take a light-hearted look at getting older and encourage others to age disgracefully. Her best-selling debut novel 'Mini Skirts and Laughter Lines' won five awards including Readers Views Reviewers Choice 2012 Award (category - humour) and was selected as a finalist for both the Next Generation Indie Book Awards and the Indie Excellence Awards 2012.
'Surfing in Stilettos' which follows the further adventures of Amanda Wilson as she attempts to inject some fun into her life, is a Costa Award nominee. Carol recently signed a two book deal with ThornBerry Publishing. She is a fellow featured author at loveahappyending.com.   
Janice, thank you very much indeed for letting me monopolise your blog today. I am sorry that I had to bring Hubby along, but as you can see, he has made a valiant effort and worn a tartan kilt, although I’m not sure which clan that is supposed to represent. I’ll just sit him down with a copy of the FT and an iPod to keep him occupied.
I am super excited about the eBook launch of Surfing in Stilettos today. It is a momentous occasion for me and I am so grateful and delighted that ThornBerry Publishing have welcomed me to their team. I feel like I have reached an important milestone in my journey to become a recognised author. I have been very fortunate to be interviewed now quite a few times and I am starting to wonder what else I can possibly tell you about me that would be interesting and entertaining. Throughout my blogging life I have worn my heart on my sleeve and shared every funny instance I can think of from my false teeth falling out into my school lunch in front of my latest boyfriend, to getting Hubby deliberately stopped by security when we went away recently so I could smuggle my iPad away and stay on-line even though I was supposed to be resting my eyes. (He can’t hear me through those headphones can he?)
I have always managed to look at life, not through rose-coloured glasses, but probably multi-coloured spotted ones that squirt water at people. I’m not quite sure how I got my sense of humour but I know that every day I ensure that I smile at something. Life is a serious business; ask Hubby, so I think it’s vital to inject some humour or light-heartedness into it as often as possible. Music is great for lifting the spirits so I always put on Smooth Seventies at some point and sing along to one of those old classics. I always have an emergency supply of old classic comedies too and I make it my mission to find a joke a day. Luckily, the internet is full of little gems. Yesterday I found myself chuckling at this one which reviewer Cathy Speight shared: “My mate just hired an Eastern European cleaner, took her 15 hours to hoover the house. Turns out she was a Slovak.”
My mother and father shared a good sense of humour and were always up to mischief. My mother is still getting up to it, even though she is almost eighty now. She, like Amanda’s mother in my novels, is partying her twilight years away in Cyprus, although I don’t think she has tried pole dancing. Well, not to my knowledge. I love the sound of laughter and I truly believe that laughter is a medicine. I lived next door to someone who taught laughter courses. I attended one once. We had to laugh at each other. It was lunacy, or so I thought; but before long we were convulsed with laughter at the stupidity of what we were doing. Believe it or not, even if you have to force yourself to laugh to start with, you will genuinely end up laughing properly. And, you’ll feel great afterwards.
My novels always have a lot of humour in them and Surfing in Stilettos is no exception. I have three more novels planned and have started work on two of them. My master plan is eventually to be recognised as a humorous writer. I am very proud of Surfing in Stilettos. It is already nominated for some awards including a Costa so I have hopes for it. Thanks to ThornBerry Publishing it is available today from Amazon.
If I might I’d like to put in a plug for my big launch party at my blog today where there are some fabulous prizes and gifts to be won, along with some secrets about the novel. Please drop by and say hello later. Thank you again Janice. I’ll drag Hubby away with me now to continue with his chauffeuring duties. He still has lots of driving to do today!  Carol’s Links: Amazon UK Author Page Amazon US Author Page Website loveahappyending.com Thornberry Publishing Blog Facebook Twitter And: As as a necessary part of Carol's fabulous Surfing in Stilettos Blog party today I'd like to display my own very favourite heels!And yes, those are my legs and the tattoo is real too!     

Author Showcase - Nicky Wells

Nicky Wells writes fun and glamorous contemporary romance featuring a rock star and the girl next door.  She recently signed her work with U.S. publisher, Sapphire Star Publishing.  Nicky loves rock music, dancing, and eating lobsters.  When she’s not writing, Nicky is a wife, mother, and occasional teaching assistant. Originally born in Germany, Nicky moved to the United Kingdom in 1993, and currently lives in Lincoln with her husband and their two boys.  In a previous professional life, Nicky worked as a researcher and project manager for an international Human Resources research firm based in London and Washington, D.C.  Take it away Nicky!  It’s an honour and a pleasure to visit Janice’s fabulous and Scottish blog as part of my launch tour for my rock star romance, Sophie’s Turn. I’m bringing you a piece today that was inspired by a feature Janice wrote as part of her launch for Reaching for the Stars. I remember reading it and thinking ‘wow, I wish’. You see, Janice wrote a fabulous piece about her love for shoes, from wellies to heels and back. Now, wellies I can do. Heels, I cannot - and neither it seems can the heroine of my novel, Sophie’s Turn!
 This is Sophie at her engagement party to Tim, having just discovered that Rachel has been telling Tim all manner of home truths about the delectable Dan Hunter, rock star extraordinaire and Sophie’s not-quite-but-would-like-to-be boyfriend.  ‘I blundered back downstairs, racing quite unladylike in my high heels, and skidded to a halt in the lounge.’ When I was writing this scene, I was imagining Sophie clattering over polished wooden floors in her stiletto heels, ankles wobbling wildly, arms flailing, breathless, slightly red in the face, and quite unsteady. And that would be me. See, sadly, I don’t do high heels. The first time I ever wore a pair was age thirteen, with my confirmation outfit. I was tall for my age, and I was wearing a long flouncy, formal skirt. Well, yes, it was the 1980s! Anyway, said outfit required high heels, I was informed by the women in my family, and so a pair of shiny black patent stilettos was duly acquired for me. Nobody paused to check whether I could walk in them. I couldn’t. I reckon Sophie’s racing-and-skidding experience is partly influenced by my experience of trying to walk regally on that slippery flag-stoned church floor. It was like an ice-rink, and I had to concentrate so hard on keeping my balance that parts of the ceremony just passed me by. And the walk from the church to the restaurant… let’s not talk about that. Of course I have been known to wear high heels of some description in my lifetime. Bless the resurgence of the block heel in the 1990s, which meant that I could wear a decent height of heel with my wedding dress! But when stylish women like Janice, or the one-and-only Carrie Bradshaw reveal glimpses into their well-heeled lifestyles - I can only hang my head in shame. Sisters, I am failing on the heel-front. But at least I’ve saved myself from broken ankles. And Sophie…? Well, she’ll have to wear heels on a few occasions. She’s not always as clumsy as me. And the beauty of a fictional life is that I get to make her better. She’ll learn to walk tall and graciously, and maybe… just maybe… one day, I’ll give her a shoe cupboard just like Janice’s. Or Carrie’s!     Visit Nicky on her blog where you can find articles, interviews, radio interviews and, of course, an update on her work in progress, the second and third parts of the Rock Star Romance Trilogy.  You can also follow Nicky on Twitter and find her on Facebook.  Nicky is a featured author on the innovative reader/author project, loveahappyending.com and has joined the Romantic Novelists’ Association. Nicky also has author pages at Sapphire Star Publishingand, of course, Goodreads.  

Author Showcase - Melanie Robertson King

This is a very special week, as my lovely author friend Melanie Robertson King is here to tell us about her Scottish time slip novel, A Shadow in the Past. Last week, Melanie was at the Kansas Book Festival launching the book. I asked her to pop over from her home in Ontario Canada to tell us why, when she could have set her novel anywhere at all, she particularly chose Scotland?  I have very close ties to Scotland since it was my father’s birthplace and home until he left for Canada at the age of sixteen in 1930. Before he passed away, he had instilled a pride in me for my heritage that although I probably didn’t appreciate it at the time, I certainly did later on.  My novel, A Shadow in the Past, is set in Aberdeenshire. I chose that location because that’s where my father was born and I’d visited often and have made some great friends over the years.
As you know, Janice, I love Scotland and all things Scottish, and that’s how you and I met “virtually” last year.   [image error]    Okay, I’ve digressed long enough. Back to why I set my novel in Scotland when I could have set it elsewhere. From the first time I visited your beautiful country back in 1993, I was enchanted by it. Those first steps out of the airport terminal in Glasgow, were a life-changing event. It was my first time flying and I came by myself.  I’d never seen anything so green and lush. Rolling hills, some shrouded in fog, autumn leaves (maybe not as vivid as here in Canada), and just magnificent things I would never have seen anyplace else. Castles on cliffs alongside the road, narrow roads with passing places (love them!), and whisky distilleries (passed a few on the bus from Glasgow to Aberdeen where I rented my car at the airport there). The Internet didn’t exist back then (or if it did, we didn’t have it yet) so I wrote to the various Scottish Tourist boards for brochures. It was like Christmas when one arrived! The one from Aberdeen/Aberdeenshire showed me so much about the area, and although I didn’t have the time to discover everything on that first trip, those places were tucked away for future trips. Whilst searching the accommodations brochure, I discovered a B&B in the parish mentioned on my father’s birth certificate, so I wrote to them right away requesting information.  While I stayed there, I met more family for the first time and was taken out on tour to where my father and his siblings had lived, and seen the family headstone in the Old Churchyard. I saw and fell in love with a nearby derelict mansion and the stone circles and standing stones in the area. Even back then, the wheels started turning although putting pen to paper (so to speak) didn’t happen until six or seven years later – and by then, I had been back to Scotland two more times (1997 and 1999) and on the second trip, met The Princess Royal at Quarriers Village (which used to be The Orphan Homes of Scotland where my father was raised).
One of the memories that remains vivid in my mind was when I approached Dunnideer Castle (visible for miles), the hill started out on one side of the road and I was convinced it would be on my left when I got close to it, but the road twisted and turned so much between the time that I first saw it and finally drove past it that it was on my right!     When a contemporary teen is transported back through time to the Victorian era, she becomes A Shadow in the Past…  When nineteen year old Sarah Shand finds herself in Victorian Era Aberdeenshire, Scotland, she has no idea how she got there. Her last memory is of being at the stone circle on the family farm in the year 2010.
Despite having difficulty coming to terms with her situation, Sarah quickly learns she must keep her true identity a secret. Still, she feels stifled by the Victorians’ confining social practices, including arranged marriages between wealthy and influential families, confronts them head on and suffers the consequences.
When Sarah realizes she has fallen in love with the handsome Laird of Weetshill, she faces an agonizing decision. Does she try to find her way back to 2010 or remain in the past with the man she loves?   A Shadow in the Past is Melanie Robertson-King’s debut novel.
Prior to turning her hand to fiction, she wrote articles and has been published in Canada, the US and the UK. In addition to writing, her interests include genealogy, photography and travel. On one of her trips to Scotland, she had the honor of meeting The Princess Royal. Melanie is a member of Romance Writers of America and their Ottawa Chapter. She lives in Brockville, Ontario, Canada along the shore of the majestic St. Lawrence River with her husband, son and oldest grandson.   Find out more about Melanie: Author Website Facebook Page
Twitter  Where to buy A Shadow in the Past 4RV Publishing Amazon.com Amazon.co.uk  My BIG news is that How Do You Voodoo? is now available to download from Amazon for your Kindle priced at just 77p or 99cLots of party peeps are signing up for the Spellbindingly Fun Blog party on Friday 26th October. You are invited!Details HERE. Away or working that day?That’s okay – just post and schedule - and still be there virtually. Party On! 

Champagne popping moments!

There were lots of Champagne popping moments this week! Firstly, when I completed the final revisions for How Do You Voodoo? This romantic and magical novella set in Glasgow's Necropolis or 'City of the Dead' is now with my lovely Editor for a copy edit. Yay! The next step is for the fully edited manuscript to be formatted and converted for Kindle and uploaded onto Amazon. Then it will be ready for readers to download. Double yay!! 
Would YOU like to receive an advanced reading copy (ARC) of How Do You Voodoo? with a view to you putting up a personal review on  Amazon on or around launch day, which is Friday 26th October?If so, then email me at janice.horton@btinternet.com and I’ll send you a complimentary pcr (Kindle) copy as soon as I have it. Thanks! Which brings me onto the subject of the launch party! You will see from last week’s post that I’m already planning The Spellbindingly Fun Blog Party , which now has its own designated party page here on my blog. There is a sign up box at the bottom of that page so do consider signing up. I promise lots of fun and prizes and gifts! 

The second Champagne popping moment this week was to celebrate the launch of the brand new Loveahappyending Bookshelf. This is now an important part of the innovative reader/writer magazine style website that supports a group of handpicked authors both Indie and Traditionally published. The initiative now includes a selection of Publishers too. I am very proud and honoured to be amongst the first to join this new and exciting Bookshelf feature and you can check it out by clicking on the Loveahappyending Bookshelf picture logo.
    My other news is that I have now completed the new tartantastic revamp of this blog and my Author Facebook Page. I’d love to know what you think of it all. I’d also love you to pop over and take a look and ‘like’ my Author Facebook Page if you haven’t yet done so. It’s got a new tartantastic banner that’s different from the one here on my blog and I update the page several times a week with all that’s going on in my writerly world.  I’ve also carried this tartan theme over to my ‘other’ job as Feature Editor of ‘Bookshelf Reviews’ which I’m starting up in October for loveahappyending.com.    Don’t forget to sign up for the Spellbindingly Fun Blog Party and come back next week for more tartantastic news!

Party Planning!

It is still several weeks away from Friday 26th October - the official launch day of my Halloween Special Novella – How Do You Voodoo? but I’m already planning The Spellbindingly Fun Blog Party!  Launching on Friday 26th October!
 The Spellbindingly Fun Blog Party works like this: I invite you to join The Spellbindingly Fun Blog Party by asking you to sign up on the form below.
All you need to do is: Fill in the Join The Party form to let me know you are participating. Think about what sort of spell you’d like to cast? A Day Off Work Spell? A Love Spell? A More Chocolate Spell? Lots of New Shoes Spell? A Less Stressful Life Spell? Whatever – it’s up to you!  AS LONG AS IT’S SPELLBINDINGLY FUN – NO CURSES ALLOWED!
 
 Then: have a readthrough all the spellbindingly fun ingredients listed on the magic scroll below and choose the ones you need to make your spellbinding recipe. Use as many as you want or need.Make up a spell-like verse. Example (for a love spell) ‘I call to the powers below and above, North, East, South, West. In the name of love.’ Only be as elaborate and inventive as you like!On Friday 26th October YOU post on YOUR OWN BLOG your Spellbindingly Fun Spell – include your ‘magic recipe’ and your ‘spellbinding verse’ and even, if you want to, a photo or picture of the object of your desire, and then everyone  participating in the Spellbindingly Fun Blog Party can pop over to your blog to see what it is!That's because...On Friday 26th October I will post my own Spellbindingly Fun Spell here on my blog together with a full list of all the blog links of those participating – that’s why you need to sign up – so c’mon – why wait – get signed up now!!  I promise you spellbindingly good fun and prizes!   Next week I’ll be telling you lots more about my romantic and magical novella How Do You Voodoo? Janice xx  Loading...