Ros Clarke's Blog, page 5

Occupational Hazard

The box set went live on Monday and we are already in the top 100 on Amazon and Barnes & Noble. YAY! Thanks so much if you’ve bought it. It’s really exciting to see it climbing up the charts.

There are a number of different reasons for doing a box set like this. For me, by far, the biggest motivation is the potential for finding new readers. We’ve sold several thousand copies already and that means several thousand people who now have a copy of one of my books on their ereader. Most of those have probably never read one of my books before. Even if it takes them a while to work through the set to get to mine (and even if not all of them ever do) that’s still a win, I think. By the end of the two months that the set will be on sale, I hope those numbers will be even higher.

Second, we’re doing a promotional giveaway alongside the box set, which includes accumulation of FB likes, mailing list sign ups and so on. I know that many of those will drop away after the giveaway, but I’m hoping that it will result in a small permanent bump to my followers. My mailing list is still very tiny – in double figures – so even a handful of new readers would make a difference there. The cross-pollination of promo between ten authors is something I guess we’ll all benefit from.

Third, I think it’s going to make some actual money. We all put in some money towards the cost of formatting, cover art and promo. And of course at 99c, with royalties split ten ways, each copy sold doesn’t make much. But I think we’ve pretty much covered the initial outlay already (that’s just my back of the envelope calculations, so it could be a bit wrong), so everything else is profit. Given that Flirting With The Camera’s sales had slowed to a tiny trickle, I’m reasonably optimistic that it’s going to net me more income in the next two months in the box set than it was making on its own. It’ll need to sell about 70 times more copies for that to work out. I think it’s easily going to make that.

Fourth, there’s the likelihood of hitting a bestseller list. I am somewhat ambivalent about this, though I know that for other authors in the set, this is the main goal. I am not convinced that hitting a bestseller list in a box set with a carefully orchestrated campaign deserves quite the same status as doing so with a single title. I think it’s totally legit for people to use the bestseller designation if they want to, but I’m not sure how much that’s really worth. Anyway, it will be fun if it happens, but that’s not my main goal.

So there we go. I’m in a box set, and I’m okay with that. And if you’re interested in buying it, all the links are in the sidebar. Thanks!

The last night of the cruise

I am a terrible travel blogger. No photos and there aren’t going to be any more blog posts, sorry. I adored the cruise but in order to enjoy the moment to its maximum, I refused to spend my time documenting it.

However, I did want to remember the last night. After dinner we got changed and went up to the hot tub on deck 11 to watch the sunset over the Atlantic. It was a perfect, glorious hour of beauty and tranquility. As I was watching the sky change through its fiery spectrum, I kept thinking of Gerard Manley Hopkins: “Glory be to God for dappled things, for skies of couple-colour…” and also “gash gold-vermilion”, but mostly this, which is the only poem I know, more or less, by heart:

The world is charged with the grandeur of God.

It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;

It gathers to a greatness like the ooze of oil

Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod?

Generations have trod, have trod, have trod.

And all is seared with trade, bleared, smeared with toil

And wears man’s smudge and shares man’s smell: the soil

Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.

And for all this nature is never spent;

there lives the dearest freshness deep down things;

And though the last lights off the black west went

Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward springs –

Because the holy ghost over the bent

World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.

Occupational Hazard

All work and no play? No way! These TEN books by New York Times, USA Today, and National Bestselling authors show how hot workplace romances can be. And the best part? It’s just $0.99! Don’t wait…it’s only available for a limited time, and then it’ll be back to business as usual.

Retail value of the individual books is over $25.00! It includes:



My Secretary, My Mistress – Eve Langlais

Can a boss let go of his inhibitions and let his secretary take charge of him in the bedroom?



Yours to Take – Cathryn Fox

Revenge takes on a sexy twist when a powerhouse lawyer is stripped of her control by the handsome multi-millionaire she once took down in the courtroom.



Against Company Policy – Mandy Harbin

Cassie Tucker and Ian Cope know they should keep things professional on their new assignment, but when desire is faced with physical boundaries and company policy, it’s time to get a little creative…and a little kinky.



White Collar Cowboy – Parker Kincade

Lauren Delgado has had a crush on Gavin Mathis for years, but has a strict “hand-off” policy with the men she works with. When her life takes an unexpected turn, there’s nothing to stop her from accepting Gavin’s invitation to his vacation home on Galveston Island … where she learns the policy is definitely hands-on.

Seducing Chase – Cassandra Carr

When a doctor disappears with millions, can Val and Nate set aside their explosive attraction and save the hospital?

First Kiss – Ann Mayburn

Ryan will never forgot that night in high school when he kissed Emma and lost his heart to her forever. Years later he finds Emma again, but now she’s a pro-Domme that refuses to fall in love. Ryan begins a campaign to win her reluctant heart, one night at a time.



Flirting with the Camera – Ros Clarke

Brilliant, beautiful and bigger than your average plus-size model, Hattie Bell can do anything she sets her mind to. After all, she’s just landed her dream job, modelling for top photographer, Tom Metcalfe. So her next goal should be a piece of cake: getting Tom to break his strict rule against workplace romances…

No Restraints – Lilly Cain

Bad girl Selene Carter will do anything to save her business, even team up with the cop who stole her heart. But can Detective Tom Barker help when he knows she’s no innocent?

Pleasing Sir – Delilah Devlin

Raelie might be a submissive in search of just the right Dom, but she’s not the kind to sit back and wait for the right man to happen. When she gets the chance to fill in as Bryce Caldwell’s executive assistant, she decides some subtle seduction is needed to see if he dominates the bedroom the same way he does the office.

Shadowboxer – Cari Quinn

She’s in for the fight of her life…with the man who only wants to be her lover.

See more details and pre-order at Amazon US | Amazon UK | B&N | iTunes | Kobo

Holiday snaps (iii): Queen Mary 2

This is what was waiting for us in our Princess Grill Cabin:

This was the view from our cabin on the grey, drizzly Friday when we left New York:That is the Statue of Liberty in the gloomy distance. Her torch was still shining, though.

And, um, that is the last photo I took. Sorry. Here’s some postcards I bought:

The captain informed us that we cleared this bridge with about 2m to spare. That is not very much at all!We didn’t get to sail round the statue as in the top postcard, because we were delayed leaving and the weather was so bad.

This is my haul from the ship:

10th Anniversary book of the QM2. Personalised stationery. Cunard chocolates. Cunard slippers. I also have a Cunard pen somewhere.

So, um, you’ll have to imagine the rest. There was a lot of sea. It was very beautiful. I will blog about what it was like on the ship but the tl;dr version is: AMAZING.

Holiday snaps (ii): USA

Birthday present from lovely friends I stayed with in DC:

We went to the Smithsonian to see the exhibition of First Ladies’ Dresses which was very fun. We also saw a vast dolls’ house, Judy Garland’s ruby slippers from the Wizard of Oz, and Miss Piggy:

I have no photos from my time in Philly because I wasn’t really being a tourist there.

In NYC, we went to the Fashion District:

And mostly we went to Mood where they sell zips:

…and buttons…

…and trimmings…

…and fabrics:

I made some purchases:

I did not take any photos when we went to see the Lion King because there were a lot of people telling us all the time that we weren’t allowed to. It did not stop many people, however. I really think that if Disney don’t want people taking pictures of the safety curtain, the easiest thing would be to use a plain safety curtain. Nor did I take pictures of the Charles James exhibition at the Met, because again it wasn’t allowed. Nor have I taken photos of all my other purchases because I’m assuming you know what jeans, plasters and plain pashminas look like. And the glorious necklace I bought was pictured in a previous post.

Holiday snaps (i): Iceland

I am hopeless at taking photos. I never remember to do it, I get things out of focus and out of shot, and I much prefer just to enjoy the moment without recording it. However, I have taken some photos of some things in the last three weeks. Probably not the things you were interested in seeing, but they are the things I was interested in remembering. So here they are, more or less in order, with occasional commentary.

Yarn I bought in Iceland:



This is actually Danish yarn. DK weight. Very pretty colours.

Icelandic Plotulopi.

Close up of the Plotulopi. It’s unspun yarn, so it is incredibly light and airy and warm. When it’s knitted up it felts a little bit, making it into a secure fabric. The yarn itself breaks easily and has to be handled carefully. It’s not soft yarn, so I’m thinking of making a jacket kind of thing to be warn as a warm outer layer.

Other pictures from Iceland:

Knitted onesies. Of course.

Useless picture of Strokkur, the geyser which is currently most active. A good photographer would have held the camera the other way round, obviously.

Icelandic hill with snow.

Icelandic lava field with moss.

Ditto.

Other things I bought in Iceland:

Photo book of Iceland’s colours and patterns. I love this so much. Each photo has a palette of colours and there’s a reference list of colours at the back.

Also (not pictured): plastic Viking helmet for my nephew.

Days 3-10: in which I visit friends and make a purchase (or two)

I spent my last morning in Iceland in the city of Reykjavik. I tracked down the Handknitting Association of Iceland where I purchased 650g of Plotulopi which is an unspun Icelandic yarn. It’s very light and fragile, because it isn’t spun, just pulled out into lengths. I bought three cakes of ivory and one each of bright pink, turquoise and yellow. I think it should be enough for a winter jacket or cardigan. I also bought a little bit of fleece to see if it will spin, though the lady said she thought it would be better for felting. I had tea and the most delicious apple and chocolate cake at the perfect tea rooms, furnished with Victorian sofas, needlepoint cushions and crocheted doilies, with Oscar Wilde plays scattered around the place. For lunch I went to the Laundromat Cafe where I envied the colour-coded bookshelves and was amused to find the Mills and Boon section.

Flight to Dulles was uneventful but passport control at the airport took forever. I did possibly the naughtiest thing I’ve ever done and disobeyed the instruction to join a very long queue when there was a very short queue at the next booth. I had a lovely couple of days with my friends in DC. We went to see the exhibition of First Ladies dresses at the Smithsonian which was fun and also saw the most incredible dolls’ house. Then we walked up to the Library of Congress where I mostly looked at the ceilings which are amazing.

After DC, I had five lovely days with old friends in Philly, before heading up to NYC yesterday. I wanted to go to Mood Fabrics and Karyn (who is coming on the cruise with me) wanted to go to Muji. I bought a ton of fabrics in Mood, where Karyn bought a little bit.

These are all mine. Two lots of fine knit jersey for summer cardigans (I couldn’t choose between the two colourways), some cotton voile for a blouse, and some absolutely beautiful pink floral silk for a summer dress.

After that we went to Muji where I bought a couple of bits and Karyn bought lots. I especially loved their stamp station near the exit where you could personalise the notebooks and things you’d bought. Here are mine:

Today we went to the Met, mostly to see the Charles James: Beyond Fashion exhibition. I admit, I had never heard of Charles James but I’m always happy to see a display of beautiful dresses. As it was, we were both really blown away by the exhibition. We went to the basement rooms first, where they showed coats, evening gowns, suits and even a dressing gown. There was also a display of documents, photos, muslins and dress forms. I adored his list of ‘Clients I Would Have Liked To Dress’ with his notes on why: “Audrey Hepburn: a wisp of iron; Greta Garbo: Need I say more?” but also Mick Jagger, David Bowie (androgynous beauty), Princess Margaret (born a fairy princess but sadness later in life), Lana Turner (underrated actress) and many more.

But, oh, the garments. The construction. The tailoring. And – most of all – the incredible presentation in the exhibition. The garments were displayed in a way that allowed you to see all around them and then there were electronic displays which showed the 3D construction of the garments. Each seam line was so carefully and beautifully placed to highlight the woman’s figure. One quote said that James spent up to 12 hours on a single seam to get it perfectly placed. The displays showed some of the historical garments which inspired the shapes and forms he used as well as giving close ups of the fabrics, the underlinings and linings and other shaping techniques. In the ground floor gallery, which focussed on his dramatic ballgowns, the dresses were scanned to give a 3D rendering which could be turned and zoomed in on, to show the detailing of the seams. They also had X-ray images of different parts of the gown, showing the multiple layers of net, pellon, horsehair braid, boning and fashion fabric. These aren’t just dresses, they are wearable sculptures. I don’t remember ever seeing such a well-displayed exhibition with information that enhanced the experience so much. You didn’t just get to look at beautiful garments, you got an education in design, tailoring and draping. Whoever put it all together deserves all the awards going. If you’re in NYC before August, you really should go and see it.

(c) Metropolitan Museum

So, they have a shop at the Met. Which sells, among other things, postcards of Charles James dresses (check), books for small children (check), gifts for mothers (check), beautiful necklaces for Ros (check):

And now President Obama is in NYC, they are closing streets and the place is even more chaotic than usual so we are going to have to walk to the theatre tonight. We’re seeing The Lion King.

Day two: in which I visited a Thing

I booked a coach tour, with some trepidation, since coach tours aren’t really my favourite thing. But since I’m here for such a short time, it did seem like the most sensible way of doing quite a lot. In retrospect, I wish I’d arranged my time slightly differently so that I could do something else tomorrow, but I will explain that later. As it was, I went on this tour of the Golden Circle which included a stop at the Fontana geothermal spa. It was a long trip, from 8.30am to 6pm but the bus company picks you up and drops you off at your hotel, so it is very easy.

In that time, we made five stops and the actual journeys were 20-40 minutes each, so we never had long hours of sitting on the coach looking at boring roads. And, in fact, the landscape here is so extraordinary that it was never boring anyway. The guide told us when we were looking at interesting things and included various general background details about Iceland, but very sensibly did not feel obliged to fill every moment with commentary. We were outside more than we were on the coach and apart from the very last bit, we were free to do whatever we wanted during the coach stops, so that was good.

The first stop was at a ‘farm’. When I say ‘farm’, I mean ‘very expensive coffee shop and gift shop with a few Icelandic ponies in pens outside’. The ponies were lovely, however, and the guide had bread for us to feed them with (I was surprised by this – is this a normal thing to feed horses? Maybe in Iceland it is.) The ponies come in all different colours – dark bay, bright chestnut, grey, palomino, and more – with long flowing manes and tails. They still have their winter coats. Apparently you’re not supposed to ride them in winter, because that makes them lose their winter coats and then they freeze. Farms in Iceland raise horses (for meat as well as riding) or sheep (for wool and meat). There is some agriculture – small amounts of wheat and barley, and some horticulture – we saw several greenhouses and polytunnels. Farmers are also subsidised to plant trees. Mostly conifers but we also saw a lot of birch. So although they’ll tell you there are no trees in Iceland, there are actually quite a lot, at least in this area.

Next stop, Gulfoss. ‘Foss’ means waterfall and this one is pretty spectacular. I am not good with heights so I did not go out on the walkway over the river and stayed safely on the alternative path well away from the edge. There was one guy on our bus in a wheelchair and I was very impressed by how easily accessible everywhere we went was. All the paths were wide and smooth to make even the rocky lava terrain suitable for wheels.

Third stop, Geysir. This was my favourite. I could have stayed all day watching the pools of bubbling water and the shooting spurts of steaming water from the one active geysir. The big Geysir (after which all the others are named) is currently inactive, but there is a smaller one which shoots up to 20-30m high every few minutes. You can feel the streams of water several metres away from the geysirs and it is still warmish, even on a freezing cold day. But in the pools it is boiling and there are warning signs all over the place telling you it is 80-100 degrees (celsius). There was one little one which looked just like a boiling cauldron. In Stokkur you can watch the water cycle through between eruptions. It begins to roil and surge, then it burps out little spurts, and then it blows up. Afterwards, you can clearly see the central pipe and all the water falling back in from the surrounding area to fill it until it’s level again. Two small bursts and then one big one. The sulphur in the air smells so revolting that it must be doing you good.

I had lunch at the cafe at Geysir: smoked lamb on flatbreads. Very delicious.

Fourth stop, Fontana spa. Okay, this was my favourite. First we dug up the bread which had been put in the ground yesterday to cook for us. Only about a foot deep and you could see the hole filling with boiling water. The pan was taken out and cooled in the water of the lake – at the shore, the water was luke warm, though the brave souls who went out to swim in it said it got very cold very quickly as you went out. The pan held rye bread. This is bread under the definition of ‘something you spread butter on’. It’s not yeasted and it’s quite sweet. It tastes almost spicy, though that’s just the rye. It was very delicious. Then we got to use the spa for a couple of hours. There were steam rooms and saunas but mostly I just sat in the hot pools and swam a little bit in the bigger, cooler pool. And sat under the waterfall. And looked out over the lake while sitting in the hot pool again. It was blissful. Particularly once the loud, officious woman who was trying to organise us all had left. I am glad I am not in her family. And I am glad her family was not on our coach. One of the things that was lovely was that, because it is still very early in the season here, our coach was half empty, so there were only about 20 of us in the spa. 20 people divided between 4 pools, 3 steam rooms, a sauna, a lake and a cafe is not very many. Blissful.

To be honest, I would have happily come back to the hotel after the spa. I was in that lovely, relaxed, sleepy state. But we had one more thing to visit. Sorry, Thing. We went to Thingvellir, the traditional home of Iceland’s parliament and the place where the Eurasian and American tectonic plates meet. Or don’t meet. Or something. The geology is not completely clear to me. It is pretty spectacular, but not ideal for people who are scared of heights. We got out of the bus and walked across to the cliff face. And then climbed up it. On a path. It was fine until we got near the top and the guide pointed out that because the tectonic plates are moving apart, sometimes the rocks crack. Over the crack there was a wooden bridge.

It was a millenium bridge moment. Especially when the guide kept stopping and telling us to look over the side to see how deep it went. I did not look. I kept my eyes firmly facing forward towards the solid ground and made my feet keep moving.

Anyway, that is my second Thing. They found one in Dingwall car park a couple of years ago and I’ve been there too. I think, on balance, Thingvellir has the edge.

Tomorrow’s plan: shopping and lunch in Reykjavik, fly to DC.

If I were planning this again, I would have done Reykjavik this morning, taken the later tour without the Fontana spa, and then gone to the Blue Lagoon tomorrow. I had thought I would try to go to Alafoss tomorrow morning, but I think it’s going to be too stressful to try to work out the buses and be sure of getting to the airport. So I’m going to buy yarn here. I’ve found a couple of likely places to try and I’ll have time to see a little bit of the city too.

Day one

There won’t be daily updates, don’t worry.

But today has gone remarkably well, I think. When I was booking the holiday I hadn’t really noticed it was bank holiday Monday today. Pleasingly that meant an incredibly easy journey to the airport in almost empty trains with lots of room for luggage. There was a very slow queue to check my bag in, but atypically for Manchester, security was very quick. The flight wasn’t full and I was literally the first person to pick up my bag from the carousel. Things took a slight downturn when I spent forever wandering around inside and outside the airport trying to find the left luggage place. I think, to be honest, I might as well have brought my big suitcase with me, rather than doing clever packing to make sure I didn’t need it here. But anyway, I got there in the end and then onto the bus to Reykjavik.

The drive is through the lava fields. It is a quite bizarre landscape with moss and occasional grasses as the only evidence of living things. I was relieved to spot a patch of green grass when we passed through a town. It was a very vivid green, with stripes. And as we turned a bend, a little flag became visible. Someone has built a golf course in the lava fields! I don’t think it had any rough at all, just fairway, green and then rock.

Things I like about Iceland best so far: No one is afraid of colourful architecture. Basically everything is built out of concrete and corrugated iron. And then painted in bonkers colours: lime green, blue, yellow, cerise, red. Sometimes tastefully combined with white, other times all piled in together. It is glorious. There isn’t much of a consistent style that I can see, either. I suspect because most of the buildings are relatively new.

The lava fields are a pretty bleak, demanding landscape, and I don’t think the rest of the island is much better. It is amazing to me that people have lived here and survived.

I had something for dinner that was described as fish stew ‘in the new style’ on the menu (avoiding the grilled whale and the smoked puffin). It looked like a bowl of scrambled eggs, though it quite clearly wasn’t. It was fishy and rather delicious, served with fried new potatoes and rye bread. And then I had Skyr sorbet (Skyr is a special Icelandic kind of yogurt) with poached pears, blueberry granita, meringue pieces, raspberries and chocolate crumble. I am not entirely sure all the bits went together, but there were a lot of yummy things on the plate.

I am staying at a youth hostel, possibly for the first time ever. It is, however, an uber-trendy youth hostel and I have a private room, so it is not exactly spartan. It is supposed to be a double room, but it is the kind with two very narrow single beds that you can push together. I am enjoying sprawling across both. There is only room for a single bed in my tiny bedroom at the Shed, so a double bed always feels luxurious. The hostel is right in the centre of Reykjavik and I had a little wander around before and after dinner. I was slightly taken aback by the big sign for the Penis Museum.

Judging by the amount of building work going on, Iceland’s economy must be recovering at least a bit. The sea front looks like one long building site.

Tomorrow is the tour of the Golden Circle and trip to the Fontana Spa. Can’t wait.

Late addition

I bought the fabric for this just before Christmas and I’ve been putting off sewing it ever since. It was quite expensive fabric and I also bought underlining and lining fabric, because it is very slippery silk and translucent between the roses.  Anyway, I’d decided that it was too late and then regretted that, so at about 10pm last night I chose a simpler pattern than I’d originally planned and got cutting.  Less than 24 hours later, I have a dress! It is rather fabulous. The fabric is so stunning and I’m afraid that my photography skills are never going to do it justice. It’s a black silk chiffon with the huge red and pink roses woven into it.  I underlined the tope part of the bodice with some silk organza and lined the body of the dress with silk habotai. The sleeves are left unlined. The dress is a simple A-line shift with a square neckline and very full sleeves gathered into the cuffs.

And now I really have to finish my knitting…