Rhoda Baxter's Blog, page 41

Bacteria inspired names and GBBO – a podcast

A few months ago Sarah from Smart Bitches Trashy Books reviewed Please Release Me. She also contacted me and asked if I would do a podcast for her blog. It’s gone live today!

212. Gin & Tonic, Bacteria, and the US and UK Romance Markets: An Interview with Rhoda Baxter

For those who aren’t followers for the affectionately named ‘Bitchery’, it’s a blog about romance novels written by a group of very smart women who read romance because it’s fun. They also read high brow literary fiction, but,...

The art of Foreshadowing

It’s time for another writing column in the Beverley Guardian. This one is about foreshadowing. You can read the whole article, with groovy picture of The Sixth Sense, on the Beverley Guardian website.

Four shadowing… geddit?

Have you noticed how often coincidences happen in real life? Rather often – as the late Sir Terry Pratchett put it, a million to one chances happen nine out of ten times. But when writing fiction, coincidence is not your friend!

Your hero is stuck on an erupting volcano...

Inheritance Books: Ellie Gray

This week on the Inheritance Books sofa, we have romance novelist and fellow East Ridinglass, Ellie Gray. I have cake. I’ll go put the kettle on and locate the cake. While I’m doing that, why don’t you tell us a bit about yourself, Ellie.

I live in a small village just outside the beautiful market town of Beverley in the East Riding of Yorkshire. It’s only about ten miles away from where I grew up, living in a little cottage on the edge of woods where my father was the woodman and my mum a nu...

Goodreads Book Review: The Duchess War by Courtney Milan

The Duchess War by Courtney Milan

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I’d never read any Courtney Milan before and I totally loved this book. Minnie is a strong, clever character. I loved the dynamic between the characters too.
Robert is handsome and rich etc, but he’s also not an alpha-hole. He realises that Minnie is cleverer than he is and he’s totally fine with that.

The dialogue is excellent. The secondary characters were extremely likeable without being anodyne. To be honest, it’s worth reading jus...

Book Review: Letters to the Lost by Iona Grey

I reviewed Letters to the Lost by Iona Grey for USA Today’s Happy Ever After blog. It’s a great book and definitely deserves to be the Romantic Novel of the Year. You can read the full review on the USA Today site:

Must-read romance: ‘Letters to the Lost’ by Iona Grey

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Inheritance Books: Bethan Darwin

Today’s Inheritance Books come from Superwoman Bethan Darwin. Hi Bethan, welcome to Inheritance Books. Take a seat on the sofa. Would you like a slice of cake? Why don’t you start by telling us a bit about yourself.

I’m a lawyer based in Cardiff, specialising in employment and corporate law, a proud Mum of two and a happy wife which is just as well as my husband is also a lawyer and we work together. I run a women’s networking group called Superwoman which also raises money for charities at i...

Inheritance Books: Kate Frost

This week’s guest on Inheritance Books is Kate Frost. Welcome to the sofa, Kate. I’m sorry, we haven’t had a guest in a while. Let me dust it down for you. There you go. I’ll go put the kettle on, why don’t you tell us a bit about yourself.

I live in Bristol, a city I was born in and have always lived in, apart from three fabulous years spent at university in Aberystwyth. I grew up in the 1980s in a Victorian terraced house with a park at the end of the road. I have fond memories of my childh...

Goodreads Book review: Falling by Julie Cohen

Falling by Julie Cohen

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

When I saw this book up on Netgalley, I grabbed it because I’ve never, ever been disappointed by a Julie Cohen book. This is what I call a ‘burning dinner’ sort of book – one I couldn’t bear to put down for very long, so I end up reading it while stirring things on the hob. It’s lovely!

Jo is struggling to keep everything going. She is a really, really nice person and tries to help everybody. But somewhere inside, she’s still getting over the dea...

Goodreads book review: Love Comes Later by Mohanalakshmi Rajkumar

Love Comes Later by Mohanalakshmi Rajakumar

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley in return for an honest review.

I chose to read this book because I know very little about the Qatari community, or about life as a Muslim in general. I was interested by the premise.

The writing is literary in style and very good.
Of the characters, I liked Abdullah a lot. He was a man who is still grieving for his lost wife and unborn child. He doesn’t particularly like the new...

Taking the technical terror out of talks

I’m reblogging Janet Gover’s excellent notes on how to connect your laptop to various display screen devices. I thought it was really useful.

Take Five Authors

Jenny, Sue and I had a great time last week at the Romantic Novelists Association conference (see the previous post)… for me there was also a bit of work involved.

I have the honour (is that the right word – I’m not so sure) to be the RNA’s geek girl. My day job involves television and complex computer systems, and I am therefore membe...