Nicola Marsh's Blog, page 76

Weekend Book Club: How to Bake a Perfect Life

I'm preloading this as I rush out the door for a weekend at the beach so am going to keep it brief.

Barbara O'Neal is my favourite women's fiction author.

Her books are lush, evocative and so beautifully written the pages turn themselves.
She has an incredible gift for tapping into human emotion, then bringing that alive between the pages of her books.

Her latest, HOW TO BAKE A PERFECT LIFE, is no exception.

Filled with food and recipes and real characters and romance, you absolutely must read it.

She's the only author who is guaranteed to make me cry and I never, ever cry when I read.

Do yourself a favour and read this book.
Then glom her backlist.

You'll thank me.

What are you reading this week?

Finding time to write

I've extolled the virtues of speed writing and ways to do it in another post so today, I'm focussing on something different. How do you find the time to write? For me, it's making the opportunity the write.If preschooler is playing at my feet, I write.If he's blowing bubbles out the back, I write.If he's watching Playschool, I write. Do I feel guilty at times? Sure do. Surely I should be interacting with him all the time? Yet I spend every day with my kids for the bulk of the day, I'm very hands-on so I guess these few snatched half hours here and there aren't too bad. And I need them. I have deadlines, some that fluctuate, like my current one.I need to write 35K in a week.In school holidays. So far, I've managed 20 pages the first day, 26 yesterday and the bulk of those were written while the kids played around me. We do what we have to do to find the time to write. Here's a great post on ways to find that time.

Out and about in Selfridges

This is the fabulous Together Shop at Selfridges, featuring the RIVA launch books.
These pics are courtesy of the lovely Jessica Hart, who emailed them to me after a day in London last week.
So cool seeing our new books among those vintage covers.
If you're in London and fancy some snappy, contemporary reads, go check out the new M&B Riva series! The pop-up shop will be open in Selfridges until 18th February.

Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, oi, oi, oi!

Happy Australia Day!

We truly are the lucky country.

Aussies are laid-back and fun and resilient and generous.

We love our beaches and a good barbie.
We devour Tim Tams and Vegemite and Caramello Koalas.
We have Hugh Jackman!
We rock!

I'm back!

Arrived back from hols yesterday and really need to hit the ground running.

Must write about 35K words in the next week.

Plus school starts end of this week.

And I'm going away to the beach over the weekend.

Plus another million and one other things that must be done.

Promise to fill you in on all the holiday goss...when I get a minute to breathe!

Twitter buddies

Most of you know about my Twitter addiction.

I love the briefness of it.
I love the immediacy.
I love it so much I wrote a book featuring it.

But most of all I love how I've connected with so many people world-wide I would never have known otherwise.

Joan Swan is one of those people and I was thrilled when I received an email from her, including me in her mega New Year book giveaway.

For every day in January, she's giving away latest releases by writers who've enriched her writing life.

To find out the whole list and how to win a copy of my book today, visit here.

Weekend Book Club: Red-Hot Renegade

If you've never read category romance before, you should start with this book.

Kelly Hunter's RED-HOT RENEGADE bears her trademark rich, vibrant, emotionally complex characters that have you turning pages at a rapid rate.

Here's the blurb:

Can she keep her hands off her super-sexy ex? In desperate need of protection, Jianne Xang-Bennett reluctantly turns to her estranged husband, martial arts expert Jacob Bennett, for help. But there are problems: they've been separated for twelve years and cannot be in the same room together without arguing or ripping each other's clothes off – sometimes at the same time! But Jacob will go to extremes for those he loves, and Jianne is the only woman who can bring this honourable warrior to his knees. Can they delve beneath their red-hot desire and blazing anger to find the love that has always been hiding?

I loved everything about this book: the Singapore setting, the dojo, the hint of suspense, the secondary characters who've all had their stories told in previous books, the Asian heroine but most of all, I loved the martial arts hero.

Jake is superb. And the sexual tension between him and Ji...phew! Pages burn!

I can't recommend this book highly enough.

What are you reading this week?

But somebody's gotta do it

I know, I know, it's a tough life but somebody's gotta do it!

The bulk of my book takes place here, at the Gold Coast's PALAZZO VERSACE , so it's only fair I do some first hand research for authenticity's sake.
Arguably Australia's most luxurious hotel, the place looks truly amazing on the Net but not enough details for my book so I made a reservation. I'll let you know all the details when I get back. And guess what? They have cabanas by the pool!Wonder if they'll have cabana boys...

It's a hard life

This is where the first scene in my current WIP, The High Life, takes place.


I had to do first hand research to check it out, swimming late at night on the 27th floor, with the incredible view.

Staying a night at the Crown Metropol in Melbourne was not a hardship.

Come back tomorrow and see where I've been staying earlier this week, all in the name of research.

New cover alert

Here's the newest cover for DESERTED ISLAND, DREAMY EX, currently a launch title for the new M&B RIVA series in the UK.

This will hit Aussie & NZ shelves next week.
What do you think?
That island and ocean look mighty tempting...