Lily Malone's Blog, page 18

I think this writer’s unblocked

I have my mojo back! Yeah baby!!!

Four nights in a row I’ve written this week, after a very long hiatus. (A very well-documented long hiatus, given how writer’s block has dominated this blog of late!) I’m enjoying my words again, and I’m liking what’s happening on the page.

This is what has helped me the most:

a) Scrapping the story that didn’t want to be written (see previous post)

b) Reading a brilliant book. (I read The Yearning by Kate Belle. This book has put a hand in my stomach and squeezed hard. I loved it. I haven’t been so gripped by a book in a long while. Is it a sign of the times that two of the three books I rate highest in my ‘shelf’ this year are paperbacks, and only one is Kindle, yet the percentage of my reading these days is much more Kindle oriented?

c) The Aussies being crap at cricket. Because the Aussies are crap at cricket, the Ashes test finished almost two days early (really it was over about lunchtime on Day 2). I was so fed up with the shoddy goings on at Lords that I tuned out the game unless Warnie was the commentator (upon which I listened with rapt attention – I can listen to Warnie talk cricket for hours).

d) The end of the Tour de France. Yes – I spent hours over the last few weeks when I could have been wrestling with the story that didn’t want to be written, instead listening to Phil Liggett and watching men in tight lycra torture themselves on two wheels. (I could almost [but not quite] listen to Phil Liggett talk cycling all day. He even makes all that lycra okay.

The upshot of all this is: I’ve been able to put solid hours of writing together and I’ve enjoyed what I’ve been doing. When I finished each night’s writing (tonight that’s because the battery in the laptop needs a recharge rather than that I have run out of words), I read The Yearning, and Kate Belle’s story further inspired me to write.

My new book is called Fairway to Heaven. It’s in first person, set in Perth. My heroine (Jenn) will soon move down south to Margaret River after having her heart broken by an arsehole (who else). And in a new place she’s going to rediscover how much she loves swinging a golf club. My Jenn (don’t call her Jennifer) is going to rediscover her mojo too. Quoting a little more Lord Of The Rings: “Jenn is going to wake up, and find she is strong!”

Thank you for putting up with me while I’ve moped on my blog. If you see me grizzle once in at least the next two months (about anything except how crap the Aussies are at cricket), please send me a cyber shake. Or should that be a cyber poke?

The Horse Is Dead… No More Flogging

For weeks now I have been trying to get excited about what would be my third manuscript. It’s actually the first MS I ever wrote, and for almost three years now, it’s been stuck in a folder called Story 1: Fringe Benefits.

I began it as a reunion romance and it spanned the two regions that I’ve called home in the last 40 years. It started in the vineyards at Margaret River and it ends in the vineyards of South Australia. It was to be a love story between, Seth, CEO and big kahuna boss of a bunch of vineyards and wineries across West Australia; and Quin, originally Seth’s employee. After Quin makes a monumental stuff-up… she gets fired for negligence and with her career in tatters, heads interstate. Seven years later, Seth’s company acquires the winery in South Australia to which Quin sells her grapes, and the two are thrown back together.

So there you have the first plotline I ever came up with, (except when I rewrote Bambi when I was 8).

The book has a jealous co-worker, a meddling mother, boss/employee, and an ‘engagement of convenience’… In fact, just about every trope you can think of minus ‘Secret Baby’…

I did get to typing ‘The End’ on this book and submitting it, and it was rejected quick smart, by both agents and publishers. I left it behind and went on a steep ‘craft’ learning curve on the way to writing His Brand Of Beautiful and The Goodbye Ride. Not only have I enjoyed success with both of those, I loved (LOVED) writing them. They didn’t come easy — no book comes easy. But I was always interested and motivated to work, work, work on both of those stories and make them as good as I could.

Sometimes I think ‘Fringe Benefits’ suffered from being the first book. I was writing something that I ‘thought’ would get published. The voice was all wrong and I knew nothing about craft and it shows.

I have wasted about two months, possibly three, trying to save the 55,000 odd words that I had for Fringe Benefits. I changed scenes. I deleted scenes. I rewrote scenes. I changed point of view and tense. It was third person point of view, past tense. My latest rewrite shifted to first person & present tense. I even changed the dud title, without settling on a new one in my mind. Not even the title came naturally.

But really, truly, I think the reason I’ve been procrastinating my butt off; changing it, deleting it, messing with it… it’s because the story stinks.

I read a brilliant post by Alison Stuart this week about what happens when a writer finds “the black moment”. Alison talked about trying to make her book (a square peg) fit the proverbial round hole. She talks about what happened when she realised her book was at the point of Mount Doom (it helps to read her post if you’re a Lord Of The Rings fan – but it’s not hard to get the gist).

I read Alison’s post and I thought: “This is me.” I had the ring on my finger, I had pulled it off and was holding it out over the lava pit of Mount Doom… but I couldn’t give it up. No matter how much my inner Sam pleaded with me: “Let it go…”

Last night, I let Fringe Benefits go. I’m not flogging a dead horse a minute longer.

I have a great little idea that I wrote for the RWA ‘Sapphires’ Little Gem competition this year. I had fun writing the story (3000 words), and I’ve been thinking about how to work with that story. It was called Fairway To Heaven and the ‘Sapphires’ related to a brand of golf clubs. Cobra Sapphires. I even like the working title!

So that’s where I’m turning my attention and if I’m not quite blogging so much in the next few months, hopefully it’s because I’m head down/bum up in a new story. Wish me luck!

In the words of Alison Stuart, I’m going back to Hobbiton to start my quest anew!

Avon Summer Reads – Lily Pad hop!

Lily Malone – author of two books that came together SO much easier than my not-playing-ball WIP!

If you’re reading this, I’m still alive, and you’ve fallen into the Tasty Summer Reads Blog Hop!

This one started with Avon Romance, and the sport-loving (and wonderful) Iris Blobel invited me to be part of it.

A little bit about my WIP (Work In Progress)

My current WIP is very much a babe in the woods. It doesn’t even have its name yet, because the original name I’ve now decided I don’t like. It was called Fringe Benefits (it’s been that for 2 years). Now I’m leaning to Taking Me Slow or Taking It Slow… It is a reunion romance (contemporary romance) set between the two places of Australia that have been ‘home’ for me: Margaret River, and the Adelaide Hills. Once again, it has a loose wine industry background tying my characters’ lives together. My hero is Seth (he’s based on Timothy Oliphant’s character of Seth Bullock in Deadwood) and my heroine is Quin (don’t ask me why/how she got her name, I just like it).

This book is being DANG difficult to write, and isn’t playing ball. It started out in third person, and currently I’m rewriting a new draft in first person. It is just giving me all sorts of trouble and if it doesn’t pull its act together, I will NEVER write it! (Please, may my threat work, you bloody book, you!). *mutters & glares darkly at keyboard*…

The blog hop questions:

1) When writing are you a snacker? If so, sweet or salty?

Salty. Kettle sea salt chips are my vice (along with champagne). But that said, I don’t snack when I write. It’s impossible to type and snack and I can’t stand a greasy keyboard. (See this post here for more about greasy keyboards and food in my writing!)

2) Are you an outliner or someone who flies by the seat of their pants? Are they real pants or jammies?

Absolute seat of the pants, and they’re not jammies. I’m a nightie kind of girl and my nighties have patterns of icecream cones; champagne glasses clinking; and multicoloured hearts.

3) When cooking or baking, do you follow the recipe exactly or wing it?

I cook like I write. One of the reasons I make muffins that my husband says “are like hockey pucks” is that I refuse to follow a recipe. I like cooking but I don’t like getting so pedantic about following a recipe that if I don’t have an ingredient I won’t try the recipe. I think like ‘good writing,’ ‘good cooking’ comes with experience. Years ago I’d be more inclined to follow a recipe to the letter. Now I’m more confident in my kitchen and I can wing it. Luckily I have more success than failure (except with muffins).

4) What is next for you after this book?

Gad. This book is such a pup. Right now I don’t know what’s next. ‘Next’ is years away… but I think it may not be romance, and it may not be wine (like my two current releases His Brand Of Beautiful and The Goodbye Ride). And it may not have a HEA. We shall have to see!

5) Last Question…on a level of one being slightly naughty to ten being whoo whoo steamy, where does your book land?

It won’t be erotica, but it will be steamy. It involves a lot of fantasy sex. So I’d say 8-9.

What is the recipe you’ll be cooking this summer!?

Last year great friends of mine introduced me to a new potato salad, and I made this heaps in summer 2012-13. I love it because it uses heaps of parsley. So it’s a potato salad with steamed potatoes, 2 or 3 hard-boiled eggs, sour-cream/mayo/natural yoghurt (I use whatever dressing base I have); olive oil, a wisp of balsamic vinegar, maybe some shallots if I have them, and lots (like a really big bunch) of parsley from the garden.

I’d serve this with steaks that hubby would do on the barbecue; or freshly caught fish.

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I have invited Jennie Jones, Juanita Kees, Alissa Callen, Cate Ellink and Elizabeth Ellen Carter to join in the hop, and once they get their recipes up, you’ll be able to click on their names to see what they’ve got cooking!

Thanks Iris Blobel for the invitation!

Coming Out Of The Crazy Zone

There was a brilliant article in the July Hearts Talk (the magazine produced by Romance Writers Australia). It was written by Annie Gracie and amongst a lot of other sensible information, she said:

“Stop searching for reviews or comments on your books. It can drive you crazy. That book is finished and in the public arena. It’s gone. Collect a couple of good quotes for your website and get on with the next book.”

2013 has been such a ‘crazy’ year for me. I’ve had my debut book published; I self-published my own novella; I’ve moved interstate and I’ve started a new job. In amongst this I joined and explored social media – blogging, Facebook and Twitter. Now hubby and the family and I are house-hunting, looking for a block of land on which we can build Dream Home No. 3.

After The Goodbye Ride was published, I thought it should be easy to get back to a long-left draft of what was the first manuscript I ever wrote, and I’ve been so frustrated in the last eight weeks that I have got absolutely nowhere with that title. Actually, I’ve gone less than nowhere, I’ve gone backwards. My delete key has been in overdrive.

I’ve spent time doing everything possible except writing my book. I’ve watched The Voice; Wimbledon; Rugby; AFL; NRL and now I’m into The Ashes (cricket for any international visitors not in the know)… I’ve written guest posts, guest blogs, paid-freelance blogs, and a short story specially for the lovely Juanita Kees… I’ve enjoyed all these things, but in the end for eight weeks, I’ve done everything but spend quality time with my own characters in my new story.

But I think there is light at the end of my tunnel. The ‘voices’ of my characters are coming back. I’ve had a new idea about the heroine and her vulnerability, and how my hero is going to fall in love with her all over again. Quin and Seth haven’t been talking to me, but they’re chatting now. Usually after midnight (curse them).

Here is Annie Gracie’s other resonating sentence:

“Your head is where your stories come from. Stories need a peaceful, quiet place in which to grow.”

I’m going to give Seth and Quin a scenic glade of my brain. There will be a picnic blanket. Wine (of course), crackers and cheese and some yummy Kabana sausage. It will be sunny and the ground will be dry under the blanket, and soft.

That’s my happy place. Once I find it, I’m sure the words will come.

The Goodbye Ride – Free for 2 days

It’s my birthday, but you get the present!

On July 5 & July 6, (timezones willing) my contemporary romance novella, The Goodbye Ride, will be free exclusively at Amazon through the Kindle Select program. You can get your copy here with one click.

If you enjoy it,  come on over to my Facebook page, like my page, and leave me a comment, I’d love to hear from you. http://www.facebook.com/lily.lilymalone

When ‘Casual’ Cuts Close To The Bone

A few weeks ago in Australia there was an outcry over an alleged comment made by a 13-year-old girl to one of our country’s star Australian Rules’ football players, Adam Goodes, during a game between Sydney Swans and Colllingwood. The girl was in the crowd. The news stories I’ve seen reported that she called Goodes an ‘Ape’…
Adam Goodes is an Indigenous (Aboriginal) player, and one of the most decorated footballers in the history of the game, winning two Brownlow medals. (For any international readers, it is the equivalent of being named MVP in the National Basketball League…)
This incident has been on my mind in recent weeks because of the term that arose out of it: ‘Casual Racism’, and because of a scene in my new novella, The Goodbye Ride.

My fellow RWA author, Iris Blobel, invited me to write about this issue on her blog. If you haven’t seen the post, please click over and pay us a visit.

The Lovely Bog oops, Blog Award

Historical romance author, Elizabeth Ellen Carter, thinks my blog is worthy of a nomination for the One Lovely Blog Award! Thank you Elizabeth!

Now, some time last year, there was a blog going around called The Next Big Thing, which I was part of with three other writing friends, Kerrie Paterson, Cate Ellink and Allison Tait, and we were invited by Jenn J McLeod. I had a great time with The Next Big Thing, but one of the main reasons I loved doing The Next Big Thing, is that for one swift moment in time, I was almost part of The Next Bog Thing. (You can read about it here – a lot of us had heaps of very dirty fun that day and this remains my most popular post in terms of hits on my blog. I’m not sure what that tells me about the motley crew of people who follow and visit my blog!).

So I couldn’t help but have a little chuckle to myself when I saw Elizabeth Ellen Carter’s invitation to the One Lovely Blog Award, because it could so very easily become, One Lovely BOG Award.

But first, a little bit about Elizabeth Ellen Carter. She has just had her debut historical romance, Moonstone Obsession, picked up by Etopia Press. Every Friday night, EEC blogs about movies, particularly, old movies, and this segment of her blog is called Friday Night Flicks. If you like your movies, I’d encourage you to visit. It’s amazing what a fount of knowledge EEC is. Quite frankly, she staggers me!

So, as part of this One Lovely Blog Award, Elizabeth has asked me to nominate 7 other outstanding bloggers and share 7 facts about myself. Because our writing community overlaps, I am sure many of the writers I might nominate will have been previously asked. So all I’d say is, if you want to pick up this invitation to become part of One Lovely Blog, please be my guest.

And for 7 interesting facts about myself? Well… here we go. These might be a bit ‘BOGanish’.

I have always been a Shane Warne fan. I remember where I was the day he bowled the Ball Of The Century. I love Warnie. But I like the ‘old’ Warnie more than the new 2013 version. 
My favourite line in a movie comes from Gladiator: “My name is Maximus Decimus Meridius… Father to a murdered son, husband to a murdered wife. And I will have my vengeance, in this life or the next.”
We named our dog Jarman, in honour of Darren Jarman. (Adelaide Crows footballer going back a few years). 
I once cooked trout at a dinner party for four (including a man I was trying to impress). I had no idea what I was doing and all the trouts’ heads’ fell off. I served the headless fish with lightly steamed beans and a nice Chianti. (I made that last bit up).
I named my bikes as a kid. They were called R1, and Gar2. R1 was fastest. I was actually quite reasonable at BMX at one stage of my life.
My first car was a Datsun 200B. (The colour of… bog)
The most memorable piece of writing I’ve read recently, was Cate Ellink’s ‘fish sex’ post, The Virgin Whiting at her blog.

I hope you enjoyed my 7 facts.

On my Facebook page, I plan to share more ‘little known facts’ about Lily Malone in the weeks ahead. You’re welcome to like my page if you’d like more crazy bits such as these above! (Dear reader, you have been warned).

I also recently entered the Twittersphere… there’s a link at the side of the page if you’d like to see what I do there. 

Look for the author in the Boganish Pink Beanie!

Pruning time. An army of buzz cuts

My two favourite seasons in the vineyards are pruning, and budburst. There’s something special about a row of neatly pruned vines… a bit like neatly pruned roses in a rose garden. Order is restored!

Vines (like roses) get very straggly at the end of the growing season. The leaves die, which can be spectacular as they range through red, orange and yellow before they fall, and the canes are unwieldy and wild. Once they’re pruned, they remind of me a line of schoolchildren with lovely neat Number 5 hairdos… or perhaps you could make that a military image and think of rows of soldiers with buzz cuts. It’s a similar type of thing.

I have been lucky enough to live in wine regions all my life, in Margaret River, then the Adelaide Hills, and I’ve spent a lot of time in the Barossa in between. I picked grapes in Switzerland when I was 20, staying with a host family who were relatives of my landlady in London at the time. I worked for two weeks on the hills above Lausanne, looking out over Lake Geneva to the hills of France. It was absolutely scenic, and absolute hell on the butt, knees and back. Note to future self: Lily Malone will drink wines and eat grapes… she will not pick them! Life lesson learned!

My novella, The Goodbye Ride, brings my hero, Owen, and heroine, Olivia, together as they set out to prune Owen’s aunt’s vineyard over a holiday weekend.

Here’s an excerpt where Liv is giving Owen instruction on how to prune a grapevine.

She switched the Felcotronic on and moved to the start of the vine row. As she talked, she demonstrated. “These vines are about twenty years old, I’d reckon. So they’re still teenagers, but they’ve been around a while and some need taking down a peg or two. See?” She indicated a spot near the end post where there was a cluster of crossed canes.

“It’s a bit like pruning a rose bush. We want to clean everything out to let air circulate. Cut out any dead wood and make lots of room for the new buds to grow. Grapevines fruit on new wood.”

Owen’s boot nudged hers as he leaned around her to watch and the contact sent butterflies cartwheeling through her stomach.

Focus, Liv.

“We want to pick the healthiest spurs and cut them back to two buds. Here,” Liv moved the electric pruners into place and touched the trigger. Shining blades sliced through the vine as if it were a stick of soft cheese. She moved to the next spur, squeezed: “And here.”

Canes swished to the ground.

“When do I get a go with that thing?” Owen asked.

“You don’t.” Liv moved down the row, snipping as she went. “If you come across knotty bits like this where there are no new spurs growing at all, you can cut that section back completely. That’s where those loppers come in to it.”

“Okay. It looks simple enough. I’ll give it a go.”

She pointed him to the row of vines behind her so that they would be working back to back. It was safer that way. He couldn’t accidentally chop her finger off, vest or no safety vest.

Have you ever noticed vineyard seasons? They can be very dramatic. There’s nothing like green vineyards in summer when all the paddocks around them are dry and brown.

Then this time of year, as you can see in the photos, it’s the vines that are brown, and the grass around them is green. The picture on the right is the first pruned vineyard I’ve seen in Margaret River this season.


The Goodbye Ride is available exclusively on Amazon, buy it here with one click. 

Book 3: Is there such a thing as third book syndrome?

I’ve heard of ‘second book syndrome’… but after His Brand Of Beautiful, I didn’t struggle with writing book two, which turned out to be The Goodbye Ride.

But I am struggling with Book 3, which is actually a return to Book 1. For the moment, I’m calling it Fringe Benefits, but I’m pretty sure that title will change.

Fringe Benefits was the first book I ever wrote. Shortly after I typed ‘The End’ I turned my attention to His Brand Of Beautiful, which some 14 months later, was picked up by Escape Publishing and went on to become my debut book in March 2013.

I am having a real struggle getting back into the swing of writing, after what feels like weeks of hard edits, soft edits, tweaks, publishing (self-publishing) and promotion for both His Brand Of Beautiful, and for The Goodbye Ride. Actually sitting back down into some routine of writing is proving elusive.

I’m hopeful that if I stick with it, it will all begin to flow again. I’m blaming some of my problem on my workspace. I love to write outdoors. We have a wonderful verandah here in our little rental home. I love the sun and I love finding a space with the sun on my back for my writing.

But it’s winter now. It gets dark early. I can’t write when I’m cold, and so for the most part, I’m writing in bed with my laptop on my err, lap. (Where else would it be, hey?)

I’m writing at night and I’m getting really tired before I seem to churn out many words. And are they good words? I don’t know. I think so. I liked my opening scene when I started writing 2 nights ago and I’m really glad I’ve got a first draft down so I don’t have to start it cold.

Fringe Benefits is a darker book than my first two. H&H are going to have some fairly ding-dong fights along the way. It’s a reunion story and the break-up is fierce… lots of unresolved issues at the core, lots of blame. Huge amounts of chemistry though! Of course.

So I think it’s time I put my head in the bat cave and don’t come out for a while… keep warm, and hope that enthusiasm and flow will come!

 

Eliza and Lily cook the perfect bloke

Thanks to our publisher, Escape Publishing, we were invited to take over the Escapades’ blog this week. This is what we cooked up! You can check the original post here - it’s got all sorts of cover shots & links.

Eliza and Lily bake the perfect bloke by Lily Malone & Eliza Redgold

“Once upon a time, two Escape Artists, Eliza Redgold and Lily Malone were sitting in… hold on, Eliza. Where were we sitting again?”

“Sitting beneath your verandah, Lily,” Eliza said, taking another fat green olive from a glazed pottery dish and popping it in her mouth.

“Do you think that’s exotic enough? My verandah?”

Eliza spat the pip delicately into her palm and swallowed. Lime and chilli-marinated olive scorched a salt aftertaste down the back of her throat. “You have to write what you know.”

“Good point. Where was I? Eliza and Lily were sitting under the verandah, co-authoring a blog post about what inspires them to write romance chock-full of food and wine.” Lily’s fingers clattered across the keyboard. She looked up at Eliza expectantly: “Then what happens?”

Eliza reached for another olive. “God those are good. Did you try one?”

Lily glanced at the growing mountain of pips surrounding the olive dish, like an army of climbers planning an Everest summit. “Yeah. I had one. Now focus, Eliza. What else can we say? Our pacing is off. Our plot is crap. Kate Cuthbert will reject it for sure.” She reached for her wine. Times like these, Eliza noticed, Lily always reached for her wine.

“I’ve got it!” Eliza slapped the table, hard enough to make Lily jump. There was a shallow bowl of extra virgin olive oil near the prosciutto-wrapped melon balls, and it vibrated deliciously. Oil ripples.

“Shit. I got wine up my nose,” Lily grumbled, wiping her face with the back of her hand. “You’ve got what?”

“I’ve got the answer to our plot problem. We bring in a man!”

Lily almost choked on her Chardonnay. “A man? Now? It’s the first bloody paragraph. What happened to structure?” Lily put her wineglass back on the table, fiddling slightly so it covered an already-existing wet circle. “How exactly, Eliza, do we get a man into our blog post?”

Eliza swiped a cracker into Lily’s homemade hummus. The cracker broke mid-serve, leaving a spike of jagged edge.

“Hey. No double-dipping,” Lily muttered, one eye on the wreck Eliza had made of the dip, the other on the screen. “It’s not fair. I’m doing all the work. You’re eating all the good stuff. Here. It’s your turn. Pass the prosciutto.”

Eliza leaned across the table and swapped the proscuitto platter for the laptop.

Lily topped-up her chardonnay and took a long, slow, sip. The wine tasted lightly of oak, and something else. Peaches. Or maybe that was the melon on her tongue. She lifted the glass up to the afternoon light.

“Here’s what we’re missing, Lily. You’re being too obvious. What we need is subtlety, nuance, hint, suggestion, a little … je ne sais quoi…”

Lily took a swig of wine.  When Eliza started speaking French, she knew she was in for a long afternoon.

“Like truffles,” Eliza continued, fingers flying over the keyboard, “they’re for connoisseurs, for gourmets. They’re about mystery and luxury.” As she spoke she gave each key an extra click. When she stopped, she reached for the olives.

If there was one thing Lily couldn’t stand it was sticky fingers on her keyboard. Just in time she offered Eliza the crackers instead. “So what does mystery and luxury mean, exactly?”

Eliza crunched the cracker and grinned. “Let’s cook Kate Cuthbert a recipe for the perfect man.”

“Genius, sweetie,” Lily squealed, reclaiming the laptop. It was only a matter of time before Eliza smeared it in hummus. “You talk, I’ll type.”

“We-ll,” Eliza spun out the word like soft toffee on a spoon. “He’d have a chest like that guy on that hot cover. You know? The June release. That soldier guy…”

“You mean Jason in The Virginity Mission?”

Eliza snapped her fingers. “That’s the one.”

“Mmm.” Lily typed Jason’s chest and then sat watching the cursor blink. It blinked and blinked and in the end she had to prompt her co-writer. “And?”

Eliza shook her head. “Sorry. I was thinking about that cover.”

“Easy enough to do,” Lily conceded, crossing her legs under the table. “What about the perfect eyes?”

“That would be Xavier Antoine in my book, Black Diamonds. He has eyes like truffles: the darkest, deepest, blackest ones… the ones that are hardest to find.”

Lily typed Xavier’s eyes and prayed Eliza would shut up about truffles. To distract her, she asked a new question: “What about his buns?”

“Buns?” Eliza gave her a blank look. “Baguettes? Flat bread? Sourdough? Rye?”

“Buns. Butt. Arse. Backside.”

“Oh. Who’s got the perfect butt?” Eliza asked.

“Scott in Under The Hood was pretty hot in that department, from memory,” Lily said, fanning her face with one hand as she thought about it.

“Whack him in.”

Eliza reached for a chorizo stick and Lily typed, Scott’s butt.

“It’s not just looks that make the man, Eliza. He should have a soft side too. Be good with kids, for example.”

“A Man Like Mike.”

Lily typed, then added: “And nice to elderly people and animals.”

Eliza barely drew breath. “Ethan in House on Burra Burra Lane. He’s a vet.”

“He needs a way with words,” Lily mused.

“The guy in your book, Tate in His Brand Of Beautiful. He’s great with words.”

Lily typed: Tate’s tongue, and recrossed her legs, trying not to blush.

“He should have a talent, too,” said Eliza. “Nick Gordon, that sculptor in Drawing Closer. He’s good with his hands.”

Talented hands. Lily typed it in.

“So read me what we’ve got so far.” Eliza had her university lecturer’s face on.

Dutifully, Lily read out the list and when she’d finished, Eliza said: “All we need now is his face.”

They both stared at the food spread on the table. Plump olives. Salty proscuitto. Thick, creamy hummus. Sweet balls of melon.

“Brad Pitt,” announced Lily, at the same time as Eliza squealed: “Ryan Gosling.”

They both laughed and reached for their wines.

Eliza clinked her glass playfully with Lily’s. “Let Kate Cuthbert choose.”

(To anyone who doesn’t know Kate, she’s the managing editor of Escape Publishing. Aka: she’s our boss and we do what she says!)

What do you think are the essential ingredients for the perfect man? Let us know in the comments. 

Find out more about His Brand Of Beautiful with one click here; and Black Diamonds, here.