England Day 1--Hampstead Heath

We arrived around 6:30 this morning at Heathrow. We did what we usually do--drop our bags at the hotel since it's too early to check in and go exploring. Today's destination was Hampstead Heath, by way of church--it's Sunday. Some observations, short because I'm beat--I haven't slept for too many hours to count--of course, I don't seem to be able to count above 10 today.

1. We went to Mass at the church we went to when we were in London 3 years ago. I think it's been sent back to the 50s. People knelt at a communion rail. Mr. M., a convert, had never seen that before.

2. For some reason, we look like we know what we're doing. Maybe it's the grey hair or maybe it's the hiking boots, but we had two sets of people ask us for directions on the Heath, one set of which were native Londoners.

3. It appears that wherever you walk on Hampstead Heath, it's uphill.

4. We are just as good at getting lost as we were in the Lake District last year.

Okay, off to bed. If you want more pictures, check out my Facebook "fan" page.

Some delightful news

 

While I was working on Ash’s copy edits and dealing with various real world problems—my new computer decided to stop working and something (not the computer) was producing an electrical burning smell—I got a phone call. Surprising Lord Ash is a finalist in the historical category of the New Jersey Romance Writers’ Golden Leaf contest. Yippee! I was already planning on going to their conference in October. I’m giving a workshop—and those New Jersey ladies know how to party.

Then, just a couple days ago, an email from Tara at Eye on Romance popped into my inbox with a link to a review of Jack’s book. I’ll confess I always cringe a bit when I click on review links, because I’m never sure what I’ll find at the other end. This time it was a lovely review! If you’d like to read it, it’s in the Historical Romance Writers section here.

Getting ready

We're heading across the pond in a few days, so I'm trying to get ready. I've been trying to figure out what clothes to bring, of course. We'll be taking public transport--no driving on the left for us--and changing locations, so I'm really going to try to pack light. But I can't really plan my wardrobe until I consult the weather predictions closer to our departure date. 

I'm also trying to figure out and update my gizmos. I've loaded train schedules on my iPad and now I'm trying this new blogging app on my phone. Depending on Internet service and on how beat I am at the end of the day, I hope to share some pictures here and on my Facebook page. 

And now I'll try uploading a picture of my buggy pal that kept me company for a while as I was working on Ash's edits. Second son says it's a dragonfly. 

The Naked Laird

Tuesday morning I handed in the edits for Loving Lord Ash, the final book in my Duchess of Love series, so I thought I’d take a moment to look back at my Naked series. I’m very excited to tell you that my two Naked novellas, “The Naked Laird” and “The Naked Prince,” will be released as separate e-novellas. So if you missed them when they came out in their respective anthologies or if you just want to complete your Naked collection on your e-reader, you’ll now be able to do that. Well, not quite now. The Naked Laird releases November 1; The Naked Prince will be out December 31. I'm pretty sure you can preorder them now, if you want to.

The Naked Laird first appeared in February 2009 in the anthology Lords of Desire. You can read an excerpt on my web site here. You’ll see the cover of the anthology which, if you’re already a Naked reader, may help you remember if you’ve read the story before.

The Laird was the first novella I ever wrote. (A novella is about a quarter of the length of one of my books.) It was a fun challenge. And being a glutton for challenges, at least sometimes, I set the story during a house party that occurs during The Naked Baron, so you’ll see a glimpse of the one story in the other.