Two Big Announcements

Yesterday I received a very, very exciting e-mail which contained two huge pieces of news. I couldn’t say anything yesterday until I’d confirmed some of the details, but now I can make the following announcements.

Firstly, Phaze Books have agreed to pick up my latest completed manuscript, Eternally & Evermore, for publication as an e-book in the summer of 2010. That’s all the info I have in terms of a release date as yet, but I’m just happy to know that the work has found a home. This will be the fourth book of mine that Phaze have picked up.

“Eternally & Evermore” is the story of Will Brown and Amy Robinson. We first meet them as teenage sweethearts who promise to be together for all time. But then we skip forward twenty years to find that although their lives have taken radically different paths, when they are reunited, their love still burns brightly.

I believe it’s the best thing I’ve ever written by a long distance. Full of passion, littered with light heated moments, but most of all it’s a rollercoaster thriller as they fight to overcome the obstacles in their way – including the best antagonist I’ve ever created.

Here’s the blurb for the book.

Love doesn’t make the flowers smell sweeter, Love wakes you up to the world around you. Love won’t make you flawless, but Love will take away the fear that holds you back. Love isn’t the destination, Love is journey you take with the one person who cares about you most.

Twenty years after promising to love each other “Eternally & Evermore”, teenage sweethearts, Amy and Will, are reunited to discover their love burns as strongly as it ever did. But while Will is a successful lawyer, Amy has walked a tougher path. What secrets does she harbour? What ghosts litter her past? And what horrors will they have to endure before they can finally be together “Eternally & Evermore.”

The second piece of news is that Phaze have expressed an interest in taking my last novel, Kissed by a Rose, to print. Kissed by a Rose was released as an e-book in June of this year, and I’m thrilled that Phaze have the confidence in the story to consider releasing a print addition. As yet I have no details of a release date or a potential price point, but, frankly, I’m just too busy being excited by the idea for that to matter right now. I can’t wait to see Adam and Chloe in hard copy.  When I get more details, I’ll be sure to pass them on.

Ghosts of the Past

It’s an odd thing, but for the past few weeks I’ve seen several people around who have been the spitting image of an ex-girlfriend of mine. And, frankly, it’s freaking me out a little bit.

The ex-girlfriend in question I met at university and we were ‘together’ for most of our time in Aber. We even went on a pretty special holiday to Disney World together. We had planned to get married and live happily ever after, but our career paths kept us apart for a year during which time she started sleeping with a so-called ‘friend’ of mine (who was going to be my best man) and I met the future Mrs Nobbs.

I guess that that particular relationship was never meant to be when all said and done. And I have no regrets over it. Had I not met Mrs Nobbs I would not be where I am now and I certainly would have my very special little boy.

Speaking of my little boy, Jr fell asleep in my arms last night and I must have spent half an hour just staring at him while he slept. I love being a Dad.

I digress. Back on topic…

Over the past few weeks, in several different locations, I’ve seen women who have reminded me of my ex. They’ve all had her lush black hair and her cute little nose. It’s one of those slightly pointy, slightly upturned noses. Always puts me in mind of a fox for some reason – but certainly cute.

There was the woman who stopped next to me at the traffic lights. The one in Sainsbury’s. And that one walking on the other side of the street.

I seriously doubt any of them were her – the last I heard she was living over a hundred miles from here. But the resemblance was uncanny.

The last one was in McDonald’s. And this one was the closest to her in terms of looks yet. And the way she was looking at me made me think it might even be her. Although, she was probably looking at me oddly because I was staring at her. But I was so convinced it was her that I was actually going to steel myself and ask if it was her.

Then I heard her place her order and she spoke with a thick Eastern European accent rather than a sweet Welsh one. So it definitely wasn’t her.

Still, Ghosts of girlfriends past or what?

Nice week

I’ve had quite a nice week this week. I took some time off from work to spend with my son. Three days, just me and him doing father and son things. It has been very, very pleasant.

Of course, it was difficult going back to work on Thursday – it always is when you go back after a holiday. But it could have been a lot worse, so I shouldn’t really complain.

On a separate note, we had a conversation at work recently concerning our firm’s password policy for the network. One of the directors mentioned that he found it difficult enough as it is to remember all the different passwords he has to have for all the different sites he uses – the network password, passwords for his personal bank and the firm’s bank, and four or five different professional sites he needs to use to do his job.

And that got me thinking about the number of passwords that Marc Nobbs has. There’s twitter, MySpace, Facebook, Google, Yahoo!, Microsoft, the FTP for my website… I could go on. And it strikes me that if one company could come up with a way for us all to link our profiles on all these sites and use one user ID and one password, then they would probably be quid’s in.

But I digress.

I’ve actually been able to write a couple of chapters of my WIP in the past few days. I’m still not convinced it’s as good as it could be but it is only a first draft and to be honest so far I’m twelve thousand words in and it’s mostly just setting up the characters and situation. The ‘drama’ of the story should start in the next couple of chapters. After I’ve written those then perhaps I’ll be happier with it. We shall see.

I had a Dream…

I had a very interesting dream on Monday night. Thought you might enjoy my recounting it to you.

For some unknown reason (I find reasons are often unknown in dreams) I was on a half day at work. But rather than enjoy the afternoon just chillin’ or shopping or what not, I returned to my old school for a Geography A level lesson. Which itself is odd since I didn’t do geography A level. It’s even more odd that my old school was just around the corner from the office and not a hundred miles or so away like it is in the non-dream world.

I was very apprehensive of the lesson – having missed so many while working – but things actually went okay. I sat next to my best friend from school, who looked just like he did when we were at school together almost twenty years ago. Come to think of it, all my old school friends were there and they all looked like they did back when we were at school together. And so did I!

But that’s not the point. Or maybe it is. It was a dream so who knows.

Anyway, after the lesson (during which I learnt nothing) I left the room with Nick (my friend – who didn’t do Geography A level either if I recall correctly) and we went back to the common room, passing my locker on the way where I deposited my bag and books for lunchtime.

We entered the common room and found ourselves in a nightclub that we used to hold our school discos in. Well, not so much a nightclub, more an upstairs room in a grotty pub that we hired out, but the point is that we went through the door to the common room at school and ended up there. Hey, it was a dream, freaky stuff happens in dreams.

It was coming towards the end of the night – I was tired out from all the dancing (??) and had a few pints of Wolverhampton’s finest in me. The DJ had stopped playing the fast dance tunes and started on the slow ‘smoochy’ songs. On the dance floor, couples were coming together – there was even a couple of guys dancing together, which I don’t remember happening back when I was at school. Naturally, I was looking around for someone to dance with.

Now, before I go on with the dream, there’s something you need to know about me. Back when I was sixteen and had just started the Sixth Form, I’d recently been dumped by my girlfriend of nine months. It took me a while to get over it, to be honest, and during my ‘mourning period’ I didn’t have eyes for any other girls. That all changed though around about the time of my seventeenth birthday at the end of October. Okay, so two months isn’t much of a grieving period, but I was only sixteen.

But after I did get over it, I noticed this girl. Her name was Claire and she was gorgeous. Far too gorgeous for me. At least, that’s what I thought at the time. And so I did nothing about it. Nothing. At all. Just kept on being a miserable little git, working hard and finally earning my place at University far away from home and basically making a new start on life.

Back to the dream.

Who do I see standing the corner of the room with one of her friends? Yep. Claire. Now, this is a dream, right. So whereas in the real world all those years ago I’d have sank into a chair with another beer, in this dream I strode right over to Claire.

“Claire?” She turned to look at me. “I was wondering… I mean… would you…?”

“What? What is it, Marc?”

“Dance with me?” I held out my hand to her. She smiled, took my hand and allowed me to lead her to the dance floor. It was pretty full and we could only find a spot at the edge, but it was enough. I turned to face her and put my hands on her hips. She put her arms around my neck and danced up close, bodies pressed together. Her head rested on my shoulder. I could smell her and it was intoxicating. I could feel her breath on my neck and it was all I could do not to shiver.

She sighed and at that moment I knew she was as content as I was.

I turned my head to try and glimpse the look on her face but she was too close. She must have noticed my movement because she lifted her head to face me. We stared into each other’s eyes. The sensual, sexual beat of the power ballad washed over us, adding to the tension.

“What?” she said, her voice barely audible over the music.

I hesitated then said, “You have no idea how much I want to kiss you right now.”

“Really?”

“Really.”

“I bet it’s as much as I want to be kissed.” She looked down for a few bars of the song then back up into my eyes. “So what’s stopping you?”

I sighed. “I don’t know. I’m scared, I guess.”

“Scared? What’s there to be scared of?”

“Everything. I’m scared it won’t be good enough for you. I’m scared I will. I’m scared it won’t be everything I ever dreamed it would be. I’m scared it will. I’m scared it could be the start of something spectacular. I’m scared it won’t.”

“Oh.”

“But most of all, I’m scared of putting my heart on the line and getting hurt.”

“Marc?”

“What?”

“I promise, I will never, ever hurt you.”

“Really?”

She nodded. “Really.”

Slowly, our lips came together.

And then I woke up. Bugger. Sometimes, I really, really wish I didn’t have an alarm clock.

Time to push on

A few weeks ago I was quite euphoric as I formally turned in Eternally & Evermore for submission to Phaze. At the time I knew I really needed to kick on and get stuck into the next piece but, I suppose somewhat inevitably, I didn’t. I justified not cracking on by telling myself I deserved a bit of a break after finishing what is, I think, my best work to date.

So it’s been a while since I’ve written anything new. I’ve even gotten out of the habit of writing blog entries – which is a very bad habit given that blogging is supposed to be my ‘head cleaning’ activity that allows me to write my fiction.

Writing is a habit. Once you get into the habit, it becomes second nature to sit and type. You almost do it without thinking – the words flowing out of your head and onto the screen through your fingers without ever really engaging your brain. But get out of the habit and writing becomes difficult.

Writing is also a skill that, like many others, needs to be practiced to keep it sharp and fresh. The more you write, the better what you write tends to be.

So it really is time I got my head down and started getting back into the habit of writing. I’ve done a lot of reading over the past few months – and that can never be a bad thing, after all a good writer is first an excellent reader – but it’s time I spent less time reading and more time writing.

I will admit that being nominated for the three REC awards has boosted my ego somewhat. Did I mention my nominations already? Three of them – Best Erotic Novel, Best Cover for an erotic novel and Steamiest Sex Scene. You can vote for Kissed by a Rose at this link. So if just being nominated has given me a boost – imagine what I’ll be like if I actually win one! I can but hope.

Anyway – I’m off to do some writing. Tatty-byes.

Exciting News

Another week goes by and it’s another week where I haven’t been able to find the time to blog as I’d have liked. But I’m not going to dwell on it – Life gets in the way sometimes, all of us have to accept that and I’m no exception.

Shame though, cause it’s been another week where there have been a number of news stories that have really, really annoyed me. I’m starting to think I’m not living in the country I thought I was. Roll on the election, that’s what I say.

But anyways…

Over the weekend I received some exciting news. Kissed by a Rose has been nominated in three categories at the Romance Erotica Connection Awards. It’s up for “Steamiest Sex Scene” (although I don’t know which one – there are 13 of them after all), “Erotic Book Cover of the Year”, which I’m really pleased about cause I think it’s an excellent cover – simple but sexy. And it’s also been nominated as Erotic Novel of the Year. Wow! I mean… Wow.

It’s worth pointing out that these are the Romance Erotica Connection awards so these categories are actually Erotic Romance and not just Erotica (as opposed to Sweet Romance – ie, with no dirty bits)

To say I’m chuffed to bits would be an understatement. I’m having trouble keeping the smile off my face right now and people at work keep asking if my wife is pregnant again cause the last time I was this smiley was when we found out that Mrs Nobbs was excepting Jr.

She’s not, by the way – just to be clear.

The awards are open to the public vote at this link. You can only vote once in each category (the polling software registers your IP address apparently), but then, you’d only want to vote once anyway, wouldn’t you?

I’m not sure when the voting closes and the winners are announced, but I think it’s the end of the month. I might be wrong about that – one of the polls seems to have closed already for some reason. But I’ll be sure to tell you how I got on.