The Medium Life

I am beyond delighted that Captivating Kelly has been released! (excuse the over-the-top sized font!) and there are even a few tropes! Fake boyfriend Boss and the baby Forced proximity A CEO workaholic who needs a nanny, a burnt-out TV producer who needs a fiancé, and the deal that throws them both together in this sweet romcom. Workaholic CEO Sam Bracken has just been landed with his best friends’ baby (Tiffani with an ‘i’) and he makes a deal with employee, Kelly Brown. If she lives in as Tiff's nanny, he'll take her to the party where she wants to come face-to-face with her scumbag ex. Burnt-out Kelly left her beloved TV show ‘Mystery Date’ for a job she doesn't live and breathe 24/7. Life is sweet, until she learns the ex who humiliated her is back in town, and she's determined to confront him once and for all. Sam is the answer. Plus he's absolutely gorgeous; enough to make any man jealous. The problem is that Kelly doesn't know the first thing about babies...

 My Clearlake county books have had an upgrade, brand new covers including a cover for the  upcoming, "A Sweet Tomorrow," which will be released later on this year. I think they are just gorgeous...! They are currently exclusive to Amazon but will be wide by September 1st. They are all standalones, but set in Clearlake County, USA.

Pic: @mrs_moa_book_hub I spent two days this last weekend at the Romance Writers of New Zealand conference, 'Kiss and Tell,' and had a marvellous, marvellous time. It was five years since the last conference I went to in Wellington. Five years!!  This time I missed the Friday workshop but was there for Day One and Day Two. So here is a bit of a round up on just a couple of talks. Speaker T.L. Swan (Tee). I'd never heard of Tee before but the woman is quite something. Massive seller, who also started up her own publishing company over in Australia. Main points I learnt from her talks: Keep changing covers and blurbs if you need to. She changed covers on one of her series literally dozens of times before they started selling. Nothing had changed about the books at all but just the covers. You don't give up, you just keep pushing, pushing, pushing until you find your readers. Interestingly, she doesn't read romance fiction at all. I remember ages ago, another top selle...

THESE MAGIC MOMENTS is now WIDE so you can buy it from Kobo, Apple, Barnes and Noble, and more, as well as Amazon. There's a bit of a story behind this book. Back in the Covid years, I really wanted something 'old school' to read, just a simple romance, a true comfort read. I bought a few, including an omnibus of Betty Neels romances and by the time I'd finished I thought, I want to have a go at this style of story. Write something that is just a sweet, heartwarming, feel-good read. So I wrote it, I self published it under a new name "Maddie Summers" in case it bombed and everyone hated it. Fortunately everyone did not hate it, lol, and I ended up writing two more stories set in Bluebell Road. The good news I've already written a third of the fourth one and the plan is to publish it in time for Christmas this year! 

ANNOUNCEMENT: As you  know, I do like writing and reading short stories, and to that end, I've started up a Substack to post the odd short story now and then. Feel free to take a look and read the first story, "The Birthday Tree." CHECK OUT SUBSTACK HERE.

 What I'm working on? Two books at the moment. I have... "Captivating Kelly" being proofread and I hope to publish that at the end of this month, August. I am also editing a new Clearlake County book tentatively titled "A Sweet Tomorrow." As well, I have partially written a new Frazier Bay Book that I'll be plotting out next month. I am new to plotting but boy, it saves so much time. It is so much more effective, so I'm embracing plotting days in my planning. I also hope to have the new Maddie Summers, "A Bluebell Road Christmas" ready for this year's festive season. It's busy busy busy but very much fun. Stay tuned.