Susan Stephens' Writing Diary

Just watching a silly programme on the telly with the tribe and deciding that we all want a floating car.
Don't ask! Suffice it to say that we all have stressful jobs!

Wedding fever grows apace. Now we have the wedding dress for the bride we have to start thinking about the mothers' outfits.
Sol's mother has already chosen two dresses- one for the ceremony itself and one for the celebrations in the evening. Yours truly is being well and truly left behind!

Hats?
Oh, yes.
Why not help me choose...

Here are a few for you to make your selection from-



Seriously, I might just wear a feather
(What, no dress?)
Yes, of course a dress, silly, with a feather in my hair.


And this type of dainty headgear is called 'a fascinator' to those that might be interested.

Hugs and not a little craziness
Susanx

First off, congratulations to Laurie for winning my latest Access Romance Blog competition.
Here are Laurie's suggestions for tunes to chill out to... “Layla” by Eric Clapton, and Willie Nelson’s “You Were Always On My Mind”.
Many thanks for your suggestions, Laurie.

Now for something different.

I have a couple of my mother's fave vases on the window ledge in my bedroom. I have a blind that comes down behind them, and when the wind blew fiercely one night the blind knocked the vases over snapping the handle off one.
I was mortified, but quickly glued it on again. DH promised to switch the blind around 'when he had time', and bluntly, we forgot about it.

I thanked him this morning for turning the blind round so that it no longer comes close enough to the vases when I lift it, or when the wind blows to knock them over...
He hadn't touched it. Explain that, if you will!!




Love to all, and happy reading everyone!
Susan

Jackie, you're having more fun than me! I'm at my hairdressers today too, but David has just opened his own brand new salon so I'm eager to find out what's happening- No statue of liberty, I'm guessing.

And the first time I saw the Statue of Liberty I was lucky enough to sail into New York on the QE2 when I was singing in cabaret one or two years ago. I was deeply moved as we sailed past and have never forgotten the experience.

Happy moments when I discovered that not only was Bedded By The Desert King in the charts this week, but also The Sheikh's Captive Bride, a 2005 release for me had returned to take a bow- so I'm guessing a lot of you out there like sheikh books!





Have a fantastic weekend everyone, and to those of my dear friends out there who are confined to bed, or those who are at the bedsides of loved ones, you're in my thoughts.

Love an hugs around the world.

Susan

I couldn't leave the subject of wedding and wedding dresses without at least one for us to drool over.

Like your mother Jennifer, I adore books with children, babies and weddings, but the heroine I'm writing about at the moment has a problem I'm having trouble solving within two hundred pages. But I haven't given up. At this point I feel like Cinderella's fairy godmother- determined to wave my magic wand and say: 'You shall go to the ball...' Quite how I'm going to get my Cinderella to that ball remains to be seen- but I AM NOT GOING TO GIVE UP!

Love to all, and happy happy reading everyone!
Susan

I've just realised how much I love writing children into my books, and in this new book set in Greece I don't think I can have one. Not yet, at least. Who knows what will happen by the time I reach page 200-ish. So often characters take over and determine the course of a book for me. Maybe my H and h will be feeling equally broody by the end of their adventure (or should that be the start?!) We shall see.

I am just so glad to have the chance to write the big dramas for Presents and the home grown dramas for Modern X-tra. I love them both equally, and come to each fresh and eager. Hail Alexander! (Yet Again! Believe me, ladies, he's worth it) King of the Greeks.

Was honoured and not a little touched to be invited to join the LFF and her mother yesterday as a wedding dress has been found closer to home(mine) than Paris.
I was quite teary when the LFF modelled it for the two mamas. The LFF looked truly beautiful, and so young and lovely in all sorts of inner ways- just like a true Presents heroine.
Right, so son sprog is in for all sorts of fireworks before they make it to the altar, in that case!! I'm sure he wouldn't have it any other way!

Don't be surprised to find lots of brides coming up in SS books, complete with ivory gowns and fresh flowers in their hair...

Love to all, and happy reading everyone!

Susan

Okay, starting with my apologies to Xandra King, who sends weekly sun signs for me to uplift. On the 23rd this month I forgot. Not Xandra's fault, I hasten to add, so please forgive me everyone, I know lots of you are biting your nails down to the knuckles each week to see what Xandra has in store for you.

Sheikhs Was giving lots of thought to why I find Shahin so sexy
(Shahin is my sheikh in Bedded By the Desert King, my November 2006 Harlequin Presents release)
Came to the unavoidable conclusion that it's because he's so stern.
Stern?
Yep, really, really stern.
And I love it.
Love it?! (short pause to catch breath)
I adore it!
Be stern with me, please...

Blogs? On 26th Thursday this week you have another chance to win a prize and chat with me over on Access Romance All-A-Blog www.accessromance.com
See you there!

Love to all, and happy reading everyone!

Susan

2 Paw, you're so right! Mud-wrestling? I can see that this might be a detour from my normal style... opulence, glamour, sophistication. Modern X-tra does have a different feel to Presents, but I hope you'll love it just as much.

How does it differ?

Speaking entirely for myself- I still adore the alpha male and the strong woman who brings him to his knees with love, and my hero Galem in Dirty Weekend is very much an alpha male.
The heroine Caz/Cassandra has been forced by circumstances to live life on her wits. And if Hawkshead is a little different from my usual setting there are still wide open spaces and dramatic vistas- there's just a little more mud.
But with Galem to run that nice hot shower for our heroine Caz, I hope you agree, that's not going to be a problem for very long!

What else is different?

Seeing the humour in the situation became inevitable when I was actually relating some of the things (minus Galem, of course) that happened to me when I first moved to the countryside. If you can't laugh at yourself, who can you laugh at?!
Moving here has been a wonderful experience for me, and an eye-opener too, and I was desperate to share it with you. I was so glad when the editors at Harlequin found a home for this story with Modern X-tra.

Taking my main protagonists out of their comfort zone and putting them head to head in Hawkshead really sparked my imagination, and I hope you'll look out for my next Modern X-tra when I'll be doing the same thing again, only this time I'll be taking my country girl and putting her smack bang in the centre of the city.

Rye Bread?
I love it, and have just discovered a new variety at my local store.
Yum.

Recycling. Trying to recycle/compost everything. (plastic still a problem)
Also switching off those sockets with TV's plugged in and mobile phone chargers- not to mention the computers etc!

Love to all, and happy reading everyone!

Susan

But still standing. Or sitting in front of my pooter, to be more accurate.
Oh, yes, I'm thrilled. Bearing in mind my first Modern X-tra romance takes place over a single weekend and quite a bit of that time is devoted to some serious mud wrestling with our man hunk, Galem... whaddya think of the title?

DIRTY WEEKEND

I think it's ****** brilliant!
Hail, Jenny! I salute you. Totally utterly fabulous, girl.

Dirty Weekend is a May 2007 release for S S, and there will be another X-tra following shortly after that when I turn the tables and take a country girl and place her smack bang in the centre of the city.

Have a great weekend, ladies- and if you can't manage any mud wrestling, or you're short of a man hunk just pick up a fab romance and dream a little (it's the safest way, believe me!)

Back on Monday with some more news, views and loonie stuff.

Love to all, and happy reading everyone!
Susan

My totally fantastic b'day treat from Wiggy was a fab meal with champagne plus a trip to the ballet to see Alice in Wonderland.
It was wonderful. I adore the theatre, and am totally in awe of anyone who can lift their legs at any angle not required for walking- suffice it to say, I was impressed.

Fantastic night out. Thank you, Wiggy, and thank you to a breathtakingly talented cast.

Am still in Greece with more angst and anger than you can throw a stick at. Talking of which, the wood has arrived for the wooden floor in my hall, so I shall be wearing ear muffs for the next few days. Also tiler returns today to take up some cracked tiles, so things may get a little fraught around here. Never mind. Love conquers all- isn't that what they say?

Love to all, and happy reading everyone!
Susan

Okay, not really. Am just there in my head. And loving it! Hail Alexander! King of the Greek gods. He's a brute, and I love him. My heroine, Ellie, is finding him quite a handful, at the moment. (no, I'm not grinning, what do you mean? He's a naughty bad boy alpha who needs some serious retraining, that's all. Come on, ladies, let's have some decorum here!!!)

Realised I am even more loonie than I thought. There's another site you should visit- and when I get time to adjust my sidebar I'll stick it on... the Presents authors site... Now you're going to ask me for the addy, and I don't know. So, back in a mo' when I've checked it out...

Well, whaddyaknow? It's www.harlequinpresents.com (now, there's a surprise- To me, at least!)

Check out the monthly feature. The next one in November will be 'Ten Songs that mean something to you' Love 'em or hate 'em, you gotta check 'em out!

That's it. Back to Greece and that brute of a man. (It's a hard life, but someone's gotta...)

Love and hugs y'all
Sxxx

Ecstatic to hear my man hunk Galem will be hitting the shelves in my first Modern X-tra set in Hawkshead some time in 2007. The moment I have a title I'll let you know.

If you fancy some serious mud wrestling Galem's your man.

Thought you might like to see a pic of Froggie, my lovely French very-nearly-daughter plus the man sprog dressed as Zorro. Zorro's the one with the beard and a rather large sword, Froggie is wearing lipstick.
And before you ask, yes, they were going to a fancy dress party. Just because I'm a little loonie, doesn't mean it's catching!!



And here's froggy looking like a... well, like a froggy; complete with onion.


On second thoughts, perhaps it is catching, after all!

Hugs around the world

Susanxx

Aaah, uuuum, yeeeh, and other sounds of contentment.

DH is in Poland on business with son sprog , so girls rang to ask if they could keep mama company....

That's so fantastic and wonderful of them, but you know what? I told them I'd be okay and not to worry.

Took the longest bubble bath ever, during which I read the paper in the bath (a hanging offence). Then I watched rubbish on the TV eating junk food (mostly chocolate) with my feet up on the sofa, whilst ringing up huge phone bills chatting to my chums and drinking wine. Then, as if that wasn't enough I went to bed and filed my nails (boiling in oil for this one, especially as was careful to file nails on dh's side of the bed only) and finally fell asleep reading.

Like I said- Aaaah, Uuuum, Yeeh, and other sounds of contentment.

Glad dh is back soon to pick the bits out of the bed
(only joking!)

And the moral of this story is?
Use your space when you get it, ladies!

Love to all, and happy reading everyone!
Susan

.Talking of which. On the first visit to the home of a chum I spied a number of nibbles laid out to accompany pre dinner drinks. I, of course, being too vain to wear my specs picked up a handful and crammed them in my mouth- only to discover to my horror that I was chomping down happily on a mouthful of pot pourri.

Two Paw- how right you are so about the formula issues- BTW in the unlikely event that anyone finds a formula, will they please not bother to let me know! I love my characters too much to subject them to a straightjacket.

Went to see Nigel Havers in the theatre adaptation of Daphne Du Maurier's fab dark book, Rebecca... How could they give Max De Winter comedic lines to say? He should be haunted in every sense of the word, in my 'umble opinion. The sister and brother in law are there to provide 'light relief' but not dear old Max, surely?

However, that gripe apart it was a lovely evening, and thank you to Sue and Andrew for inviting us.

Off to walk Fin now in an overcast north of England- but still quite warm, unusually for this time of year.

Seeing my darling Shahin creeping into the charts. I love those sheikhs. Back to Greece next, and then its into the desert once again for me, Wonder who I'll find there this time...

Just reminded my to say re Galem in Modern X-tra- I don't go for unusual names at all, but when I tried to change this one I found I couldn't write the book- so, Galem Brent it is.

Hugs all round
Susan

When I had my third and last child and was told to shut up shop by my consultant I grieved for the fact that I would never give birth again.

Are you crazeeeeeee? I hear women shout across the world.

I think we all know the answer to that one- but truthfully, for all its messiness and concerning similarities to basting a turkey, the actual process of giving birth remains a miracle.

Little did I know I'd be doing it on a regular basis- between 4 and 6 times a year depending on how fertile I am.

Yep, that's books ladies, before you all run for cover- and I just had a very difficult birth, but I hope you all think it was worth it when my first X-tra hits the stands.

(can't help thinking 'X-tra X-tra, read all about it!')



And of course, because my story set in Hawkshead takes place over a single weekend you might know I gave it the working title of 'Something X-tra for the Weekend'

I adore my hero Galem- don't ask about the name- he named himself. I'd never heard the name before. And my heroine Caz/Cassandra with her split personality is quite a gal' I hope you like her- especially after the pain she gave me!

That's it!
Have a great weekend, everyone. I'm off to the theatre tonight, where I shall probaby be snoring in the stalls.

(I hope not, but was up at 3am this morning to finish the book - to my satisfaction- and its generally my angst that takes up the time, not my editors- there are so many ways to tell a story, and I want to tell it the very best way I can)

Right now I'm a proud mum again and its great.

Love to all, and happy reading everyone!
Susan

Okay, so you remember Tom and Jerry... Think Jerry when he has just been steam-rollered.

'Just change a few scenes around' went the directive

But as each scene is a step on the journey this has meant a complete rewrite and I still have the Epilogue to write with the book due or should I say overdue tomorrow.

For those of you that think we earn a heap o' dosh, let me just say that if I worked these hours on the tills at my local supermarket I'd be loaded- and I don't so I ain't!
I've lost 2 weekends so far plus getting up at 3 am to start work isn't going down to well with the family.

So, finished or not, am taking them all out tomorrow night.

I have the wonderful and gracious Sandra Marton to thank for this picture taken in London recently of me and one of my absolute heroine of Presents writers, Jaquie Baird.

Me sitting next to Jaquie Baird!!! (Squeal of excitement) I'll always be a fan, ladies, because these fabulous authors have given me so much reading pleasure over so many years.

Back when life is saner, hopefully!!!

Love to all, and thank you all for your forbearance
Susanxxx

Congratulations to Tammy, the winner of the latest AR Blog contest.
Back on the 26th October, ladies. See you there!

Back soon when have finished revisions. Have to have complete blackout until they're finished.

Love to all, and happy reading everyone!
Susan

<-- Hey, look, even the dog gets fed up with me sometimes. All right, all right, no need to shout! AND SHE'S NOT THE ONLY ONE!!!!

Just rushing in cos' I've seen the light re revisions (thank you 2paw for your lovely comments and encouragement- you have no idea how it bolsters me up when I'm sinking under waves of revisions to read things like that)

Woke up this morning and realised what was wrong with my ms - I hadn't pushed the emotion button. Yes, I know why I care about my characters so much, but how can anyone else be expected to know unless I put my thoughts down on the page.
Thank you Jenny, for reminding me that emotion's what I do- DO, being the operative word!! And I'm doing it right now, I promise you.

But here's a reminder to go take a look on Access Romance where you can get some idea of the muddle I work amidst. (love it really)

It's worse than usual today as I got up super early and into my study at 6am to get my revisions sorted - I cleaned up the facts a bit for AR!!! But promise you won't tell anyone.

Right now in addition to all the junk you can read about on AR there's a menu from the hairdresser I will get round to going to-
Two cups of cold tea/coffee made for me by sproglatina/her hairband, diary and assorted papers
A ruler and a clipper thing I never use, plus a paper punch for when I decide to get around to printing out hard copy- which I never do these days...
And oh, gosh, the memory stick I've been hunting for for days!!! Off to plug it in right now.

Love to all, and happy reading everyone!

Susan
ps Maybe I'll shame myself with a true to life pic' of my desk tomorrow- I guarantee it will make you all feel soooo good!
Sxxx

Sharon J for pointing out that my ire against spammers had been pub'd not once but 3 times.

My apologies ladies.

I blame everything on the fact that I'm deep in revision terrirory right now, having returned from my bridge class yesterday to find a 6 page revision letter awaiting me. Oh, the joys of writing!!!

Fortunately, I thrive on a challenge.

If only I'd felt like this way back when I sent M&B my first submission! But back then I was a weed, at least as far as my writing was concerned- Now I'm more like an old tree trunk- doesn't stop people having a kick at me, but it sure is hard to knock me down!
Aaaah, think of all those stubbed toes.

Okay, ninja, take a rest, time to be nice!

And to remind you that's there's another chance to win a prize tomorrow if I actually get round to posting my blog with access romance!
Bekke, if you're reading this... I will. I will.

Love to all, and happy reading everyone!
Susan

Hi Ladies,

Just popping in double-quick to warn you that there will be a delay on your comments appearing here.
I received the attention of one of those waste of space spammers and had to instigate 'moderation' so I can vet each comment before it appears.
Hope this saves you the added aggravation of having to bump up against these creatures on my site.

Back with news of my first *Bridge* class in a couple of days (when I've obeyed the edict from above and done a heap of writing!!!) And Aaaargh! You might have guessed! It's raining! So no toes to count on to get up to that *magic* number of 13. Now where did I put that abacus?!

Love to all, and happy reading everyone!

Susan

Okay, I am cooking my next book and you really don't want to be around until I get it half-way sorted in my head.
This is what I'm thinking H and h-wise- at least by the end of the book!
Like it?

I have instigated a complete cooking ban and tools down 'don't call me mother' sort of weekend.

Then I had a mad moment- going stir crazy in writer's cave- and, having carefully planned delicate planting scheme in consultation with dh- shades of pink and red for new garden- raced off to Garden centre picked up every box of yellow pansies they had- quite a lot, as it turned out- and peppered my whole perfect scheme with them.
Who says I can't have a municipal look about my garden? Wanna fight? Okay, if you do you have to get in line behind dh and the sprogs.

But all will be better tomorrow when am having first lesson in Bridge-
Bearing in mind I can't count when I run out of fingers and my pre-lesson Bridge notes mention the first 'magic' number is 13, I shall be wearing open-toe sandals. Woe betide the weather if it rains!

Cindy will understand that what I need is a yomp in the fields with my beloved Fin. Those ducks kick up a storm in my bath, C, in answer to your question!
And I never heard of keeping swans in the bath- but what do I know!
Used to have wind up boats when I was a sprog. Would still quite like one...

As I was writing this suddenly realised why I'm in full-on Ninja Carrot mode... my new Presents has very angry hero- heroine has just rained on his parade.I know he's Greek and I think he's called Alex, and she's definitely called Jenny... but sweet and sacharine Jenny Wren she ain't!
Looks like I'm in for another tumultuous few weeks. Stay with me for the ride, ladies, I'm going to need to know you're there!

Have a great 'rest of weekend' everyone.
Yours growling
Susan