Happy New Year tarty ones, may all your resolutions be easy to keep, and the coming 365 days full of splendid things.

a couple of things :
1.I'm now blogging! yes, the 21st century has been going for 9 years and I've just about got the hang of the tools of the last one. it remains to be seen if blogging really is (as I suspect) the worst form of anti-writing procrastination possible, but I'm giving it a go for now.
here : http://stelladuffy.wordpress.com/
Seeing as how it took almost a full year's worth of occasional nudges to get Lauren on facebook, any bets on how long it'll take her to get a blog going?
2. the Mills & Boon tv doc where I have a go writing one and Lauren features sitting prettily in a gorgeously lit corner of her home, is repeated on new Year's Day, BBC4, 8pm. come join us.

have a good one. x

Hi Stella,

A Happy New Year to you and Lauren!

I have made a resolution to finish my novel this year and read lots.

I had a blog at University and it dwindled, I went back to it before my hols to the States last Nov, and found myself locked out due to my incompetence to write down the username and password... so, let that be a lesson to all who blog.

Last but not least, I have just watched the fabulous Mills and Boon programme on the iPlayer and it has fired me up to go and write a scene of revelatory love between my two lead characters (just as soon as I sign off here).
Maybe you could clear a point up for me though. I saw a very nineteen-seventies looking woman holding a small white yappy dog being interviewed for a documentary from the Beeb archives... to be a successful romance writer, does one need a small dog? Perhaps this is where I am going wrong???

I also may invest in a whiteboard for my den - because that looks like the bees knees and a great distraction... I mean 'Tool'.

Love

Alice

xxx

whiteboard is a great thing. though in truth, mine is never as clear & clean - or used quite so simplistically - as I did in the programme (not least because I took off it all the notes about other books/stories/ideas I'm currently working on, never just doing one thing at a time, but not wanting to share all my other ideas with the world as well!

as for a fluffy dog - I find a small and very cute cat works adequately.

good luck with the book-finishing!

Incidentally, I found that through writing the big emotional heart to heart 'I love you' scene, it gave me a way back into the novel after leaving it for so long and has given me something to focus on; make sure the rest of the novel leads up to this point and winds down to a satisfactory end. It was a liberating afternoon yesterday - not just for me, but my Hero and Heroine too. I hope for similarly excellent working conditions tomorrow.