Happy Monday!

I know! How can it possibly be Monday again already?

Time goes by scary-quick, we all know that. But if you're trying to bring your dream to life, do you think time goes by faster or slower?

Today I'm talking about the epigraph I chose for The Little Clock House on the Green. Find out how it relates to bringing your dreams to life over with Sophie on her great site:
Book Drunk
http://bit.ly/2ohPUfE

Good morning,

Ever wanted to know when national Massage Day is????

Well look no further than the fabulous
Shaz's Book Blog
http://bit.ly/2oQVOnV

to find out! I'm over on the site with some fun facts that I discovered while researching all things spa and all things salon for The Little Clock House on the Green.

Good Morning, my lovelies!
So here is where I confess that my Saturday started with tears!
Don't worry - they were #HappyTears...

And I'm totally blaming the lovely Kaisha Holloway for her review of The Little Clock House on the Green!

Pop over to her gorgeous site to see:
The Writing Garnet
http://bit.ly/2oPq3OV

Happy Friday, everyone!

Today on the blog tour I have a coffee-break/tea-break/lunch-break sized #excerpt from The Little Clock House on the Green to share with you all...

over on the fabulous
Rachel's Random Reads site
http://bit.ly/2p8ztBD 

So excited that today I'm on the really wonderful Ali The Dragon Slayer site with a post about...

yep...Postcards.

Could you receive a postcard and NOT turn it over and see what was written on the other side or see who it was from?

Stop by Ali's wonderful site to see what postcards have to do with The Little Clock House on the Green (and to find out about the lost art of postcard sending, as well)

Ali The Dragon Slayer
http://bit.ly/2nNr1Yd

Today marks Day 2 of the blog tour for The Little Clock House on the Green...

And I'm over on the gorgeous Laura Bambrey Books blog talking about my writing cave. So if you're a little bit nosy, ahem, sorry, curious about where I try and coax words onto the page and you can cope with how messy I am pop over and join us!

Laura Bambrey Books

bit.ly/2nINLZv 

I'm with the lovely Alba in Bookland today talking about how I come up with the names for my characters and the village Whispers Wood.

If you'd love to find out who was the inspiration behind Kate Somersby, Daniel Westlake, Juliet Brown and Oscar Matthews, as well as learn some of The Little Clock House's favourite English village names, please stop by for a visit...

ALBA IN BOOKLAND:  http://bit.ly/2o4xDEA 

Feeling very excited and proud that The Little Clock House on the Green is published today.

As well as all the lovely links to the digital and paperback copies, I’m over the moon to announce that paperbacks of The Little Clock House on the Green are going to be in all SAINSBURY’s stores! So if, you know, you fancy buying a digital or a paperback copy you now have lots of choice ;)

Prepare for shelfie posting over the next few days but in the meantime here's a little taste of the prettiness!

Here’s your quick list of links, but you can also find all the deets on my Book Page as well.

AMAZON 
           
GOOGLE PLAY
 
HARPERCOLLINS

iTUNES
 
KOBO
 
NOOK/Barnes&Noble

Love and Little Clock House kisses,

Today I started writing my next book. As I opened a blank document I don’t know why I was surprised that my overwhelming thought, was: um…how do I do this, again? It’s the exact same thought I have every time I sit down to begin a new story!

I guess the key is to start simply. This time though as I typed the opening sentence (a simple but nicely humorous one, IMHO) I realised, ironically, that exactly one year ago today I was rushing my husband to A and E.

That trip was the start of a very long and very difficult year. A year where the challenges just did not stop coming. My husband turned out to be seriously ill with a rare variant of Guillam-Barre and ended up spending a month in hospital having his blood treated to try and reverse the damage the Miller-Fisher syndrome was wreaking on his body. After that he had to stay at a neurological rehabilitation unit to assess his motor-skills and brain function.  After that he spent eight months at home doing hours upon hours of daily exercises ranging from picking up paperclips, to writing, to muscle-strengthening, to building up the stamina needed to walk one mile. After that he had to summon the confidence to interview for, and get, a new job, because he’d just left one before he got ill. And after all that he had to be able to do the new job, day in, day out.

All this, along with global events that you can’t fail to feel the impact of, made the year a giant ball of stress. The extreme kind and then the kind of insidious slow-burn, low-level stress you think you’re dealing with until you find yourself in your local supermarket, staring at the jars of coffee and wondering why there are SO many different brands, and why you can’t remember which one you buy, and why your face is wet!  There have been times this year where the stress has made the symptoms from my Chiari malformation so bad that I’ve struggled to do even the simplest of tasks and I’ve got ridiculously frustrated with my inability to do All The Things. All Perfectly!

In short there have been lots of tears – grieving-tears, worry-tears, fearful-tears, utter-frustration-tears, stress-relieving-tears, and…happy-tears too.

Because three-hundred and sixty-five days simply cannot be all bad!

At least my husband and I absolutely refuse to let them be!

And so as well as the bad there has been good. I had two books publish during the year and somehow I managed to write another as well. Writing the book was, on one hand, a wonderful way of taking my mind off what was happening, and on the other, a humongous scary-difficultness!

As a writer my job is to create a world that has conflict and drama in it. But at various times this year my natural instinct, when faced with any kind of drama, has been to want to pick up a very large bat and knock it right back out the stratosphere. I quickly discovered that if I allowed my characters to resolve the conflict in their lives by simply picking up a bat and batting it away, it was going to be a very short book! Also, completely un-funny. Bit of a nightmare when you’re writing a romantic comedy to be honest. I ended up writing, and re-writing over and over until I could put the drama in without immediately wanting to delete it and, again, because twenty-four-seven, three-sixty-five can’t possibly be all bad, I eventually stumbled upon some funny and popped that in too!

I already know that this year is going to bring more challenges (because, Life, right?) but as I get back to hitting my word-count for the day, I guess all I really need to do, is set aside the fear – and simply start…

– a company of alpha-honourable heroes and spirited and strong heroines…

Heart-pounding romantic suspense set in a world of high-tech security, feuding royals, and missing diamonds. Strap in for sizzling chemistry and fast-paced, thrilling action all the way!

It all starts with an historical romantic suspense set in the birthplace of great engineering and design, The Great Exhibition, London, 1851:

BUY LINK: AMAZON
BLURB: To Love a Thief, Steel Hawk, Book 1, by Jane Beckenham
It's one thing to lose your heart. Quite another to have it stolen.
Years ago, notorious jewel thief “The Raven” vanished into the shadows. In 1851, Nathan Hawk emerges into a life of respectability, determined to make up for past sins.
He and his business partner are introducing a lock they’re so sure can’t be broken, they’re displaying a priceless diamond, the Pasha Star, at the Great Exhibition. It’s bad enough catching a light-fingered young man trying to steal the stone. Worse when he realizes it’s the daughter of his old mentor.
Rose Valetta’s father has been kidnapped, and she needs the Star to buy his freedom. She never expected to come nose-to-nose with Nathan. Their reunion is fraught with tension, especially when they discover the diamond in Nathan’s impregnable case is not the Pasha Star.
With Nathan’s reputation in tatters, they race to find the real stone before it’s too late for Rose’s father. Too late to save the empire from a usurper. And too late to keep from losing their hearts.
Product Warnings
Contains a woman who dreams of a world with a level playing field, and an ex-thief who can run from his past but can’t hide from it. 
 
And moves to present-day: Steel Hawk has prospered for 150 years, securing some of the world’s most treasured possessions. But now a secret from the past threatens to destroy the company and a new generation must take up the fight.

BUY LINK: AMAZON
BLURB: Heart of Steel, Steel Hawk, Book 2, by Eve Devon 
Colleague, friend, lover…beautiful liar?
Adam Steel is in crisis mode. A recent exposé claims a founder of Steel Hawk was actually The Raven, an infamous jewel thief. Amid the ensuing damage control, all eyes are on his ability to develop a prototype to secure and protect the royal Pasha Star diamond.
He’s further blindsided when he learns his assistant, Honeysuckle Hawk, has a sordid past he never knew about. Proving he never really knew her, never should have trusted her, and definitely shouldn’t start falling for her.
With her dirty laundry flapping in the media storm, Honeysuckle’s first instinct is to run. Two things make her stay: Adam’s insistence it’s better to show the world a united front, and her heart’s insistence by his side is where she belongs.
High stakes and long hours ignite passion…until the diamond is stolen and Adam’s own prototype shows Honeysuckle is a thief. Dare he trust her to help him expose the real criminal—before the mastermind wreaks havoc on the royal family?
Product Warnings
Contains an über-hot, alpha-geek who’s good with his hands, a sassy reformed-rebel determined to prove she’s not a flake, romantic castles, gorgeous jewels, sleek and sexy technology, heart-pounding suspense…oh, and nipple tassels!

But with the battle only half-won, STEEL HAWK is about to learn that trust has a price…

BLURB: Dangerous Illusions, Steel Hawk, Book 3, by Sarah Balance – publishing August
Keep your lovers close, your enemies closer. Especially if they’re one and the same.
With Steel Hawk still reeling from explosions at Zarrenburg Castle and at its own headquarters, company lawyer Edward Long’s legendary stoicism has been severely tested. It’s clearly an inside job, and no one is deeper inside than Edward—which leaves him squarely in the center of a frame.
Someone is using him to bring down the company he loves. Worse, the PI that Adam Hawk sends to investigate…there’s something off about her. And something that seriously turns him on.
Operating under an assumed name, Sophie Hawk aims to dig deeper into the company’s systems than any other investigator would dare. Especially with the prime suspect’s hot-chocolate gaze tracking her every move.
As their dueling intellects strike sparks, the rising heat threatens the trip wires Edward has set up around his heart—and the secret that ties him to a man who’ll stop at nothing to claim his right to rule the house of Zarrenburg. Or, if he can’t have it, destroy it—and everyone connected to it.
Product Warnings
Contains agonizingly sweet kisses, dirty thoughts, dirtier talk, mutual trust stretched to the limit, and criminal abuse of a thousand-dollar suit jacket.

About the STEEL HAWK Authors:
Take three authors from three different corners of the world…

Jane Beckenham writes historical and contemporary romance after falling for stories about love and hope. Inspired by happy ever afters she found her own true love and together they adopted and raised two daughters. She lives with her family in New Zealand where writing is her addiction – and sure beats housework!
WEBSITE         FACEBOOK              TWITTER

Eve Devon writes romantic comedy, contemporary fiction and romantic suspense with sexy heroes, sassy heroines, and happily ever afters… She lives in leafy Surrey in the UK, a book-devouring, slightly melodramatic, romance-writing sassy heroine with her very own sexy-hero husband!
WEBSITE        FACEBOOK            TWITTER                              

Sarah Ballance lives on the US mid-Atlantic coast with her husband and children. She writes in many genres and loves creating unforgettable stories while putting her characters through an unkind amount of torture—a hobby that has nothing to do with living with six children!
 WEBSITE        FACEBOOK        TWITTER                             
                           
So if you love historical romance or contemporary romance, steam-punk elements, inventors, royalty, diamonds, bad-boys, alpha-geeks, co-workers-to-lovers, revenge, and psychological suspense with your mystery; then immerse yourself in the world of STEEL HAWK… and let the seduction begin.
STEEL HAWK – strong as Steel, watchful as a Hawk