You'll be mad to miss this cover reveal from author Rosie Green! .@rararesources .@Rosie_Green1988 #comedy #romance #newrelease #coverreveal, #romcom

A Bakery at the Little Duck Pond Cafe

by

Rosie Green

Ellie’s dreams of opening a bakery in Sunnybrook are finally coming true and best friends Fen and Jaz are happily rallying round, helping her to plan a fabulous grand opening day. 

Pre-order Links 
Amazon.UK | Amazon.com

Everything in their garden seems to be rosy – until the arrival of a newcomer brings chaos to the village and tests relationships to the limit. 

Can the bakery succeed in the face of such upheaval? And more importantly, can firm friendships survive?

About author Rosie Green

Rosie Green has been scribbling stories ever since she was little. Back then they were rip-roaring adventure tales with a young heroine in perilous danger of falling off a cliff or being tied up by ‘the baddies’. Thankfully, Rosie has moved on somewhat, and now much prefers to write romantic comedies that melt your heart and make you smile, with really not much perilous danger involved at all, unless you count the heroine losing her heart in love.

Rosie’s brand new series of novellas is centred on life in a village café. The first two stories in the series are: Spring at The Little Duck Pond Cafe and Summer at The Little Duck Pond Café.

Twitter - https://twitter.com/Rosie_Green1988

If you like #romantic #comedy, check out this extract from Firestarter.

Extract from

FIRESTARTER

by

Patsy Collins

Hamish said, 'I remember you two, don't I? Applemore School?'
'Correct! I'm Kate and this is my sister Alice. Excuse her if she drools or anything, she has a slight uniform and rubber fetish.'
Alice jabbed her elbow into her traitorous sister's ribs. Normally it would be flattering to be remembered, but she couldn't help wondering exactly what he recalled about her. Had he been aware of quite how often she went to watch rugby practices, or that he was the reason for her interest? Probably not, as she'd been too awestruck to speak to him on the few occasions they'd come face to face, but there was a risk that Kate's comments about drooling would bring it all back.
'Either of you girls like to ring my bell?' Hamish indicated the siren.
'Alice would.' Kate announced a sudden decision to investigate smoke detectors and jumped down from the truck.
'Tactful girl, your sister.'
'I might let her live to regret it.'
'How about coming for a drink with me and we can plot your revenge?' He gave a very attractive grin which made the skin at the sides of his grey-green eyes crinkle.

Amazon

Alice has a fantasy. 
It starts with being rescued by a hunky fireman, involves the kiss of life and ends in him not needing his uniform. 
At the New Forest Show, Alice is offered an innocent version of her dream. Reluctantly she turns down fireman Hamish's invitation.

Despite Alice's blameless behaviour, boyfriend Tony's obsessive jealousy kicks in.

Hamish wants to take Tony's place, but a hoaxer ensures Alice already sees far too much of Hampshire Fire Service. The threat of an explosive sprout surprise, her mum's baking, sister Kate's mind boggling pep talks and the peculiar behaviour of Alice's boss Miles provide distractions.

Is Alice really in danger? What is Kate up to? Can Hamish possibly be as perfect as he seems? 

It takes Alice masses of wonderful food, disgusting wine, smelly mud, red footed crows and steamy Welsh passion, but she finds the answers. 
And rethinks her fantasy.

Patsy Collins is a novelist and short story writer. More than 400 of her short stories have been published, mostly in magazines in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Sweden, Australia and South Africa. She's also written three other novels, Escape To The Country, Paint Me A Picture and A Year And A Day.

She lives in Hampshire with her photographer husband Gary Davies. A lot of their time is spent in their campervan, which they use as a mobile office. Much of Patsy's work is written in the locations at which the stories are set. That was the case with Firestarter, although the van had to double as the cute Welsh cottage. 

Patsy enjoyed studying the birds and seals mentioned in the book, eating all Alice's favourite food and was absolutely forced to talk to firemen to check a few facts. She's not saying how thorough her research was for the scenes inside the cottage.

Sales link - viewBook.at/Firestarter

Website - patsycollins.uk
Blog -  http://womagwriter.blogspot.co.uk

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Heard of reverse promotion?

For something different in May I'm offering space on my blog for those who dare to write reverse promotion about their book (or themselves). It's a fun/evil way of talking about your bad characters, or your characters' worse traits (they aren't perfect, I hope!), and dishing the dirt on your writing style. 

Nook

Kobo 

Paperback

Your Amazon

Apple iStore

Here's my reverse promotion on my romantic comedy - 

A Proper Charlie.

The book is British and set in London, so for any non Britons reading be prepared for a lot Brit lingo that'll confuse the stuffing out of you. The main character, Charlie Wallis, also has ginger hair, and if that isn't enough to put you off she's too needy, too trusting and an utter doormat to her loser of a boyfriend, Andy.

The genre is romantic comedy but love scenes don't come easy to me so I took the easy way out and wrote bad sex scenes--I've had lots of experience (did I just say that out loud?). Anyhoo, here's short 'sexy' excerpt:

He stood up – it took several attempts – but he eventually stood before her. ‘Had one pint, that’s all,’ he said, pronouncing pint as “point”. He staggered sidewards, righted himself, but then staggered the other way. He sat back down. ‘Think my drink was spiked.’

Charlie sat next to him. ‘Sorry I yelled, love. I’m tired, that’s all. You could have asked me about having your mates here. I wouldn’t have minded,’ she lied. She always felt the need to count the cutlery after they’d been round.

Andy swallowed a belch and nodded.

She slipped her arms around his waist. ‘I’m not too tired for making love, though.’

‘Need a piss,’ he said and pulled away from her. Before he got to the bathroom, his fly was undone and he was pulling his penis from his boxers. He peed with the door open and then staggered back towards Charlie, tucking it away. He wiped his hands on his jeans.

‘Let’s shag until morning,’ he said with a grin. He tripped and crashed to the ground by her feet. He laughed, belched, and fell asleep.

A Proper Charlie is real life, real funny and real pink. If you're a guy you'll hate it: no guns (heck, this is a British novel!), no babes (heck, this is a British novel!), and no fast cars (heck this is a ...). If you're a girl you'll hate it too: no hearts and flowers, no sexy guys (unless you find geeky men attractive) and no shiny, sparkly shoes (I don't think Charlie has any!).

Charlie lives for love but she's clueless, and clings to her boyfriend unaware that he's abusing her trust. She's clueless in everything she does, in fact, as one reviewer put 'A Proper Charlie is a piece of steaming shite!' and her boss Ben Middleton (no relation to Kate) gets covered in the stuff! 

So you see, unless you like annoying characters who are not only unlucky in love but useless, then do literature a favour and DON'T buy A Proper Charlie.

So over to you guys. Write something about your book using one of the below styles (or your own idea):

1. 200 to 700 word article (approx) on why people shouldn't buy {name of book}.
2. 200 to 700 word article (approx) on why people should avoid all your book(s).
3. 200 to 700 word article (approx) on why people should avoid you completely (as a person and/or as an author).

Article (or bullet points) can be funny, argumentative, evil, an utter piss-take, your call.

Send in your author media (links, bio and pic) and book details (purchase links, blurb, extract etc).

Please send all ASAP so I can arrange everyone with dates using the 'contact' button top left of screen. All articles will appear here and tweeted out via Triberr. Intros to your article will be posted to WWBB's Facebook page. All book covers will be posted on Pinterest in the Book Junkies library.

Come on, be brave...

When a dream becomes reality

A Day In The Life of 

Carmel Harrington

Have you ever watched the Oscars and fantasised about one day walking the red carpet one day? Maybe you have stood in front of your mirror with a hairbrush in hand and practised your ‘Gwennie’ acceptance speech!

Or of a Friday night, while soaking in your bath do you do a ‘Jimmy Rabbitte’ from The Commitments? Remember that hilarious scene where he practiced his celebrity interview with Terry Wogan? (Ok that’s a few years ago, so now it might be Graham Norton or Alan Carr that you use, but you get the idea!)

If you are sport-mad like my husband, you may have thought about scoring the winning goal for Liverpool in the Champions League Final once or twice. (delete/insert your favourite team here!)

My point here is that for most of us, we all have a day-dream or fantasy ‘what if’ moment in our heads that we never really think will come true, but it’s fun to think about every now and then.

Well for me, my fantasy day-dream was to see a book I’d written for sale in a bookshop. Preferably not in the bargain basket! Ever since I was a young girl, a self-confessed book nerd I might add, I would marvel at the beautiful covers that adorned book shelves row after row and wonder what it must feel like for those authors to see their work displayed so magnificently. Over the years, I have spent many a happy afternoon drinking coffee in my local bookshop, flicking through new releases and deciding which book would be my next purchase. And inadvertently I would find myself day-dreaming about one day seeing my own name amongst those heroes of mine. Just thinking about it would make me smile.

The Snarky Sarcasm Chromosome

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Step Away from the Cat!

by

Monique McDonell

I’m blogging today about a phenomenon that I may be guilty of in my own fiction.  You’ll recognise it when I explain. It’s when a main character uses a pet as a confidant and ally. Let’s loosely call it ‘the animal as a literary device’.

Take a lonely single girl who sits around talking to her cat (or dog or hamster) lamenting her situation because nobody else understands her. Sure she might be a ditz and she might be a bit flaky, but dammit if she isn’t home every night to feed Fido or Whiskers and to lament her miserable life!

There’s a reason you see this in books and that’s because when it’s done well, it works. Here are some very successful examples that may spring to mind:

Janet Evanovich uses it in a lot of her traditional romances, and in the Stephanie Plum series it seems Rex the Hamster is almost the only thing Stephanie can keep track of (how one hamster has survived so many explosions in one apartment with just a cage to protect him is quite the mystery, but Stephanie needs Rex and so he has bravely powered on through nineteen books so far! Don’t let my cynicism throw you off, I’ve read all nineteen of those books!).

A great example of this done well in the chick lit genre is Must Love dogs by Claire Cook. I loved this book back in the day because at that time it was a fresh angle….eight years later, hmm I’m not sure.

Meg Cabot did it in The Princess Diaries (cat) and in The Boy Next Door (dog). If you can add pet-sitting into the story line you get double points. Well, not that there are points but you get the dog as the confidant and the fish out of water scenario as well. (In my first novel Mr Right and Other Mongrels the main character has the opposite issue – a crippling dog phobia – not much sitting around talking to the dogs in that one).

So what is my point you ask? People do have pets and they do talk to them. People really will race home to feed their cat rather than have a night of crazy sex with a new love interest – either because the cat really does need to eat or because it’s a nice way out when you’re scared you like him too much or you don’t like him enough –  but either way it does happen. People do walk their dogs and meet new friends at the dog park, absolutely. It’s real life and that makes it realistic, sure.

I guess my point is that done well it is just fine to have animals as confidants in books but done badly it’s just another cliché. It’s another “here we go” moment for a reader and neither the author nor the reader wants that.

That’s why I say “Step Away from the Cat” unless he brings some unique energy or purpose that will have the readers caring about that animal, not just as a literary device, but as a real life character that they too would give up a wonderful romantic evening for.

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Introducing...

Mr Right and Other Mongrels

Blissfully happy in her own universe Allegra (Ally) Johnson is the sweet best friend everyone wants to have. Quietly and independently wealthy she runs a charming second-hand bookshop in beachside Manly. Heck, sometimes she even goes downstairs from her flat to run the shop in her Chinese silk pyjamas. It sounds like bliss. But is it enough? 

When dog-phobic Allegra is rescued from an exuberant canine by the chivalrous Teddy Green, Australia’s hottest TV celebrity and garden make-over guru, her life begins to change. Dramatically!

Unaware of Teddy’s fame Allegra finds herself falling for him, despite her best attempts to resist his charm. Supported by her eccentric family and her fabulous gay friend Justin, Allegra embarks on an on-again off-again romance with Teddy, complicated by his jealous ex-girlfriend, fashionista Louisa and her own narcissistic hippy mother Moonbeam.

Will Ally be able to overcome her insecurities and find happiness with this possible Mr Right or will Teddy’s celebrity lifestyle prove to be too much?

Mr Right and Other Mongrels is a light-hearted story about how one chance encounter can change your life.

About author Monique McDonell is an Australian author who writes contemporary women's fiction including chick lit and romance. She lives on Sydney's Northern Beaches with husband and daughter, and despite her dog phobia, a dog called Skip.

At University she studied Creative Writing as part of of her Communication degree. Afterwards, she was busy working in public relations and didn't write for pleasure for quite a few years although she wrote many media releases, brochures and newsletters - and still does in her day-job.

When she began to write again she noticed that writing dark unhappy stories made her unhappy, so she made a decision to write a novel with a happy ending, and has been writing happy stories ever since.