It Started With a Kiss week 5: Pressure, expectations and dates from hell...

All this year, I'm keeping a video diary of everything that goes into writing my third novel, It Started With a Kiss, due to be published in November. This week, I'm answering your questions, including dealing with the pressure of a six-book deal, my worst ever date story, how much editing goes into a first draft and whether I'm a planner or a spontaneous writer. Oh, and a rather fantastic hat voted for by my twitter followers!

Thanks so much for your fantastic questions - keep them coming!

Also, I now have an official publish date for It Started With a Kiss (which is now, worryingly, already up for preorder at Amazon.co.uk -how mad is that?!) It's going to be published on THURSDAY 3rd NOVEMBER!! Scary stuff!

So sit back, relax and enjoy!

p.s. The YouTube designated freeze-frame pose this week is entitled, 'Fagin in a Panama'...

Book Special: Happy P-Day Jill Mansell!

Every now and again on Coffee and Roses I like to highlight books I think you'll love. Today's Book Special features the brand new book by the thoroughly fab JILL MANSELL.


Jill's brilliant books are an inspiration to me and countless other rom-com writers - so I know you'll adore her new novel, To The Moon and Back as much as I will. It's published today and here's the blurb:

When Ellie Kendall loses her husband Jamie in an accident she feels her world has come to an end. But life has to go on and eventually she’s ready for a new start – at work, that is. She definitely doesn’t need a new man, not while she has a certain secret visitor to keep her company...



Entrepreneur Zack McLaren seems to have it all, but the girl he can’t stop thinking about won’t give him a second glance. Why can’t she pay him the kind of attention she lavishes on Elmo, his time-share dog?



Having moved to an exclusive flat in North London, Ellie becomes friendly with neighbour Roo who’s harbouring a secret of her own. Between them, can both girls sort out their lives? Guilt is a powerful emotion. 



But a lot can happen in a year in Primrose Hill...


I can't wait to read it! I'm still in the post-delivery glow of finishing the first draft of It Started With a Kiss, so I'm catching up on my reading (after being somewhat of a frantic scribbling hermit during the past couple of months), so To The Moon and Back is at the top of my reading indulgence list...

Jill will be appearing on Coffee and Roses in a Writer Spotlight in the near future, so keep watching for that!

Plus, the latest sparkly installment of my VLOG will be arriving here shortly, so the goodies just keep on coming...

It Started With a Kiss week 4: finishing the first draft and more...

All this year, I'm keeping a video diary of everything that goes into writing my third novel, It Started With a Kiss, due to be published in November. This week, I'll tell you what it feels like to write the last 6,000 words of the first draft - and complete it (woo-hoo!), show you the German edition of Fairytale of New York, discuss first/third person viewpoints and reveal what books I love reading - not to mention the ubiquitous HAT OF THE WEEK!

So, it's Week 4 of the vlog and finally I've finished the first draft of It Started With a Kiss!!!

I wanted to share with you the emotional, almost subconscious stage of completing the final 6,000 words to the end - it's something I've heard Stephen King and J.K Rowling discuss in the past and it's quite a uniquely strange and beautiful thing for a writer to experience...

Thanks so much for your questions! Keep 'em coming - literally anything you'd like to know about being a writer, publishing, hats, what I like for tea... it's up to you! This week I answer questions from Dot and Leah - and fabulous questions they are, too.

So enough of the waffling (can you tell I'm demob happy after two months of frantic scribbling?) - here's the vlog in all its glory!

E-e-e-e-e-enjoy!

p.s. This week the YouTube chosen still shot makes me look like I should be a guest on Newsnight. Serious, me? ;o)

It Started With a Kiss week 3: Questions and an exclusive extract

All this year, I'm keeping a video diary of everything that goes into writing my third novel, It Started With a Kiss, due to be published in November. This week, I'm answering your questions and reading a world exclusive extract...

HUGE apologies for the delay in posting this - I've been writing like a crazy nutter for the past week (and I'm still going!)

This week, I answer your questions on conquering writer's block, disagreeing with my editor (including what I would have changed about my first novel, Fairytale of New York), how I was discovered on Authonomy.com, how many scenes I use to make a chapter and how the finished story differs from the initial synopsis.

I also have a WORLD EXCLUSIVE especially for you - the very first reading of an extract from It Started With a Kiss! Hope you like it!

Oh yes, and a brand new(-ish) funky hat to boot!

Now do I know how to pack in the goodies or what?!

E-e-e-enjoy!

p.s. Please note YouTube's choice of opening frame - I like to call it my Tommy Cooper homage!