The end of an era...

Quite a momentous occasion happened this week - after seven years in my tiny one-bedroomed flat, I finally moved out...

This is where I have written and edited all three of my novels - Fairytale of New York, Welcome to My World and It Started With a Kiss - most of which on the ubiquitous white (or not-so-white) sofa, which came with the flat and has featured in many of my vlogs this year. Is it possible to put a blue plaque on a soon-to-be-retired piece of furniture?


So, for the last three years, this has been my perennial view when I've been writing:

The photo of me and Bob was taken when we first started dating five years ago and it's one of my favourites, and the baby pics are of my beautiful niece Freya (who will be three in January). The sparkly bag is what I take to gigs and it contains a selection of earrings, bracelets and necklaces for blingin' it up when I perform with The Peppermints (the inspiration for The Pinstripes in It Started With a Kiss.)

I did have a desk in the corner of my living room, in what I called my 'Van Gogh Corner':

The cafe picture (The Café Terrace on the Place du Forum, Arles, at Night) is my favourite Van Gogh painting and the portrait of him came free with a newspaper years ago. It's nice to be able to chat to Vince, although he isn't the most encouraging person to look at when I'm in the middle of edits! The desk was from the first office my Dad worked in when he was 16, so is a bit of a family heirloom, but after I had a health scare in the middle of the Fairytale edits I couldn't sit there for long periods of time, so the sofa became my venue of choice for working.


The box of tea you can see on the desk is one of my prized possessions - the fab people at Yorkshire Tea found out that I'd mentioned their excellent tea in Fairytale of New York and made me my very own personalised box of Yorkshire Tea! It will take pride of place on my new desk and will never be opened!


At Christmas, my desk invariably became the place to display my tiny Christmas tree - very festive!


One of the things I will miss the most is the view from my living room window towards the glass foundry on the opposite side of the canal. This time last year, a beautiful haw frost covered everything in white and it was the most amazing sight to gaze out on while I was writing.

While my flat has been an important part of my life - it was my first real home after my divorce and a total God-send to have my own front door and space, scene of quite a few dating memories (and disasters) and the place where I first began work as a published author when my writing dream came true after years of scribbling in secret - it is time to move on. I'm planning my wedding to my lovely Bob next September, have another novel currently being considered by publishers and am making big plans for next year, all of which require more space.


So on Saturday, I said goodbye to Richardson Drive, Wollaston, and moved five miles up the road to a lovely Victorian terraced house which I'm renting from my lovely chum Andi and his wife-to-be Caroline (Andi is one of the inspirations for Jack in It Started With a Kiss). It has two bedrooms so, for the first time in my life, I will have a dedicated writing room! At the moment (after this pic was taken) it is filled with boxes, books and bin bags, but I hope to set it up completely over Christmas. It's going to be a writing room and eventually a small studio where I can work on new songs - I'm so excited to finally have space after tripping over piles of books for the past seven years... (oh, and those curtains? Totally going once I move in!)


It was really odd to see my little flat all empty and ready for the next chapter of its history. And the infamous white sofa, while quite possibly the most uncomfortable piece of furniture ever, was one of the things I found hardest to leave. Needless to say, I sobbed all the way to my new home - but then, isn't that a good thing when a place has been so important in your life? You may have guessed by now that Romily's canalside home in It Started With a Kiss was inspired by my flat - it was my way of paying homage to a place that I have loved for the last seven years of my life.

Onwards and upwards, Dickinson!

And to finish, here's my last glimpse of the unassuming star of my vlogs, site of over three hundred thousand words and the seat where many worlds were created: ladies and gentlemen, I give you - the wonderful Richardson Drive Sofa...

It Started With a Kiss 13 - An ambition fulfilled!

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 on 10th November. This week, it's a very special edition of my vlog, where I fulfill my childhood ambition and revisit the place where my writing dreams began - the amazing Kingswinford Library! Find out what happened when I went to speak to an audience of lovely Kingswinfordians (or Stone Yardlians if you've read Welcome to My World!)

When I was about five years old, I remember walking back across the park with my Mum after visiting the library, clutching my three books that I'd chosen for that week. It's one of my earliest memories and I vividly remember the thrill of being able to choose books to take home. As we walked, I asked Mum, 'If I wrote a book, do you think Kingswinford Library would lend it out to people?' That's why in my author biography bit I say that from an early age I dreamed of writing a book that would make the heady heights of Kingswinford Library. For me, as a little girl already fallen hopelessly in love with stories and books, this seemed like the ultimate accolade because my library was a palace of dreams - a place filled with stories that I could spend hours wandering around in.

So over thirty years later, I was absolutely over the moon to be asked by Kingswinford Library to speak as part of their Big Book Fortnight event. You can see my gorgeous audience in the vlog (and, if you were there, you can witness your starring role!) and hopefully get a sense of how significant the night was for me. After all, it's not every day you fulfil a childhood ambition!

Oh, and watch out for a rare glimpse of my two biggest fans (who may have harangued you to buy my book if you've ever been in Waterstones or WHSmith in Merry Hill...)

Enjoy! x

p.s. This week's YouTube-nominated freeze frame is entitled: 'Chuffed'...

Writing, Book 3 and Ian Fleming?!

Thought you might like to see this...

I was interviewed by the very lovely Brad Baker at Waterstones Wolverhampton a couple of weeks ago - and here is the result! This was during a signing for Welcome to My World. It was great fun to do and even earned me a comparison with Ian Fleming!

I'd love to know what you think - leave me a comment below. Enjoy!

Christmas Goodies!

It's winter, it's freezing, people are walking round looking like Michelin men and women and there don't seem to be enough smiles to go round... But panic not! Coffee and Roses is here to bring a little bit of sparkle into the dingy winter days!


Frosty Berry © Miranda Dickinson

So how about an extra-special Christmas pressie from me?

In two weeks' time, I will be sending out an exclusive, Christmassy short story to everyone who subscribes to my newsletter. It's a little something to say thank you to everyone who has supported my writing so far, especially with my latest novel, Welcome to My World. It's been a massive encouragement to me to find out how many lovely, generous and kind people there are - and with the battles I've faced this year, your support means more than I could ever express.

So if you'd like to get your hands on a magical, wintry short story to warm your heart for Christmas, all you have to do is to sign up for my newsletter (see the form at the top right-hand corner of my blog). It's completely free, and I only ever send out one a month, so you won't get bombarded with emails! I'm planning all kinds of exclusive goodies for my subscribers, so if you want to be the first to read extracts of my forthcoming novel, have the chance to enter special competitions and receive exclusive 'behind-the-scenes' book extras, sign up now!

May your December be merry and bright (and more than a little bit sparkly!) xx

Welcome to My World - first reviews!!

EEK - the first reviews for Welcome to My World are in...



One More Page said:

"Welcome to my World is a fabulous book filled with heartwarming characters, mouthwatering food and lots of romance and it will make you want to book your next holiday right now!"

The Bookbag said:
"There's some nice lines in gentle humour and a lot of joshing. Very easy to read... Altogether this is a fun and frothy read."

Dot Scribbles said: "...a lovely book that I couldn't put down... Welcome to my World is a great read... extremely entertaining and romantic."

A huge thank you to the reviewers who have taken the time to read my book! I'd love to hear what you think, too, so please let me know!

It's almost P-Day! Woooooo-hoooo!!

I am very proud to announce that Welcome to My World! is officially unleashed tomorrow!


Some of my lovely twitter friends have told me they've already seen it in their local bookshops and several of them are reading it already - eek!


When a book is published, you receive a list of all the places that are doing special promotions for your novel. It's just amazing to think that my little story is Paperback of the Week and a 3 for 2 title in Waterstones, (something I dreamed of being when I was an aspiring writer), has a free limited edition mirror at Sainsbury's (see pic - I have shrink-wrap, too! Unbelievably cool...), has a free limited edition lipgloss in Tesco (awesome stuff) and has a 'Buy Welcome to My World, Get Fairytale of New York Free' in Asda...

What's so strange is that this is the 400-page Word document that has, in one form or another, been a major part of my life all year. To see it finally unleashed in all its sparkly glory on the bookshelves of my favourite shops is impossibly wonderful. If you'd told me three years ago that this would be happening, I would have thought you'd been sneaking a snifter of Christmas sherry a month early... There's no other word for it: it's wonderful.

I'd love to know what you think of Welcome to My World- leave me a comment here, or email me at coffeeandroses@gmail.com

Right. I'm off to sneak into a bookshop and revel in the sight of my books out in the big wide world - woo-hoo!

Here it is!!

Finally, after a year of pretty much hard slog, here is my new sparkly novel, Welcome to My World!
The first copies arrived this week and I have to say they look throughly gorgeous.
Here are the first-look pics:

This time, the sparkles continue in full glorious technicolour on the inside cover and I even have a strap-line now: Escape with Miranda - how mad is that?!

The thing I love the most is the 'By the same author' page - so nice to have not just one but two books out there now (or soon...)

So it's all really exciting! I'm also chuffed to bits because, after five years of begging studio time and lots of writing, my very first album About Time is going to be launched on the same day as Welcome to My World - 11th November! Here's a sneaky peek at the album cover:

Keep your eyes peeled here on Coffee and Roses for a chance to win signed copies of Welcome to My World and About Time coming very soon!

It's all ridiculously exciting and I can't quite believe it's all happening. Seeing my book for the first time was amazing - I've written about the moment I saw the finished copies of Welcome to My World for the first time over on the Authonomy blog this week.

You can hear some of the tracks from About Time here - and, although the completed master mixes on the album are much better than these, it should give you an idea of what my music sounds like!

Big cuts and scary times...

Editing. It's a scary thing.

I'm working on my second novel, Welcome to My World, which will be hitting the shops in November this year. It's all written (the fun bit), has undergone its first edit (a structural one - the not as much fun bit) and now, while I'm getting ready to do the line edit (the tedious but necessary, couldn't-be-less-fun-if-it-tried bit), I'm doing a major rework on one of the main characters of the book. Which is downright terrifying...

It needs to happen. This character just wasn't working and it's taken me a couple of months to work out why. Now the penny has dropped, it's time for some serious remodelling!

This bit always terrifies me - not least because I've technically 'finished' the book twice so far with the character complete in his current state. Deleting large sections of text and following all the corresponding threads takes time and nerves of steel, but it will be worth it in the end (repeat after me, Dickinson, 'It will be worth it in the end'...)

I have to admit that I thought writing my second novel would be a lot easier than my first. For most of last year I was like the proverbial rabbit-in-headlights as I went through the various editing, proofing and promoting stages for Fairytale of New York, on quite possibly the steepest learning curve of my life. So I assumed that book 2 would be simpler, less scary and altogether a more relaxed affair.

And then Fairytale went stratospheric...

While I'm confident in the story and characters for Welcome to My World, I'm terrified about my second novel not being good enough for the wonderful people who so kindly bought my first book. I don't want to write the 'disappointing second novel' and, most of all, I don't want to let people down. I was scared witless about my first book, but at least last year there were no expectations as everything was unknown. This year, people are counting on me. And that is both ultimately thrilling and downright scary!

I also know that I'm a perfectionist when it comes to my writing (although, sadly, not when it comes to housework...) so this pressure I'm feeling is completely self-imposed. It's actually a good thing for me to be a little scared - I trained in drama at university and what they say about stage-fright is absolutely true: the time to worry is when you don't feel nervous before you step into the spotlight.

So Mr Previously Unworkable is swiftly being transformed into Mr Believable Three-Dimensional. And I'll try not to think about the impending P-Day in November!

Help! Let's Kick Cancer...

Cancer is an evil disease. It robs you of loved ones and it needs to be stopped...

In my next novel, Welcome to My World, my main character Harri has lost both her parents to cancer - both dying within a year of each other. I've written it from personal experience - I lost my lovely, much adored Grandpa to the disease a couple of years ago and I still miss him immeasurably (there's a character called Geoff in the story in honour of him) and have also now lost three friends to cancer.



So this year, I've entered the Dudley Race for Life at Himley Hall on Sunday 11th July this year to raise money for Cancer Research UK. I'm going to attempt to run the whole 5k (which, if you look at the gargantuan pics of me in the posts below, you'll know this is no mean feat!), which means getting in some serious training between now and then (and July's not that far away - eek!)

Being really cheeky, would you like to help me raise money by sponsoring me? My initial target is £300, but I'm hoping to exceed that... You can sponsor me here Every penny counts and will make a difference to the millions of people who face this disease every day - plus, if you tick the Gift Aid box, the lovely taxman will give Cancer Research UK an extra 25%, plus a 3% supplement (all at no cost to you!)

I'll be posting updates of my training for the event here at Coffee and Roses, so keep checking back to see how I'm doing (there will probably be highly unflattering photos, too, but I promise to keep these to a minimum to avoid scaring young children and those of a nervous disposition!) There will also be regular updates on Twitter, so make sure you're following to read all the gory details!

Thanks so much - let me know if you're doing a Race for Life event this year and I'll post the details on this blog :o)

Woo-hoo!! I made the Shortlist!!!

Yes, I can now finally reveal the most amazing news so far... I made the shortlist of the RNA's Romantic Novel of The Year Award 2010!!!

I travelled down to London this week for the official unveiling of the shortlist authors - a completely surreal experience but great fun! I could hardly believe that I had been chosen to rub shoulders with the brilliant calibre of writers on the shortlist... All were lovely and it was a great morning. Looking forward to the Pure Passion Awards lunch on 16th March, now!

(Oh and apologies for the photo - not quite sure why I'm the only person pulling an odd face and looking like a half-floral mammoth... ah well, I have a great face for books!!! Another - slightly less scary - pic here...)

Being shortlisted for this award means the world to me because the Romantic Novelists' Association is such a wonderful organisation and true champion of romantic fiction. To be recognised by them is phenomenal - something I couldn't even have dreamed could be possible. I've followed the Romantic Novel of the Year award for the past few years because it stands for the very best in romantic fiction writing - so to see Fairytale of New York amongst the nominees is beyond fantastic.

(I make no apologies for gushing, by the way. I'm ridiculously excited!!)

So... in other news, Welcome to My World is now written! (woo-hoo!) I've just started structural edits and I have to say, I'm incredibly pleased with how it's going already. More on this, soon!

Fairytale of New York has, to date, sold 99,211 copies - how crazy is that?! Thank you so much to everyone who has so kindly bought my book. To think that in only three months (since publication) my novel has gone from my little romantic story to Sunday Times Top 10 Bestseller and now RNA Romantic Novel of the Year shortlisted book is totally nuts!!! It just goes to prove that the dream is possible - so if you're dreaming of one day seeing your novel being sold in bookshops, keep believing!
*takes deep breath, attempts to calm down. FAILS!*

So I have the posh frock sorted for the awards lunch... All I need now are the shoes and a rather large piece of string to tether me to something immovable, seeing as I appear to be floating permanently in the clouds at the moment! :o)

Snow, Birthdays and Book 2...

After all the excitement of the past few weeks, it's time to get back to work...

Stourbridge was quite badly hit with the snow, so I ended up working from home for most of last week, only making it into the office on Friday. Having said that, it was actually a lot of fun - not least because of the 'bulldog spirit' that the freezing weather seemed to inspire in my neighbours. I found it fascinating to chat with people I don't normally see that much of during the week - and, in true British style, talking about the weather was the ice-breaker (sorry for the pun) that everyone needed to start talking.

Now, it seems to be melting and -1oC yesterday felt positively tropical by comparison to the scary temperatures we've had recently! Mind you, while I know I should be happy that the snow is going, I can't help but feel a small pang of childish disappointment because I love watching snow falling so much... :o(

So, back to writing the first draft of Welcome to My World - my second novel. It's all going well and I'm planning to post some juicy details here and on my website in the coming weeks and months - so keep watching for those! Just like it happened when I was writing Fairytale of New York, all kinds of weird and wonderful characters are turning up - like Harri's ginger and white tabby cat, Ron Howard, who is kind of like a feline equivalent of a Greek Chorus at pertinent moments! More to follow soon...

I'm always amazed at all the stuff in the media about January being the most depressing month of the year. It's never been like that for me because my birthday's in January! Like every year, I'm ridiculously excited about the day and slightly bemused about the age I'll be (what do you mean I'm not 25?!?!) So, next Monday (18th) I will mostly be jumping around like a kid on Haribo overload and completely forgetting how old I actually am :o)

If the old adage is true and you're really only as old as you feel, then I'm a giggling 5-year-old!

Amazing sales, nominations, awards and a sparkly new cover...

Well, it's been a bit of a crazy couple of weeks...

Fairytale of New York has completely surpassed any of my expectations (bearing in mind I thought selling 500 would be brilliant...) - to date, it's sold over 60,000 copies and stayed in the Sunday Times Top 10 Bestsellers for a whole month!

I've also been nominated for an award! I heard a couple of weeks ago that I had made the longlist for the Romantic Novelists' Association's Romantic Novel of the Year Award 2010! You can read more about it here... I'm thrilled to bits to be longlisted - it's more than I ever thought was possible - and means so much to have been recognised by the RNA. I have to wait until Febraury to find out if Fairytale of New York has been shortlisted, but I'm just so chuffed to have made it this far! Keeping everything crossed, though :o)

I was amazed to hear that Fairytale has also just won its first award! The lovely ladies at www.chicklitreviews.com voted the delectable Ed Steinmann from Fairytale of New York as BEST MALE CHARACTER! It's wonderful because Ed was always my favourite character and I wanted other people to love him as much as I did. See all the winners here And here's the award!



Woo-hoo!

And last, but by no means least, here is the thoroughly gorgeous, sparkly new cover for my second book, Welcome to my World, which will be published at the end of 2010...



How lovely is that?!!