Congratulations Jan Jones!

So you guessed it. I didn't win the NWS award. The winner was author Jan Jones for her first novel Stage by Stage, published by Transita.

I'm not being flippant. I love A Notorious Deception for what it is. The judges said that A Notorious Deception was fast-paced with a great sense of period. But I wrote it as escapist entertainment. Not that there is anything wrong with escapist entertainment... but's not got that tug-on-heartstrings thing that should be winning romantic fiction prizes - it's adventure fiction.

The party at the Royal Overseas League was great. I was 45 minutes late, so the moment I walked in the room I was told to tell Nicola Cornick, NWS organiser, I'd made it. I then battled back to the door to lose my coat, pick up a glass of wine and spy fellow finalist Julie Cohen. I met new Hale author Fenella Miller, who has also sold a novel to DC Thomson and told me she'd printed off the first chapter of A Notorious Deception from the internet to see what DC Thomson wanted in terms of a Regency! How flattering. :)

I also met Linda Gillard, NWS finalist with her debut novel Emotional Geology, and had a great catch-up with another Transita author Sue Moorcroft, like me in a navy pinstripe trouser suit. It was lovely to meet US author Jo Manning who was in town with Margaret Evans Porter - both have historical romances published by NAL.

I caught up with Denise Williams, a NWS finalist with her Regency historical novel, The Captain's Prize, coming out with Mills & Boon. I'm looking forward to reading it.
I had a chat with Joanna Maitland, who's just had her first M&B historical out in the Czech Republic, and David Hessayon - the world's bestselling gardening author - who kindly supports the NWS award in honour of his late wife Joan Hessayon. I also chatted to author Gilli Allan (Allans unite!) with whom I went for dinner after, along with a dozen others including Katie Fforde, Bernardine Kennedy and Lesley Cookman.

Thank you Victoria Connelly for the photograph below of the NWS finalists.

(L-R) Margaret Pelling, Nicola Slade, Victoria Connelly, Me, Denise Williams, Jan Jones, Sophie King, Julie Cohen, Linda Gillard