April’s Musings
Posted by Sophia James • Posted • April 2012
I have just finished Lucinda Wellingham’s story and I really like it. Lord Taylen Ellesmere is no
pushover and, as the Dissolute Duke who has seemingly ruined their sister, is causing mayhem with
the Wellingham brothers.
I am off to Rarotonga with my daughter for 6 days at the end of April and then in May we are all
at our son’s wedding in Samui in Thailand. He is marrying his lovely girlfriend and we are all just so
happy for them. I will post up pictures when I get them through.
Today I am seeing my friend Jane Daniels to get a dress designed as the mother of the groom. I want
an easy to wear, not too hot, not just wear once, interesting, edgy, cover my stomach and top of my
arms dress!!! Am I being too picky? Will post up a picture of the result nearer the wedding.
My Lady With The Devil’s Scar medieval is out in July and I can’t wait for that as this is one of my
favourites. I love the cover.
Virginia Woolf
Posted by Sophia James • Posted • March 2012
I think Virginia Woolf was wrong. I do not think that every woman needs a room of one’s own after
all. My room felt too isolated, too apart, too away from everyone else and so quiet I actually could
hear my own heartbeat.
I think I write better in noise and chaos. I like the sound of voices and the disruption of the phone. I
like getting up to the fridge to see what I want to eat there next and lying on my bed to think. I like
coffees with my entrepreneur home working son and daughter in law and the dog sitting at my feet.
(Even the dog stayed away from the new room because he couldn’t hear any newcomers and bark)
So I am back to writing where I was a few months ago, downstairs on the kitchen table or upstairs in
my sunny bedroom.
January...A Room Of My Own
Posted by Sophia James • Posted • January 2012
Tonight I have moved into a writing room all of my own.
It overlooks Chelsea Bay with wide French doors and verandahs. It is the first room I have ever had that is just mine.
There is no phone in my room and it is far from the front door down a narrow little path fringed with te ringa ringa lilies and hidden by palms and pohutakawas. It has walls of ship lap white and skylights in the ceiling. The sun streams in from the west during the late afternoon but for most of the day it is a cool room with a sea breeze. There are pot plants on the deck with geraniums and dizzy lizzies and a purple wisteria creeps across the lintels.
Tomorrow I will transfer my text books, my favourite thesaurus, my printer and my computer and I will begin to write. It will not be a crowded room.
I hope I like it as much as I think I will.
Christmas already!!!
Posted by Sophia James • Posted • December 2011
Happy Christmas to you all and please keep the emails coming. I love opening up my computer to find messages and I always answer each one.
I’ve just finished a Regency, working title ‘Lord Hawk’. This is
a linked book to ‘Mistletoe Magic’ and is about Stephen
Hawkhurst and the most unusual woman who unexpectedly comes into
his life.
My Medieval ‘Lady with the Devil’s Scar’ has a release date of August 2012. My sister just rang and told me that this is her very favourite of all of my books
Am up to page 100 on a new Wellingham book. So many people have written that they loved Asher, Taris and Cristo but what about Lucinda? Well her story is coming and her chosen man is causing all sorts of mayhem in the Wellingham fold.
On the personal front I’m off to the beach with my family, kids
and their partners, mum, sister, brother-in-law, sister-
in-law, nephews, nieces and friends etc.
Hot sun, warm sand, chilled wine, good books, long walks, cold ice-cream etc. Just need the sun to shine and it hasn’t been very forthcoming of late in New Zealand.
I hope you have a great Christmas and a Happy and Safe New Year.
November 2011
Posted by Sophia James • Posted • November 2011
November already!!! Where did this year go to?
Almost finished my newest book and will be so pleased to do so. Some books are much harder to write then others and this has been one of those ones.
My medieval book with Isobel is out next and I LOVE this book. She is such a kick-ass heroine and just never did what I wanted her to but leapt on to the page with such verve and direction.
Now I am going to rewrite the story of Lucinda, the last of the Wellingham’s because I feel like visiting Falder again and saying hello to the three brothers, Asher, Taris and Cristo. I miss that family.
Gift Wrapped Governess is out, the Christmas anthology I did this year with Annie Burrows and Marguerite Kaye. It had a 4 star review from Romantic Times which was lovely.
Got these great photos sent to me by Chris Taylor a lovely author on the 2011 5DI in Brisbane in July. Marion Lennox and I were mentors to 6 great authors and loved every minute of it.
Romantic Book of the Year
Posted by Sophia James • Posted • August, 2011
I have just got home from attending the Romance Writers of Australia
2011 Conference in
Melbourne and I won the RBY (Romantic Book of the Year) in the long
romance section.
I was amazed to have won it against such strong competition (Emily
May, Anne Gracie and Elisabeth
Rose) I am so grateful to the RWA for the opportunities they have
given me as a New Zealand writer
with the RBY and the two wonderful 5DI experiences I have had in
Brisbane.
Highlights of the conference...meeting up with 5DI people again,
being Jennifer Kloesters assistant at
her wonderful talk on Georgette Heyer and of course winning the RBY
and putting faces to names of
all the amazing people who run the Australian conference. Oh, and
seeing Marion Lennox again, my
partner in mentorship for 5DI.
It is the RWNZ conference this weekend so I have another burst of writing life.
Cath Evans sent me these pictures of me on the podium speaking...nervously I am afraid.
5DI In Brisbane
Posted by Sophia James • Posted • July, 2011
I have just returned from France and Italy and had a wonderful time... seems a month just whizzes by when you are having fun.
I am off to 5DI in Brisbane at Griffith Uni at the end of next week for a mentorship programme I took part in last year as well. I have six aspiring writers and their books to work with and I can’t wait to begin. I loved it last year!
On the writing front ‘Gift Wrapped Governesses’ is out in Nov, a Christmas anthology that I have been lucky enough to be a part of with Annie Burrows and Marguerite Kaye. See my website if you would like to read about each book. I hope we can tempt you to pre-order your copy.
My next Medieval has just been through revisions and I am waiting to hear how it’s going. It’s the story of a woman trying to save her Keep in the rule of David the Second in Scotland. I love the rawness of the old periods and the music you can make with words when there are not the fetters of modern day correctness to constrain everything into propriety. I love the lack of shame these people are blessed with and the honour that they cling to.
I have had so much mail from people around the world wanting Lucinda’s story, the youngest sister from the Wellingham trilogy. Well, I am just revising that and fingers crossed it will see the light of day next year. With three possessive older brothers giving her beau the once over, Lucy is going to have a hard time of it. But the man I have chosen for her is no pushover himself and has every reason to be fighting back.
A new book has also been brewing away on the backburner with all my travels and I am about half way through it. It’s a linked book with Mistletoe Magic with the character Stephen Hawkhurst getting his own story. He’s a man with many demons and what he thinks he wants in a woman is certainly not what he is going to get. The heroine in the book is writing herself into my heart.
Conference is looming too. I am at the New Zealand conference this year and can’t wait to hear the great list of speakers that they have lined up.
Tagged: mistletoe magic, latest news, one illicit night, sophia james
Happy New Year
Posted by Sophia James • Posted • January, 2011
Happy New Year to everyone.
I’m back at work on a new book about Stephen Hawkhurst, a character from Mistletoe Magic.
It’s always fun revisiting characters and meeting them again a few years later.
One Unashamed Night is a finalist in the ARRA awards and that was a lovely surprise. The awards take place in March. It’s such a compliment to get nominated for reader awards.
I am in France for three weeks in June and then having a sojourn to Spain. My husband and I take tours to Italy and France and are putting together a new trip to the South of Spain.
Cristo’s story comes out in May and I received the cover art for the book today. I’ve had so many enquiries on my site as to when One Illicit Night will be released. Cristo’s story is the last one in a trilogy about the three Wellingham brothers. (High Seas to High Society is Book 1 and One Unashamed Night is Book 2)
It’s beginning to feel like Autumn in New Zealand though we have
had a sad time with the
earthquake in Christchurch. I hope it rises up from the ashes as
a beautiful new forward looking city!
Tagged: mistletoe magic, latest news, one illicit night, sophia james
November
Posted by Sophia James • Posted • November, 2010
It is November already and the days are getting longer and warmer in New Zealand. I have a new book coming out and it is called One Illicit Night. It is Cristo’s story and I can’t wait to see the cover art for him... silver pale hair and dark brown eyes. The book will be out in the UK and USA markets in June 2011
I have just completed a new Medieval. It’s a dark story with hard raw characters set in the time of great change under David the Second of Scotland. Isobel is a woman trying to save her Keep and Marcus is a commander of the King who is laying siege to it. I sort of had an Angelina Jolie figure in mind when I was writing my heroine.
I am also a judge for the Strictly Single Competition and the entries are excellent. Such a high standard they are a joy to read.
A couple of lovely compliments came my way this month. On the world wide webinar the senior editors of each line were asked to talk about the special features of their line and name authors who best represented the direction of their line. Linda Fildew mentioned me as a good Regency read on this score. ;)
I was also asked to take a part in a Christmas anthology for Harlequin Historical for 2011 so am turning ideas over in my head.
Another neat thing I have done this month is write a Regency Undone...a hot little read of 12,000 words. It has been good for me to write things outside my normal word length, makes another part of the brain think.
And now the run-up to Christmas. I always say I will shop early but I never do so get caught up in the rush of people and traffic.
Tagged:mistletoe magic, latest news, one illicit night, sophia james
Award Winner 2010
Posted by Sophia James • Posted • September, 2010
Wow!!!
I won a RBY at the Romance Writers of Australia Conference 2010 Awards dinner in Sydney for Mistletoe Magic, my Christmas book.
I was up after midnight twittering to see how the awards were progressing and suddenly there was my name.
Winner of the RBY in the Long Romance section—Sophia James
Peter was in bed next to me and I showed him the screen and said ‘Does that say my name?’
When he said yes I started to scream and shout, waking up everyone in our house and in the neighbouring ones probably too. Remember by now it is about 12.30 am.
Then Frances Housden and Jane Beckenham rang and my 5DI pod were texting as well!!!
I emailed my editor Linda Fildew and then roamed downstairs like a happy ghost for the remainder of the night thinking I should be cracking open pink champagne but settling for a hot milo instead.
Outside everything was dark except for another insomniac far across the bay.
I collected the trophy yesterday and it’s sitting beside my computer...its little cut glass face blushing in the light and I still just can’t believe how lucky I was. I keep singing that song to myself... ‘lucky, lucky me!’
Sam, my son, took these pictures of me with my trophy and certificate in my pyjamas late on Monday night when my RBY came home. Yay.
Today(Wednesday) a lovely bunch of flowers arrived from Harlequin and I have so many messages of congrats from everyone. The romance community is so supportive of anyone’s good news.
One of the other great things is that my friend Alli Withers won the Emerald so it felt like a double treat.
Tagged:mistletoe magic, latest news, one illicit night, sophia james
