Author: Joanna Chambers

I’m participating in the lovely RJ Scott’s annual autism blog hop again and this year the theme is childhood toys, so I’m talking about my childhood obsession with picture scraps…

Before I get on to this first and all-absorbing obsession of mine, a word or two about the hop. Firstly, you can check out RJ’s chosen charity, Lindengate here – it’s a mental health charity that works with autistic children like RJ’s son: https://mydonate.bt.com/charities/lindengate

More than half of children with autism have one or more chronic sleep problems.

A bunch of authors are posting throughout the blog hop and hosting giveaways to raise awareness. My giveaway prize is any of my backlist books to a commenter on the post. Edited to add: the winner is Alicia Fourie ❤ 

And so to scraps.

Does this inadequately-bewinged cherub look familiar to any of you?

The cherub was extremely familiar to me because when I was around 6-9 years old (it’s difficult to be exact but we’re looking at around 19809ish)  I was an obsessive collector of scraps and this particular picture was ubiquitous!

Scraps were literally no more than pictures that you bought and collected. I stored mine between the pages of books. They were sold at my local newsagent in A4 size sheets, with the individual pictures held together with little tabs.

You can see the tabs holding the pictures together in the image below. I remember buying this very set and I ABSOLUTELY loved them. I would stare at them for ages. I remember thinking of this group as almost achingly tasteful, which, looking at them now is rather sweetly funny.

Scraps were currency. We swapped them (and some of the ones that were circulating amongst my friends were years old, passed on from older sisters and cousins). The seasonal angel scraps above – and the pink, blue and lavender angel heads at the start of this post – were very much at the premium end of what was available. The inadequately-bewinged cherub was rather less popular and scraps like the ones below (hands, flowers) were frankly despised.

And then there were the strange religious ones. I definitely had some of these ones…

I wonder what happened to my scraps? Presumably a day came when I tossed them out, or maybe I gave them to another wee girl. I can’t remember. But I still remember those angel faces, and the odd 1940s aesthetic that permeated all the pictures, even though I was buying them in the 1980s

Edited 20 November to add: the winners are – 1st prize: Roz;  2nd prize: Dawnsister

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Ermagerd I think I have finally lost it… I intended to write last night but after a tough RL work week topped off with Brexit shenanigans, all I was fit for was making this dorky nonsense:

 

And yes, it’s true what the heroes of my new book, Mr. Winterbourne’s Christmas say! In celebration of its release tomorrow (*squee*), I AM giving away prizes! Comment for a chance to win:

1st prize: a copy of Mr. Winterbourne’s Christmas AND a personal giftbag containing your choice of signed hard copy book* (open to all, wherever you may be in the world)

2nd prize: a copy of Mr. Winterbourne’s Christmas

• choices: Provoked, Beguiled, Enlightened, Unnatural (old edition), Enemies Like You, The Dream Alchemist (old edition), Unforgivable (old edition)

You can now preorder my new Christmas story 🙂

Amazon.com    Amazon.co.uk     All other stores

It’s so close… coming November 19th*

Lysander Winterbourne and Adam Freeman have been living happily at Edgeley Park for the last eighteen months. By day Lysander is Adam’s estate manager, by night, his lover, but neither man has spoken of their deeper feelings. Is this a happy-ever-after or just a convenient arrangement?

When the two men are invited to Winterbourne Abbey for a family Christmas, matters quickly come to a head. Snowed in at the Abbey with a house full of guests, they have to face up to shocking revelations, long-held secrets and a choice Lysander never expected to have to make…

*(Apologies that the first version of this post mistakenly said the release date was the 15th…)

 

 

Hellloooo friends!

I’m celebrating a great few writing weeks with a lovely pic of Richard Armitage in North and South. Why? Well, he is my muse for Adam Freeman from Introducing Mr. Winterbourne and I am, right now, writing A Winterbourne Christmas which will be out this year!

This comes after me recently completing the first draft of  book one in my new historical werewolves series which I’m super-excited about – the Winterbourne holiday book is a fun palate cleanser before I go back to the wolves WIP for my first ‘layering-in’ revision (is ma process…)

I’m having a LOT of fun with this Winterbourne story, gleefully mining my favourite Regency romance tropes and elements, in particular the house party. I have lots of interesting guests: Arabella Cavendish will be back, along with her hunky brother Perry, Lysander’s sister Gwen, a sexy debauched older aristocrat, a mysterious Italian gentleman and Miss Greenhill, the prim companion of Lysander’s eccentric great aunt Maud.

Snippet, anyone?

This is pre house party:

Adam woke to the unmistakable sound of a cup of tea being stirred, the domestic tinkle of a silver teaspoon against porcelain.

Yawning, he stretched and opened his eyes. Lysander was standing at the window, naked, his slim, strong body beautiful in the weak winter sunlight. In his hands he held a cup and saucer. Fine eggshell porcelain decorated with delicate pink roses, absurdly dainty in his capable, masculine hands.

Lysander hadn’t yet noticed that Adam had woken up. He was gazing out at the grounds of Edgeley Park, his expression peaceful, a small smile playing about his lips.

“Aren’t you cold?” Adam said sleepily.

Lysander turned, his small smile growing into a bigger one, happiness in his blue eyes to find his lover had awoken.

Was there anything better than that? Being looked at like that, by the person you were in love with?

In love! Him, Adam Freeman!

“Oh, you know me,” Lysander said, setting the cup and saucer down on a side table before pacing back to the bed. “I’m on the hot-blooded side.”

Adam reached for him as he drew near, pulling him down to land heavily on Adam, making Lysander laugh when Adam gave an unexpected ooof!

“Hot-blooded you may be,” Adam agreed, when he had his breath back, “but your skin’s like ice. Let me warm you, beautiful boy.”

Lysander chuckled happily. “Boy,” he scoffed.

“Always my boy.”

I’m writing this post in case anyone out there is wondering what the hell I’m doing 😀

2017 was a busy year for me. I put out quite a few new books (Enemies Like You, A Gathering Storm and – written 2017 but released early 2018 – Tribute Act).  I also reissued all 6 of my Samhain titles with new covers and put out audio versions of the Enlightenment trilogy.

This year? Nada.

Zilch.

Am I close to releasing anything?

Um, no.

Am I writing?

YES. Not as much or as diligently as I would wish, but yes, I am writing. I am working on a project I’m in love with and I have other things I want to work on too. I am hopeful I will release *something* this year, but I’ll have to see how it goes.

I look back on the last 7 years, and I marvel at how hard I drove myself that whole time.  10 novels and a handful of a novellas and all while working my job and raising two boys. For most of that time, I worked to agreed deadlines on book after book. There was always something I *had* to do writing-wise. But this year, for the first time in a long, long time, I’ve had no firm and fast deadlines. No writing commitments. No obligations.

And I’ve just sort-of… breathed.

So, that’s where I am. I *am* writing still. There *will* be more books. But I’m not sure exactly when…

The fabulous RJ Scott has organised a blog hop with a bunch of great giveaways for autism awareness month. See details of my giveaway below, and check out the many other participating authors here.

Autism fact: People from all nationalities and cultural, religious and social backgrounds can be autistic, although it appears to affect more men than women.

I’ve been a bit disenchanted with social media lately, and have been on a hiatus. But the truth is, I do like a lot of stuff about social media, and it’s people like RJ Scott who draw me back. RJ is one my favourite people to follow on Facebook. She’s open and authentic and she shares so much of her life with her online friends. Not just reading and writing stuff, but her whole life, including her son, Matt – Matt happens to be autistic, and also funny and smart and kind.I feel like I’ve learned so much about autism over the last few years, thanks to RJ and Matt. And that’s the good side of social media. 🙂

Giveaway: comment here to win a copy of my latest release Introducing Mr. Winterbourne*

*(re-release of a novella that previously appeared in the Another Place in Time anthology).

This post has been brewing for a wee while.

Over the last few months – since maybe November 2017 – I’ve written no more than a couple of thousand words and it doesn’t seem to be getting any better.

Is this writer’s block? Well, I wouldn’t call it that as such. I certainly don’t have any lack of ideas – it’s more that I have no appetite to move those ideas forward. I’ve never felt such complete apathy towards putting words on the page. In fact, this post is probably the most words I’ve written in one evening in a long, long time.

Has this issue arisen out of recent events in the genre? The Santino Hassell and Riptide debacles? Well, inasmuch as the issue predates those events, no. However, I must admit, those events have shaken me. Thanks to my utter crapness at networking and social media, I was pretty oblivious to how toxic things were in the genre till all this started coming out. Now that I do know, it’s thrown up some questions I need to give some thought to.

So, what does this actually mean, going forward?

Writing-wise, it means I’m giving myself permission to not try to write. I don’t know when I’ll start again (I hope it’s when, not if). Now that I’ve taken the immediate pressure off myself, maybe I’ll even start tomorrow. That would be lovely (but I’m not holding my breath).

So far as the Riptide situation is concerned, readers may have seen a number of authors reporting getting their rights back and choosing to self publish those works. In all honesty, I would have liked to do that with my two Riptide titles but I can’t. This is because they are part of a Riptide-owned universe and Riptide’s position is that they are not giving rights back on titles in universes they own. That means my choice is to take the books out of publication altogether or leave them where they are. I’m going with the second option.

As for social media, I’m going on a hiatus. I’ve been on one for the last few days and will just pop on briefly now to link this post before taking a complete break from the two platforms I use – Facebook and Twitter – for the rest of this month. My provisional plan is to return in April, depending on how things go. I would like to think that, by then, my writing mojo might be back, because the thought of not having  writing in my life makes me very sad indeed. But I’ll have to see. Fingers crossed, a couple of weeks of a break will make a difference.

Finally, and with some regret, I’ve decided not to attend the UK Meet in September. This has been playing on my mind for a while. I don’t know why, but making an irreversible decision not to go lifted a weight off me. I’m not sure why, Maybe if I knew the answer to that, I’d know the answer to all the other questions I have.

In closing – can I just say that I am fine. I am very, very fine. Nobody needs to commiserate with me or worry for me. Writing is my hobby, not my job. I have a RL job. I also have other great stuff in my life. The truth is, I LOVE writing and when it’s going well it makes me really happy – but it’s not my everything. So although this post is a bit downbeat, it really is all okay 🙂

And you know what? I feel better for writing this. Somehow making this ‘official’ is a massive relief. And yeah, I’ll probably come crawling back in a couple of weeks with my tail between my legs feeling a bit embarrassed about making such a big deal about things. But that’s okay. I’m giving myself permission to do that too ❤

Take care, everyone.

Joanna x

 

 

Going on hiatus for a while.