To celebrate the opening of the 2012 salmon fishing season, saucy riverbank romp, ON THE FLY is being offered at a 50% discount at Smashwords.com. Enter coupon code VY55B at the checkout.
Happy reading and tight lines!

Are you a self published independent writer? Are you looking for a new outlet to publicise and showcase your works? Then look no further. SPBROUNDUP is the place for you. A single site destination for readers and writers alike, a home for the self published writer of all genres.

How it works - simple. Select SUBMIT SPB, follow the instructions and you're done. Uploading and promotion of your book(s) is free, but I'm sure our host, Patsy Porco, would appreciate a link to SPBRoundup via your blog, or through the usual sharing places.

I am delighted to announce that my latest novel, contemporary romance, THREE WAY STREET is now available to download in various e-formats for $1.99 at Smashwords.com.

For the holiday season, THREE WAY STREET is offered as part of a BOGOF promotion* How does it work? Simple. Download a copy of THREE WAY STREET from Smashwords and if you like it, or not, let me know and I'll send you a coupon code to allow you to download any one of my other books from Smashwords for free.

For those of you who prefer, Three Way Street is also available from Amazon Kindlestores.

Happy Holidays!!

* Buy one get one free

Two of the most important dates for your diary this year. 

But Remembrance is not just for two days, it is for life. It's not just for all those brave souls, men and women, who lost their lives in conflict, it is for those left behind to cope with the sorrow and loss. It is for those who have survived, but need help to cope with terrible physical injuries. It is for those with injuries we cannot see and their families. It is for ALL those who will fight, in their minds and bodies, every day of their lives. 

Let's not forget them. They did it for US - now it's our turn
to do our bit.

You can help by making a donation to one (or more) of the
charities set up to help:

The Royal British Legion
Combat Stress
Help For Heroes
RAF Benevolent Fund
Royal Naval Benevolent Fund
The Army Benevolent Fund

and many others. 

Every penny donated will be appreciated more than you know,
and on behalf of each and every one of them, thank you.

Jill x

National Novel Writing Months (NaNoWriMo) is almost upon us again - are we ready for it? Have you registered at www.nanowrimo.org ?

In two weeks' time, some 50,000 scribblers (probably a lot more) are going to stare hard at that blank document on their screen, poise their fingers above their keyboard and at the stroke of midnight on 1 November, put themselves through a physical and mental wringer - and love every minute of it. It is a fact that those who have prepared in advance will weather the challenge far better than those who have leapt in at the last minute, blindly thinking '50k words in 30 days, it's a doddle'. I did it for the first time last year and believe me, a doddle, it ain't. It took weeks to get over it.

That is why we need to remember the 5 P's - Prior Preparation Prevents Piss Poor Performance? Never did they apply more than in preparation for NaNo.

You will no doubt already have the glowing ember of an idea at the back of
your mind knowing all it will take is exposure to the oxygen of opportunity for it to rise into a flame of creation. But without prior preparation, that flame can easily burn itself out a long way short of the end. And so can you.

So what can we do in advance to make the experience more of a joy than a chore? 

Firstly, prepare your family/workmates/colleagues/pets to be neglected.
Forewarned is forearmed. Tell them what you will be doing and because you have something more important to do for the next month, their demands for food/clean socks/sex will fall on deaf ears and they are not to bother you with them. Don't worry, nothing bad will happen to them. They may, in fact learn to be more self reliant - it will be character building for them. This is good.

Secondly, prepare your project. Take care of your ember. Make a few notes, give your characters their names, sketch them out, plan out your plot but remember, no actual prose until the start - that's cheating.

Lastly, prepare yourself. Allot yourself the time to write and stick to it. 1700 words a day doesn't seem much, but if on one day you don't make the quota and you find yourself having to write 2000 the next day just to keep on target, it can be the start of a slippery slope and many give up because they can't keep up.

Find a comfortable place in which to work with adequate heating and ventilation. Wear socks and fingerless gloves if necessary. Cold feet and hands are not conducive to lucid writing (or anything else for that matter.

On the other hand, neither being too warm and stuffy. Comfort, always comfort.

Make sure you are well supplied with warming drinks and, if you want them,
snacks. This could be a job delegated to a junior member of the household.

You might want to select the music you feel might be a good accompaniment to your project. It is amazing the difference the right music can make to your creativity and productivity.

VERY IMPORTANT!!: At least once an hour, get up and walk around for a few minutes. Stretch your legs, do some squats, twist your ankles and feet and get the blood circulating in your legs. The last thing anyone wants is to develop a blood clot (DVT) through inactivity. 

So there we are, just a few ideas that might help to see us through the month to come. Everyone is different, of course, and your mileage may vary as the saying goes, so if you have your own hints and tips that might help, please, feel free to share them. It could mean the difference between the glow of success and falling into a gibbering heap by the wayside.

Personally, I am looking forward to the challenge. I have my idea, and
I've even designed a book cover to remind me what I'm doing it for. 

If anyone wants to be a writing buddy, my page is here

That just leaves me to say - the very best of luck to us all and DON'T GIVE
UP! 

Jill x

Originally posted on the AUTHORS on SHOW blogsite:

WINNERS of AUTHORS ON SHOW CONTEST #1: JILLIAN BROOKES-WARD and HANNAH WARREN

Welcome to the winners of our “This sentence starts the story” Contest # 1.
We had a tie for first. Jillian Brookes-Ward and Hannah Warren. Their prize...a two week promotion of their work, and a book review, here and on Amazon, Smashwords, Goodreads..etc.

Linda Loves...? Book Blurb:

Linda Lewis is in love with two very different men – at the same time. She is
content in her loving triangle, until fate intervenes, bringing the two men together. When she falls pregnant, a plan is hatched – one man will be told he is the father, the other will be led to believe he is, but which one is which? Is a modern ménage-a-trois always a recipe for disaster or can it, against the odds, be made to work?

Book Review: by Suzannah Burke:

Ménage a trois…from the French, meaning ‘household of three’. It’s a term
used frequently in literature. Love triangles, tend to appear most often when utilizing a man’s favorite fantasy world of one man with two women. Usually in the context of ‘whoo-hoo let’s talk about sex, baby !’ What happens when the situation is far more than a sexual fantasy, what happens when the situation is between one woman…and two men ; one of whom the female lead character is married to ? Linda Loves… ? is what happens folks.

Meet Linda, married and very happily so to Tom. Linda is a warm, loving soul
who garners great pleasure in caring for her husband, especially in his current needy state of being wheelchair bound with a badly broken leg. She is endlessly patient, occasionally bossy, and very much in love with her husband. She has no such female fantasy of another man in her life or her bed.

Meet Tom, Linda’s wheelchair bound spouse. He is very much in love with his
wife, appears to be incredibly needy and not necessarily the strongest male on the planet; his needs would try the patience of a saint at times. Linda does not profess to being a member of the sainthood.

Meet Adam, handsome, isolated, independent and fiercely proud. He is
currently living in the dilapidated remains of what once was his family estate,
known locally as “The Castle".

Linda and Adam meet, introduced by Linda’s lovable dog “Archie”. From the
outset they collide and keep right on a collision course that will lead them on
to each other’s arms and ultimately each other’s beds. If you expect this book to take you over familiar ground, ground that has been covered often in
literature, you would be wrong.

Author Jillian Brookes-Ward has cleverly and beautifully taken this love triangle beyond the expected. In doing so she explores the emotional depths of each character, bringing them to life with clever and insightful glimpses into what motivates them to react.

These people become very real, and intensely likeable under her clever penmanship, they go beyond a one dimensional image and we care about them.

I found myself in turn, exasperated, angry, happy, sad, irritated and finally content…just the way I would respond to a dear friend caught up in a situation such as this. There are promises made and broken, an attraction that can’t be simply shut down, and love explored on so many different levels.

I will not spoil this for the reader by revealing too much. Suffice it to
say, Linda falls pregnant…and the resulting storm of emotion and ultimately
surprising ending will hold you enthralled.

I give this book a five out of five review. It earned it.

Linda Loves...? is available for sale in all the usual places, so linkies:

Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/32920
AmazonUK: http://amzn.to/eHO5Ni
AmazonUS: http://amzn.to/dQARjb

Other books by Jillian:

 • Saving Nathaniel
 • Watch Your Back!
 • On The Fly

Find out more at her website, Jillywrites… or her blog Writers-Unlimited

Connect with Jillian on Twitter at @jillywrites

Contact Jillian direct at j.brookesward@gmail.com or via http://uk.linkedin.com/in/jillianbrookesward

And here is Hannah's prize:

Casablanca My Heart…Book Blurb:

After accidentally killing the love of her life, a famous writer learns that
truth can be stranger than fiction.

In the midst of her success as a romance novelist, Heather Simpson is trying
to come to grips with her husband’s comatose existence, the result of an automobile accident she caused. While traveling incognito on a cruise ship in
the Mediterranean, she meets Ghalib Tournequet, a mysterious man who seems to know all about her.

When Heather and Ghalib run into each other in Casablanca, the Moroccan playboy seems ready to give up his life of drinking, gambling, and women just to be with her. But his past catches up with him at precisely the wrong moment.

Four years after attending her husband’s funeral in Holland and moving to Norfolk with her daughter, Heather and Ghalib meet again at Stanstead Airport. He is a changed man now and it is Heather’s turn to want to know more about him.

Free from his addictions, Ghalib settles in France to look after his young daughter and run his new water management company. A meeting in Paris changes four lives for the better.

A romance novel, this is a story about love and loss and love again.

Book Review: by Suzannah Burke:

Author Hannah Warren has written more than just a boy meets girl romance in this her debut novel.

Casablanca My Heart doesn’t follow traditional clichéd storytelling, and that is a large part of its charm. The author uses 1st person narrative to wonderful advantage here, giving insights into what motivates her characters on a deeply personal level.

Meet Heather Simpson, a well know romance writer who cherishes her privacy and is known better under her pen-name of Femmy Lovecraft. Heather has suffered the loss of her beloved father, and her husband lay in a coma as a result of a car accident for which Heather blames herself. Her guilt is unrelenting. At the insistence of her dear friend the very likeable and straight forward Rita, Heather takes a cruise, a short trip to give her cheeks back their glow and her writing back its meaning. She travels under her pen-name.

Enter Ghalib Tourniquet. A prince no less. His fascination with her is clear. The fact that he appears to know so much about her, including her real name…unsettles her more than a little, as does his masculine good looks and his appearance of warmth intermingled with sublime sophistication. Their attraction is immediate and intense.

The Prince takes her to his beautiful home in Casablanca. The author has
wonderful descriptive talent and she utilizes it so well that the reader is transported to Casablanca, we walk through the beauty of the place and can
clearly visualize his beautiful home. The sexual tension between them is palpable and the ultimate release of that tension is well written in an erotic,
sensual, and moving episode in the steambath of his home. This is not a jarring note, it captures the tension beautifully.

A sudden brush with ill health and the tragic death of her husband, have
Heather returning home suddenly and with no further contact with Ghalib. We are given deep insights into Ghalib’s lifestyle and his growth as a man in the period of years they are parted. Heather, has a child, Lucy, as a result of her one passionate interlude with Ghalib. He knows nothing about the child.

His life has taken a different turn. We see into his recent past, and share his love for his beautiful child, Cassia by his first wife. Understanding the man further as we are permitted to see the misery he has created for himself and others by his lifestyle. Two marriages and two divorces leave him a changed man.

I have no wish to spoil this book for the reader. Suffice it to say that the story is woven with a talented hand, the characters are crafted so well that they become important to the reader, we care what happens to them. The resultant ending is…ahh…that would be telling!

I have no hesitation in recommending this book to anyone that enjoys a well
written story. It travels beyond the romance genre.

Casablanca My Heart is due for release in Autumn 2011.

There is nothing left to say now, but heartfelt THANK YOUs to Suzannah Burke and Authors on Show for doing all the phenomenally hard work in hosting and judging the competition, and for taking the time to review.

So very delighted to find Watch Your Back! featured at Indie Books Blog today. (21 Sept).

What a wonderful surprise to see a review for On The Fly from romance reader Penelope Watson on her blog, Penny Romance:

She writes:

A Breath Of Fresh (Testosterone-Filled) Air: Review of On The Fly by
Jillian Brookes-Ward

...Now, I love me some romance. Even if it's not very realistic. But every once in a while, it's nice to get a glimpse into the real male psyche. Not throughrose-colored glasses, but rather through a sticky beer stein. It's a breath of fresh air to jump into a real man's point of view. And it's especially impressive when that POV has been written by a woman.On The Fly by Jillian Brookes-Ward is not a romance novel. It's not erotica. It actually doesn't have much of a plot. There's no big adventure, or character arc, or profound resolution at the end of the book. It's a portrait of a guy. That's it. (With a bit of a cool paranormal twist at the end.) You know those cartoons "Diagram Of A Dog's Brain? This is real basic stuff. It's not complicated. Well, if you made a diagram of Brian's brain (he's the main character in On The Fly), it would have two things.....

1. Fly-fishing
2. F*cking

That's it. And you know what? It feels totally real. Because honestly, I'll bet there are many, many guys out there who really only think about those two things.

Other things that this book has going for it? It is totally British, which I love. It has great spots of humor. It is well-written. The pacing of the book is perfect for Brian's story. We sort of lumber along in the narrative, watching him fish, f*ck, and look like an ass, as he bumbles along. The fly-fishing stuff is way cool. And I like Brian's vulnerability. It is less than heroic, but so very authentic. A 40-something guy, forced through an emasculating divorce, living at home with his parents, his mother doing his laundry!!, and all he cares about is getting out on the water. And shagging any and all available lassies.

This story was an entertaining breath of fresh air. It's probably not for everyone. Especially folks looking for heroic acts and a complicated storyline. But if you're interested in reading a portrait of a real guy, warts, sore back, and all, then this book is for you. (And it's only 99 cents at Amazon!).

Grade:
A-

It doesn't get any better than this, thank you Penny!

ps. Also at Smashwords.com

The wonderful Australian romance writer, Jo Ellis, has given Linda Loves...? a glowing review on her blog Musings of a Romantic Mind

She says:

Linda Loves....? Now that would be giving it away.

This is the second book I’ve read of Jillian’s and although I loved Nathaniel, I enjoyed  this romp more. I didn’t read the blurb before reading this book because I  didn’t want to know anything going in, I wanted to let the story guide me... and  what a tour....

My favourite part... well to narrow it down is hard,  this surprised me, made me swoon and I couldn’t wait to indulge in this  wonderful fantasy.

A wonderful husband in Tom surprised me  the most in this story. His growth and love had no boundaries, simply endearing  him further.

Adam... well you will just have to read about him to  understand this love affair.

There is far too much to say in words what  I loved about this book. It is perfect for a snuggle in and indulge. It kept me on the treadmill for longer which is a bonus.

If Jillian’s writing were  to become a sweet it would be chocolate fudge...  Linda Loves...?