Kissing Games Release
Kissing Games is the third novel in the Kinloch series and - cover your ears, my other book children - it’s probably my favourite. The romance between Charlie and Valentina actually began life as a side story in Hollywood Games. I loved the idea of a tattooed, ex special-forces bodyguard falling in love with a hot Hollywood actress, so wrote Charlie Hamilton (Rory’s best mate), getting together with Valentina Valverde who is in Scotland starring in Braveheart 2.
What are Instagram edits?
If you’ve been scrolling through the bookstaverse on Instagram, you will have invariably come across ‘edits’. These are collages of images that allude to elements, scenes and characters in a story. Usually made by fans, they can also be created by authors, and are a wonderful way to create a mood and add visual context to the book they reference.
Cookout Carnage
What happens when you put a wild American romcom writer together with a bonkers British one? You get Chaos, Calamity and Carnage in the form of six interconnected love stories spanning a year of holidays.
‘She Needed His Wood’ – Excerpt from Highland Games
One of the staples of a romantic comedy story is the ‘meet cute’, the moment when our hero and heroine meet for the first time. The more this can go wrong, the better. The ‘meet cute’ in Highland Games goes wrong on many levels for Zoe. She’s been sent to the back entrance of Kinloch castle, to ask the estate manager for some wood to feed her Rayburn stove. However, she isn’t expecting to find a shirtless god, splitting logs, and switching her hormones up to eleven.
Behind the Scenes in Evie Land – December 2021
It’s December! We made it! I’m wrapping up 2021 with a review of twelve insane months in Evie land. I’ve had the release of Highland Games, the birth of The Smut Hut, the arrival of puppies, and a near death/divorce experience involving a field of cows. So sit down with a mince pie and a glass of sherry, and experience the rollercoaster of my life without any of the danger, angst or aggro…
Cows Come a Calling – Excerpt from Highland Games
Zoe, our heroine from Highland Games, has always lived her life safely. She’s done what she’s been told, never rebelled, and never taken risks. She’s the ‘Queen of Spreadsheets, the Empress of Organisation.’ That is, until her great uncle dies and gives her the wooden cabin he’s lived in all his life. Highland Games opens with Zoe moving up to Scotland, hopelessly unprepared for what she finds, and without having thought anything through. In this excerpt we see her come face to face with some highland cattle.
What is a Sex Index?
There have been many great contributions to the world of literature. Gutenberg invented the printing press, Shakespeare invented romantic comedy, and J K Rowling invented Harry Potter. However, all of these achievements pale into insignificance compared to my contribution - the sex index. Seeing a hole, I filled it. Finding a gap, I plugged it. My invention of a sex index at the back of a romance novel is hands down the most exciting new development since the Kindle. So join me, readers and fellow authors, to drill down into what a sex index is, and what it can do for you…
Behind the Scenes in Evie Land – November 2021
This month I took another step towards my inevitable departure from this plane of existence, hung out with the real life Zoe in her real life cabin, and faced the greatest of all romance author challenges - my mother reading my work. Not only did I manage to survive all three events, I held it together enough to be interviewed by Anna Fury for her blog, and The Smutty Book Lady for her podcast, as well as start a secret writing project involving insta-love and an overly amorous monkey. For all this and much, much more, read on!
Zoe’s Essentials for Highland Living
Hi everyone, I’m Zoe and I’ve decided to do a takeover blog, because, well, quite frankly, Highland Games is about ME and I feel I need to explain myself a bit.
Behind the Scenes in Evie Land – October 2021
To paraphrase Julius Caesar: “I thought, I wrote, I published”. October 2021 will forever go down in Evie history as the moment that Highland Games was birthed into the world. It was a month of incredible highs and panicked lows, a month of cake, presents, surprises and guerilla marketing. So, if you want to know how to get your book on the shelves of an airport bookstore, and sell more books than you ever thought possible, read on!
