Mills & Boon

Having abandoned my last book 9000 words from the end, a talk by two Mills & Boon editors on Monday spurred me on to try my luck at writing a sample chapter for a Modern Heat book, for a competition that closes on Monday 15th. Thanks to two good friends who read my chapter and synopsis through in all its stages and spotted every error, I finished it yesterday and emailed it off. For anyone else who has time to write a chapter over the weekend, the link is http://dearauthor.com/wordpress/2008/08/15/feel-the-heat-writing-competition-from-mills-boon/

Sorry, I don't know how to do the tinyurl business.

I'm not holding my breath as you'll know from my recent post that I am very unlucky with competitions. But, as the lottery slogan goes, 'you've gotta be in it to win it!'

It's Mr Grumpy's birthday today and I bought him: 1 black Zippo lighter (he smokes roll-ups - no wacky baccy, not since his brain haemorrhage, the consultant told him not to); 1 fleece from Tchibo (wry smile on Mr 's face as he opened the parcel, then he informed me that he'd been after the same one and had even emailed Tchibo, so that was a coup for moi!); 1 mouse mat with built in calculator; 1 set of squidgy, squidgier and squidgiest exercise balls for his stroke-affected hand (and my arthritic one), both these two gifts from Tchibo again - good old Tchibo always have something 'different'); a book written by a doctor who had had a stroke herself ("A stroke of Insight" by Jill Bolte); a Grumpy Old Git t-shirt (mean, aren't I? It's true, though); and finally, a large box of Cadbury's Heroes chocs. Will I see any of them? Probably not. Knowing him, he'll leave them on show somewhere and tomorrow's party guests will finish them off. I think at the last count there were nine children under 10 coming. Oh gawd! Roll on the evening when I can get cheerfully paralytic without having to make sure ankle-biters don't run into the nettles or drown in the pond. Or, worse, try to eat the fish!