Category Archives: Miscellaneous

Let’s Talk About Serial Chicklit ~ Join Me on #ChickLitChat Today!

Posted on September 12, 2013 | 4 comments

Serial Chick Lit.
Chick Lit series.
Serialised romantic comedies.
Are you a fan?

‘Serial’ #ChickLitChat on Twitter,
12 September 2013,
8 p.m. to 9 p.m. EDT

Tonight (or rather, very early tomorrow morning, from where I’m sitting), it’s my great pleasure to co-host the hugely fun #ChickLitChat forum on Twitter. For those of you who may not have come across it before, the express purpose of #ChickLitChat is to celebrate all things chick lit! We hang out from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. EDT (that would be 1 a.m. to 2 a.m. on FRIDAY morning for me ~ am I dedicated to the cause, or what).

That’ll be me with my caffeine props and three layers of clothing as my office has resumed arctic conditions once more. I know. I don’t look my best. But hey, it is 1 a.m.!

Tonight’s theme is ‘Chick Lit series.’ The lovely Tracie Banister has very kindly asked if I’d like to co-host the chat with her seeing that, from an author’s point of view, I have a little experience in writing a series.

So here’s some things we might be chatting about. But of course, the floor is YOURS. Tracie and I are simply there to moderate and offer ideas. We want to hear what YOU think, and we’re here to answer your questions!

From a reader’s point of view,
let’s hear…

~what’s the best thing about a series? Why do you love a good Chick Lit series?
~what makes a Chick Lit series great?
~do series ever go on ‘too long’? In other words, can the story go ‘stale’?
~what’s the ‘serial enchantment’ factor: do you ever re-read the ‘old’ books in a series when a new one comes out?

From an author’s point of view, I’ll be happy to talk about or answer questions about…

~the fun of writing a series
~the challenges of writing a series (I say: chronology)
~how to plan a series
~how to say goodbye to your characters at the end of a series

Join us on Twitter ~
we look forward to chatting!
#ChickLitChat

And this is what I’ll be basing my experience on, of course. LOL!

4 Comments

Posted in Author Appearance, Miscellaneous

Tagged #ChickLitChat, Celebrating ChickLit, Chronology, Series, Twitter chat

Winners of the Sophie’s Encore Launch Day Bonus Giveaway

Posted on September 6, 2013 | 4 comments

Wooohoo!

What a blast yesterday’s launch party for Sophie’s Encore was.
I’m still buzzing!

On the spur of the moment, I opened a ‘Share the Joy and Spread the Word’ launch day bonus giveaway for 2X $10 (or equivalent currency) Amazon Gift Vouchers. The response was tremendous:

I recorded 97 giveaway-related tweets and shares!
I think it’s fair to say that you all rock, thank you!

I recorded the entries in the order in which they appeared. Random.org has picked two numbers for winners. The winning entries are are…

77!

and…

17!

That means that the winners are…. *drumroll*

Karen Soutar

and

Kate at Me, My Books and I!

Congratulations, ladies, I’ll be emailing you shortly.
Hooray! Thank you to absolutely everyone who took part and had the wires buzzing with news about this release.

YOU ARE AMAZING!

4 Comments

Posted in Miscellaneous

Tagged giveaway, Sophie's Encore, Winners

Sun, Sea and Sand: Photo Diary of a Summer Holiday in the UK

Posted on August 30, 2013 | 23 comments

Happy Friday! It’s less than a week to the launch of Sophie’s Encore, and apparently my little fun teaser campaign is driving you all wild with excitement. (I think it’s excitement. I hope!)

However, there’s more to life than books and writing, so today, I’m offering a little light relief. Last week, the family and I had the most fantabulous seaside holiday up in Yorkshire, near Whitby. I can honestly say it was one of the most meteorologically successful trips in the UK I have ever, ever had. Pictures say more than words, so grab a cuppa, sit back and enjoy my holiday snaps.

North Yorkshire 2013:
Sun, Sea and Sand!

Runswick Bay. I walked the length of the beach and back… and just made it before I got cut off by the tide!

Runswick Bay, other direction. So beautiful! The boys and I were lucky enough to get a trip around the bay on a Gemini class lifeboat. Highlight of the day!

South of France, right? No, still Runswick Bay!

A chance to meet up with Melanie Robertson-King ~ at Cross Butts Stable Restaurant in Whitby. We had a fabulous meal and chatted nineteen to the dozen before Melanie and Don had to drive on down to Lincoln.

Have you ever seen anything as pretty? Signature pudding at Cross Butts Stables!

Walk across the North Yorkshire Moors. We had a great time! So did a few very small unbidden visitors that were discovered two days later. The nurse at the local Minor Injuries Unit was most amused to find three generations of Wells males presenting themselves for tick removal. (And yes, I know now how to do this at home. I just need to get the right kind of tweezers…)

Still on the moors… the heather was just on the verge of erupting. I bet it’ll be all purple there now.

Butterfly alley! The little beauties were so tame, they came and checked out our hair and hands. Talk about the butterfly touch!

View over Whitby, with the old Abbey dominating the headland. Bram Stoker would have been proud, although Dracula was mercifully absent in broad daylight! 😉

Of course I went to the Magpie Café!

Seafood Hotpot. I was in seventh heaven. Sophie would have been proud (and jealous!) 🙂

I’m a wife, I’m a mother, I’m an author, I’m a housekeeper, I’m an occasional educator, I’m a radio co-host, and I’m an ACE SANDCASTLE BUILDER! Although to be fair, this was a whole-family project and it took nearly all day to complete… just in time for the tide to wash it all away!

Saltburn Beach. We had the whole place almost entirely to ourselves, which is a great mystery as it's by far the most perfect children's beach ever. Sandcastle building sand, a gentle slope into the sea with plenty of paddling opportunities, rock pools AND fossils! We found ourselves coming back day after day.

Saltburn Beach. We had the whole place almost entirely to ourselves, which is a great mystery as it’s by far the most perfect children’s beach ever. Perfect sandcastle-building sand, a gentle slope into the sea with plenty of safe paddling opportunities, rock pools AND fossils! We found ourselves coming back day after day.

And that, as they say, was that. We didn’t have a drop of rain during the entire time, and we had so much fun, it’s practically untrue. Not forgetting the absence of WiFi in our accommodation, which meant that this here author got a complete break. I slept between ten and twelve hours almost every night, which is unheard of!

These are the days, folks. Before too long, the kids will be bored with trips to the beach and… No, let’s not think about that, we have a good few years of these glorious types of holidays to come yes.

How was your summer?
What did you get up to?
Care to share your highlight?

🙂

23 Comments

Posted in Miscellaneous

Tagged North Yorkshire, Sandcastles, seafood, Seaside, Summer Holiday, Whitby

Fanciful Friday

Posted on August 23, 2013 | 14 comments

Happy Friday, folks! I’m not actually online this week at all. I’m taking a break! Outrageous notion, I know, but even rock-star rock-chick authors need complete downtime sometimes. Or so I’m told! 🙂

Thus I’m pottering about the house and garden and entertaining the kids while womanfully restraining myself from checking email, FB or Twitter, and I was thinking… where would I go if money were no object? If I could just go absolutely anywhere right now, this very minute? Introducing:

Fanciful Friday!

By Jon Sullivan [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Where would YOU go?

🙂

Back online next week… see you then, and rock on!

14 Comments

Posted in Miscellaneous

Tagged beach, Downtime, Fanciful Friday, Palm Trees

Winners of the Sophie’s Encore COVER REVEAL giveaway

Posted on August 15, 2013 | Leave a comment

Dang-dang-dang! Yes, a big drumroll and a huge round of applause for the winners of the Sophie’s Encore Cover Reveal giveaway.

Rafflcopter recorded a total of 3,175 entries ~ Thank You, folks, to everyone who came and joined in the fun, I am completely overwhelmed!

And the winners are…

Pre-release e-copies of Sophie’s Encore
Korneliusz Olejniczak
Tawnya Bentley

Sophie’s Run Mug
Ameila Ellis Andrews

SWAG pack
Desiree Putaski

Congratulations!

All winners have been notified by email.

However, if you’re reading this, Ameila, please could you leave a blog post comment or contact me via Twitter (@WellsNicky) or Facebook with your email address ~ for some reason, the email address supplied to Rafflecopter keeps bouncing back to me.

Watch this space!

If you haven’t won on this occasion, never fear! Sophie’s Encore is releasing on 5 September so you can get your fix of Sophie and Dan then!
Moreover, I’ll be celebrating in style…with another fantabulous giveaway to share the publication joy with you all. Rock on!

In the meantime, don’t forget that there are TWO PAPERBACK COPIES of Sophie’s Encore up for grabs on Goodreads for readers in the UK, US or Canada. What are you waiting for…? I do really, really want to get you reading this book, so hop on over and enter if you haven’t already! Here’s where you enter:

GOODREADS GIVEAWAY of SOPHIE’S ENCORE

It’s all happening here on this blog, let’s rock’n’roll!

You didn’t hear it on the grapevine… you heard it FIRST! #Exclusive

Posted on August 14, 2013 | 24 comments

Well, my friends, you definitely heard it here first… simply because I can’t keep the excitement in. This is exclusively for you before the official release goes out tomorrow. I’ll let the press release below speak for itself! In answer to your unspoken questions…

Why? Because it seemed the absolutely perfect next step in my authorly career. To get professional help with the whole publicity thing, I mean!

And how? Well, I first ‘met’ Cameron on air at Siren FM nearly a year ago and we’ve been talking ever since. So it seemed a logical progression to link up more officially. And before you go off making all sorts of random assumptions, I give you a sneak peek at the press release that’s going out tomorrow. Rock on!

And I’m still me, obviously. I still love and truly value all your wonderful support and will be returning it just as I have in the past. Just in case you were wondering… nothing has changed, except there’s one more person on Team Nicky. Love y’all!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

MapleStar Music & Media is proud to announce the signing of Nicky Wells, UK-based author of the “Rock Star Romance” trilogy, Sophie’s Turn, Sophie’s Run, and Sophie’s Encore, which is due for release on September 5^th.

Nicky Wells is the ultimate rock chick author. Signed to US Publisher, Sapphire Star Publishing, her trilogy features Dan, the sexy and talented front-man for rock band Tuscq, and Sophie, the girl next door.

“Nicky’s books offer glitzy, glamorous contemporary romance with a rock theme,” says MapleStar Music & Media’s Cameron Tilbury. “imagine Bridget Jones ROCKS Notting Hill.”

If you’ve ever had a crush on any kind of celebrity—singer, movie star, or someone else famous—you’ll connect with Nicky’s heroes and leading ladies!

Born in Germany, Nicky Wells moved to the United Kingdom in 1993 and currently lives in Lincoln. She has worked as a researcher and project manager for an international Human Resources research firm, based in London and Washington, D.C. Like her leading lady, Sophie, Nicky loves listening to rock music, dancing, and eating lobsters. When she’s not writing, she’s a wife, mother, occasional knitter, and regular contributor to The Midweek Drive show on Lincoln’s Siren 107.3 FM.

Sophie’s Turn and Sophie’s Run have both received great reviews. “The books are captivating, intelligent and a whole lot of fun,” said Tilbury. “We’re excited to be working with Nicky and helping new fans around the world to discover her books.”

Nicky Wells is a signed author with Sapphire Star Publishing and member of the Romantic Novelists’ Association.

***

To find out more about Nicky Wells, contact Cameron at MapleStar Music & Media.

24 Comments

Posted in Miscellaneous

Tagged Cameron Tilbury, MapleStar Music & Media, Nicky Wells, Publicist, Rock Star Romance

Festival of Romance 2013 #romancefest13

Posted on August 14, 2013 | 6 comments

Festival of Romance
is happening again!

I’m delighted to shout about this fabulous event, especially considering the BLAST I had at last year’s romance fest. (It involved unscheduled singing on my part, in case you don’t remember, LOL!)

So here’s the gen:

The Festival of Romance celebrates romantic fiction in all its forms and gives readers a chance to meet favourite and new authors as well as taking part in lots of fun activities. It is the UK’s ONLY convention dedicated to romantic fiction.

Festival of Romance 2013 takes place Friday, 8th November to Sunday, 10th November in Bedford!

Tickets are on sale NOW

The New Talent Award is now open for entries. The guest judge this year is Harper Collins editor Sammia Rafique.

The Piatkus Entice Win a Publishing Contract competition is now open.

Here’s a peek at the fun-packed programme:

8th November

7.30pm to 9.30pm ART AND ROMANCE EVENING, The Higgins Museum & Art Gallery
Enjoy an exclusive evening at The Higgins, transformed by a multi-million pound refurbishment. Authors writing in different historical periods will give readings of their work. The Pre-Raphaelite Exhibition will be open plus the chance to join an exclusive literary interest tour of the museum (at extra cost). Readings by Marie Maxwell, Christina Courtenay, Jon Beattiey, Jenny Barden, Jean Burnett, Terri Nixon, Catherine Winchester, Charlie Cochrane, Liz Harris, Laura Purcell, Rosemary Morris, Madeline James and Jane Lark. Tickets: £10 inc a glass of wine.

9th November

All day. ROMANCE AND SHOPPING Town centre: look out for authors in historical costumes. Harpur Shopping centre: listen to readings by romance authors. Free entry.

10am to 3pm ROMANCE FAIR, Harpur Suite, Corn Exchange Gifts, books, authors, cooking, chocolate and lots of fun. Free entry.

10.30am to 12noon COFFEE AND CAKE MORNING ,The Lane Coffee and chance to meet your favourite authors. With readings by Miranda Dickinson, Sue Moorcroft, Hazel Osmond, Fiona Harper, Phillipa Ashley, Liz Fenwick, Charlotte Howard, Lucy Felthouse, Sue Welfare, Janice Horton, Zara Stoneley and Mandy Baggot .Tickets: £6 includes coffee/tea & choice of cake.

10.30am to 12.30pm PITCH YOUR NOVEL Central Library Pitch your unpublished novel to our panel of publishers for live feedback. Tickets: £10

12.45pm to 3.45pm IRRESISTABLE HEROES WORKSHOP Central Library Learn to write heroes that readers will fall in love with. Led by award winning authors Sue Moorcroft and Christina Courtenay. Tickets: £20. Limited places.

1pm to 1.45pm AN AUDIENCE WITH… KATIE FFORDE. Harpur Suite, Corn Exchange Meet bestselling romantic fiction novelist Katie Fforde in conversation. Free entry.

3.15pm to 4.30pm ROYAL BABY SHOWER Harpur Suite, Corn Exchange Celebrate the royal baby and meet romance authors at this fun event. Babies and children welcome. With special guest William Coles, former royal corespondent at The Sun. Spot prizes for bonny babies. Readings by Rowan Coleman, Hywela Lyn, Nicola May, Sophie Pembroke, Sheryl Browne, Nicky Wells, Linn B Halton, Kit Domino, Serena Fairfax and Caroline James. Tickets: £5 includes tea/coffee or glass of wine. Under 16s: free.

>>>>in case you missed it ~ yours truly (yes, me!) will be taking part in this event, come and join me! <<<<

4pm to 5pm HOW TO STAND OUT, GET PUBLISHED & STAY PUBLISHED Central Library Join Sammia Rafique from top publisher Harper Collins and bestselling author Miranda Dickinson for a informative talk with question and answer session. Tickets: £5

6.45pm NEW TALENT AWARD RECEPTION Invitation only Drinks reception for New Talent Award shortlisted authors.

7.30pm to 11.30pm FESTIVAL OF ROMANCE BALL. Harpur Suite, Corn Exchange
Including presentation of the Reader Awards for best romantic books of the year, Romance Industry Awards and New Talent Award. With comedian Brian Higgins and steampunk “chap hop” star Professor Elemental. Dress code: black tie. Tickets: £50 includes three course meal.

10th November

9.30am to 3pm ROMANTIC FICTION CONFERENCE Howard Room, Corn Exchange
Publishers and industry experts discuss the burning issues for the romantic fiction industry. And a chance to meet publishers one to one. Full programme coming soon. Tickets: £42 includes lunch.

What are you waiting for?
You’ve seen the line up of events and authors ~ come on and join us!

Spread the word and join the twitter fun: #romancefest13

6 Comments

Posted in Author Appearance, Miscellaneous

Tagged #romancefest13, Festival of Romance 2013

CentreStage with Amy Gregory: ELI’S HONOR (Racing to Love)

Posted on July 31, 2013 | 6 comments

Welcome to another edition of CentreStage this week!

Well, you know what they say. Good things always happen all at once, so it is my great pleasure to bring you a second CentreStage feature for this week. Today’s edition showcases the amazing Amy Gregory and the third novel in her Racing To Love series.

Give it up for Amy and Eli’s Honor!

Good morning, Nicky!

Thank you so much for having me on your blog today! I know you’re crazy busy with Sophie and her world.

So since you’re from the music world, I thought I’d bring up how different authors use music sometimes as a source of inspiration for books. I know I do. I have seen many, many authors make a complete playlist for one book and describe each song and draw a parallel to which part of the story it inspired. For me, it’s a bit different.

I’d written the first two books of Racing to Love, as well as the novella about Brody before I came across the perfect song. It was just one of a long list on my iPod and when it played, it was like a light went on and I knew “it” was the ‘theme song’ of sorts to the entire series. You’ll have to go to YouTube and search for The Pretenders, I’ll Stand By You…it’s AMAZING, but the lyrics also seemed to fit each book of the Racing to Love series perfectly. So instead of a playlist for each book…I have one song I just drift to during the ‘it’ moment of the book.

Well, I couldn’t resist the challenge, seeing as that this is one of my all-time-favourite goosebump-ballads too. Sadly, there’s no official (legal) Pretenders version to share via YouTube, but I found you this one instead ~ it’s nicely done and quite true to the original. Enjoy!

However, my process is evolving. The next series, it seems as I’m writing each book, I’ll hear a song and have my ah-ha moment. So it seems that each book will have its own song.

Then we jump forward about ten paces and Alex hit me hard.

I never spoke the title really of the last book of the series. I had led people to believe that all the books were really focused heavily on the hero, well, in Eli’s Honor, we find out just who Alex is of Alex’s Destiny. Music seemed to be one third of the puzzle that was her saving grace. To the point, I actually wrote the song that is in the background of the book.

I’ve circled around, hitting about every type of influence music has on my stories. I’ve always heard the lyrics when listening to a song, then the musical notes. Some touch you and never leave, just as some books do.

Here’s to a great day, I hope you have a wonderful week. Thank you again, Nicky. And keep music and books near your heart!

Hugs,

Amy

About the Author

Amy Gregory leads an incredibly active lifestyle in Kansas City with her husband and their three fantastic kids who keep them running in three very different directions. Amy is known for her snarky, off the cuff sense of humor, which you’ll find shining through in the characters she’s created.

I’ve spent my whole life trying to figure out what I want to be when I grow up, and now I’ve finally found it. – Amy Gregory

Blog | Twitter | Amazon | Facebook | Goodreads

6 Comments

Posted in CentreStage, Miscellaneous

Tagged Amy Gregory, CentreStage, Eli's Honor, Motocross, Racing to Love

School’s Out For Summer!

Posted on July 22, 2013 | 12 comments

It’s Music Monday!

Well. And there’s really only one song that’ll do today. ’nuff said!

Have a FABULOUS summer, everyone. 🙂
Would love to hear your plans!

Me? Well, we’re having a long weekend in London to start with where we shall be exploring the city by DUCK! Next up, the kids are lucky enough to get a holiday from me for a few days when they stay at the grandparents’. 🙂 Then we’re all off to Yorkshire together for a coast’n’moors holiday. And apart from that, we have plenty of day trips and jollifications at home planned. The next six weeks will fly by, I’m sure… And you know what happens at the end of the summer holidays, right? (Hint… #SophiesEncore)

12 Comments

Posted in Miscellaneous

Tagged Alice Cooper, Music Monday, Rock, School Holidays, School's Out For Summer

My Holy Grail: Two hits, one touch

Posted on July 19, 2013 | 9 comments

This has been a pretty awesome week for me. In terms of my personal holy grails (of which there are many, LOL), I hit two and touched one. Alas, because of the unexpected and rather longer than predicted heat wave, my brain’s fried so I’ll give you my week in pictures rather than words.

Holy Grail, Hit 1:
Cover Reveal for Sophie’s Encore

I had the most astounding day, with no less than 23 fabulous bloggers taking part and a HUGE amount of interest in the cover, the excerpt and the giveaway (did I mention there are two preview e-copies of Sophie’s Encore up for grabs?).

You can visit the cover reveal post here,
or see the giveaway here: a Rafflecopter giveaway

Holy Grail: Touch (A Near ‘Hit’)

Yes! On Tuesday morning, I found Sophie’s Turn on the list of the 100 best-selling romantic comedies over on amazon.com. It started at #98 and ‘worked up’ to #95 before gradually sliding back down and out over the rest of the day. But still: I touched the holy grail of charts.

Incidentally, Sophie’s Run made it onto the HUMOUR list on amazon.co.uk that same morning ~ it sunned itself in the #95 slot for a little while!

Holy Grail, Touch 2:
“This Is It” Edit

Yup, that’s me, completing the THIS IS IT proof edit on Sophie’s Encore across yesterday and today. My third book is nearly ready to go to the printer!!
I am so insanely proud of the Grand Finale.