Tag Archives: rock star

Hitting the paper

Posted on September 14, 2012 | 23 comments

So this is what it feels like to be in the paper.
Exciting. A bit scary. A little weird.

Unlike a normal blog tour stop, this is an article written by someone else about me, having spoken to me at length over a cuppa or two and having taken copious notes, of course… but still, somebody else wrote. About me.

Now, you know me. I’m a control freak. I like to have a say in what’s written, and I’m very particular about my photos. So this experience, over which I have little control, is not unlike looking into a mirror, with the same inherent question: Will I like what I see?

The answer is, yes! Thank you to Dawn at the Lincolnshire Echo for a fabulous write-up and to John for coming all this way to take a photo. Hope to meet you both again soon!

Credits: The article below was published in Lincolnshire Echo on Thursday 13 Sepember. The author is Dawn Hinsley, Features writer, Lincolnshire Echo. Picture by John Jenkins. Thank you to Lincolnshire Echo for letting me post this article on my blog.

So here goes:

Whoop! Well chuffed. 🙂 I absolutely love that Dawn picked up my ‘what’s Sophie’s Turn like’ nugget: Sophie’s Turn is Bridget Jones rocks out in Notting Hill. What do you reckon?

23 Comments

Posted in Sapphire Star Publishing Book Launch

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Are you ready? Introducing the blog tour of all blog tours: #sophiesturn

Posted on September 5, 2012 | 43 comments

Taking a deep breath.  And another one. Trying to calm my nerves, contain the excitement that is threatening to spill over and engulf me.

Tomorrow is launch day for Sophie’s Turn. Tomorrow, I will party. And I’ll post a party piece with all the joys and thank yous and everything. But today, I’m sharing with you the itinerary for the promotion journey that Sophie, Dan, Sapphire Star Publishing and I will undertake with sixty-three outstanding bloggers and reviewers. Yes, you read that right. Sixty-three! Hence my question… are you ready?

How did this come about? I don’t rightly now. Sapphire Star Publishing organised a fabulous blog tour on my behalf with Reading Addiction Blog Tours. And I got in touch with the bloggers I had come to know and love from a previous release of Sophie’s Turn. The response has been overwhelming, the support is staggering and I am just totally over the moon. The result is the blog tour of all blog tours.

Don’t panic. I won’t be asking you to visit every stop. I won’t be asking you to tweet yourself to death (that’s my job, wish me luck). I won’t even stalk you with continuous updates, although hopefully you’ll see the odd tweet or three… 🙂 I’m simply posting the schedule here, in a safe, obvious space on my blog, so that if you DO want to stop by and say hello on any given day, you can find me. That’s all.

Lastly, I want to give due credit and say Thank You to all these amazing bloggers and fellow authors who are giving up their time and making space on their blogs to help me shout about Sophie’s Turn. I couldn’t do it without you. So without furhter ado, take a look at this schedule and stand in awe, as I do, at the amazing support for my baby.

See?

SOPHIE’S TURN:
THE LAUNCH TOUR 2012

Stops and features are subject to change. Links may not function until the date a post is scheduled. *Asterisked stops have been scheduled by Reading Addiction Blog Tours on behalf of Sapphire Star Publishing: Thank You!
 

6 September  Romance that Rocks Your World  Party Time!

6 September  Jera’s Jamboree  Review, give-away and interview: Update on my publishing journey

6 September  AL Jackson  Guest post: The rock song that kept me going

6 September  Loveahappyending.com  Guest post: The journey begins

6 September  The Romaniacs  Guest post: A natural born singer. Not.

6 September  We Do Write  Interview: Getting to know me…

6 September  Dizzy C’s Little Book Blog  Review, excerpt and give-away

6 September  Celtic Connexions  Quick introduction to Sophie’s Turn

6 September  Beth Art From the Heart*  Review and guest post: A Day in the Life

6 September  Fascinating Books  Review and Guest post: The roaming writer

7 September  Wonderland Reviews*  Review and interview

8 September  Louise Graham  Review and interview: Hiya! meets Sophie and Dan

8 September  Andi’s Book Reviews *  Review, give-away and guest post: Why book covers are so important

9 September  Bookreview by Rea  Review, give-away and interview: Where do my characters come from?

10 September  For the Love of Film and Novels*  Review, give-away and guest post

11 September  Books For Me*  Review and excerpt

12 September   Solitary Bookworm*  Review, give-away and excerpt

14 September  Stephanie Keyes  Interview: Am I Sophie?

14 September   My Seryniti *  Review, excerpt, give-away and interview

15 September  Love reading love books  Review and interview: Tell us about writing Sophie’s Turn…

16 September  The Book Chick  Review, give-away and guest post: I don’t procrastinate

17 September  My Reading Room*  Review, give-away and interview

18 September  Mandy Baggot  Guest post: Mandy interviews Dan Hunter

18 September  Romantic Novelists’ Association Blog  Guest post: Titles and covers, and covers and titles…

18 September  Up All Night Reviews*  Review, excerpt and give-away

19 September   A Date With a Book*  Review, excerpt and give-away

20 September  Amy Gregory  Guest post: Just the right side of hot and steamy…

22 September  Chick lit and Wine  Review, give-away and guest post: Sophie’s Turn goes Wine Tasting 101

23 September  Forget the Housework  Interview and give-away

24 September  What’s Beyond Forks?*  Review, excerpt, give-away and interview

25 September  Hello, You  Excerpt and interview: Meet Nicky Wells, the author who loves rock stars

27 September  Me, my books and I  Review, excerpt and give-away

27 September  Cocktails and Books*  Review, give-away and guest post: A Day in the Life…

28 September  Booklovin’ Mamas*  Give-away and guest post: Why Book Covers Matter…

29 September  Chick Lit Club Connect  Give-away and guest post: Rock Star Romance… by proxy

29 September  Crazy Four Books*  Review, excerpt, give-away

30 September  Liv for Today  Review, give-away and Q&A

1 October  My Cozie Corner*  Review and give-away

2 October  Reviews By Molly*  Review and excerpt

3 October  Reader Girls*  Review, excerpt and give-away

4 October  Jennifer M Eaton  Guest post: Peak performance

4 October  Jersey Girl Book Reviews*  Review, excerpt and guest post

4 October   LovLivLife Reviews*  Review and excerpt

6 October  Janice Horton  Guest post: High heels and broken ankles

6 October My Reading Addiction* Review and excerpt

7 October  Sheryl Browne  Guest post: Taking the plunge…

9 October  Lynn Reynolds  Review

11 October  Kim the Bookworm  Review plus interview: A little bit about life, the universe and everything

14 October  Linn B Halton  Guest post: Party and six pieces of advice

15 October  Tracie Banister  Interview and give-away

16 October  Today I’m Reading  Review, give-away and interview: Writing and inspiration

18 October  Chick Lit Central  Review, give-away and interview

19 October  My life. One story at a time  Review, give-away and interview: Where and how do I write?

21 October  Bonnie Trachtenberg  Guest post: Compulsive-Obsessive Plotting Disorder

23 October  books 4u  Guest post: A peek into the author’s office…

26 October  The Littlereader Library  Review and guest post: Changing writing habits

27 October  Words from Anneli  Introducing Nicky Wells; followed by Guest post: The Night I Was Powerless on 30 October!

30 October  Age is Just a Number  Interview and review

1 November  Patricia Sands  Guest post: Developing strength of character

6 November  She Who Blogs Behind The Rows  Guest post: There’s always a song…

9 November  ChickLitPlus  Review

11 November  Alchemy of Scrawl  Guest Post: Confessions of an Insomniac

13 November  Jen Tucker  Interview and guest post: Ten Things You Didn’t Know About Dan Hunter

 Wow! Congratulations if  you had the courage to scroll all the way down. You rock! See you on tour…

43 Comments

Posted in Sapphire Star Publishing Book Launch

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It’s really real, it’s here, and I’m overcome.

Posted on August 24, 2012 | 96 comments

Nearly eight years in the making. Nothing but a vague dream, a hopeful aspiration to begin with. An idea. An ambition. And now it’s here. It’s real. The very rushed man from UPS delivered it in the morning, oblivious to the importance of the cargo he was carrying.

I know what’s in these boxes. Tears? Why, of course. I’m all choked up with emotion, and I haven’t even opened them yet.

My book! There it is…
It’s beautiful. It smells gorgeous, that hot-of-the-press smell of fresh ink. And it’s all mine. I did that!

Of course, I had lots of help along the way, and you all know who you are, but this moment… this is mine. And in less than two weeks, it can be anyone’s.

My two boys, witnessing their mummy’s moment of pure joy, decide to capture the occasion for all eternity and grab the camera. Thank you, my lovelies!

And finally… here’s me and my book baby.

What a feeling!

96 Comments

Posted in Sapphire Star Publishing Book Launch

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Counting the days…

Posted on August 17, 2012 | 20 comments

20 Comments

Posted in Sapphire Star Publishing Book Launch

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Hey, hey, I want to be a rock star….

Posted on July 31, 2012 | 8 comments

Welcome to a late edition of Music Monday! Let’s call it…
TUNEFUL TUESDAY!

Yup, I gave up yesterday’s customary Music Monday slot to a fabulous guest post by the amazing Talli Roland–I hope you enjoyed!! But I still wanted to share with you my song of the week.

This one is highly appropriate, totally topical and just fantastic. Why did it come to the forefront of my mind at this particular time? Oooh, I don’t know. Probably something to do with finishing the absolutely rockin’ masterplan for Book #3 in the Rock Star Romance Trilogy. Or mabye something to do with finishing proofing Sophie’s Turn, Book #1… Or maybe it’s just… I don’t know, something from deep within my psyche, hee hee!

What do I love about this song? Let’s see. I love the mellow rock tune, the very anthem potential underpinned by somewhat cynical lyrics. Totally up my street!

So, I want you all to join in in the spirit of the video: let’s hear it!

What’s your favourite line in this song? Do you have any favourite cynical, satirical or downright funny favourite songs? Protest songs, perhaps? Let’s have them!

8 Comments

Posted in Music Monday

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Working out the Kinks in the Trilo-nology

Posted on July 20, 2012 | 3 comments

I hold Sophie’s and Dan’s fate in my hands. What a weird feeling! That’s quite a responsibility, actually. Two people’s lives.

I have their lives planned perfectly, of course. I have a grand plan that spans book one, Sophie’s Turn, book two, Sophie’s Run, and the concluding part. It’s a big picture plan. I know what’s going to happen in broad strokes, and then I plan each book in meticulous detail as and when I write it.

So I did a bit of a double-take when I sat down to plan book three. You see, by necessity, a few years will have elapsed between the end of Sophie’s Run and the beginning of my next novel. Events will have transpired that will have changed the world, and Sophie’s universe.

And I suddenly realise that age matters. As in, my characters’ age. Not how old they are, per se, that’s kind of immaterial to the story by now. Well, not immaterial, it matters, too, of course, they’ve grown a little older and developed in the intervening… time.

What I mean is, their exact age matters. How old they are when this next novel starts, with everything that entails for the plot. I didn’t pay much attention to this to begin with. I had a rough age in mind, and I’d counted out their ages using my fingers. I put an age down for both lead characters in the book-three-planning-box, and that seemed fine.

Until. Until I realised that my books usually run from June or July time through the end of the year, sometimes rolling over into the spring. Sophie’s Run, book two, for example, begins in June, just before Sophie’s birthday, and ends in late November with a little spree into the following April.

Birthday. Yes, there you have it. My characters have birthdays, and they need to be honoured. So where initially I counted this many straight years (“one, two, three years since the end of Sophie’s Run”), it became much more complicated when I actually thought about it properly. Because, you see, at the beginning of book two, Sophie is 29, but then she turns 30. At the end of book two, she’s still 30 of course, but she would be turning 31 quite soon. There’s the hitch. That rolling over birthday calendar.

Same for Dan, just a month later. So straight counting of years is actually misleading. In fact, after much scratching of head and, eventually, a detailed month-by-month calendar exercise charting Sophie’s and Dan’s ages over the years with all the relevant events that would have taken place between books two and three… After all of that, it emerged that I actually cheated both characters out of two years of their lives. Well, that’s not on.

Thankfully, I caught this calamity in the nick of time and managed to get my Trilo-nology right before I start planning in depth, let alone writing. So we can all celebrate birthdays with confidence, and in style.

Does it matter?
It will matter. To my characters. To me. Possibly to nobody else, but at least I know now that the story and its evolution over time are plausible. It could work, it could have happened, because I didn’t mess up a (small?) detail like ages. I’m inanely pleased with myself for working this out, bizarrely complicated as it might have been. I can write with complete confidence now.

What about you? Do you worry about details like chronology, ages or timelines when you write? Does it matter to the substance of the story, or am I tying myself in knots unnecessarily?

3 Comments

Posted in Rock Star Romance, Part 3: Sophie's Encore

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Come to the Rock Star Party!

Posted on July 6, 2012 | 17 comments

Yes, you read that right: come to the Rock Star Party at the Festival of Romance in Bedford on Saturday, 17th November 2012! 

Why? WHY?

Do you really need to ask? Because I’ll be there, bringing along stories of Sophie and Dan! And copies of Sophie’s Turn which, by then, will have been released by Sapphire Star Publishing–whoop!  And who knows what else will be going on…

Moreover, it’s not just me, oh no! You and I will be in illustrious company as the wonderful Mandy Baggot, Sue Moorcroft and Jane Lovering will be there too, bringing their respective rock star heroes. It’ll be a blast!

Check out the full programme for the entire festival… and don’t forget to buy your tickets.  🙂 Oh, and do let me know that you’re coming so I can plan a proper treat for you! Rock on!!

17 Comments

Posted in Miscellaneous

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Cover Reveal! ~Sophie’s Turn~

Posted on May 19, 2012 | 42 comments

This is it! The ultimate cover for Sophie’s Turn.  How excited am I?

Why another new cover, you ask?  Quite simply, another new cover marks the start of a new era for Sophie’s Turn, the first published edition coming out from Sapphire Star Publishing on 6 September 2012.  As for those of you who’ve been following my publishing journey, it’ll strike you that actually, this new, ultimate cover is quite similar to the last version you saw.  That’s because the amazing folks over at Sapphire Star Publishing liked the concept so much, they didn’t want to change it much at all.  Thank you!  🙂  But check out the subtle changes… see if you can spot the differences!  I’m enchanted, personally.

Huge congratulations go out to the original creator, Jessie Dalrymple–see, I told you you rock. 🙂

And here it is! Cover first, but don’t miss the credits below…


Here’s the credits, with HUGE thanks:

Cover design:  Chad Lichtenhan

Original design concept:  Jessie Dalrymple

Image:  “A carousel and the Eiffel Tower lit up at night” by www.unrestrictedstock.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

Over the coming days and weeks, you will gradually see this cover appear on all the usual sites, beginning with the book icon in the top right-hand sidebar of this very blog.  Hooray!

So… what do you think?

42 Comments

Posted in Sapphire Star Publishing Book Launch

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Nicky Wells, Gracing BBC Airwaves (Again)

Posted on May 17, 2012 | 19 comments

Holy Microphone! as Sophie would say.
It’s official! I’m a radio addict.  I love being “live on air” on the radio.  So: I thought I’d do it all over again….

Nicky and Elise after the interview in December ’11

As many of you probably recall (given the noise I made about it!), on 21 December last year, I had the great fortune of visiting Elise Rayner on the Afternoon Show on BBC Radio Bristol to talk about my romantic comedy debut, Sophie’s Turn.  Elise gave me an amazing amount of airspace during my first “Beeb” interview and I remember ‘threatening’ that I might have to return when the sequel is written.Well, not only is the sequel, Sophie’s Run, written but it has also been signed by Sapphire Star Publishing–alongside, of course, my first novel.  So I thought it was time to make good on my promise (threat?) and return to BBC Radio Bristol for an update.

Today, I had the pleasure of having a 15 minute chat live on air with the wonderful Alex Lewis.  And did I have the best of times again?  Absolutely!

Nicky and Alex after the interview in May ’12
(Thanks for letting me snap-and-share again!)

Alex asked me about me, and my writing, Sophie’s Turn, the sequel, signing a publishing contract and also about loveahappyending.com.  Once again, I forgot all about being in a studio and talking live on air.  It was such fun!  I think I am addicted.

So here’s the audio…

The definite introduction to Me, Nicky Wells, and to Romance that Rocks Your World, with a big mention for loveahappyending.com.

Due to the length of the interview and the size of the resulting sound file… you guessed it, I had to split it into two parts. Actually, the soundcapture software did it for me without telling me but hey ho, I figured it out when two truncated files showed up. Apologoies! Anyhooo….  In Part 1, Alex asks me about my writing history and background right up to the point of signing with Sapphire Star **inelegant interruption of soundfile here**

**resumption of soundfile here** and in Part 2, Alex asks me about connections with Bristol, inspiration and loveahappyending. Rock on!

And here’s the question for the real pros out there:  How do you stop yourself from “uhm-ing” and “err-ing” and mentioning a lot of “stuff” when live on air?

19 Comments

Posted in Radio Interviews

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Sophie has an exciting confession for Dan…

Posted on April 23, 2012 | 33 comments

Indeed, it’s party time again!  Did you guess right yesterday?

I feel like a regular party girl these days. Break out the bubbly, have a little treat and join the party!  Oh, and know that while the celebrations continue, I’ll be planning the third part of the Rock Star Romance Trilogy… just how will the story end??XX

~Nicky 🙂

33 Comments

Posted in Progress Updates, Rock Star Romance, Part 2: Sophie's Run, Sapphire Star Publishing Book Launch

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