During my life I have had a taste of many different occupations – translator, cleaner, tutor, shop assistant… I’ve worked in a German publishing house and spent a few months employed by Disneyland Paris. It took my until my late 30s to discover the career I really wanted to settle in – namely, being an author.

And now I have achieved that goal, what are the five best things about it?

Firstly, spending all day with impossibly romantic heroes. Take my latest book released last week, an e-novella How to Get Hitched in Ten Days. It stars two gorgeous men. Dave makes a disastrous proposal to his girlfriend, Jasmine, and Mikey tries to help him turn this around. Both men have different but equally appealing qualities. Dave is rugged, clumsy but does his best. Mikey is every girl’s best friend with his popcorn and DVD sleepovers. As one recent reviewer said:

“I fell for Dave big time, then Mikey, then Dave, then Mikey…”

And for several weeks, I got to spend my nine to five in their company!

Secondly… The romance community is one of the friendliest I know. I belong to the RNA, the Romantic Novelists Association, and they hold several Prosecco- and laughter-filled events during the year which always give me a huge buzz – and the opportunity to meet dear online romance friends in the flesh.

Thirdly… Being a romance author gives you the opportunity to connect with some of the most generous and friendly readers on the planet, many of whom share your love of a bit of escapism mixed up with a huge dollop of a happy ever after. Their support, feedback and kind words mean everything.

Fourthly, pink and red. Fluff. Fun. Girliness. Call it a midlife crisis if  you like but having been a tomboy all my life, since becoming a romance author, I have developed an interest in clothes, spa weekends and beauty treatments. I am loving every minute of this newfound chicklit lifestyle!

Finally, of course the romance genre is very diverse, from the frothy to deeper reads. It has given me enormous satisfaction to see my writing develop and whilst my writing is still light-hearted, I am now addressing more serious issues. In my #GetHitched book I consider the prejudice that people have shown against Mikey all his life and examine the effect it has had on Jasmine to have grown up with an alcoholic father. The diversity of the genre means that I can easily explore my own writing and take it into new directions, if that is the way it pulls me. So whilst “romance author” is a label, it is a very broad one.

So, other writers may disagree with me, but here are my top tips for writing a novella…

Firstly don’t add in a complicated subplot or more than one subplot. In my full-length novels there is a lot more than the main story going on. Game of Scones, for example is about career-girl Pippa trying to decide what she really wanted to do with her life – stay with boyfriend Henrik? Continue to be an executive in London or become a baker in Greece? Alongside this is another meaty plot regarding a small Greek village struggling to cope with the recession. And then there is her childhood friend Nico who is harbouring some secret.

However, in How to Get Hitched in Ten Days, there is really one meaty story – Dave makes a disastrous Valentine’s Day proposal to Jasmine, and her best friend Mikey helps turn the situation around. Of course, there is more to it than that. We do spend the book trying to work out who is the object of Mikey’s secret unrequited love –  you still don’t want the story to be completely linear – but don’t surround the main plot by lots of smaller stories. You just won’t be able to give them the necessary depth with this amount of words.

Secondly, reduce your cast of characters because, again, you won’t have space to develop them fully and therefore they could become confusing to the reader. Game of Scones has quite a large cast of quite significant characters, from a Greek village. How to Get Hitched in Ten Days mainly focusses on Mikey, Jasmine and Dave.

Thirdly, you haven’t got the space to set the story up in the first three chapters. In my view the bones of it need to be there in the very first chapter. By the end of the first chapter in How to Get Hitched in Ten Days we know that Dave has messed up and kind-hearted Mikey has agreed to help. We have been introduced to the main characters. We know where the story is heading.

Fourthly, don’t over complicate the settings or have too many. You haven’t got the pace of a normal book to enable readers to keep up with everything that’s going on and clearly build up images in their mind. Still keep your settings interesting and vivid – my novella often features a delicious 50s diner – but just be aware that too many different settings could make the reading intense for this length.

Finally, have fun with it! I LOVED writing this short story. The plot felt really tight as I wrote it and it was very satisfying, for a change, to concentrate on a smaller cast.  And I do hope this fun transfers to the page!

So if you fancy a funny, sometimes poignant, and romantic Valentine’s Day read, why not preorder this short story for a bargain 89p on Kindle or Kobo!

This novella is out on February 11th and is up for preorder now!

Only 89p Amazon UK 

or

$1.99 Amazon US

Also available at other online retailers!

Here’s the blurb!

HOW NOT TO GET THE GIRL…

Meet Mikey, every girl’s best friend – he bakes the creamiest cheesecake, loves movie nights and is a great dance partner.

For Jasmine, Mikey is the perfect flatmate – he owns a 50s diner that turns out the best food around, gives the best bear hugs and amazing romance advice – after all they’re scoping out the same hot guys! So when her boyfriend proposes in the worst possible way, Jazz knows her best friend will be there to pick up the pieces with gourmet popcorn, Pinot sleepovers and a shoulder to lean on.

But Mikey isn’t about to let Jasmine give up on love, and he’s ready to do whatever it takes to mend her broken heart – even if it means helping the one person who sees him as the enemy…

Because at the end of the day, all’s fair in the pursuit of true love… right?