This week sees the release of my new short story, How to Get Hitched in Ten Days. It features a disastrous Valentine’s proposal, and it got me thinking… I wonder what fellow Carina authors have got to reveal – good or bad – about their past Valentine’s Days?!

Anabelle Bryant

Worst Valentine’s Day story: Many years ago I shopped in a store not realizing my then boyfriend was also shopping for Valentine gifts. From afar I saw him purchase a few things, candy, card, stuffed animal…but never received them when Valentine’s Day arrived. Needless to say he turned into an X shortly after.

Oh no, poor you Anabelle! You did the right thing!

Kathleen Mcgurl

Year 2000, first Valentine’s of the new millennium. I thought I knew what we were doing – had arranged for us to go to Cheshire the weekend before to visit some friends, then on V-Day itself (a Monday) I had a restaurant and babysitter booked. Not to mention several meetings at work. But behind my back, my husband had cancelled everything I’d booked, sorted me some time off work, and booked a long weekend in Athens. I knew nothing about it until about 3 hours before the flight when he asked me to go and pack – and I still didn’t know where we were going until we checked in at the airport! 

Oh wow, that is amazing!

When I first met the man who became my husband, before we even were going out together, I sent him an anonymous Valentine’s card which I sent first to my Granny in Newcastle and asked her to post it for me, so the postmark would be Newcastle. It was about 10 years later, when we were long since married, that I fessed up to that card being from me. It had puzzled him for years.

Ha ha! Good old Granny!

A year after moving into our current house, Valentine’s Day came round. We went out for dinner with our electrician and our builder and their wives. That said something about what our first year in the house had been like!

Oh dear!

Aurelia B Rowl

I got engaged on a Valentine’s Day and then married on the following Valentine’s Day

Valentine’s also plays a huge part in my YA novel Popping the Cherry 

Aw, that is romantic!

Kierney Scott

I had an emergency appendectomy on Valentines Day when I was 19. I got more flowers and chocolate that year than any other before or since.

Oh no! The gifts were some small recompense, I guess!

Raven McAllan

I got a very pretty card with roses on it. Oh, I said, I had one like that in my card box. Hubby grinned… Yeah he’d forgotten and our daughter had to remind him…

Oops!!

Jill Steeples

I opened a valentine’s card from a boyfriend to find that he’d recycled a card sent to him from a previous girlfriend, by sticking a blank piece of paper over her written message. His reason – he liked the picture and the sentiment of the card so much he thought I would too! Needless to say, he didn’t last much longer after that. Eejit!

Oh no Jill – what a loser!

A L Michael

I went to an all girls school so when we were teens we used to get together and have anti – Valentine’s Day – we watched girly movies (and judged the heck out of them) listened to angry girl rock and ate a lot of pizza. Years later we added the cocktails

Links well to my book, My So-called (Love) Life where they basically do that as grown ups. 

I love that!

Kerry Barrett

When I’d just graduated and I was working in an admin job, I arranged to meet my then boyfriend on Valentine’s Day. I waited for him outside Chancery Lane tube for about an hour – possibly more. It was before everyone had mobiles and there was no texting or anything. I remember watching everyone going into and out of the station in couples, clutching bunches of flowers and chocolates. When he eventually turned up, he gave me a sheet of A4 paper folded in half. On the front he’d drawn a heart (badly – like how hard is that?!) in marker pen, and inside he’d scrawled a question mark. Romantic, eh? He was NOT a keeper.

Good grief!

Well, I hope anyone reading this post feels a bit better if their Valentine’s date doesn’t go to plan this year – you aren’t alone!!

Here are some fabulous writing tips from the great bunch of authors that write for my publisher, CarinaUK HarperCollins.  These wonderful people have offered me plenty of encouragement and support over the last couple of years, so my piece of advice would be don’t write in a vacuum – network with other authors. They’ll get you through the tough times – and send much-needed supplies of virtual chocolate and cocktails

• Kathy Toigo Write the very best book you can. Period. The rest will follow. http://katieoliver.com/ko/blog/
• Lynsey James Never give up. Dreams come true, and so can yours. http://lynseyjames.wordpress.com
• Jennifer Bohnet You Never Fail until you stop Trying.http://www.jenniferbohnet.com/
• A L Michael It’s easy to talk about writing a novel- sitting the hell down and writing it is where the magic happens! Less talking about writing, more actual writing!
  www.almichael.com
• Kathleen McGurl Write the kind of book you most like to read. Don’t try to jump on the next bandwagon – write your own thing and BE the next bandwagon!http://kathleenmcgurl.com/
• Kerry Barrett  I had a friend at uni who – if we were flapping about an essay – would say: “Just write it down and hand it in.” That’s become my mantra! https://kerrybarrettwriter.wordpress.com/
• Anabelle Bryant Let your writing breathe. Whether you’re perfectly happy with your words, or hitting a wall, walk away and let your manuscript breathe a while.http://www.anabellebryant.com/
• Lillian Kendrick  It’s your book and if you don’t love it, no-one else will.
  www.verse-artiste.weebly.com
• Terri Nixon  There’s a lot of conflicting advice out there, for everything from plotting to querying. Don’t Panic! Read as much of it as you can/have time for, then make up your own mind. www.terrinixon.com
• Karen Aldous Think like a writer, feel like a writer, write like a writer – once you believe, the rest will follow…to THE END http://www.karenaldous.co.uk/
• Raven McAllen Write as you can, not as you think you should www.ravenmcallan.co.uk/
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• Ann Troup Read what you love and let it inspire you, but when you write find your own voice – it will set you apart from the rest. http://anntroup.wordpress.com/
• Katlyn Duncan Write. Read. Repeat. You will become a better writer when you practice and experience others work. www.katlynduncan.com
•  Molly Ann Wishlade Stop procrastinating then read, write and read some more.
  Http://misswishlade.wordpress.com/