The best wedding date

And a happy February to you too!

Now, I've been busy organising things like the book launch for Impossible Things, and various interviews, talks and guest blogs relating to Impossible Things, and freaking out over the fact that its nearly release time for Impossible Things (!!!!!) and so blogging has fallen by the wayside. Also I've been busy attending the wedding of my lovely friend Lisa, who said such nice things in her wedding speech that I asked her if I could share it here.

Before I do (obviously, Lisa said yes!), here are some of the upcoming events I've got planned:

Dates unconfirmed, but soon: 
Australian Romance Readers Association release day blog
Shaz's Book blog: Interview
Free flash fiction from Choc Lit: Pirate Smile
Choc Lit blog: interview with Kael from Impossible Things

Wednesday 5th February: How to Write a Romantic Novel panel with Jan Jones & Louise Allen at RAF Lakenheath (only available to RAF/ASAF personnel, I believe, but I'll share some of the content with you later if you like).

Friday 7th February: Impossible Things available as a paperback!

Sunday 9th February: 8pm BBC Radio Cambridge, live on air with Sue Marchant. You can listen live on the BBC website, or I believe it's also syndicated to other East Anglian BBC stations.

Tuesday 18th February: Bookpushers guest blog.

Tuesday 18th February: Impossible Things book launch. Reports will follow!

And now to Lisa's wedding speech, reproduced here by kind courtesy of the bride herself. I haven't posted all of it, just the bits that particularly seemed relevant as a writer and a romantic!

I kind of felt these speeches were a bit heavily weighted with males, so sorry JR but I’m going to be a typical woman and keep you waiting a bit longer. I just wanted to say a few thank-yous myself.... 
...As many of you know there is an aspiring side of me that would like to leave behind the world of property one day and be a fully published, grown-up author, like some of my friends here today.  My writing over the past few years has also provided me with some very good friends, especially my good friend ‘that’ Elley Westbrook over there.  We both met when we began creative writing classes together and struck a friendship over the drinks afterwards where we would compete over who had the most awful life.  I am pleased to report that both of us are now competing over who has the best one instead. 

Then there’s my good friend Alison, now a published novelist, don’t you know [with Choc Lit, no less!].  Not only is she inspirational in a literary capacity but quite often she is good at giving me the ‘talking to’ I need, be it about my writing, or otherwise. 

Me, Lisa, & Alison

Then there’s the tremendous Kate who likes to talk about heroes and hot men and brought the wonderful character Harker to entertain my singleton life.

[See why I wanted to post this? Harker got mentioned in a wedding speech! How often does that happen?]

And that is where my writing stemmed from.  I was unhappy and I wanted a hero to come and save me.  So I wrote about one instead.  Now Matt thinks I have an unhealthy obsession with Sean Bean, but I don’t really, it’s Richard Sharpe.  It’s the man who knows his own mind, is slightly on the bad side of good and doesn’t give a damn what he says or what he does as long as it’s for the greater good.  Of course, he’s hot, mean, lean and pretty much can fix every problem as well as treating his heroine like a princess.  And I didn’t know that when I went on a date with the ‘hot electrician’ from work that that was who I was going on a date with but, happily for me, that’s exactly who I got and it’s worked out rather splendidly.

Now [PICK UP FRAME] this is what Matt, has to put up with looking down on him in the living room every evening when he watches television and I have promised that when we move Mr Sharpe is going to be relegated to the downstairs toilet.  However, having found my perfect hero, I really felt that today was the day to show Matt my commitment, so, Bollyknickers, if you would like to come up to collect this, I know you’ve coveted it long enough...

[And then she picked up another frame and had it sent over to me. And what was in the frame, you ask?]

Sharpe! She gave me Richard Sharpe!

...A good author friend once said to me that real life isn’t like a book.  In a book the story builds from a crap existence to a happy ever after but she said that real life just muddles on from one event to another.  But I like to think I’ve proved her wrong.  I’ve had my inciting event, I’ve had my turning points, I’ve even had my darkest moments and today I get my happy ending. So I would be grateful if you would raise your glasses and toast Matt, my hero.

To Matt!

Lisa & Matt, in a rather shoddy shot taken with my iPhone (sorry guys)

And I got the best wedding date ever. Look! I went home with Richard Sharpe!

He's mine now...