Romy Sommer

This excerpt, which I haven't yet shared anywhere else, is the moment when Sarah meets her new business partner and co-heir Tommaso di Biasi:

And Ireland too (I am aware the Republic isn't part of Her Majesty's Kingdom!) I arrived in London around midday and it took a few hours to get across the city and out to Bishops Stortford, so I was pretty finished by the time I finally arrived. My first evening was spent quietly with my childhood friend Donna, catching up over steak and wine. The next day I travelled back into London for lunch with my editor, Charlotte Ledger, at the lovely Rooftop Cafe , across the road from the new HarperCollins offices. Hidden behind a nondescript office building entrance, this little gem was a wonderful surprise, with a great view and even better food. We enjoyed a delightful yet healthy lunch (really yummy asparagus!), accompanied by Cava (Spanish sparkling wine) and lots of chat. We didn't talk much about business but it was wonderful just to get to know each other. The Rooftop Cafe near London Bridge The view from the Rooftop Cafe towards The News Building After lunc...

Book blogger Bunny Lovell is running a HarperImpulse Fortnight (#HIFortnight) on her blog and social media from April 27th to May 10th. She has issued a challenge to readers: read and review (either on your blog / Goodreads / Amazon / all three) at least one HarperImpulse book during #HIFortnight. I'll be taking up the challenge. It's about time I read and reviewed some of the HI titles on my Kindle! I'll also be doing a guest post on Bunny's blog, so watch this space. Come join in the fun! Check out the HarperImpulse website to get an idea of all the various titles on offer, or follow the hashtag on Twitter.

Please come join in the Bachelor Auction on the Harper Impulse blog to let us know which of the secondary characters from my previous books you'd most like to see get his own book: The Bachelor Auction

Yesterday I posted the first instalment of my contribution to the Written Fireside August blog hop , and here's the second instalment. Watch out for the complete collection of short stories from Harper Impulse this Christmas, and don't forget to enter the Rafflecopter contest below for a truly amazing prize: $70 in Amazon vouchers plus at least a dozen books. Part Two: Charlotte stared sightlessly out the window until rain began to spatter against the grimy glass. Just her luck. The one day she hadn’t brought an umbrella. She climbed off the bus at her usual stop, raising her collar against the sleety rain and tucking her gloved hands deep into her pockets. Jingle Bells spilled out from a store, and the Christmas lights strung overhead reflected in the puddles. The pedestrians hurrying along the busy pavements all seemed to be heading in the opposite direction, an inexorable tide she had to fight against. Something she seemed to be doing a lot of lately. No-one unde...

Fifteen authors,  Fifteen stories,  One shared starting paragraph. Read a taste of what's coming for Christmas... Written Fireside began as a series of round-the-campfire type tales, a serial story written by a number of different Harper Impulse authors. I had a huge amount of fun taking part in For Clara and His Way Home and I'm delighted to be taking part in the latest story. But this time we're doing something a little different. This time fifteen authors have each written a short story starting with the same opening paragraph, which was written by Georgia Beyers, winner of Harper Impulse's Written Fireside contest . All fifteen stories have a Christmas theme and will be published by Harper Impulse as a free Christmas read. BONUS: as part of this blog hop, you also get a chance to win, by entering using the Rafflecopter link at the bottom of this post! So my apologies for the very unseasonal post, but here is the teaser for my contribution to the ...

Fifteen Harper Impulse authors are writing fifteen Christmas short stories all from one starting paragraph. We're sharing our story snippets throughout August and have a giveaway - 14 books/ebooks and a $70 Amazon gift card. Any mentions on blogs, shares on Facebook, tweets, hollers over the fence to your neighbor about it, would be greatly appreciated. Come on by, bring some friends, enter our ‪#‎giveaway‬ and read the first snippet from Lori Connelly You can enter the Rafflecopter giveaway here:  http://www.rafflecopter. com/rafl/display/667520627/

Welcome to the fifth installment in the ongoing round-the-campfire story of His Way Home . If you haven't yet read the previous installments, you can find them here: Part 1 - Lori Connelly Part 2 - Sarah Lefebve Part 3 - Zara Stoneley Part 4 - Lynn Marie Hulsman Source: www.freedigitalphotos.net Now read on... Beth’s mouth opened, but no words came out. Matthew wouldn’t believe her anyway. Just last night he’d told her to get her head out the clouds and face reality, and the thought that had started to form... it was too improbable. Improbable but inescapable. And there wasn’t much time. “We need to talk,” she told Matthew. His brow furrowed. “Then talk.” She drew in a deep breath. She had no idea where to start. She sat in the chair where Walter had sat not so long ago. “Tell me about your grandmother.” His frown deepened, but he sat in the armchair across from her. “I don’t remember much about her. Towards the end she was a little batty. Kept going on abou...

We're back again! Luckily, someone flipped the switch in South Africa last week, ushering winter out the door and the most beautiful summery heat in ... the perfect weather to sit around a campfire telling scary stories as the flames leap up and make eery shadows all around. If you need to catch up on the story so far: Part 1 - Lori Connelly Part 2 - Teresa F Morgan Part 3 - Carmel Harrington Part 4 - that was me! Part 5 - AJ Nuest Part 6 - Charlotte Phillips Part 7 - Lori Connelly Part 8 - Carmel Harrington Part 9 - Teresa F Morgan And for Part 10 read on... Clara slid a shaking hand beneath her sweater and shirt. The burden was too great to carry alone. With Barbara gone, she needed a friend more than ever, and there was no one else but Mark. She pulled out the cloth-wrapped bundle. After an entire night strapped against her skin, she'd grown so used to the weight that without it she felt naked. As she slowly unwrapped it, Mark took his eyes off the road ...

Here's the story so far: Part 1 - Lori Connelly Part 2 - Teresa F Morgan Part 3 - Carmel Harrington We're seated around the camp fire, marshmallows toasting, wine and warmth making us rosy... now here's my contribution to the story: Clara cruised down Main Street, her eyes scanning for a parking outside the Lucky Number Café. A car pulled out into the street ahead of her, leaving a space right out front of the café. But what she saw through the front window made her put her foot on the gas and keep on going. The summer house it was. Only when she hit the freeway did her heartbeat slow down enough to enable her to think. What was Derek doing back in town? And what business did he and Mark have together? Her knuckles turned white as she gripped the steering wheel. Had Mark’s invitation to talk been a trap? She didn’t want to believe it of him...not him of all people...but what other explanation could there be for the two of them sitting together like old friends...

Today is release day for Waking up in Vegas ! And as you're reading this I'm sitting beside the road somewhere watching a Toyota TV advert being filmed. Hopefully I'm warm, comfortable and not too exhausted from an early morning start. So what are you still doing here? Have you gone off and bought my book yet? Oh, okay. If you've already bought your copy, then you're allowed to stay a little longer and read on... Waking up in Vegas started with a dream. Not a metaphorical dream but a literal one. I woke up one morning and thought “now that would make a great story”. I wrote the first draft three years ago, in 30 days during the mad month of November. I submitted it to a publisher only to receive a personalised rejection that said the opening just wasn’t innovative enough. So I set the story aside, wrote a bunch of other stuff, learned the craft, and then one day late last year, as I was driving home from work, singing at the top of my lungs to Katy Per...

Since this is the week in which Harper Impulse launches, I thought I'd bring you a couple of posts on my journey so far with this brand new imprint. Next week I'll give some glimpses into the inspiration, characters and setting for Waking up in Vegas , and once the exhiliration of release day is over I'll be back with normal scheduled programming (just in case you're looking for my Behind the Scenes in the movies posts). * * * There has been a great deal said recently, by some of the most respected names in self-publishing, about how publishers are a dying breed. The most commonly cited reasons for the death of traditional publishing is that the big publishing houses don’t listen to their readers and that they are unable to turn on a dime. The Big 6 publishers (now Big 5, but since I’m South African, that just makes me giggle as I wonder which publisher is the elephant!) have been likened to the Titanic, too large and unwieldy to avoid collision with the ...

It's Friday morning, 5th April. I return to my desk at the day job from a coffee run to see an email in my inbox titled 'Harper Impulse submission'. My heart starts thumping wildly. It's only been three weeks since I submitted to Harper Impulse , the brand new imprint from Harper Collins, but I've heard via the grapevine that the editors had an acquisitions meeting... I'm not too stressed. A sale would be a dream come true, but a rejection won't be the end of the world. If it's a rejection, then I plan to self-publish. I have a freelance editor on standby and a cover already designed. I may not be anxious, but I can still scarcely breathe as I click open the email. It's two lines only. "Are you free today for a quick call? I'd love to chat further to you about your submission." I've already had friends go through this, so I know editors don't just call to chat about your work. They call to buy. I shoot back a reply. ...