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Ok, so by now you may well have heard that in a Romantic Novelists Association poll, Richard Armitage was voted The Sexiest Thing on Two Legs. The Press Release states: "British actor Richard Armitage has leapt from last year’s 4th place to this year topping the ratings in the Romantic Novelists’ Association 2009 Valentine’s poll, to take the title of Sexiest Thing on Two Legs, beating top Hollywood stars to the number one spot. Johnny Depp, who topped last year’s poll, was pushed firmly into second place, with Hugh Jackman and George Clooney mere also-rans. “Richard Armitage took 20% of the vote, more than double the count of any other male on the list,” said the RNA pollster. “He was a clear winner from the off.” The RNA is not alone in admiration of the actor, as numerous online Richard Armitage fan sites will testify. The ardency began with North and South, grew by leaps and bounds with his appearance as the leather-clad baddie in Robin Hood, and shows no sign of diminishing a...

In these credit crunching times the big question for authors and publishers everywhere is what makes readers pick up a book. Here is a list of factors that the industry experts think are important. What do YOU think? 1. Word of mouth - Who do we really trust? When it comes to the important things in life - like reading - it's the opinion of friends, family and colleagues that counts. According to The Bookseller magazine, word of mouth is one of the best ways to sell a book, even in these media-saturated times. A quarter of people surveyed by the magazine said that they had bought their most recent book on the basis of a recommendation from a friend. Of course, word of mouth is not always a natural process and publishers do their utmost to think of ways to use the phenomenon. From viral marketing to social networking, there are many avenues to try to get a book into the hands of the literary pioneers in any group. 2. The Book Group - An influential way to create a buzz about a parti...

I've found a wonderful new displacement activity! Those of you who read the BBC History Magazine might already be familiar with it. It's called The Six Degrees of Francis Bacon and it works on the same principle as Six Degrees of Separation, which is the idea that each person on the planet is only six steps away from anyone on earth. To take up the History Magazine's challenge you start with any reasonably well known person from any historical period and/or country and find something that links them to another historical figure. You can be as wild and wacky as you like, with literally ANYONE eligible. Within six steps you have to link them to Francis Bacon, Queen Elizabeth I's chancellor. I have wasted (I mean spent in useful research) literally hours and hours on this conundrum. Then I thought that as a Regency author, why not devise The Six Degrees of Jane Austen ? Or The Six Degrees of Georgette Heyer ? I'll report back when I've worked it out. Or if you get...

Happy February! As I write it's frosty and cold here in the UK with a wind that is apparently straight from Siberia! So here is some hot-off-the press book news which I hope will warm us all up! Firstly the UK edition of Unmasked is in the shops this month. Isn't the cover gorgeous (although I did have to look twice to see what the heroine has in her hand - I thought it was a banana rather than a mirror!) I love the covers they are giving my books in both the UK and US! This edition has lots of extra pages giving some historical information about the background and setting, including some fascinating facts about nineteenth century highwaymen - and women! To celebrate the UK publication of Unmasked and the US publication in March of my new book Kidnapped: His Innocent Mistress (more on that later in the month!) I have a special contest on my website. I'm running it jointly with the very lovely and talented Amanda McCabe whose book To Deceive a Duke is currently in the UK...