Newsflash - Christmas is comiing

Argh, I am so not ready, I wrote loads of cards last night, thought I was almost done and then discovered I need to do loads more. I must go to the post office tomorrow to post the bookmarks for a Christmas exchange that I do every year. I have wrapped the grand total of five gifts and two of those are books for the book swap at my writers group on Wednesday. I haven't planned any of my grocery shop or ordered my fruit and veg at the farm shop yet either and I'm working extra days at the day job so have less time, To make matters worse, my cloakroom is still not finished so the house is still upside down and I've realised I need to do a major rewrite on Just Look at Me Now if the book is going to work! I'd go drink some wine but I haven't sorted that out yet either!

Mixed blessings

Happy Thanksgiving for yesterday to all my American friends and I thinks it's Eid for my Muslim friends today - lots of celebrating. Here it's up and down .
Eldest dd has lost her phone - downer - teenagers are umbilically attached to their mobiles so shes devastated at the moment.
Found some tiles to match our existing ones in the cloakroom so we don't have to fetch all the tiles off - Yay!
My angel fish is very poorly - I swear that fish has fits, most peculiar - so I think I'm going to lose her - downer
Middle dd is through to second round of cooking contest - Yay - sort of because guess who has to get all the ingredients, balance her budget and time her while tasting her test cooking?
Tomorrow I'm taking her for her 13th birthday treat - to see the Take That musical Never Forget at the Grand - Yay!

Partying

During the launch week for His Darling Nurse I popped to London to have lunch with my agent and to attend the launch party for the fabulous Loves Me, Loves Me Not anthology. This all sounds very lovely and authorly doesn't it? and when I used to read things like this on other people's blogs I used to sigh and think how nice. I don't go to London often - I think that was probably only the nineth time I've ever gone there so tootling around the capital on my own was quite an adventure. I think my agent was a bit concerned when she realised I didn't have any clue where anywhere was and just intended to amble my way around. In practice it was fine, I mooched around Covent Garden looking at the overpriced and pretty merchandise. I had coffee and cookies in a nice cafe and ambled along to Neals Yard, Leicester Square and the Strand before flagging down a cab to take me to the launch party at the Guards and Cavalry club in Piccadilly. My knowledge of the Monopoly board wasn't really much good as an aid to navigation but it did make it more fun!
The club was very olde colonial with lots of silverware, portraits of moustachioed persons in uniform and stuffed heads of long dead animals. Unfortunately for me it also had lots of stairs and no lift so I was really suffering by this point so probably wasn't as chatty and in the flow of things as usual.
The pic is of all the authors on the stairs. I'm tucked in the corner on the left carrying my bag a la Mrs T because I was trying to balance my wine glass.

His Darling Nurse - final winner

Congratulations to Janet - you win a download of His Darling Nurse and if by any chance you already have a copy then let me know and I'll work you out something else. (Let me know your email addy)
Thanks to everyone who stopped by to join in the fun - it was much appreciated. Now I have to get back to writing Just Look at Me Now, today though I have a poorly child at home, my youngest belle feels ill - most unusual for her. So, I need to get fuel, go to work and collect my stuff then I can work from home today.
I've started to get my Christmas stuff organised too - I'm hoping that we don't have to fetch all the tiles off when we redo the downstairs cloakroom - I really don't want this level of upheaval this side of Christmas but what are the odds?

His Darling Nurse - Party Wrap up!!

I'll be doing the last draw this evening so today is your last chance to enter and win. Loving the jokes - keep them coming!
And one final excerpt!
Charlie’s class filed out first after the bell signalling the end of the school day rang. Juliet saw him looking for her amongst the group of parents gathered at the gate and she waved to capture his attention. His teacher smiled as Charlie sprinted across the few yards of tarmac to meet her with a hug.
“My teacher’s really nice, and there’s a goldfish in my classroom, and Jamie Smith is my friend, and can he come for tea tomorrow?” Words spilled out of Charlie so fast in his excitement that Juliet struggled to keep up with the thread of all he had to say.
“Slow down! Let’s walk to the shop and I’ll get us an ice cream and you can tell me all about school,” Juliet suggested, laughing at the way he danced along beside her, his schoolbag bumping on the pavement.
The ground shimmered in the heat of the late afternoon sun when they left the small corner shop with an ice cream each. Having spent the day in the air-conditioned comfort of her treatment room, Juliet longed to get home to take a shower and change out of her uniform. Charlie appeared oblivious to the sun and chattered away, his auburn curls sticking to his forehead beneath the brim of his cap.
She came home to find Neil’s car parked at the kerb outside his house. Juliet wondered if he’d managed to contact the fencing contractors. With luck she might manage to catch him and ask about the repairs before he returned for evening surgery. That would be if he was still speaking to her after she’d dropped him in it for the quiz night, of course.
They let themselves in through the front door and Scruffy ran to greet them.
“I bet you want to go out.” Juliet went for his lead, but before she could slip it onto Scruffy’s collar, Charlie opened the back door. The little dog made a bid for freedom and bolted between Charlie’s legs towards the opening. Juliet could only watch helplessly as he headed straight for the gap in the fence and the remainder of Neil Forrest’s once-perfect garden
(C) Nell Dixon 2009
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Friday - His darling Nurse weekend free for all

Post for your chance to win a free download of His Darling Nurse - I want to hear funny medical stories, jokes etc! I'll give out special prizes for really good/funny ones!

First door prize winner!

Step forward Josh Lockwood! Your name was picked by my eldest belle as the first of the door prize winners to get a free download of His Darling Nurse!

More posts to come over the next few days and more chances to win so keep the comments coming as everyone gets entered for every draw!

His Darling Nurse - Day 3

I'm back from London - very tired and with a blister on my heel from walking. I'll be drawing a name later for the first of the giveaways so leave a comment to be in with a chance of a prize!
A few people have asked where I got the idea for the barbecue scene in the first excerpt. For that I have to thank my neighbour, Chris. Chris loves to barbecue and a few years ago when he first got the bug he had his barbecue too close to my other neighbour, Tracey's fence. I heard a shriek and went outside to see smoke pouring from the fence at the back of Tracey's shed while Chris was frantically attempting to put out the flames with the hose. Luckily the damage wasn't anywhere near as bad as Juliet's conflagration.
Tell me about the kind of disasters you've experienced with barbecues?