Newsletter, December 2015

This is my favourite month of my favourite season of the year. Pre-Christmas, when people are excited and happy. I put on my happy songs and write like mad, as well as cooking, decorating the tree and other goodies.
Except we don't have a tree. Because the cat makes himself ill eating pine needles, we have an artificial tree. He still sits under it, brooding darkly, but he doesn't eat it. Just tries to climb it. This year we needed a new tree, and I opted for pre-lit. Except we can't get one that lights up all the way down. The company are ordering a replacement, though I don't hold out much hope that it'll be here before the new year. Got the lights, though. Berries. I might have to go to the park and beg a branch off them, and decorate that!
I don't do a Christmas cake either, because it sits there for a month, then it goes in the bin. I love Christmas cake, but nobody else in my house does. So I do Christmas cupcakes. I have a tree-like stand, and they go on that. There are never any of those left!
In November, I had two deadlines screaming past my ears, so I had to buckle down and work really hard. It was a challenge, but I made it, and I'm very pleased with the books I ended up with. I didn't write them both in November of course, but I did have to polish and revise them double-quick!
And new releases? Oh yes, there's a new Emperors book out in December! If I beg, will you buy it? I loved writing Dominic and Claudia's story! Lady Claudia Shaw is a daughter of the Marquess of Strenshall, but she's a bit on the impetuous side. When she inherits a house, she goes to see it, despite her large family ordering her not to. That's when she discovers she's inherited a brothel. The houses around Covent Garden were built for the gentry, but they moved further West, so they weren't popular for long. The demi-monde moved in.
Dominic is an ex-soldier and reluctant peer, but when you inherit an earldom, there isn't a lot you can do about it. You can't resign, so he dourly gets on with it. The Crown asks him for a special favour, which he undertakes for them. To watch a certain house in Covent Garden. Guess which one!
Dominic spends a lot of the book pulling Claudia out of scrapes, until he finds himself in a scrape of his own, wcich could have terrible consequences.
As I said, I loved writing this one. Do take a look!

Reckless In Pink

Buy the Book and read an extract:
Publisher
Amazon USA
Amazon UK
iTunes
Kobo
Barnes and Noble Nook

Like the royals for whom they were named, the Emperors of London family have enemies and rivals of their own…

As a soldier for the Crown, Dominic is charged with locating the Young Pretender to the British throne so he can be tried as a traitor. But his mission is altered when he meets Claudia Shaw, an intriguing young woman who has inherited a house of ill repute. In an effort to protect Claudia from her own recklessness, Dominic finds himself allowing the Pretender to slip away…

Claudia is one of the Emperors of London, but her family despairs of her impetuous behavior. And try as he might, the disciplined Dominic cannot quite curb her excesses. In fact, she soon drags him into her adventures—and toward a passion neither can resist. But when a deadly secret comes to light that puts their lives, and their love, at risk, Claudia won’t allow Dominic to sacrifice himself. She is determined to have him—even if it means getting the Young Pretender out of the way herself

Lynne Connolly Newsletter, November, 201

Lynne Connolly Newsletter, November, 2015

News

This month in the UK, it's Bonfire Night. The night when pets are kept indoors and the world explodes with lights and glitter. Firework Night. It's a very British thing, to celebrate the night Guy Fawkes and his co-conspirators failed to blow up Parliament. The British Constitution is a wonderful thing, but would it have survived the destruction of the centre of government and so many ministers?
Probably.
It's those "what if?" questions that keep historical novelists writing. There are so many turning points in history, when the world could have moved in a different direction. I use some one in the Emperors of London, and another what if? motivated my writing the Even Gods Fall In Love series. I get the feeling that with the gods series, I've started a new genre! If the steampunk era was moved back a hundred years and linked with the classical world. I have absolutely no idea what to call it, though. Georgepunk? Classicpunk?

When I write contemporaries, I tend to move closer to what is happening. There are so many undercurrents in our complex world, sometimes it's just a matter of choosing one and getting on with it. When I came to write "Escaping the Past," for instance, I'd just watched a documentary about the Camora in Naples. Like the Mafia, but on the mainland. When I read about the counterfeit goods industry, and that some authorities assessed the potential profits as high as the profits from the opium industry, my mind started working.
Then I used my experience as a foreigner in a new country, and Jade Trent was born. "Escaping the Past" is part of the Sweet Sensations anthology out later this month, a 99 cent box set. I'm really excited about this book. It has a lot in common with "Learning to Trust," which came out a few years ago. It was originally meant as a sequel, but other projects got in the way. However, Jade and Gary wouldn't leave me, and now here they are, struggling out in the world.
Escaping the Past, part of Sweet Sensations is out on November 26th, and up for pre-order now!
http://www.amazon.com/Sweet-Sensations-collection-bestselling-authors-ebook/dp/B0170Z4BY8

New Releases and Excerpt

So without further ado, allow me to introduce you to Gary and Jade.

Jade Trent has come to New York to find work and to live incognito. Two years ago she received a message from her brother, Miles, the last she’d heard of him. Since Miles works for a shadowy organisation loosely connected to the Marines, she’s more than worried, but she obeys his request and leaves home. She found a new life, one she enjoys, even though she only has a job in a department store and lives modestly.

Gary has a shady past. Although he can claim a personal fortune, his father nearly bankrupted the family company, then he went back to his Italian roots and took strictly illegal work from his gangster family. Gary’s Neapolitan family still rule in Italy, and Gary has kept strictly away from them.

Jade and Gary have an instant connection, but the social gap between them is huge. When Jade is put in danger, Gary is forced to act to save her. Unfortunately, Jade’s brother is working undercover for Gary’s family, something both his family and the government agency watching them are aware of. Back in Italy, they’re faced with unpleasant choices. Jade won’t allow the danger she and Miles are in to lead Gary to follow in his father’s footsteps and rejoin the family business. Not that Gary has any such intention, even if it means he loses his life protecting the woman he loves.

Excerpt:

Gary picked up the phone on the third ring. “Yes?”
He sat up straighter when a voice barked at him. A voice he hadn’t heard for a long time. “Gary Mazzini?”
“Yeah.”
The voice rattled off a string of numbers and letters. Automatically Gary kept count. The placement of the letters told the listener what to do with the numbers. They always came to seven.
He returned his ID number. He hadn’t needed the formality to recognize the voice of his old boss. “I’ve got a job for you,” Camstock said.
“It might have escaped your notice, but I don’t work for you anymore.”
“You still have the same relatives.”
Shit, yes, he did. Not people he cared to associate with. “Keeping my distance has kept me alive so far.” Gently, he closed the lid of his laptop, as if Camstock could see through the phone to the company figures laid out on the screen.
“So did working for us.”
“At one time.”
Camstock was playing him, reminding Gary what he owed the Extras. Organizations like the one he’d once belonged to had the most mundane names. This one was called Extras, because that was the way the expenses tended to appear on budgets.
Gary had done with the Extras and everything else from his previous life. Now he ran his own business, legitimate imports of mostly sports equipment, and he lived quietly. No way would Camstock drag him back in.
“How about a damsel in distress?” his old boss asked. “Or maybe a wicked woman?”
“You have active agents. Use one of them.”
“Nobody can do what you can. Hear me out, okay?”
“Sure.”
Where was the harm in that?
Which was why, instead of an evening watching the game on his widescreen TV, he hired a limo to take him to a shareholders’ shindig at the Central Park Hotel. Much against his will, but yeah, Camstock had a point. Nobody had his relatives or his experience in this field.
They were lucky.

Jade blinked in response the flashes from the cameras of the assembled media, even though none of them were aimed at her. Yells erupted when a limousine drew up outside the Central Park Hotel. When the car door opened and a solitary male got out, the yells subsided a little, but only a little. He glanced around, seemingly ignoring the flashes that flickered across the lenses of his rimless spectacles, then froze, his head turned in Jade’s direction.
Because of the glare on his glasses, she couldn’t tell if the visual exchange had been mutual, but she stood transfixed for however long it took him to turn around and stride to the hotel entrance. Broad shoulders, sleek, dark hair brushed against a well-shaped skull, and an air of confidence made him stand out. Jade shrugged, trying to dismiss it. A moment out of time, that was all. Nothing that really mattered. Except the man was smoking hot.
She glanced at Nina, who raised a brow and pursed her lips in a soundless whistle.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              
Groping for something to say, anything to distance herself from what had just happened to her she stared up at the hotel’s impressive façade and fell back on a caustic remark. “No wonder we’re on starvation wages if Mackness holds junkets here.”
Her boss, Marie, shot her a hard glare. “Behave yourself. Some of the company’s biggest shareholders are here tonight, so play nice, you hear?”
As well as the stars who sponsored Mackness products. Glamor, fashion, epitomized in the model in the slinky silver dress currently posing for the media. Impossibly polished. She’d thought she looked good when she left home, but next to these fashion idols, she didn’t even feature.
On the way here, Jade had felt like a child at her first grown-up event, unsure, even shy, excitement bubbling up inside her like her own private lava stream. A middle-class upbringing in England didn’t exactly prepare a person for a VIP event at a top-ranked New York hotel.
Another gleaming vehicle drew smoothly to the curb, so while the media waited to greet the next important guest, Marie led the way forward. Jade savored every moment of her short journey on the red carpet.
The official at the top of the stairs glanced at their passes and handed them back. “Upstairs to the ballroom. Don’t get in the way of the VIP’s.”
Charming.
They paused at the cloakroom to remove their coats. Jade shoved the ticket in her new purse, a bit on the big side for the evening, but the best one she had, albeit a knockoff. Tonight it had its first outing. The lining was smooth against her fingers and she lingered a moment to savor the sensation.
The tight lines around Marie’s mouth relaxed and she gave a terse nod. “Don’t drink too much and be nice.” She handed Jade and Nina big buttons that told everyone they were Mackness employees. Jade pinned hers in place on her simple black dress, suppressing her grimace. The implied threat was there—if she didn’t play nice, she’d lose her good record. Mackness was sponsoring her for her green card. Of course they’d never link the two events, but if they withdrew their support, she was screwed. She didn’t need it spelled out to her in letters of fire.
They had to move aside as someone more important entered the ballroom, but as the maître d’ dealt with the new arrivals with fawning submission, a tuxedoed waiter holding a clipboard beckoned to them. He gave them three numbers so they could find their table.
A huge chandelier dominated the room, complimented by two smaller ones on either side, and a quartet playing Mozart occupied the stage area. The décor and the musicians reminded Jade of the Edwardian era, all elaborate plaster and heavy ornamentation, supplemented by plenty of gilding, with a genteel tune tinkling in the background. Very impressive.
Three men got to their feet as they approached their assigned table. Wow, impeccable manners, much, or did their tailored evening jackets come with etiquette already sewn in? Maybe they wanted a better look at the tube dresses her two companions wore before the stretch gave way and they shrank into belts. Jade had gone for something classier, a black dress with thin straps and a gently flaring skirt, but she felt like a second-rate citizen after watching the celebs arrive.
Jade looked up. A pair of green eyes sparkled at her, their owner’s rimless glasses no impediment to his amused expression. The man she’d seen getting out of his limo alone. The shock of recognition heated her face. She managed a smile, and noted how close his dark hair clung to his head. Her fingers itched with the need to touch it, run them through the thick, ordered length, her reaction stupid but undeniable. She opened her hands, spread her palms to her sides in an effort to bring her senses back to reality.
This was New York, not fairyland. That kind of instant attraction didn’t belong here, and she’d be a fool to believe it. She forced her attention to more professional matters, hoping it would cool her down a tad. In her case, that meant fashion.
To compare the suits these men had on with the ones sported by the waiters and staff would have been to compare the Mona Lisa to chain store art. The suits skimmed their bodies, the shoulders perfectly aligned, the lapels flat and the cloth so deep black Jade thought she might be able to dive in.
The men introduced themselves. She missed the names, all but green eyes.
He took his seat and held out his hand, smiling as if he knew what she was thinking. “Pleased to meet you, Jade Trent.”
Gary, his name was Gary. She slid her hand into his. “Me too. Pleased to meet you, I mean.” Her hand warmed in his, and as it did so, tingles spread up her arm. Had she accidentally caught her hand on something, let it go to sleep?
She was here for work. Work, dammit, Jade.
He helped her sit, pushing her chair gently under her before he retook his own. Next to her.
“You’re English,” he said.
She gawped. “You can tell from two words?”
He smiled. “Yes, I can. But I can’t tell where.”
Not surprising, really. “All over. My dad was in the navy, you see, so we traveled a lot.”
“No roots?”
“Only since my father retired.”
He nodded. “I was in the navy once.” That surprised her. The younger businessmen here tonight had either inherited their wealth or worked on building it from an early age.
The waiters brought the starter. It was a seafood-based confection with what she suspected was real caviar on the top, if only a few grains of the stuff. She tucked in, remembering to smile at the others as well as Gary in between bites. Sadly, the little taster didn’t last long.
Gary barely touched his portion. Crap, she should have eaten slower, not enjoyed it so much. Very uncool. “You don’t like it?”
His smile this time was rueful. “Caviar’s not really my thing. I hope the main course isn’t bass or something like that. I’m really not in a seafood mood.”
“But it’s real caviar!” she protested before she could control her unruly tongue.
He made a face. “I know.” He’d only taken a few bites of his portion. They smiled at each other, sharing a moment of snatched intimacy.
“It’s an acquired taste, they say, but I loved it the first time I tasted it. I used to treat myself at Christmas.”
“But not this year?”
He was too quick. “No.” She paused. “It’s really expensive to live here.” She didn’t need to glance in Maria’s direction to know the implied criticism wouldn’t go down well with her manager. “Not that I’m complaining about my wages, of course.” She forced a smile.
She couldn’t be sure, but she thought Gary caught her nervous glance at her boss. He raised a brow. “Good to know.”
She caught Maria’s approving nod.
“You’re a shareholder in the company?” She might as well know what she was dealing with.
Gary gave her a guarded look, his brilliant eyes shielded by long, black lashes. “Yes.”
Gary ate and drank sparingly, and chatted to her. She replied, did everything she could to charm him without indicating she’d be putting out later, but she was burningly aware that she wasn’t the charming type. She answered his questions about the company as clearly as she could, and they seemed to go down well.
When the dancing began, Gary asked her to take the floor with him. The band was playing music to smooch to, and some of the people on the floor were already obliging the musicians by dancing and each other by dancing tucked up close. What made it worse was that she wanted to, in the worst way, totally inappropriate. Her body responded to him as if following his orders, her nipples tightening, her sex dampening, so she had another reason to be thankful she hadn’t worn that dress. Desire, so wrong here and now, but she couldn’t control it.
Gary put his hands in the right places, one around her waist and the other linked with her hand. They moved around the floor, noting some of the other couples, Mackness employees wound around their partners, always one of the VIPs, never their own partners. “This is nice,” she said.
“If it helps you to be more frank, I have an acute sense for bullshit,” he murmured.
She almost laughed, but suppressed it just in time. She hated to admit it, but she’d have done a lot to move even closer to him. He was truly gorgeous and he smelled divine. But if she came on to him, he’d assume it was because she’d been told to.
She moved back, and he turned her around the floor, gliding past the other couples. “You know what I see?” he continued smoothly. “I see men provided with young women to entertain them. I see women without partners provided with escorts.” His voice hardened and he stared down at her, his eyes cold. “So did the company book rooms at the hotel for our use?”
Her head whipped back and she glared up at him, fury in her eyes and in the rigidity of her body. She turned her anger on to him, probably not the wisest thing to do but she’d had enough. “So you expect me to—what—put out so you’ll drop another million?”
“Hell, no.” The revulsion in his tone temporarily pierced her anger, made her want to ask him, perversely, what was wrong with her. Which didn’t make any sense at all. “If I want a woman I ask.” He paused, gazing down at her. They’d stopped dancing now, stood at the edge of the dance floor.
He turned around and walked away without looking back.
She stared after him, heart sinking. She’d been about to turn around and walk out. How great would that have been? On edge now, she had to find a way out of this place. First, she needed to calm down. She headed for the bathroom.
When she left the bathroom, determined to slip out of the hotel discreetly, she nearly collided with a hard chest. She looked up into the glass-shrouded green eyes. “You forgot this.” Her new handbag dangled from Gary’s left hand. Damn, he’d realized she hadn’t planned to go back.
She’d have left the bag behind if it didn’t have her wallet inside with her cab money in it. Precious though it was to her, she’d hoped Nina would bring it in to work on Monday.
She forced a feeble smile. “Thanks.” When she reached for it, he held it out of her grasp. His gaze wasn’t on her, it was on something or someone just over her shoulder.
“Everything okay?” Maria asked in a voice like ice.
Jade closed her eyes, giving in to despair just for a second before she pasted on a happy face, smiled brightly and turned around to face her boss. “Perfectly.”
“I thought we’d go on to a club.” Gary moved closer, circling her waist and giving it a squeeze. She forced herself to let him, but the scent she’d previously found enticing now made her slightly nauseous.
Maria’s taut expression relaxed. “Have a good time.”
“We will.” He urged Jade forward and she headed for the exit and freedom. When they hit the top of the stairs, he spun her around and shoved her against the wall. He bent his head, and just before his lips met hers, he murmured, “She’s still watching.”
Then he kissed her.
The world changed, spun on its axis.
He caressed her mouth with gentle insistence, and she opened willingly for him when he touched his tongue to her lower lip. He traced the shape before he ventured inside. Softly at first, then tasting more, stronger. He tasted of coffee and he held her with a firm insistence she felt safe melting into.
Jade enjoyed the hell out of that kiss. His muscles tightened when she touched his shoulders. The attraction wasn’t one-sided, then.
He drew away slowly, and stared down at her, wonder breaking over her as she met his gaze fearlessly.

You can read Gary and Jade's adventures later this month!
Escaping the Past, part of Sweet Sensations is out on November 26th, and up for pre-order now!
http://www.amazon.com/Sweet-Sensations-collection-bestselling-authors-ebook/dp/B0170Z4BY8

See you next month!
Lynne
Where to find Lynne Connolly and her Books
My website
The hub of everything I do. It's updated regularly, with excerpts, short stories and other goodies:
http://www.lynneconnolly.com
For the paranormal and contemporary romances, the website is here:
http://lmconnolly.lynneconnolly.com

My newsletter and yahoo group.
Members get a monthly newsletter, where the news ALWAYS breaks first, and new excerpts are aired. There is also a free book, available in the Files.
To join, go here:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LynneConnolly/
or send an email here:
LynneConnolly-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

UK Historical romance blog:
http://historicalromanceuk.blogspot.com/

My personal blog:
http://lynneconnolly.blogspot.com/

I currently write for Kensington Publishing, Samhain Publishing, Loose-Id , Total E-Bound and Carina Press. So you can find me on their loops and on their websites.

I write columns for Sybil at The Good, The Bad and The Unread:
http://tinyurl.com/6j42ut

And my email is lynneconnollyuk@yahoo.co.uk

--

Lynne Connolly

L.M. Connolly

http://lynneconnolly.com

http://lmconnolly.com

Newsletter, October, 2015

Here we are again, October, who’d have thunk it?

I had a new release recently, and there is other fun and games afoot! I’ve spent the month trying to catch up, and get myself organised, but I’m nowhere near that point yet. Maybe I should just accept that I live in a permanent state of confusion and get on with it.

In news, you might have heard that I’m no longer an Ellora’s Cave author. Writing for EC was a great adventure, but it’s over now. I’ve changed the way I write, and EC is heading in a direction that isn’t for me. I asked for all my rights back and received them. Already Pure Wildfire is back up, and I have plans to reissue the STORM and Nightstar series in due course, too.

I booked my place at RT 2015, too. How could I resist a convention in Las Vegas? It’s taking place at the Rio, the residence of the Chippendales, so that should be interesting! I’m taking side trips, to New Orleans and the Grand Canyon, so if anyone is around in April next year, then maybe we can meet up!


I went to London last week, and did a talk at the Royal Overseas League, with lovely Nicola Cornick and Imogen Howson, which went swimmingly. The photos are of me in action, so I’ll have to show you one of those. We talked about selling romances in the USA, what expectations are and what the experience is like (terrific!)

of course, while I was in London, I did do a bit of shopping and visit a few museums. They’re still there, we left them intact, but it’s like refilling the well, visiting these places. I also took the chance to do a trawl of Portobello Road Market, which I highly recommend if you find yourself in those parts. We didn’t get to the end, but we did pick up some bargains.

Writing? Well, I’m doing a pseudonym book right now, but then I’m starting to write the last in the current tranche of the Emperors of London series. Don’t worry, though, the publishing schedule is a way bit behind, so you have lots to come! The next release will be in December, so I’ll talk more about it then.

My other series, Even Gods Fall In Love is also coming on apace. I have just written another, and had one accepted. I can’t tell you how much fun this series is to write, though plotting can be a bit of a nightmare at times. I try to put lots of easter eggs there, so if you know your mythology, you can pick them up, and if you don’t, it really doesn’t matter, because the book is a solid, coherent story. The next release is War Chest, featuring Mars, who is also the Duke of Lyndhurst, and I think you’ll be surprised at his story!

Contemporary releases are quieter. That’s partly because of the pseudonym, but it’s also because I’ve been concentrating on the historicals. Paranormals don’t sell nearly as well as they used to, so I need to rethink what I’m doing there. At one point they were my best sellers, so it just goes to show how the market can change!

As always, I'd really, really appreciate your help getting the word out about my books. These days you have to shout a lot louder to get people to look, and I find it hard to shout that loudly!

New Release

This month I have a re-release of Strangers No More, now re-edited and republished by a new to me company. It’s been a delight, working with Evernight Publishing, and I’d love to do more of these stories! And it’s an Editor’s Pick!

Passion In The Dark

Buy from All Romance Ebooks - https://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-passioninthedark-1894040-149.html

• 
  Buy from Amazon - http://www.amazon.com/Passion-Dark-L-M-Connolly-ebook/dp/B015OTE29G
  
• 
  Buy from Evernight - http://www.evernightpublishing.com/passion-in-the-dark-by-l-m-connolly/
  

Two people meet in the dark to have hot, sweaty, anonymous sex… But Whitney is increasingly drawn to her stranger. He’s powerful but gentle, and murmurs to her in Greek. But if he saw her face, it would all be over. Whitney’s looks make her unphotogenic. If she wants her promotion, she’s going to have to make some drastic changes. How will her stranger feel about that? He means more to her than he should.


Excerpt from Passion In The Dark

Later that night, Whitney slid her keycard into the slot of a hotel room door in downtown L.A., the kind of hotel that hosted conventions and business meetings. Anonymous and huge. The green light flashed and she pushed the door open.

Someone dragged her into the room and slammed her against a wall. The door clicked shut, blocking out the only light available. The room was in pitch darkness, the windows covered, the lights out. She hit the wall with a soft thud, her face against the paper.

Her attacker grabbed her around the waist, his free hand dragging her head back by her hair, and then his mouth crashed down on hers, taking her with a hot desperation that flung her into the whirlwind. Now she couldn’t think. Now she could only feel. His hips pressed against hers at an awkward angle but he twisted them against her and she felt the insistent bulge of his erection.

The moment his lips came into contact with hers, she knew him. Knew that pressure, the way his mouth felt against hers, the way he flicked her lips with his tongue in an unspoken request—demand—that she open for him.

When she didn’t obey immediately, he nipped her bottom lip and when she opened her mouth to protest, he surged in, soothing the bite with his tongue in a gentle caress before resuming his fierce attack on her. She tasted him, peppermint and a touch of something else, something fruity. He’d had a glass of wine recently. He never met her drunk, but he sometimes tasted of wine and sometimes brandy. She loved it. It added a tinge of danger, the threat that he might get carried away and ignore her needs. But he never did.

“Never” being three times. They said that three times and one was hooked. Three cigarettes, three shots of heroin, three “Stranger Danger” encounters. The man with no name gave her what she needed, what she craved. He fed her addiction and she fed his.

He took her mouth with an intensity she could respond to only with the kind of helpless acceptance she never demonstrated in her real life. The life outside this door. Whimpering, she followed him when he withdrew, begging for more. With a grunt, he turned her around so her back pressed against the hotel wallpaper. Her backbone rolled against the hard surface but she welcomed the discomfort. He wasn’t going to stop. He seemed as desperate as she was. That had connected them from the first time, and he was no less desperate now. He wanted her.

Here, in the dark. No excuses, no explanations needed here.

 
See you next month!

Lynne

 

My new Word Processor - the Winners! Text Editors for Writers.

The previous post details why I won't be buying Office 2016. Here's what I did next.

My old computer had a valid copy of Office Professional 2010, so I used that to compare with the programs I tested. 

My search for an email client that I could use instead of Outlook began and ended with Thunderbird. It’s open source, fast, clean, and thank all the powers-that-be, simple to install on different computers. One file needs to be copied and pasted, and Thunderbird configured to use that profile instead of the default one, and there it was. With the Lightning extension installed, and Google Provider extension, it merges seamlessly with Google calendar online, so I can access my calendar and schedule from any device I happen to be using.

Job done.

The search for a replacement for Microsoft Word took a bit longer.

I downloaded a huge collection of Word substitutes, free and low paid (nothing is as expensive as Office, and all the programs I tried had trial versions). 

I want to emphasize that this was my own project. Nobody paid me anything, nobody gave me anything, and I had the same customer experience as you will have if you take the same route as I did. 

I created documents in the programs, opened them in my copy of Word 2010, and noted how well they imported. I looked at the text editor specifically as an author, with the needs of a professional author, not as a general letter writer, invoice printer or anything else. 

I’m Windows all the way, so if you have a Mac, there may be some slight differences. I have a tower PC at home, a Surface Pro I use on the road, and two Android devices, my phone and my Nexus tablet.

My requirements

Here was what I had to have in a new word processing program:

1. To work seamlessly with Microsoft Office. That’s because editors, reviewers and so on tend to use it, or at least use the formats as standard.

2. To look good. I have this program up all day, and if it’s ugly, I’m going to get unhappy. If it’s low-resolution, the blurry lines are going to get on my nerves after a while.

3. It has to work with Track Changes used by Word. This is how edits are done, and it’s not an option, it’s an absolute requirement.

4. An autocorrect facility. I use a lot of textual shortcuts when I write, including changing English spelling to US spelling. If I can’t have short versions of certain words, like my hero’s name, common terms (like “shape-shifting”) and a way to quickly convert my English spelling to US spelling, I’m going to get frustrated.

5. The ability to use it offline. If I’m heavily into writing a book, I might switch off the internet. If I’m on the road, I don’t always have access to it. That’s why I didn’t bother with Google Docs, Office Online or Zoho. They all need internet access to work properly.

6. The ability to use styles. I need to control the way the document looks.

Any processors without the above were immediately junked.

What I’d like to have:

1. A word count, preferably a live one.

2. Templates. I save my character and plotting sheets as templates, but I can get by with using them as documents and amending them as I need to.

3. It also needed a spellchecker at least, and I do like a grammar checker for the first line of defence.

4. Consistent capitalisation. Either off or on, either it works or it doesn’t. I’m capable of using the shift key, but if I have to think about it every time, that will stop my flow.

5. Macros, but I haven’t found a program that can handle the dozens of Word macros I’ve set up over the years. I haven't found a converter, either. If anybody knows of such a thing, can you tell me, please, please?

6. A customisable interface. At the very least I want a toolbar that I can call my own, and put the things I use most often on it.

The Contenders

I downloaded all these programs, gave them a good try, and made my decisions. You might not want the same things I do, but at least my reviews will give you a reasonable opinion.

WPS (used to be Kingsoft Office). I downloaded the free trial of the paid version. This is one of the more expensive programs on the market, but it claims complete compatibility with Word, so it was worth looking at. It has a ribbon (yay!) but you can use the older menu style interface if you want to use that. However, the toolbars aren’t customizable. And it doesn’t have an autocorrect function of any kind, or any way of putting common shortcuts in. So that’s a no from me. It comes with a spreadsheet, presentation and word processing program.
It’s a Chinese program, and seems to be an Office clone. However the free version has severe limitations, for instance if you print anything from it, it will watermark your document, so it’s probably not a program to consider for the free version.
The price is $80 for one computer, or $45 a year for the leased version. I’d already decided I wasn’t interested in renting, so that price is quite steep, especially if you want to use it on more than one computer. However, it’s still cheaper than Microsoft Office. A lot of people love this one, but I can’t live with the limitations it sets up.

I went back to the site, and couldn't find a link to a Windows version. I don't know if it's a licensing issue or something, but they seem to have recently removed the link.
Although the program claims to be compatible with Word, when I opened documents created in WPS in Word 2010, they didn’t look the same. There were spaces between paragraphs that I hadn’t put there that I found hard to get rid of. So I crossed WPS off my list.

You can download WPS Office here: http://wps.com  

Calligra –  This is a free program, and includes a complete office suite, except for the email client. It’s open source, so you can fiddle with it, if you want to delve into coding. It uses the old-style menu interface. It has a nice distraction free mode that gives you the page and nothing else.
As a word processor, it has a few drawbacks. The way it shows on the page is, frankly, odd, with spaces where there should be none. It also has a huge sidebar which I can’t get rid of. It is primarily a Linux application, and what it provides for Windows is severely limited. It’s forked off the KDE office, so that’s something you might want to look at, too.

You can find Calligra here: https://www.calligra.org/get-calligra/

SSsuite – this was so ugly I’d hardly opened it before I decided to uninstall it. I downloaded this a couple of times, because I thought I wasn’t seeing it properly. The icons are horrid, and I couldn’t find a way of changing them, or the layout.

Nevron – It has a ribbon interface, but no Quick Access bar, or a way to customize the ribbon. I had difficulty finding any way of customizing anything. 
It doesn't have tools for Reviewing or Track Changes, so it wasn't a starter for me.

On my HD screen it also rendered a bit blurry, and it didn't look quite right. But as a basic word processor, it will prove perfectly acceptable to many, and if you need a free application for a different computer, then it might well serve your purpose.

Word Perfect – Word Perfect is back! Corel has revived it. But when I downloaded and installed it on Windows 10, it wouldn’t work. I couldn’t test it. A shame, because back in the day it was a good program, some claim it was the best. The interface looked good. However, it’s expensive, as expensive as Microsoft Office (£252!), so unless they change the pricing and the compatibility with Windows 10, they’re on to a loser, I’m afraid. You can get the Home version for £110, which is more reasonable. If it works. I'd only advise WP diehards to go for this one, simply because there are other, perfectly acceptable free and low cost processors available. If you manage to get the trial working on Windows 10, let me know!

Scrivener. I very nearly invested in this one, and after NaNo, I might take the plunge. Scrivener is a complete suite for writers, and very reasonably priced. The word processor is fairly simple, but it has everything I need when I’m writing. However, the interface is cluttered and, to my eyes, ugly. There are numerous extra windows. I write my novels in one big manuscript, not in chapters, so some of the tools provided are of little use. The character sheets, corkboard and so on are all handy, but I have all those in different applications. 

I prefer my interface much less cluttered, with only essential tools showing, and with Scrivener, either you go with everything, or you use the distraction-free mode, which doesn’t have things like a word counter. 

The learning curve for the program is steeper than for the other programs. However, some writers love this program, and wouldn’t be without it. You can download a fully functioning version of Scrivener, which works for 30 non-consecutive days, and there are frequently discount vouchers, so it’s definitely worth a look. 

There are similar programs aimed at being an all-in-one for writers, including Write Way Pro, Plume and Ywriter, so if you want a set of tools, you can try those, too.
Scrivener also made a mess of my folders, imposing its own system on me, and saving documents in its own proprietory format, which I didn’t like at all. You can “export” documents as Word documents, though. With Scrivener, it’s a bit “my way or the highway,” so I took the highway.

 You can get Scrivener here: https://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener.php 

The Winners!

I have two winners, and from now on I’ll have them both installed on my main computers. 

LibreOffice Writer - LibreOffice has a lot going for it. It has everything I want, except a decent macro capability and one thing that drives me nuts, described below. It uses the old menu style, instead of a ribbon. I prefer a ribbon, but I can live with menus, especially since it has a customisable menu and toolbar option. And it's free.
I like my programs to capitalise the first word of every sentence, including the ones that start inside quotation marks. And I use curly quotes. LibreOffice complicates this unbelievably and makes the capitalisation option unusable. If you start a sentence with quotation marks, it doesn’t capitalize the first word. If the sentence starts with a contraction like “don’t” or “aren’t,” then that isn’t capitalized either. The inconsistency means you have to think “shift or no shift?” every time you start a sentence, so it’s best just to switch capitalisation off from the start.
The new version of LibreOffice Writer, number 5, is highly compatible with Word. The developers are working hard at cleaning the code, speeding it up and improving the look. 

You can set LibreOffice to save automatically in .docx and the files I use, including the Styles, import into Word just fine.The newest version of LibreOffice has a greatly improved review and comments section for track changes, which works excellently with the Word version. Everything imports and exports as it should.
I think the problem for me is that I come to Libre Office as a Word Power user, and things are done differently here. I have to unlearn all I know and start again. If the developers of LibreOffice provided an easy way for Word power users to move to LO seamlessly, like introducing a Ribbon option and making the macros usable or providing a converter, then they would have an outright winner on their hands. There would be little point in going anywhere else. 

The add-ons provide useful functionality, too. The language and spelling add-ons are good, and it has an Alternative Find and Replace add-on that is hands down the best I have ever come across anywhere. 

For my purposes, the macros are useless. When I recorded a couple, the behaviour wasn’t consistent. I tried to correct the capitalization issue using macros, for instance, but the resulting macro sometimes worked, and sometimes didn’t. The limitations on the macros also make the facility a bit pointless.
LibreOffice also includes a complete office suite, everything except an email program, including a graphics program, presentation and Excel substitute.

Note: I haven’t reviewed OpenOffice, because LibreOffice is based on the same platform, and it has more people working on it.

You can get LibreOffice here: https://www.libreoffice.org/ 

Softmaker’s Textmaker .This is a German program, so it does have special capabilities for the German market, but you don’t have to use them. The 2016 office suite is a paid for version, but it also has a free version.
I downloaded the trial version to evaluate it, and I got hooked. Softmaker offer two versions, Standard, at $70 and Professional, for $90. Each cover three computers owned by the same person. However, if you download the free version, and upgrade from that, the upgrade prices are $40 and $60.
Textmaker looks good, has nice little icons, and is customisable. I would like a live word counter, but all you need to do is put the number counter on the toolbar, together with the update button, and you get the word count easily. It has a very nice choice of views, including the one I use when I write, the Continuous view. It’s better than the Web view in Microsoft Office and LibreOffice, because it is more accurate to the way it looks on the page. The sidebar can be hidden or revealed, and is very useful when setting styles and details. 

And it has tabs! (Squee!) For every document you open, there are tabs (you can turn that feature off if you want to). A tabs view is something I’ve longed for in Microsoft Office, so to find it is a delight. When I work, I have my main document, my characters document and the overall synopsis open, and this way I can switch with little trouble. 

There are some pleasant touches, such as when you open a document with Track Changes and Comments in it, the Review toolbar automatically pops up.
I opened quite a few documents that I created in TextMaker in my copy of Word, and they all rendered flawlessly. It also exports as epub, which is so useful when self-publishing!
It’s not as powerful as LibreOffice, but the text editor is much better. It capitalises, remembers your selection of languages, and the toolbars are customisable. It also has a form of autocorrect which works a treat. It has a spellcheck, but no grammar check. Since I rarely use the grammar checkers, that was no problem for me.  

The paid version has macro capability, but no macro recorder, or a converter for VBA, the language Microsoft uses, so I couldn’t try it out. I would like to use the macros!

I love this program, and the more I use it, the better it gets. It’s small, and you can even have a mobile version, installed on a USB stick, so you can use it wherever you go. That is pretty awesome. It looks good, it’s fast and it’s a no-fuss, no-muss program. And it’s a lot cheaper than Office, and doesn’t include all the extras I don’t want.

The free version is the 2012 version, FreeOffice, which isn’t crippled, so this might suit many people. It will open .docx files, but it won’t save them, you have to save them as .doc, rtf, or one of the open office formats. I found the interface a bit blurry, but nothing I couldn’t live with.

You can download the paid Softmaker Office here: http://www.softmaker.com/english/ 

The free version is available here: http://www.freeoffice.com 

If you want to buy Softmaker, I highly recommend downloading and installing FreeOffice first, and upgrading from that as there's a considerable discount on the price if you do it that way. Softmaker is also free for educational purposes.

So there you have it. I hope this little review is useful to somebody! 

Bye bye Office!

I have never looked much further than Microsoft Word for my word processing needs. All the criticisms of Word over the years didn't bother me, because it was what I needed, and it did everything I wanted. From Word 97 onwards, I faithfully bought the newest upgrade. 

Sure, it was bloated, and I had to work to get it looking the way I wanted, but then I was set.

The price was high, but not too high. After all, I'm an author, so I needed the best tool for the job.

However in recent years, I've come to believe that Word isn't what I need anymore. When I got a new computer, I didn't have a copy of Office I could put on it, so I started thinking-do I need Office anymore?

I'm an author. I need to write a clear document, start to finish. I write all my books in one long document. It keeps the formatting consistent and I can go back and forth, checking on things. I start at the beginning and I finish at the end. Some writers write in chapters. Others write significant scenes and then link them together. Word can do all these things.

My favourite version of Word is 2010. I like the Ribbon, and unlike Word 2007, the Ribbon can be customised. What's more, I can put my own toolbar on, holding all the things I use most often. Including my custom macros that help me when I edit.

Office 2016 is all about collaboration, people working on the same document at the same time, in different places, coming together in the Cloud.

I don’t collaborate. The internet isn’t always available to me. So all that careful development is of no use at all to me. Why should I pay for it? The nearest I get to collaboration is working with editors, and publishing doesn’t work like that. We exchange documents, we don’t work on them at the same time. When I need to work, I disconnect the internet, to avoid distractions. 

I also use Outlook for my emails, and I like the way everything is integrated, so I can make notes, schedule events and link them together. Outlook. It’s useful, and handy to have it incorporated into everything else, but it’s murder to try to move settings from one place to another. Yes, you can use the .pst file, but it doesn’t save your settings, accounts, signatures and so on. So you have to do all those separately. 

I have the Ribbon and the Quick Access Bar set up the way I want, but if I set Word up on another computer, I have to import all those separately. That is a pain. Setting up my macros has become trickier with each iteration of Office, too.

True, Word has always been lacking in a few areas. It's a mega-program, and it has always done things I will never need. I just shove them out of the way. It can take its time opening, and it eats a lot of resources. I just get powerful computers. After all, I also use Photoshop.

I bought a tablet last year that had a copy of Office 2013 included. I used it, but I wasn't impressed enough to upgrade. It wasn't very attractive, for one thing, and it had things I didn't want, that wasted my time.

So I looked forward to the release of Office 2016. Maybe that would be the one. When Microsoft announced it, I looked at the innovations for Office 2016. I didn't see a need for any one of them. Not a single one. All that collaboration stuff went right over my head. Meh. I don't need it. The things I wanted, like tabs, just weren't there. Again.

Office works closely with OneDrive. I used that for a while, but it never worked properly. I tried using it as a back up, but that didn't work, either. It stopped working, or didn't copy what I told it to. Basically, I don't feel that I can rely on it. And telling my editor to pick up a copy from OneDrive? Forget it.

What I want isn't there anymore. I want a program I can write a book on. I'd like a good word processing and calendar that I can share across my devices. That's it. Everything else is frills.

When Microsoft announced Office 2016, I knew I had come to the parting of the ways. It was no longer meeting my needs.

But it was reliable, and I knew my way around it. I was willing to buy in one more time. Until I saw the price. You can lease the software, or you can buy it outright.

I don’t want to rent my software. I have no desire to go on to the subscription model. I want to pay for and own my own software, and do what I want with it. However, to buy Microsoft Word and Outlook, the two programs I use most often, I would have had to pay £80 a year for the rentable version, and £180-ish for the purchasing outright version – for one computer. That is shocking, especially considering the price for the Windows 10 operating system is around £80.

 I started looking around at word processing alternatives, and I've found some applications that suit me far better. I'll be talking about them in another post.

How could Microsoft have kept my custom? They could have given me a simpler program, or the ability to buy the features that I want. They could have given me a chance to buy the programs I wanted, instead of sticking me with programs I never open. Access? I think I opened it once. They could have slimmed it down, given me some of the features I wanted, like tabs, and the ability to export into epub and other formats. Made it a buffet instead of a big sit-down meal with a fixed menu.

So bye-bye Word, bye-bye Outlook. It's been good to know ya. 

I will miss a few things. The ability to move a date to the calendar with a drag and drop, and the extensive note taking. Macros (I haven’t yet found a way of importing all my Word macros into another program). But are they important enough to pay a premium price for a collection of features I’ll never use?

I think you know the answer to that.

Memories of 9/11

Where were you?
The last generation asked each other "Where were you when Kennedy was shot?"
For mine, it is, "Where were you on 9/11?"
I was here in the UK, sitting at the one computer in the house, talking to a friend in Florida via MSN messenger.
I had the radio on, and my program was interrupted by the news, so I switched on the TV. There it was, live from New York. I said to her, "Turn your TV on."
She said, "They won't have the same program on here as the one you have there."
"Yes they will," I said.
We watched the same pictures together, relayed from one of the big American news networks, NBC I think. At first it looked like an accident. People had been talking about the possibility for years, but they were thinking small private place like a Cessna. Nothing like this.
When the second plane hit, it was obvious it was anything but an accident. We watched the day together, Kathy and I, because we were alone, and scared. It was terrifying to watch the events unfold. When the first tower collapsed, I screamed, and I heard other people in our quiet street yelling as well.
Then a writer friend broke into our conversation. He gave us a phone number and asked us to call his great-aunt, who he was living with at the time. He was working in the Pentagon, and another plane had hit it.
The pictures started coming through on the TV. He wasn't hurt, he told us, but the plane had taken out the phone network. The computer network was cabled way underground, so it was intact. His great-aunt didn't have a computer.
So we called. Bizarre, that people so far away could call her and tell her he was fine.
Like the rest of the world, we were numb with shock. I'm just glad I wasn't alone that day.
So where were you that day? How did you hear the news?

News for September, 2015 - exciting news and four new releases!

News
Well, here we are, three quarters of the way through the year!
Big news - I have all my rights back from Ellora's Cave! I won't go into the details here, but it became clear that EC and I were no longer a good fit, and finally, I have the books back. That's nineteen of them. I plan to reissue them under the LM Connolly name, and one of the series is ready to go now.
I've had Pure Wildfire re-edited, and Ginny Glass of Wordsugar Designs did some amazing new covers for me. If you have these books already, then you probably don't want to buy them all over again, but this series means a lot to me. It was the start of a whole new career for me, my foray into paranormals, which started with the Department 57 series. These books are about - well, see below. I've put a short introduction, the new covers and a brief introduction.
Swanwick
I went to the Swanwick Writer's School in August. What a great time I had there! I met a bunch of people, including the writer of the Charles Paris series, Simon Brett, and the writer of the TV Detective series, Simon Hall. I went on some courses, and had a lot of fun, talking about writing for a week. A real treat.

New Releases and Excerpt

So, releases. I have to concentrate on Pure Wildfire this month, although there are more exciting releases ahead. I just keep writing!
Pure Wildfire is a four book series about a rock band with a difference. They are all shape-shifting firebirds, except for the guitarist, Aidan. He is the phoenix, the one and only.
I wrote "Sunfire" as a one-off, but the book proved so popular, that I wrote more. Aidan, the epitome of the rock guitarist, meets Corinne, a classical guitarist. She is under the control of her father, the manager of the band. I did have certain media types in mind when I wrote this!
The series is about each member of the band finds love, sometimes in very unexpected places. The series takes place during a long world tour, and each book is named after a Pure Wildfire album. But it's not all music-centric!
The books are coming out every week in September, one every week, and after that, a box set. The books have lovely new cover art, and they've been lightly edited, so although there is still lashing of action between the sheets, the language is a tad less graphic and the emphasis is back on the story.


You can see them here - http://lmconnolly.com/genre/coming-soon
They're up for preorder at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Apple iBooks, and all the other major outlets.

I've put the first part of Sunfire here for you, as a taster. You can read the whole of the first chapter on my website.

Aidan went over the upcoming meeting in his mind. He’d only promised to play on their manager’s pet project, a charity album, because of the news he had for John Westfall. Once Westfall knew Pure Wildfire’s second guitarist had walked out, there’d be fireworks for sure.

But then, who better to face fireworks than the phoenix? Aidan grinned and headed out the grove in the direction of the manor house.

Before John Westfall converted it into a business center, the house was a modest, but handsome, eighteenth-century gentleman’s residence. Now offices occupied half the house, together with the heavily soundproofed studios, the acoustics in them honed to perfection. People came from all over the world to use them. Nobody liked Westfall, but he was a good manager and the studios were a dream.

Buttery cream stucco covered the house, giving an impression of continuity through the ages, which Aidan knew was entirely false.

As he got closer, the coarse grass changed to fine lawn, barbered as short as velvet pile. Aidan tilted his head back and took a lungful of the clean, fresh air. Nowhere in the world had the same crisp newness as England in the spring, the fresh, clean air he loved spiced with a bite of the chill of winter just passed. Just back from a visit to the States, Aidan savored the pleasure of being on home ground again. He loved America, but whoever said there was no place like home was right. Come to think of it, an American said that. Aidan grinned. To each his own. No doubt Chris and Jake Keys, the bass section of the band, felt the same about their native Texas.

Very few places heralded a visitor’s arrival with a burst of Bach, especially played on the guitar. Drawn by the music, as always, Aidan changed direction and strolled toward the west wing, business forgotten for now.

The French windows lay open to the air, invalidating all the careful soundproofing in the studio behind it. Aidan reflected wryly that the staff always closed the windows when Pure Wildfire used the studios.

This was magical, a moment out of time. He stood outside, watching and listening.

A girl bent over a fine Spanish guitar, picking out a melody, spinning the counterpoint on the strings with agile fingers. Her long, straight dark hair fell over the polished wood and even her clothes seemed magical, the fine white embroidered lawn top and gathered skirt marking her as special, untouchable.

Unless Aidan was greatly mistaken, this was Corinne Westfall, the eldest of the three girls known in some circles as the Westfall Gold Mine. Since the age of sixteen, when the music press acclaimed her the latest wonder to hit the classical world running, Corinne Westfall dominated the classical music charts. Corinne’s and Aidan’s worlds crossed only through her father and the few times he’d seen her onstage, but now he wished he’d met her before. He’d never felt drawn to a human like this before, the music, her slender form, calling out to him to touch, to explore.

Aidan watched her fingering with a connoisseur’s eye. Her hands were large enough to form unusual bridges on the fret. He hadn’t considered her level of skill before, distracted by Corinne’s ingénue appearance. Onstage she wore skimpy clothes, which gave him uncomfortable feelings of underage sex the one time he’d seen her, curious to know what drew people to her performances. He’d turned away from the pictures on her many album sleeves. Looking at her now, mentally calculating her current age, he was pretty sure this was the effect Westfall wanted and he mentally labeled any man a slimeball who turned his daughter into an underage sex symbol just to sell a few albums.

But this girl was now a twenty-eight-year-old woman—no ingénue. But the memory of his distaste stayed in the back of Aidan’s mind, however much he tried to dispel it.

Today, Corinne Westfall was a purely lovely woman, lost in a world of her making. Hers and Bach’s.

There you go! It is so good to see the books back on the virtual shelves again!