Author of fabulously funny romantic fiction

RNA Awards Shortlist 2012 announced!

Have just had a lovely radio interview with my good friend, Nancy Stevens. Nancy has just bagged her own fab lifestyle show on our new community radio in Milton Keynes, Secklow Sounds. The guys there are doing a great job and it’s lovely to see the station blossoming. Way to go Nancy, Vanessa better watch her job!  Get some hot chocolate, a nice biscuit and listen now on soundcloud…C : ) xx

http://soundcloud.com/secklowsounds/nancy-stevens-lifestyle

It is entirely possible to land a plane on four inches of snow and sheet ice. Listening Heathrow?

Lapland covers bits of Sweden, Norway and Finland. We went to Kiruna in the Swedish bit.

No matter how many clothes you wear on the back of a snowmobile in minus 36 C, it will never be enough.

When travelling on a snowmobile at minus 36 C at 50 mph, the wind chill factor will be minus 75 C. Which is really very cold.

After two and a half hours on a snowmobile at minus 75 C, it is impossible to straighten your knees until you have hugged a radiator for half an hour.

It can take an hour to put on all the clothes you will need just to go out of the door.

When you have put on all those clothes it is then a given that you will need a wee.

You can eat too much reindeer in one lifetime.

Doing five hours of cross-country skiing is an excellent way to unjam a frozen shoulder.

Being in an igloo is extremely claustrophobic.

Being able to build an igloo is not a terribly useful skill in the Costa del Keynes.

Running to the loo at three o’clock in the morning in your underwear at minus 35 is an experience that you don’t want to have too often.

It is possible to wear six pair of socks in my walking boots.

The snow is too dry to make snowmen and/or snowballs.

A working husky can pull you flat on your face in under two seconds.

Dog sledding is a lot more fun than you’d think.

The glitter in the air is made by ice crystals.

In January, it gets light at ten o’clock and is dark again by three.

When the sun is on the fir trees it looks like they are covered in diamonds.

Lingonberry juice tastes exactly like Ribena.

Warm water, Lipton’s Yellow Tea bags and long life milk does not equal tea, Lapland. Wrong, wrong, wrong.

It is possible to work your way through the entire vodka cocktail menu at the Absolut bar in the Ice Hotel, though not necessarily recommended.

Strangely, the more vodka you drink the more easily you forget you are paying £11.00 per shot.

Vodka served in ice glasses tastes more lovely than normal.

The Ice Hotel is absolutely magical. Go there.

Sleeping on a bed of ice and reindeer skins is surprisingly toasty.

Everyone should see the Northern Lights at least once in their lifetime. They are totally magnificent.

It is possible to pay upwards of £11.00 for a sandwich and a bag of crisps at Stockholm airport.

If all security staff at airports were six foot tall, blonde beauties then Lovely Kev wouldn’t grumble about getting frisked.

You can be having lunch 200 miles inside the Arctic Circle at noon and by nine o’clock the same evening be having a Chinese takeway in the Costa del Keynes while watching a programme about building the Ice Hotel.

Lapland is a fantastic place, full of beauty and activities that will make you very cold. I highly recommend a trip there.

I’d just like to wish all my friends and lovely readers a very happy new year. Hope that 2012 will be a great year for everyone. Here at Matthews’ Towers it’s already shaping up to be a really busy one!

2011 has been a good year and it’s been great having a new book out with a new publisher, Little, Brown. And what accolades WRAPPED UP IN YOU has received! Hurrah. Many of you have said that you think it’s my best book so far and have completely fallen in love with the hero, Dominic. It hit the bestseller list amid very stiff competition – so thank you for choosing my book above others. I’ve also had fantastic support from all the book bloggers and book review sites for which I’m really grateful. I was thrilled to learn that it was voted Book of the Year by readers on super-smashing website Trashionista. The cover was chosen as cover of the year by Bookreviewsbyrea. It was short-listed for Best Romantic Novel by The Festival of Romance. I was also very kindly given a lovely award for Outstanding Contribution to Romantic Fiction by The Fesitval of Romance. Thank you so much! And, last but not least, The Chocolate Lovers’ Club was chosen as Outstanding Romance Novel of the Year by Forward National Literature in the USA. Not a bad way to end 2011!

Thanks to everyone who took the time to read the book and vote for WRAPPED UP IN YOU. Couldn’t do it without you! Little, Brown have great plans for my next book – SUMMER DAYDREAMS – which is out in February in hardback, followed by the paperback in May 2012 and I know that you’ll support me with that book too. My readers are the best!

Every good wish for a happy and successful 2012. Love C : ) xx

Excitement at Matthews’ Towers as WRAPPED UP IN YOU is up for Novel of the Year on fab blogging site Trashionista. Voting is open now and the winner will be announced from a long-list of twenty at the end of December. If you enjoyed WRAPPED UP IN YOU, then please take a minute to pop along and vote. Thanks! Love C : ) xx

Vote now at Trashionista