Meeting the queens of romance in London
Jun 29, 2024 3:43 pm
Hello
Welcome to Annie's Newsletter
News from London. Kiss and Shell sneak peek. Last chance offers. Free books.
London Baby...
Living in the heart of Sherwood Forest in the UK, I rarely get to visit London. But when I do, it's the highlight of my year and this latest trip was no exception.
The SPS Live is the biggest writing conference in Britain, with authors travelling from as far as New Zealand, Australia, USA and Canada.
I got to meet up with so many great author friends and finally met my sponsor Lucy Score. I may have got a little teary when I was thanking her in person for her sponsorship last year, telling her how it's changed my life and given me the confidence I desperately needed.
Last January in 2023, I was a struggling author with five books. My part time day job as a graphic designer and my husband's bus driving job covered our bills, but left little extra cash. Like most people in the UK, times were tough. I was driving a 2005 Ford Fusion that broke down four times in January 2023. Each time my husband had to come and tow me home from work. One of those very cold, wet and dark evenings while I was waiting on the side of the road for my husband to rescue me, I said a prayer, wishing I could afford to buy myself a better car. One that wouldn't break down all the time.
Three days later, I received an email from the Self Publishing Foundation saying I had won a scholarship sponsored by Lucy Score. I think I screamed, then cried, then screamed again. It was surreal that out of hundreds of applicants I had been chosen. People had read my work and believed in me.
Having people back me was a huge boost in confidence and it gave me the motivation to really push myself. I got a lovely PA, Haley and set to work making tons of tiktoks and social media posts to promote my books as well as set up a street team and Facebook Group, growing my readership.
After a few months of hard work and self belief, I was able to buy a better car and sold the Ford Fusion for £250. It was a great day and a pivotal moment in my authoring career.
As well as thanking Lucy Score and the SPF team, I want to take this opportunity to thank all of my readers. Without you, I wouldn't be writing today.
FYI Lucy is the sweetest person I've ever met and was so gracious with her time. I hope one day I can pay it forward and sponsor an aspiring writer like she has.
Other news from London
EL James took the stage with Lucy to talk about how they started out. I loved the banter between the two of them and how EL James' Fifty Shades of Grey started out as fan fiction and now it has fan fiction of its own. The series definitely paved the way for spicy romance to become more mainstream and sought after. I loved how laid back she was. When asked if she was to write fan fiction now, what would it be, she replied with her own book, Fifty Shades of Grey. Pure class.
More pics from this week.
Top left to right: Olivia Spring, Me, Fiona Lucas, Carrie Elks, Reece Barden, Gwenyth Chambers, Susie Tate, Rosalee, Evelyn Flood. Bottom left to right: Holly June Smith, Sara Madderson/Elodie Hart and Blake Blessing.
Outside the venue along the river Thames. Left to right: Me, ML Mountford, Billie Jade Kermack, Sasha Lace (Sasha is this years SPF winner, sponsored by Lucy Score)
Follow me on Instagram or Facebook or join my reader group for more pics and stay updated with all the things. Links here https://linktr.ee/anniecharme
Kiss & Shell - Sneak peek of Chapter 1...
Celebrate International Kissing Day with your July Man of the Month...
Shelly
Finn volleys into my life, disrupting the nest I’ve built around myself.
This British playboy can charm the pants off any Southern girl with his thick English accent and swagger, but I’m not just anyone. I’m ‘turtle girl’ as he calls me, with a hardened shell protecting my heart. And I wouldn’t kiss this man if he paid me.
Until I’m roped into a kissing auction to raise much needed funds.
Now I’m eating my words as deep blue ocean eyes smirk in triumph, the promised kiss weakening my resolve.
Finn
The world falls at my Savile Row shoes, but Shelly Myrtle is the exception.
She’d rather see me dismembered at the bottom of the sea than give me a moment of her time.
I came to Magnolia Point to expand my father’s empire. Only our plans are to build on the very land Shelly is trying to preserve.
When I see an opportunity to make the curvy conservationist eat her words and hopefully my face, I take it.
I’ll have to dive deep to crack the enamel around her heart, even if that means sinking my inheritance, but drowning in this girl will be worth it.
Are you ready to meet your next Man of the Month?
Van is waiting for you in 𝗠𝗘𝗥𝗠𝗔𝗜𝗗 𝗙𝗢𝗥 𝗬𝗢𝗨 by Gail Haris!
Van's tired of the playboy lifestyle. He's done with not knowing if people like him for his charming personality or his name. Which is why he agrees to take over his father's new resort in Magnolia Point with only two conditions. One: He works there as a regular employee. Two: Nobody knows his true identity.
What he never expected was to fall for the girl who worked as a mermaid on the boat tours.
Ava has always loved the water and mermaids. So getting a job where she gets to swim all day, pretend to be a mermaid, and make children smile is the perfect job...
Or it was.
The new photographer, Van, is turning out to be a distraction. He isn't exactly the subtle type with his bold flirting. Worse, she has to stare into his lens every day and smile... in a glitter seashell bra and tail. Unfortunately for her, the narcissistic too-good-looking-for-his-own-good doesn't give up easily, and she kind of finds him a little entertaining.
Still, Ava isn't looking for romance. She's tired of people are overly charming, use annoying pet names, self-centered and keep secrets, and Van has been one giant red flag.
Will Van sink or swim in his effort to prove to Ava that they're mermaid for each other?
𝗠𝗮𝗻 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗠𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗵 𝗖𝗹𝘂𝗯 𝘀𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗲𝘀
In 2024, escape to the Lowcountry of Magnolia Point, South Carolina, and celebrate all the fun holidays with your favorite group of romance authors and their charming Southern men. See you there!
One click now from Amazon or read for free in Kindle Unlimited!
LAST CHANCE TO ENTER
I've teamed up with some authors to gift three paperbacks for you!
Broken Rules by I A Dice
Pretty lovely lies by Heidi Stark
Protecting Poppy by me
DON'T MISS OUT!
ONLY 0.99 UNTIL 8TH JULY
As well as a load of stories from other authors, the anthology includes a few chapters from Pursuing Lilly. If you've read the piece from Shane and Lilly's story, let me know your thoughts so far. I'm over half way through and hoping to release Pursuing Lilly early in September.
FREEBIES
Love under Construction by Kat Long
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Science girl meets bad artist boy and takes him down but not without incurring scars of her own.
Waverly Alloway just wants to study, graduate and be a geek. If that makes her boring, then so 🐝 it. She loves spending quite time with her bee hives, but being the smartest girl in her class means she’s put on tutoring duty where each hour is torture.
Jax Palmer’s bad boy attitude is a facade. The artist in him craves solitude and silence, but to survive Rippton U, he’s created a persona to cover who he really is, and be what everyone else appears to want from him.
But with Waverly, the deception drops away. Jax isn’t the only one with a secret, and his past time of digging beneath the geeky-as-cute girl’s skin fast becomes a craving he can’t stop - and he doesn’t want to. Her past could tarnish them both. He refuses to let her crumble alone...
Even if it means showing who he really is to a judgemental world who will take his penance out on her.
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A secret baby with my brother's grumpy best friend... what could go wrong?
Luca's stormy return reignites a passion I thought I'd buried.
His dark past and dangerous ties make him absolutely off-limits.
But when our fiery connection leads to an unexpected little secret...
All bets are off.
Luca's determined to escape his father's criminal empire.
But his smoldering intensity and our sordid past are impossible to forget.
As our forbidden desire collides in a firestorm of lust and longing.
Will our secret baby bind us together or tear us apart?
Caught between loyalty to my brother and my consuming desire for Luca, every stolen glance and burning temptation risks everything.
I'm tempted to risk it all...
Even if our secret could cost us everything.
The forces threatening to tear us apart could destroy everything... unless we find a way to build a future together.
KINDLEUNLIMITED
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AS ALWAYS, THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT.
I AM FOREVER GRATEFUL
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