Donna Writes - Issue #31
My boy is home, wedding, write in and a fabulous new cover!
Hello lovelies,
I hope you are all well and getting some of this sunshine? I cleaned up in the garden yesterday and sat outside this morning to drink my tea (albeit wrapped in a blanket). The sunshine is such a blessing, hopefully this is just the start!
Welcome to April and my latest update. The last month has been crazy busy, but firstly, here’s the cover for my summer book, A Very Italian Wedding. Isn’t it gorgeous?! Bookouture has outdone themselves.
I’m so excited to share this book. When I first started to write, my editor told me to ‘lean into the humour’ so I did and (I hope) it’s really funny. In a nutshell, it’s about Rose Loveheart who is travelling to the village of Bellemilia in Tuscany along with Ben Pearson to attend their respective best friend’s wedding. Only Rose is determined to persuade the bride-to-be to postpone, while Ben wants the wedding to go ahead! It’s filled with lots of fun characters, including Aurora Gallo, the groom’s psychic aunt, and Coco, the bride’s demon shih tzu, not to mention friends and lots of the groom’s hilarious family. It’s published on the 5th of June and you can preorder it here.
The month
March was fabulously busy. My other half and I went away because for the first time in over twenty years we had no children at home. It was so amazing and relaxing and I returned totally refreshed. We also attended the wedding of a very good friend and travelled to Wales. The weather was glorious, it was a very lovely and romantic wedding and the bride and groom’s story is worthy of its own book. They are both so incredibly happy together.
The pics above feature my pilates gear (which is the way I combat my writer’s bad back) and me running. The running course is over for now, but I’m keeping it up. I’m still incredibly slow but it’s such a good way to get out of the house. Finally, there’s a picture of me and my girl on mother’s day and me and my lovely boy as he arrived back from his travels on Saturday (broke, happy to be home, and already planning his next adventure!!).
What now?
I’m on a serious deadline for my new book which I need to deliver by the 19th May (eek). Given how crazy March was (and I did work for all of it, aside from on the holiday), it’s a case of head down and get the words down too. I can’t tell you much about the latest, except there’s plenty of lovely snow and romance (of course). It’s so weird conjuring all of that up while the sun is shining but I’m excited about this new story. Jules Wake/Julie Caplin and I had a write in day last week, to help with motivation and we got loads done. This was our treat once we’d finished writing.
Competition time
Thank you to everyone who entered last month’s competition and congratulations to Anne W who won! This month I’m going to do the same again.
For your chance to win a £10 Amazon voucher just reply to this email and say hello.
I’ll pick one winner at random from those who respond. Please note, the competition will close on the 7 May 2025 and I’ll inform the winner via email. Entrants must be over 18 and live in the UK. Good luck!
I’ll be back in touch soon. In the meantime, take care and let’s hope we all get to enjoy plenty of sunshine.
Much love
Donna xx