Stephanie Cage - Writer

Woo hoo!  The day is here!  Excuse all the exclamation marks, but I'm a little excited.  Today Lisa and Redmond and all the drama of the Couples show are finally unleashed on the reading public.  Yes, it's launch day for Perfect Partners .  To celebrate, I'm live on the Crimson Romance blog talking about growing up as a ballroom dancing fan and how it inspired the story of 'Perfect Partners'.  You can also find me at the beautiful Brook Cottage Books website. Please do come over and say hi!  And finally, because good things, like troubles, should always come in threes, here's a sneak peek at Lisa and Redmond's first practice session: She stood up, dropped her fleece onto the bench, and took his hand, willing herself not to notice the way his strong fingers encircled hers, making her feel safe and protected. Whatever his body told her, it was a lie, she told herself. He’d never been anything but trouble, and he never would be. Their partnership was

I feel I should be posting a countdown... 'Three, two, one, we have lift off.'  Yes, it's just one day to go until 'Perfect Partners' hits Kindles, e-readers and even i-phones (in fact, anywhere you can install the lovely easy-to-use Kindle app).  Lucky me, I got to celebrate today with a fabulous review from The Book Lovers .  If you don't know this blog, I thoroughly recommend it - there's a great range of books covered, and the reviews are very comprehensive so it's easy to tell if the stories are your cup of tea or not.  I was SO happy with this review of 'Perfect Partners' - if you read it, I'm sure you'll see why.  The reviewer completely understood what I was trying to achieve with the book, and she really captures the flavour of the story - "all the glitz and glamour of the dancing world and the chemistry that poured off Lisa and Red".  Yes, yes, YES! 

I know Strictly has been annoying to dancing purists (increasingly so as the series have gone on), but for me it's been a lifesaver.  Suddenly it's no longer embarrassing to admit that I have a passion for paso and a taste for tango, or that for many years I've been a huge fan of Anton du Beke and Erin Boag .  (And for the record, yes, I do think they should give Anton Bruce's spot when he finally taps off into the sunset, and yes, I do still hanker for Arlene's honest feedback and encyclopedic knowledge of dance, although I'm pleased that the BBC have at last found a worthy successor to her in Darcey Bussell ).  For me, Strictly has filled many long, dark, depressing winter evenings with sparkles, glamour and excitement. I'm always slightly at a loss when a series ends, so I was delighted to discover on Christmas Day that my lovely husband had tracked down tickets for the live tour when it visited Sheffield Arena in February.  And just to prove that I

Wow!  I wish I'd discovered this site years ago.  I found autocrit as a result of an excellent article about writing by fellow Crimson Romance novelist Bobbi Romans, author of the intriguingly titled 'Swamp Magic'.  The article, which you can find here , is well worth a read.  Although it's described as advice for beginning writers, there are some things worth hearing more than once, even if you've been writing for years.  Bobbi's tips span everything from critique groups to finding out about industry trends, so even if you've been following some of the pointers for a long time, others may well be fresh, as online editing site autocrit was for me.  Courtesy of autocrit, I've learned that I've finally conquered my habit of scattering my stories with the words 'just' and 'really', only to see a forest of 'it' and 'was' springing up in their place!  *Sigh*.  A writer's work is never done...

In February, I'm going to be taking part in a writing challenge with a difference.  I first came across it while reading a lovely post at the Belle, Book and Candle blog over someone else's shoulder. (And why is it that blogs read that way are always so much more interesting?  Is it for the same reason that when I go out to dinner, the tastiest pudding is always on someone else's plate?) The challenge is to write - and post - a letter every day for a month.  The official version of the challenge is here if you want to play, but I confess I haven't signed up due to a horror of allowing my postal address to creep into the cybersphere.  I'll be playing privately, but if you're good I might 'post' you some updates here along the way, and if you're playing too, I'd love to hear how it goes - either in the comments below, or by letter if you happen to be a non-cyber acquaintance of mine! Although I write a great many emails, weeks can go by withou