Category Archives: News

A Valentine’s Treat!

Not only is it February already, but it’s almost halfway through the month, with Valentine’s Day tomorrow! Here in Cambridge, the weather is still very cold, but the green shoots are popping out of the ground and the nights are already beginning to draw out.

Thankfully, for us and our cats, the various remodelling and redecorating projects at Chez Sugden are now complete. We love everything that’s been done by our wonderful tradesmen, but are glad to have finished with all the disruption.

For me, that’s meant I can write in peace! And I’ve been beavering away at several new projects — some Ice Cats and some not — which I look forward to sharing with you soon.

One thing I have been working on are some new holiday-themed Ice Cats’ short stories, in response to your lovely feedback about the ones I wrote for Halloween and Thanksgiving, and your kind requests for more. Yes, there will be another Ice Cats’ Short Story Anthology released soon, featuring the most recent stories, so don’t worry if you’ve missed the ones posted. Stay tuned for more on that soon.

In the meantime, as a special Valentine’s treat, I have put a new, FREE, Valentine-themed short story — A Perfect Date — up in the For Readers’ section. And, as a bonus, I have also put up A Perfect Bouquet. These 2 FREE short stories will only be available for a short time, so be sure to head over there and download them before they disappear!

Happy Valentine’s Day and Happy Reading!

It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like …

Not quite yet!! Not until December 1st, in our house anyway. But, we will be going to pick out our tree at the weekend and we plan to have the decorations up in good time.

Autumn is definitely with us. Even though Bonfire Night (Nov 5th) has been and gone, the air smells like November. The weather is turning colder and the leaves have pretty much all fallen. It’s another beautiful, crisp, sunny day here in Cambridge (after some pretty yucky grey days), but the heating is on and the cats are curled up under the radiators.

Happy Thanksgiving to all my American readers. Wishing you and yours a wonderful holiday. And for all my readers around the world, I’m very thankful for you!

If you’d like a quick treat, for those precious few moments amid the holiday hubbub, check out my newest Thanksgiving-themed NJ Ice Cats short story, over in the For Readers section, A Perfect Favor (or, if you prefer the English spelling, A Perfect Favour! – Yes, a true Two Nations Divided!), which you can download for free.

I’ve also put up my other two Thanksgiving-themed short stories – A Perfect Picnic and A Perfect Reunion – so that’s 3 FREE short stories to treat yourself to. But be quick – they’ll only be around for a couple of weeks.

Happy Thanksgiving, Happy November and Happy Reading!

Halloween Already?

I can’t believe autumn is here, the clocks are about to go back and Christmas is just around the corner! Still, it’s a lovely, crisp, sunny day and the view from my office is filled with autumn colour, as the leaves turn in the garden and across the fields.

And hockey is back! Go Devils! Go Ice Cats!

As a special Halloween treat and to celebrate the return of the boys of the ice — both real and fictional — I’m giving away FREE downloads of my NJ Ice Cats‘ Halloween short stories.

Pop over to my For Readers section and you can download A Perfect Disguise, A Perfect Plan and the latest story, A Perfect Pumpkin.

But you’d better be quick — they’re only available for the next few weeks!

Happy Halloween and Happy Reading!

New NJ Ice Cats Short Story!

I hope it’s been a glorious summer — or pleasant winter, depending on your hemisphere — where you are. It’s been so lovely here that we’re actually desperate for rain! (no sooner did I type that, than the heavens opened and our garden and allotment got a much needed watering!)

Exciting news this month, starting with a new NJ Ice Cats‘ short story!

A while back, I asked on my Facebook page (which, of course, you all have liked … if not here’s the link <g>) which holidays you would like to see a short story for. Top of the list was July 4th. Always happy to fulfill my lovely readers’ requests, I set about coming up with a suitable short story to ease the hockey drought of the summer months.

Introducing … A Perfect Contest

Secret crushes … unfinished business!

The last thing Ally Finnon wants is to strut her stuff in a swimsuit and patriotic head-dress for the annual Miss Firecracker contest. But she’ll lose her job if she doesn’t.

The last thing recently divorced, Ice Cats’ forward, Jordan ‘Match’ Matcheson, wants is to interrupt his summer break and judge a beauty contest. But he drew the short straw, literally.

Could this finally be the chance for the former high school friends to get together and make sparks fly?

Make sure you hop over to my For Readers’ section and download your FREE copy of A Perfect Contest. Remember it will only be available during July!

Stay tuned for more NJ Ice Cats’ short stories coming soon.

In other news – look what arrived recently!

Aren’t they beautiful?

Puck-shaped, NJ Ice Cats’ flash drives – perfect for giving away my short stories to lucky winners!

Stay tuned – I’ll be doing a ‘Bored Without Hockey’ summer giveaway of several of these shortly!

Many thanks to USB Memory Direct who made these beauties for me. Check out their website for more fabulous, personalisable, promotional flashdrives – www.usbmemorydirect.com.

A Perfect Selection on iBooks!

This promotion has now ended. But A Perfect Selection is available for only 99c.

Great news! My delicious anthology of six NJ Ice Cats short stories – A Perfect Selection – is now available on iBooks! And, it’s FREE until the Stanley Cup is won, so download your copy now.

To order, simply click on the image below.

Don’t forget, it is still free on Kindle, Nook and Kobo too.

Free Ice Cats Short Stories for the Playoffs!

This promotion has now ended!

The NHL playoffs is a great time of year. No matter how your team did in the regular season (boy, were my Devils bad!), it’s fun to watch the best teams compete for Lord Stanley’s Cup.

What better time to offer a special deal for hockey fans?

For as long as there are teams playing, and until a new champion is crowned, A Perfect Selection will be free!

So, whether your boys didn’t make it to the post-season, lost in the early rounds or are battling it out for the Cup, you can treat yourself to six fun, Ice Cats’ short stories.

For Amazon, click on the cover below. For Nook and Kobo, click on the links.

A Perfect Selection on Nook

A Perfect Selection on Kobo

Not Long Now! More Ice Cats!

Happy New Year everyone! I hope you and yours had a wonderful holidays and are enjoying a good, healthy start to 2017. After a difficult and stressful six months, due to the decline and eventual passing of my wonderful, 94-yr-old father-in-law, I’m ready for a fresh year.

There is plenty of good news to tell you. First, I’m delighted that the fifth book in my New Jersey Ice Cats series will hit the shelves on February 1st.

A Perfect Strategy features retired Ice Cats‘ captain, Scott ‘Scotty’ Matthews and Sapphire Houlihan. Many of you will remember Sapphie as Issy’s best friend in A Perfect Compromise. I had such fun pitting a woman who can’t even commit to an apartment against a man who’s looking for the someone to share his new life with. Especially when they have to do battle in the boardroom, as well as the bedroom!

Is there really life after hockey?

If there’s one thing Scotty Matthews know, it’s hockey. Unfortunately, the former New Jersey Ice Cats captain isn’t proving successful at life after hockey. His wife’s left him and he’s lost his post-ice job as a media commentator. All he’s got now is a big, empty show house.

If there’s one thing Sapphire Houlihan knows, it’s that she never wants to be tied down to anyone or anything ever again. Unfortunately for her, a wonderful one-weekend distraction with Scotty turns into something much more complicated … Because he’s a guy who wants way more than one weekend.

You can pre-order A Perfect Strategy by clicking on the cover above. I hope you love Scotty and Sapphie’s story as much I do!

Short Stories

Thank you to all of you who contacted me to let me know how much you enjoyed my two free short stories, A Perfect Plan and A Perfect Picnic. I’m sorry that due to family issues, I wasn’t able to complete the New Year’s and Valentine’s stories in time. I will be offering A Perfect Bouquet for free during February, for those of you didn’t manage to download it last year.

Don’t forget that you can get all six of last year’s short stories in my NJ Ice Cats’ anthology, A Perfect Selection, for only 99c. This is only available in digital format.

I promise there will be more short stories on the way later in the year, so stay tuned!

In the meantime, I’m busy at work on the next New Jersey Ice Cats book, working title A Perfect Treat, which will hopefully hit the shelves in March 2018. I can’t say too much about it right now, except that the hero is a reader favourite!

Until next time, Happy reading!

Apology and Two Free NJ Ice Cats Short Stories!

First of all, a huge apology to everyone who downloaded my free Halloween NJ Ice Cats short story, A Perfect Plan. I’ve just discovered the wrong format file was uploaded. To make that right, I have uploaded the correct file format to this post and will leave this up until the middle of December. Simply click on the cover of A Perfect Plan below to download the correct version.

*This promotion has now ended*

Which means that you have the chance to download both of the new NJ Ice Cats seasonal short stories for FREE! Pop across to the For Readers section, where you will find my Thanksgiving-themed story, A Perfect Picnic, available.

*This promotion has now ended *

Don’t forget that the next book in the New Jersey Ice Cats series, A Perfect Strategy, from Harlequin SuperRomance is available now for pre-order and will be out on February 1. Simply click on the cover below to go directly to Amazon.

Until next time, Happy Reading!

New Book Coming and Free Short Story!

A lot has been happening this month already!

First, I got to see the cover for my next New Jersey Ice Cats’ book, A Perfect Strategy, which is out Feb 2017. [Although it is up for pre-order at all good online retailers, in case you want to be sure to get your copy as soon as it it released :)]

I wrote a little bit about the title, blurb and my new cover, including which actors I think best suit the look of both Scotty and Sapphie on this month’s post at the Harlequin SuperRomance Authors blog. To give you a hint, think of the TV show Motive.

You’ll notice there is something different about this cover, in that doesn’t show hockey or skating. That’s because Scotty has retired, so much of this book is set behind-the-scenes at New Jersey Ice Cats’ headquarters. The idea was to give readers a chance to see what goes on in the Ice Cats’ organisation beyond games and practices. I hope you will enjoy this different kind of hockey romance, and the story of how Scotty and Sapphie survive working together!

For an excerpt and buy links, check out the Books section and click on the cover for A Perfect Strategy. Or you can click on the cover on this post.

Also, after the popularity of my free NJ Ice Cats’ short stories last winter, I have decided to give away some more free reads, starting this month. For a limited time only, I will put up a seasonal Ice Cats’ short story for free.

To celebrate Halloween, I have written A Perfect Plan – the story of Ice Cats’ forward, Drake Spencer, and his lovely neighbour, Gertie.

Who says zombies aren’t romantic?

Ice Cats’ forward, Drake Spencer, hopes his plan to take his nephew trick-or-treating will finally break the ice with his lovely neighbor. Unfortunately, Gertie Noakes is having a bad Halloween; she burned the cookies she promised to bake for her daughter’s class. The last person she needs to find on her doorstep is the sexy hockey player she’s been trying to steer clear of. Can a quick change of plan help Drake win Gertie over?

To download your free copy, simply go to the For Readers section and click on the cover for A Perfect Plan.

Stay tuned for another New Jersey Ice Cats’ short story, coming for Thanksgiving!

Until then, Happy Reading!

Welcome to Autumn!

Hello everyone! Apologies that it’s been so long since I last updated the news here, but it’s been a very busy time since we last spoke.

I’ve done a fair bit of travelling with Doc Cambridge, starting with a trip to Canada, in June, which included a visit to my fabulous publisher’s offices in Toronto. As well as catching up with my editor, I got a chance to meet all the hard-working people who toil away behind the scenes to bring my books to the shelf (both real and digital). You can read all about that visit and see more great pics in my post on the Super Authors blog . We also had a lovely time in Ottawa and Kelowna on that trip.

August saw a fabulous birthday surprise from Doc Cambridge – a trip to the Writers’ Police Academy, which was held at the International Public Safety Training Academy, at Northeast Wisconsin Technical College in Green Bay. A fabulous, but hectic few days with fellow writers learning all sorts of useful information for future books. You can see what I got up to and some fab pics in another post on the Super Authors blog.

Oh, and yes – we did manage to find time to head to Lambeau Field to see the famous home of the Green Bay Packers. Although I’m a die-hard Redskins fan, I have definitely got a soft spot now for The Pack!

We also managed to find time for a short holiday, on Lake Como in Italy. So pretty! If only this could be my office every day!

In amongst all of that, I did manage to write about more Ice Cats. Stay tuned for more information on a Free Ice Cats’ Halloween Read and about my next Ice Cats’ book – A Perfect Strategy – out in Feb 2017.

Until then, enjoy the start of hockey season and happy reading!