High Maintenance…?

This week, I took a trip to my favourite city; Edinburgh. I must have visited ‘Auld Reekie’ over a hundred times, but I still get a thrill of anticipation as I travel towards the city centre. With Edinburgh Castle as a backdrop, I head straight for Princes Street and make my way from one end to the other, taking in all the high street ‘names’ as I go. Then, if I can dash into Harvey Nichols by St Andrew’s Square before making my way back down George Street, stopping to window shop in Hobbs, Whistles and LK Bennet, all the better!



Edinburgh Castle overlooking Princes Street Edinburgh. Photos: commons.wikimedia.org



 

My ultimate destination is to my hairdresser on Fredrick Street. I’ve been going to Angus Gordon for almost twenty years. I love to catch up on gossip with my lovely stylist, spend time relaxing, reading magazines and sipping champagne, as well as getting my hair expertly coiffured.

Eeek - that makes me sound terribly high maintenance, doesn’t it?!



A glass of champagne at the hairdresser

 

But in my own defence, unlike some of my very stylish friends, who go to their hairdresser every six weeks, I go no more than four times a year. Of course, by the time I need to go - I mean I really need to go - and practically have to sneak in with a paper bag over my limp, split, drab coloured hair, professing my apologies for looking such an absolute mess.

 





On my way to looking coiffured...!

 

But a glass of chilled champagne and my colour fix usually makes me feel much better. Then a special conditioning treatment followed by a head and neck massage quickly banishes any writerly muscle stresses and makes me feel fabulous even before I’ve had a cut and style!

So that’s my ultimate treat. My no-longer-secret indulgence.  Something I save up for and look forward to lots. What’s your indulgence…? Is it a hair appointment, a shoe shopping session, an occasional luxury spa retreat?

 

Does it make you terribly high maintenance or are you ‘worth it’?

Do tell..!!



Champagne popping moments!

There were lots of Champagne popping moments this week! Firstly, when I completed the final revisions for How Do You Voodoo? This romantic and magical novella set in Glasgow's Necropolis or 'City of the Dead' is now with my lovely Editor for a copy edit. Yay! The next step is for the fully edited manuscript to be formatted and converted for Kindle and uploaded onto Amazon. Then it will be ready for readers to download. Double yay!!

 

Would YOU like to receive an advanced reading copy (ARC) of How Do You Voodoo? with a view to you putting up a personal review on  Amazon on or around launch day, which is Friday 26th October?

If so, then email me at janice.horton@btinternet.com and I’ll send you a complimentary pcr (Kindle) copy as soon as I have it. Thanks!

 

Which brings me onto the subject of the launch party! You will see from last week’s post that I’m already planning The Spellbindingly Fun Blog Party, which now has its own designated party page here on my blog. There is a sign up box at the bottom of that page so do consider signing up. I promise lots of fun and prizes and gifts!

 

The second Champagne popping moment this week was to celebrate the launch of the brand new Loveahappyending Bookshelf. This is now an important part of the innovative reader/writer magazine style website that supports a group of handpicked authors both Indie and Traditionally published. The initiative now includes a selection of Publishers too. I am very proud and honoured to be amongst the first to join this new and exciting Bookshelf feature and you can check it out by clicking on the Loveahappyending Bookshelf picture logo.

 

 

My other news is that I have now completed the new tartantastic revamp of this blog and my Author Facebook Page. I’d love to know what you think of it all. I’d also love you to pop over and take a look and ‘like’ my Author Facebook Page if you haven’t yet done so. It’s got a new tartantastic banner that’s different from the one here on my blog and I update the page several times a week with all that’s going on in my writerly world.  I’ve also carried this tartan theme over to my ‘other’ job as Feature Editor of ‘Bookshelf Reviews’ which I’m starting up in October for loveahappyending.com.

 

 

Don’t forget to sign up for the Spellbindingly Fun Blog Party and come back next week for more tartantastic news!