It started when a friend asked me to write one for a Regency romance anthology. It was so much fun that I ended up starting a new pen name (Elizabeth Leydin) and just kept writing them. (I was going to give up, but then I won a Romance Writers of Australia Ruby Award for The Generous Heart, and I thought it might be a sign from the universe.)

Turns out, I love writing all kinds of novellas, not just romances (although, do I ever write a story without some romance, somewhere? Well, some of my children’s books are romance free, but that’s about it).

So, inevitably, I started thinking about a Poppy McGowan novella.

The result, Fatal Crossing, takes place in between An A-List for Death and the upcoming Murder on the Mosaic, and I was pushed into publishing it by my cousin-in-law, who said, ‘But what am I going to read on my holidays if there’s no new Poppy book?’ So you can thank Jacki!

It comes out today, and it’s exciting to me because it’s my first foray into self-publishing as Pamela Hart. Who knows if it will sell more than a few copies?

I hope it does, because it has the scene in it: the one where Poppy and Tol finally talk about how they feel about each other. Although, as with much of Poppy’s life, that doesn’t go quite to plan…

As a douceur for those readers who haven’t yet signed up for my newsletter, if you buy Fatal Crossing and click on the link at the back to join my mailing list, you will get Tol’s version of that scene, written by the inspiration for Tol, my husband Stephen. As some of you may know, Stephen is an archaeologist, and a pianist, and a writer, and wonderful human being, and a few other things as well – in fact, I had to tone Tol down because no one would believe a character like Stephen!

I have to confess, I had a little weep when I read Stephen’s version of the Poppy/Tol scene…

ps Murder on the Mosaic is the book where Poppy joins Tol on a dig in Jordan – Stephen got me invited to a dig there so I could do the research, and I’ll be posting about that closer to its release date.

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