Category Archives: Libertà hive

Missing the Beach? Try Little Piddling’s Beach Hut Surprise

writers working together, with wineBack in 2019, the Libertà Hive met over supper and the odd glass 😉 to plot the future. We decided to write a Libertà Beach Reads anthology for summer 2020.

We didn’t know back then, of course, that beaches might be off-limits for a bit. But there’s no ban on beach reads. Writing them—and reading them, too—can be great fun.

As the evening wore on, amid much laughter and scraping of plates, we discovered the joys of Little Piddling, its history, its inhabitants… We also discovered some of the skeletons in our seaside town’s metaphorical cupboards (aka beach huts).

Beach Read challenge

We challenged each other to write the sort of stories we’d never attempted before. And we’ve all really enjoyed meeting those challenges. We even roped in two long-term friends of the hive, authors Louise Allen and Lesley Cookman.

The result?fanfare of trumpets

Fanfare of trumpets please for the Libertà Books anthology: Continue reading

Award-Winning Historical Author Joins Libertà this Weekend

Hot News!

Libertà will have a fourth bee buzzing in the hive from this weekend.

She’s the award-winning author of dozens of historical romances and she has a worldwide following of fans. Among those fans — needless to say — are the other three members of the hive.

Who is this prolific author? Is she one of your favourites? Find out in her first blog here on Sunday 4th November. Not long to wait, is it?

Subscribers will find out who she is first, in Saturday’s Libertà newsletter.
Can’t wait to find out? Just use the Subscribe button in the top right of our sidebar.

Romance Conference Diary by Liz Fielding

Liz Fielding, multi-award-winning author, celebrates her arrival in the Libertà Hive with a Romance Conference Diary, after Joanna’s blog about the RNA Conference. Welcome, Liz!

Liz is just back from Denver, where the Conference in question was that of the Romance Writers of America — and where her lovely Sheikh’s Convenient Princess was short-listed for the 2018 Short Contemporary Rita® Award.  

LIZ’s ROMANCE CONFERENCE DIARY — Monday

Romance Conference Diary - suitcasesPacking for Conference is ridiculous. You have no idea how cold the hotel is going to be. You do know it’s going to be steaming hot outside, so you pack twice as much as you need. Plus conference “swag”.

I checked in online and printed my boarding card. Tick. Car delivered me to Heathrow in good time. Tick. Bags dropped. Tick. Through security… Er, hello Border Control. I was drug swabbed! I mean, could it be any more ridiculous? Noticeably all the swabbees were women. The lady in front of me had a scented candle. I hadn’t taken the plastic pouch with my toiletries out of my hand luggage before it went through the x-ray machine. Slapped wrist. Don’t do it again. Continue reading

Spring is late this year, ditto the Libertà Sunday blog

late spring for marsh marigolds and candelabra primulas

Late Spring for marsh marigolds and candelabra primulas, but cheerful and welcome

Apologies to readers looking for our normal Sunday morning blog. Unfortunately we’re not able to post today but we’ll be back soon and blogging, as usual, next weekend. Meanwhile, enjoy the sunshine and the spring flowers. And for those running the London Marathon, take care in the heat. You have all our admiration.

Spring carpet of lilac alpine phlox

Late Spring 2017 carpet of lilac alpine phlox; not out yet this year but coming soon 😉

Town Mouse and Country Mouse Do Christmas

Both Town Mouse and Country Mouse do Christmas at Libertà. After all, Libertà is an equal-opportunities hive. We don’t discriminate between Town polish (that’s sophisticated Sophie Mouse on the left) and Country bumpkin (that’s Joanna Mouse’s hobnail boots on the right).

Rackham town mouse and country mouse

Aesops Fables (1912), illustrated by Arthur Rackham.

Christmas shows what Town Mouse and Country Mouse have in common. AND what’s different. Continue reading