Sunday, February 17, 2008

New Mills and Boon Collection


Erin and Luke, who starred in my RITA winning book Claiming His Family, are in the spotlight again. This time their story has been renamed Their Outback Marriage and it is the launch book for a brand new series -- a special Mills and Boon Collection being produced in conjunction with Eaglemoss publications.

Don't you just love that cover? That scene of Erin and Luke in the rain is my favourite scene in the book.

Each edition in the series brings readers a hardcover book (sequentially from the Romantic, Sexy, Medical, Intriguing and Historical lines) as well as a magazine with a short story (My story Chance Encounter is in there), as well as interviews, discussion of the main scenes in the book, and other stories of interest to romance readers, as well as a small gift. Floating rose scented candles come with the first edition.

So, wow! This is all a tad exciting. I think I'd love this collection for myself. I remember when I was v young, I used to subscribe to Princess magazine, which came all the way from England. I would go each month (week? fortnight?) to the newsagency to collect my new copy. It was full of comic book stories -- Sally the Circus Ballerina and The Diary of Sue Day are the two I remember. And there'd be gifts -- like a plastic headband with daisies, or a pop-together necklace.
Looking back, I'm sure this was the primary school equivalent of being an M&B fan. :)

This month the new M&B collection is being trialled in five locations in Britain and hopefully that will be successful and it will be launched nationally in the northern hemisphere's autumn. I believe the plan is to also bring the series overseas in the future. So fingers crossed ...


6 comments:

Anonymous said...

How lovely, Barbara. Congrats.

Jennie

Anonymous said...

How fabulous is that cover photo???!!! I love Collections. I am going to collect the BBC Classics DVDs that are out at the moment, even though I have many of the DVDs alreay, I want the matching sets and then books!!! I hope these might be available here too. How wonderful that you are first!!

Barbara Hannay said...

Thanks Jennie.
Isn't that cover gorgeous, 2paw? Makes me feel quite breathless.
I thought you'd like this collection... knowing how you love to collect... :)

Romance, Rumours and Rogues said...

This sounds really exciting, Barb.
And I adore that cover!

Anonymous said...

I'm interested to read your comments about Princess magazine. Like you, I used to pick up my copy from the newsagent back in the late 1960s, when I was about 9 or 10. It had lovely covers - well illustrated and always different. All the stories were about different sorts of girls, with a bit of drama. I remember Sue Day, the schoolgirl, "Lona the wild one" who was in a circus and went to the "south seas" (read southern hemisphere!) went potholing and was a terrific swimmer. There were stories set in the English civil war, pages about famous ballets such as Giselle, which had exquisite illustrations, and readers from different countries wrote poetry and letters. It was an interesting magazine, before girls' magazines started to focus on pop groups and fashion. I just liked the way the girls in the stories were adventurous and had some initiative. I don't know whether there are any girls' magazines like that now.

Barbara Hannay said...

Thank you for reminding me of those extra details in Princess Magazine. No wonder I used to love them. When I was writing Needed: Her Mr. Right, I wanted Simone to be editor of a magazine called Girl Talk, but my editor pointed out that one already exists in the UK. You might like to check out http://www.bbcgirltalk.com/ It looks like fun for young girls.