Sunday, January 28, 2007

Scarlet Lions rampant!

I received this fabulous cross stitch the other day from Jenny in Canberra. We met on a reading list several years ago and our mutual interests have led to a solidifying of that friendship. Jenny is brilliant at cross stitch (but a bit modest and shy about it). Inspired by a reading of The Greatest Knight last year, she set out to design and stitch the Marshal blazon and here is the result! It now graces the wall in my second (tidier!) study along with my re-enactment equipment and other items of special interest to my writing. I'd like to say a warm public thank you to Jenny. It must have taken her ages!

Still on the Scarlet Lion front, I have just heard that the novel has been longlisted for the Romantic Novelists Association Award for the best Romantic novel of 2007. Details here: http://www.rna-uk.org/index.php?page=article&id=64
I'm keeping my fingers crossed, but since there are 22 novels on the longlist all told and some stiff competition, I'm not getting myself keyed up. If it happens it happens, if it doesn't it doesn't.
I have had the shortlist tee-shirt four times before and the longlist one twice now, so I suppose it becomes almost a little like business as usual. I don't meant that in a big-headed way or a world-weary way. There's still that spark of adrenaline, but having been there once and more than once, it's a bit more controlled and steady. It's nice though that the longlist is chosen by ordinary readers. We shall see what we shall see and in the meantime I'll just quietly get on with the day job!




3 comments:

Carla said...

That's a handsome banner! What sort of size is it? I was trying to work it out from the photo but can't see enough detail to count the stitches.
Good luck with the award!

Elizabeth Chadwick said...

Hi Carla,
I mentioned it in an e-mail to you earlier, but in case anyone else is interested, it's roughly the size of a sheet of A4 paper.
I used to cross stitch but I haven't done any in a while - mainly due to constraints of time. I like to make bookmarks, but it's been a while... perhaps when I go on holiday!

Anonymous said...

Hi Elizabeth,
That is a work of art, I wish I had the skill.
Just re-read your full bio. forgot you were a Springsteen fan too (..and Stephen King, and Sharon Penman), no wonder you're another of my heroes.
Good luck with the book listing, and keep up the good work.