Hoping everyone is okay, storm wise, and more tips on research

Lucky that we had the 'tree men' (and there were only two of them) in a few weeks back, or else Cochrane Towers might have been strewn with branches. We got away with the odd plant pot over and a piece of next door's plastic greenhouse on our lawn. Hope everyone else gets away that lightly.

Am chatting over at Flirty Author Bitches (it strikes me that of those three words only one applies to me) about making sure you don't turn your readers off by ramming your research down their throats. Do come and share your two penn'orth.

TRR year end party

The Year-End Splash Party starts on November 1 at 12:00am EST. They have more than 400 participating authors and publishers, and more than 400 prizes are up for grabs during the whole month of November. Grand prize is a $100 Gift Certificate!

You can win a copy of Lessons for Suspicious Minds (winner's choice of ebook or print) if you answer my question correctly and get drawn out of the magic hat. (Hint: it'll go live towards the start of the event - I'll nudge you.)

Lessons for Suspicious Minds is now up on authorgraph, too, should you want a signature/message on your copy!

Charioteer drabble

Just posted it to Mary's Handmaidens but because it's a closed comm, here's the drabble itself. Usual "shame I don't own these chaps" stuff applies.

Ralph always appreciated the mysterious benefactor’s bequest which ensured the school had fireworks every Guy Fawkes Night. The man must have anticipated with pleasure the enraptured boyish faces, the “oohs” and “ahs” at each fresh explosion.
Would he also have anticipated the surreptitious holding of hands? The furtive looks and the standing just too close, too long?
He caught sight of Laurie’s face, lit up by the brightest of the rockets. The outward manifestation of sheer joy, a look he’d only seen matched on Hazell’s face, in far less savoury circumstances.
Would Ralph ever recreate Laurie’s expression with his own fireworks?