I’ve tried all kinds of things to stave off the annual bout of SAD. Whenever there was even a hint of a ray of sunshine outside, I ran to the back garden and basked for at least a few minutes.

I’ve eaten a lot of Cadbury’s caramel eggs – how good are they? I’ve eaten a lot of carrots, in the hope that they counteract the caramel eggs. I’ve popped fish oils and vitamins.

Chai tea and homemade frothy coffees have helped provide a cheerful little boost through the day. Well, you’ve got to be able to leave your desk for a mini treat.

When I was feeling really damp, cold and miserable, I went for a thoroughly Scandinavian sauna. Lying on a hot bench in bone dry heat I could almost pretend that I was lying on a beach.

The new Annie is keeping me very cheered, she’s probably the reason I’ve not been SAD. Her new adventures are set in London, a lavish Italian spa and even, for one evening, Vienna. Svetlana is in full diamond-encrusted flow, there’s a handsome surfer, an epic journey in a clapped out Bentley, a huge row with Lana and many other treats in store for you.

(So many congratulations to Annie’s hard-working editor Sarah who managed to get the first editing round done before leaving to have adorable baby Reggie)

Meanwhile February gets off to an utterly bizarre start for me this year. My Dad turns 70 and he’s decided to take us all to St Moritz (yes, the outrageously glamorous ski resort, where apparently you can’t buy a hot chocolate for less than £20) because he wants to go down the Cresta Run (again!)!

I have mixed feelings about having a super-hero for a Dad. I mean it is kind of fantastic to want to sledge at 60mph just days before you enter your 8th decade. But it is also seriously MAD. His wife and daughters are all going to be waiting at the bottom in a completely nervous twitter.

Hopefully, the next time I post, we will all have survived and recovered! And the collection of lovely people looking after my children and dog and doing all the school runs, feeding, packed lunching, taking to athletics etc. will have been rewarded with mountains of Swiss chocolate.

I love the statistic that Swiss people eat the most chocolate in the world: half a pound per person per week! That’s just the average, which means some people are eating a pound of Swiss chocolate every week… maybe even more. No wonder they make the Toblerones so big over there.

I’m appearing in part two alongside writers Judy Astley and Kay Burleigh (yes, the one from the telly!) Part one features the amazing storytellers, Penny Vincenzi and Penny Jordan, who have apparently sold 80 million books between them. Phenomenal!

We’re going to be talking about how to bring all your life experience to your work.

You can find out more on the Guildford Book Festival website.

Really look forward to seeing you there!

Now I don’t want to give too much away but I can tell you that at St Jude’s this term: Gina really can’t decide whether she loves or hates her new boyfriend (does that make him the Marmite boyfriend?)… Amy is still trying to track down her real Mum but is frightened of what she might find out… and Niffy’s got family problems of her own. Then there is Min: exams are looming so she has just about locked herself in the study. Help!

What every girl needs is to grab a dress and a pair of sparkly shoes (just like the ones on the cover) and dance their problems away at a truly unforgettable party!

I like to say that the St Jude’s series is for teenagers of all ages. I know that I have a wonderful time channelling my inner teen (and remembering so many cringeworthy teenage moments) when I am writing the stories. I really hope you enjoy the new story!

Find out more on my Secrets at St Jude’s website and watch my behind-the-scenes video here!

I am very proud to be supporting the fantastic breast cancer charity Breakthrough. On September 10, I’ll be taking part in Breakthrough’s sponsored trek through lovely Perthshire to raise funds for research, education, prevention and support for sufferers. As we all know, breast cancer is far too common. It is still taking too many good people away too soon.

If you’d like to join me on the trek, you can find out more right here.

Apparently it’s 16 miles and not too steep, so with a little bit of training we’ll get there… hopefully. Or like Annie and Svetlana we’ll be lost in the hills and have to consider eating our handbags to survive.

If you can’t make the trek, you can get your cards out right now, my lovelies, and sponsor me here.

Yes, I put on a cocktail dress and hiking boots just to make you smile as you part with your pennies.

This is such a worthy cause and really no donation is too small (or too large!)

As an added incentive, everyone who sponsors me will be entered into a draw. If you win, you will have a brand new character in the next Annie Valentine novel named after YOU (or you can nominate a friend… or maybe I could use your ex’s name for someone eeeeevil). So come on, what are you waiting for?!

No, I’m joking, really…

I’ve got two Sports Days this week. First, Son (13) who was running the race of heros: the 800m. The afternoon before he’d done the race of masochists: the 1500m.

The best thing about watching my son run is that he is always delighted with his result. He is not the fastest, but he has trained like a mad thing and worked himself up from middle of the pack to Contender for the Bronze.

In both his races, he was nudged back into fourth place, but he was still grinning from ear-to-ear, delighted with his result and a new ‘PB’ time. I’m such a sports dunce, I didn’t even know that meant ‘personal best’.

When I was at school, I was rubbish at running. I remember getting so tall one year that my arms and legs were completely out of my control. I began a sprint but then lost it and fell on my face. In front of all the parents, so mortifying!

In my teens I managed to get into the high jump one year – even more mortifying because we had to take off our school skirts and jump in our blue school knickers! I blame this horror for completely putting me off so that once again, I came last.

But I do enjoy all the sporting drama from the safety of the spectator stands: the injured racer hobbling off with cramp; the girl who came third brushing tears of disappointment from her face then collapsing into Dad’s arms; some hunky high jumper showing off his grazed shoulders to gorgeous blonde; the house relay races, everyone in a frenzy of cheering; the tug-of-war and all those desperate, last moment bids for glory at the finishing line. The tragedy of being ‘pipped at the post’!

‘Pipped’? Surely ‘robbed’ would express it better?

Yes… think I feel a really good story coming on now.

My second Sports Day with Daughter (9) is tomorrow. She’s really fast. But last year she came second. This year she is absolutely determined to win. I’m trying to play it down for her. I want her to try but I don’t want her to crumble if she doesn’t quite get there. I’ve told her she’s a wonderful runner and she’s to think of herself as a gazelle, running fast, running strong and beautifully. She’s not worry about the result.

She listened carefully to all my earnest ‘it’s not the winning, it’s the taking part’ spiel, then little puzzled look on face, she asked:  ‘Mum? What’s a gazelle?’

I promised I would tell you a little more about The Jewels of Manhattan, so here we go.

I am very, very excited about this story, which comes out in November, because it’s something a little different.

It’s about three sisters who move to Manhattan with wonderful plans and when their dreams don’t come true, they commit a jewel theft.

But with so many complications! Two sisters don’t want to take part… in fact the theft sort of happens by mistake and then…  there is one seriously sexy detective on their case.

I have had a ball writing this story. It’s a little edgy, it’s set in a sometimes glamorous, sometimes very real world, it’s full of tingly suspense and very funny in places too.  I think of it as a romantic crimedy.

I wanted to write around the question: what drives someone to steal? Would you steal because the opportunity was there? Would you steal for love? Would you steal to protect someone? Or are you so honest you would never steal at all?

My fictional sisters Amber, Sapphire and Em, come from the Texan countryside – their Daddy was a rancher. This is because my real-life sisters and I grew up on a farm, so I wanted a little flavour of that in the story.

I decided to make the girls Texan because I have a wonderful friend from Houston and I just love all the unique and colourful phrases she comes out with: ‘You can put your boots in the oven but it don’t make ‘em biscuits’… ‘there’s no back door out of this Alamo,’ and ‘Oh my gosh, you will be discussed.’

I had to use a little of that.

Amber and Em are very sassy modern girls, chock full of ambition, trying to make their way in the world. They’re in their early 20s desperate for life to begin. Amber works in finance and Em’s an aspiring actress.

But I also wanted an old fashioned strand, so middle sister Sapphire is a dreamy Grace Kelly-alike who sells antique jewellery. She wishes her life could be like a black and white movie complete with a handsome hero.

The first seed of the idea came from a sentence in a story by my daughter and her friends: ‘Three beautiful girls decided to rob a jewellery shop.’

Ooooh… that just set my mind racing. Why? Where? How? And most importantly – did they get away with it?

My daughter’s story didn’t have any answers (she was only seven!) so I had to go away think, mull, research and plan.

The result of all that thinking and writing is The Jewels. It’s set in Manhattan and Geneva, it’s dusted with snowflakes and sparkles and I really, really hope you’re going to love it as much as I do.

Check out the new cover for the sixth Secrets at St Jude’s book, Party Girl. It’s absolutely brilliant. I love it.  A party in a cover… a party in a shoe! Unfortunately you will have to wait until August 4^th to get your hands on it.

I have been chained to my desk, literally typing my fingers to the bone for you my lovely readers. I’ve just finished Party Girl and put the final touches to the brand new (v v exciting) story The Jewels of Manhattan which comes out in November. Much, much more about that all soon.

Meanwhile, I am really enjoying all my new multi-media ways of connecting with readers.

You can now read Annie’s very own blog at annievalentine.wordpress.com – learn more about summer tights, fake tan and Kate Middleton’s dress sense right here. Annie also twitters @AnnieVshopper plus you can find the real me and lots of other Carmen readers (geddit? Sorry!) on the Facebook author page.

I look forward to catching up with you!

Oooh and here’s a little pic of me talking to some lovely St Jude’s fans. I do love to do a school visit, it’s one way of having a captive audience. (If you’d like a visit to your school email me at carmen@carmenreid.com and I’ll see what I can do).  However, I may have to take some Annie advice re author visit outfits. I mean I never want to be over-glammed for school visits, but grey Mary-Janes… what was I thinking?!

Chick Lit Reviews has also given New York Valentine a fab review! Reviewer Chloe describes Annie as ‘a great character who leads the book so well… a character the reader will love and warm to.’  Chloe likes the New York setting, and that Annie’s teenage daughter Lana takes on a bigger role, giving NYV an overall rating of 4/5. Read the full review

‘My darlings, January can be a shocker. 

The misery peaks on January 25^th, one month after Christmas. You’ve forgotten all about the lovely holiday you had, you’ve already broken all your resolutions, your credit card bills have come in and the weather is still grim.

Obviously, you will allow yourself the recessionista treat of a brand new copy of New York Valentine. Out on January 20^th and guaranteed to cheer you up. Find out everything that happened to me when I went to New York with Lana, aka ‘the stroppy teen’.

But I have other cheap and cheerful ideas for you too.

Open all those goodie bottles you got for Christmas and enjoy a long, hot, pampering bubble bath.

Give some of the zingier herb teas a whirl. Sadly you can’t drink lattes all day long without turning into a muffin, so swap a few cups a day and you will feel saintly and pure, like Dinah. I’m (almost) loving anything with Ginger on the box.

Go to bed really properly early, with a hottie or a hot water bottle.

Wear a lovely scarf in all your favourite colours. Drape it round you all day long to ward off evil germs and bad vibes.

Phone a friend. Everyone feels rubbish, broke and miserable in January, so ring someone up and have a little gossip.

Visit the oldsters. Especially the golden oldies. Take along a black and white DVD or a big bands CD. Don’t just stick to the chitchat. Ask them big questions, get them talking. Find out what it was like for them when they were your age. Bring out their photo albums…

Get out there and see or hear something completely different. Yes, I know there’s lots of good stuff at the cinema but what about a live music gig? A concert? The cheapest ticket to the ballet? Ed forces me to go and I always love it. Do something different. Shake yourself up a little.

Paint one of your walls an eye-popping colour. One wall is a nice small project and I’m currently loving bright magenta. 

Make easy peesy resolutions you can stick to.  Mine are: always drink a glass of water with a glass of wine, always throw a quarter of the chocolate bar away before eating the rest (no, no returning to the bin later!!) and make one small corner of the house as completely shiny, neat, tidy as a pin.

Just say no to feeling sad! Don’t watch the news before bed, that is madness! First thing in the morning is fine. When those depressing, dark thoughts descend, think of some happy ones to shoo them away. Count your many, many blessings. It really could be worse!’

Read more from Annie on her Fashion blog…