Author: Rhoda Baxter

Playing For Love has been shortlisted for the RNA’s Jane Wenham-Jones romantic comedy award! This is the third time I’ve made it onto an RNA shortlist. Fingers crossed for third time being lucky. The winners will be announced on the 6th of March 2023.Sam and Luke work in the same office, but unbeknownst to each other, they both secretly play online games at night. Sam has had a cyber-crush on a famous YouTuber called Blaze for years, and when she wins the chance to play alongside him in an online tournament, her crush only intensifies. Except, he only has eyes for other girl he knows in real life. Sam is so smitten that she ignores this nice guy called Luke at work, who keeps buying her coffee and helping her out. What she doesn’t know is that Luke is Blaze.
Luke has a crush on Sam. Sam has a crush on Blaze. How will this game of love play out?I had the idea years ago, while watching a superhero cartoon with my then pre-schooler. During lockdown, we all started spending more of our lives online, and the idea of falling in love with someone online seemed far more plausible. I wrote the book in 2021, while we were still in lockdown.

Buy Playing For Love in ebook, paperback or audio.

I have signed a contract two write two more books for HQ Stories! These are set in the same world at Playing For Love and Picture Perfect. If you’ve read those two books, you’ll recognise some of the background characters. (If you haven’t read those books, Picture Perfect is 99p in the UK right now…)

Here’s the deal announcement from the publisher.

Right, I’d best get back to actually writing those books now! I’ll go out and buy celebratory cake and Lego later in the week!

Are you a local (or not even local) author? Can you help?

I’m organising a book and bookish things auction to raise money for the East Yorkshire Food Bank. At the moment I’m emailing people begging for donations. (I thought I’d post it here, so that there’s a site I can refer people to quickly and easily). Could you could donate a book (or something else) towards it?

I’ve set up the Auction of Promises site now and I’m looking for Promises/Lots from local authors. Please could you spread the word amoung any authors with connections to East Yorkshire that you know, so that we can get a decent set of promises. (If you’re not local, you’re still welcome to participate).

I’ve made suggestions of what you might donate. Please send me details of your promises by 25 September 2022.

What is it?

An auction of books or book/reading/writing related promises donated by local authors to raise money for the East Yorkshire Food Bank.

How it works

The auction will be run via the site https://auctionofpromises.com/BookAuctionEYFB2022. There will be a fundraiser linked to the East Yorkshire Food Bank’s Just Giving page.

The auction will be live for two weeks in October 2022. This should give us all time to share and spread the word, without people getting bored. 

Each promise (donation) will be allocated a Lot number.

When the auction closes, I will notify the winners by email and ask them to pay using the Just Giving site, citing their Lot number as a reference. 

Once payment is received, I will email you (the donor) and give you details of the winner so that you can arrange delivery of your promise. 

Information for Authors

You can promise anything book, reading or writing related. You have to provide the thing you’re donating and post/deliver it to the winner. I will assume all the prizes are UK only, unless you tell me otherwise!

You can donate more than one Promise/Lot if you want to.

Your promise could be:

• Signed copies of your books
• Include the winner’s name in your next book – in the dedication, in the acknowledgements, or even name a character after them!
• An author chat – over Zoom or phone or even face to face.
• A themed bundle of books.
• If you’re an author that teaches creative writing, you can offer to review part of someone’s manuscript or their submission letter.
• Anything, really, that would be of interest to booklovers.

Please remember that you will be responsible for delivering the item/promise to the winner. If people have any questions, I will forward them on to you to reply.

What to do:

Email me (rhodabaxter[at]gmail.com) your promises before the 25th of September 2022. 

Please include: 

• A short description of your promise (100 words max). Remember to state if it’s open to international entries. (Remember that you’ll have to post it!)
• A short description of who you are (100 words max). 
• A photo of your donation or promise. 
• A photo of you (optional). 

I will email you when the auction is live – please share as much as possible. We want to get lots of bids.

When the auction is over and the winner has paid up, I will email you their contact details. You can then get in touch with them and sort out how you will deliver the prize to them.

Thanks in advance, 

Jeevani Charika (aka Rhoda Baxter) and the EY Food Bank

I’m all aflutter this week as I can finally tell you the exciting news that A Convenient Marriage has been shortlisted for the RNA Contemporary Romance Novel award! I’ve known for a few weeks, but January went on for soooo long.

I get to have my name mentioned alongside some of the most amazing writers whose books I’ve read and loved over the years. How exciting to see my book with it’s Sri Lankan diaspora characters and jokes about hair cuts next to these bestselling books too.

Even more exciting, I get to go down to London for the posh award ceremony. I’m really looking forward to that. Jenny Eclair is presenting the awards, I might even get to shake hands with her.

If you haven’t read A Convenient Marriage yet, it’s still 99p. It’s in ebook only at the moment, no paperback yet. If you read it, please leave a review.

This is the first book I wrote (even though it’s my third book to be published under the Jeevani Charika pen name and the 12th book overall!). It will always have a special place in my heart.

It was the perfect marriage… until they fell in love.

Chaya is a young woman torn between her duty to family and her life in the UK. While her traditional Sri Lankan parents want her to settle down into marriage, what they don’t know is that Chaya has turned away the one true love of her life, Noah, terrified of their disapproval.

Gimhana is hiding his sexuality from his family. It’s easy enough to pretend he’s straight when he lives half a world away in the UK. But it’s getting harder and harder to turn down the potential brides his parents keep finding for him.

When Chaya and Gimhana meet, a marriage of convenience seems like the perfect solution to their problems. Together they have everything – friendship, stability and their parents’ approval. But when both Chaya and Gimhana find themselves falling in love outside of their marriage, they’re left with an impossible decision – risk everything they’ve built together, or finally follow their heart?

Every year, around Booker Prize time, The Guardian newspaper runs a fun alternative competition for books that are recommended by readers. This year, This Stolen Life is on the longlist. The shortlist is decided by public vote – so if you’ve read This Stolen Life, I’d really appreciate your vote. Voting closes on Monday the 5th of August.

Here’s the link. You vote in the comments. https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2019/jul/29/not-the-booker-longlist-vote-now-to-decide-the-2019-shortlist

If you’d rather not, I’d appreciate a review on, well, anywhere, really. You reviews help other readers decide whether it’s the sort of book they’d like to read or not.

Thank you!

Jeev