And for my Next Trick

On occasion, I despair of myself.

Four months ago, I lost my glasses. Searched high and low, and eventually resigned myself to the fact I'd accidentally thrown them out while Eldest Daughter moved back home (there were boxes and rubbish everywhere. I kid you not). So I've been using my older pair which are perfectly fine... except I did notice my eyes got very sore and tired quite easily.

Earlier today, I cleared out the desk drawers while searching for my private medical log in details (and that's another saga in itself. Why didn't I squirrel it away somewhere sensible, say in the medical file?? Oh yes that's right. Because that would be TOO EASY).

And of course, what did I find but my lovely purple glasses. I put them on and OMG! The world popped into focus. It's like after you've been watching normal telly and then suddenly switch over to watch a programme in the HD format!

In writerly stuff, I've sent off my Nocturne Bites. And because I think the whole premise of Shelley's upcoming book is so delicious, here's something from Fancy Free that totally cracked me up...

Alicia started her company, Fancy Free on a whim—a business to occupy her time and keep her old school friends busy. Many of Sloan’s residents considered Fancy Free a strange business, and some were plain shocked, but Alicia didn’t believe in following conventions. Condoms were something she knew about. She’d researched them enough, heck, she’d even used a few in her time. Condoms were her passion, and so condoms were what her company produced. On her death, she left her precious company to her god-daughter Alice Beasley.

A snippet from Alicia’s collection of condom notes:

During Roman times, a magic condom became popular. This condom supposedly protected the users from pregnancy and from evil spirits. To make a magic condom the woman collected a large handful of fur from a she-mule’s mane. During the foreplay stage, the man and woman wove a condom from the fur, which was then used during lovemaking.

Alicia’s note – sounds uncomfortable and itchy but the foreplay might be interesting. Did it leak? Source: Humble Little Condom by Aine Collier

Get your copy of FANCY FREE, an erotic romance about condoms by Shelley Munro, from Ellora’s Cave on March 7, 2008.
To read an excerpt visit http://www.shelleymunro.com/coming-soon

A FURRY CONDOM!!! OMG I am giggling about it as I type this!!!

Fancy Free

My lovely friend, Shelley Munro, has a new release from Ellora's Cave hitting the cyber shelves on 7th March 2008. And just take a look at this cover! Is it smoking or what?

And here's the intriguing press release for Fancy Free:

Responsible Romantic Heroes Use Condoms

Some readers prefer heroes to use condoms while others say the dose of reality kills all the spontaneity and romance. It’s a debate that repeats all over romance land—to use condoms or not to use condoms—since, after all, it is only fiction…

New Zealand erotic romance author, Shelley Munro took this a step further in her upcoming release Fancy Free, the story of an accountant who inherits a condom company. When Ms. Munro caught an Air New Zealand flight from San Francisco, she came across an advertising article about a new condom on the market. The ideas flowed and by the time she landed in Auckland, she’d outlined her plot for Fancy Free.

It’s not every day a girl inherits a condom company, and to say accountant, Alice Beasley is astonished and out of her depth is putting it mildly. For an almost virgin, she needs a quick education in all things condom because her inheritance is in danger. Someone is intent on sabotage and playing nasty, trying to destroy her new company.

Alice is suddenly getting down and dirty with charismatic James, the factory manager, all in the name of business, testing new condom designs. The sex is hot. Mind-blowing. It’s a dark thrill and an erotic journey. Yeah, it’s a hard job but a girl’s got to do what a girl’s gotta do.

The testing turns personal. Alice wants James. She craves his talented touch and sultry kisses, she desires passion and physical pleasure on a permanent basis but first she must convince bad boy James to give up his fancy free ways.

Note: condoms were tested and a few harmed during the writing of this story.

Fancy Free releases on 7 March 2008 from Ellora’s Cave http://www.ellorascave.com/ and is Ms. Munro’s eighteenth release from the pioneer erotic romance publisher.

From the time Shelley Munro was a little girl living in New Zealand, she wanted to be a detective. She read all the Famous Five mysteries by Enid Blyton before graduating to Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys. Her favorite television viewing was Scooby Doo where she, in her invisible guise, helped Scooby solve the crime.

As happens with children, Shelley grew up and boys distracted her from childhood dreams. She found one she really liked and married him, traveling the world at his side until returning to settle in New Zealand to write hot and spicy tales for Ellora’s Cave, some of which contain the odd body or two.

Publishing Notes:
Title: Fancy Free
Author: Shelley Munro
Publisher: Ellora’s Cave
ISBN: 9781419913341
Release Date: 7 March 2008
Genre: Contemporary erotic romance
Setting: Present day New Zealand

Adventure into Romance with Shelley Munro
http://www.shelleymunro.com/
shelleymunro@gmail.com

Bat Out of Hell

I don't think my mild obsession with Meat Loaf's Bat Out of Hell is much of a secret, but just lately it's sort of reached epidemic proportions. It's not my fault. I blame my muse. She/he/whatever it is insisted on playing the CD virtually non stop while I wrote both my Spice Brief and now my Nocturne Bites.

Last week, the title track began to jump. I was beside myself. Never mind that this is the very first CD I ever bought (which is a Very Long Time Ago) or that I play it at least five times as often as any other CD (and that's not counting this last month when it's been on the player constantly!)

My husband suggested it might be time to invest in a new one, and lo and behold when I was out shopping on Sunday I saw a solitary copy in K Mart. Not just a regular one either, but a special edition with additional DVD of selected titles.

Yay! I'm in bat heaven at the moment and my muse is somewhat delirious, especially since I can turn the bass right up on the DVD, unlike my little CD player in the kitchen!!

Cool Quiz

I totally pinched this quiz from Shelley's blog, but it's a lot of fun so I thought I'd share!

you are lightsteelblue #B0C4DE

Your dominant hues are cyan and blue. You like people and enjoy making friends. You're conservative and like to make sure things make sense before you step into them, especially in relationships. You are curious but respected for your opinions by people who you sometimes wouldn't even suspect. Your saturation level is low - You stay out of stressful situations and advise others to do the same. You may not be the go-to person when something really needs done, but you know never to blow things out of proportion. Your outlook on life is bright. You see good things in situations where others may not be able to, and it frustrates you to see them get down on everything.

the spacefem.com html color quiz

It's definitely spot on with the stressy bits and as the witches will attest I needs lots of good kicks up the backside to shift me into gear at times. And I definitely always try and see the bright side of things. So, what colour are you?!

Nocturne Bites

I was feeling at a bit of a loose end last week writing wise. I do have a couple of projects on the go, but one of them is the bloody dead body book (which I think I might just bury... ha ha, I crack myself up). The other one I absolutely love, but am not entirely sure which direction I'm going with it at the moment.

So, basically I was procrastining around (hard to believe I know) when on one of my loops someone mentioned Harlequin were looking for shorts for their new paranormal ebook line, Nocturne Bites.

Well I don't know why but that really jumped out at me, but here's the thing. The previous evening I'd been on the internet surfing, and while I wasn't sure why I was reading all these things (they were related to each other but had nothing to do with anything I was actually writing) I just felt Compelled to Continue. And when I saw the guidelines for the NBs it all fell into place. Spooky or what!

The other thing I did over the weekend was glance through my query letter I've been sending out. Being of a slightly anal disposition when it comes to stuff like that, I tend to read through it each and every time I send it. So I'm reasonably sure there are no spelling mistakes etc. But this particular time I didn't just read the body of the email, I kept on right to the bottom where my address was.

And Oh. My. God. I had spelt Australua just like that. In capital letters. On every bleeding query!!!

Back to Reality

We had a wonderful time in Queensland and thankfully the weather decided to be very kind to us for the week!!

But OMG we couldn't get over the hundreds of high rise hotels along that gorgeous 70k beach. Literally, as far as the eye could see in both directions, there were hotels!

Our apartment was on the 17th floor, and these are the views from our balcony. To our right (the pic on the left, yes I'm very organised sorry!) was the ocean, and to our left (pic on the right) we could see the inland waterways.

Hubby and I getting smoochy on the fabulous Surfers Paradise beach.

I did paddle my toes. Then I foolishly turned my back on the waves to have a gossip with my daughter and the next thing I knew I was soaked up to my knickers. Oops!!