RWA Cocktail Party

I came home from conference to revisions for Captive, so that's been exciting, and I'm very relieved I had them this week and not next week, since I have something very special happening here next week!!! I'm holding a cyber launch party for Forbidden, and lots of wonderful author friends have agreed to come over and have some fun! And there will be prizes!!! I'll post more details over the weekend, once I've finished polishing my party trailer.

As promised here are some photos from the RWA's Harlequin Cocktail Party that was held last Friday (a week ago already!!) The fancy dress is just amazing. I'm going to have to seriously re-think my wardrobe for Melbourne!!

  

Here I am with my agent sister, the immensely talented Allison Withers, who won the Historical category in the Emerald award (the Aussie Golden Heart) Go, Alli! Guess what period of history Alli writes?










More fab fancy dress! And Johnny Depp!!!










Amanda Ashby and Sara Hantz with awesome Presents author, Trish Morey, who was The Princess Bride!



















Here I am with the lovely TWRP and Eternal Press author Suzanne Brandyn!









And Eleni Konstantine, in her amazing Batgirl outfit!!














I'm sorry I don't know who these fearless warrior maidens are, but underneath Darth Vader is Silhouette Desire author, Paula Roe!!!









And here with Sara is Emily Gee, who writes fantastic dark fantasy and also, as Emily May, wonderful historical romances for Harlequin.


I was so taken with my beautiful dessert on the Saturday night awards dinner, I took a photo of it!!

Heat in the Outback

My very good friend Suzanne Brandyn has her latest book released today from Eternal Press ~ Heat in the Outback. Look at that gorgeous cover! Aren't the colours truly fabulous?

Happy Launch Day, Suz! (And happy birthday - what a great pressie!!!)

Here's the blurb:

The soaring temperature in the Outback is not the only heat Sarah Munro faces when she returns home for her father’s funeral. She wants to settle his affairs, sell the family’s homestead, Munro Cattle Station, and return to Sydney, and her fiancé, as quickly as possible. Sarah doesn’t want anyone to find out what she’d done in the past. She wants to close this chapter of her life for good. Then there will never be a reason to return to this dusty one horse town. She is wrong!

Ethan Wade, her first love is at the homestead. Ethan claims he owns half of Munro Station. Sarah wants him out! As they try to settle their differences, a raging attraction ignites.

Will Sarah and Ethan find each other again as their past explodes before them?

The winner...

Thank you to everyone who popped in over the weekend to chat with Erin!! The lucky winner of her e-book Serenade is...

Suzanne Brandyn

Congratulations, Suz!!! Please let me have your details so your prize can be sent to you.

I spent the weekend reading the page proofs of Forbidden. It was in PDF format, set out like a proper book and the chapter headings are in the same font as the cover of the book. So pretty!!! Only fourteen weeks and one day to go until P-Day!!!

Congrats Suz! Social Networking & Twitter

I want to give a big shout out to my lovely friend, Suzanne Brandyn, who has recently sold her contemporary romance, Heat in the Outback to Eternal Press! Congratulations, Suz!

And now for Twitter! I do enjoy my Tweets, lovely little bite size snippets of info and gossip. The other day I followed a link and discovered this brilliant blog post over at Jessica Scott's about Social Networking Pt 2 - for Twitter. I found it really interesting and helpful. One thing about Twitter is it can be very time-consuming, and this is just another reason why I love, love love my iPhone I got for Christmas! I can read my tweets while in the kitchen or wandering about the house rather than having to sit at the computer.

And finally, Laura Anne Gilman gives a paragraph by paragraph breakdown of Amazon's response to MacMilian - well worth reading I reckon and guess what -I found the link on Twitter!!!

Kreativ Blogger Award

Thank you to the lovely Cari Quinn, for this fun award! I need to share seven fun facts about myself and pass the award on to seven other bloggers. Of course my mind is a blank! I blame the weather. It's been so hot over the last few days it's like sitting in an oven in my office... even now, 11 at night, it's like a sauna!

OK here we go.

1. I'm allergic to perfume, scented body cream and prawns. I'm especially peeved about the prawns, since I was perfectly ok with them up until last Christmas when for some reason I started to swell up like a balloon!!

2. The best finale of a fave series was Battlestar Galactica. I know some people hated it but they are wrong, wrong wrong! It totally rocked. I loved it soooo much. Does this count as a fact about myself? I'm not sure, but since I'm still obsessed by the series I'm sticking with it.

3. While going through security at Singapore airport, my shoes set off the alarms. We didn't figure out the culprit was my shoes straight away *sigh*

4. I am still slightly obsessed with Bat Out of Hell by Meat Loaf. I bet that one's a big surprise!!

5. My first crush was on Les Mckeown from the Bay City Rollers. Bye, Bye, Baby!!!

6. The very first thing I noticed about my husband-to-be (from across the crowded room - ok it wasn't that crowded but it definitely was a room!) were his fabulous blue eyes. Even now I have to fight the urge to give every single one of my heroes amazing blue eyes.

7. I can no longer drink alcohol. I discovered two years ago even a couple of sips made me grumpy and sent me off to sleep, which is pretty annoying as I really love the taste of bacardi and coke. So now I'm a Chardonnay girl through and through! (yeah I'm fussy on the wine front too!!)

I pass this beautiful award on to:

Amanda Ashby

Sara Hantz

Eleni Konstantine

Mel Teshco

Suzanne Brandyn

Nell Dixon

April Vine

Passion in Paradise - Suzanne Brandyn

Please welcome my special guest this week, Suzanne Brandyn, whose debut book, Passion in Paradise, was released on Wednesday from The Wild Rose Press!

Suzanne Brandyn lives on the Mid-North Coast of NSW, Australia, where she enjoys the ocean and the country. It is here amidst the peace and quiet she dreams her stories and moulds her characters toward that Happily Ever After. In the warmer months of the year you will find her walking along the beach or sitting under the shade of a palm tree jotting down notes for her next story. Suzanne would like her readers to know that the Happy Ever After is not only reserved for children’s fairytales but also has a place in the life of an adult.

Suz, thanks for joining me today, and congratulations on Passion in Paradise already hitting the #1 spot on the novellas best selling list at TWRP!

Everyone who leaves a comment for Suz here will be entered into a draw to win a copy of Passion in Paradise!

Can you tell us a little about your debut book, ‘Passion in Paradise?’

‘Passion In Paradise’ was a manuscript I undertook in a National Novelist Writing Month. It was also listed as a finalist in the first round of the Emerald Competition with the Romance Writers of Australia. I withdrew it from the second round as it got accepted for publication.

Passion In Paradise is set at a luxurious resort on the Whitsunday Coast, the edge of the Great Barrier Reef and Coral Sea and Sydney.

Wow, certainly sounds like a taste of Paradise! How did the idea for the plot come about?

I wanted to have two people stranded on an island as I love the tropics and islands. It eventuated from there. I did a great deal of diving off the Whitsunday coast many years ago, and fell in love with the area.

It had to have an aircraft in the story. Re-my husband is a private pilot. The heroine takes a scenic flight over the Great Barrier Reef not knowing the pilot, the love of her life, will be flying. They drift off course, a fire erupts in the cockpit and the hero makes an emergency landing over the Pacific Ocean, but he hits his head and is unconscious. The heroine rescues him by getting them both safely to a deserted island.

I love it when the heroine rescues the hero!! As you know, I also love sale stories! So can you tell us about your road to publication - and your call story?


Well my email story. It said they loved my story, the plot flows nicely and my characters are vivid and appealing, and the emotion is well drawn. Then it read they would like to contract it.
You can imagine the state I was in. I re-read that email repeatedly. The next day I continued to read it and I lost count. I was numbish, with a big grin on my face. I think it took a few days for it to sink in. It’s such a buzz to get an email like that in your inbox. It was in the hands of one editor and she liked it, but ended up in the hands of another. Oh boy, my thoughts were, “What if she doesn’t like it?” Just because one editor liked my story didn’t mean another would. Luckily she did.

I so empathise with the big grin!! We are all about the love here, so please share your fave books, movies, TV shows or current fantasy squeeze (it's all in the line of research!)

My favourite books well, I don’t really have any favourites. I have an assortment. Nora Roberts, Danielle Steele, Melissa James, Claire Baxter, Liz Fielding, Marion Thomas, Bronwyn Jamieson, the list is endless. I read a diversity of novels but Norah Roberts stories draw my attention.

Fantasy squeeze - Hugh Jackman. His looks, his smile and personality shines through his character roles.

Oh yeah, have to agree. What's not to love with our Hugh!! Can you tell us what you're working on now?

I have recently completed two category manuscripts. The first one is set in outback Australia, the second in Sydney.

How can readers keep up with your writing and books?

By taking a peek at my blog, website or visit The Wild Rose Press website.

Thank you Christina for having me. It’s been very enjoyable. I would also like to thank any visitors that pop by and leave a comment. Don’t forget you go into a draw a few weeks after this interview to win a Pdf copy of ‘Passion In Paradise'.

Party Time! YAY!!!!

I'm very excited because today my very good mate, Suzanne Brandyn, has the release of her debut novel, Passion in Paradise, from the Champagne Line of The Wild Rose Press!

Suz is going to be partying like it's 1999 over the next couple of days so do please pop over to her blog to say hi! I'm going away for a couple of days so am going to miss all the excitment BUT Suz will be over here on Saturday when I'll be pinning her to the seat and firing my in-depth interview questions at her!

And everyone who stops by and leaves a comment on the interview post on Saturday will be entered into a draw to win a copy of Passion in Paradise!

Congratulations, Suz! Can't wait to read your book!

MySpace Glitters