Not that I'm Obsessed by Coffee... but...

We saw my auntie off to Brisbane this morning, where she's visiting other rellies for a few days before returning to WA, staying with my brother up in Perth before coming back to us for another week. I have to keep reminding myself she's eighty, because she sure doesn't act like it!!

In other news, my husband has finally given in to his baser urges and this afternoon turned up with... ta da... a coffee maker!! As I write he's out in the kitchen playing about with his new toy. I keep hearing it give loud splurting noises so I'm assuming all is well. The only problem is, it looks very high tech and shiny and I'm not at all convinced I'll be able to make the damn thing work. It took us almost five minutes just to find the ON button!

In writerly news, I'm thinking of going to the RWAus Romance Roadshow, a one day mini conference which is coming to Perth next month. It sounds huge fun and will be good to meet other writers in the state!

And happy Birthday Amanda, aka Baby Witch!!!!

Still Kicking

I haven't fallen off the face of the earth (not quite anyway) but it feels like it as I haven't been able to get online nearly as much as I should for my health! My lovely auntie is visiting from the UK today, so of course I had to make the house presentable. The only trouble is once you start down that dangerous road, it's never ending!!

Anyway, finally got it up to scratch after enlisting the assitance of two of the offspring and one darling husband. It's been six years since she's been over, so we're all looking forward to seeing her - but it does mean I won't be able to hop on the computer much over the next few days to check out what everyone's been up to. Friday afternoon and I'll definitely be there!!

(did I mention the writing... um, no I didn't... well, the good news is I think I've finally cracked the sluggy block I had. The not so good news is I have to wait nearly a week before I can get back to it!!)

Coffee Lovers Alert

Was I a happy bunny when I read this report on the BBC News website. Apparently, research suggests that a cup of coffee a day protects the vital blood brain barrier against attack by cholesterol. High levels of cholesterol, in case you wanted to know, can make this barrier leaky. But I'm not going there... where I'm going is here. Coffee is good for you!!!

So now whenever I buy a takeaway latte I can forego my pangs of guilt and greed, and instead drink it with pride, in public, because it's not just making me wobbly around the middle it's protecting my brain!!!

Guest Blogging Today!

I'm guest blogging today over at the fabulous Shelley Munro's blog, on the subject of Adventures of an Aspiring Romance Writer! If you have a moment I would love for you to pop over and say hi! Shelley is generously giving away a download of her first Middlemarch Mates books, Scarlet Woman, to one lucky commenter. Hope to see you there!

Luna anyone?

I hope everyone had a happy Easter and didn't scoff too many eggs!! I'm feeling very out of sorts with this early Easter, as the kids were off for the long weekend, are now back at school, and then will be off again for a fortnight in a couple of weeks time.

Anyway.

So I'm still slogging away on my full length Nocturne. My head is fit to explode with all the different threads I have, but last night a terrible thought occurred to me. Am I writing a Luna instead of a Nocturne??? And if I am, what should I do about it???

All I can do is carry on and see where this all leads me. Much as I love this story I'm finding it very hard getting the words down on the page/screen. A lot of it is because I'm still waiting to hear on the Bite, but I can't put too much blame on the waiting since I've spent the vast majority of my writing life waiting on responses, and that's never stopped me before!

Go Suzy!!!

Fellow Witch, Sara Hantz, has just found out her debut YA novel, The Second Virginity of Suzy Green, has made the New York Public Library list. To quote the NYPL, "This list, now in its 79th year of publication, selects the best of the previous year’s publishing for teenagers, ages 12 to 18. All the titles chosen have been read and reviewed by young adult librarians and recommended for this special publication.”

Hooray! Huge congrats Sara!

Just Because...

I read this report on the BBC News website last night and it gave me the warm and fuzzies, so I thought I'd share.

A dolphin has come to the rescue of two whales which had become stranded on a beach in New Zealand.

Conservation officer Malcolm Smith told the BBC that he and a group of other people had tried in vain for an hour and a half to get the whales to sea.

The pygmy sperm whales had repeatedly beached, and both they and the humans were tired and set to give up, he said.

But then the dolphin appeared, communicated with the whales, and led them to safety.

I thought that was just lovely. The full report can be found here.

Link Lovers

For anyone targeting or interested in Harlequin's Nocturne line, the editors are hosting an online pitch on 23rd April. A thread has been created for discussion and questions here.

Also over on eharlequin, there's been a week long Q&A session with Spice Editor Susan Pezzack Swinwood on all things spicy. I have to say Susan sounds amazing! She also had some interesting things to say about the Spice Briefs line - mainly that once you send in your Brief that will be the last you see of it until it's either rejected or published. No revisions!! That's kind of scary. Take a peek here.

And currently the Nocturne Bites submissions have a turnaround time of just three weeks. Spice Briefs are running at between six and seven months although the editors hope to cut that wait to three months shortly.

Currently Reading...

I'm so glad I found my glasses! I hadn't realised (or maybe had just forgotten - that happens. Frequently. Sigh!) just how much my poor eyes were missing them. Now I can actually read in the evenings after having been on the computer for hours, whereas before my eyes were too sore and achy. Quite scary really to think how I might have been damaging them.

Anyway, my tbr pile beckoned and over the weekend I dived in. I'm now half way through Shelley Munro's Summer in the City of Sails. I love Shelley's sense of humour, I keep giggling out loud at some of her heroine's sayings! And did I mention the hot hero? Not to mention the steamy sex too! (still can't figure out what the villian's up to... hmmm!)

The other book I'm currently reading is Anna Campbell's second novel, Untouched. I remember when Anna was writing this and dropping tantalising hints about her poor tortured hero (Anna writes incredibly tortured heroes!). Phew! Tortured is an understatement. And the love scenes blew me away. I can't wait to find out how this couple manage to find their HEA!

And to celebrate the upcoming release of Shelley's Fancy Free, here's a peek into the minds of her hero and heroine!

He Says, She Says on Inheriting a Condom Company

ALICE BEASLEY says:

The reading of my god-mother’s will shocked me speechless. I assumed I’d inherit money or jewelry. A condom company came way down the bottom of my list of expectations! Who’d have thought? My god-mother offered me a share in a condom company or a small monetary inheritance. My boyfriend, Steven wanted me to take the money and run. Me—I saw possibilities, the answers to making my dreams come true. We fought about it. Embarrassing? Oh, yeah. We were the center of attention and there were quite a few sniggers from the other occupants of the hall.

I think I stepped into an Alice in Wonderland type rabbit hole on arrival for the reading of the will, not a plain old town hall. I caught sight of this man. Tall, dark and sexy. I dubbed him Mr. Dashing, and spellbound, my attention kept wandering to him. Imagine my blush when I discovered I’d have to work with him at the condom company. Things went downhill from there. Steven left Sloan in a huff because I wouldn’t follow his orders and two weird women accosted me shouting anti-condom slogans. Luckily, they didn’t seem violent but they gave me two business cards, one bearing a clown and the other a dog. Goodness knows what they mean. Life in Sloan looks as if it might be interesting, but I’m a bit wary about condoms. After all, it’s not as if I have experience in that arena…

JAMES BATES says:

I can’t believe Alicia expects me to train this girl. And Alicia’s death couldn’t have come at a worse time. Someone is out to sabotage Fancy Free. It’s been one thing after another. Financially, we can’t take much more. I hope the new design goes well because the company sure needs the boost of funds.

Will Alice and James make a good team? Will she make up with Steven? How do they test the condoms? And who is out to destroy Fancy Free?

Read Alice and James story in FANCY FREE by Shelley Munro to discover all the answers. Available from Ellora’s Cave on 7 March 2008.

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!!

We're All Going on a... Summer Holiday...

We're off to the Gold Coast at the crack of dawn, so this is my last post for a week or so. I did ask my husband whether we were taking the laptop and he looked at me as if I was crazy... and then said NO in a kind of challenging manner! I have no idea how I'm going to manage without any internet connection for over a week (although my daughter informed me there's internet in reception... I can see the pair of us sneaking away one night to catch up on our mail...)

Unfortunately the weather has been diabolical in Queensland just lately, but fingers crossed the rains will stop and the flooding will subside before we land. Can but hope! How ironic to leave home when the temps are touching 100 degrees to go on holiday where we'll need our brollies??

Mine to Possess Hottie Contest

The lovely Nalini is celebrating the upcoming release of the fourth full length entry in her Psy/changeling world, Mine to Possess. This book features a hot hero in the luscious Clay Bennett, and Nalini is running a contest where you get to rave/gush/cheer about your favourite hero(es).

Well it's a hard life having to trawl through pics of hot guys, but I've done my best and here is a selection of my current fave squeezes (yes only my current ones, I've recently reached the conclusion I'm a right hussy on the quite!!)

Okay here's one of Johnny Depp. I nearly went with the pirate image but decided this one was rather yummy!

And here is the divine Colin Firth as Mr Darcy. I tried very hard to find one of him just emerging from the lake, but the nearest I got was him dripping with disgusting brown water which didn't give the same effect at all!

Oh-KAY! Well phew. Look at this one of Hugh Jackman!! Hot or what???

Of course no list of hotties would be complete without the adorable Clive Owen, and here he is in a nice white shirt. Hmm. I just realised three of my boys are in white shirts. What does this mean??

Tarting Up

I have a love/hate relationship with my webiste. I use Frontpage and so long as you know what you're doing with it, everything is rosy.

Unfortunately, I rarely know what I'm doing and only just manage to muddle through to finish up with something vaguely resembling what I'd really like. Every few months I screw up my courage and decide to give it another go, and honestly I don't know why I bother because it invariably gives me a few hundred more grey hairs.

Anyway, New Year... etc. so I decided it was time to really try and get what I wanted. You might think I was after fancy bells and whistles but no. All I ever wanted was boxes. But could I ever find them? Umm, no.

In desperation, after I'd been fiddling about for countless hours, I ended up blubbering all over Amanda's shoulder (thankfully for her it was her virtual shoulder!). And she showed me the light by way of TABLES.

Oh yes! The wonder of tables. How had I never clicked onto this wondrous section of Frontpage before? So for the last week I've been happily playing with cell properties, padding and of course the tables.

Eventually of course I had to pluck up additional courage to actually publish the vamped up site. This always gives me palpitations, ever since I somehow managed to lose the entire backed up copies from my computer while uploading last year (thank god for my wonderful husband who somehow found a way to replace it all!)

Anyway, it's now done and I do love my boxes!!! Yes, I am very easily pleased...

And the Moral of this Story Is...

I decided, New Year - new agent blitz. So during the week I sent queries out to seven agents. By late last night, I'd received one rejection (didn't sound like the kind of thing they would rep), three requests for partials and one request for the full.

OMG. The full!! I'd still got about 60 pages left to final polish and edit when that came through, so I spent all today with head down, butt in chair madly finishing it off.

All was going well (this ms has had several edits so far...!) until I hit the final chapter. And it had the wrong ending.

You know that feeling when you're on the rollercoaster, when the little car perches perilously before free falling into that death defying plunge? That was how my stomach felt as I realised that at some point in the past I'd saved the wrong bloody version of my book.

I sat there for about one whole minute just staring at the screen thinking, umm noooo, I couldn't have been so stupid... but in the end I had to close the document and search through all the nooks and crannies in my computer.

Nada. Zilch. At this point I might had said a rude word. Or two.

I then looked through my flash drive but again, I'd stupidly saved the previous version. ARGH.

Eventually, after much hair pulling (and watering of the eyes) I discovered a lone version tucked away on one of my off-the-planet email accounts. YAY! Relieved? I'll say.

So what have I learned from this? Well, it's that no matter how often I save my docs, the one that gets away is always the one that is desperately needed at some point in the future. This is the reason I'm a hoarder! And quite obviously, I don't hoard nearly enough!!

Taking Stock

Currently I'm waiting to hear back from Nocturn on a partial, SSE on a query and Harlequin on a Spice Brief. I've also got a couple of projects out with various agents and am a third of the way through a final (!) edit of my 100k para.

I very much want to finish my Angel story which I began nearly a year ago and then abandoned two thirds of the way through. Unfortunately I didn't do an outline for this one, it was all in my head, and although I have the odd strange flash when I really concentrate, I fear I've forgotten all the little details I wanted to add. Oops!

For my sanity I also need to finish the bloody dead body book too, for no other reason than I hate to think it's beaten me!

I bought my son His Dark Materials trilogy for Christmas, and we finished them at the end of last week. We've now persuaded daughter #2 and she's mid way through book 2. For sheer curiosity as to how on earth the movie holds together without the teeth in the novels, they're now watching The Golden Compass and will report back to me shortly. Having seen a preview it looks absolutely gorgeous especially those daemons, but I'm happy to wait for the DVD.

Finally, I am sooo excited about our holiday to the Gold Coast in just under three weeks time. My inner child can't wait to visit all the theme parks!!