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!!

Here's to 2008!!

MySpace Comments

Rounding Up 2007

Amanda is having a terrific end to 2007 - the Romantic Times Reviewers' Choice has nominated her debut book You Had Me at Halo as Best Contemporary Paranormal Romance for 2007. Congratulations Amanda!!

And Sara's debut YA, The Second Virginity of Suzy Green, is one of Chicklish top reads of 2007 - huge congrats, Sara!!

The weather is hotter than ever here - on Boxing Day it hit 110F and even with the air con going full blast it was an effort to do much more than collapse on the sofa. But at least it feels like Australia now - up until recently it was very much like England in October!

...and the Turkey's Thawing Out...

Just because we live in Sunny Oz where Christmas Day temps can hit 100 degrees, doesn't mean we'd do anything so sensible as have a seafood barbie on the big day. Oh-my-goddess-no. It's hot turkey with stuffing and all the trimmings, and mini plum puds for afters (even though none of us are lovers of plum pudding my dear husband insists, so he has the puds and the rest of us gorge ourselves on chocolate for the rest of the day!)

A few years ago I was very adventrous and ordered a turkey stuffed with a chicken which in turn was supposed to be stuffed with some other type of poultry from the local butcher. It looked like a huge disgusting maggot and although it tasted very yummy I've never quite got over the trauma of that sight.

So now I get a frozen turkey from Woolworths, one that doesn't have legs but has lots of breasty bits (because none of us ever eat the legs but we all love the breast) and it's currently defrosting in the bottom of the fridge. Only three sleeps to go!!

And I just want to say what a lucky girl I am, because I won a prize the other day over at the fantastico Shelley's party bash! It's From the Deep anthology and I can't wait to dive in *ha ha!*




Myspace Graphics

Christmas is Coming

I think I've finally done all my Christmas shopping (apart from the last minute veggies - including the obligatory half dozen sprouts my husband insists on having on his plate Christmas Day. No idea why, nasty disgusting little things!!)

I hit the local mall at 8 am this morning but unfortunately it seemed half the town had the same idea. I hate crowds. Anyway I got the ham and pickles and then went looking for Harry Potter goodies for my two little nieces, who are Totally Into Harry Potter!!

Annoyingly, there doesn't seem to be much HP merchandise about. I did find a great online store last night with lots of HP pressies, but it's based in Melbourne which isn't much good for me and I'm not trusting the post to deliver any parcels in time for Christmas.

Since Santa is bringing them the DVDs, I ended up with a trolley load of stationery items. Luckily they both love reading, and I've yet to find any book lover who doesn't also adore stationery items!!

And in other news, the talented Amanda Ashby has just won the Chicklit Club's Pink Thong Award for Best New Character (Australian) for You Had Me at Halo! Woo-hoo Amanda!

Win Brilliantly Cool Books for Christmas!!!

Amanda Ashby and Sara Hantz, two of my CPs and fellow Witches, are holding a joint Christmas competition on their blogs and MySpace pages for a lucky reader to win copies of their debut books, Amanda's You Had Me at Halo, and Sara's The Second Virginity of Suzy Green.

All you need to do is hop on over and leave a comment. Easy-peasy! Good luck!!

Becaue it's all about MeME

Shelley tagged me so here we go - and don't forget to pop over to Shelley's blog and join in her fabulous birthday bash all this month, with lots of brilliant author guests and prizes up for grabs!


Two Men I’d Love to Date if I Were Single (and they were single):

1. Clive Owen (I mean duh. This is a no brainer, right?!?!)
2. David Tennant (Tardis optional)

I Am Wearing Right Now…

1. Long Black Pants
2. Long sleeved scarlet top (it's cold and rainy today - I can't believe it!!)

Two Things I Would Want in a Relationship:

1. laughter
2. hot sex okay these are totally pinched from Shelley's meme, but on the other hand what's not to love about these things???

Two of My Favorite Things to do:

1. reading & writing
2. eating & drinking (and quite often I indulge in at least three of these activies simultaneously!)

Two Things I Want Very Badly At the Moment:

1. A fabulous agent
2. A fantastic book contract!!!

Two things I did recently:

1. wrapped up loads of Christmas pressies
2. did this meme!!!

Two things I ate today:

1. Pat's delicious boozy Christmas cake!!!
2. A takeaway Dome latte. It's a wonder I don't look like one with the amount I consume in any given week... oh wait on second thoughts I do kind of resemble a squat little polystyrene cup...

Two people I most recently talked to:

1. Daughters (both - while doing Christmas shopping)
2. Son (to wish him luck with his exam today - last day of school today, what are they THINKING???)

Two things I’m doing tomorrow:

1. MORE Christmas shopping *sigh*
2. Cleaning the house from top to toe... ha ha! Gotcha. As if!!

2 longest car rides:

1. from SE London the the Isle of Angelsey.
2. from Perth to Margaret River WA

Two Favorite Holidays:
1. Love the Christmas holidays
2. And Easter - since my dh generally gets some time off work then too

Two Favorite Beverages:

1. Coffee (but ONLY from ... well yes you guessed it!!!)
2. Wine (sans the pineapple juice I mean how could ANYone drink wine with pineapple juice, I ask you??)

Two Things about me, things you may not have known:

1. I have a worrying latte addiction, and the fact it does my health no good whatsoever isn't much of a deterrent!
2. I also have a weakness for Lindt white chocolate balls. Mmmmm!

Two places I have lived:

1. UK
2. Australia

Two of my Favorite Foods:

1. pizza (I'm a cheap date)
2. roast beef and Yorkshire pudding

Two Places I’d rather be right now:

1. Somewhere warm and romantic with my husband!
2. Catching up on all the gossip over Earl Grey and cream cakes with my lovely sis-in-law.

4 people I think will respond:

1. Sara Hantz
2. Amanda Ashby
3. Monica Cole
4. Philllipa Ashley

Dare ya!Now, here’s what you’re supposed to do…copy this and put your own answers in place of mine and post it to your blog!

Time for a Drool

A couple of weeks ago I watched Children of Men and it hit me. Clive Owen is hot. I don't know why I haven't noticed before, but I'm obviously a slow learner where these things are concerned!!! (yeah right...)

So as it's been a while since I posted pics, I thought I'd indulge myself. Yumm. Unfortunately I couldn't find any nekkid ones, but these ones are pretty good. Especially the last one (which I posted first but blogger being blogger put at the bottom!!)

So enamoured am I of the divine Clive that I've even nominated him over at the Trashinista site, for something very exciting concerning Phillipa Ashley!!

OMG. How gorgeous is this one... sigh...!

Quickies Writ in Blood

Hooray! Today I finished my Quickie and sent it off to the witches for their verdict. I'm not sure I've ever sweated so much blood over my writing in proportion to the final wordcount!

I'm especially happy since I'd given myself a deadline of Friday to have this one finished. But somehow once I got started today the words flowed, and that was another happy bunny moment since it's the first time that's happened with this ms.

Oh, and if you haven't been reading it already, hop on over to the eHarlequin site, where the lovely Robbie Grady has her Silhouette Desire online read up. Unfortunately it's a weekly, not a daily, which is soooo annoying when I wanna know what happens next!!

Moving Tales

Mid week, my eldest daughter decided she was returning home after 7 months away. Hooray! The only down side is it means hubby and I lose our office. Sniffle.

So it's been a mad shuffle to clear out the office/bedroom and relocate all our officy-things back into the family room. It should be pretty straightforward I suppose, but nothing is straightforward in this house! It's like the furniture multiples and nothing fits, and turns into a massive manouvre of jiggling everything around. Like a huge jigsaw with far too many pieces.

I thought I'd take the opporutnity to sort through my paperwork. Well. Gulp. I admit I'm a bit of a hoarder but I discovered RWAus magazines dating back to October 2003!! And even though there are heaps of great articles in all the issues, (a) I would never remember off hand what they were to look for them, and (b) if I did try and look for them, I'd spend forever locating which issue said article was in... so. Out they went. I felt quite dizzy after that endeavour!

Oh yeah - then right in the middle of shifting stuff, my hubby announces he is going to redecorate the front room. Nooooooooo... but yes and not only that he also decided to get new internal doors while he was at it.

I haven't done any writing for the last two days. Sigh.

Tagged continued (see below!!!)

Okay, because whenever I post pics my blogger goes all wonky and I never know where my actual writing bits will end up, I'm editing my previous post here!

So, all I want to say is, here is my Meme that Shelley tagged me with last week! And I've sort of cheated, as all the places of interest aren't in my home town, but they are in my state so I hope that counts!!

Tagged!!

Best Place to Eat


Well okay I admit it. We don't eat out much, so i really have no idea what the local eateries are like!! My fave place for breakfast (and takeaway latte at ANY time of day) is Dome by the foreshore, but for our daughter's 21st we went to the Hog's Breath Cafe and the food was yummy. Since we're home alone tonight we're going out for dinner there! No cooking! Hooray!!



Best Shopping Mall







Fremantle is one of the best preserved 19th century port cities in the world, with narrow side roads and cobbled pavements, town square and markets. There are continental delicatessens, bakeries, butchers, bookshops and boutiques, plus all the large department stores and pubs! So, not a mall, but I do love visiitng Freo because it reminds me of shopping in England!!









Famous Landmark The Swan Bell Tower

The Swan Bell Tower was built between 1999 and 2001, to celebrate the Millennium. I think it looks kind of odd myself, but I guess that's because I prefer more traditional looking bell towers!! However, the bells do have a very romantic history.







Found Only In...







One of the few places in the world where thrombolites (living rocks) can be found is at Lake Clifton in Western Australia's Yalgorup National Park. The thrombolites, which are built by micro-organisms, reach heights of up to 1.3m. they are among the only known form of life on Earth some 350 to 650 million years ago, and it's believed they were responsible for oxygen production which allowed life to exist on the planet. Pretty fascinating really! More info can be found here

Popular Outdoor Activity

Australia is renowned for its outdoor lifestyle, and is a very sports orienated nation. Unfortunately, I'm not at all sporty minded!!! However, we live just three minutes walk from a truly gorgeous beach and I'm quite happy to watch more adventrous souls enjoying the many varied water sports on offer, while I get very daring and paddle my toes in the shallows!

Best Tourist Attraction


Wave Rock, in Hyden WA, is an amazing 14m high and 110m long and is believed to have formed over 2700 million years ago through a gradual process of erosion of the softer rock beneath the upper edge. The colours of the Wave are caused by the rain washing chemical deposits down the face. I also think this is a breathtaking view!!!

Place for Kids

Got to be Perth Zoo. We took our kids there lots of time when they were little and it's a great day out.

Blogger Hates Me

For some reason blogger didn't let me comment on anyone's blogs yesterday. Instead it keep giving me a code to send to blogger to let them know what the problem was.

Um, yeah. That's a great idea in theory, but only when you can actually find their addy. Every time I waded through the Help section and thought I'd finally got somewhere, it would redirect me to yet another Q&A. Frustrating? Yes I think so. And annoying, because why give me a code if I can't even use it?!

What Type of Writer Are You?

I found this quiz on Shelley's blog, and as I'm always up for a bit of procrastination, I gave it a whirl. Yay! I love the answer I got!

This minor procrastination aside, I have been very good today on the writing front (despite the temperature hitting 32, with threats of rising to 39 degrees tomorrow...feels like the inside of an oven). But, back to the writing - I'm trying something new for me. Something I always said I would never do (which means of course it was only a matter of time before I succumbed!!) I'm not sure whether or not I can pull it off, but I'll see how I go this week. It's a story that haunted me for something like five years - but it was never novel length, just this one very vivid, starkly beautiful scene. I ended up writing it about three years ago and there it's been on my hard drive ever since.

So, I'm giving it a revamp. So to speak!

You Should Be a Film Writer

You don't just create compelling stories, you see them as clearly as a movie in your mind. You have a knack for details and dialogue. You can really make a character come to life. Chances are, you enjoy creating all types of stories. The joy is in the storytelling. And nothing would please you more than millions of people seeing your story on the big screen!

What Type of Writer Should You Be?

The Waiting Game

I don't know what's going on, but my internet's been down again. Talk about feeling isolated! Things got so bad this afternoon I actually tidied up my office, just so I could keep one eye on the computer on the off chance it went back online. So, after two and a half months, I finally picked up my huge pile of conference books from the floor next to my desk and found room for them on the bookcase!

That's not all I managed either. My wonderful cps have been telling me for ages to get my butt in gear and submit to Nocturne. For one reason or another I've never quite got around to it, but having nothing better to do yesterday afternoon (ie. blog hopping and surfing...) I decided to give the partial one last polish.

So now I've printed out my para partial and synopsis and that'll be on it's way to New York some time next week. I'd forgotten how much I love that story!

In other news or rather non-news from Harlequin, it's now been over three months that another partial's been with Superromance.

Don'tcha just love this waiting game?

Spring is Sprung

We've now had about four days of sunny weather! Hooray! It looks like spring's arrived at last. And about time too because I really don't like winter. The rain and grey skies are sooo depressing. Of course when we first moved to Australia everyone thought it hilarious I felt the cold so acutely. After all, I came from England, I should be used to freezing my bits off!

Although I still find it very odd to celebrate Christmas in the middle of summer. In my mind, the summer months are July/August (ok, so July and August in the UK can quite often be absolutely dire but that's not my point!!) Right now the cherries are out (yummm) the birds are nesting - and the Christmas decs are up in the shops. ARGH!!

Incommunicado

Whoops! I can't believe it's been over a week since I last blogged. I could've sworn I did that dancing girlie just a couple of days ago.

Anyway, yesterday was a non-starter as my internet went down and don't you just HATE that when you can't send or receive emails and every page you try is unobtainable. Drives me nuts. As for the rest of the week, my youngest's been sick with his third bout of tonsilitis in three months (the doctor is making noises about whipping his tonsils out - ugh).

It's also occurred to me I've spent more time in the car than anywhere else over the last few weeks running about after my girls, and to be honest my brain is starting to fry. Consequently, the writing has completely gone down the gurgler but once I've posted off the Christmas pressies to the rellies in the UK (YES! I have bought them, and wrapped them, and written the cards... does that make me anal) I'm going to whip this bloody story into shape if it kills me!

Right Brain, Left Brain... or no Brain?

This link was posted on the ROMAUS loop, so of course I had to have a nose. It shows a dancer in silhouette and depending on which direction you see her dancing, can tell whether you use more of your left or right side of your brain.

I saw her dancing clockwise, which means I use the right side of my brain more (apparently!). Then she suddenly turned and started dancing anti clockwise. What fun!! I called my husband over to have a look, and just as he said, yeah she's dancing clockwise - she suddenly faced me and started swinging her leg back and forth.

And he couldn't see it!!!

I yelled for my son to come and take a look (never mind that I'd just put him to bed, this was important!) and he confirmed she was dancing clockwise.

All this time, the dancer was just standing there, swinging her leg from side to side, and the thing is - there is no explanation on the website! So I'm thinking I managed to splinter my brain or something!

Can anyone else see her doing that???

Oops nearly forgot to post the link! Here!

Alias

Free Rice

If you feel the urge to indulge in a spot of procrastination, here's an addictive site to try out - FreeRice. It's a word multiple choice quiz, and every time you answer correctly the site donates rice. I admit to not knowing all the words I was given (in fact I couldn't even pronouce some of them!!) but it's great fun guessing their meaning (espeically when I guessed right!)

Blood from a Stone and other Unlikely Places

Some scenes almost seem to write themselves. I sit down, and the words flow from brain to fingertips (at least I tell myself the words come from my brain, although oftentimes when I read my stuff back I think, did I really and truly write that???)

Other scenes are like pulling teeth with pliers. Such as my current one. It's not that I'm not enjoying this story. It's not even that I don't have a pretty good idea where it's all going. It's just... argh! Basically it all comes back to this bloody dead body I was careless enough to leave lying around in chapter one!! Talk about coming back to bite you on the bum.

I keep telling myself not to panic, that the girls in the basement/the muse/the little demon that resides in a crevice of my deluded mind will manage to sort something out when the time is right. But the thing is, I'm not used to writing into the mist like that. I generally have things planned out in advance, so while I might not know every twist and turn, I do know all the major roadworks along the way.

On the other hand, it is kind of exciting in a scary way NOT knowing how this is all going to resolve. At least I think it is. Then again, I might just be totally losing the plot...

Christina and the Chocolate Factory

It's a little known fact *cough* but I do love chocolate, so on Friday decided to take the two youngest offspring to the Fremantle Chocolate Factory. I had visions of something like Willy Wonka, but alas all we got to see was the back of someone flourishing a funnel filled with chocolate through a small glass window.

Never mind. There was a delicious chocolatey aroma in the shop, and I grabbed a basket and set to work finding Christmas pressies for the rellies back in the UK. When I discovered they sold no less than thirty-two varieties of fudge, I was in sweetie heaven because if there's one thing I love more than chocolate, it's fudge. *happy sigh*

My son lost no time at all in finding the freebies, and every time I looked round for him I caught his jaws chomping. I'm sure I don't know where he gets it from...

On the writing front I'm currently in a state of nervous excitement concerning an agent's response to a recent sub, so am keeping my fingers crossed there.

And now it's almost five which means it's tea and chocolate time...

Writing update

I just realised it's been a while since I mentioned my writing (well okay so it's been ages since I mentioned my writing...!) and this may have something to do with the fact that I haven't been doing a great deal of it just lately. Oops.

Partly it's because I'm waiting to hear back from various agents, and party it's because my motivation has kind of hit the skids lately. But that aside, I'm still very much in love with my wip and am determined to get it finished before Christmas.

I know where it's going (mostly) although I do have problems with the dead body. I always knew I should've steered well clear of that aspect, but what can you do? I'm just the writer. It's not like I can control these things (I can hear you howling with laughter there, Sara!!)

And speaking of control. What's with this blinking dead body suddenly phoning my heroine?? It would make sense if I was writing a paranormal but alas, there's not a vampire in sight!!

The Bone Garden

I recently finished Tess Gerritsen's The Bone Garden (actually I saw my youngest daughter reading it, and pinched it off her. We subsequently fought over it heh, but I won). I think it's my fave of hers so far (including The Mephisto Club which I finished reading a couple of days ago).

But OMG. This doesn't give any of the plot away but OMG!!! The hygiene. Gross. Even a week later I still can't get over how completely terrifying it must have been for women giving birth just 150 years ago. For sure I knew all about child bed fever - it's a favourite way of bumping off women in historical novels (so long as she doesn't happen to be the heroine) but honestly, I'd never stopped to wonder just WHAT the hell child bed fever was.

Well I know now, and so does my daughter, in graphic gut wrenching detail. Can we just say thank god we don't live in those times?? I think it's going to take ages before I get particular scenes out of my head.

But I also loved the romance between the two main characters, it was kind of hauntingly beautiful and I for one didn't mind in the least that Jane Rizzoli didn't make an appearance and Maura Isles only had a fleeting cameo. In fact I'd love more of the same, please!!

Nekkid Nathan

Shelley mentioned Firefly in the comments of the last post, which reminded me of Nathan Fillion (as it does). Although I've not managed to catch any episodes of Firefly I've watched Serenity about six times (my husband is now a rabid fan and watches it twice as many times as I do!) So I thought I'd go in search of a little hero inspiration and came up with... some interesting shots...

It also reminded me that a certain Ms Amanda Ashby promised (well okay she sort of promised) to find some nekkid pickies of Mr Fillion. Now, it's not that I'm an impatient kind of girl or anything... oh well okay, so I am!! And guess what I found. A nekkid picky!

Mind you the face is a bit fuzzy so I'm not 100% sure this is the divine Mr Fillion in the flesh so to speak... so the big question here is - IS it or ISN'T it???

Dr Who is Hot....

I grew up watching Dr Who, a lot of the time from behind the safety of the sofa or over the top of a cushion, as the Daleks and Cybermen invaded our front room (although those mega sized maggots will take some beating on the fright scale!) Wobbly sets didn't bother me at all, because Saturday night was the time the whole family got together and I only have to hear the spine tingling electronic woo-woo-WOOOOOO of the theme tune and whoosh! I'm back in time!

So when They-With-the-Power resurrected the Doctor I was stoked, and faithfully watched the first series with Christopher Eccleston.

As series three progressed, something extraordinary began to happen. It was so shocking it took me another several weeks before I quite realised what was happening. I fancied Dr Who!!!

Once this hit me I realised that David Tennant is, in fact, excessively hot and couldn't believe how I hadn't noticed before. I think it's all to do with the Doctors from the past because while he's always had hot assistants, I can't think of any Doctor in the past that ever did it for me... humm!

Final episode tonight and then I'll be going into withdrawal... although there's always the boxed set of DVDs which, now I think about it, can be classified as perfect hero research material...

I So Do NOT Have A Dirty Mind!!!

Your Mind is PG-13 Rated

Your mind is definitely a little dirty. You're naughty, but not trashy.You don't shy away from a dirty joke, and you're clearly not a prude.

Do You Have a Dirty Mind?

I couldn't resist trying out this quiz, (thank you Tempest!!) and was so totally not surprised to discover my mind is almost as pure as the driven snow! **cough cough** And the most amazing thing is, I didn't even cheat!!

Grabbing the Reader

Following on from my previous post, Tempest Knight left a comment which reminded me that Liz Fielding, M&B Romance author, has a great article on her site about grabbing the reader on the first page. Highly recommended and here's the link!

First Page Neurosis

I have trouble with my first pages. Not that I realise I do at the time, as I try to start as late as possible into the action and leap forward from there. It's only afterwards, when the book is finished, I read it through and think... meh, too soon!!!

The book now out with agents is a prime example. From first to second draft, I cut the first thirty pages. THIRTY. And yet when I originally wrote it, every one of those thirty pages was absolutely crucial to showing the heroine's relationship with various members of her family and friends. Do I hear the words SET UP??

From second to third draft I cut another dozen pages, so the first page showed the arrival of the hero into the heroine's world. And just recently, before submitting, I ruthlessly chopped the vast majority of the first two pages. And the scary thing is all those pages I deleted - just Are Not Missed!!

So I was intrigued to discover Julie Cohen, ModX and Little Black Dress author, is doing a Q&A on eHarlequin this week, entitled Tightening the First Page. It's illuminating and well worth checking out, even if you're not targeting series romance.

More Conference Photos

For some more pics of the recent RWNZ conference, head over to Nalini's blog where she's just posted a whole bunch. There's one of Amanda and me wearing our halos... only this time they are all aglow with angelic light!!

Debuts & Comp

Fellow Aussie author Christine Wells debut novel SCANDAL'S DAUGHTER is also released this week - and to help celebrate, Christine invited her agent Jessica Faust and editor Leis Pederson to guest blog and answer questions. A fascinating insight into an agent's and editor's mind! Read their posts here

Also in celebratory mood, the lovely Annie West is holding a fantabulous competition over on her website, in honour of three Aussie debut novels hitting the shelves this month from Christine Wells, Robyn Grady and Paula Roe! And as if that's not enough, Annie is also offering her own September release as a prize!

And Sara's party is still in full swing with lots of prizes still up for grabs!

Guest Blogging Today!

Today I'm guest blogging over at the lovely Sara Hantz's blog as part of her celebrations for the release of her debut novel. I'll love you forever if you pop over and leave a comment!! The post should be up late afternoon/early evening Oz/NZ time (I think I got that right. All these time lines are very confuzzling).

I recently finished reading Karina Bliss's SuperRomance, MR IRRESISTIBLE. And all I can say is.... wow, the hero sure is irresistible... ha ha sorry about that! Couldn't resist (oops... I get worse). I first thought Karina's book would be up my alley when I read the excerpt on her website and the hero, Jordan, was overheard on the phone saying... well I'm not going to tell you what the heroine, Kate, overheard him saying! Check out Karina's website to see what I mean!

Writing, Dentists & Doctors

I just realised I haven't mentioned my writing for a while, so in case anyone thinks I'm slacking in that department (as if... ha ha) I'm up to Chapter Five on the wip. I'm loving it, but loving it mostly when I can just sit here and read it back to myself. This polishy draft is proving quite challening.

Today I took my son to have his first filling. He hadn't been looking forward to it, and was convinced he'd end up drooling so badly he'd need the day off school. I explained it was just a filling, not an extraction and he would be FINE!

Um, yeah. In the chair, after two injections, his adrenalin spiked and he went into shock. Let's not mention the shock his mother went into at this point. But we got through it and thankfully his threatened vomiting didn't occur - god I had nightmare visions of his projectiling it all over his uniform and all over me. SHUDDER.

So I took him into school...and of course three hours later they called me to take him home. I expect they were thinking along the lines of 'evil mother, fancy making him go to school when he can't even feel his tongue...'

In the meantime I took in a letter of referral from my GP to the hospital. I have no idea what the doctor was on when she did my letter. Of the six points she noted of my medical history, I had to cross four out and rewrite them, and apparently last year I suffered from first degree burns. Without being aware of them. Who knew? I'm just thankful I opened the bloody thing and read it first before taking it into the consultant!

Happy Release Day, Sara Hantz!

Hooray! It's finally here. the release day for Sara Hantz's debut YA novel, The Second Virginity of Suzy Green, from Flux.

Sara and I first met just over three years ago, en route to the RNA conference in Leicester, UK. Within a few weeks of returning home we became online buddies, and then cps - aka The Witches - along with Amanda Ashby and Pat Posner.

So it's a huge thrill to see Sara's book now out in the world - and she is hosting the most fabulous blog party here to celebrate! Do hop over and say hello!

MySpace Glitters

Blast from the Past

Hubby was channel hopping last night, and came across *drumroll* Xanadu! Does anyone remember this 1980 movie?? The last time I watched it must have been soon after its release, because apart from remembering that it wasn't exactly something I wanted to sit through again, the only thing I recalled was the fact Cliff Richard had done a duet with Olivia Newton John!

Well. I nearly died when the Electric Light Orchestra started playing! OMG I used to LOVE ELO. How did I forget about them?

So. We sat through it, and cast each other scandalised glances at regular intervals (did everyone really zoom about on roller skates in the 80s?!) but we continued to watch because of the music. I'm sure, in some lost black hole, I still have some of those records (yes, records, those circular vinyl things).

It was a nostaglic dip into our shadowy past and while the movie is a disappointment (and that's a shame because the premise is so promising - a muse falling in love with a mortal - I could work with that one!!) I still love the music. It really takes me back to my teenage years! Sniff!

The Second Virginity of Suzy Green Blog Party!

Sara Hantz's debut novel, The Second Virginity of Suzy Green, is about to be released! And to celebrate, Sara's having a fabulous party at her blog over the next week. Lots of writers will be dropping by to join in the fun, including yours truly, with lots of lovely prizes up for grabs!

To whet your appetite, here is the blurb for Suzy:

Suzy Green used to be one of the coolest nonconformist “almost-Goth” party girls in Australia. That was before her older sister Rosie died and her family moved to a new town. Not even her best friend would recognize her now. Gone are the Doc Martens and the attitude. All she wants is to be like Rosie—perfect. The new Suzy Green makes straight As, hangs with the in-crowd at her new school, and dates the hottest guy around. And since all her new friends belong to a virginity club, she joins, too. So what if she’s not technically qualified? Nobody in town knows . . . until Ryan, Suzy’s ex, turns up.

As the past and present collide, Suzy struggles to find her own place in a world without her sister.

MySpace Glitters

Look Who I spied...

Sorry Charli, but I just had to post this pic of you!

Caressed by Ice

I thought I'd be able to pick up Nalini's latest Psy book, Caressed by Ice, at the New Zealand conference - and of course get it signed by her!! - but unfortunately it hadn't yet hit the bookshops there. Boo! However, it's about to be released on 4th September and Nalini has a comp going on at her blog - a quiz to see which Psy/Changeling hero you're most like.


Here's my result - and I'm stoked because I just love the sound of this ice man Judd!!!








Your Psy/Changeling Hero: Judd


Quiet, lethally contained and almost impossible to know, Judd Lauren is a Psy with incredible power. It will take one determined woman to melt this man of ice...but the rewards will be well worth the effort. Are you up to the challenge?

Caressed By Ice

As an Arrow, an elite soldier in the Psy Council ranks, Judd Lauren was forced to do terrible things in the name of his people. Now a defector, his dark abilities have made him the most deadly of assassins—cold, pitiless, unfeeling. Until he meets Brenna…

Brenna Shane Kincaid was an innocent before she was abducted—and had her mind violated—by a serial killer. Her sense of evil runs so deep, she fears she could become a killer herself. Then the first dead body is found, victim of a familiar madness. Judd is her only hope, yet her sensual changeling side rebels against the inhuman chill of his personality, even as desire explodes between them. Shocking and raw, their passion is a danger that threatens not only their hearts, but their very lives…



Find out more about Judd and the series at http://www.nalinisingh.com/

Tag Time

This tag comes via Shelley Munro...

1. You have to post these rules before you give the facts.

2. Players, you must list one fact that is somehow relevant to your life for each letter of their middle name. If you don’t have a middle name, use the middle name you would have liked to have had.

3. When you are tagged you need to write your own blog post containing your own middle name game facts.

4. At the end of your blog post, you need to choose one person for each letter of your middle name to tag. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

Well now, Christina is actually my real second name, but no way can my poor brain come up with nine different facts about me, so I'm cheating and just using the first five letters.

C - I get really cranky when I don't write. and the rest of the time I'm just plain crazy. Chocolate helps calm my nerves but hates my butt. Heh!

H - Hoping to hook a hot-shot agent **Hummmmm** I also love hot fudge (well ok cold really but that doesn't begin with H)

R - Rest, relaxation and reading are my fave hobbies. Hence the big butt...

I - I love ice cream but it hates me. Last time I over-indulged my gall bladder popped. Icky!

S - I can sleep anywhere. And frequently do!

Thief With No Shadow

What a fabulous, haunting cover Emily Gee's debut novel, Thief With No Shadow has! It just screams out pick me up! And wow, I am so glad I did. A couple of days ago I thought I'd read the first chapter while I was having my lunch. I had a pile of stuff to do that day, but the problem was - once I'd started reading I could not put the book down!

And so that night, instead of giving my long suffering family roast potatoes and yorkshire pudding, they made do with mash and baked beans because that's so much less hassle to throw together while reading at the same time. Not that I let on because for some strange reason they don't have quite the same priorities as me - can't think why...

Anyway here is the blurb:

Melke is a wraith, able to walk unseen. Feared by all, hunted and hated, she has lost everything--except her younger brother. Now she is forced to do the unthinkable: in exchange for her brother's freedom, she must use her magical gift to steal.

Melke's thieving has devastating consequences. The stolen necklace was strung with tears, and without it Bastian sal Vere can't break the curse that is destroying his family--a curse that will reach its brutal climax at the next full moon. He strikes a desperate bargain with Melke: a healer to save her brother's life, in return for the necklace.

But undoing her crime may cost Melke her own life. The necklace is deep within a salamander's den, a place of flame and pain that no thief has ever returned from. And time is running short. The moon grows full, and someone must face the creature that laid the curse and suffer its terrible vengeance.

Almost Famous

I've become a bit of a lurker on Jenny Crusie's blog since the weekend. It's huge fun, and she has a post up of random Down Under bits which is hilarious. However, the REALLY fun part is - I'm in a photo on her blog! Oh yeah! How about that then?!

Thankfully I'm unrecognisable to anyone but myself, since I resemble a hunched up old crone in fetching black, but that aside I'm quite chuffed. It's a group pic of us all in the conference room, and I'm on the far side next to the way too elegant Amanda Ashby!

See my brush with fame here

Just Step This Way, Madam...

Of course, it wouldn't have been right without having a minor drama at the airport. Last Wednesday night as I made my way through Customs I thought, oh yeah this is all right, hey! I'm on my way!

My hand luggage didn't set of any alarms this time, and as I was wearing plain boots there was no chance of any dangly bits on my footwear setting off the flashing lights.

Heh. As I wandered away from the x-ray machine thinking so where the hell do I go now? this other custom official beckoned me over. With her long evil looking wand thingy. Yikes. You've been randomly chosen... she said but really, randomly? Was it because I had a look of bunny in the headlamps terror in my eyes or do I just give off an air of arch criminality?

Anyway it wasn't so bad. She skimmed me for explosives and then prodded in my bag. And then wanted to know, in a rather suspicious manner I thought, what I was going to be doing in New Zealand.

So I told her I was on my way to a writer's conference, and she actually smiled and thawed out by several degrees. Ah, the magic of romance writers! Still, being selected as a dodgy looking individual gave me a giggle, in fact as soon as she waved me over I had the worrying urge to giggle and had to keep chewing the inside of my lip so I wouldn't start grinning like a demented troll.

But I have another pic from the conference, which the lovely Emily Gee sent through. I do have to thank Emily for sorting me out at the Thai restaurant we went to last Thursday night. I'd never eaten Thai before, and didn't want to risk upsetting my delicate stomach *snort* with something over-spicy. Anyway she helped me select something which was very tasty, although I wasn't at all sure about the large sluggy looking things I discovered lurking in the rice.

Emily, Sara, Kate, Me, Amanda & Ellie

Conference Cocktail Party

This was huge fun being in a room full of women (and some men I hasten to add!) who all loved writing and romance. It was a bit like being a kid in a sweet shop - no matter who you spoke to, they all wanted to talk books! I kept expecting to wake up hahahaa!

Giovanna,Natalie, Barbara, Amanda & Cassandra

As you can see from the pics, Amanda brought her halos along, and Sara brought some gorgeous cherry jewellery, and by the end of the evening half the conference delegates were wearing Suzy's cherries and Holly's halos!

Later that night, as we were getting ready for bed, room service knocked on the door. Sara peered through the peep hole and said, we didn't order room service (well you can't be too careful and I had just watched that last episode of Medium...)

Turns out my lovely hubby had ordered pink bubbly to be delivered in celebration of my birthday the following day! Awwwwww!!!! He's such a romantic on the quiet!!

Me with the Ice Bucket

Conference 2007

Oh WOW! Back from the conference, fired up, motivated and

raring to go!

Amanda, Me & Sara

First off, it was absolutely wonderful to meet up with Sara and Amanda again. I'd been kind of worried in case there were awkward pauses but no chance! It was just as if we'd last seen each other a few weeks ago - they both looked exactly the same as they did in Leicester three years ago!

And what can I say about Jenny Crusie that hasn't already been said... OMG that woman is amazing. Even suffering from the flu she was motivational, witty and passionate and her workshop with Anne Stuart was hysterical!

Of course we had the double celebrations of both Amanda and Sara's debut novels hitting the shelves and it was just fantastic to be there in New Zealand and share in all the excitement.

More coming up tomorrow!

Two Days and Counting

Only two days until I'm on my way to the New Zealand conference! And, as is only right and proper, I came down with a stinking cold and sore throat over the weekend. Then today my youngest daughter came home looking somewhat zombified and is currently flat out on the sofa. Being the kind motherly person that I am, I'm trying to look after her without actually breathing her air space.

Sooo.... I've started to pack, have checked my passport a dozen times, read the airline's website once or twice and have also managed to avoid watching any of the disaster plane docus that are constantly on the telly (not easy since my husband has a sick addiction to programmes like that!)

It will be great to get together with Sara and Amanda again - I can't believe it's been three years since we last saw each other! - but I'm sure we'll make up for the lost time not spent at local bars. ha ha ha (!)

On the books front, I've just finished Phillipa Ashley's Decent Exposure. This is the first Little Black Dress book I've read and can I just say... wow!! I really enjoyed it, and intend to pick up a lot more LBDs in the near future.

Happy Release Day Amanda!

Hooray! It's finally here. The release day for You Had Me at Halo!

Huge congrats Amanda!

Holly Evans has just seen her body laid to rest. Now she would like to move onto the afterlife. But apparently she has some mortal baggage to unload first, starting with the matter of how she died. Her heavenly shrink isn't buying that she didn't kill herself and says she must return to earth to straighten things out. The thing is, she needs to borrow the body of computer geek Vince Murphy to do it. Oh, and although Vince was supposed to have vacated the premise, he apparently never got the memo.

Now, Holly has forty-eight hours to resolve her issues while sharing arms, legs, and...other things...with a guy she barely noticed while she was alive. But the real surprise is what life has to offer when you have only two days to live it.

"It's The Lovely Bones meets Bridget Jones in this fluffy take on what happens after death...it's a fun, witty traipse through the afterlife."

-Publisher's Weekly

"This book has a delightfully quirky concept that develops into a fun and interesting story. Peopled with a fascinating variety of characters, it also has an intriguing mystery and a charmingly different type of interaction between the hero and heroine. Expect a delightful tale with a wonderfully distinctive ending."

-Romantic Times 4 1/2 star

Countdown to Conference

Only nine more days and I'll be on my way to New Zealand! Omg it doesn't seem possible. It feels like only last week I was thinking about booking the flight, and now it's almost here!

I think I'm organised. Today I exchanged my Aussie dollars for NZ dollars and - gasp - have finally sorted out international dialling for my mobile. I'm about to dust off my youngest daughter's hot pink luggage (which I am borrowing...) and double check nothing I intend to wear on the flight will set off the alarms. (this happened to me the last time I travelled to the UK. On the stopover at Singapore, no less, I not only set off the alarms with my SHOES for god's sake!! but also had to open up my hand luggage as my make up brushes showed up on their x-ray screens as potentially lethal weapons. Like, yeah I am a dead ringer for Buffy!)

Whoops

I've done it again. Forgot all about my blog. But what with various nasty viruses doing the rounds, school holidays and major dramas concerning my two little princesses *inserts cough here* (no really they are little princesses, even if they do both tower over me now... sigh...) blogging got left by the wayside.

Not that I haven't been writing. Glances over shoulder to make sure nobody is checking up. I've been writing up a storm. Sort of. Apparently I have only two weeks left of this lazy life, as at conference my CPs are going to have Serious Words. eek!