Seduced in Seoul - Helen Hardt

Please welcome my special guest today, fellow debut Scarlet Rose author Helen Hardt! Helen's book, Seduced in Seoul, was recently released and is a bestseller on the Wilder Roses Press - over 18s only, please!!

Thanks for joining me today, Helen!

Can you tell us a little about your debut book, Seduced in Seoul?

Of course! It's a short story in the Destination Pleasure series in Scarlet Rose, the erotic line at The Wild Rose Press. The series publishes shorts only, and all must be set in an exotic locale with an American heroine. The hero can be foreign or American. Here's my blurb:

The last thing Allison Sanchez expects when she arrives in Seoul is the Asian god waiting for her at the airport. Right away it's obvious he can't understand a word she says. But body language is universal, and Allison soon casts aside her inhibitions in favor of engaging in one of her secret fantasies with the hot chauffeur. Talking dirty during sex takes Allison to an all new high until she discovers her exotic lover is only half Korean--and her brother's American roommate.

How did the idea for the plot come about?

The Destination Pleasure series intrigued me because I often build stories around places I've visited. My husband, sons, and I are all blackbelts in taekwondo, and we visited Seoul two years ago with our taekwondo master. I thought it would make a unique setting for an erotic short, especially when I came up with the premise.

I love sale stories (ok I am just nosy!!) so can you tell us about your road to publication - and your call story?

I've wanted to write since I was in the first grade, but I didn't get serious about it until a few years ago. After completing a young adult fantasy fiction manuscript, I needed a fun read for a plane ride and picked up a romance for the first time in a decade. I got hooked all over again and decided to give romance writing a try. I've written about 400,000 words of romance in the last two years. Of course, it helps that my sons are now teenagers and I have a lot more flexibility.

The call? I actually got the email, LOL. But it was just as exciting. As I experiemented with romance, it became clear that I write to the steamy side ;). One day, when I was struggling with writer's block, I decided to write an erotic short to clear the fog. It worked, and that attempt became Seduced in Seoul. I submitted it to The Wild Rose Press, and my editor accepted it within a few weeks.

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!)

Well, anyone who knows me won't be surprised. One of my favorite books is Outlander by Diana Gabaldon, due solely to her marvelous hero, Jamie Fraser. And my fantasy squeeze? Gerard Butler. Check out my blog to see a wonderful picture of Gerard as Jamie Fraser. The best of both worlds, LOL!

What are you working on now?

My current WIP is an American western historical novella with a Native American hero. I'm also working on polishing a contemporary western that Silhouette requested at RWA Nationals.

How can readers keep up with your writing and books?

Go to my website, http://www.helenhardt.com/, where you'll find information on all my completed works and works in progress. I also have a myspace, www.myspace.com/helenhardt, so please friend me! And my blog, http://www.helensheroes.blogspot.com/, where I chat with authors about their heroes, post hunks on Wednesday, and share other information that (I hope) readers find interesting. I also have a free erotic short, Under the Moon, available at http://www.pinkchairdiaries.com/.

Coming Soon!

I've hit my stride with my next erotic romance. The characters won't leave me alone, and I'm thinking about them at all sorts of inappropriate moments, such as when I'm supposed to be helping my son with his homework or chatting to my daughters or husband. Luckily they're used to me living in my own little world and don't get too miffed when I'm clearly not with them!!

I had a little squeee moment over the weekend when I was browsing through the Wild Rose Press site and came upon My book! and Me! in the Coming Soon section! Yes that was a definite omg moment. So much so that I had to wake my husband up and drag him to the computer so he could witness this event!! I'm of the mind that there are so many setbacks along this road, that we have to take every little good thing and celebrate!!

Starquest - Hywela Lyn

I'm thrilled to welcome fellow Wild Rose Press author, Hywela Lyn, who has bravely agreed to answer my hard hitting interview questions!! Lyn's novel, Starquest, is being released today, Friday 29th August 2008, from The Wild Rose Press.

Lyn, over to you!

Thanks for inviting me, Christina. I'm really happy to be here, as well as being very excited about the release of my futuristic romance, 'Starquest'.


Can you tell us a little about your book, Starquest?

It's the story of a young woman's search for the man she loves. She has partially lost her memory and all she knows is that he is the second in command of a starship called 'The Destiny'. She has several adventures along the way, on strange and alien planets. Friendships are formed, sacrifices are made and before she finds her HEA she nearly loses everything before realising what she was searching for was closer than she suspected. I recently made a trailer which is up on my website and gives a 'flavour' of the story.

How did the idea for the plot come about?

It started as a short story. There was a certain actor I really fancied, and being keen on science fiction and fantasy, I set him aboard a starship and created a heroine for him to love. However. I grew even fonder of my heroine than I did of him, and at the end of the short story I knew there was more - much more. So I just kept on writing.

I love sale stories (ok I am just nosy!!) so can you tell us about your road to publication - and your call story?

I had several short stories published over the years and didn't do much with 'Starquest', other than give it to some friends to read. I actually put the original MS away in a drawer for several years, while I dealt with a personal tragedy, a move, three horses and a dog as well as a full time job. Then a few years ago, when I had married Dave and moved from Wales to England, my sister asked me if I would look after her house, dogs and horses in a remote and beautiful part of Wales, while she was in Canada for a month. Of course I jumped at the chance to go back to my beloved homeland. Leaving my long suffering husband, Dave to look after my own horses, my dog and I headed for Wales. I took Starquest along on disc and while I was there, completely revamped it. After finding a wonderful Scot to be my crit partner (we corresponded by email, but I did meet him and his wife when we visited Scotland) I sent it off to several British agents with no success. One evening, by chance, I saw the Wild Rose Press mentioned on one of the Writing Groups I belong to. I sent off an enquiry and was thrilled to be asked for a partial, and then the full. After several months, I had to go into hospital for an operation on my hip. The day I came out of hospital, Dave said there was an email from the Wild Rose Press. I couldn 't get to the computer physically, and he made me wait while he downloaded the whole document and printed it out. I didn't even know it was a Contract until he gave it to me to read! What a coming home present!

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!)

I don't watch much TV these days (I spend all my time on the pc). I've just read the 'Earthsea' series by Ursula Le Guin. Although it's not strictly speaking romance, it's a wonderful fantasy series and eventually the two main characters find each other again and realise their feelings for each other, even though it's a little late in life. I think my favourite romance of all time has to be 'Gone With The Wind', both the book and the movie. I love historical America and Westerns, I think it was such a romantic period of history. I read a wide variety of novels and love anything in the distant past or the far future. I'm not really one for contemporary stories, unless they're very well done. I don't really feel this century is a very romantic one although there are many wonderful authors out there who seem to be able to find romance in the most unlikely places. For me the setting and background need to be romantic too, either unspoilt landscapes or the beauty of space and the stars. I love a hero who is strong but gently - and a heroine who is also strong but feminine. I don't like heroes who are bullies or heroines who are so independent they have lost all their femininity. I like a heroine to be self-sufficient but to be able to ask for help when it's needed. I love that moment when the h and h realise they are more than just 'friends'.

What are you working on now?

I'm just starting work on the edits for the sequel to 'Starquest' 'Children Of The Mist'. I'm also mulling over a second story for the Wild Rose Press's 'Song Of The Muses' series and toying with an idea for a third story in the 'Starquest' series, although that's pretty tentative at the moment.

How can readers keep up with your writing and books?

I have a website: http://www.hywelalyn.com/ and a Blog: http://hywelalyn.blogspot.com/

I also have a My Space www.myspace.com/hywelalyn

I have a 'Starquest' My Space for my heroine: www.myspace.com/jestine_darnell

and one for the heroine of 'Dancing With Fate' my story in the muse series: www.myspace.com/terpsichoremuseofdance

I also have several Author Pages, including one at the Polka Dot Banner : http://www.polkadotbanner.com/

My Blog and the My Spaces can also be reached from my website.

Thanks so much
Lyn

Hostage to Pleasure

Hooray! The 5th full length entry in Nalini Singh's Psy/Changeling world is due to hit the shelves on September 2nd and Nalini's holding a fun contest on her blog all about being a hostage to pleasure with a great prize up for grabs (unfortunately the prize doesn't happen to be Lucas or Vaughn or Judd or Clay... but a girl can dream...!) So hop on over and enter!

RWNZ Conference 2008 Part Two

I though I'd post a few more photos from the conference. Here are three of the witches, Amanda, me and Sara, in our Saturday night finery.

One of the tea breaks where I consumed far too many yummy scones and cream than was good for me.












Amanda chatting to Jenny Hatton, assistant editor at Mills and Boon.

Here I am up on stage collecting my certificate for the Meet the Editor contest. From l-r Pam, Bron, Toni, Cindy Hwang (senior editor at Berkley) me and Anne Gracie, Prez of the RWAustralia who collected certificates for Aussie finalists could couldn't attend, and MC-ing was Tessa Radley. Ellie can just be seen standing off stage.

Cindy's feedback on my entry was priceless, and gave me a lot to think about!

Anyway back to reality! I've sent my revisions off to the witches for their input. I've also joined the Clayton's Conference for those not attending the Melbourne conf this weekend, run by the dynamic duo Sandie and RC. I don't know where they get their energy from but I wouldn't mind some of it!!!

We Have Cover!!!

While I was playing away at conference (I mean working hard at conference) my editor and cover artist, the fabulous Angela Anderson, created the most amazing cover for my book. It's dark and sexy and has the gothic feel I wanted. And just look at that brooding hero! OMG. I'm so in love with it. So are my two daughters and if it comes to that my husband is smitten too! Although I think he's probably more interested in the heroine but that's fine by me, as so far he's printed out three copies of the cover (one for me, one each for our girls) and used up all his coloured ink in the process. And didn't even mind!!!

I'd love to know what you think!

In other news I've also received my second round of edits so will be diving into them today. My editor hopes it won't be too long before details of Foretaste of Forever are up on TWRP website. Squeeeee!!! I've had so much excitement this week it's probably illegal!!

RWNZ Conference 2008

I remembered to take photos! Hooray!

Sara Hantz, Amanda Ashby and me, three of the witches (although fourth witch Pat was with us in spirit!) This was taken on Friday during tea break. The Friday all day workshop with Margie Lawson was phenomenal. Margie used to teach psychology and communication courses at post-graduate level, and her workshop showed us how to add power to our words by using fresh writing to evoke an instinctive and emotional response in the reader. If you ever have the chance to attend one of Margie's workshops - do it!!!! I had so many lightbulb moments during her workshop I sizzled.

Here I am with Giovanna Lee and Sara, all glammed up for the Saturday night Awards Dinner. The theme was Moonlight and Midnight and although it doesn't show in the photo, we all had silver glitter in our hair!










Ellie Huse, NZ contest co ordinator extraordinare!











Friday Night Cocktails with Mills and Boon fab author, Susan Napier. Yes I am holding two glasses of wine and no, they are not both mine!!! (I apologise for not being chronological about this, but blogger is a bugger for posting photos)














Here I am hanging out with the lovely Nalini Singh at the Harlequin Cocktail bash. Just one glass of wine this time.













Here are the London Chickies!!! Talking to the gorgeous Rachel Collins was just like talking to my mates back in sunny Croydon!













This was after the Saturday Awards dinner. I think I might have been sliding off my chair by this time, but the lovely Barb Jeffcott Geris gamely kept me propped upright for the photo!!














Amanda, Sara, Margie Lawson and yours truly.













Three of the Meet the Editor finalists - Toni, me and Pam. Thank you Suzanne Perazzini for taking the photo!

Carolyn, Sandy and multi-pubbed author and editor at The Wild Rose Press (not my editor though!) Cheryl Wright. Aka The Aussie Quartet (minus one - I was taking the photo). We did grab hold of an innocent bystander to take another one of all of us together (and yes funny you should ask he did so happen to be young and male... and appeared a bit terrified as we yelled and beckoned him over!) But I decided to go for this one as I looked well past my sell by date in the other. This was Sunday night after the conference had finished, and almost everyone had gone home. We had dinner and a great chinwag. It was fantastic, and a brilliant way to end an amazing weekend.

I arrived home late Monday night, and didn't check my mail until Tuesday. And I have the most exciting news to share!!! And I'm going to share it tomorrow!!!

Countdown...Two Days

Only two days to go until I'm on my way to New Zealand! There's only one direct flight a day from WA to NZ which is the reason why I'm landing in Auckland at the ungodly hour of 5.45am Thursday morning. Urgh. I really hope the hotel has our room ready early for me, since all I'll want to do when I arrive is collapse!

Just to make things more interesting, daughter #2 was ill with tonsilitis last week. Being a good kind mama, I told her to keep away from me as I didn't want to catch her germs. heh heh. She retaliated by passing it onto her brother. So I now have my son off school with tonsilitis and another associated throat infection, both offspring on antibiotics and I, of course, feel like my eyes are filled with scratching insects and my head is throbbing. If that's not enough, eldest child is moving out tomorrow and is not best pleased that I won't be around for the rest of the week to help her move into her new place. Yes, it's all happening this week, and did I mention my husband decided to rip out the family bathroom? The house looks like a train wreck!!!

San Fran Updates

Unfortunately not from me... since I didn't go...! but if you want to see some pics then Sara Hantz, Nalini Singh and Shelley Munro have posted some great ones. Definitely looks like a great time was had by all!

My first round of edits are done and dusted, and my editor says she is looking forward to reading them! That gave me a bit of a thrill. I should really be getting on with something else but all I can think about is the NZ conference next week and meeting up with everyone again. I'm also wondering whether or not Customs will stop me again. I don't think I look especially suspicious, but apparently I do!!

Good News & Scarlet Rose Editors

There's been soooo much good news coming from San Fran over the weekend, it's making me more jealous than ever that I couldn't make it this year! First of all EC and Berkley author Denise Rossetti won the Passionate Plume Futuristic/Fantasy/SF award for Tailspin and the lovely Anna Campbell won Best long historical for the Booksellers Best Awards with her dark Regency Claiming the Courtesan. Aussie Catherine got The Call face to face from Kathleen Scheibling, editor of Harlequin American Romance, and then NZer Sandra received The Call at 7am in her hotel room from Melissa Jeglinski, editor of Silhouette Desire. I foresee much partying at the NZ conference in celebrations!!!

I also want to give a shout out to fellow Wild Rose Press author Maggie Toussaint. Her novel, House of Lies, won the Best Romantic Suspense for the Readers Choice Awards. She was in the most excellent company, and finalled alongside Roxanne St Claire. Well done Maggie!!!

For anyone interested in how editors' minds work, there's a great interview over at The Wild Rose Press with the Scarlet Rose editors from the erotic romance line. You can catch their words of wisdom here.

Scarlet Roses

It's Hot in August in the Garden.

If you love Erotic Romance, join the authors of the Wilder Roses for

31 Sultry Scarlet Nights!

31 days of scorching hot downloads from Scarlet Rose - the erotic romance line of
The Wild Rose Press.

Each day stop by the Wilder Roses blog and post a comment on the day's topic. A winner will be drawn each night to receive a digital title from the Scarlet Rose catalog.

For a second chance to win, stop by

The Wilder Roses Yahoo loop.

Each night a winner will be drawn from those who posted during the day.

There will also be a grand prize at the end of the month. For everyone who participated throughout the month, you will be entered into a drawing for a Frederick's of Hollywood Gift Certificate! It's easy to enter for the daily give-a-ways and the grand prize. Your participation will automatically enter you.



http://www.thewilderroses.com/

Conferences & Email or lack thereof

So the San Fran conference is upon us which means nearly everyone I know has flown off to the US!! Lucky things. I'm looking forward to detailed reports and lots of photos next week.

And my email isn't working. The internet is, but not my email. I kept hitting Send/Receive in the hope I might trick it and the server would magically let my emails through, but nope. I hate not getting my emails, I feel very isolated. And besides, I might have a Very Important Email out there in cyberspace, just sort of floating around and it makes me twitchy. I tried fiddling with all the connections and rebooting the computer but obviously it needs a sniff of a Y chromosone before complying. Blahhhhhh.

The NZ conference is in two and a half weeks and I've already started packing. Well sort of. Just getting the toiletry bits and pieces together. I have a paranoid fear of forgetting something desperately important (such as shampoo because, after all, it's impossible to buy shampoo in NZ... er, yeah...) well anyway. I find it exciting seeing my hot purple luggage out, and since it's out I might as well start to fill it!!

Revisions!

I got my revisions for Foretaste of Forever today and couldn't wait to dive in (after I'd had a bit of a squee with the witches of course!) My editor had a few questions about various aspects and I've really enjoyed delving deeper into my characters world. She also had a great suggestion for the beginning and I can't wait to get stuck into that, although it will probably have to wait until Monday when I'm alone in the house (more steamy sex is required and my son has this scary tendancy to creep up behind me when I'm on the computer - not something I want him doing when I'm trying to write hot!)

Author Promotion

If you are an author looking for ways to promote your book, then rush over to Shelley's blog, where she has the amazing Marcia James offering all kinds of fabulous advice for writers at all stages of their career. In her previous life Marcia had a career in marketing and advertising and loves PR almost as much as writing her 'hot humorous romances' for Cerridwen Press.

But that's not all! Marcia is also generously giving away her 150+ page file of author promotion information to any author who requests it. Hop over to read all the details!

Foretaste of Forever Blurb

It occurred to me that I hadn't posted a blurb of Foretaste of Forever anywhere - oops! So I've added it to the sidebar.

I'm still struggling with the wip, although I have no idea why since I love this one so much. It just seems the words don't love me quite so much as I'm having a hell of time getting them down on the screen!

The Big Read

Saw this listing on Amanda's blog so decided to do mine here!

The Big Read, an initiative by the National Endowment for the Arts, has estimated that the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books they've printed. How do you do?

1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicize those you intend to read.
3) Underline the books you LOVE.

I just bolded the ones I've read, mainly because when I copied and pasted the list instead of it being all nice and neat it turned into one huge nightmare paragraph that I had to defrag... so I can't be bothered with underlining and italicising!!!

1 Pride and Prejudice
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 - I don't know what happened to #51
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones's Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte's Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

Pages, Chocolate and Links

And whoops! There goes another week!

Because I slacked off badly the week after the last challenge, I went and signed up for a new one on Monday. This is run by the same ladies who organised the 50k in 30 Days Challenge and my personal goal is to write four new pages each day. Very doable. So long as I, you know, actually do it! And I need to if I want to get this book finished before the New Zealand conference - I fly five weeks today! Squee!!!

And now for some randomness. Shelley had the most fantastico ad on her blog the other day. It was advertising chocolate (I remember that only because it was chocolate!!) but really it didn't matter in the least what it was trying to sell, since the ad itself is priceless. Doesn't hurt that the music is classic Phil Collins either!!! I keep hopping over to watch it here.

And also Patwitch has finally succumbed to the Dark Side and taken up blogging!

Countdown Complete

Where did June go? Did I fall into a coma half way through and not realise??

I can't believe another month has flashed by. This is getting seriously scary!! Just as scary is the fact I didn't quite manage to complete my 50ks in 30 Days. At the half way point I'd reached just over the 25k mark, so I was on track. But the final week conspired against me (and here I'm going to rack my brains to think of every excuse possible. Ha!) Okay I won't use excuses. I didn't cross the finish line but having said that, I'm very happy with what I achieved last month.

Not only did I crack the dead body story (maybe I should retitle that one The Dead Body That Never Was), I also wrote a second erotic romance (thank you Meat Loaf), and last week dived back into my paranormal. Not only that, but for a couple of nights during the final week I was writing my para during the day and my contemp at night - a first for me but I'm trying to make some good habits!

So a big Thank You to the lovely ladies who organised the challenge, and kept the blog and loop hopping. I wrote a lot more this month than I have for ages - 43,397 words.

I also want to send out a huge *~*~CONGRATULATIONS~*~* to all the girls who reached their own personal goals for the month of June, and those who hit the 50k. There were also several who wrote waaaay more than 50k and I have to give a special mention to RC who managed to hit 100k with about half an hour to go!

The Wild Rose Press SONY eReader

I've not come to a standstill on my writing, but it's slowed down quite a bit this last week. It would be nice to say it's because I'm doing revisions but that would be a Big Fat Lie and very wrong of me. It's going to be tight to reach the 50k goal by 30th June but I haven't given up the race yet!!

I received the score sheets for the MTE contest and the encouraging comments from the judges were just amazing. It gave me added enthusiasm to dive back into the story and it's great to know complete strangers actually enjoyed my writing and wanted to read more!!

In other news, The Wild Rose Press are holding a drawing to win a SONY eReader, which looks rather fabulous. Full details are here.

Contests & Challenges

My little piece of good writing news from 18th June is that I'm one of the finalists in the Romance Writers of New Zealand's Meet the Editor contest. This is the contest I had such fun with a few weeks ago trying to figure out the formatting! I'm pretty excited by finalling as it means my pages are winging their way to Cindy Hwang, executive editor at Berkley Publishing, for her comments. The finalists also get the chance to chat to Cindy at the NZ conference about their pages. Doubly exciting!!

This means that I've gone back to that story, which I left at the end of May a quarter written. I did originally mean to tackle it for my June Challenge, but became sidetracked with a contemp romance (and I'm not complaining because that dead body had been haunting me since last October. Am very glad to have sorted that problem out!!)

So adding together the words I managed on the contemp romance, the second short erotic paranormal I wrote last week and the new chapter I've written on the paranormal I entered into the contest, I'm just about still on track to get my 50k in 30 days. If I manage that, it will be the most I've written in one month for ages. Hooray!

18th June 2008

Today has been a Very Good Day!!!

First of all, it's my 25th wedding anniversary. Aside from the fact it's impossible I've been married for 25 years (seeing how I am only 29!) I can't believe it was a quarter of a century ago we actually got married! Doesn't time fly when you're having fun!

Then I received some very exciting writing related news which was a lovely pressie to wake up to today of all days (more about that later!) and then this evening TWRP uploaded my author page on their site! Check it out here!

Challenge & Website Update

After the excitement of the last week, I got a bit behind in my 50k challenge. On Thursday I decided to put aside the novel I'd been working on, and started a new paranormal erotic romance (thank you, Meat Loaf!!!) Yes, I'd once again been listening to Bat Out of Hell while burning the dinner. It's coming along nicely although I haven't quite worked out how the hero and heroine will end up together. Unless I kill them off. Now there's a thought!

My husband has always been very supportive of my writing, but on Saturday his support took on a whole new level. Before leaving for work he told our son he was not to watch tv in the theatre room today because Mum was working (my desk is in the corner of that room). It was a little thing, and yet huge. Just to be on the safe side I barricaded myself into my corner by angling the sofa so no one (iow my son) could creep up behind me and lurk over my shoulder. I still haven't quite recovered from the time he was in Year 3 and told his teacher and the entire class that his mum spent all day on the computer writing sex.

I've also updated my website. Yet again! The lovely Rach suggested I post my sale story, so that's up there now under Articles.

Thank You!!

Thank you to everyone who sent congratulations and good wishes on my blog and privately on my sale to The Wild Rose Press! I've been getting quite tearful over the last couple of days!

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And I got all tearful again today, when the lovely witches sent me these beautiful flowers. Aren't they gorgeous? As if that wasn't enough they even specifically asked for irises (the irises are all in bud at the moment so I'm looking forward to them blooming tomorrow!

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Because my editor uses track changes, and I've never got around to using them (and you can bet I now regret laughing at Sara four years ago when she tried to educate me in that direction!!) I've been taking a crash course. The online tutorial was in double dutch, but thankfully the ever patient Sara and Shelley (who both deserve medals of endurance) have come to my rescue. It's actually quite a cool function once I got past the freak factor!
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My eldest daughter told her friends I had sold, and apparently they are in mild shock that Mrs Phillips *could* write such things. *cough* My brother, bless him, asked if it was autobiographical.
.

He was joking. I think.

SOLD!!!

MySpace Glitters

Yes, it's finally happened!!! Today I sold a paranormal erotic romance to The Wild Rose Press and I am so excited I can hardly sit still!

The email arrived this morning (on a Sunday!!) and after I recovered from a mild panic attack I bravely opened it up. To a contract!!! And to My Editor (omg I can hardly believe I have an editor!) saying lovely things about my story!!! She called it 'an interesting blend of smoky eroticism and a dramatic look into the dark world of vampires and witchcraft.' Squeeee!!!!!

Thankfully I managed to flush out the witches so we could all squeee together because it's much more fun that way!!

So now I'm waiting for edits! OMG!

Update

The first week of the challenge is going well and I've managed to clock up over 15,000 words. This puts me ahead of myself which is just as well as I never seem to get much writing done on Sundays.

Did you notice I was very clever and put the 50k in 30 days widget on my blog! Thanks to Sandie who created it (I have no idea how these things work, I just copy the coding!!)

And We're Off

Usually I don't manage to write a word on Sundays, seeing as it tends to be the only day my husband has off and I always do a full Sunday roast no matter what the weather. But yesterday I was very good and did 2410 words. I think they might even be quite passable words too!

We have word meters up on the Challenge blog and it does look good to see them slowly move upwards. Today, I fully intended to try for another thousand, despite the huge turkey I had to prepare for dinner, but things didn't quite go to plan.

My son had his friend round, and while I can just about tune out the sound of the tv in the background, combined with two thirteen year old boys laughing and carrying on about two feet behind my chair was pushing my powers of concentration too far. I got 771 words down and gave it up as a lost cause.

But I'm still pretty happy with the total so far so, and am even happier with the fact I had two fulls requested from two different publishers on Saturday!

50ks in 30 Days June Challenge

Yes it's official. I'm completely insane, as I put my hand up a while ago to join the 50ks in 30 Days challenge, along with many other equally insane ladies! haha, just kidding girls!!

Actually this is exactly what I need, since my writing has been sluggish (that's putting it kindly) just lately. I did intend to plough onwards with my paranormal, but in the middle of this week I had an epiphany (I blame it on the Romance Roadshow!!!) and went back to my Bloody Dead Body Book.

The good news there is I've broken the block and I think the body has resolved itself. Hooray. I hate letting a book beat me. I've also written about 5k new words on that one over the last couple of days so it looks like that's the book I'll be continuing with for the month of June.

Of course there's still two days to go before we press our noses to the grindstone, or the computer keyboard, so who knows which book I might be writing by then... probably a completely new one!

RWA Romance Roadshow 2008

The RWA Romance Roadshow hit Perth yesterday, and what a fabulous day it was. The full day's programme was hosted by Trish Morey, award winning, best selling author of Harlequin Presents, Marion Lennox, double RITA winner and author of both Harlequin Romance and Mills & Boon Medicals, and award winning, multi-published Prez of the RWAus, Anne Gracie.

We were split into two streams for some of the workshops - First Date for those starting out, and Serious Seduction for those who had been writing for a while and were looking to move to the next level. Or as the programme put it - time to meet mother. Ha ha!

Trish gave great workshops on how to create sexual tension and ending your novel with a bang no, not that sort of a bang!! although thinking about it, why not?! We also had Writing the Synopsis with Anne which I nearly chickened out of since I truly hate the things.

There were also goodie bags stuffed with exciting pressies, and lots of giveaways throughout the day.

It was great to meet up with other writers in WA, and put faces to names I knew through meeting on-line. I not only remembered to take my camera but I also took pictures! Five in fact. Hooray!

I was so knackered when I got home last night I was in bed by nine. Pathetic! Twelve hours later my gorgeous husband brought us coffee and croissants in bed. Yummm!

But when we plugged the camera chip into the computer, disaster struck. For a few brief glorious seconds I saw the photos - and they were fab (I can say that because of what comes next...) There was one of me being a total fan girl with Trish and Anne, and of Marion signing her book for me. Another good one showed me with Nikki Benyon (we got the train up together). Then... everything vanished. And I mean everything. All the pictures on the chip disappeared, not just the ones from the Roadshow but all the ones from when my aunt was over earlier this month.

Now that's terrible enough (and I had many wobbly moments) BUT what was even worse - in a way I suppose - was my husband's business accounts on the computer hard drive also vanished. Oh. My. God.

So that's why this post is photo-less and I am Deeply Distressed by that fact!!! and my husband is quite distressed too but for different reasons!!

A Snark by Any Other Name?

I just came across a link over at Shelley's titled ... Query Shark.

I'd never seen this one before so went to have a look. And my question is - IS it or ISN'T it her?!

***Edited to Add***

I totally pinched this link from Barrie. It's a tribute to the one and only Miss Snark by Patricia Wood. Miss Snark pops up in the comment trail - what fun!

Contest

Somehow, and I'm not entirely sure how, the witches have persuaded me to enter a writing competition. This momentous decision was made this morning, and I spent the rest of the day fiddling about with the entry.

I'm not exaggerating here, I'm being literal. Whenever I was at the computer, I was either tweaking my pages or shooting off rabid little missives along the lines of... how do I get my header on the right hand side of the page instead of the left (I had many far stupider questions, believe me, but I'm just not brave enough to display my ignorance here!!!) Despite feeling bad about interrupting Amanda because she's neck deep in the most amazing revisions, I still bugged her (because I'm nice like that!)

Truth is, I don't do contests because the formatting rules give me palpitations. I can get quite paranoid and at one point poor Sara actually printed out one of my pages, got a ruler and measured how many cms my margins were. *cough*

So, given all this drama, was this a competition for a full manuscript? Um, no.

It's for the first five pages. But in my defence, those first five pages are now sooo much stronger than they were yesterday!!!

Locked Out

We've had no phone or internet access since early Saturday morning and I have been going insane. A few hours is bad enough but more than three whole days? If that wasn't bad enough our mobile phones decided that although they were quite happy to connect to the UK, they couldn't send a simple text across the ditch to NZ.

So what did I do with all this unexpected free time on my hands (when I say free time, I mean of course the time I usually spend replying to emails and blog slutting around). Now, in my mind I knew I should have spent it on my wip. And I did. Sort of. A little bit. Okay, not very much and now I have a severe case of the guilts.

Still, I have been progressing with the wip as per the witches crits of last week and have to say I'm much happier with the way it's shaping up, so hopefully that will be winging its way back to them shortly! (Yes I'm nice like that, I do like to share!!)

Why I Need my Amazing CPs!!

I finally got back to my wip today, and it's a fantastic feeling to be writing again. Much as I enjoyed last week, I was becoming a bit frazzled around the edges at the prolonged absence from the computer!

The wonderful witches read through the first 70 odd pages of my current paranormal and sent back their crits last week. I was kind of stunned by the feedback. We've been cps for several years, and I can honestly say that in all that time I've never had such similar comments, noted in the identical paragraps, from the three of them. It was uncanny, and that's putting it mildly!

Thankfully it wasn't the plot they had problems with so much as the pacing. Strangely enough, I'd stalled on this one just before I sent it off to them but I couldn't put my finger on why I was finding it so hard to push forward. Their comments activated major light bulb moments and reassured me that, far from showing way too much of what was going on too soon, in fact I hadn't shown nearly enough. *Ahem* make that shown so little, they weren't at all sure what was going on at all!!!

Not only that, but it's also helped me to dig far deeper into my hero's psyche to discover what's making him tick, and hopefully this is going to help strengthen the core conflict with his heroine.

When I sent this off for critting, I went back to another (linked) para romance, but the suggested revisions on ms #2 have reignited my original excitement over this story - which is always a good thing - and I can't wait to tackle all the points raised.

I know not every writer wants or needs cps, but I definitely do need mine, and thank god they aren't shy about telling me straight when things aren't working for them!

Conferences

Well, I posted off my form for the RWA Roadshow which is coming to Perth next month, so am pretty excited about that. The other thing I'm pretty excited about is the strong possibility I'm going to the RWNZ conference in August! My husband truly is a saint.

So, only another four months until I get together again with Amanda and Sara and we can get happily plastered *ahem* I mean do plenty of brainstorming. It will also be great to see all the other ladies I briefly met last year. Hopefully this year I won't be so brain dead and will actually remember to take lots of photos of everyone!

Procrastination yet again... it's becoming a habit

The only problem with taking a hiatus from writing is... well, it can be kind of hard to get back into the swing of it again. Take today for example. I was all fired up to get out really early, take daughter #2 to catch the 7.30 train (ok so that's not really early, but close enough!!) go to the gym, get the shopping and be home before 9.30 to squeeze in a couple of hours writing before taking my son round to his friend's.

So what did I do?

Everything but the writing. Sigh.

Yesterday, just to refresh my mind, I read the last chapter and actually really enjoyed it. Unfortunately it didn't make me want to carry on writing it, just carry on reading it. But until I've put words on document that just isnt going to happen. Partly my reluctance to continue (apart from the fact I'm just a completely lazy moo, of course!) is wondering whether Nocturne will be even the slightest bit interested in my Bite. My wip is located in the same world, and the hero in this one was a minor character in that one.

I've decided that if Nocturne pass, I'm going to revamp the Bite into a full length novel and submit to agents, because despite evidence to the contrary (!!) I am very much in love with all these characters and the various strange plot ideas churning around my mind. All I have to do is work out in which order these events happen, and how on earth my hero and heroine are going to manage their HEA, considering the fate I have in mind for them at the moment...

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!!