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!

Zombies Rule - Too Cool for School!

Fellow witch Amanda is having a cracker of a week - after a truly fabulous four and a half stars review for You Had me at Halo from no less than the Romantic Times, her agent has just sold Amanda's brilliant zombie YA novel in a two book deal to Puffin!

Go, Amanda!

Zombie Queen of Newbury High!!

Halo Honey

Check out Amanda's blog for the cutest promo idea ever!! I love it and I want one. Like, Right Now!!!

Second Virginity Cover!!

Fellow witch Sara Hantz finally has the cover for her debut YA novel - and it's absolutely perfect! I still can't upload pics but you can see it here. Aren't those cherries just too cool?? So exciting!

PS - I can now upload pics! Hooray!

Not a lot been happening on the writing front just lately, but I've been messing about with my Bebo account, and let me tell you, as a tool of procrastination there's not much that beats it!

Kanga Oooh!

I was driving my son to school this morning, and as we turned off the horrifically busy dual carriageway into the main road of a new estate that's being built, a HUGE kangaroo suddenly bounded across the road. The car in front of me slammed on the brakes, I slammed on the brakes, and all but climbed out of the window in excitement.

OMG! A kangaroo! He leapt across the road and into the scrubby bush beyond the school. But god knows where the poor bugger thought he was going, as within two minutes he'd hit another housing estate.

We've lived in Australia for over eight and a half years, and that's the first time anything like that's happened to me. There are wild kangaroos who frequent various golf ranges (not that I play golf but the one time I accompanied my brother it's kind of intimidating having those enormous bucks staring you down), and for sure you see them more frequently once you get more into the country (again - not that I ever have, discounting the distressingly high level of road kill) Just don't expect anything like that to happen when you're mere feet from roads which are close cousins to motorways.

It's an awful shame so much of their habitat is being eroded. I keep hoping this kangaroo had the sense to turn round and go back the way he came, because he was heading directly into the city. But having said that, I must admit seeing him quite made my day!

Agent Idol

So, I was chatting to Sara earlier today about the RWNZ conference in August, and getting very excited about it all, when somehow - and I'm not at all sure how - I found myself persuaded to enter the Agent two page critique workshop being held early on the Saturday morning.

This is a kind of Agent Idol, where the agent cold reads two pages of your manuscript and then proceeds to tell (everyone) whether or not it grabs her attention. An amazing opportunity to witness the workings of a top agent's mind to be sure, but is this something I'm quite up for?!

In fact the only reason I'm going along with it is because Kristin Nelson seems such a lovely person that I'm quite positive she won't morph into a scarified version of Simon Cowell once she starts reading the pages. And - I think - the pages are submitted anonymously so if i just sit there with a paper bag over my head no one will be any the wiser should she get to mine. Mind you the title of the workshop is a little eye popping - Cereal Killers - just hope that refers to the ungodly hour rather than anything else...

Waiting Game

With two requested fulls and a couple of requested partials out with agents, I'm in a permanent state of excited anticpation mixed with terror. Every time I turn on the computer my stomach churns in case I have an email from an agent. Then when I do have an email from an agent, I have to Gird My Loins before I open it. But I'm determined that this time around I am NOT giving up after hitting double figures. I really have to give Neo the best chance possible and getting fed up with the whole submission process within a month or so isn't exactly the way to go about things, especially since this ms is getting quite a bit of interest and positive comments.

In other news, my printer finally gave me the finger last night and gave up its coil. Gah. Will have to postpone any snail subs I had in mind for the time being. I also took some pics of the new office but unfortunately mislaid the digital camera immediately afterwards so have yet to upload! It's nice to be so organised!

Room with a View (of the side fence...)

When my two girlies left home three weeks ago, I was far from celebrating *sniffle*. Another milestone and not one I espeically wanted to cross thank you very much. But there you go. On the upside, they moved in together with another friend, their house is only five minutes away by car, and so far I've seen almost as much of them as I ever did when they lived at home.

Their moving out left us with a couple of spare rooms. OMG. So much spare space, my poor brain couldn't quite cope. After moving darling son into the larger room, my husband and I decided we would finally Have Our Very Own Office. Hooray! Up until now we've both had our desks and computers at the back of the family room which makes it very, umm, cosy but horribly messy.

So over the last week we've been shifting stuff, he's been decorating like a thing possessed and at the weekend we moved into the back bedroom. It's fantastic. At last I've got walls where I can display all my incredibly important bits and pieces (aka pics of my babies when they really WERE babies) plus spread out my books! Oh yay.

Now all I need to do is buckle down and write something but alas I think my muse has buggered off.

le sigh.

Slave to Sensation

I've just finished reading Nalini Singh's Slave to Sensation and all I can say is Oh My God. What a fabulous start to a new series. Lucas is one totally hot hero, Alpha to the core but sooo adorably protective of Sascha I completely melted. I'm already chomping at the bit to pay another online visit to Rendevous so I can snap up book 2, Visions of Heat, which looks just as riveting. And can I just say I hope Hawke is going to have his story told... hmmm??

Here's the blurb:

In a world that denies emotions, where the ruling Psy punish any sign of desire, Sascha Duncan must conceal the feelings that brand her as flawed. To reveal them would be to sentence herself to the horror of “rehabilitation”— the complete psychic erasure of everything she ever was….

Both human and animal, Lucas Hunter is a Changeling hungry for the very sensations the Psy disdain. After centuries of uneasy co-existence, these two races are now on the verge of war over the brutal murders of several Changeling women. Lucas is determined to find the Psy killer who butchered his packmate, and Sascha is his ticket into their closely guarded society. But he soon discovers that this ice-cold Psy is very capable of passion—and that the animal in him is fascinated by her. Caught between their conflicting worlds, Lucas and Sascha must remain bound to their identities—or sacrifice everything for a taste of darkest temptation…

Claiming the Courtesan

Hooray! At last I've read Anna Campbell's debut, Claiming the Courtesan (an Avon Romantic Treasure), and oh wow. It was well worth the wait. If you love hot romance, dark, tortured heroes and heroines who are anything but meek and accommodating, I thoroughly recommend this fabulous book.

Here's the enticing blurb... have been trying to upload the book cover but for some reason blogger is hating me today. Ho hum!

He would marry her, and possess her in every way possible.

The Duke of Kylemore knows her as Soraya, London’s most celebrated courtesan. Men fight duels to spend an hour in her company. And only he comes close to taming her. Flying in the face of society, he decides to make her his bride; then, she vanishes, seemingly into thin air.

Dire circumstances have forced Verity Ashton to barter her innocence and change her name for the sake of her family. But Kylemore destroys her plans for a respectable life when he discovers her safe haven. He kidnaps her, sweeping her away to his isolated hunting lodge in Scotland, where he vows to bend her to his will.

There he seduces her anew. Verity spends night after night in his bed… and though she still plans her escape, she knows she can never flee the unexpected, unwelcome love for the proud, powerful lover who claims her both body and soul.

And for my Next Trick...

I was thrilled to get a request for the full the other day, and dutifully checked both paper and ink levels. yep okay there. Bought a huge envelope. Started to read through the manuscript (yet again. I just can't seem NOT to read through it every time it's requested which means of course I'm sick to death of the thing).

So today I start printing and what happens when I get to page 20? Well, the printer decides to go on strike. bloody hell. I can't believe it. I've tried being nice to it, shouting obscenities at it, and giving its lid a few well placed bashes, but all to no avail. It's so annoying and frustrating because I can't see what the problem is (apart, of course, that it's NOT PRINTING). The green light is flashing away, mocking me which means it's plugged in (first question my other half will ask... ha!)

So I'm pretty pissed off at the moment as I'd planned to have this in the post this afternoon. Now I have to wait until my techno genius gets home to figure it out (and I bet it will be something really simple which will just make me madder than ever!)

I Married A Genius

No I haven't quite died a cyber death, but man it's been close. Good thing I happened to marry not only a Sheer Genius but someone with so much patience he obviously got my share as well. Said Sheer Genius spent so many hours sorting out the computer and my website (which for some mysterious and very annoying reason keeps deciding to vanish everytime I upload something to it. Hence, I haven't tried to fiddle with it for the last three weeks!) it was giving me a headache. But unlike me, he doesn't scream at the computer screen, froth at the mouth or tear his hair at technical glitches. He just sits there and does all kinds of incomprehensible things until it's sorted. Like I said, I married a Genius. Heh heh!

On the writing front, I finished the YA romance within three weeks and then spent at least that length again honing the blurb. And as for the title, well let's just Not Go There. I've never had so much trouble over a title, and titles are always something I struggle with but this one - unbelievable. My daughter even ended up asking her boyfriend for ideas!

So now it's onto the agent search and wait. So far I've had a very nice request rate so perhaps my blurb was worth all the blood sweat and tears after all!

Gremlins in the Works

Okay not quite gremlins. More like spiders. In my computer tower. Like, eew!!!

No wonder I was having so many computer woes!!

As my sister in law said it puts a whole new spin on the term web site!

Hopefully I'll soon be sorted again, as currently I'm working on two different computers, backing up all over the place (which is not a bad thing, but with my memory is very stressful as I try to remember where my most recent version now is!) and my emails are landing everywhere.

On the writing front, I've been very bad and put Angel to one side to work on my YA. Hopefully I'll have that one finished within the next couple of weeks and then it will be back to Angel. At least that's the plan, and a girl has to have a plan doesn't she?