Here's to 2008!!

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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!*




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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...