I am so fickle. Back in November I was NEVER eBaying again. I'd been burned. Fleeced. Taken. Never again, I cried.

Fast forward three months and, yes, the wounds had healed and I saw these charms I really, really, really wanted for the book bracelet I was putting together. I took a deep breath, held my nose and plunged back in.

So glad I did because the charms I "won" (that term with auctions always makes me smile) are bee-yutiful and today I picked up the bracelet with them added and it is bee-yutiful. I bought the base bracelet and a few charms in London last year. My aim is to add a charm representing each of my books but I'm still playing catch up on the older books. I know the symbols I want, just haven't been able to find them yet. I am gradually getting there.

Cute, isn't it? And it looks even better in real life. And every time I look at it, the symbolic charms remind me of each of those stories and that makes me smile. Which is always a good thing. Anyone want to hazard a guess at which charm represents which book?

PS: also had my nails done today. The polish colour: Nice Colour, Eh? No, seriously, that IS the name of the colour. :-)

Labels: shopping

I have drawn the winners of two Aussie Packs, courtesy of my Australia Day contest. They are:

1. The Blog Draw: congratulations to Earlene, whose comment in the Back In Fortune's Bed, Briefly post was attached to the lucky number drawn.

2. The Reader Draw: the winner is Tobi Dunbar. Congrat's Tobi!

Thanks to everyone who entered and I hope you will continue to drop by and chat about whatever catches my fancy. There will be more spot giveaways, whenever that notion catches my fancy, so stay tuned.

Labels: Back In Fortune's Bed, contest, giveaway

This week I received quite a number of the distinctive yellow envelopes which contain Harlequin foreign editions.

I love receiving these, knowing my books are out there in so many world markets, and I hope that feeling never grows old. This weekend I've opened all the envelopes. At first I thought: Oh. They've made a mistake and send several batches of the same book. Bummer. But on closer inspection I noted the two different cover pictures--both with the same flurry of snowflakes, I might add--AND the seven different titles.

I now have the full set of Scandinavian translations (Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland) for The Rich Stranger and The Ruthless Groom. I also received The Rich Stranger, UK edition, and The Ruthless Groom in German, as well as Just A Taste from Greece and Poland. I'm including the two snowflake covers, just because it's a rottenly hot and dusty day here in Australia. The snowflakes--and some yummy passionfruit yoghurt ice-cream--are helping make it bearable.

Labels: foreign translations, Harlequin, Just A Taste, The Rich Stranger, The Ruthless Groom

No, I'm not at the beach today. I'm sitting here in my office chair avoiding the heat and dust and flies that represent summer where I live, and doing a thousand-and-one accumulated business tasks. Then I have a synopsis to write. IOW, I'm procrastinating.

Anyway. I realised that although I blogged about heading off on the beach holiday, and I blogged about some of the non-beach activities, I didn't actually mention the beach. So here it is. The beach. From where I reclined in a rented lounger under a rented beach umbrella (I don't do baking in the sun anymore), watching the world dawdle by. I did swim. Despite the bluebottles and the announcements from the Surf Lifesavers that we shouldn't worry. The suckers sting, but once you've ridden the pain you'll be okay. Nice to know, although I'm not a fan of pain.

I took a book, natch, but spent more time people watching. Seeing what *they* were reading. Watching more athletic people than I running and playing beach volleyball and surfing. In the picture you can see a group of school kids heading into the water with their boards. We figured it had to be school sports afternoon. How lucky are they, surfing?

Labels: Australian life, beach, holidays

...has 21 light bulbs, according to a story on tonight's news. I just did a count and, guess what? Our home has exactly 21 light bulbs. I guess I can honestly say that I live in "an average Australian home."

There was a reason for the news story, by the way. In a world first, the Australian government is phasing out the manufacture and use of ordinary light bulbs. Over the next two years they'll be replaced by fluorescent alternatives which will greatly reduce the greenhouse emissions/global warming thing. By 2009 we will all be using the safer, cooler, more energy-efficient model and the old ones will be banned.

I love my country.

Labels: Australian life

Firstly, I'm thrilled to see that Back In Fortune's Bed is #2 on the Borders/Waldenbooks Series Bestsellers List for the week ending February 10.

Secondly, I've told a little about the book in Access Romance's Tell Tale with another opportunity to win an Aussie Pack.

Labels: Back In Fortune's Bed

Two things:

First up. Today I'm doing Thursday Talk Time at The Pink Heart Society blog.

Secondly, details on my Australia Day contest. Better late than never, yes? In penance for my tardiness, I am offering two chances to win an Aussie Romance Pack with great romantic reads and other goodies from down-under.

1. The Blog Draw. One winner will be drawn from all comments on my blog between January 26 and February 25.
2. The Readers Draw. For this you will need a copy of Back In Fortune's Bed...or be a very good guesser. To enter, email me the answer to this: name one of the gifts Max sends Diana in his seductive campaign.

Both lucky winners will be announced on my blog on February 25.

Labels: Back In Fortune's Bed, contest, giveaway

I celebrated early, as it happens, with a delish dinner at a harbourside restaurant last week and then at the annual Harlequin Australia Valentine's Ball.

Held in the Australian Museum--a superbly atmospheric venue--we dined, we wined, we talked (a lot), we danced (not quite as much), and afterward the authors who attended got together to continue the talking part (see picture.) In case you're wondering about the pink Ninja look: all the guests received a gift pack which included his-and-hers gowns. We couldn't get any of the "his" side to model but we all look gorgeously pink and shimmery, don't we?
The picture is courtesy of HM&B Medicals author Fiona Lowe and features new Desire author Paula Roe, Medicals author Amy Andrews, Elizabeth Rolls who writes HM&B Historicals, Robyn Grady who sold recently to both Desire and M&B Modern Extra (the clever chickie!), Fiona Lowe, myself, Presents author Annie West and her bodyguard, and another Presents author, my buddy Trish Morey. The second photo is of Trish and me, courtesy of Annie West, and was appropriately titled The Sparkly Twins. Thank you Harlequin for the splendid night where we all sparkled.

I hope you all enjoyed celebrating Valentine's Day as much as we did!

Labels: Harlequin authors, Harlequin Ball, Valentine's Day

I've seen the iconic Sydney landmark more times than I can count, yet I still reach for my camera and click-click-click every time I'm this close. It's just so...Sydney. The skyline would be empty without those white sails, and I guess that is why the Opera House appears on so many covers of romance novels. Often placed in completely unbelievable locations. I saw one recently with it visible in the background of a surfbeach. Um, no, not really. Have also seen it combined with the Harbour Bridge in ways that defy perception. It has even graced the cover of one of my foreign copies (see below.) Do you have a favourite landmark or building that you can't help snapping whenever you see it?

Labels: Australian life, holidays, Sydney

While on holidays we took a ferry to the city and strolled around The Rocks, which is the oldest part of the city and the site of the first white settlement in Sydney. We didn't expect to stumble across a movie set but we did. A Bollywood movie set, as it happened. I could have stood and watched for hours, but my husband wasn't nearly so entranced by the colour and the pretty people and the megaphones and the song-and-dance routines or even the clown. Pity. Because, as the title suggests, this is not something one sees every day.

Labels: Bollywood, holidays, Sydney

I will get to the memorable read in a few, but first a quick lesson in Australian geography. A range of mountains (which, by international standards, are more akin to large hills) runs the eastern length of our country, separating the heavily populated coast from the significantly less populated interior. One of the first challenges for early European adventurers was traversing that range. From where I live (the interior) we have to cross The Great Divide to get to the beach.

(Mini lesson over.)

Crossing the mountains on Sunday, we drove past a guesthouse where mt dh and I spent a romantic weekend many years ago. We reminisced about that weekend and the convolutions that got us there. I'd booked the accommodation, booked the babysitting sister-in-law, and then Wheel of Fortune rang with an invitation for a return appearance. They were doing a Champion of Champions week. Would I be interested?

Long story short, I arranged to fly to Adelaide (South Australia) for the taping and back to Sydney from where I would catch a train to the Blue Mountains guesthouse. My dh would drive up from the other side and there we would meet. Kinda like a clandestine rendezvous. Cool and romantic.

It all worked out as planned and there I was at Sydney Central, waiting for my train. I browsed for a book to read on the several-hour journey and I picked up my very first Silhouette Desire. Title: Private Reasons. Author: Justine Davis. Why this book: I love me a romance which is also a horse story. This one featured a free-spirited heroine who ran stables and she was training this fabulous black stallion. Quite the picture she made for our hero, a starchy accountant single-father, battling to understand his rebellious (horse-loving) teenage daughter.

This book made such an impression on me. I loved the characters, the sensuality, the storyline, and I gulped it down cover-to-cover on that train trip to the mountains. I hadn't yet started writing but when I did this book, on some subconscious level, influenced the kind of books I would write. I love writing opposites-attract stories. I love giving animals/pets a secondary role. And I did write my own starchy single-dad financier and my own free-spirited heroine.

A lot of books are brilliant, wonderful, cover-to-cover, can't-put-down indulgences, but this one made such a mark I can still remember the whole story of HOW I came to read it as well as the read itself. How about you? Do you have one such memorable read, where you remember where you were and how you came to choose that book?

Labels: Australian life, holidays, reading, Silhouette Desire

You know that question in quick interviews: are you a beach or a mountain person? I used to be beach. Absolutely, without question. Living in inland Australia, the family holiday was always to the beach. Usually a little coastal town named Bateman's Bay, with an occasional treat to a Sydney beach suburb such a Bondi or Avalon (I remember those 2 family holidays most vividly.) I loved everything about those beach holidays, despite the inevitable sunburn and peeling. Obviously, given my age, I grew up in the era before slip-slop-slap. We used to sunbathe with baby oil on our skin to enhance the frying, for Pete's sake.

In recent years we haven't done the beach holiday and I'd started to think I might have grown into a mountain person. We've had some awesome summer experiences in cooler, un-sandy locales. But today we're heading off for a few days at the beach and I realise that I can't wait. I DO still love the beach experience. The cool wet sand squelching beneath my feet. The salted air. The crash of surf against my legs. Fish and chips and ice-cream in cones. Reading the daily paper every day and glossy trash mag's and big thick paperbacks.

I need to go pack some sun-screen and reading material. I sure do hope the gelato at Manly Wharf is as good as I remember. I will let you know when I return.

In the meantime, what's your favourite summer holiday? Beach or mountain or something else entirely?

I'm referring to the television series (think I have the title right) which is starting on Aussie TV next week. I just read a newspaper article with the show's premise and quotes from Rachel Griffiths and Sally Fields about the show's heart, and I immediately pencilled it into my diary for next week. It really sounds like one I'll enjoy. Do we have any fans? Or any non-fans? The piece described it as the soap of our time, BTW, like a post-9/11 Dallas or West Wing gone soap opera. Accurate or just cute sound bites?

Late January and early February is when the new TV season starts here, so we see the return of old favourites like 24 and Lost and Desperate Housewives, plus the debut of the talked-about new shows. Heroes started this week, I believe, but I passed. Usually I'm too busy to marry myself to more than one addictive series at a time. Last year Grey's Anatomy won out. Son bought me Lost Season 2 on DVD for Christmas and I got to glom it within a week, which is a nice alternative to having to remember to watch or tape every week's episode. My memory not being what it used to be.

So, is anyone watching Sisters and Brothers ? What IS your #1 favourite television viewing pleasure?