Aussie author Nicola Marsh is hosting a fabulous celebration of Valentine's Day and romance over the next two weeks. Mark your calendar to check out Nic's blog on January 31st for details of how you can win a fabulous (what else?) prize pack of romantic reading featuring titles by:
Liz Fielding
Jill Shalvis
Lucy Monroe
Anna Campbell
Kate Walker
Nalini Singh
Bronwyn Jameson
Jaci Burton
Julie Cohen
Fiona Lowe
Christine Wells
Yvonne Lindsay
Barbara Hannay
Kate Hardy
and, of course, our Valentine's hostess with the mostest, Nicola Marsh.
When I saw JUNO described as in the vein of LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE, only better, I had to see it. If you didn't love LMS, if you want your movies grandiose and dramatic or packed with action and plot twists, then don't read on. JUNO is not the movie for you.
Juno is a movie about Juno MacGuff, a 16yo schoolgirl dealing with pregnancy. I guess you might describe it as a YA romance, although it's more about Juno's journey than the romance. Kids are only 16 after all. So Juno (the girl, played awesomely by Ellen Page) is quite the character. If you read regencies you've probably seen a heroine or two described as "an original". Well, that's Juno in a nutshell. She's funny, sharp, real, marches to her own tune, but she's not all teenage angst and defiance (which is irritating enough in real life without having to watch on screen.)
So, the movie. It's real, without being dark and confronting; funny, without being slapstick or grossout; and has an originality that makes it tough to compare with anything else. I just realised it was directed by Jason Reitman who wrote and directed the last movie I enthused about to everyone I saw for weeks afterward. Thank You For Smoking. Both are jostling for a position on my list of all-time favourites.
Juno is up for Oscars in 4 categories -- Best Picture, Director, Actress and Screenplay -- and has won a swag of critics/reveiwers awards. (That's just so you know it's not just me who found it engaging.) All the cast is excellent. Jennifer Garner and Allison Janney are great in supporting roles, but it's Ellen Page who really owns the screen. There's this emotional climax scene where you see a close-up of her face and the camera focuses on this fine quiver of a nerve in her face -- talk about show don't tell!
If you like some whimsy in your reality, a touch of quirk in your characters (without crossing the line into absurdity), subtle humour and clever dialogue, and a story built around character and quality acting, then do check this one out. It's not a movie that begs to be watched on the big screen (like, say, Atonement where the cinematography demands BIG.) Definitely one that could be enjoyed just as much on DVD.
January 26 is Australia Day, the national day set aside for celebrating everything that is wonderful about Australia and being Australian. Today on my way home from the weekly grocery shop, I was listening to a radio phone-in on "what's unAustralian". Very funny stuff, much of it as dry as the red centre (as opposed to the flooded north), and much of it referencing our laidback, let's-not-take-life-too-seriously lifestyle.
On Australia Day many communities host organized fun events--parades and fireworks, sporting events and concerts--as well as the more formal events which include flag-raisings, citizenship ceremonies and presentation of community achievement awards. These local ceremonies often include a keynote speech by an "Australia Day ambassador," that title a recognition of the individual's contribution to society.
We also acknowledge Australians who have made extraordinary contributions. In 2008 the "Australian of the Year" is popular country singer-songwriter Lee Kernaghan, who has been a real champion for country communities battling the long drought. He's also a genuine, all-round good guy who has never let fame turn his head. Of course, where there's an Australian of the Year there must also be an UN-Australian of the Year and apparently that dubious honour has gone to our new Prime Minister Kevin Rudd for...wait for it...visiting a New York strip club and acting like a complete gentleman. Apparently that is unAustralian. Bron rolls her eyes.
Why do we celebrate our national day on January 26? Because on this day in 1788 Captain Arthur Phillip took formal possession of the colony of New South Wales. Cool little piece of family history: one of my ancestors had the dubious honour of carrying Captain Phillip ashore. Apparently naval captains didn't much like getting their feet wet. Even more interesting is that he and his wife--Henry and Susannah Kable--were part of the first (group) wedding ceremony at the new colony. Henry and Susannah Kable were transported to Sydney as convicts, along with their illegitimate child who was born in prison. They were able to travel together on the "Friendship" in the First Fleet after Lord Sydney intervened to prevent them being separated. A true hero.
If you're a romance writer eager to learn more about what it takes to create a story suitable for Silhouette Desire, then here's your chance. #1 bestselling Desire author Katherine Garbera will be teaching a class titled "Writing A Selling Silhouette Desire" at Access Romance from Feb. 11-25. For more information check out the class details. Cost is only $10.
So, she'd come. Sooner than Donovan Keane had anticipated, given the weather and the travel necessary to reach the resort's remote location. And, Van noted with satisfaction, she'd come alone.
Good.
A grim half-smile tugged at the corners of his mouth as he watched her dismiss the bellhop's umbrella and jog up the steps toward reception. Under the shelter of the portico she paused to acknowledge the doorman, and something in the swing of her red-gold hair and the lift of her hand triggered a weird flash of deja vu.
For a fraction of a second time vacillated from present to past, between dream and reality. Then she disappeared inside the building, gone in a flurry of long legs and designer raincoat, leaving Van alone and stripped of his satisfied smile.
Punching fist against palm, he searched his memory but came up blank. "Big surprise," he told a captive audience of weight stations and treadmills. He'd identified Susannah Horton the second he caught sight of her arrival through the rain-streaked window. But that recognition was due to the number of photos he'd viewed during the past weeks of intensive research--Australian society cameras loved the local hotel heiress--and not from the weekend she'd spent in his company.
Shoving away from the window, Van shook the tight grip of frustration from his muscles and circled the punching bag he'd deserted minutes earlier. He'd flown in from San Francisco the previous morning, but twenty-four hours at The Palisades at Stranger's Bay, the Tasmanian resort where they'd supposedly spent that weekend, had done nothing to fill the dark hole in his memory.
Hell, he'd come within a whisker of buying the place, yet nothing rang any bells. Not his flight into Australia's island state, not the helicopter transfer to the isolated retreat. Not even his first stunning view of the scattered villas perched high on a rocky promontory overlooking the southern ocean.
Nothing. Thud. Nada. Thud. Zilch. Thud.
Van hit the punching bag with a lethal barrage of punches that did little to soothe his frustration. The insistent internal burn came from more than the forgotten weekend, more than losing the prime property to an Australian hotel group. It stemmed from how he'd lost out.
The below-the-belt punch had been thrown while he lay unconscious in an ICU, incapable of defending himself let alone fighting back. Thud. A knockout counterbid, perfectly timed and perfectly presented. Thud. And all due to a treacherous redhead named Susannah Horton.
Thudthudthud.
Despite the veiled threat in the voicemail he'd left last night, he hadn't expected her to turn up so promptly. At best, he'd expected a return call. At worst, another don't-you-dare-call-again reply from her mother. The fact that Susannah had scurried down here without any advance warning or any entourage in tow, suggested he hadn't misread the signs.
She'd come because he'd hit a vein, and she hadn't wasted a minute seeking him out here in the resort's state-of-the-art fitness centre.
He hadn't heard her entrance, but he caught a glimpse of reflected movement in the expansive window. And a jolt of awareness travelled the length of his spine, strong enough that his next punch miscued and slid off the side of the bag. Recovering, he delivered a final combination of punches, sharp, swift, relentless, until his breath rasped in his lungs and his inner physical therapist barked, enough!
Then he dispensed with the boxing gloves and pulled on a T-shirt. Snagging his towel and water bottle he turned, and, dodging the arc of the still swinging bag, started toward the plush reception area. As he walked, he drank from his bottle and he drank in the woman.
Up close Susannah Horton packed even more punch than that first glimpse through glass and rain. She wasn't a bombshell; her beauty was more about class than flash.
Tall, willowy, feminine. Generous lips balanced by a long, straight nose. Red-gold hair and the kind of redhead's complexion that would burn in the sun. Green eyes that tilted upward and smoked with wariness.
Until that second he'd harboured a lingering doubt over how they'd spent their days, and nights, that July weekend. He couldn't recall one damn detail. All he had to go on was Miriam Horton's word--and hadn't that been one helluva phone conversation!--and his own instincts. Those he trusted. And when his eyes locked on hers, when he detected the suppressed heat in their sea-green depths, his body responded with a powerful jolt of elemental recognition. As he came to a halt in front of her, his instincts hummed like a mesotron.
Oh, yeah, she'd slept with him all right.
And then she'd really screwed him over.
From the book TYCOON'S ONE-NIGHT REVENGE by Bronwyn Jameson, Silhouette Desire 04/08, ISBN 0373768656 , published by arrangement with Harlequin Books SA.
Not me, unfortunately, although I am visiting London and surrounding counties in my current series of book (for 2009) and a trip to the UK would be fabulous research. Alas, I'm talking about BACK IN FORTUNE'S BED which is being released into the northern winter as a Desire Duo with Peggy Moreland's Merger of Fortunes.
What could be better than two Fortunes? How about two Fortunes for free. All comments on any of my blog posts during January will go in the draw to win this book.
I now have the back cover blurb for TYCOON'S ONE-NIGHT REVENGE. Here's what it says:
REVENGE AT LAST
Amnesia has stolen millionaire businessman Donovan Keane's memory. But one look at treacherous beauty Susannah Horton and Van could picture every delicious detail of the weekend they'd spent in his bed. She'd staged their affair to ruin an important deal -- a deal about to go to her fiance. Not that Van would let that happen. During one hot night, he'd destroy her engagement, take back the deal and walk away with all the memories he'd need. Good thing, because he'd never be able to get her out of his mind.
The tycoon was vengeance-bound...but the beauty in question was truly innocent.
And if Susannah sounds vaguely familiar, she is the runaway bride from The Ruthless Groom. The fiance mentioned in the blurb? That would be Alex Carlisle.
...to me today (the 17th) at Love is an Exploding Cigar. I'm talking about (Perrini and) characters who stick with you after you've closed the book. Would love to hear your take.
Have just caught my first peek of the cover of my April release. I've been wanting a hero-only cover forever (remember those Man of the Months covers Desire did for years?) and included this scenario as my first choice on the Art Fact Sheets year after year. Finally gave up when Man of the Month was scrapped but, here it is, my first hero-only cover. On my 14th book!!!
What do you think? Do you like the man only, or do you prefer to see a couple on the cover?
Win not one, but two, fabulous thrillers by mega-talented New Zealand author Fiona Brand. I've read both Double Vision and Killer Focus, the first two books in Fiona's riveting new trilogy from MIRA and I read way into the early hours of the morning because I could not put them down. I can't wait for the final instalment, Blind Instinct, even though this is the book which prevented Fiona joining the Diamonds Down Under team. Grumblegrumblegrumble.
To go in the draw to win Fiona's books, visit her blog at Diamonds Down Under and post a comment before next weekend. It's that easy!
Just popping in between holiday assignations to say I've updated my website with a new contest and a new Behind the Book featuring the backstory to Vows & A Vengeful Groom. This is actually the opening pages to the detailed synopsis I submitted prior to writing the book and so might be of interest to writers as well as readers.
...on other blogs. If you're in the mood for a little weekend blog-surfing, here are some posts which caught my interest.
What's Hot In Romance at 2 B Read. An interesting conversation, whether you're a published or a yet-to-be-published author.
Natalie Anderson talks about, and quotes from, some classic Mills & Boon titles at the Pink Heart Society.
If you're building or redesigning your website -- or want to evaluate your website -- check out this Dear Author post.
I love everything Eileen Wilks writes, including this blog about failure and success.
And finally, a series of posts by the Word Wenches about the start of a book, including how and why they chose to begin their latest books a certain way.
I hope you're not suffering too much from celebrating the end of the old year and the start of the new, and may 2008 be a wondrous year filled with everything that makes you smile.
On the subject of New Year's and the start of all new things, I'm blogging today on that very topic at the Pink Heart Society. Join the discussion for a chance to win a copy of Vows & A Vengeful Groom.
