Surprise!!!!!!

Last week, I received a lovely belated birthday present from my four wonderful children. They'd commissioned their talented cousin Carmen Hannay to paint what they like to call "mum's tree", my favourite tree which is part of our view at Tarzali, which you can see in the photo at the top of my blog.
Carmen's never been to Tarzali, so her interpretation is purely instinctive, but I love it! I love her whimsical, romantic style and the way the painting captures the misty hills, the changing weather and all the colours I love to use in my interiors. (My photo doesn't really do it justice and I'm hoping to bring you better ones soon.)

Carmen's also a written a poem, inspired while she was in the middle of this painting and it's called "Gentle Annie", the name given to the dip in the hills (also part of our view) that carrries the road to Ravenshoe.

Gentle Annie

She moves

slides through the seasons

lifting layer upon layer

of sifted colour

for a moment she pauses

she breathes

Tip-toeing on crushed hues

dancing under a light only

just present

shedding skins of older days

smiling as she grows

just behind

you there and

she knows...

A very exciting new book...

A very exciting launch  is taking place this week in Kempsey in northern New South Wales. It's the launch of Fiona McArthur's fabulous Don't Panic Guide to Birth.

Fiona is a favourite Mills and Boon medical romance author, but she's also a wonderful and highly experienced midwife -- as well as the mother of five strapping sons. I was privileged to read her 'Don't Panic" book in its first draft stage and I knew straight away it would be a huge hit.

It's practical and informative, but written in Fi's lovely warm manner, so that you feel totally reassured. Having run special classes for teenage mums for years, Fi's had plenty of practice at calming nervous mums- to-be and nervous dads for that matter.

Publishers Penguin are totally behind Fiona and she's booked up for many gigs on radio programs and will be appearing on "The Circle" tomorrow morning.

I urge you to buy a book even if your childbirthing days are long behind you. There's bound to be a young woman you know who'd love a copy.

A four star review...

We writers try not to let good reviews or bad ones mess with with our heads, but it makes sense to share the better ones. Romantic Times now called RT has given my next book 4 stars.
A MIRACLE FOR HIS SECRET SON (4) by Barbara Hannay: Freya and Gus were high school sweethearts. Years later, Freya calls him out of the blue to request a meeting. Perplexed, Gus agrees because she says it’s a matter of life and death. She delivers numerous bombshells during their discussion. During their meeting the embers of a love thought lost begin to stir. Upon Gus’ arrival in Sugar Bay to visit with Freya and her son, Nick, they realize that they never stopped loving each other, but neither admits their true feelings. Will they find a way back to the love they felt? This is well written, the characters are well rounded and the emotions believable. This tale of second-chance love is endearing and you’ll find yourself rooting for Freya, Gus and Nick.

Back at the wheel...

Since the conference, I've been quiet because my mum has been visiting -- both at Tarzali and in Townsville, where she loved seeing her great-grandchildren.

Now, mum's on a plane heading south again and for me, it's back to work. A few final revisions as well as planning another three books before a chat with my editor next week.

Watch this space for more news... soon.

Conference fun...

I've tried to show you a slideshow of my pics from the Romance Writers of Australia conference in Coogee, Sydney, but the technical requirements overcame me. I came close, but it took too long to load so I suspect  I may not have made the pics small enough. However you can view the slideshow here.

Sorry that I don't have the right captions on here before I started, but these pics cover the author dinner hotsed by Harlequin Mills and Boon (Sydney) at which the New Chicks (brand new authors) awards were handed out by old boilers (e.g. well established authors such as the eternally glamorous Meredith Webber) and Womanfuzzy (warm and fuzzy) awards for hilarious mishaps during the year, were handed out by authors, Trish Morey and Kelly Hunter -- always great fun.

There are also pics of the fab, wind-whipped waves on Friday, which made walking along the beach or along the clifftops (a favourite breakout activity) very exciting.

Then there are a couple of shots from the author book signing, and lots of photos from the cocktail partym which was a dress up affair with a Fantasy Island theme. Wow, what a party!  Aren't some people fantastically clever at dressing up -- as you can see? Above are fab auathors Kelly Hunter (pirate) and Alison Roberts (hula girl) with their fantasy Johnny Depp. The ultra fabulous reincarnation of Barbara Cartland (the winner for the best costume) was created and worn by the amazingly brilliant Anne Gracie.

And at the Awards dinner on Saturday night, I sat with my North Queensland posse, some of whom are photographed here... (The beautiful Mervet McClintock, Rebecca Quin, Shannean moncrief and helene Young)
And the final photo in the slideshow is of medical author Amy Andrews aka Alison Ahearn, president of RWAust, who won the R*BY award for best sexy romance.

Conference time...

I'm off to the Romance Writers of Australia's conference today. There'll be a book signing event on Friday afternoon/evening hosted by the Australian Romance Readers.
The book-signing will be held in the Terrace View Rooms at the Crowne Plaza Coogee Beach on Friday 13 August from 4.30 pm to 6 pm.
I believe readers can bring books they've already bought to be signed, but there will also be books available for sale. It's always fabulous to meet readers -- after all readers are the big reason we write these books... so this event should be great fun.
I've bought a neat little romance-author-pink camera, so I hope to keep you posted with plenty of photos. The photo here is of me and an American author of paranormal romance at a book signing in San Farncisco.

Back soon.

Stage three begins...

We started with green grass in the morning and by evening we had...

 

Showing off our Tablelands...

This week I've had a lovely time with a visit from one of my favourite M&B authors, Jessica Hart. I first met Jessica (a UK author) in America, when we travelled to Yosemite with Barbara McMahon, then presented a joint workshop at the San Francisco conference.

Jessica is a great enthusiast for all things Australian and has visited our country many times, but she hasn't seen my neck of the woods, so it was fun to show it off. We were actually able to find a platypus and a tree kangaroo, in the wild, on the very first afternoon.

Of course we talked about our favourite subject... writing, writing, writing... even while we were walking through rainforests

and admiring waterfalls and walking around Lake Eacham.