NQ Roadshow...

Phew... it's been a big week, but I'm pleased to report that our Roadshow was deemed a fabulous success by all involved. I couldn't begin to give a blow by blow account of the workshops, so instead let me show you pics. First -- the wonderful table of prizes organized by our group's fabulous members Shannean Moncrieff and Mervet Mcclintock. (the table is graced by a scarf I brought back from Italy. :)

 And here's a shot of the room. On the floor you can see the goody bags, again stuffed with fab surprises by Shannean and Mervet.

 Our speakers were the amazing Anne Gracie (left) and  brilliant Kelly Hunter (right, in those boots!!!) as well as our local stalents, Helene Young and myself.


Here's a shot of Helene with Bernadette Rowley from Townsville, who was our illustrious MC.

This is Shannean and her crew, who ran lucky seat prizes and a raffle that raised over $500 for the Royal Flying doctors.

And these serious faces show how thought provoking the speakers were. Havva Murat, our hard-working registrar is in blue in the middle.

And then, of course, after all the hard work, there was a dinner at night where Anne Gracie flirted with Helene's husband, Graham.

And here's our lovely, fabulous group --
Back row: Helene Young, me, Havva Murat, Alice Honsa, Shannean Moncrieff, Noreen Allan
Front Row: Beeca Quinn, Mervet McClintock, Bernadette Rowley and Lilian Begelnole. My new dream is to see everyone of this wonderful writers published!!
  Thank you, everyone!

Three little visitors...

And their parents came to "Nan and Pappy's farm" for the weekend...

They helped Pappy dig worms to feed the baby guinea fowl.

And they toasted marshmallows in the fire.

They enjoyed splashing in the new bathroom, running around in the dark with glowsticks... eating huge helpings of bacon and macaroni casserole and drawing a beautiful portrait of Nan and Pappy.

An eHarlequin Discovery...

A Google Alert aroused my curiosity and sent me to eHarlequin where I discovered that a book from my backlist, The Pregnancy Discovery, is being re-released in June 2011.

I wrote this book in 2000 while I was living on Magnetic Island. As it's not listed on amazon, I'm assuming that this is for the NA Reader Service -- a direct mail only release, and it won't be on the retail shelves, so I'm very pleased to see that it's available at eHarlequin.
I was always disappointed that this book had not been available in America as it has my one and only American hero, Sam Kirby, and it has sold very well everywhere else in the world. This is a message in a bottle story and I'm rather fond of it for lots of reasons, and I hope it finds some happy American readers. Check it out and read an excerpt here.

And Jupiter aligns with Mars...

We've had such incredibly clear, crisp, beautiful weather recently that it's been a crime to stay indoors. On Friday morning we got up at five thirty (only 5 degrees C and that's incredibly cold for us in May) and saw the four planets -- Venus, Jupiter, Mercury and Mars aligned in the eastern sky for the first time since 1910. As an added bonus, we saw the sun rise over Mt Bartle Frere, Queensland's highest mountain. Just gorgeous.

In this photo you can only seen two of the planets - Venus and Jupiter, I believe. If you click on it to make it larger, you should also see Mercury, a smaller planet off to the right. Red Mars was there too, below these, but he didn't show up in the photo -- because of the sunrise, I guess.

After breakfast, we drove over to Mareeba to collect turf from Barron River lawns. We want to start lawn regrowing, now that the plumber has finished his earthworks, but I'm so mad that I didn't take my camera. It was the start of the Mareeba to Chillagoe wheelbarrow race and we drove through Mareeba just as the procession of Wheelbarrow Teams started. It was a fabulous atmosphere with teams from high schools and businesses and charities, as well as the police. They were dressed up too -- as the Flintstones, as bumblebees, as rock stars. great fun and a great money raising event. All of Mareeba were on the streets to wave them on, including all the school children.

The teams have had two cold nights camping out on the road and they won't reach Chillagoe till today, so it's been quite an adventure. Meanwhile, for me, it's time to get my head down again.

But the sky's clouding over, so that's OK. :))

Why they call this the Misty Mountains...

Views from Cloud Cottage at 6.30 am

Nostalgia reigns...

Last week, I mentioned my little sister's birth on the day the Queen came to Sydney. Here she is in my mother's arms. Shortly after this, we moved to Brisbane (as my bio, which I can never get M&B to change, states). This was a very pioneering step for my parents, as their entire Australian families were in Sydney. Dad went ahead to find accommodation etc. and this is the photo he took with him. It was taken at my grandmother's house in Penshurst, and we moved to Brisbane shortly after Mother's Day. Nine months later I started school. Yes, Grade One, while I was still only four!!! Which is how I ended up as a high school teacher, teaching Yr 11 before my ninteenth birthday.

Surely the way to a mother's heart....

You know you're Australian...

When this is your view from your bedroom window.

Royal Wedding...

Are you getting into the Royal Wedding mood? I'm working myself into "royal mode" this week by reading Sophie Page's absolutely gorgeous book 'To Marry A Prince.'
You may remember Sophie as Sophie Weston. She used to write the most wonderful romances for Mills and Boon , and under her real name, Jenny Haddon, she's also written a book on punctuation called "Getting the Point" and has been president of the Romantic Novelists' Association in the UK.
'To Marry A Prince' is a perfect contemporary fantasy written in Sophie's bright, clever, - and dare I say sassy - yet very British style. You can read an interview with Sophie, including the interesting alternate England she created for this book, on the Words Wenches' Blog.

I'll certainly be watching the wedding on television. My childhood was dominated by images of the Queen's Coronation. I had the most beautiful picture book with full page colour plates of the entire spectacle -- with the golden coach, the ladies in waiting, the crowded cathedral and that heavy crown being placed on Elizabeth's head. For years, I turned frangipani flowers upside down to become ladies in waiting. And I had sets of blocks and jigsaw puzzles with pictures of Prince Charles and Princess Anne. And the Corgis, of course.
My younger sisters were named Elizabeth and Margaret, and on the day the Queen came to Sydney, my mother was in labour with Margaret, but she insisted on seeing the Queen first, before she went to hospital. So it's almost obligatory for me to be a royal watcher.

However, I do love some of the less reverent souvenirs that are out there at the moment, like these William and Kate tea bags. And this mock up of the Royal Wedding on youtube is a hoot.
One of my friends is going to a wedding party where everyone will wear hats and they'll eat roast beef and Yorkshire pudding followed by jam rolypoly. Another friend is considering hiring a wig of long brown hair. What are you planning for the big day?

Easter sunshine...

I hope you've had a lovely Easter weekend. Our weather has been glorious and we've had a great time. For us, Easter began with the arrival of a new box of little guineas to add to our flock. They'll have to stay in the cage till they're big enough to fend for themselves, but even then, it's a mean old world with hawks and currawongs and dingoes out there. So we'll hope to keep a close eye on them.

Then our guests arrived on Good Friday, bringing with them a beautiful wrasse which we cooked whole in E's special asado barbecue, after the guys encased it in a special flour and salt mould, a little like the clay around beggar's chicken.

When we broke open this casing, the fish inside was delicious.

On Saturday -- an absolutely beautiful, crystal clear day without a cloud, we went to the Yungaburra markets. I loved this sign on an old " junk" stall which I had to share.

And I bought these cute pencil cases for my granddaughters (other people can give them Easter eggs :).

Also, our guests bought me these beautiful gloriosa lilies. Aren't they perfect?

Yesterday, after they left we got back into gardening and painting, making the most of the lovely sunshine.
Today, I started writing again, but I'm not really getting into this story, possibly because the outside is calling to me. Will try again tomorrow. :)
What was your weekend like?

Post revision haze...

OK... revisions have been sent and I'm coming up for air. And I'm whinging, because last week while I was tied to my desk, we had absolutely glorious sunshine and today -- you guessed it -- it's raining again.
Clearly, I'm not meant to do the weeding, am I? But I'm not really in the mood for housework either.

But there's always cooking. I recently read Promises to Keep by Jane Green. Jane is my auto-buy at airport bookstores and I bought this book on my trip to Sydney. If I'd known it was about someone dying, I may have had second thoughts. I just grabbed and ran, but I have to say, Jane handled the subject very deftly and still manged to deliver an uplifting ending.

And... a bonus of the book was that each chapter ends with a thoroughly tempting recipe. I've already tried her Spinach and Chickpea Coconut Curry. As we have visitors coming for Easter, I want to try this Almost Flourless Orange Cake with Marmalade, which I've copied for you. Sounds yummy, doesn't it? To discover the other recipes you'll have to buy the book, or visit her blog.


Almost Flourless Orange Cake with Marmalade
1 orange
3 eggs
1/4 cup plain flour, sifted
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup ground almonds
1/2 cup marmalade
icing sugar for dusting

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C (350 F) Grease an 8 inch springform pan and line it with greaseproof paper.

Put the orange in a pan, cover it with water, and simmer for an hour (or nuke in microwave for about 25 mins) until soft. Cut the orange in half, remove pips and puree in a food processor.

Beat the eggs and sugar until pale and thick. Fold in the flour, baking powder, almonds and orange puree. pour into the tin and bake for an hour.

Melt the marmalade in a small pan then pour through a fine sieve, pressing to get all the juice out. Spread the rind free juice over the cake.

When cool, sift icing sugar over the cake. Mix whipped cream with the orange rind and serve alongside.

Revisions...

I have my head down trying to address my editor's revision suggestions, which I know will make my current ms much better. But sometimes hacking your work to pieces and rebuilding it again can be very hard. Not that I'm precious about my work -- it's more the mental gymnastics involved. Writing a first draft is fun -- mostly. I write instinctively a lot of the time and hope for the best. But afterwards, fixing up a book can feel like a very difficult maths problem. Don't ask me why -- it just does. And at these times I feel like Winnie the Pooh, a Bear of Very Little Brain.
But I haven't forgotten my lovely blog visitors. Some of you are probably wondering when I'm going to show pictures of the inside of our house, as you know we've been working on it for years, slowly changing a six by six shed into an unashamedly romantic country cottage. I promise I'll have pics very soon.

 But here's a taste.This is a photo I showed last year when we busily painting. (We're still painting, actually. E's just finished the bathroom.)
Below you can see what this window looks like now with furniture in situ. I promise the photos in future will be more exciting than this. :)

Would you believe, we still don't have our ensuite bathroom plumbed? Everything's just sitting there, looking gorgeous, and waiting to be used. It's been so wet this year the plumber hasn't been able to dig up the ground to sink pipes and pits, or whatever. But we're booked in for the first week in May. Too late for our Easter and May weekend visitors. (sigh) But before my Roadshow visitors. Phew.

Update...

I have at last updated my website. I'm sure you'll be very pleased to know that I've moved on from 'Happy New Year', and I now have details about my new release Rancher's Twins: Mum Needed.

If you're Australian, you're probably shaking your head over this title. As you know, we don't have ranchers in Oz. We have cattlemen. And we don't have moms. We have mums. My publishers have made a concession to this by changing one of these words in the title for the English and Australian releases, as you can see in the covers below...

Aren't the different approaches to marketing interesting?

The story is partly set in America and my heroine Holly is American, living in New York. By calling Gray, my Australian hero, a rancher... this story can be marketed in America under the Rugged Rancher's logo, which is rather cute. Who am I to argue with marketing?  

I think Gray and Holly's story is actually a bit deeper than the title suggests. My idea for it was born in Coogee last year at our writer's retreat, and I had some wonderfully helpful conversations with Anne Gracie, who is very experienced in teaching adult literacy. I won't say too much more as I don't want to add spoilers. You can read an excerpt here.

Romantic Times had nice things to say... This heart-warming tale is filled with memorable characters grappling with an emotional situation. Hannay handles the transition from mourning to romance gracefully. Four stars.

Speaking of reviews, Molly Cooper's Dream Date  also scored a wonderful, oh-my-goodness review from Cataromance

There's something about roses...

You'll have to forgive me for being excited about growing roses.
I know these aren't spectacular or special, but after living in the dry tropics for so long, it's a novelty to be able to grow temperate plants.
We have so much rain here, however, that this climate is still not suitable for a lot of rose varieties.
I do love having flowers in the house.
When I was growing up, my mother had a lovely garden (actually, she still does) and we always had vases of flowers in our bedrooms, as well as the living areas.
Friends who came to play were v impressed.

Final night...

What better way to celebrate our final night at Coogee than to toast waitress Jess whose first book will be published later this year? Watch this space in Melbourne Cup week!!!!!!!!!!!

Two happy RITA finalists...

At Coogee this year, we're celebrating with Kelly Hunter and Marion Lennox                                      -- two RITA finalists for best short contemporary romance. It's hard work, but someone's got to help drink the bubbly.

Meanwhile, seriously, we're sharing some great craft discussions, and yes, writing is getting done.

Don't miss this...

Kelly Hunter, 2011 RITA finalist & NQ Roadshow presenter, shares her thoughts about writing dialogue with Anne Gracie, Helene Young and me in a fab Q&A blog at Romance Writers of Australia.

RITA excitement!

Very exciting news. We have two Australians as RITA finalists -- Kelly Hunter and Marion Lennox. Woohoo! These gorgeous writers are two of my favourite people, too. And it's exciting that there are many finalists from the M&B office in London.

2011 RITA Finalists for Contemporary Series Romance


■Breaking the Sheikh's Rules in the Summer Sheikhs anthology by Abby Green (Mills & Boon; Meg Lewis, editor)

■Christmas Magic on the Mountain by Melissa McClone (Harlequin Romance; Joanne Grant, editor)

■Christmas with Her Boss by Marion Lennox (Harlequin Romance; Sheila Hodgson, editor)

■Dare She Date the Dreamy Doc? by Sarah Morgan (Mills & Boon Medical Romance; Kimberley Young, editor)

■Red-Hot Renegade by Kelly Hunter (Mills & Boon Modern Heat; Joanne Grant, editor)

■An Unexpected Father by Lisa Ruff (Harlequin American Romance; Johanna Raisanen, editor)

■Welcome Home, Cowboy by Karen Templeton (Silhouette Special Edition; Gail Chasan, editor)

■Zoe and the Tormented Tycoon by Kate Hewitt (Harlequin Presents; Meg Lewis, editor)

To see more results in other categories, check here.

Black moments...

I'm closing in another deadline. Don't these things seem to come with alarming regularity?
Right now, I'm also getting excited, because I'll soon be leaving for Sydney for my annual writing retreat. Combining a deadline and a retreat is kinda smart and kinda not, but anyway, it's happening.
My main hitch has been that my characters' romance is starting to go too smoothly. What we want in real life is always the kiss of death in a story, where we want page turning emotional tension. I've been wondering what I need to do, and you'd think after writing nearly forty books, I'd have a clue...
Then yesterday, one of my friends' emails  mentioned the black moment she was planning for her book.
Which is precisely when it hit me. Eek !!! I hadn't planned a black moment. How could I have forgotten a black moment?

In case you're wondering, this is that moment in all good romances where everything that seems to be working out OK suddenly falls apart. The lovers can't go forward. They can't commit. One of them (or both of them) has a problem that holds them back from winning the prize of true love.
In Michael Hague's terms, the character has been living in his "identity" which is a disguise or a suit of armour he dons, a facade he presents to the world to cover up. Usually he's covering up an old wound from the past and often he doesn't even realise that's what he's doing.
During the course of the story, however, he has glimpsed his "essence", and he has, for a time, lived in his essence -- That is, he's seen how his life could be if he was brave enough to step out from behind his identity.
I thought I knew what my character's wound was -- but I'd already dealt with it fairly early in the story. No wonder I had a problem.
Yesterday, getting near the end, but having no black moment, I suddenly realised what my guy's true wound was. Neither he nor I had understood this until then. But wow -- I could feel his pain and I could suddenly see how it would impact on him and the heroine.
Oh, I also worked out their happy ending. 
Phew.
Now I just have to write it.

Little things...

I have found this full moon stressful for a number of reasons, but little things can cheer me up...

...like this native orchid growing naturally in our little patch of rainforest. When it flowers it's not spectacular, but a pretty white and brown... two of my favourite wardrobe colours.

Have basil... will pesto...

A friend brought me this beautiful bouquet of herbs and I can't wait to make homemade pesto. Today I could almost turn  vegetarian.

Various...

We've had birthdays recently and decided we'd better take photos of each other before we get too old. :)

OK, some people will be rolling on the floor with laughter at that. I know we're already - ahem - senior. But it's all relative, isn't it?

On another note... I don't know if it's thanks to the Big Wet, but all over North Queensland, the pendas are magnificent this year. This is a honeyeater feasting in our garden. In fact the birds are loving all the flowering trees aound here just now. The misty pic below shows cockatoos feeding down in the Ithaca valley at the bottom of our place.

Now back to finishing this book. Those of you who know my books will know I don't write very sexy sex scenes, but I spent twelve hours on one yetserday and only produced a little over a thousand words. They're tricky things to write. Am so looking forward to Kelly Hunter's workshop at the Roadshow.

Of course there's more than three good reasons...

Check out the Romance Writers of Australia blog for my three top reasons to attend the NQ Romance Writers Roadshow.

Roadshow program...

Here's the program for our fabulous North Queensland Roadshow. This is going to be one power packed day!!! Don't forget, early bird registrations close at the end of March! find out how to register here!

  9:00am - Greetings and introductions

 9.15 -10.15 The bones of your book – Anne Gracie

A good strong premise and a convincing source of conflict are the foundations for a strong plot. Without them, many people run out of steam about a third of the way into a book. Find the premise for your story, identify the central spine of conflict and learn how to structure scenes and build a strong plot.


 10:15 - Morning Tea

 10:30 – 11.45 World-building is crucial, no matter the genre — Kelly Hunter & Anne Gracie

Whether you're a writer of paranormals, fantasy, historicals, contemporaries, or crime, the world you create in your books can make or break you as a writer. The more convincing that world, the easier it is for readers to plunge right in. But world building is more than just evoking a time and place and characters interacting in that world: it's also about reader expectations. This interactive workshop aims to offer writers some of the tools to build realistic, unforgettable imaginary worlds.

 11.50 – 12.30 Emotional Punch and tension of every page – Barbara Hannay
Your primary objective as a romance novelist is to create an emotional experience for your readers. The lack of emotional punch is one of the main reasons editors reject manuscripts. Find out how to make your reader care deeply about your characters, and how to give your manuscript that all important page-turning tension.

 12.30 – 1.00 Lunch


 1. 10 – 1.45 -- Layering conflict –Helene Young
If you’ve watched the movie, Avatar, you may have been wowed by the special effects, the interesting cinematography techniques or even the storyline. When Helene watched it the multiple layers of conflict in the story blew her away.

Join her for a short sharp look at why those layers are so effective. Watch the movie before the Roadshow and see how many conflicts you can identify and be prepared to look even deeper and find some more.

 1. 45 – 3.15 Not Another Sex Scene – Kelly Hunter & Anne Gracie
Like any other scene, a sex scene must serve the story, contain elements of conflict and enhance our understanding of character. This workshop will offer a range of approaches to help make it easier to write fabulous sex scenes and expand your repertoire of writing skills.

 3.15 –3.30 afternoon tea

 -- 4.15 Dialogue and Subtext – Kelly Hunter
'He said what?'
If you can't write good dialogue, you can't write a good romance. Bring work pad and pens and be prepared to work through a series of exercises designed to help bring your dialogue to life.

 4.15 – 500 Panel and Finish

why not fly north?

A quick word to anyone from the south who might be thinking about coming to our North Queensland Romance Writers Roadshow in Cairns on May 28th at the beautiful Cairns Colonial club (pictured above... )Jetstar have some amazing sales at the mo. Check them out here !

Isn't the venue gorgeous? And who could resist with speakers like Anne Gracie (truly one of the most talented teachers of the writing craft in the country) and Kelly Hunter (her fab analysis of a sex scene is incredibly clever) and Helene Young -- who has nutted out all the intricate layers of conflict in Avatar? Oh, and moi -- talking about my favourite topic -- emotional punch.


Early bird registrations are closing soon...

Just think... while honing your romance writing skills, you'll be having a fab holiday and helping to boost the cyclone ravaged tourist industry.

Buried Treasures of 2010 « All About Romance’s News & Commentary Blog

Buried Treasures of 2010 « All About Romance’s News & Commentary Blog: "Reviewer LinnieGayl Kimmel chose two series romances as her Buried Treasures of 2010."

And as I was going through all the emails I missed while I was offline, I discovered that A Miracle For His Secret Son was one of these two books. How nice!

not your average arrival...

Had rather special luncheon guests today who arrived in this!

I'm b-a-a-a-a-c-k!!!!

I finally have internet again --
It's been so frustrating having to log on to E's computer and use mail2web which keeps timing out. Even more frustrating were my phone conversations with Telstra, but that's all a thing of the past now. Hope you've all been having fun while I was away. We've been very busy cleaning up after Yasi and of course, I still had to get on with my next book.

Since the cyclone, the guineas have not gone back in their pen, but they seem happy to roam around on our block and not to wander off to bother neighnours, so we love having them. (That funny looking thing in the foreground is E's special Argentian barbecue and smoker).

They've even had friends over to play...
And they roost in one of our trees.
Our monthly trip back to Townsville was sobering as we had to drive through all the country devastated by Yasi. I think it's no exaggeration to say that from Innisfail to Ingham (takes about three and a half hours to drive) there's not a tree untouched.

This is typical of beautiful country that used to be famously, lush and green. We know it will recover. It recovered after Larry -- but it took five years -- and then this happened again. Still, I think I prefer cyclones to floods and earthquakes. What a terrible start to 2011.
Hope things are better in your part of the world.