A FREE book...

Meet Me at the Treehouse is a free short story set in the teahouse at beautiful Lake Barrine on the Atherton Tablelands.

As well as telling the story of single mum, Penny, who's looking for love, it introduces you to Jackie and Kate, a couple of key characters from my new novel, The Grazier's Wife.



You can get your free download of Meet Me at the Teahouse from a range of sites:
amazon  kobo   iTunes  Google play










There's also an extract from The Grazier's Wife in the back and this book is available for pre-order at all the usual outlets.

Booktopia  Bookworld  Book Depository 
iTunes  amazon  Google play

a bargain that won't last...

Zoe's Muster, the first book I wrote for Penguin Australia, is currently reduced to $2.99 at amazon and kobo, iTunes and any other ebook stores. If you haven't tried my longer books, why not grab this one while it's such a great price.

Also, I'm thrilled to say that Moonlight Plains is back in the book stores today with a lovely new cover starring Kitty and Ed. :)

And, I sent out a newsletter a few days ago. It was such a relief to know I'd finally got the hang of it. If you haven't signed up for my newsletter there's a button on the home page of my website and there'll be more news coming soon with giveaways and free reads.

In family news, we had the most wonderful celebration on June 4th when my mother turned 90. Despite the terrible weather in Brisbane on the day, the whole family managed to be there, including Mum's eleven grandchildren.
Here she is looking as glamorous as ever, with the beautiful and scrumptious white chocolate cake my sister made, and three of her great granddaughters.

Very special!!

An award nomination and an interesting find...

More good news this week. Thanks to some wonderful Aussie readers, The Secret Years has been nominated for an Australian Romance Readers award. I'm thrilled and honoured to get this nod.

Also in the past week, my husband and I have been going through boxes of "stuff' and in much the same way that my characters might stumble upon things, we've found a lot of interesting memorabilia, including this "occupation currency" used by the Japanese in the Pacific Islands during the war.

There were also slim volumes about the ordeals of fighting in the islands and the New Guinea jungles (which would have been very useful for research while I was writing The Secret Years)  These two pics leapt out at me. These men could so very easily have been Harry Kemp, or one of our very own uncles.

Happy New Year!

I'm on deadline, hence the slow start to the year on this blog, but I hope it's going to be a wonderful year for you, bringing you good health and a deep sense of satisfaction from your achievements.

In terms of my books, I've had a great start with a new book straight out of the blocks on New Year's Day.


The Husband She'd Never Met is an amnesia story, just like my very first romance Outback Wife and Mother, published in 1999, only this time it's the heroine who has amnesia. 

I love giving my characters problems I'd hate to have to deal with in real life. The story was a lot of fun to write, so I hope you enjoy it.

In Australia, you can buy it from Booktopia as a Forever Duo with Christy McKellen's debut book Unlocking the Boss's Heart, or you can buy it as a stand alone ebook from all the usual places.

I should mention I've bought lots of books from Booktopia and they are fabulous to deal with. Super professional.





In other book news this month, three of my favourite stories are now available on Kindle for just

S1.50.  Outback with the Boss won a Romantic Time's Reviewer's Choice Award and A Bride at Birralee was a finalist in the Romantic Book of the Year. the other story is the cutie, Outback Baby. So why not grab a bargain?

I still love to read physical books, but I also enjoy reading books on my iPad, especially when I'm travelling and I've installed the Kindle app, so I have a choice of places to purchase. I'm still in awe of that one click buy. So incredibly easy and such a luxury to lie in bed with a cup of tea and buy books. 

Sign up for my Newsletter...

Here's another giveaway opportunity. For people who sign up for my newsletter, you won't just receive up to date info about my books, you'll also have a chance to win three Christmas romances...

Plus your choice of one of my Penguin novels...

Look out for this button on my website, or sign up directly from here.

A pre-Christmas giveaway.

 I have a new romance coming out on New year's Day.



 It's called THE HUSBAND SHE"D NEVER MET and, like the very first romance I ever wrote, it's an amnesia story.

Romantic Times have given it four stars and the reviewer comments...  A mystery filled with intertwining secrets makes Hannay's story all the more interesting...

A lovely big box of the book arrived yesterday and as Christmas is on the horizon, I decided it's time for a giveaway.

To be in the draw, you can leave a comment on my Facebook page or here. Good luck!!

This week at our place....

I found a very Christmassy looking bush in our patch of rainforest.

The lilies I planted in the grove (that we planted a few years earlier) all flowered.

And I worked out how to finish my current book with sticky notes on my study wall.

No, I'm sorry the hearts aren't sex scenes. They mark a different time line. :)

Oh, yes, and I changed the banner at the top of this blog. Not sure how it works on your screen, but I need to slide my browser bar to see the whole panoramic shot that my nephew, who was visiting, took for us.

Jacaranda time...

We always make sure we include a trip to Herberton at this time of the year to see the jacarandas.

The displays aren't as stunning as the southern avenues and parkland, but I think I enjoy these trees so much because they pop up, dotting the hillsides, in what is normally pretty dry and dusty country. It's such a lovely surprise to emerge out of the bush and there they are...

Herberton is an old mining town to the west (still on the Tablelands) and the minerals in the soil give the trees a depth of colour that my camera couldn't quite capture.

 But I thought they were still worth sharing.

When I was growing up in Brisbane and we still had major external exams, there was a saying, "If you haven't started studying before the jacarandas flower, you've left it too late.' :)

An exciting week in North Queensland...

It's been very exciting in FNQ with the Cowboys' big win. We've been hanging out for this for years. We  had family staying for the big game and the girls decorated the TV area with plenty of posters supporting the team and they even taught us the Cowboys' song!

And my husband cooked the most scrumptiously delicious post-game roast lamb.

The girls also went fishing with Pappy to re-stock the fishpond.

And a great time was had by all!!!

My new love affair with spring...

I've written here before about my love of autumn and winter. Living in the tropics, we brace ourselves for summer (as opposed to em-bracing it) or we head south. Summer is heat, humidity and cyclones. And spring is often uncomfortably warm... a warning of what's to come.

This spring (so far -- and I'll probably regret saying this out loud) has been glorious with beautiful cool, sunny days with a light breeze. Perfect weather for being outdoors --which is something of a problem for a writer on a deadline.

But as gardening is my main form of exercise, it's important. Right?

And this spring I've been indulging in my love of dainty, romantic flowers. I've planted them in the ground.

In pots.

 And in hanging baskets.

 I've even planted them around the fishpond (currently minus fish, but granddaughters are coming and that will be rectified).

And I'm loving their generous showy display.

What are you doing this spring? Or autumn if you're on the other side of the globe?

This week in YOURS magazine...

I talk about my late start in writing and how I persisted in spite of rejections.

The Secret Years book trailer...

I was lucky enough to win the making of a book trailer for The Secret Years. Gabrielle Battistell of Trailermade Production has done a wonderful job of distilling one hundred and eleven thousand words into a few poignant images and telling phrases. What do you think?

It's spring again...

I have to confess I'm someone who's sad to see the end of winter. After living in the tropics for most of my adult life, winter has become my favourite season, especially now we're in the mountains and can enjoy a wood fire. Such a novelty!

But of course, spring is also lovely and brings new pleasures. Our garden is currently full of birds, attracted to the flowering grevilleas and bottle brush. They can be very noisy at times, but it's a wonderful sound.

And all kinds of flowers are popping up. Little white daisies, hippeastrums and day lilies. And the hanging baskets are starting to look pretty.

The other best thing about spring for me is that it marks the release of my new book The Secret Years. You can order a signed copy here.

There have been some lovely early reviews and I was rather chuffed that the editors at iBooks selected The Secret Years for their Best Books of the Month feature. A huge honour! Here's a link to the editors' comments .

I've also been invited to post on some other blogs about this book, so here are the links if you'd like to check out some of the background to this story.

Ten Terrifying Questions, Booktopia...

On writing dual time lines for Booktopia.

Where my story ideas come from with Australian Rural Romance... 

Military aspects of The Secret Years on Annie Seaton's blog...

Winter weather...

 No snow here in FNQ, but cold misty mornings where I am in the highlands.



We're certainly enjoying the fire, which is still a novelty after all those years in Townsville.





 And don't you love the creative woodpile our friend has made at Paluma?

In writing news, There are one hundred copies of The Secret Years coming for me to sign for Booktopia. The release date  is getting closer!!!

Ruby news

Lovely news that Moonlight Plains is a finalist in the long romance category of the Romantic Book of the Year award (fondly referred to a the RUBY) run by Romance Writers of Australia.

The award winner will be announced during the RWAust conference in Melbourne in August.