i heart pikelets

My little 'uns favourite kids' show this morning - the legendary Aussie Play School - they made pikelets.

Being that I am utterly kitchen-challenged, I am impressed with myself that pancakes are one thing I can make. So, in order to impress Toddler Girl, I slipped on my apron and went forth.

Despite my culinary hopelessness, above most of my pikelets are surprisingly perfect. Round, brown, delicious.

This heart-shaped pikelet was a complete accident. Fitting tho, dontcha think?

cover genies

Even with 50,000 words of lovingly layered love story at their disposal, and the lists of infomation we authors are able to give to the art department, they can't possily see inside our heads to truly know how we imagine our heroes and heroines when designing a book cover.

So you've met my fabulous Wynnie and my gorgeous Dylan (click on their names to find out more!), and without giving anything away I can let you know there is a scene in their book GETTING RED-HOT WITH THE ROGUE in which they get up close and personal several times at a charity event at the Brisbane Museum. That night he's in a tux, she in a sexy red dress.

With all that in mind, I give you the cover for my latest Harlequin Presents.

Did my stomach give a little flip when I first saw it? Did it ever!!! A big heartfelt thanks to the cover genies from a girl who continuosuly flips to the cover to check out the characters whilst reading a book and who so often gets disappointed if they don't measure up ;).

"GETTING RED-HOT WITH THE ROGUE"

published through Harlequin Presents

out now across North America!

read more

buy the book

download eBook

chicklets 2009

As we do every summer, we've gone and procured ourselves a bunch of fertiised eggs to put under our clucky chooks. They lay such deeeelicious eggs for us when not clucky, giving them some bubs to raise is the least we can do.

Here are some piccies of our current batch of little beauties. Are they not the cutest things ever???!!!

When they grow up they'll become a mix of pure bred Bantam chooks - Silkies (adorable fluffballs), Australorps (fabulous layers) & Light Sussex (stunning, white with black rimmed feather). Til then my littlies - and neighbourhood kids - will get to goo and gah and watch them grow.

the red-hot rogue himself

This here is Dylan Kelly.

Okay, right, sorry. Again this is not Dylan Kelly, but is absolutely is a piccie that sucked me back into the writing of GETTING RED-HOT WITH THE ROGUE whenever I sat down to write it around this time last year!

Every hero I've ever written has been tall dark and handsome. Never blonde. It's just not my personal thing. So even though I've had a stash of Brad Pitt piccies on file just in case, they've simply never been appropriate.

But then, when writing my last Harlequin Romance, DATING THE REBEL TYCOON, the hero's brother Dylan popped up. Dark blonde hair, cheeky blue eyes, as sexy as a man could ever come. Truly. Think of the most beautiful man you've ever seen, now double it.

And so I searched through my weighty folder of Googled pictures of yummy guys to find a one who might just come close to my guy, and there he was.GETTING RED-HOT WITH THE ROGUE.

Hope these lovely photos help your reading experience as much as they helped me write!

"GETTING RED-HOT WITH THE ROGUE"

published through Harlequin Presents
out now across North America!

read more

buy the book

download eBook

getting red-hot with the rogue...'s heroine!

This is Wynnie Devereaux.

Okay, so it's not really her. Obviously it's the lovely Natalie Portman! But this is the picture that helped connect me to my current Harlequin Presents release, GETTING RED-HOT WITH THE ROGUE, at night after spending my days battling morning sickness and running around after a newly walking toddler.

One of the beauties of "collaging" a character is that pictures I keep on file because they evoke some kind of emotioanl reaction in me - I find them pretty, or evocative, or uncomfortbale, or they have outfits I wish I owned ;) - can, further on down the line, inspire so much more. They can inspire whole scenes, they can inspire entire plot lines, they can inspire the most subtle character traits and most major turning points.

Here are some pictures that, whether by way of an expression, an outfit I adored, or a setting that spoke to me ended up inspiring moments in GETTING RED-HOT WITH THE ROGUE.

Another benefit is the hours upon hours a writer must spend Googling piccies of yummy men ;).

Watch this space to see how my hero research turned out for GETTING RED-HOT WITH THE ROGUE!

published through Harlequin Presents

out now across North America!

read more

buy the book

download eBook

sex and the modern heat

Preparing to write a Modern Heat novel I often find myself getting out my Sex and the City box set and starting from scratch.


I think it's because after chasing around after two kids all day, keeping them entertained with books about Green Eggs and Ham and Hungry Caterpillars, teaching the alphabet to a Woody doll - 'cause Miss Smarty Pants knows it all already and just wants to share the knowledge ;), - I need something to get me out of Mummy Mode and into the right headspace in which to write a Modern Heat.


I'm up to the final two episodes. I'm trying desperately not to watch them just yet 'cause then it's all over. Again. I've cried a good dozen times already in the sixth season shows. Boy it's a doozy. One of the most rich, colourful, deep, excellent seasons of television ever created. The fashion, the storylines, the dialogue, the characterisation, the fulfillment of character arcs - it's perfection.


With two short episodes to go... I've warmed to Aidan. I've curled my fingers into my palms to stop from shaking Carrie about the Russian. I've almost convinced myself Carrie's perfect man is not one of the two favourites after all - its actually Jack Burger.


And then Big returned. And he made her laugh. He always makes her laugh.


On that note, off to type I go!

birthday girl

Today my baby girl turned 2. Wow, how crazy fast that time has flown by!

She's this long, lanky creature with the softest curliest hair and such bright laughing eyes. She loves pulling faces in the mirror and running full throttle with her head thrown back, laughing at the sky. She loves sitting in the corner reading book after book, and thinks herself best friends with The Little Mermaid and Nemo and Horton. She's sprouting full sentences and counting everything in sight. She amazes and delights and challenges and surprises me each and every day.

Celebration wise we've had balloons, a flower cake, Disney Princess Happy Birthday banners, presents galore, visiting family, and tomorrow is a day at the zoo with family and friends. But I have a feeling one small hour this afternoon will be my lasting memory of her second birthday weekend - the two of us, just me and my girl, headed out to a local cafe together and there we sat, side by side at a cafe on big girl chairs, sharing a special milkshake and chattering about the day's events. My heart felt full to bursting the entire time.

Oh, that, and I shut my finger in the car boot door whe we got home. Typos due fat, pulsating finger and pain killer combo ;).

Happy Birthday baby girl! Love you to absolute bits...

xxx

director's commentary...of sorts

I looove the director's commentary function found on most DVDs. Especially for movies I've loved.

They can be fun and full of fabulous info like which extras were memers of the producer's family, like Sandra Bullock's commentary on Miss Congeniality. The commentary can be filmed live and shown on a split screen alongside the film in the ever so slightly booze assisted comentary on

Jerry Maguire (listen, it gets funnier the more they drink!). Or it can shed wonderful, beautiful light on how a romance that was never in the orginal piece was layered into the film on the insistence of the star, as was the way for the Jeremy Northam pic, The Winslow Boy.

In the same vain I always like to put lots of little extras on my book pages.

Pictures of the gorgeous guys and gals who I'd cast in the movie of the book. Places that inspired me and gave me scope and colour and context and depth while writing the story. Links to the songs I played over and over and over and over...you get the point...again while writing the tale.

So if you're like me and itch to know how things became the way they were in the writing of a romance, check out my latest book page - for my current Harlequin Presents release GETTING RED-HOT WITH THE ROGUE here!

GETTING RED-HOT WITH THE ROGUE is out now across North America through Harlequin Presents. Have you checked out their new Browse the Book feature? Well here 'tis?

Better yet, why wait? Grab a copy today from the Book Depository - free postage worldwide!!!

go yankees!

I looove the Yankees.

Have done since I was a kid and all I ever wanted to do was one day see New York. My nickname in high school was, you guessed it, Yankee. It is a deep and abiding, blood-tingly, butterflies in the tummy kind of lurve.

Jeter. Rivera. Pettitte. Mmm, mm, mmm.

My Yankees jersey has come out of the cupboard. My Yankees cap - bought in New York - is on my head as we speak. The NY gold charm my hubby bought me for Christmas one year is on my bedside table (not around my neck as Itty Bitty Girl would have that thing snapped off in a heartbeat!)

My blood's a tingling. The Yankees webpage is open on my computer as much as my own. And oh the pain of not having access to watch a game! I've heard rumours one of the new digital channels on Aussie TV plays the games in the morning, but you try telling Toddler Girl she can't watch Sesame Street. Truly. If you can convince her, I'll pay your ticket over here ;)!

I've been to New York twice, once during a post-season and at the end of our holiday when we were completely broke and coudln't afford the bazillion dollars for a ticket, and once outside of the season proper.

But my time will come. Oh yes, my Yankees and I will be together one day. Okay, that made me sound like a stalker. Strike that, and let's just go with GOOOOO YANKEES!!!!!!

i heart the "meet-cute", how 'bout you?

Check out the faaabulous I Heart Presents site - the destination for lovers of all things Harlequin Presents - today!


Why? 'Cause I'm bloogging thereupon about the classic Hollywood set-up, the "meet-cute" and how it's just as relevent in romance novels. "What's a meet-cute?" I hear you say. Well, Eli Wallach's character in The Holiday, an old screenwriting ace who befriends Kate Winslet, sum it up thus:


"Say a man and a woman both need something to sleep in and both go to the same men's pajama department. The man says to the salesman Ted, I just need bottoms, and the woman says, I just need a top. They look at each other and that's the meet-cute."


My latest Harlequin Presents, GETTING RED-HOT WITH THE ROGUE, has a "meet-cute" all of it's own. Come over to I Heart Presents, see what it is, and tell us your fave "meet-cute" story!

meet dylan kelly

I'd like you all to meet Dylan Kelly, the hero of my current novel, GETTING RED-HOT WITH THE ROGUE.

Ah Dylan. What a pleasure he was to get to know. The second son in Brisbane's wealthiest most infamous family. The cheeky, irreverant, ambitious, playboy spare. Oh, was I ever inspired by Mr Brad Pitt. The flat blue stare. The shaggy dark blonde locks. The confident charm. The deep, lazy drawl.

Sound like your cup of tea? Well, here's a little taste...

Finally the crowd cleared, and through the parted waters came a man. Standard light blue shirt. Discreetly striped tie. Dark suit. So far not so much the kind of devil she had in mind.

But the closer she got the more the details came into focus. His suit was tailored precisely to highlight every hard plane of the kind of body that spoke of restrained power, and made walking through big cities at lunchtime a guilty pleasure. His clenched jaw was so sharp it looked to be chiselled from granite. His dark-blonde hair was short, but with just enough scruff to make a girl want to run her fingers through it. Tame it. Tame him.

The thing that trapped her gaze and held it was a pair of hooded blue eyes. She knew they were blue even though she couldn’t actually see them. With all the other inducements he had on show, there was no other colour they’d dare be.

And it was then that she realised they were trained completely on her. Flat, piercing, bewitching baby blue.

And he wasn’t merely looking at her, he was looking into her. Like he was searching for the answer to a question only he knew. Her throat tightened and her mouth felt unnaturally dry, and whatever the question was, the only answer her mind formed was, ‘Yes’.

Boy do I miss this man!

If that cup of tea was to your taste then don't forget...

GETTING RED-HOT WITH THE ROGUE is out now in Australia & NZ and come November through Harlequin Presents across North America. Have you checked out their new Browse the Book feature? Well here 'tis?

Better yet, why wait? Grab a copy today from the Book Depository - free postage worldwide!!!

meet wynnie devereaux

I love this girl. From the tip of her favourite sparkly butterfly hairclip, to the edges of her shiny new handcuffs.

Yep handcuffs. 'Cause that's what she's wearing when she and her hero first meet. Handcuffs strapping her to the shiny silver zig zag sculpture outside the mammoth Kelly Tower office building in down town Brisbane.

Wynnie Devereaux is the heroine in my latest release GETTING RED-HOT WITH THE ROGUE. And when I went looking for a gal who represented what I saw of her in my mind, Natalie Portman was so IT. Divinely petite, kind of mysterious, with honest environmental tendancies.

Here's a little bit of getting to know you...

‘You’ve got yourself quite a crowd here,’ Dylan said, loud enough everyone could here.
The cameras and the desperate hush of a dozen journalists reminded her why that was. Wynnie gathered her straying wits, tilted her chin downward, batted her eyelashes for all she was worth, and with a cheery smile said, ‘Haven’t I just?’
The crowd murmured appreciatively. But that wasn’t the thing that made her cheeks feel warm, her belly feel tumbly, and her knees as weak as if she’d been standing there for days. That was purely due to the fresh, devilish glint in Dylan Kelly’s baby blues.
She stood straighter, jerking her arms, twinging her shoulder, and creating enough friction at her itchy wrists she sucked in a breath to stop from wincing. She kept it all together admirably, promising herself an extra twenty minutes meditation on the yoga mat when she got home, as she said, ‘The handcuffs brought them out. But it’s what I have to say that’s keeping them here.’
‘And what’s that?’
Research and appearances backed up the notion that he wasn’t a silly man, but he’d just made a silly move. The first rule in shaping public opinion was never to ask a question you don’t know the answer to.
Buoyed anew, she said, ‘Since you asked, not a moment before you graced us with your presence, we all agreed that you have been acting terribly irresponsibly, and that it’s time you pull up your socks.’
Before she had the chance to provide some beautiful sound bites dripping with the kinds of statistics newspapers loved, Dylan Kelly grabbed a hunk of suit leg, lifted it high to show off a jet black sock and enough tanned, muscular, manly calf to create a tidal wave of trembling through the predominantly female crowd.
Okay, so he wasn’t at all silly. He was very very good. Who knew naked male calf could trump handcuffs?
Dylan took the attention and ran with it, on the face of it focussing back on her but she knew his words were for everyone else. ‘You oughtn’t to believe all you read in the glossy pages. I’m not all bad. My mother taught me to always wear clean socks, and the hideous memory of my father trying to teach me about the birds and the bees when I was twelve years old scared the bejeezers out of me so much it made me the most...responsible man on the planet.’
He may as well have pulled a concertina row of condoms from his pocket as he said it for the feminine trembling turned to almost feverish laughter as the lot of them got lost in thoughts of Dylan’s underwear and what it might be like to be the one for whom he might one day act altogether irresponsibly.
The men in the crowd were no better. She could read them as easily as if they wore flashing signs on their foreheads. They wanted to buy him a beer, and live vicariously through him for as long as he’d let them near.
Unless she pulled a shoe sale sign and a Playboy bunny from somewhere her hands could still reach she might lose them all for good. It was time her press conference was brought to a close.

Okay, so I lied. That was far more about Wynnie's hero than Wynnie herself. But come on, you can't blame me right? If you want to know more about Dylan Kelly, watch this space over the next couple of days. If you can't wait then...

GETTING RED-HOT WITH THE ROGUE is out now in Australia & NZ and come November through Harlequin Presents across North America. Have you checked out their new Browse the Book feature? Well here 'tis?

Better yet, why wait? Grab a copy today from the Book Depository - free postage worldwide!!!