the end

Wow. I just typed those two little words and I tell ya, the delight never fades. Right now I look about as happy as my heroine Chelsea does in this pic, though my hair isn't done, and I'm in tracky daks and a frayed old cardigan ;).

My next hopeful Modern Extra, working title THE BEAUTIFUL STRANGER, has been a pleasure to write (or maybe it's the bliss running through my veins making me remember it as such ;). It has taken me from April to now. From the hustle and bustle of Gotham like inner city Melbourne to the serenity of the beeeuatiful Yarra Valley, famous for its vineyards. From a dark haired glamazon heroine to a slip of a girl whose up to her armpits in wet dog suds more often than not. From a gooorgeous collage I loved to a book that has not one sinlge resemblance to the original feeling I had when I created it. And from one single tiny little slip of an idea that came to me while watching TV one night, to 58,000 words of a story I hope others will one day love to read. (Funnily enough the "seeding" of ideas is what Trish Wylie is nattering about on her blog today)

So now I can relax and prepare for two weeks holidays up to warm and sunny Townsville, where the termperature gets down to about 15 degrees while here in Melbourne our top is 11. Mmmm... I plan to have lunch with fellow Harlequin Romance author Barbara Hannay and her gorgeous husband, as well as play shopaholic with my sister and mum.

So what do I do now to celebrate THE END? I kind of feel at a loose end. Pack? Eat copious amounts of chocolate? Watch a mushy rom com movie while snuggled under a blanket with a hot chocolate? Finish Trish Wylie's fabulous MX "Breathless!" which I had to stop reading halfway so I could finish my own damn book and not become depressed by how good hers was?

All of the above I think!!!