la di dah!

So I've just received a fantabulous review from Cataromance for my latest Modern Heat novel THE MAGNATE'S INDECENT PROPOSAL.

Five stars and all!!!

The reviewer, who is my new favourite person in the whole world, said it was "flirty and totally funny" and "will leave readers smiling and thoroughly entertained". Aaaaawww. How nice is that?

You can check out the review here, or better yet, buy the book and make up your own mind ;). It's out now in the United Kingdom, in Australia and New Zealand come July, and in North America in September.

And it's kinda famous for being a book in which after meeting the hero and heroine don't actually see one another again until chapter six! How, you ask? How can that work in a category romance?

You'll just have to read it to find out ;).

male on monday for me

Today I'm blogging about a hot blonde at the Pink Heart Society. To find out which one head on over for a read!

I'll give you a hint... He's expecting twins!

how's a girl supposed to write a word?

Tonight my footy team played last year's premiers, and whipped them by 86 points!

I had the chance to be there, but since I have a book due and being that I am a good little writer I offered to stay home and look after the kiddlywink while my hubby and a friend went instead.

And even though I had nobody here to make sure I truly did sit at my computer and write while taping the game on my DVD hard drive. How good am I????

The fact that I listened to the game on the radio on my computer and had the stats constantly updated on a website hidden behind my word file is beside the point ;).

Go Pies!!!

why i love sundays

Love love loved this weekend's epsiode of Grey's Anatomy (4.13 for those who are way ahead of us overseas - where Addison comes back for a visit).

Alex made me cry. Blub in fact. He's mean, and hard, and tortured, and soft and he had his most poignant moment yet and it got me so unexpectedly I just lost it.

Then Mark made me laugh. Out loud. The lift door opening and seeing McDreamy there with all his women. He's misguided, and yearning, and hopeful, and a cad and I really hope he has a happy ending, or a TV happy ending that covers a three week story arc in him at some stage.

The fact that they are both heavenly cute sure helped too.

kinky keywords

I've had some more fabulous combinations of keywords that have brought people to my website this week and just had to share.

~ hand crank knitting machine are words all to be found on my STEAMY SURRENDER page

~ picture princess with wings will apparently send you in the direction of HIRED: THE BOSS'S BRIDE

~ chartreuese ground cover will send you, well, here!

The chartreuse bit I get, cause I'm sure I've blogged about this dress, Nicole Kidman's 1997 Dior Oscar dress, a trillion times as I think it the most beautiful outfit ever - the hair, the lipstick, the earrings, the bag, heaven! - but ground cover? Intriguing!


Who knew checking website stats could be such fun?!?!?

the magnate :: in pictures :: part two

Today I offer you the second part in my pictorial accompaniment to THE MAGNATE'S INDECENT PROPOSAL, out this month in the UK.

This book to me was yellow. The colour was so strong in my mind as I wrote. The grapes of the Yarra Valley. The use of sunshine all throughout the book. Damien's car which you can see in the post a couple below. Chelsea's blonde hair, her warm over stuffed chintz filled apartment, the flame-filled lighting in the restaurant in which they first meet...

I wonder what this means. Does anyone out there know anything about colour?

Anyhoo, today I give you a glimpse into CHELSEA'S WORLD...

Here we have Amelie's where she meets Damien, the beautiful Yarra Valley outside of Melbourne and her apartment, inside and out.

holding out for a hero...

Come visit me today at the Tote Bag where I am nattering about how my ridiculously large TV watching schedule has helped me cast the hero of my current UK release THE MAGNATE'S INDECENT PROPOSAL!

Okay, so not only my latest hero but a good smattering of them. Oh, wow I didn't even realise how many until that moment!

Does that mean my TV and the related electricity useage should be a tax deduction. Ya-ha!

getting down...in spanish!

My first Modern Heat is out now in Spanish!

GETTING DOWN TO BUSINESS has been released as De negocios… en la Cama, which translates to Of Businesses... In the Bed. Fun huh? And isn't it a beautiful moody cover. Soooo pretty.

You can grab a copy here.

the magnate :: in pictures :: part one

To help make the reading of THE MAGNATE'S INDECENT PROPOSAL, out this month in the UK, I am going to give you a visual tour of the world my characters inhabit.

Once again Google served me beautifully as I trawled the net for images and places and little pieces of inspiration that could help connect me to my characters and their lives.

I have written almost every book in my home town of Melbourne, but each book still has it's own colour, it's own flavour, it's own soundtrack, its own ambience. And hopefully this travelogue of pictures will give you a sense of the place inside my head as I wrote.

Today I give you DAMIEN'S WORLD...

His Austin Healy Sprite, the Collins Street address of his business, and a nice bottle o' wine he has chilling for dinner.

happy mothers day to me!

After having a lovely lunch with my hubby and our adorable little miss for Mothers Day today, I came home to the lovely news that my MILLIONAIRE TO THE RESCUE has been nominated for a Booksellers Best Award!!!

This was a tricky book to write, one that took an age to nail the hero and it has been nominated for all sorts of awards so far including the Romantic Times Reviewers Choice Award and it won a cataromance award for best Harlequin Romance. The other wonderful nominees in the Traditional category are:

Best Friend - Future Wife by Claire Baxter
The Italian's Wife By Sunset by Lucy Gordon
Hired By The Cowboy by Donna Alward
His Christmas Angel by Michelle Douglas

I have to say how wonderful this group is because three of us are Australian, a forth is a fellow Pink Heart Society editor and the fifth has a website designed by me! I feel so blessed to be in such lovely company.

The book is still available on Amazon.

and...

I have found out that I have an article in the May 17th edition of the Aussie magazine New Idea which hits news stands across Australia...tomorrow!

A super fun journo/photographer couple came over for a chat and a giggle way back when my little girl was under two months old. Not surprisingly the article didn't show up in the magazine that week. How could I possibly compete with the Angelina Jolies and Lindsay Lohan's of the world???

Now I just have to wait and see what my post baby cheeks, and I mean the ones on my face, look like in the piccie. Eek!

the magnate, the dog groomer, and their match-making phones

Out this month in the UK is my third Modern Heat THE MAGNATE'S INDECENT PROPOSAL.

The super exciting news is that come September it will be my first ever Harlequin Presents release. I'm kinda pinching myself about that and am not sure I'll quite believe it - even though it's now up at Amazon which helps - until the book with it's iconic Presents cover arrives in my hot little hands ;).

So this is a book about two mobile phones. Well it's actually about two people falling in love, but let's just say a couple of mobile phones play their hand in the match making.

So today I am blogging at the Pink Heart Society all about life before and after the advent of the cell. Did you ever own one that felt and looked more like a brick? What tricks does yours play? Could you live without one?

six months...or a footy season

My friend and fellow footy supporter - and by supporter I mean rabid, pays membership dues, life comes to a screaming halt when her team plays - Nicola Marsh was talking on her blog a few days back about letting her boys choose the team they will follow for life.

She and her hubby follow different teams so that's fair enough. It's even a lovely idea, a story each of the boys will have for their whole lives - how and why they picked their footy team.

My hubby and I, on the other hand, follow the same team, the Collingwood Magpies. He has a magpie tattoo on his ankle, and now works for their reserve team, filming specific players in the coaches box. And I've written articles for their website. You can check them out here...

So out little munchkin - who turns six months old today btw - will get no choice. None. She will be black and white forever.

She has a Baby Magpie membership with the club including a certificate that is on the wall above her change table for her to look at five times a day. She wears a black and white outfit every game day. And has even been to her first game, wrapped in her very own black and white blanket.

Her first words will be only a handful of months away, and if they aren't "Go Pies!" I'd be very much surprised ;).

who knew I was so rude?

Checking out my website stats today - waving to all the lovely newcomers who've been having a play around my new website, sooooo lovely to have you here!!! - and found some fun and games in the keyword analysis stats.

Amongst the perfectly nice and obvious "ally blake romance", "mills and boon" and "collingwood football club blogs" people found my website using the terms have: "grooms playboy cake", "bride in braces blog", "circular clothesline" and my particular favourite "he pulls down her pants to reveal her bottom".

Ummmm...

unchained melody

The lilting strains of Soviet born Brit poppet Katie Melua are proving to be a most enlightening soundtrack for my current work in progress.

My clever godmother gave me the "Pictures" CD for Christmas and it’s just lovely. Croony, moody, soft, sweet, slightly odd and really evocative.

With song titles like "All In My Head", "If The Lights Go Out", "Spellbound" and "What It Says On The Tin" the album is the perfect foil to my book which encompasses all of the above themes.

Have a listen to her first big hit here, and see what I mean. Just heavenly. I mean the girl does covers of songs by Jeff Buckley and Leonard Cohen. How can I not love her?

These things are like a little piece of magic - find the right album and it only opens up more to the book you're writing that you never knew were already there. Well, it makes sense to me!

And she’s just gorgeous – real heroine material dontcha reckon?

autmumn leaves...and arrives at the same time ;)

Do you know how hard it is to write a book set in the heart of a Brisbane summer when outside the leaves are finally turning, the air is chilled, and inside the sound of rain pattering against our roof is mixed with the whumph of the heater turning on?

Real hard.

But the opening scene has to take place in Brisbane. At the Botanical gardens. With my hero hiding inside the planetarium. So I will struggle through, close my eyes and picture sunshine. I will!

Sigh...