prepare to feel warm and cosy

Had to come on to say that the loooovely Barbara Hannay recently gave me a huuuuge honour in asking me to design her new website.

Well, today it's up and loaded - woohoo! - so please do head on over and have a trawl. The colours and the cosy feel were all her brilliant idea and I think it feels like having a coffee reading the paper on a warm sunny morning. Which is really how I feel when reading her gorgeous books as well.

Barb has some of the most fantastic writing articles in the biz, and her books truly are a dream as well, so have a read of some excerpts and get thee to Amazon now!!!

www.barbarahannay.com

okay, this is getting ridiculous

I've written a fairy dust book once before. FALLING FOR THE REBEL HEIR was filled with fairies, and wood nymphs and memories and ghosts and even a mermaid. But the book I've just finished - YIPPEE! - seems to have overtaken that one in terms of the amount of input my muse has had without my knowing.

A couple of posts back I waxed lyrical on some of the magic monets that have slammed me back into my chair over the past weeks. Today I had another.

My heroine is an astronomer. And my hero quotes Shakespeare a handful of times without quite ever remembering who he's quoting.

Now I did know Rosalind was a character from As You Like It, but the Shakespeare quotes have appeared from nowhere. Sorry Muse, oh Muse. They came by way of you oh mighty Muse. But today when I went googling the name just for the fun of it, the first page that popped up on my screen told me that Rosalind is the name of the eighth moon of Uranus. Sheesh!!!

This book is running late, but now I know why. I was meant to discover the trillion little throughlines and impossibilites that have been put into the book wihtout any forethought from me. Why? It's all about the fairy dust, my friends. The fairy dust.

all I need is a good googa-wiki

Stuff I've Googled and wikipedia'd in the last handful of days for my book:

· Josh Duhamel

· Edwardian architecture

· barbeque calamari (

· Joanne Woodward

· refractor vs reflector telescopes

· Mexican food

· ballroom balcony

· moonscapes

· ah, Josh Duhamel

· rendered brick façade

· rhubarb and apple pie

· Pemberley

· ghost gums

· Mischa Barton ugh boots

· And did I mention Josh Duhamel?

The things we do for our work ;).

more magic abounds

Today in skies over Israel and the Middle East, Venus, the pet subject of my current heroine was eclipsed by the moon.

Venus is otherwise known as the Morning Star, or at other times of the year the Evening Star as while the other planets wait for dark to come out and play, she hovers in our sky either side of daybreak or sunset.

Therefore this morning so many lucky souls on the other side of the planet were able to see this phenomenon in broad daylight.

I, on the other hand, glued to my computer finishing this book, have been drooling over photography such as this.

Heavenly... Literally ;).

the muse speaketh

As of tonight I must admit the book I am currently deep into writing was officially NOT written by me. From now on in I bow to my Muse. For there have been far far too many freaky moments writing this book I now officially believe that he really does exist.

Take the fact that my hero’s name is Cameron Kelly. A couple of weeks back I needed a name for his old school so went looking for the name of a catholic saint to find there were hundreds to choose from. Deciding to simply pick a name I liked the sound of St Grellans it was. At the last minute I thought I'd better wikipedia St Grellan to see what he was about. Guess what? He was the Patron Saint of the Kelly clan.

Colour me gobsmacked.

Then tonight I needed Cameron to compare Rosalind with an old painting. Botticelli came to mind as he evoked images of beautiful women with pale skin, and soft flowing golden locks which is what my Rosie is all about. When I found his most famous painting, you know the lady in the clam shell, it looked so much like Rosie I thought, ‘That’s the one!’ The paintings name? The Birth of Venus. My heroine’s occupation? She’s an astronomer whose speciality is...you guessed it. Venus.

Well...pe...che...yuh huh!

peeking out of the cave...

... to say that I've just stumbled upon my first ever Harlequin Presents cover!!! My heart leapt out of my chest seeing my name scrawled in that font on one of those iconic covers. Damiens' gorgeous and dark, Chelsea's pertite and golden. Spot on!

THE MAGNATE'S INDECENT PROPOSAL will be out in North America in September. You can pre-order a copy here.

And to add to the excitement I just foud out the follow up book, all about the Damien's best mate Caleb, A NIGHT WITH THE SOCIETY PLAYBOY, is coming out in North America as a Presents in November! Woohoo!

Now back into the writing cave I go. My heroine tonight finally decided to play nice and show my what all the clues about her life she has been sprinkling through the book given me mean! Revelation!!!

me and the sex and the city

I'm so excited. Giggle, girlie, ridiculous excited.

Tuesday night my friends Sheree, Emily and MJ and I are going to see Sex and the City together.

We all have babies under one, who will all be babysat by their dads while we four gals hit the town for dinner, a drink and a whole lotta fabulousness!

None of us know a THING about the movie, having switched off the TV and radio anytime those four magic words are said. So, so, so, so excited!

Now we just have to figure out which of the awesome foursome each of us are. By my colouring I'd be Miranda, by my nature more like Charlotte, buy my profession certainly Carrie. Mmmm, decision decions...

lorelai & rory I'll miss you heaps... (don't panic mum, no spoilers here!)

My face is red. Blotchy. Tear soaked. As I've now seen the final episode ever of the Gilmore girls.

I've loved this show for ever. I love how fast they talk. Love the pop culture references. Love the romances and the small town characters and the family dynamics and most of all the heart.

After my hubby gave me the whole series for Xmas I have watched it bit by bit while feeding my own little girl so now she grins whenever Lorelai comes on the screen and dances happily when the theme song plays. But we've never seen the final season here in Aus so the wait for season seven was agnoy.

Then my clever little seven month old gave it to me on DVD for mothers day. Oh Happy Day!

I cried in EVERY episode, bawled my eyes out in a couple. Wished I was a size nothing so that I could fly over there and steal ALL of Rory's wardrobe -the jackets, the boots, the cool scarves! - and her hair if that doesn't sound too creepy. And sat on the edge of my seat as the major characters were given leg-ups into their prospective futures and willed for Rory and Lorelai each to be given the RIGHT happy ending.

For the last episode I made myself a fresh cup of coffee took a deep breath and let it happen. And now it's over I'll miss them all desperately. And what will I now do with my fuzzy mornings?

I know!

Seems a good time to start Sex and the City from epiosde one all over again...

the fog and the microphone

Driving into Melbourne this morning was just beautiful as my city is covered in a shroud of fog.

Thank goodness it wasn't this way three days ago as I was on a plane which might well have been turned away from the airport as has happened every day since!

But snug in my warm car, with soupy grey fog surrounding the dark grey buildings, hovering above the silver river, and contrasted against the autumn leaves it's something to behold.

The reason I was driving into the city all dolled up was because I spent my morning in a radio station talking romance with the Mix101 Breakfast crew!

It was my first foray into FM radio and it was sooo much fun. I hopefully didn't sound silly and think I said some funny things, I remember one bit about leotards versus tracksuit pants as work attire. Oh God, did I really say that?

I'll let you know when it's going to air. Or just listen out to the Mix101 Breakfast Show in Brisbane and Melbourne til you hear it!

the magnate: in pictures: part three

THE MAGNATE'S INDECENT PROPOSAL is out next month in Australia and New Zealand as a Sexy Sensation. But since you're here then you can obviously use the internet ;), so why not get ahead of the crowd and grab a copy early from eHarlequin!

This is a book about the match-making mobile phones, a technophobic guy, a gal with a hot pink work van, and the extreme importance of being a dog lover. Throw in his wickedly yum best friend, her fab sister, the beautiful sight of Melbourne in winter, and second-hand chintz as far as the eye can see you get a 5 star review from Cataromance and a book that was a serious load of fun to write!

To get you in the mood, this was the soundtrack song that took me into the story day in day out and I love it still. I give you "A Different Corner" by George Michael...