bye bye bradley!

Sent off my revisions of THE LONG WEEKEND (w/t) my next Modern Heat/Harlequin Presents to my wonderfully patient editor last night. And boy did I have the best night's sleep I've had in AGES!

Of course today I awoke to no excuses for not helping pack up our house. We leave town in less than a week. Eek!

Anyhoo, I've now said goodbye to this hunky lad on thr right. Bradley Knight, mountaineer come adventure reality TV show producer extraordinaire, was an asbolute joy to right. Big, bad, obstinate, untouchable, with a heart of gold lurking deep deep down inside. Yum!

Now I have to turn my attentions to my next hero. With two stories clamoring to be told I'm not yet sure which will leap to the fore.

On the left I have Will Harrison in CRUSH. And on the right Nate McCaffrey in POISON. How could a girl possibly choose. It's just cruel!

I think I'll keep them both close for the next couple of weeks

manga magic

After fabulous Australian Harlequin Presents author Trish Morey waxed lyrical on her blog about her latest Japanese Manga title I couldn't help but google madly to find if perhaps, now, finally I might be lucky enough to have one of my own.

Guess what? Well if you've been clever enough to notice the piccie to the right, then you've probably guessed right! My tenth book, BILLIONAIRE ON HER DOORSTEP has been translated into a Manga.

I can't wait to get my hands on one! To see the story unfold in pictures. To see if Tom's beat up truck, or Maggie's lanscaeps make it into the end product. To see how the famous beachside town of Sorrento looks through a Japanese lens.

Now if anyone can figure out how to find it on Harlequin's Japanese website, I'll love them forever!

If Manga's not your cuppa, then you can still grab BILLIONAIRE ON HER DOORSTEP as an eBook from Harlequin.

nana nana nana nana etc.

Just realised today that while my 14 month old, heretofore known as Danger Mouse, adorably thinks cows say "boo" and cats say "woof", her verbal talents are actually even more adorable than that.

* Sing "nana nana nana etc", and at just the right time, out comes "Batman!"

* Every time she sees a Toy Story 3 ad, she says "Woody!"

* The Collingwood Magpies footy team kick a goal - which they did in blissful bulk this weekend! - and out fly her hands as she does a brilliant goal umpire impersonation sa she calls out "Goal!"

Now if only we can get her to "moo" and "meow" the world is hers!

revisions... yum!

Revisions arrived in my inbox today for my latest Modern Heat, working title THE LONG WEEKEND. I love revisions. Love 'em. Adooore them. The question is, Why?

* Is the feel of a red pen clasped in my hand as I slash and burn my way through an overly long, freshly printed manuscript a nod to my stationery addiction? Add to that a new bulldog clip, and highlighters, and sharpened pencils, and...okay, I'm starting to get flushed ;).

* Is it the "aha!" moment that comes from having a second set of eyes pointing out the bumps and rises in the road that I was always too close to see? More rises than bumps always a good thing!

* Is it the chance to revisit much-loved characters one last time before they head off into the unknown together? Bradley and Hannah have been a particular joy. Funny, sexy, all the better off for finding one another.

* Is it the knowledge that the book will be all the better for the revising.

You know what? I reckon it's all of the above. Of course I could be kidding myself. It's probably the crumbly, delicious, raspberry and white chocolate muffin awaiting me at my fave cafe where I'll be doing the revising!

the buzz of a new idea

Today - after a week off which went so quickly! - I'm in that blissful, now-what-will-my-next-book-be-about phase.

There's already hero and a heoine bubbling away quite nicely in my head which is always a comforting thing at this stage. Yet, today, just to be sure, I sat down to have a glance at the half dozen ideas I'd had for possible stories over the last couple of months to see which grabbed my fancy most.

One of the fun things about this job is that it's full of surprises. And I had a lovely surprise today. An idea I'd completely forgotten about! Working title Poison. I got a rush just reading my notes and thinking about what a fun cute-meet the hero and heroine could have and what a romp their story could be. So the bubbling story has been pushed to the wayside while the fresh one has leap to the front of the race.

This is the hero, Nate. Yum right?

going, going...gone!

It is such a lovely feeling sending off a completed book to one's editor. And last night I had that feeling when I finished my latest Modern Heat THE LONG WEEKEND!

All those hours hunched over the computer, the pulling of the hair when the right word wouldn't come, the times when your characters just don't want to do as they're told, and those times when the words flowed like hot honey...all worth it.

Email, attach and...SEND! There's such relief. Done! So tonight I can sit back and relax and watch TV and do nothing! That lasts about five minutes before my finger start to itch and I think, how on earth am I going to fill all that writing time tomorrow???!!!

My darling hubby has been Mr Mum the past two weeks while I wrote like a mad woman, so I think we might fill that 'writing' time by letting him sleep in and go to the footy this arvo while I reintroduce my gorgeous girls to their mother ;). Yeah. I'm happy with that.