Wrapping Christmas Presents - HELP!

OK, I need your help again people. I'm working on a novella for a Christmas bundle - and one recurring scene involves the heroine working at the wrapping table in a dead posh department store - and the hero bringing her increasingly difficult presents to wrap as a joke (he invents a whole extended family to buy outlandish things for)...

but of course, I need to think of all those presents!

So what have been thehardest things to wrap in your experience? And, for the purposes of this, she doesn't have boxes or bags to use - just rolled wrapping paper and ribbon!!!

So far I have a ball, a butterfly net and an ice hockey stick... got any ideas for me? PLEASE!
;)

eHarlequin's Nanowrimo

...I'm over at www.iheartpresents.com today talking about Nanowrimo and eHarlequin... come over and join the fun!!!

Remember the great IRONING SHEETS debate??!!!

Well I'm thrilled to be able to say that Luca and Emily's story has been accepted!
It'll be out in the UK in June 09 (not sure about other places yet) and do you want to know the title??!!

BETWEEN THE ITALIAN'S SHEETS

- now how perfect is that, hmmmm????

Recovery & Preparation

OK, so we're almost all the way through the birthday season - PHEW!!!!

And November is swinging round fast which means its almost time to Nanowrimo!!!! Am so pleased to be doing it this year over at eharlequin.com.... am signing on for a novella and part of another story... except yesterday I woke up with this whole OTHER story in my head??!!!!! Gotta love it when that happens... I scrawled down copious notes to leave for later but it keeps whispering to me...

SUNNY days...

...and the week is starting to slip away from me already. School's back and this term we've gotten involved with a ton of extra-curriculr activities so its going to be busy, busy, busy - but its SUNNY and hooray the world is a beautiful place...

It is my eldest's birthday party (with all her schoolmates) on Sunday - and we have a fish'n'chip birthday dinner on Friday with good family friends and a ton of stuff to do before then (cakes are being PURCHASED this year!!!)... October is the birthday month in our house (4/6) - wonderful but exhausting and I have work to do too!

Still, its too SUNNY to panic ;)

p.s. Did I mention it's SUNNY???

Sprechen sie Deutsch?

Because if so I've got a treat for you! I found out this week that my first book ALL NIGHT WITH THE BOSS is out in Germany this month in a 3 book package together with stories by Julie Kenner and Nalini Singh - check it out here!


I'm so chuffed to be book buddies with Nalini - New Zealand's own New York Times bestselling author with her Psy/Changling series! And more than being an incredibly talented writer, she's also a lovely person. Go check out her blog - its awesome!

Winning the lottery...

...is a fantasy I often have - doesn't everyone?! And I've been having it a bit this week because the NZ lotto has jackpotted to its biggest ever amount - wow! Just imagine all that dosh!!! Of course, I'd have to actually buy a ticket to be in with a chance and that's not something I usually do... this week might be an exception tho ;)

But the really interesting thing my hubby and I have been pondering is which charitable organisations we'd contribute to and how we'd go about it. We're like minded in thinking that when you have too much money (and I think there is such a thing as too much), you have to give it away. Actually, I think you have to give a bit away anyway - even if there isn't 'enough'!
But I guess if you had a certain amount, it'd be easy just to make regular contributions to a few charities/organisations of your choice... but what if you have SERIOUS dosh - like, way, way, waaaaay too much money - like so many zeros in the line I can't work out if its millions or billions...

Then I reckon the 'giving it away' thing would be quite hard - do you make like Bill & Melinda Gates and have your own foundation?! How much fun would that be? But it'd be a full time job and how do you decide who to say no to? Or start up your own philanthropic empire like the awesome Paul Newman??? Apparently JK Rowling spends a huge chunk of time working out what to give and to whom...

One thing I feel really strongly about is literacy (surprise, surprise!) - but not 'cos I want all the kids in the world to grow up and buy/read my books (altho, that would be fab) but because I think that reading is such a pleasure and a comfort and way of growing in life - learning thru reading, living in another's shoes thru reading, simply laughing thu reading... you're never 'alone' when you love reading...

...so some kind of literacy programme for sure would benefit from my imaginary millions... but then for kids to learn to read they need to have had breakfast before school - and a half decent one at that, and they need warm homes and clean clothes and loving environments... and parents who aren't sick or hurting them or each other or themselves... and there are too many awful illnesses to mention that we need to find cures for... and then there's the arts and cultural endeavours that enrich all our lives...

hmmm.... its so easy to decide in what ways we'd spend millions on ourselves... in what ways would you spend millions on others??

October means...

that BOUGHT: ONE, NIGHT, ONE MARRIAGE is available from Harlequin Australia! It'll be on the shelves in November but you can scoop it earlier -- and a little cheaper! -- now :)

Professional development (aka a treat for me)

... I had a bookshop voucher - it wasn't a chain store but one of those tiny has-a-cafe-as-well numbers - and limited stock. So I got the one writing craft book they had - "Manuscript Makeover: revision techniques no fiction writer can afford to ignore" by Elizabeth Lyon - timely huh?
So far, so good. Lots of useful snippets already as I dipped in and out while cooking dinner.
I have to admit I don't have a library on writing - I have a thesaurus and a dictionary... it all boils down to time of course - but I do read articles on the net and love to hole up in the writing section of the library on the rare occasions I'm not running after kidlets in the children's section... so its nice to have gotten something new to get the brain thinking theory wise rather than instinctively all the time...
So tell me, what are the best craft books you've come across???

New Beginnings

So the girls are two!!! We had a wonderful day (I got very emotional but I'm allowed, right?). The birth of my professional writing career and my twins was all very much at the same time - I mean, I was working on revisions for my first book when in hospital with the girls just born and now exactly two years later I'm working on the revisions to my eighth... and of course those two years have just been full on crazy, crazy... sorry if I'm harping but hey, it really has been full on crazy, crazy.
But its also been bloody marvellous.
And now? Onwards and upwards!
Fingers crossed those revisions are getting the book to where it should be (I am certain he'll be back for more, but that's ok, I'm prepared) - and we're into the third year of the girls' lives - and what a fun year it promises to be - I mean, toilet training!!! LOL.
But for now, I'm going to go and read over the outline I have for my Christmas story and let it percolate overnight - the best way to taske my mind off the fact that my ed is looking over something (and I'm damn terrified about what she'll be thinking) is to get on with something else.
So, something else, here I come!
(Actually, this is much harder than I made that sound - You should see me in the mornings as I hover by my computer waiting for it for start up... see me shaking as I wait for email to open... see me slump half in relief/half despair if there's no ed email or worse, there is and I can't breathe until I open it and it says...
ARGH!!!!
BUT, that's enough writer's angst for now! ;)

Progress!!!

... so I've spent the night watching a fun movie with my hubby, making big quantities of pink playdough and baking and icing 30 odd babycakes (pink again) - plus two 'muffin' sized ones for my two wee girls - they had to have ones big enough to poke candles in because they're TWO tomorrow!!!
It is SUCH a milestone.
I don't tend to blog that much about the family because, well, its the family, but let me tell you its been a very full on couple of years - for all 6 of us. It is so lovely to see these wee pets coming along and growing into lovely little ladies.
So I spent all day in the uni library knocking poor old Luca into shape and I knocked HARD - but I really didn't want to have to work tomorrow - I want to be able to relax - just sit back (ha!) and enjoy the day with the family and friends. Happily, Luca succumbed to the pummelling and I think he looks a lot better for it - here's hoping my ed agrees... altho I think he'll probably end up with another tweak or two but that's ok... because I'm done for the night, the cakes are ready to go, the pressies wrapped and the bottles of bubbles in the fridge.

Big... Fat... YAY!!!

Feel the Heat!

The winner and runners up have been announced over at I Heart Presents!!!
What a wonderful opportunity for these writers to get editorial guidance - fingers crossed many wonderful things come from it. Congratulations to all the other entrants too - and just keep on reading, writing and subbing. I'm proof that the slush pile system does still work and the fact is in this business you have to try, try and try again. Much like I am with this current manuscript!!! But I am determined to break the back of it over the next couple of days so that I can relax and enjoy the girls' birthday on Sunday...
Meanwhile, why not pop over to the blog of Rachael - one of the FTH runners up and give her a big congrats. And a huge congrats too to New Zealand entrant Jackie!!!!!