How did you get that idea?

This is a question I get asked a lot and I usually reply, ‘they don’t come fast but they come from things around me. Snippets in the paper, a conversation on the radio, in a cafe, events in people’s lives.’ 

Those of you familar with my books will know I have a bit of a love-affair with old buildings.  In my current WIP, I decided that the clinic would be in the original building of the country hospital. I didn’t have anything specific in mind when I thought this so I ‘googled’   and bingo, up came a glorious Edwardian building with the staff lined up in front in their starched collars and aprons.  As I peered at the picture I noticed a hammock hanging between the veranda posts and I decided my clinic would have a hammock too, so I wrote :

“Abbie had seen an old photo from 1908 where a hammock hung between the veranda posts so she’d bought a brightly coloured hammock and had slung it between the last two posts on the front veranda. One day she planned to have time to lie in it more than the brief ‘test’ she’d taken the when she’d installed it. Meanwhile Bluey enjoyed lying underneath it using it as shade.”

About three pages later I needed the hero to appear when Abbie least expected it and the hammock slammed into my head.

“Lying in her hammock and looking for all the world as if he belonged there, was Leo. His long and tanned short-clad legs stretched out in front of him, and one arm was crooked behind the back of his head, the angle moulding his soft cotton designer T-shirt tight to his well defined pectoral muscles and biceps. Aviator sunglasses covered his onyx eyes while his other long-fingered surgeon’s hand dangled lazily over the side stroking Bluey’s head.

The kelpie looked up adoringly while his tail thumped out an enthusiastic tattoo.

Traitor. “

Now, that’s still a rough draft but it’s an example of how ideas plop into my head and at the time I don’t always see how they are going to work out. The hammock had no real role when I first hung it up and then it became a perfect way to really discombobulate my heroine.

Now back to Hammocks…my 11 year old lives in his hammock in the summer and even sleeps in it when we’re camping by the beach.  I’d love to hear the wild and wonderful places you have lazed away a few hours in a hammock and if you’ve met any gorgeous men lying in hammocks

Zoom! and that was the holiday…….!

Burleigh Heads Queensland

Last week, DH, the boys and I jumped on a plane and headed north, chasing some winter sunshine. Only problem was, the Gold Coast which is normally full of sunshine was rather wet and grey. Fortunately we’d booked ourselves into a totally gorgeous apartment with more mod cons than home (million dollar view, cable TV, heated pool…) so we coped with the first 1.5 days of torrential rain! Oh if we could have rain like that where we live.                   

Anyway, the rain cleared and we got out to play in shorts and Tshirts which is a far cry from a Victorian winter where we’re huddled in fleeces. We hit the theme parks and I squealed in terror on the Superman Ride, oohed and ahhed over the dolphins and the seals and revisited my youth on the now low-tech corkscrew ride which is still a heap of fun.

We walked along the lovely beaches, tramped through some rainforest, played games of chess and 500 and I read a book or two.  I broke my healthy eating rules and had icecream and cheese and chocolate.  One week of eating will mean three weeks of hard work at the gym. Man, I’m not that fond of being 40…ish.

The boys have two more weeks of holidays so I’m juggling jobs and activitites and trying to wrestle Leo and Abbie into being well-behaved characters. Yeah, right! They have other ideas!  Anyone else out there taking a winter or summer break?  I love hearing about people’s trips.

I’ve Gone Polish!

I was walking home from the gym this morning and the Aust Post courier comes about 8am. Inside the box was a package and with a zip of excitement I opened the pack wondering where in the world the two books inside would be from…it’s always a lucky dip!

So far I’ve gone to France, Italy, South Africa, Serbia and all four of the Scandanavian countries. Today I discover I’ve gone to Poland! Can’t read a word but it’s totally cool to know that Wedding In Warragurra is now Zmiana planu.  Anyone out there read polish and able to translate the title for me?

The Surgeon’s Special Delivery

The Surgeon’s Special Delivery is on shelf  from today in Australia and New Zealand. I loved writing this story and it’s a fave of mine probably because unlike most books it didn’t give me grief at the begining, although it did at the end;-)

Perhaps it was becuase it starts with a death and a birth which is something I could relate to as my youngest son was born the day my mother-in-law died. 

If you’re stuck inside with swine-flu or the winter blues and you can’t get to the shops then order it online at eharlequin Australia

I hope you enjoy Tess and Cal’s story!

A Midday Snack? A python has a grand banquet!

As the mother of two boys I learn all sorts of facts I never thought I needed to know and one of them is that a python’s jaw is hinged so it can open way wider than a human’s. Why? Well, these pictures from the far north of Western Australia tell you why. For overseas visitors to the blog, a Goanna is a Really BIG reptile but pythons are not fussed by that!

The python wraps itself around the goanna crushing it and then and proceeds the very long task of swallowing it.

The dark bit against the goanna is the python's head and top jaw. Unlike a human jaw the python's upper jaw is not fused to the skull. It's only attached by tendons, ligaments and muscles. Also, the python's jaw is hinged back behind the cranium so that the lower jaw hinges with the upper jaw rather than with the cranium. The jaw bones are only loosely joined and the bottom jaw has another hinge about half way along. Pythons spread their bones apart and their prey slides in. Python teeth are sharp and backward curving - once inside, nothing's going to get back out.

At the three hour mark of digestion

It's a tough job but almost there

Done! I bet the python is feeling like he's just eaten five christmas dinners! It took Five hours for the python to consume the goanna. He won't need to eat for a few weeks now

Quirky!

  

 A week or so ago I blogged at Tote n Blogs and Love is The Best Medicine and I gave away two copies of The Surgeon’s Special Delivery to people who left a comment.  The winners were randomly selected from my ‘hat’ plucked out by my younger son with two other judges on hand (DH & DS1 )to make sure everything was above board.

The remarkable thing was that both prize winners live on islands! Very different islands in different seas but I was really tickled about the connection of such random events. There is something very special about knowing that people from all around the world pick up my books and read them.

Life Imitating Art…or the other way around

                                                                                                 In ‘The Surgeon’s Chosen Wife, (March 08) my Queensland book, I had a scene where the hardware store owner collapsed with a brain bleed. My reluctant hero who was recovering from a bad accident had to use a drill from the shop to save the shopkeeper’s life. There is a favourite line of mine where on the way out of the shop with the patient on a stretcher, the doctor calls out, ‘ get me a drill’ . A  customer replies, ‘fair go, Doc, finish your shopping later.’  Then all is explained how the drill will be used.

Last week my husband alerted me to an article in the paper. In a small town in Vicoria…in fact in the same town where all the Australian Harlequin editions are published, a boy who wasn’t wearing a helmet fell off his bike.The impact tore an artery and the boy bled into his brain.  The country GP saved his life with a drill from the hospital maintenance department.

For a full report head to The Australian

Love This Cover!

The Surgeon’s Special Delivery is also out in France. Thought you might be interested to see the UK cover and the French one side by side. I LOVE the french cover. Do you have a preference?

Guest Blogging This Week

By coincidence I am guest blogging at two blogs this week.

Right now I am at Tote n Blogs talking about a GREAT find at the beach and the fact that girls know what they want!

For the whole week I’m at the Love Is The Best Medicine ,chatting family.

I’m giving away books at both places so please call by!

Download a FREE Medical Romance

As part of its 60th birthday celebrations, Harlequin is offering free downloads of books! All the lines are represented including Medical Romance.

So head on over, scroll down to the bottom and download to your heart’s content…it’s all FREE!