Newborn Baby for Christmas on sale NOW!

It’s release day in the USA and UK for Newborn Baby for Christmas. The Aussies have to wait another month, sorry!

Do I hear some of you say that November 1st is a bit early for a Christmas story?  Scarily, it is not! I ordered my first Christmas present yesterday for my younger son and this weekend it is time to cut up the fruit for the liqour-infused Christmas cake. It needs to soak for a month before I bake it in early December. November 1 also means it’s time to plant the tomato and basil seedlings down here as technically the frosts are over, although given the world’s weather, who really knows, right?

The shops are now filling with Christmas things and the junk mail has gone up exponentially; another sign that the retailers certainly think it is time for us to be thinking of Christmas. I have even had the urge to start making a list!

Things get busy and as you know, between now and Christmas I have a son writing his final Year 12 exams and an insane bike ride to complete so I am starting to feel the pressure to ‘get organised.’ I am not sure it will translate into being organised but it’s a start. I am starting to ask the boys what they might want. As both of them will be living away from home next year, it may well be a ‘practical’ Christmas…sheets, towels, rubber boots, that sort of thing!

Anyway, back to my book, Newborn Baby for Christmas. I love Christmas and I loved writing this book. The idea came from the original Christmas story, starting with the virgin birth. Almost all the elements of the original Christmas story are in my very modern, 2012, Christmas tale, although no camels.  To get a feel for the setting, please visit my website. I set this book very close to where I live, which is a beautiful coastal part of the world. I even mention Leura Park Estate, a favourite winery who’s motto, ‘Life is Short, Celebrate Well’ is something we should all take on board.

I hope you enjoy reading Newborn Baby For Christmas  as much as I enjoyed writing it. Enjoy the run up to Christmas!

Fiona x

Last Day of School For The Lad!*

The Lad, who is doing Year 12 this year has left home for his ‘Celebration Day’ aka as the re branded ’muck-up’ day, aka, the last day of secondary school.  Ironically, as he is doing the International Baccalaureate  not the VCE,(Victorian Certificate Education)  it isn’t even his last day! He still has to roll up until October 31st as his exams start a few days after the VCE.

But today is the day so here he is as Zoro. There will be a bouncy castle and a chocolate fountain as well as a BBQ.

Saturday night we have Valedictory dinner and then Sunday is the formal proceedings of Speech Day.

So it is really happening. He is so very close to finishing his secondary education. My first born is about to sit the most significant exams of his short life so far and as I’ve told him, these are just the first of many.

I still remember the little boy who refused to put on his school uniform on his first day of school 13 years ago. Fortunately that was the only day he didn’t want to go!

Also, today I’m over at Love Is The Best Medicine, the medical romance author’s blog and I’m talking writing and biking. 

Love to see you there!

RWA 12 Round-Up Part One

Hi, I’m back in Australia after 13 fabulous days in the US. After spending five days in Wisconsin, (another blog post on another day), I attended the Romance Writers of America’s annual conference. It was four days filled with lunches, dinners, cocktail parties, dancing parties, workshops, book signings and the RWA awards’ night. It was so wonderful to meet face to face with writers I had been emailing since 2005

The event started with the Literacy signing on the Wednesday evening. I had never seen such a big room as the space in the Anaheim convention centre. The fabulous staff at Carina Press (CP) made sure all the CP authors had helium balloons in CP colours tied to their chairs.  I sat next to Patricia Davids who writes for Harlequin Love Inspired line and  Susan Gee Heino from Berkley. They were both such great fun the three hours passed really quickly.

I tried to attend workshops but only managed about 2 a day in between social events. I mean, when the editors from Mills and Boon invite a girl out to lunch, is she going to say, ‘no’? Not this puppy!

It was wonderful to meet Susan Carlise, Tina Beckett and Connie Cox in person. Susan and Connie are fabulous southern women with sensational accents and Tina is quieter but just as gorgeous. They were so much fun. Here are Susan and the lovely Louisa George from New Zealand  at the medical romance authors’ lunch. Later in the week I discovered they are both awesome on the dance floor as well as being great writers.

The intrepid Fiona McArthur led a bevvy of Harlequin Medical romance authors on the Anaheim bus system and here she is enjoying a well-earned drink. I LOVE the hat! 

Thursday night was the Harlequin PJ party and I won $25 worth of books for walking across the road in my PJs. Given that they covered me from neck to knee and I threw a pashmena around my shoulders,  I didn’t think it was a very daring thing to do but hey, I’m not complaining

Friday was the Harlequin book signing, the  Carina Press cocktail party followed by the Harlequin ball. All three events were super  enjoyable and here are some photos.

Here is Shannon Stacey and I just before the Harlequin book signing. Shannon writes the wonderful Kowalski series.

Here is Lynne Marshall who writes for Harlequin Special Edition and Medical Romance. She and I sold within six weeks of each other back in 2005 but this was the first time I had met her.

As wordpress is going all wobbly on me I will stop here and write another blog for the rest of the conference!

Summer and the Living is….

It’s the summer school holidays/vacation down here. This year is a little unusual as I normally take off December and January and don’t write but this year I have a book due in February so I am writing. The Lad is about to start year 12 and the second year of the International Baccalaureate so he has an extended essay of 4.5K, an English essay, a history essay and maths homework to do as well as watching some French films. So he and I are happy to work but that leaves Boy Wonder who doesn’t have to do any thing at a bit of a loss. I’ve been dividing my days into work in the morning and ‘doing stuff’ in the afternoon.

We’ve seen Puss In Boots, the movie. Lots of fun and I think that Pekoe the kitten needs a cape! We’ve made a huge blue flag and I have learned all about sticky interfacing and reacquainted myself with the sewing machine.  We’ve shot off a rocket using vinegar and bicarbonate of soda, practiced a duet on the piano and been swimming. Tomorrow, DH is taking him to the Australian Road Cycling championships.

We’re all loving seasons 3 & 4 of 30 Rock on DVD and the jigsaw puzzle is growing slowly. Friends have come for dinner and we’ve been to dinner with friends.

I usually read a lot during the summer but with working that has slowed and so far I have only read Glitter Baby by Susan Elizabeth Phillips which I had somehow missed because I thought I had read all of her books.

Our beach holiday is coming up and I am gathering my reading list. So far I have A Year with the Templetons by Monica McInerney, The Daughter In-law by Joanna Trollope, A LadyAwakened by Cecila Grant, followed by Busted In Bollywood by Nicola Marsh

If you have a book I MUST read, please let me know.

But before I can settle down to the reading fest, I have to co-ordinate a massive camp pack and finish chapter five. Guess I better go do it.

Fiona x

Happy New Year!

 

It’s a stinking hot and windy New Year’s Eve where I am and I think we’ll be spending it in the swimming pool. We have a family tradition of swimming, watching a movie, playing board games, watching ‘Arthur’s New Year’s Eve’ and then dashing up the stairs to my office and watching the fire works from the waterfront  I keep expecting one of the boys to tell me they have another party to go to but we’re all together again this year so I am taking it while I can get it.

New Year’s Eve can be an odd experience. Sometimes we’re looking back fondly and other times wanting to close the door on the year and look forward to a shiny new year with no mistakes in it. Other times we know that things that troubled us in the current year will accompany us into the new year.

Me? I have some very fond and happy memories of wonderful things that happened in 2011, I have some sad things that I wish to leave behind and I know that some things are going to come with me whether I like it or not.

Thanks for all your support this year, for buying my books, for writing (mostly) lovely reviews, for your online friendship and the wealth of information all my on-line friends give me.

Wishing you all a very happy and healthy 2012. Oh and party safe tonight.

Fiona xxx

Christmas Giveaways!

This week I am doing three guest blog visits and giving away books for Christmas. To be in with a chance, join me at

The Romance Bandits with the lovely Anna Campbell where we’re talking ‘fish out of water’ experiences.

The Love Cats Down Under with the talented Sharon Archer and my very naughty kitten. Caption the photo to win!

And on Thursday Dec 8th (afternoon Australian time) Tote bags n Blogs with the generous Lee Hyatt.

Hope to see you there!

It’s officially December

It’s seemed like December since Monday, when I hopped on the country train and headed up to the big smoke of Melbourne to have lunch with a fabulous group of authors, most of whom live in Melbourne although there are a few of us country gals who travel up.

The city was glorious with its lush decorations and even though my boys are growing up and I was alone, I still paused to view the Myer’s windows which are animated each Christmas with a story. I ‘borrowed’ the delight of some little children who were agog at the sight of the magical wonder the windows  generate year after year.

I started my Christmas shopping and had a fun time in Fragrance Hall because after all, a girl needs to change her perfume now and then and I’m after a new scent. Then I walked through the magnificent Royal Arcade where you step back in time to 1880 and all the Victorian splendor and met

 Sharon Archer for a pot of tea. Together we crossed the Yarra River to The Langham

 hotel for lunch. I adore The Langham. They put a special combination of essential oils into their fountain and when you step in the foyer, peace and tranquility descend upon you. Not really. It does.  As usual, their tree was splendid.
Lunch was a feast, the conversation diverse as it always is with authors and it went too quickly . I headed back on the train, reading a book on my Kindle and was in good company as in the six seats around me, there was one iPad, two Kindles and a reading device of unknown origin

As it is December, there are updates on my website and here is the collage of the book I have just started; a Christmas story for 2012.

 And now back to perfume…any tips on a light fruity summer perfume?

March and A New Tagline!

It’s March 1st so officially autumn in my part of the world and for once the weather seems to know it. We have a cool day with some rain squals and I had to haul out a jacket!

The first of the month also means website updates and this month brings a tweaked  tagline.  Why?  Well, it’s because although I  write “outback romance” for Harlequin Mills & Boon in the medical romance line ,  I also write single title contemporary romances set in Wisconsin, USA,  which isn’t located anywhere near the outback!  But all my books share one thing in common and that is they’re set in small towns with big hearts! 

Talking small towns and big hearts, Single Dad’s Triple Trouble is set in a small town on the east coast of Tasmania. CataRomance wrote, “”A tender, touching and believable tale of old passions, fresh starts and devastating choices.”  It’s available in the UK and Australia and in April in the US.  The Australian cover is a bit different from the UK and US cover. Do you have a preference?

My Carina Press book, The Boomerang Bride, now has a release date of August 8th 2011! I am so excited about this book and have been working on it with my editor where I fell in love with Matilda and Marc all over again!  I loved creating a small town in Wisconsin, a place I have very fond memories of when I lived there for three years. More information is coming about this story in the next few months.

For my northern hemisphere readers, I hope signs of spring are coming your way.

Happy March and happy reading.

Love Fiona x