Welcome to 2019!

I hope 2019 has started off super well for you and you’re finding some fabulous books to read. I’ve just finished Belinda Alexandra’s The Invitation which was absolutely beautiful. I’m a long-time fan of Belinda’s books so please go and check out her amazing stories.

This year is shaping up to be an exciting and busy one for me, and it’s started off fabulously with the news that I’ve received two nominations for Burning Fields the Australian Romance Readers Association (ARRA) awards: 

• Favourite 2018 romance that made me cry
• Favourite Australian romance of 2018

Thank you so much to the ARRA member who voted for Burning Fields. I really appreciate your support!

Filming for Trust Frank starts in a couple of weeks and I can’t wait! Director and producer Penny Moore has assembled an amazing cast and crew and I’m really looking forward to this beautiful film being shown around the world later this year. 

I’ve had a sneak peek at the cover of my 2019 book and I’ll be sharing the cover very soon, so if you’d like to be one of the first to see it, please sign up for my newsletter. You can do so HERE.

As always, I love hearing from you so I’d love to hear what you’re looking forward to this year. Please feel free to drop me a line or post in the comments below. 

Have a fabulous day!

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RWA October New Book Releases

The members of Romance Writers of Australia are a busy bunch. Here are their latest releases. I hope you find a gem or two!

Romance Writers of Australia

It’s October and I can feel a frisson of Christmas excitement in the air. Can you? Early Christmas titles are sneaking into bookstores and onto Christmas reading lists. I love Christmas-themed books, so I am pleased I can spot at least one in this month’s member new releases. What about you? Do you enjoy romances tailored to a particular occasion like Christmas or Valentine’s Day?

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A whirlwind of a month!

August has traditionally been a busy month writing-wise for me and this year it multiplied three-fold! For those who may not have kept up-to-date on my Facebook Author Page, here’s a quick rundown on my crazy (but oh-so-fantastic!) August:

What’s Love Got To Do With It Panel – Jess, Alli, Kerri, Erica, and Fleur (Image by Helen Konstan)

Let’s start with the Bendigo Writers Festival. I was lucky enough to participate on three panels – What it Takes; What’s Love Got To Do With It?, and Writing Game. To say I was nervous is an understatement, especially when the first panel was broadcast through The Wheeler Centre and people all over the world could watch it – and they did! I’ve provided a link below to the video if you would like to see what I got up to. A special thanks to the AMAZING team at the Bendigo Writers Festival who put on such a fabulous event that ran smoothly and was held in some gorgeous venues. I hadn’t been to Bendigo for years and after spending such a wonderful weekend there I have made a promise to myself to visit this beautiful place more often. And a very big thank you to my fellow panelists and hosts – Emily Sexton, Luke Carman, Fleur Ferris, Alicia Sometimes, Jess Anastasi, Kerri Arthur, Erica Hayes, Kate Larsen, John Purcell, and David M Henley. You all made this nervous author feel comfortable and I loved the conversations we had on our panels. Thank you to all the people who attended the festival and the panels – I loved your questions and enthusiasm for reading.

Image by Ballmann-media – Wikimedia Commons

Next up was the announcement of the Dance Card Series sale to Kensington Books. That alone would have made August a super happy month! So for those of you outside Australia and New Zealand, you’ll have a chance to read this series when released (dates to be advised). I am super excited to see this series travel the world!

And if that isn’t enough, I attended the annual Romance Writers of Australia conference which is always a major highlight of my year. It’s a chance to meet old friends and new, learn about craft and marketing, and revel in the joy of hanging with my tribe. This year was extra special because Luna Tango won favourite contemporary cover of the year. Woo hoo! I have some super fabulous cover fairies at Harlequin MIRA (Australia). They truly are wonderful.

Here are some snapshots from the conference:

Winner of favourite contemporary cover!

The super charming Graeme Simsion and I sat next to each other at the Australian Romance Readers Association book signing (note Graeme’s red rose in his lapel matches my tango dancer’s!)

The wonderful Angela Ackerman who writes amazing craft books with Becca Puglisi. Their books changed the way I write – in a super positive way!

And if you would like to check out the panel I did at the Bendigo Writers Festival, here it is (it starts about 34 minutes in).

http://www.wheelercentre.com/events/what-it-takes

Book signing in August!

For those of you who’ll be in Melbourne towards the end of August, I’m happy to announce I will be part of the Australian Romance Readers Association’s book signing event. This will be my third one and they are so much fun – loads of give aways for readers. I would love to see you there!

Australian Romance Readers Association signing event – click for the list of authors attending.

Also, stay tuned for a couple more announcements – but I can’t divulge just yet!

Happiness is …

Quite a while ago I came across the idea for a Happiness Jar. I first heard about it when Elizabeth Gilbert (of Eat, Pray, Love fame) did a post about her Happiness Jar (link here). The idea is to write down moments in your life throughout the year that make you happy and place them in a jar (or box or container of your choice) and on New Years Eve (or a date you choose) you pull the notes out randomly and relive the happy moments from your year. Some people do it for big events and others daily – I’ve given myself the challenge of going with daily because no matter how bad a day gets I still believe there is something to be thankful or happy for. And on those days where it’s really hard to come up with something joyful from that day, I’m going to give myself permission to dip my hand into the jar and pull out a few notes to bring a smile to my face again.

My family decided to do this as a joint project so our Happiness Jar proudly sits in the middle of our dining table with a pen and post-it notes beside it, ready to be filled when the desire arises. We’re only six days into the year and I’m already thinking we may need to get a bigger jar! And that makes me happy (better go write that down and put it in the jar)!

I’d already filled in my note for the day but have had to add an extra one because a lovely surprise came along and I think it is definitely a two note worthy day. I discovered I’ve been nominated in three categories for the Australian Romance Readers Awards – voted by ARRA members. I’ve been nominated for:

* Favourite Contemporary Romance

* Favourite Cover

* Favourite New Romance Author

Being nominated for such prestigious awards makes me VERY happy and I am grateful for the people who have nominated me. Below is the link through to the nominees and I would love you to go and check out the authors nominated in the genres you’re interested in – you might discover a really fab new-to-you author! Here’s the link – click here.

I hope 2015 brings you everything you wish for and more. And I certainly hope if you choose to create your own Happiness Jar that it is overflows!