Garden makeover

Our pool was getting expensive as the pump and the creepy-crawly cleaner kept breaking down.



So we took it out, and recycled it to another family.

Lucy's design for our new garden

This is our new garden, only a few weeks after the pool was taken out. Max the Pom puppy is growing too!

Ken the gardener, before the plants went in!

Sexy historical romance going cheap

From tomorrow (November 15), and just for a few days, you can buy my novel A Hard Man to Love for a reduced price from Kindle.

Cover design by Erin Steenson

 

It tells the story of Pansy Summers who, when she arrives in outback Australia in 1910 after answering an advertisement for an English governes, finds an unforgiving and barren landscape.  Pansy is angered by her employer's cold and distant attitude towards his daughter and wonders what terrible secret lies behind the enigmatic Rex Falkland's tormented stare.

Gradually, Pansy delights in the beauty of the bush, seen through the eyes of her young charge, while Beacon Hills - and Falkland himself - irrevocably capture her heart.

As fire and famine threaten their existence, will Pansy be able to save the Falkland ancestral home or will its master pursue his own course as its only hope?

Me, the author, in my new garden, with new Pom puppy, Max

New puppy love

The joy of a new puppy is like a toasty fire on a cold day.

We lost our beloved Reggie a while ago and were desperate for another Pomeranian who could be a friend to our pound dog Harley.

Imagine how thrilled we were to find a breeder who had puppies available in only a few weeks' time.

It was a long wait, but finally Max arrived. We've had him for six weeks now but are still no closer to teaching him to go outside to do his business, which is a minor problem compared to how happy he makes us. Harley taught Reggie for us but isn't interested in teaching Max. And we're not great disciplinarians.

Any tips?

Max at eight weeks, on his first day in his new home

Max in the middle, at five weeks, still with the breeder



 

Good news for sexy romance / erotica / Celtic romance Kindle readers

Hello everyone - there's good news for Kindle readers today. And for those of you who don't have Kindle, rest easy. You can download a free Kindle app and use it on most devices.

Kindle have a new deal for readers. It's called Countdown and it gives you the chance to buy books at a discount price - but only for a very short time.

So if you love sexy romance, erotica and Celtic romance, look out for great deals on my books starting from 15 November. 

Here are some of them:

How do you cope with book reviews - good and bad?

As a writer, it's scary waiting for reviews of your new novel.

So imagine how relieved and pleased I was to get two nice reviews of recently launched Stella's Sea this week, in The Age (Melbourne, read it below) and The Post (Perth) newspapers.

This is what The Age had to say:

Stella’s Sea

is a limpid and

unflinching exploration of

a life derailed by

devastating loss. Stella’s

daughter has died in a

motorbike crash and Stella

has fled her marriage. She

moves to a rundown pad in

Cottlesloe, where she can

be seen in mismatched clothing, walking

her daughter’s dog down the beach,

oblivious to the world around her. When

she meets Ari, an ex-con and volunteer

beach cleaner, a tentative connection

forms and Stella is compelled to revisit the

memories she has been avoiding, and find

a way to live with the crushing burden of

guilt and grief that has consumed her.

Sally-Ann Jones’ prose has a quiet

assurance, chiselling brief scenes and

building up the main character’s internal

world with delicate and credible detail. It’s

a novel of considerable emotional and

psychological insight into trauma,

although the plot (such as it is) isn’t as

well-turned as the characterisation.

This is the invitation to the book launch
 

But how do you cope with less than glowing ones like this? http://anzlitlovers.com/2013/10/26/stellas-sea-by-sally-ann-jones/

The answer is, just roll with the punches - and keep believing in yourself and your writing. Hang onto the good things your friends will say (naturally!) about your books. Remember the positive comments and let go of the less than complimentary ones. But let yourself learn something from them too.

I'm really pleased that most people are loving Stella with her bees and wasps - and am already planning my next novel.

 

Me speaking at the launch, with Terri-ann White, Director of UWAP, looking on

Celtic customs

The Celts gave us Halloween - which we've just celebrated - and other amazing festivals as well.

I love researching them for my novels.

Here is a passage from my epic Beyond the Border (Books One and Two are published on Kindle)

Once there was a dwarf who held regular congress with Them Who Be.  At Sundown, between Beltane and Samhain, he  sought the company of the Gitto who lives in the fields. The  Gitto, whose head is that of a horse and whose body is that of a goat, has human speech and laughter but is malevolent and will blight your crops just before harvest.  At the time of the full moon , he courted the Gwragedd Annwn, the golden-haired water fairy who loves to dance but who cannot count beyond five. And in the dead of night he feasted with the Gwyllion, who would die in sunlight and who cares for the wild goats of the mountains.

 

This cover, by Erin Steenson, shows the enemy of the Princess who is the heroine of the story

The story is about a Welsh princess who has to defend her Kingdom against the Vikings.

 

 

 

Halloween, Welsh style

Samhain is the Celtic word for Halloween

So how did the ancient Welsh people celebrate this special night?

My father was Welsh - and all my forefathers - so I'm very interested in Welsh customs, specially those that pre-date Christianity.

For my novel I, Rhiannon (published on Kindle in Books One and Two) I did a lot of research into Welsh life at about the time of the Roman invasion.

The cover of one of my Celtic novels -- by graphic designer Erin Steenson

Some of the most interesting things I discovered related to the Celtic festival of Samhain, which we now know as Halloween.

Did you know that the Celts believed the spirits from the Summerland visited the living on this night? They made special soul cakes - that were almost too salty to enjoy - to honour the Messenger of the Dead. The salt was for purity and preservation.

They used to play games around a big bonfire. One of the games was for the bachelor and spinsters of the tribe. They would get a chance to draw a golden wedding ring from a massive cauldron of mash stirred by the Arch Druid. Whoever got the ring on his or her special carved wooden lovespoon would be the first to wed. The mash, called stwmp naw rhyw, or mash of nine sorts, was made of barley,carrots, turnips, peas, parsnips, leeks, pepper, salt and new milk.

At the very end of the evening, when the fire was just embers, each member of the tribe would take some ash home to protect them against sorrow.

You can read more about this and other interesting Celtic customs in my novels.