Romance: what's all the fuss about?

Why is romance such a big deal?

Because it makes the world go round, that's why!

It's part of the fun of meeting someone hot and maybe having a baby or two or three with them.

Reading, and writing, romance, is a joy.

To write a good romance you need a few magic ingredients. The most important is characters. You need a woman who knows what she wants more than anything else in the world and a man who knows what he wants more than anything else in the world. These wants should conflict because the resulting fireworks will give you the peaks and troughs in the story; will keep your readers turning the pages.

I love writing romance novels and have a few to my name. They're available on Kindle through Amazon. Why not check them out?

I also have a novel for a more general readership, but it's still a love-story of sorts. It's called Stella's Sea.

This is the novel I'm working on right now. The cover's already done. It's by fabulous graphic artist Erin Steenson.

Valentine's Day: get yourself in the mood!

Get yourself in the mood for love and romance this Valentine's Day.

Check out this great deal on Amazon: my novel Loving Venus is available NOW via Kindle or through a Kindle app.

This is the story in a nutshell, and you'll soon see if you read this synopsis that this steamy romance is sure to get you in the spirit for some loving of your own this Valentine's Day: 

What happens when a curvaceous redhead from Australia – descended on her father’s side from convicts – inherits a rundown Italian vineyard and villa that everyone expected would go to her relative, who is aristocratic, spoilt and devastatingly handsome? Alessandro and flame-haired Annabella are second cousins and haven’t seen each other since a happy holiday when he was 17 and she was 12. But 13 years later their great-grandfather makes a crazy death-bed decision and leaves his estate in fabulous Tuscany to Annabella. The old man’s final testament drives a wedge between the cousins. Alessandro has lived at Casa dei Fiori all his life while Annabella – fresh from a struggling wheat and sheep farm in Western Australia – has only spent a few weeks in Italy. When Annabella arrives at the Casa in her denim shorts and Doc Martens to take her rightful place as heiress, she has every man in the village eating out of her hand. Every man except Allesandro, that is.        

Selfie Valentine's Day pressie

Why not give yourself a great Valentine's Day present. And it's free!

My novel A Hard Man to Love is free via Amazon from 14 February 2014 to 18 February. You can read it on Kindle or through a free downloadable app.

It's a sexy read that's had some lovely reviews. Here's the synopsis:

When Pansy Summers arrives in outback Western Australia in 1910 after answering an advertisement for an English governess, she finds a barren landscape, harsh and unforgiving. She is angered by her employer’s cold and distant attitude towards his daughter, yet 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 threated their existence, will Pansy be able to save the Falkland ancestral home or will its master pursue his own course as its only hope?

 

In my previous post I talked about characters who love animals and the special cachet they have. In this story, a stray dog plays an important role near the end!

 

I hope you enjoy it.

 

Some of the dogs in our family. The bigger one is a former stray.

 

Battery hen rescue

We have a dog called Harley who my son found online at SAFE (Saving Animals from Euthanasia). Harley (at age six months) was on 'death row' in a pound in Western Australia's Pilbara and I guess that a ranger, admiring his friendly nature (despite his ill-treatment at the hands of a previous owner) thought, 'this guy's too cool to be put down' and contacted SAFE. We've had Harley for more than three years and we've loved almost every minute of having him living with us, except when he escapes through the open front door every so often and we're terrified he's going to get run over. We always manage to get him home unscathed and he always runs to the beach where he tries to round up the waves. He thinks they're sheep!



Harley helping me in the garden. What would I do without him!




So having had such a great experience adopting Harley, we decided to adopt some battery hens! First we got rid of the backyard swimming pool (see a previous post on Scribblygum) and then we got a great carpenter to build the chook yard, once the garden was in.

Our new chook yard, ready for our 'girls'

Once the chook yard was ready we drove out to an egg farm, thanks to info from Adopt a Battery Hen who gave us the addresses of egg farmers in the Perth area who sell hens past their laying prime. Ours are ISA Browns and were $5 each. I got five, trying to choose from the ones on sale those who seemed the most desperate to get out of their small cages, and also the ones that were baldest. I drove them home in boxes on the back seat of my car. The woman at the farm cut a viewing strip in each of the two big boxes, and the hens all stuck their heads out as we drove along, but they didn't like it when I had to turn a corner as the boxes slid around. Next time (when these girls die of old age) I'll take cushions to make the boxes more secure.

Our 'girls' on their way to their new home

When I got them home, my other son helped me carry them into the chook yard and shut the gate behind me while I opened the boxes and let them out. Harley, our puppy Max and one of my daughter's two dogs were all watching with great interest on the other side of the chook yard gate! The hens were SO pleased to be in a nice shady yard with fresh straw and good things to eat including lettuce and watermelon and corn etc. One, the baldest, whose name is Dusty, dug a big hole in the sand and stretched out luxuriously. The others walked up and down, stretching their necks, lifting their legs, feeling the sun on their skin. An aeroplane flying low overhead scared them, but now they're used to planes and helicopters that are always scouring the coast for sharks.

Puppy Max takes a keen interest in our chooks, but they're not scared of him although he looks like a fox!




 

 We didn't get the chooks because we wanted eggs (though having eggs is a lovely bonus) -- but they do give us up to five eggs a day, mostly three. I'd advise anyone who loves animals to give stray and unwanted ones a good home. It's so rewarding and it's amazing to see the hens growing their feathers back and enjoying every minute of their new life at our place.

As a writer, I love creating characters who are animal lovers. My most recent novel, Stella's Sea, features a former bee keeper whose daughter's little dog, Pom, is the only reason she has for staying alive. The novel's getting some lovely reviews, which I was surprised about. But perhaps people are liking it BECAUSE of the animal-loving nature of its main character, Stella.

I'e written lots of romance novels too -- and all the main characters have animals! Right now, you can download Beyond the Border 1 free from Amazon. You can read it on Kindle or on an app. It's had one review, which wasn't complimentary. The reviewer said there were too many characters, but stay with it if you like stories about Welsh princesses, Celtic magicians and Viking warriors. Beyond the Border 2 will be free in a few days.

Celts' sacred water

Water was sacred to the ancient Celts.

In my novel I, Rhiannon (Book One: Sleeping with the Enemy) - which from Friday is on sale via Kindle for a special price - I write about Riannon's arranged marriage to a hideous old man who already has several hag-wives. The beautiful young virgin must marry Huw because he is rich and may help the tribe to fight the Roman enemy.

Here is an extract from the story, when the tribe, the Geveni, are walking alongthe river Draig (which means Dragon) to the place where the ceremony will be held:

A pair of red kites spiralled on the currents of warm air over the Draig, circling each other ferociously, each trying to drive the other from its territory. Occasionally they locked talons and twisted in a crimson whirlpool in the blue sky, until one disentangled itself before re-engaging minutes later. Summer had splashed the green hills with wildflowers of every colour and even the air smelt flowery with their breath. But many of the Geveni felt the season’s abundance was unseemly given the circumstances. The Romans, they knew, were more at home in warmer climes and would be at an advantage on firm, dry land. Was Mother Nature herself conspiring against them?

Crossing a small stream, most tossed coins into the water, hoping for luck. They wouldn’t have wasted their money if they hadn’t been worried. Mair herself tossed both silver and gold into the stream and whispered: “May moon and sun shine on my daughter.” Even Dafydd parted with some, only throwing it when he was sure nobody was looking.

A Welsh waterfall in early morning

Magical Celtic Wales

Wales is a place of magic and mystery, even today.

Mists wind themselves round mountaintops and ruined castles appear in every twist and turn of the road.

I, Rhiannon is set in pre-Christian Wales, when the people still believed in fairies and sacred trees, and when the Druids ruled. You can read Book One at a special price on Kindle from Friday.

Here is an extract from the story. The Druid Edern has just sacrified a hind - a female deer - to persuade the Gods and Ggoddesses to protect the tribe from the invading Roman army:

“Spirits of the forest-dwelling creatures, led by this female red deer, going now to Summerland, rush to our aid!” cried Edern The Erudite, his golden sickle still vibrating in the animal's warm body.

“Magic folk of moon, sun, stars, sky, sea, rivers, lakes, springs, wells, mountains and valleys, swarm to our aid!” the others sang, the well-practised words never having been so heart-felt as now. Palms held moonwards, they seemed to absorb the light into their pale skin.

“Gods and Goddesses of the eleven sacred trees succour us in our hour of need.”

Fabulous Snowdon

Celtic heroine takes on Roman enemy

My novel I, Rhiannon (Book One: Sleeping with the Enemy) is available for a special price on Kindle from Friday 29 November.

It tells the story of a beautiful, headstrong Celtic maiden whose virginity is sacrificed to protect the tribe from the invading Roman army.

She is named after the goddess Rhiannon and the tale is steeped in ancient Celtic folklore. For example, did you know that - shockingly - the King of the tribe would mate with a mare and then bathe in her blood to ensure the clan would be safe for another year? Rhiannon discovers this hideous fact from her brother Gwyn, who is styudying to be a Druid.

Here is an extract from the first chapter:

Rhiannon, whose singing birds could wake the dead and lull the living to sleep. Rhiannon, who galloped as fast as the wind. Rhiannon, whose mare the King mated with, so that her strength and his were mingled and the clan would be safe for another year. Gwyn, studying to be a Druid, had told her in secret that after the coupling, the mare was slaughtered so the King could bathe in her blood. She knew her brother had hoped to shock her but she could tell by his face that he’d never witnessed such a thing. He was always accusing her of being insolent and arrogant, with an outsized idea of her own importance, but he’d made her feel more indispensable than ever. As the only Rhiannon in the clan, she was sure the Geveni would starve without her.