for those who don’t get my newsletter, I’m currently running a couple of contests on my website. The first features a Destiny Kills ARC, and the second signed copies of the UK/Australian September releases of Beneath a Rising Moon & Beneath a Darkening Moon. Both contests are accompanied by the usual assortment of Tim Tams and chocolate   To enter, simply head on over to the fun stuff page of my site, and hit the contest link to get the details.

Writing news….there’s not a whole lot happening at the moment. I’m currently in the middle of line edits for Deadly Desire (Riley 7) and I’ve only got a few days to get them finished and back to Bantam. My editor, agent and myself are also debating title possibilities for Riley 8. I suggested three (A Killer’s Kiss,  Death’s Seduction and Hunted Heart) but none of them excited Bantam. So, it was back to the drawing board. My ever so brilliant agent came up with several possibilities, and these are the three I picked: Assassin’s Heart, Last Embrace and Bound to Death. So, right now we’re waiting to see what my editor thinks. I’ll let you know as soon as we get a result.

The Romance Writers of Australia conference is over for another year, and a good time was had. Of course, I basically ate way too much and will have to pay for it with many sweaty hours at the gym, but I think it’s worth the pain. What isn’t is the badly broken tooth I got from eating one too many milk chews. A visit to the dentist is now in order to fix the horrid thing. But broken tooth aside, it was a brilliant weekend for several Lulus. Carolyn won the Emmy (Emerald Single title award) , and also picked up the Anna Campbell Award for best placed Historical. Chris collected ‘the hunk’–the Clendon’s amazing looking trophy and won an Honourable Mention in the Valerie Parv award. Robyn pitched to two editors and got requests from both (as well as several brilliant suggestions from Jenny Hutton about how to make the story stronger before she submitted it), Carolyn was introduced to Cindy Hwang (Berkley) and ask to submit her novel (via her agent), and Jenny Hutton tracked down Chris, and asked her to send in some work! Needless to say, much tears were shed during the ceremony, and much wine and chocolate were consumed afterwards.

I haven’t downloaded my pics yet, but Mel sent these through, and I thought I’d steal them and load them up. So, without further blabbing, here are (as Mel aptly named the lot of us) The Brilliance of Lulus (because flock just didn’t sound right after all the award gathering–although considering the noise we make, a babble is probably more appropriate    )

the lulus at the friday night cocktail party. From left to right: Me, Robyn, Chris, Carolyn, Mel (whom no one recognised) and Freya.

In our fancy duds for the award ceremony. Left to right: Robyn, Carolyn, Freya, Mel, Me, Chris

Huge congrats to Chris Weston (fellow lulu, good friend, and marvellous writer), who won the Romance Writers of New Zealand Clendon Award this weekend. The story really does rock, and we all have our fingers crossed for a well deserved sale sometime soon.

Other writing news–well, i’m the proverbial bee’s dick away from finishing Mercy Burns. I’ve just finished writing the big fight scene, now I have the end scene to go, and I’m there. I was actually hoping to get this finished by the start of the Romance Writers of Australia conference this weekend, and it looks like I might actually get there. Wouldn’t it be nice to meet a goal for a change?Of course, Mercy will still need a ton of work, but at least I’ll have the frame work done, and I can get on with writing the next Riley.  I’m going to need plenty of time to write Riley because I’m shifting house in September, and anyone who’s shifted house before will know just how much that can mess your life up!

you wouldn’t believe we’re in the middle of a massive drought right now. It’s been raining for four days straight, and the garden is looking decidedly soggy. In fact, we’ve had so much rain, the pool overflowed and there was six inches of water floating around the outside of it. Anyone who knows anything about above ground pools knows this isn’t a good thing, so yesterday I was out there in the rain, digging trenches to get the water away from the pool supports. Such fun. (not!)   We didn’t get snow like many other mountain areas did, though, and that’s a bit of a shame. Would have like to have seen a bit of the wet white stuff (it would have made a nice change from the rain!)

Writing news–well, I continue to struggle on with Mercy. Thanks to Chris (a fellow lulu), I now know the problem I’ve been having with this book. There’s no McGuffin. There’s nothing vital for the characters to lose. Which is, of course, a major problem. I now have said McGuffin (it was in the book all the time, I just didn’t take it that one step further) , but it’s going to take a major rewrite to fix it and I am not going to do that now. My aim at the moment is to just get this book finished so I can start the next Riley. I’ve finally rolled over the 300 page mark on Mercy, and I have maybe another 60 or so pages to go. Which means it’ll end up being short, but I already know of two scenes I have to add, plus there’s the rewrite to fix the McGuffin problem. So, hopefully, it’ll push up closer to the 400 page mark by the time I’ve totally finished. Although right now, this book is uncontracted, so it doesn’t really matter anyway.

As for Riley, I still have no idea how to actually start this one. I think I’m just going to have to sit down and let the muse ramble on until we hit an idea that sticks. I have the rest of the story ready to go–it’s just the darn beginning that’s causing problems. Which is odd, because in every other book, it’s been the other way around!

Oh, and keep an eye on my website, because I’ll be putting up a new contest soon–this one featuring an ARC of Destiny Kills