the chapter excerpt of Deadly Desire is now up on my website. Just click here to check it out.

The inaugural Australian Romance Readers Conference was held over the weekend, and I have to say, it was a blast. Given it was the first one, no one was really sure what to expect (not even the organisers), but having been to a number of RT’s now, I was expecting something similar and I wasn’t wrong. It was much smaller (several hundred rather than several thousand), but that only added to the atmosphere. There was chatting, good food, great panels, lots of laughter and more good food (except for the Saturday night dinner which was cold–not sure what the chef was doing, but he needed to be slapped for serving it like that). Oh, and me getting locked in the car park after the dinner didn’t help my mood that night. lol. I didn’t actually remember to take my camera, but I’m hoping to swipe some photos from fellow attendees, so stay tuned for those.

Writing news–well, there’s not a whole lot. I got half way through the Mercy edits, and decided the new start I’d intended to write didn’t actually fit, so I wrote another one. But of course, that meant I had to go back and re-edit everything, so I’m now way behind again. Luckily, my lovely editor has given me an extra week or so.

I also heard from the lovely lady in charge of publicity at Bantam this morning, and I have to say, there’s some exciting things happening this year in regards to Riley. I can’t tell you any more just yet, but I will as soon as it’s official.    Oh, and Deadly Desire has received a reader review over on Amazon, so if you’re feeling desperate to find out what the book is about, you can wander over there. Or you can wait a day or so, by which time I might have motivated my lazy self, and have posted the first chapter. 

I’m blogging over at Deadline Dames today, so head on over there if you want to catch my rambling on writing.

In other news, PNR released the list of their PEARL finalists today, and both Wolfsbane and Mistletoe and Hotter than Hell have been nominated in the best anthologies section. And Christmas Past, my short in Wolfsbane and Mistletoe has been nominated for best novella/short story, as has Charlaine Harris Gift Wrap and Patricia Brigg’s The Star of David. How cool is that?

that over a week has past since I last blogged. I really don’t know what’s happened–the days have just seemed to have merged into each other and disappeared. Weird.

Many of the bushfires here in Victoria continue to burn, and the terrible toll on people and animals continues to grow. The figures of destruction are so big they’re hard to even contemplate. But there’s some amazing stories of survival, heroism, and generosity coming out of these fires too, and its these things that keeps us all going, I think. The human spirit has really shone this past week. One small aspect of that is the red cross appeal–with a population of only 21 million and most of us feeling the pinch of high prices and a world economic downturn, the people of Australia have already donated over 100 million to the red cross this week. That is an amazing figure, especially when you consider so much more has been given in the way of time, goods, comfort and support. Of course, the people who have lost everything will need all the help we can give them for months to come and I hope people don’t forget that.

On to some writing news–Bound to Shadows ( Riley 8 ) has finally been finished and handed in, but the bad news is that the release date has now been pushed back. It’ll be out in November instead of September. Sorry about that! I’m currently revising Mercy Burns, the second Myth and Magic book, and then I’ll have to roll onto the outline of Riley 9, because both need to be handed in mid-March. Then I’ve got a whole five months to write and hand in Riley 9. So, I’m a little busy over the next few months. lol.

what do you get when you mix a week of extreme summer temperatures followed by a day of 47 c (117 f), winds of 100km an hour (62 mph) and a State tinder dry from 12 years of drought? You get a State ready to explode. And on Saturday, that’s just what happened here in Victoria.

And I tell you, it was scary.

The biggest fire started not very far away from us in Kilmore East. If the wind had of been blowing in the opposite direction, we might well have been one of the statistics. It wasn’t, and we were lucky. We stood on our front veranda instead and watched the columns of thick smoke, saw the speed at which it moved, watched the water bombers moving between the local dams and the fires, and heard all the sirens. And we hoped like hell that the fires stayed away from the many pretty little towns that were scattered in and around those hills.

It didn’t.

Instead, it destroyed thousands and thousands of hectares, has entirely wiped out two towns, partially destroyed many others, burned too many homes down and snatched so many lives. It’s just devastating. I can’t watch the news without crying. The official death toll is 126, but there’s so many places they can’t get into because it’s just too dangerous and they’re saying the number will be much higher by the time all this is over. There’s over 750 homes destroyed and, Victoria wide, there’s over 330 000 hectares burned so far. That’s over 815 447 acres, or two and a bit times the size of England.The worst of it is, there’s still 31 fires raging, including the one that started near us, and the wind has again picked up. At least ten towns are currently on high alert.

And the worst of it is, they reckon a good percentage of these fires were deliberately lit. I’ve never believed in the death penalty, but if they ever catch the bastards who did this, they don’t deserve jail. They deserve death. As our prime minister said, they’re mass murderers, not arsonists.

I know times are tough and money is tight, but if you have any spare change laying about, then please consider donating to the Australian Red Cross Bushfire appeal.  So many people have had their lives affected by, or destroyed by, these fires, and the best way we can help right now is by donating money to the people on the ground helping them cope. And all money donated goes directly to the people in need–Red Cross aren’t taking a cent.

to post over at the Deadline Dames website today, so head on over there if you’d like to read what I wrote. And don’t be afraid to comment–let me know whether you’re a pantzer or a plotter!