by Nikki Logan
Happy Birthday to my mum and my sister--both May 20 girls.
I often reflect on what a crappy way it must have been to spend your twenty-fifth birthday, legs hoisted up in stirrups, enduring agonising pre-epidural pain, being scolded by nuns for not being more stoic (family legend suggests Mum actually snagged a particularly unsympathetic one around the habit and hissed ‘what would you know, you cheesy virgin?' Yup, pretty much hoping that one was my father's blarney)), and knowing that it is the last time you will ever have your birthday be about…you know…you.
But…I guess that the arrival of a bonny, bouncing newborn was gift enough. After all, how many people can say they got a baby for their birthday--one that legally belonged to them, anyway?
I, on the other hand, had the good graces to come along a respectable number of months after Mum’s birthday and a nice distance before Christmas. I’ve always been accommodating like that. Smaller, too (you’re welcome); looking more like my father (lucky, given I was a surprise baby); and a dark, elvin yang to my sister’s blonde, strapping yin.
Yes, she’ll thump me for that.
Anyhoo, all this talk of newborns and gifts brings me nicely to the blatant self-promotional part of the blog which is to say that my next book Their Newborn Gift hits shelves (North America & UK) in two weeks.
It’s the story of Lea, a woman who grew up a bit of a misfit in the already isolated remote Kimberley region of Western Australia, fell pregnant via an ill advised fling with a scorchingly hot rodeo rider and then raised the baby defiantly alone. Until their child falls sick, that is, and she has to hunt down Reilly ‘suicide-ride’ Martin to get his help saving their daughter.
He’s never forgotten her, she’s kept a huge secret from him, and between them is this pixie of a child who needs a little bit of each of them to save her life. But unfortunately, Reilly’s been keeping a secret of his own…
Their Newborn Gift is the final book in the three-part Outback Baby Tales series and it winds up the Curran sisters' legacy. The other books in the series are One Small Miracle (Melissa James) and The Cattleman, The Baby and Me (Michelle Douglas). If you’ve missed them in print you can get them and Their Newborn Gift in e-book form right now over at e-harlequin (shortlink: http://tinyurl.com/outbackbabytales).
The talented Zana Bell did me the honour of being an early reader for this book and she's going to post a review in early June, so make sure you pop back for that!
Until next time... Hope every day is as good as your b'day.
