New York adventures

If you follow my author page on Facebook then you’d have seen ALL the pictures I posted of my recent jaunt to Singapore and New York, and have heard some of the silly stories I told of our travels.

Like the time the New York Subway played a practical joke on Mr Douglas and me—it let him on, but not me. He stood on the train while I stood on the platform, and we waved forlornly to each other as the train pulled out. [We caught up with each other 15 mins later so don’t feel bad for me. It was, actually, hilarious.]

But I thought I’d share another “funny” story today.

St Francis Assisi Church--sweet, right?

For our first week in New York we stayed in a hotel called The Stewart. It’s across the road from Madison Square Gardens—so…pretty central. ;-) We had a view onto 31st Street and a very sweet little church, but also a view onto the building behind us. I took a peek out of this back window not long after we arrived, and the rooms in this neighbouring building were dark, with no movement, but there were figures in beds. I thought: Oh, it’s a nursing home. How deserted it looks…and lonely.

Next to the church was a building with a tree! And look up...there's a water tower.

In the wee small hours of the night—when it felt like it should’ve been day…and I was really hungry because it should’ve been day (there’s a 12 hour time difference between Singapore and New York, so the good news is you don’t have to change the time on your watch), I couldn’t help thinking about those lonely figures in those dark little rooms.

When we finally allowed ourselves to play wake ups in the morning, I said to Mr Douglas, “Do you know we’re overlooking a scene of human misery?” I told him about the scene that would greet him from our back window. I wondered aloud if we could go visit because…you know, we’re on holiday and had the time etc.

Of course, he then had to go and peek out the window too (I’m the window peeker in our relationship, him not so much). And he started to laugh!

Dear reader, he’s not a callous man. But I was shocked, I tell you—shocked! Until he revealed all. They weren’t incapacitated people in lonely beds in dark rooms but mannequins. We were looking into a medical training facility!

There's probably a moral to that story, but I have no idea what it is. ;-)


But if you do ever find yourself in New York I highly recommend the Brooklyn Lager--it was very refreshing after a day spent trudging through a city in 37C temps.

Up, Up and Away by Amy Andrews.

As you read this, I will be on a plane winging it to the USA. To New freaking York to be exact for the Romance Writers of America conference.

New York, baby - Woooooot! 

I'll be there with fellow Cats, Clare Connelly and Michelle Douglas. 

Michelle and I are both up for a RITA award on Friday night (Saturday morning Down Under). Michelle for her Harlequin book, The Million Pound Marriage Deal and me for my Harlequin Escape book, Fair Game.

I'll be back with pics from my visit to the Big Apple next time but in the mean time everybody keep everything crossed for either Michelle or I to take out that RITA please :-)

New York to Tasmania

I’m very excited!  My new book – Wild For You – is now up for pre-order. The cover really captures the essence of my hero, Daniel.

Wild For You brings together Daniel, the owner of a Tasmanian wilderness walking company and Madison, a New York fashion designer. Madison has left behind her glamourous life for one week to rediscover her mojo. Little does she know that she’ll end up walking the stunning Cradle Mountain trail alone with hot hiking guide, Daniel. But what could possibly happen in those cute log cabins in the woods?

I walked the Cradle Mountain Lake St Claire wilderness trail a few years ago and it is the inspiration for this story. I walked with Cradle Mountain Huts Walks. The company has been running guided walks for over twenty-years and of course, they have huts.  Huts mean hot meals, hot showers, warm cabins and chilled wine. All this delivered by young, fit guides who take care of everything. Food tastes oh, so much better when you’ve trekked at least twelve kilometers and someone else has cooked.

Madison had to do all the things I had to including carrying her own pack. If she wanted clean clothes she had to wash them in the shower each night for which you pumped your own water.

There were so many highlights on the walk, but for me the greatest experience was climbing Tasmania’s highest peek, Mt Ossa. It stands at 1,617 metres in the middle of the Cradle Mountain-Lake St Clair National Park. Making it to the top does involve a lot of scrambling over huge boulders. The view is worth it even if you are a little intimidated by the climb (will all those boulders slide further down the mountain as I climb up?!?). From the top, a quarter of Tasmania is visible and not one man-made thing (well there’s an old disused mining road to the east, but we ignored that). When Daniel and Madison climb the mountain, they are in for the unexpected.

The guides on our walk were lovely, knowledgeable and fit.  They were passionate about conservation and taught us lots of interesting ecological facts. We visited a myriad of beautiful waterfalls; explored a disused mine shaft featuring one lonely spider and lots of cave crickets (ugly little critters); held Fairy’s Aprons, sweet little purple flowers; splashed in freezing rivers and lakes; ambled through ancient rainforests and learned about the wonderful array of native fauna and flora. A number of these sites feature in the book.

Pre-order Wild for You now at Amazon, iTunes, Kobo and other e-tailers. I hope you enjoy it as I loved writing this story.

If you wanted to recharge your mojo, where would you go?

Count Down to Conference

By the time you see this post I’ll be in New York! That’s right, with the Romance Writers of America conference happening next week my husband and I decided to squeeze in a little sight-seeing.

This will be my second trip to New York but my first time attending the conference.

What am I most excited for?

The Harlequin Black and White Ball

This is a special event for all the Harlequin authors and it’s going to be held at the Waldorf Astoria!!! I love old school glamour, so this is right up my street. The idea of black and white events always appealed (Derby Day, anyone?) and of course I had to by a new dress. You know, it’s for work…right?

The “Readers for Life” Literacy Signing

This will be my first time signing books at an event! Seems like all those years practising my signature on my school books is about to pay off. The great thing about this event is that it’s raising money for three different literacy-based charities, so it

Exciting events mean a new dress!

’s for a good cause.

Meeting up with all my writer friends

When all the people you chat to day in and day out on Facebook are scattered across the globe, any event that brings them together is a good thing! I’m excited to catch up with my fellow LoveCats who’re making the trek over as well as meeting a ton of people who I only know online. For me, writing is never a lonely task as there’s always an email or message from a friend to respond to, and plenty of people willing to lend an ear or offer a kind word when things get rough.

Meeting my editor and agent

These people play such an important role in an author’s career and it’s easy to go years without ever meeting them in person. I’m taking advantage of everyone being in New York for the conference to put a face to the name (or should that be a face to the email address?)

Learning and growing

Conference is a hugely busy time. But I’m promising myself to make it to a few workshops on the topics I’m most interested in. I’m also playing the role of moderator in one session, which will be fun as it’s been a while since I’ve had my public speaking hat on.

Have you ever been to conference for work? Was it a good experience? I’d love to hear any funny stories of things that happened while you were there :)

START SPREADING THE NEWS!

I'm leaving today... (it's a good thing you guys can't hear me, to be honest. My Frank Sinatra impressions leave a lot to be desired!)

So, today I head out to New York for about a week of  research and sightseeing, and then the Romance Writers of America conference! I'm so excited!

So far we have some very interesting things planned for our stay and I'm really looking forward to meeting with readers, other authors who I only get to see if I travel to the US and my editors! In fact, I'm not sure exactly what I'm looking forward to the most.

I find I rarely allow myself enough time to get excited about travelling--partly because I slam my deadlines right up to the day before I'm leaving--but this year I've spaced things out a little better and each night I'm going to sleep and counting the nights until we hop on that plane and the butterflies in my tummy are very much like the fireworks in the photo on this post, LOL! So, yeah, this time around I'm getting super excited! It's going to be great.

Have you been to New York? If so, what's your favourite thing to do or see there--what would you recommend to a New York virgin? And, if you haven't been to New York, what would you most like to see or do there? I'd love to hear your thoughts.

A New York State of Mind

It seems I have New York on my mind a lot lately. You see I'm tossing up whether or not to go to the Romance Writers of America's national conference in July which is in New York. I really, really, really want to go. But there are financial realities and its a looong way for a few days etc so I'm in two minds....

Of course it doesn't help that my work in progress (WIP) is set in New York. I honestly think this is the universe telling me that I must go to New York, don't you think? It's certainly making it very hard to ignore, anyway!

I've been to New York before in 2011 and I freaking loved it. I expected it to big and dirty and full of graffiti and people who wanted to kill/rob/rape me on every street corner (thank you  Dick Wolfe). But it was absolutely gorgeous! I never thought any city could replace London in my heart but I tell you what - New York came damn close!

Here's some pics -

Click on it to make it larger - you can just see Lady Liberty on the left!

We stayed in a hotel right on Times Square. Man that place buzzes!

I'm very excited about the NYC story I'm working on at the moment. For a start it's a continuity with Kelly Hunter, Heidi Rice and Lucy King. Fabulous writers and absolutely top women. Secondly its New freaking York (see above). Thirdly all the stories are based loosely (very) on fairy tales. It's more the Pogues kind of Fairy Tales of New York rather than Disney princess stuff but still....fairy tales!

The stories follow 4 friends from an upstate girls catholic school ten years after an incident that saw them expelled/suspened/broken up when they were 16. Friendships are rekindled, old hurts are healed and love is fought for and won. Mine is the 4th book. It's set in Brooklyn and is based on Cinderella with a working title of A Barron on Park Avenue.

Faith Sullivan is a good girl from irish catholic stock who's grown up in her family's Irish pub. Rafe Barron (yes, with 2 r's) is a "beer baron" from Australia. She has duties and responsibilities looking after her ailing father and her 4 brothers and the pub. She doesn't have time for hapily ever afters and the one. He needs her pub to launch his new beer into the US market. He doesn't believe in happily ever afters and the one.

Clearly, they're perfect for each other, right?  :-)

Here's my Pinterest page if you want to have a sticky beak at my inspirations for the book. And this is Heidi's. And this is Lucy's. We haven't managed to seduce Kelly to the dark side that is Pinterest yet but she's doing the Ugly Duckling and we all know Kel can write the hell out of anything.

So, you can see why I'm having a hard time trying to get New York off my mind, right?

Is there a place like that for you? One place (town, city, mountain, beach, whatever.... ) that you've been to that you loved so much you'd like to go back to again some day? Or is there a place that you do go back to time and time again precisely because you love it so much?

Indolent summer days in New York

by Emmie Dark

As you might have gathered from my regular contributions to LoveCats, I’m lucky enough to get to travel quite a bit. And right now, I’m writing to you from a very, very warm New York City. (I'm not sure what 93F is in celsius, but I'm guessing it's HOT!)

Thankfully earlier this week it was more reasonable – perfect weather for strolling the delight-filled streets of Soho, and exploring the history of Little Italy.

Right now I’m in Midtown, which is kind of the central business district of New York. There’s lots of concrete, and steamy sidewalks, and impatient cab drivers. And not really much in the way of green – unless, of course, you count the big stretch of grass and trees  just a few blocks up. (Central Park, of course!)

On Sunday I strolled with a friend through the wonders of Fifth Avenue. We popped our heads in at St Patrick’s Cathedral, which is one of the most stunning churches (even if it’s currently covered in scaffolding) and joined in the service that was underway for a short time. I'm not really a church-y person, but I do like that bit where you turn to people and shake their hands and say, "Peace be with you". I wished peace on lots of New Yorkers (and probably a few tourists).

Then we moved on to worshipping of a different kind. Saks Fifth Avenue was having a sale! Most of the merchandise in the store is well beyond my credit card's boundaries, but the sale in the lingerie department did prove a little too hard to resist.

And we had the most amazing fun in the shoe department. Unfortunately I can't connect my camera to the computer right now, because I took a photo of the most amazing gem-encrusted Louboutins! There were many beautiful shoes that really belonged on a shelf, not on feet. At least not on my feet -- I'd break an ankle!

Yes, I did make my last stop a Barnes and Noble where I rushed to the Romance section filled with anticipation, but alas, no. There was no copy of Just For Today sitting on the shelf. I chose to believe that's because it was sold out!