When life imitates art...

Last month my first self-published novel hit the shelves: Dance With Me. The story was partly inspired by a trip I did a couple of years ago, travelling through Mexico and down into Guatemala. I took that trip because I had a business trip to San Francisco, and I figured why not take the opportunity to travel somewhere new and exciting whilst I was over on that side of the world?

The trip around Mexico and Guatemala was one of those "no frills, get to know the locals, stay in villages and backpackers, eat at the local markets" kind of tours. (I took a tour because I was travelling alone and figured it was safest, especially considering both countries can be kind of dangerous for tourists.) I talked about it last month on LoveCats, particularly some of the interesting food options I enjoyed! Generally speaking I prefer a more five-star style of travel, so while I enjoyed the experience I can't say I wasn't pleased when it was time to move on.

My next stop was the amazing city of San Francisco. (Also a location in Dance With Me!) I'd been there once before, when I was much younger, on a business trip with my mum. It was instant love-at-first-sight between me and the city and I couldn't wait to get back to it.

The universe decided to grant my wish, and for the next few years I had business reasons to go to San Francisco at least once a year. I got to know it pretty well -- its hilly streets, hidden bars, and friendly people. A friend and I even did the famous Pacific Coast Highway drive from Los Angeles to San Fran -- in a convertible, of course!

In Dance With Me, Polly ends up finding herself a with a new life, and all kinds of new opportunities in San Francisco by the end of the book. And, in a very strange twist, I'm about to do the same.

In January I'm moving to live in San Francisco. I've taken up a new day job, and I'm excited about it and about the chance for me to experience new places, people and adventures -- that will all no doubt end up being book fodder one of these days!

It does feel a little weird to have written Dance With Me and Polly's journey and then to be walking in very similar footsteps. Maybe I need to write a story about a girl who encounters a genie who grants unending wishes (and is super-dooper handsome to boot!). Can we see if that one might come to life too?

There are a few more details about my move over on my blog. But in the meantime I'm going to stay in touch with all you Lovecatters and if/when you read my next book and discover it's set in San Francisco, you'll be able to go, "A-ha! I know why that is!"

Good morning (from) America!

A big LoveCats hello to you from the bright lights of Las Vegas! I'm in the US of A right now -- I had to come over for some (non-writing) work, and so I decided to add a week of vacation time on to the end and see a little more of this glorious country. I also thought it would be the perfect opportunity to come and actually see my book on the shelves in stores -- and what better blog post to bring you than a photo of my brand new book on shelves!

Unfortunately it wasn't that easy. In San Francisco, my first stop, there wasn't a book store to be found in the downtown area that stocked Harlequin books. (Please feel free to comment and let me know if I'm wrong about that -- although also understand that I'll have to throw a little tantrum about the lost time I spent searching if that is the case!)

After the work was done and the fruitless book search abandoned, we left San Francisco and headed for Lake Tahoe. Along the way we passed many places that probably would have had it in stock (Target, Walmart, Barnes and Noble) except that we were racing to beat an incoming snow storm and with a compact rental car and no snow chains, we couldn't afford to stop.

So I decided, in the end, that I'd make do with posting you some photos of my book in some ridiculous places. (You might know I'm running a competition on my blog to win prizes for photos of my book in glam, bizarre and exotic places, so I figured I could put up a few entries myself!)

First off -- International House of Pancakes. IHOP. To US folks it's a pretty ordinary chain restaurant, to two Aussies on vacation it is a place full of Pancakes! Eggs! Bacon! Hasbrowns! Maple syrup! And some genuinely friendly service -- in the South Lake Tahoe spot we visited, anyway.

Check out the snow outside! It was chilly!

Then our tour took us south to the desert (well, mostly -- we had to go round some mountains and drive through a bit more snow first). I had been warned that driving through Death Valley would be boring. I don't know what those people were thinking! It's absolutely breathtaking. The contrast of scenery from snow-topped peaks to ragged bare rock within a few hours driving is astonishing. The colors in the desert are like something from one of those old layered-sand bottles. And there are tumbleweeds -- they really do exist outside old Westerns. :)

Because it's such a huge open space, I felt like I needed to make a
grand gesture. And although we went past many, many secret US
bunkers and missile silos, my t-shirt is just a coincidence. ;)

So I thought these were going to be the only photos I was going to be able to share with you. But then as we reached the city limits of Las Vegas, my co-pilot mentioned that it was a pity we weren't 30 minutes later, because the sun was only just beginning to set and the famous lights of the city weren't yet illuminated. Oh well, thought I. And then I spotted it: a Walmart Supercentre!! "How about we fix two problems in one go?" I suggested.

And we went to Walmart. And we found treasure.

All the SuperRomances look so pretty! 

Bottom shelf, but only two left! And it was almost better than winning a jackpot at the casino. (I said almost!)

Before I go, there's one more photo I wanted to share. This is from a famous San Francisco icon called Brenda's French Soul Food. I went for breakfast and it was, indeed, divine. But the staff uniforms cracked me up. I almost asked if I could buy one!

Now there's a title for my next book...

I'm spending the next few nights in Las Vegas and then after that we need to look at a map and decide where to next! Arizona is on the list of possibilities, so you may see more Cassie-in-the-desert pics -- should I ever decide to come home!