A week of highs and lows

What a mixed week it's been this last week just gone. Such dreadful things happening from the Sydney seige to the terrible events in Pakistan to the awful tragedy that's just happened in Cairns. Rarely has there been a week of such tragic proportions.

So...it's time for a little cheer methinks!

Despite everything, I had some real highs last week.

All my extended family flew to Sydney. It was such a beautiful day (hard to believe what was going on that day in the CBD) and we had lunch here -

This is Doyle's at Watson Bay on Sydney Harbour and I can tell you one thing for sure - I'm going back there next time we're in Sydney because you just can't beat that view!










My kids and all the cousins did this -

       

That's my daughter and my son and NO, I did not join them! But it was fun watching :-) If you click on the images you get a bigger view which is much better!


I found out that this novella is up for free currently!  So if you're a Bold fan then better get in lickety-split because I have NO idea how long it's going to last.

And the week ended yesterday with my birthday.  But just prior to that I did an early birthday lunch with the lovely Anna Cleary and Ally Blake. It was at Anna's house and she made this most AMAZING salmon salad thingy which she called Salade Nicoise! 

Yesterday, I scored a new iPad mini from my hubby, a new phone case from my son and a pedicure gift voucher from my daughter. Then I was served breakfast in bed where I stayed all morning reading until I finished the book I'd started a few days ago. Which was THE BEST birthday present of all! And then, when I finally got up, Google had a nice brithday surprise for me too when I logged on to the computer - a personalised birthday message! How cool is that? Clearly I'm easily pleased :-)

So, with three days til Christmas, I'd love to hear your birthday stories! Please leave a comment telling me who you are, where you're from, what month your birthday falls and if you have any special birthday rituals or one birthday in particular that stands out.

Sunday Smooch with Amy Andrews

Welcome to another LoveCats DownUnder Sunday Smooch!

Today we have a smooch from  Amy Andrews but first 


... the winner of last week's Sunday Smooch Giveaway is Tammy!


Can you please contact Alison Stuart on alison (at)alisonstuart (dot) com to receive your copy of Claiming the Rebel's Heart


And now for today's Sunday Smooch from one of the new Bold and Beautiful novellas - Forbidden Affair

Blurb and Cover

Steffy is back.

A year in Paris has cemented her resolve to get over Liam and her miscarriage. Resigning from Forrester Creations is her first step.

She is surprised when Bill offers her a job as head of marketing and PR at Eye On Fashion. Is this what she wants?

Hoping to convince her it is, Bill joins her volunteering at Daisy's.

They are alone, late at night, when an earthquake strikes, and the building collapses around them.

Frightened and trapped in the rubble, they become closer, and Steffy realizes she's falling in love with the last man she should.

But is this an attraction borne from fear, or is it something much deeper?

Scene set-up - Bill and Steffy are trapped in the collapsed ruin of Dayzee's after a major earthquake has hit LA. After a particaularly bad aftershock, Steffy turns to Bill for comfort.

Bill groped around for the flashlight at their feet, locating it fairly quickly, flicking it on, then standing again and pulling her against him. Silently, he shone the beam around the area. The pile of rubble where they’d raised the flag seemed okay and the piping was still anchored in place. But when he shone the light on the kitchen side, Steffy gasped.

A beam from the kitchen rubble pile had shifted and fallen sideways. It was large and clearly heavy and it didn’t escape Steffy’s notice that it had come to rest in almost the exact spot she’d been standing when the aftershock hit.

“Oh God,” she said, a sudden wave of nausea roiling through her intestines as she turned her face into Bill’s chest.

“It’s okay,” he murmured, rubbing her back, flicking the flashlight off and plunging them into darkness.

“No, it’s not,” she said, raising her head. “I was . . . standing right there.” She’d be dead right now if he hadn’t snatched her away. He’d saved her life again.

“But you’re not now,” he soothed, his hand continuing its calm stroking.

Steffy looked into his earnest face. He was so heroic right now she could barely breathe for it—it was suffocating and oh so sexy. Everything about him was sexy. His impossibly square jaw, his neat beard, his strong chin. The way he oozed masculinity and confidence.

And his mouth. God but his mouth was sexy.

And he was right. They could die here. The building could collapse before they were rescued and they’d be gone. Wiped from the face of the earth.

And she’d never know what it was like to be loved by him.

“Kiss me,” she said.

Bill blinked at the unexpected request. “Steffy, are you sure—”

She didn’t give him a chance to finish, just raised herself up on her toes and kissed him instead.

His lips were resistant at first. She wasn’t sure if that was from shock or from some kind of belated morality, given how much she’d been banging on about it, but the second she whimpered her frustration against his mouth, he opened to her and she took what she wanted.

He let her take the lead, his lips slanting in the direction she wanted them to go, his tongue stroking against hers when she commanded it to do so. Her hands bunched in the fabric of his T-shirt, her hips aligned with his and when she felt the hard length of him at the juncture of her thighs she rubbed herself against him, desperate to get closer.

Bill, his breath ragged, pulled away. “Are you sure?” he asked again, knowing this was escalating, feeling his own control at snapping point.

Steffy blinked, her head swimming from the overdose of testosterone and the sheer weight of her need. “I’ve never been surer of anything,” she said, dragging his head back down.

Bill didn’t need any more convincing. And he didn’t do any more following either. He bumped her back against the door frame and flayed her with a kiss that left them both gasping.

“More?” he asked roughly.

“Oh God, yes!” Steffy begged.

“All the way?” he demanded against her mouth.

Steffy whimpered. “I’ll die if you don’t.”

For the chance to win an e-Book of Forbidden Affair tell me, are you a Bold fan? Are soaps your cup of tea? If not, what's your favourite television show?

Come back next Sunday, when the winner of today's giveaway will be announced!

Smooch Graphic by WebWeaver

Lazy Random Monday

It's a public holiday here in Australia today (Australia Day) so I'm feeling a little lazy. My laziness manifests itself in many ways, one of them being the urge to stay in bed and read all day but its my turn to blog so in the spirit of laziness I thought I'd throw together  some random not-necessarily-connected thoughts.

***edited to add - had trouble loading this yesterday so its now Tuesday but somewhere in the world its still Monday so I'm sticking with it :-) ***

Warning - rambling ahead!!!




When I was a kid one of the most entertaining things to do at a party was to find the Cheezel bowl and decorate my fingers with Cheezel rings. Not quite doable these days with adult fingers but still no less fun!








Have you heard I've been involved in writing a The Bold and the Beautiful novella? Its a joint project between PanMac/Momentum and the Bell people with 8 all up coming out this year. The first two are released tomorrow - digitally on a global scale but can be bought in paperback here in Oz. The covers give me a happy sigh - sprinkled with star dust or what??







Its my sister's birthday today. She's the last of us to turn 40! I think if she wasn't so busy and exhausted all the time with her young brood she'd be a little freaked out by it. I found her these amazing glass tea-light holders that are beautifully hand-painted and I know she's going to adore them. Doncha just love it when you *know* you've bought the perfect gift?













A fellow Harlequin author friend of mine - the fab Anna Cleary - and myself are launching a new project this week. After years of giving advice/critique to people on their unpublished books we've decided to go into the manuscript assessment business. Word Witchery is now officially open for business and although we're taking all genre fiction we're specialising in romance (category romance in particular) so if you know anyone who's after some help and is interested in having an appraisal done before sending their manuscript off then send them our way :-)   www.wordwitchery.com.au

We have bats. Yes, bats - not rats (although we've also had them in the past too!) In our gum tree. Yes, our gum tree!! I don't understand it but they screech and carry on at night (right outside my bloody window) and then in the morning there's a whole pile of leaf matter/debris at the bottom of the tree. It's flowering at the moment so maybe that's what attracts them but I really wish they'd find a nice cave or fruit tree somewhere and fly away for good! Plus, bats just plain creep me out!







Talking of bats - I raised 2 fruit bats myself. These ones don't creep me out :-)

I'm 12k in on my new writing project. I should be more like 16-18. Sigh.....


 







My daughter jumped out of a plane - a perfectly good plane - a few weeks ago. Why??!!






 Anyone else have some random information they'd like to share - just for the hell of it?