Dinner with friends

Sometimes we let our lives get so busy that we skim our friendships with others. I’m shockingly guilty of this and tend to withdraw very much into myself, staying home, writing. Socialising has become something I do very rarely so it was a real treat to catch up with a group of writing friends last night at a wonderful Italian restaurant (we won’t discuss the Neil Diamond/Frank Sinatra want-to-be solo artist) in Auckland’s Mission Bay.

But aside from the wonderful food and the great company and much laughter, it made me realise that while I don’t ‘miss’ socialising when I’m staying at home and writing, I really do still miss out on so much in my friends lives. I’ve become horribly insular. While everyone was deeply familiar to me, and definitely are people I feel happy and comfortable with, I felt as if I was, in many ways, a total stranger to what’s been happening with them in their busy worlds.

And how often does that happen? Too often, I think.

I’ve been cocooned in my own little world and not been in touch with people as much as I ought to and, really, there’s no excuse. Deadlines will always be deadlines, I still need to meet them, but I need to meet those other really important matters in my life as well. I need to make time for the important people in my life before I miss out on even more of what’s happening in their worlds, or worse, miss out on them completely.

What’s that word? Balance. I need more balance.

This week I had a contact from an old school friend, someone I haven’t seen or been in touch with for more years than I’m prepared to admit to in public, and we’re going to meet for lunch in a couple of weeks. I’m looking forward to it because we have so much to catch up on and so many memories to rehash.

What about you? Have you missed being in touch with old friends? Or are you one of these fabulous people (which I’m aspiring to be from now on) who manages to remain in contact within the confines of busy and demanding life?

What I’ve been watching: POSSESSION

How’s this for a tag line: The past will connect them. The passion will possess them.  I love it, and it encapsulates, in two short sentences the power of the movie.

Interestingly enough, and contrary to the title’s suggestion, this movie isn’t about anything demonic. It is a wonderful romance featuring Gwyneth Paltrow, playing Maud Bailey, and Aaron Eckhardt, playing Roland Michell.

Here’s part of the plot summary, courtesy of imdb (written by C.D.):

Roland Michell is an Americian trying to make it in the difficult world of British Academics. He has yet to break out from under his mentor’s shadow until he finds a pair of love letters in the textbook that once belonged to one of his idols, a famous long dead Victorian poet. Michell, after some sleuthing around, narrows down the suspects to a woman not his wife, another well known Victorian poet. Roland enlists the aid of a Dr. Maud Bailey, an expert on the life of the woman in question. Together they piece together the story of a forbidden love affair, and discover one of their own.

This movie hit every level of enjoyment for me. It showed the development of a mystery, the growth of a modern day romance and managed to sprinkle a bit of skulduggery into the mix as well. Even my husband, who usually prefers movies packed with fast paced action and plenty of explosions, admitted to enjoying Possession.

Here a link to the trailer on You Tube:

Meet the Editors–Melissa Jeglinski and Diana Ventimiglia

Harlequin is doing meet the editors podcasts the first one is focusing on Silhouette Desire, the line I write for.

In episode one, editors Melissa Jeglinski (Senior Editor for the line) and Diana Ventimiglia (my lovely new editor) are looking for new writers for Silhouette Desire.  You can find it here .

And there’s an article about it here.

What do you like to hand write with?

Yesterday I was in our local Stationery Warehouse and had the joy of buying for myself a cartridge ink filled fountain pen. Ah, the bliss.

 I know it’s not on a par with a genuine squeezy bulb, draw the ink up from a bottle, gold nibbed masterpiece of pen engineering but I’m happy because instantly I was transported back to my Auckland Girls’ Grammar School days where such things were new and exciting and truly wondrous. (Okay, I’m getting old.) But you know, there’s nothing quite like writing with a fountain pen, in my opinion. When I trained as a secretary and learned the weird and wonderful heiroglyphs of Pitmans shorthand I again had the pleasure of a new fountain pen, this one specifically for the purpose of shorthand writing and it was pounded into us that you don’t use or borrow another’s pen because the nibs wear specifically to the user’s style.

Over the years, I’ve remained a pen fanatasist, preferring the lighter intense blue inks to the blacks or black/blues, and occasionally anything with a violet hue, and with a distinct preference for a medium to wide ball or nib.

So tell me, what kind of instrument do you prefer to hand write with? Is it fountain pen, ball point, roller ball, pencil, chalk, marker pen? The options are endless really

The Haka…as you’ve never seen it before

I was cruising friends’ blogs today and came across this gorgeous YouTube clip on Nalini Singh’s blog. I tell you, if the All Blacks did it like the gingerbread men…well, maybe the World Cup results may have been better last year

Valentine’s Day–What’s in a kiss?

I saw an interesting article in the New Zealand Herald the other day, and bookmarked it for later reading and blogging about. With it being Valentine’s Day here in NZ already, what better day than today?

In the article it states that 90% of human cultures kiss (which begs the question, what do the other 10% do?) and then propounds the theory that this practice may have come from mothers chewing up food for their children and giving it to them by mouth (I’m kind of gagging at this point.) Thankfully, someone has busted this theory and researchers Susan M. Hughes, Marissa A. Harrison and Gordon G. Gallup Jr. found that kissing is in fact part of an evolved courtship ritual. Thank goodness!! Because let me tell you, when considering the former, it’s enough to put me off kissing The Man of The House forever!

Plus, there’s further evidence that women use kissing as a way to monitor the status of their relationship, and to assess and periodically update the level of commitment on the part of their partner. Who knew?

Actually, who did know? Any thoughts? What’s in a kiss for you?

Valentine’s Blog with Nicola Marsh–PRIZES!

You’ve got to be in to win so make sure you visit Nic’s blog and check out what’s in store. Today’s my book prize day!

Tote Bags ‘n’ Blogs

Today I’m blogging over at Tote Bags ‘n’ Blogs  about my February release, TYCOON’S VALENTINE VENDETTA, so pop on by!

Beware Pirated Books

This is a soapbox issue for me, and many authors, I suspect–PIRATED BOOKS.

Recently yet another website was brought to my attention that has illegally copied books for download by its members. Now, while many people think, “oh yeah, that’s not really a problem,” let me tell you it really really is. It’s illegal, and breaches copyright and in a nutshell, in my opinion, is theft, pure and simple. Continued abuse must be stamped out and continued abusers dealt with to the full extent of the law.

The site upon which I most recently discovered a pirated copy of one of my books had comments on it telling people how to convert books into files for download by either using a high resolution camera or scanner to copy each page (like people really have the time to do that? Well, obviously!) as well as comments like this:

My 4shared account has been banned… and I’ve been so angry these last few days.. You know what.. I have thousand of books in there…. They told me that somebody reported about my account that it’s illegal… so they closed my account…

Don’t worry this problem will not dissuade me from create another free account and get into action again…

I will start uploading again soon….

And this one:

Some people are just plain nasty. They hate to see anyone have a chance to enjoy a good read. Not all of us can get out to the library or afford to buy books online. And some of us just enjoy having a nice big library on their computers that they can go to and always find a good book.

Now, I have never considered myself to be ‘just plain nasty’, nor would I ever begrudge anyone having the right to ‘enjoy a good read,’ but seriously, do these people ever stop to think? They’re not just stealing from my publisher they are stealing from ME, from my family, from my right to earn a living. I write full time, if all my books are pirated and book sales slump and thereby my earnings (which are based on a single digit percentage of the recommended retail price of my books) then I would have to go back to the general workforce, have less time to write, have less books published, thereby having less books available to be pirated. Now, if that happened to all authors it would be a very sad world indeed, wouldn’t it?

Okay, so that’s an extreme example. What about using an analogy. When these people who blithely pirate books go to the supermarket to buy their groceries, or to a clothing store to buy clothes, do they just as blithely walk out the door without paying for them?

Seriously, downloading pirated books is no different. What does it take for people to understand that?

I could rant some more but that would really tick me off because doing so would eat even more into my writing time than protecting my copyright by having to check to see which thief has most recently decided to distribute my books illegally. I thank my lucky stars for the might of the legal department of my publishing house which acts promptly to seal off these illicit corridors.

EXCITING NEWS!

Before I went on holiday I got a call most authors dread. Not the ‘we don’t want to publish any more of your books’ call, but the second worst. The one from your much respected editor telling you she’s leaving! Argh! Talk about feeling sad at the end of what had been a great working relationship, not to mention cut adrift. With a book going into line edits and a new series proposal in waiting for a green light I felt terrible, let alone anxious about learning to work with someone new.

I count myself very lucky in that I’ve been able to work with my previous editor for nearly three years and for six books (counting the one that’s at line edit stage now), but I count myself even more fortunate in that my new editor is equally as lovely as my first and I’m really looking forward to working with her.

Working with her? Yep, definitely. She rang me on 1 February to offer me a three book contract on my new mini series to be published in 2009 and if that isn’t a most excellent way to start a working relationship I don’t know what is.

So colour me happy and excited and nervous and all sorts of things as I stand on the precipice of a busy time ahead.

So, if I’m a bit scarce it isn’t because I have nothing to say (yeah, right, like that’s ever going to happen ;-)  ) it’s because I’m blissfully busy getting to know my new characters.

 

I’m also guest blogging at Novel Thoughts & Books on 4 February and I’m talking about my February release TYCOON’S VALENTINE VENDETTA, so pop on by. It’ll be neat to see you there! All comments will go into a draw and three lucky winners will receive one of my back list books to add to their ‘To Be Read’ pile.