Seen any good headlines lately?

I was browsing a paper recently which has a social comment section. Amongst its amusements for today was this, a newspaper headline from overseas. Really made me chuckle:

 

 

So, have you seen any good headlines lately?

 

 

Now you see me, now you don’t

Well, I thought I’d seen it all…okay, maybe not. But this advertisement on NZ’s online trading/auction site really made me chuckle. Even more so that there’s a bid on it!!! Ha! 

Check it out here

What I’m reading: UNTOUCHED by Anna Campbell

Every now and then I love to escape into a delicious historical romance and Anna Campbell, with her R*BY and Rita nominated novel, UNTOUCHED, certainly helped me to escape with pleasure.

 

“I am many things,” Lord Sheene said. “Kind is not one of them.”

 

Beautiful Grace Paget has no reason to doubt these words.  After all, she was kidnapped, spirited away to a remote country manor, and told she is to grant this man his every desire… or lose her life. But Grace is no common trollop. So she risks everything to save her virtue by planning a daring escape, even though she finds herself tempted by this dangerously handsome man. There is something in his eyes that makes her wonder if he is not as cruel as he would have her believe…

 

Sheene knew nothing of the plan to bring him this woman.  Locked up as a prisoner, called “mad” by all of society, he will do anything to reclaim his life, and Grace’s sensuous beauty has distracted him from his goals. And although he finds her irresistible, he is horrified to hold her against her will. Now, together, they must both revolt against the strange set of circumstances that have forced them together - for only then will Grace truly surrender to him… forever.

 

 

Anna Campbell has written a sensuous smorgasbord of delight with this story between a man imprisoned by his nefarious uncle, who is determined to enjoy the fruits of managing his nephew’s fortune, and the helpless young widow who has never known true passion. I absolutely loved reading this book and deeply enjoyed the developing relationship between Lord Sheene and Mrs Paget and how far each of them was prepared to go to protect and save the other.

 

 

For lovers of historical romance I’d highly recommend UNTOUCHED, and for anyone who only dabbles in the genre again, buy it, read it. I doubt you’ll be disappointed in this multi layered tale. Anna Campbell knows how to push the envelope with her intense, dark and very very sexy stories. Enjoy!

 

Q&A with Mary-Theresa Hussey, Executive Editor, Silhouette Books

If you’ve ever had a burning question you’d like to ask the Executive Editor of Silhouette Books in NY, now’s your chance. Pop on over to the Diamonds Down Under blog to see the Q&A. We’ve started with some questions for Mary-Theresa and the floor is now open to our blog visitors. Mary-Theresa will be visiting the blog all week to answer your questions.

 

And, the draw for the critique by Melissa Jeglinski, Senior Editor for Silhouette Desire, will be made from the eligble entries (comments on her Q&A blog with the Diamonds Down Under authors) on Friday down under time! It’s going to be a great finish to the week for one lucky person 

 

 

What I’m watching: PARTITION

Friends of ours brought the movie to our house to watch a couple of weekends ago and I was immediately captivated by the characters, the setting and the abominable truth of man’s inhumanity to man, woman and family.

 

Tag lines for the film include “Bound by Love. Separated by History.” and “Two Faiths. Two Worlds. One Love.” These encapsulate the story of the film concisely and accurately.

 

Set in India the 1940’s and mostly during the period after the British partition into Islamic Pakistan and secular India it leaves an indelible mark in the viewer’s mind when showing the brutality inflicted on people in the name of faith and shows how horribly people can be forced into becoming refugees by a ruling power.

 

For Gian Singh, a Sikh ex-officer in the Indian Army, and Naseem Khan, a young Muslim girl displaced during the massacre of of her people during relocation, the chance of finding and keeping love alive is a rare gift. As T. Pehme puts it, on the imdb website, “In a moving and epic story, woven into a rich and exotic tapestry, they battle the forces that haunt their innocent love, fighting the odds to survive in a world surrounded by hate.”

 

I really enjoyed watching this movie although I, as an avid romance fan, would definitely have written a different ending. And, ultimately, that’s why I write romance, because in a world that is lean on happy endings it’s nice to make sure everyone gets the ending they deserve.

No Sabotage today!

Heh! No sabotage because Youngest Child was ruled out of training by a doctor yesterday. Of course she was coughing all night…but a relatively good sleep was had by all.

 

And it’s a glorious clear sky winter’s day here. Lovely.

 

 

Tuesday morning sabotage…again!

Well, off to bed on Monday night expecting no Tuesday morning sabotage. NZ had a long weekend (Monday was Queen’s birthday observance) and many students couldn’t make the early morning netball fitness training for Youngest Child so it was (YAY!) cancelled. Then we have Eldest Child who’d decided to have an extra hour’s sleep in because she’s discovered that when the weather is clear our motorway system isn’t totally congested and she can make a run into Uni in just over an hour, as opposed to her usual half hour when she leaves before the crack of dawn but then has to wait forever before her first class.

 

Mmmm, bliss. A sleep in was definitely on the cards…yes?

 

No.

 

The Man of the House hadn’t used his car since coming home from nightshift on Thursday morning. Of course he was on day shift and yes, you guessed it–his car wouldn’t start. Flat battery. So he gets me out of bed to help him start the car, which was a mission in itself as his jumper leads don’t have clips on the end and required some very acrobat maneouvres on his part while I jumped from one car seat to the other turning ignition on. Luckily we got the car running at the first attempt. Now his car is on the older side of motor vehicle life spans and tends to run a little on the rich side when cold and it was getting a little fumey downstairs in the garage, even with the door wide open to the chilly outdoors. Anyway, he headed off to work.

 

I closed the garage door and the connecting door to the house and made my way back upstairs–great, I’m thinking, another few minutes back in bed before I have to wake YC. EC is at the top of the stairs asking what’s wrong and I’m telling her what happened and I’m about half way up the stairs when the smoke detector goes off in the garage.

 

Yes, those fumes have set the thing off. And can I clear the air sufficiently to make it stop? Of course not. So there I am, standing in the garage in my baggy pink panther pjs with one of the kids’ old framed prints in my hands, waving it furiously at the smoke detector and trying to clear the air. Desperate to stop the beeping I open the garage door again, hoping the warmer air inside the garage will be drawn back out into the street and along with it, the fumes. Of course that doesn’t happen and I’m left hoping like mad that none of our neighbours will drive past and see me like that. Eventually there was nothing else for it but to remove the battery and wait for the air to clear.

 

Another one of those ‘grit your teeth and get on with your day’ moments. Oh, and yes, I remembered a half hour later to reinstall the battery and retest the alarm. It works. Very well, thank you.

Bronwyn Jameson and I are in France in June!

Wow, when I say it like that it sounds like we’re taking a holiday together, and while that would be a supremely wonderful way to see France what I really mean is that we are paired in a duo in France this month!

Rossellini’s Revenge Affair has been retitled to something like ‘the woman with two faces’, which when you consider the character of Lana Whittaker is a very clever way of looking at her.

 

Personally I’m just rapt to see one of my books going into another country and particularly so to be paired with an author I’ve long admired and am very proud to number among my dearest friends.