We live in the gorgeous Adelaide Hills where we’re always being visited by wildlife. We’ve had koalas, echidnas and even the odd kangaroo thumping around the balcony (in the dead of night, that is so not a sound that comforts you!). Yesterday we found a new friend, an injured Boobook owl, very groggy and scrabbling unsuccessfully to get to his feet.
We rushed him off to the emergency vet service that treats injured native animals and birds and farms them out to specialised carers in the native animal network while they recuperate. The vet called last night to say they think he must have flown into a window and knocked himself cold, which apparently they have a tendency to do. Hopefully he’ll come good in the next couple of days and then the carer will bring him back here to release him.
We only have a photo of him lying doggo in a cat cage (that’s a pretty neat trick for an owl:-), but here’s a shot of how he should be looking, once he’s all patched up and ready to be returned to the wild…
Isn’t he a handsome bird?
Filed under: Covers, New releases, Uncategorized | Tags: A Virgin for the Taking, Virgin
While my next Presents isn’t out until February in the UK and March in US and ANZ - His Mistress for a Million – a story that transports you from cold and wintry London, to the magical Greek Island of Santorini and then home to the arid heat of the Australian outback – I do have more good news on the release front!
Harlequin Mills & Boon are reprinting my Broome book, A Virgin for the Taking, in a special release this coming December, VIRGIN: Wedded by a Billionaire, which features two other great titles as well – Anne Mather’s Seducing the Virgin and Carole Mortimer’s An Innocent Secret.
Here’s the gorgeous cover:-
March and April also see re-releases in the UK, but more about them later.
Meanwhile, my October Bestsellers Collection is on the shelves Downunder, featuring two of my favourite stories, The Mancini Marriage Bargain and For Revenge…Or Pleasure?, so don’t miss out on that one if you missed those releases the first time around.
Lucy Monroe and I are chatting over at Writerspace at 9pmEastern time (US) about The Latin Lover. That’s in about 2 hours from now.
Maybe we’ll see you there!
Because I’ve been remiss and haven’t updated my website for so long (mea culpa!), I haven’t posted an excerpt of Back in the Spaniard’s Bed, the novella that accompanies Lucy Monroe’s in the upcoming The Latin Lover October Presents release. It’s been doing really well on amazon.com this week – currently #1 Presents listing – and I really want to thank everyone who’s bought it so far and kept that rating high.
Here’s the excerpt…
Chapter One
Nobody walked out on Alejandro Rodriguez. Not business tycoons or CEO’s or poker-faced politicians. And definitely not women. Leah Mitchell was just going to have to get that through her head.
He watched her working through the window of her small dressmaking shop from his vantage point across the narrow street, her head down, totally focused on the task at hand, her fingers nimble and quick as they worked the fabric through the machine.
He remembered those fingers, long and slender like the woman herself, and he remembered how they’d once worked their skilful magic on him…
He missed them.
He growled, low in his throat, a familiar thumping demand building below. Soon, he knew, soon he would feel her hands weave their magic upon him once again.
All of a sudden those same fingers stilled and she looked up, her eyes alert, searching the streetscape outside, the passing pedestrians and traffic, almost as if she’d sensed his presence. He smiled as he flipped the collar of his coat up against the unseasonable November cold. So she wasn’t over him? He’d suspected as much.
And he’d enjoy proving it to her.
He’d make her wish she’d never left him, make her beg for more.
And then he’d unceremoniously dump her.
The peak hour Sydney traffic was bumper to bumper along the narrow one-way street but somehow Alejandro forged a path through, parting the sea of cars like he had a god-given right, the tails of his long black coat swirling in his wake like the wings of a manta ray.
He was oblivious to the sound of car horns, oblivious to the calls from irate drivers to get off the road. Because right now his focus was on one thing and on one thing only – Leah Mitchell, and how he was going to get her back into his bed.
* * *
While I’m here, I’d love to share a picture of someone who could be Alejandro – here he is, none other than the entirely gorgeous Antonio Banderas, looking his ruthless best…
Enjoy:-))
I see my fellow Presents author, Lynn Raye Harris, has a copy of my recent US release, The Ruthless Greek’s Mistress of Revenge to give away, so why not rush over to her blog and leave a comment in answer to her question…
Tell me what you love about ruthless Greeks, virgin princesses, or Harlequin Presents in general!
I’m not sure how long the contest runs, but why not leave your answer and see if you can pick up a free book?
You can find Lynn Raye’s blog here!
Filed under: Just for fun, Uncategorized | Tags: Dark Hearted Desert Men, Desert Romance, The Sheik
…why I ADORE sheikh romances – an clip from the original THE SHEIK movie, made many, many desert moons ago
Ah, EM Hull, the world has a lot to thank you for. Including no doubt, the Dark Hearted Desert Men miniseries coming to Presents from April to July next year.
Filed under: Translations, Uncategorized | Tags: Manga, The Greek's Virgin, The Spaniard's Blackmailed Bride
When I was away in conference land recently, my second Manga arrived! Now after my first one, a Manga version of The Spaniard’s Blackmailed Bride, I knew exactly what to expect – a doe eyed heroine, dashing pointy chinned hero and a puppy with floppy ears so cute you automatically went, awwwwwww.
Here’s the front and back covers…
Gorgeous, aren’t they! And so romantic. So I really was expecting the same kind of treatment when my second lobbed in, the Manga version of The Greek’s Virgin. Boy, was I in for a shock! I guess I should have had a clue merely by the cover treatment…
This one is flagged Passion in top left corner, rather than Romance on the first, and straight away this one is more intense, that hero is dripping with angst! And as the back cover treatment, where are the flowers, the smiles? And she’s almost, oh boy, naked! It’s from the opening scene, where Saskia, our heroine, is flung from Alexander’s bed when she makes the huge mistake of admitting she loves him. She is left devastated and totally humiliated and no wonder it’s such a dark dark scene.
Then I opened up the book and WOW. Now I understand why they also call Manga graphic novels, because this one is, um, graphic! I’d show a couple of the inside pages, but this is a family blog, and I’m sure you get the idea. Needless to say, my mother’s eyes bulged and my girls were shocked! (It’s always satisfying to shock your teenage children, don’t you think? Makes such a pleasant change:-))
So I learned something in all this. Whereas my stories have a similar level of sensuality, not all Mangas are the same. And don’t show your mother or your teenage children until you know which is which:-))
I’m blogging again over at Tote Bags’n'Blogs on Sept 17 when the blog gets loaded, and giving away a copy of my upcoming release, The Latin Lover, so come visit, answer the question and you could win a copy!
It’s a red letter day in the Morey household today, a massive twenty one years since the dh and I tied the knot back on that fateful day in September, 1988. It doesn’t seem that long, but I guess, if our eldest is pushing twenty, it must be right.
Here’s how we looked back way back when…
Gosh, no wonder I married him:-))
My mum made my gorgeous bouquet and my flowers and buttonhole, up till about 5 in the morning fiddling everything up, poor love, but they were just gorgeous.
Happy anniversary to us!
I love going to the New Zealand conferences because I get to catch up with author and unpublished friends who don’t necessarily make it to the Aussie conferences. Our countries aren’t that far apart, about a 3-4 hour flight, but it’s still an international journey with all the hassles of customs and immigration and hanging around airports that involves.
This year was no exception. Here’s a few mates I managed to catch up with…
Daphne Clair, Frances Housden, Robyn Donald and Susan Napier
Frances has several books out with Silhouette Intimate Moments and of course, Daphne, Robyn and Susan are some of the powerhouses of the Harlequin Presents line. I devoured their books when I was trying to get published. Still do.
Outgoing RWNZ Prez Pat Snellgrove, guest speakers, Mary Jo Putney and Melissa Jeglinski
Mary Jo was a wonderfully warm and wise speaker at both the RWAustralia and RWNZ conferences. So easy to listen to. Together with Anne Gracie, Mary Jo did a fabulous one day workshop at the Aussie conference that had lightbulbs going off left right and centre.
Melissa Jeglinski (and her gorgeous mum) were very popular with the Downunder crowds. Formerly with Silhouette for a lot of years, Melissa is now an agent with the Knight Agency and took pitches from more hopefuls that you can point a stick at. And still smiled throughout! (Don’t forget those Ninja Turtles, Melissa!)
Kylie Short winning the Clendon Award, Barbara Clendon providing the colour
The Awards night was very exciting, with fellow Aussie Kylie Short/Griffin taking out the Clendon Award. Here she is above, framed with Barbara Clendon’s fabulous wings.
Trish, Annie West and Daphne Clair
The Harlequin Author Dinner is always a good chance to catch up with friends. Good food, great company and the noise! When authors get together, invariably there’s a lot of noise. Most of it laughter. Just don’t ask me what my hair is doing in this shot above. I don’t know.
And here’s a picture I really love…
The EDA class of 1999, Yvonne Lindsay (1st), Nalini Singh (2nd) et moi (3rd)
What a difference ten years makes! Way back in 1999, three unpublished writers entered the RWAustralia’s Emma Darcy Award, our then premier contest for unpublished writers. We three finaled in that year’s contest, with Yvonne Lindsay taking out the honours.
It took a wee while, but we’re all published now, Yvonne writing fabulously rich emotional and bestselling stories for Silhouette Desire, Nalini who started out with Desire and who has since blasted her career into the NYT bestseller list with her fabulous Psy Changling Series and more, and me, writing for Harlequin Presents. Ten years on. Amazing, and I have to wonder what the next ten years might bring. We shall see.
