Things have been gearing up in the Morey household since I last posted. We now have Christmas cakes and shortbread, so freshly baked that the comforting fragrance of brandy, fruit and mixed spice still scent the air; the turkey portions are defrosting and the fresh beetroots have been boiled and are cooling, in preparation for tomorrow’s beetroot and goat’s cheese salad we’re having as one of the accompaniments. Butternut pumpkin is lined up ready to be diced and baked and combined with cannellini beans and rocket, and plump tomatoes, bocconcini and basil are all just  hankering to be sliced and presented on a platter.

 When my family lived in England for a spell, that hot roast Christmas dinner made so much sense. It was so cold you needed a hot dinner, plenty of hot veg, lashings of gravy and, a big surprise to me, plenty of brussel sprouts. I found a fabulous recipe for parsnips, onion and cream that was to die for.

But that was England. Here, the summer temps lend themselves to a mix of hot and cold.   You can do it the traditional way, with all roast meat and veg, and plenty of people do, or you can do it any way you like, combining hot and cold as we are, and/or using lobsters and prawns, BBQ chicken and chips for a picnic or even a BBQ on the beach. Anything goes.

For us we’ve found the menu changes yearly. A bit of this, a taste of that, trying to take advantage of the best of the season. New for us this year is Mango Trifle! Here it is, in all its glory…

Wonderful RITA winning author and great friend, Marion Lennox, gave me the recipe and the girls helped me construct it. I can’t wait to taste it tomorrow. Thank you Marion!

We’ll have home made pudding for the purists as well, but it’s summer here and while only 25C forecast,  it’s fun to try something new, especially when it involves seasonal mangos:-))

I hope that wherever you are in the world and whatever is on your Christmas menu, that you receive  a little Christmas magic.

Getting away from food, another fabulous writer friend and RITA finalist, Barbara Hannay, sent this picture, a snap taken along the road between her home in Far North Queensland and Brisbane – a little spot called Christmas Creek – and I loved it so much I had to post it here.

This is but one of the fabulous photo’s also featured on Barb’s blog, which you might want to check out because it gives you a real slice of living in Far North Queensland and gives a fabulous taste of and insight into the warmth of the outback communities and the characters that inhabit them.  Of course, Barbara’s books give you even more insight. Do look out for them – I know you won’t be disappointed.

And here’s something just for fun, because we all deserve a little fun every  now and then. Another Christmas gift and this time from talented writer friend and RITA finalist, Bronwyn Jameson.

Thanks Bron!

It’s already Christmas Day here and Santa has some stockings to fill (some things never change:-))

Here’s wishing you all the best of the season, wherever you are in the world!

…which is no surprise given it’s just days away now.

But seriously, just a few days ago I was worried it wasn’t going to happen. Emerging from a book is like emerging from a cave to find the grass has grown long, the weeds have seized control of the garden and your hair – omg – you hair kind of explodes in a very unaesthetically pleasing way.  So it’s been mowing time all over. Along with preparing for our Christmas guests. We have family coming to join us for lunch, and it will be the traditional (or traditional for us) Aussie mix of hot and cold, that works well for a climate where it could be anything from 19-42C.

We’re having Christmas lunch under the pergola this year. Weather forecast says 25C and that is looking good – especially after Wednesday’s forecast 40C – so for once we’ve nailed the perfect day to be outside. So when the dh chopped down a feral pine yesterday, we thought it would be perfect to have it, not in the lounge/dining room as per usual, but outside, where we’ll be enjoying the celebration. Here’s how it looks now the girls have had their first go at it…

I know we’ll miss the scent of freshly cut pine inside the house but it will be fabulous to have the tree there with us on the day. There’s still a way to go with decking it out, there are coloured lights to be wound around the beams and more tinsel than you can throw a stick at, but I think it looks like Christmas is just around the corner and I love it.

Tomorrow’s tasks, before the weather really heats up, include making shortbread and our Christmas cake, along with some last minute shopping.

And then I think we’re ready! I can’t believe it’s Christmas already. I can’t believe 2009 is almost at a close.  Looking back, it’s been a good year for my family. We’ve had our downs, but we’ve had our ups as well, and more important than anything, we’re still here all together as a family come year end. I am blessed.

I hope you’ve had a year that you can reflect on with some satisfaction and that your life has been blessed in some way. And I hope that 2010 offers you peace, joy and good health in abundance.

…that people think they can act like two year olds?

Somehow the rules we live by day by day, the etiquette we use in our every day dealings with other people, the manners that ensure dealing with even strangers does not have to be an unpleasant, brash encounter, seem to be quite gleefully tossed asunder under the cloak of the internet.

On the internet, you can vent your spleen, splash your greenest colours, vomit vitriol from every aperture, and all from behind the safety of an alias.

No, it’s not sweet Jane Doe posting these remarks about how unfair is life, the universe and everything, it’s Ms Dejected and Despondent, or such similar disguise.

It must be wonderful when you know everyone else is wrong and you’re right and you have to tell the world. It must be wonderful to attack people, tell them they’re cheats and don’t deserve to be where the are, from your towers of moral superiority. It must be fabulous to have that level of self assurance. Mind you, not enough self assurance to sign your name to your posts…

So this weekend, I’m seriously disheartened by sad and angry people who post vicious things about others on the internet. I’m saddened. Disappointed in my fellow man. Or at least the ugly ones. And yes, I’m talking about the weekend brouhaha that erupted over the weekend at iheartpresents. The post was to celebrate the winners of the latest Presents writing contest. Unfortunately the celebration soon deteriorated. A published author winning a contest? How dare they?

I once read a fabulous article by Jenny Crusie in the Romance Writers Report (the RWAmerica journal) about professional jealousy. It stuck with me because of it’s brash honesty and its powerful message and it’s very appropriate now. It’s called “Green Is Not Your Color: Professional Jealousy and the Professional Writer” and you can find it here.

Here’s just a taste of what to expect…

“You wanted something, somebody else got it, and that’s not a good feeling. It’s normal to feel disappointed.

Then wallow in it. Quietly, to yourself, the bathroom is always good for this, but just let it rip. For five minutes. That’s all you get, five minutes to be seethingly, teeth-achingly bitter. It’s your five minutes, so make the most of it.”

It’s sad to see that some people prefer to use the internet as their bathroom.

I’m still waiting to hear on revisions for Prisoner in Paradise, and the longer the wait, the more you start to worry. Strange, how that sending off euphoria lasts only a wee short while before turning to paranoia…

Luckily I had four glorious days away to take my mind completely off life, the book and everything, and I spent them with some fabulous girlfriends up at Noosa, on the Sunshine Coast of Queensland.

Here are some shots from that weekend…

This is the shoreline around the National Park walkway. Fabulous to be where the forest literally meets the sea.

Aren’t they gorgeous? No wonder they inspired characters in early Aussie children’s books. They look like a gang of hairy no-gooders.

The walk along the beach turned inland and along a sandy path that joggers ran along while we all suffered in our thongs (the foot kind of thongs – not the other:-))

But then the path diverted through rain forest and we were in paradise.  We saw brush turkeys (the pics too blurred to show) black cockatoos and trees that devoured others.

What a wondrous place. My last foray up to the Sunshine Coast ended up being immortalized in my novella, Back in The Spaniard’s Bed. This time too, there will be a book. The Noosa book, and already it’s simmering away in there.

Meanwhile, I’ll leave you with a message I read on a stony beach in Noosa. It was a long way down, must have taken an age to make, but the message was one that we could all do to remember…

It’s been two weeks since I posted and I’m horrified I’ve neglected the blog that long. My apologies!  In my defence I sent off my completed ms a week ago and it’s taken a wee while to scrape my brain up off the floor and reassemble it. (Believe me, it feels like that:-)) In the end, after going through a thousand iterations of “The Italian’s Tropical Island Temptress” and “The Italian’s Mistress of Desire”, I simply called it “Prisoner in Paradise” so the wait is on to see if a) it makes the grade, and b) what the title ends up being if it does! Never a dull moment here.

But the ms is done and while I’m waiting on the inevitable feedback, it’s been great to catch up on the mundane stuff like tax returns (seriously, it’s great to catch up on them when you’re so late!) bills and life in general. Even grocery shoppingand ironing looks interesting when you emerge out of deadline:-))

Meanwhile Mills & Boon Australia has some great news! They’ve just started out on Facebook, so maybe you might like to drop in and see what’s happening here! They have big plans for the page and would no doubt love to see you there.

This weekend I’m about to head north to the Sunshine Coast of Queensland for a wee bit of R’N'R with a few fabulous girlfriends, and look forward to a good dollop of research into the deal. Nothing like traveling to a gorgeous destination to get those creative juices flowing:-))

But meanwhile I’d like to leave you with another glorious shot of the inspiration for my latest hero – his name is Andrea Zanchini and he never quite made it into my ms wearing this gear although to my credit, I swear I tried  (and actually he makes it wearing much less in some scenes:-)) but I thought he was so lovely I should share…

Enjoy!! In moderation, I should think…  Can’t be healthy to overindulge, you reckon?

What do you mean, you don’t care?

It’s the first Tuesdsy in November. What’s so special about that?

Here’s a clue…

Of course! It’s Melbourne Cup day! Lovely to see my search engine of choice getting all gussied up for the race that stops a nation (so if you’re looking to invade, now’s your chance. Everyone in Oz will be either at the big race or glued to the telly:)

Received a lovely package at the post office yesterday – the first hardback copies of my next release, His Mistress for a Million, and my first peek at the cover! Here it is…

Yes, I should learn how to crop<g>, but too excited not to post as is. What do you think?

Eleni Konstantine has been running the most fabulous blog fest through October – Eleni fest! And today I’m her special guest and she’s made my interview look fabulous (thank you Eleni!). So do drop by and leave a comment for the chance to win a copy of The Best Love Stories of 2009, which includes 6 ripper reads, all of them RuBY finalist books, including my RuBY winning story, The Italian Boss’s Mistress of Revenge!

See you there!

Great friend and SARomanceAuthor colleague Eleni Konstantine is running a great blog series through October – the Eleni-fest. I’ll be blogging over there on the 26th, and meanwhile Eleni has a copy of Sizzle Seduce and Simmer for a website giveaway.

You can check it out here!

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?