We took a long drive yesterday - up to Glen Innes, then east on the Gwydir Highway for a short way, and then on the old Glen Innes to Grafton road to Nymboida. It’s beautiful country, mostly winding between the steep hills of the Gibralter Range along the river valleys. It was a gorgeous, sun-filled autumn day - the perfect day to explore old byways.

Morning tea was at a riverside picnic area, where we had this view of Tommy’s Rock through the trees. The casuarina tress and pines give quite a Canadian impression, but its definitely Australia!

Further a long the road, at the ‘locality’ of Newton Boyd, there is little evidence left of the community that sent around 30 of its young men off to the Great War of 1914-1918. The War Memorial, on a bend of the lonely dirt road, records the names of those men, and the 8 who died.

The names on this memorial are all for the First World War; there have been none added for the Second - suggesting that the population decline had already hit the area by the 1940s. However, the fading wreath laid at the foot of the Memorial was evidence that someone - or perhaps a group of nearby residents - remembered these soldiers on ANZAC Day (our day of remembrance), just two days before we were there.

I don’t have the time these days to have a separate photoblog, as I used to, but I’m planning to post photos here from time to time.

I’m often driving home at sunset, and the past week or so we’ve had some grey weather, resulting in the dramatic contrasts of this sunset.

It’s not as much aflame as the one in the blog header, but it was quite wild and beautiful, with those heavy grey clouds.

I’ve installed a mailing list software, so that I can now offer an email newsletter for those who wish to subscribe to it. I’ll send out a newsletter roughly once a month, with updates about books, workshops, and other book-relevant news.

For those who wish to sign up, there’s a simple signup page.

Does this need any words??

I think it’s wonderful. I just want to keep gazing at it.

I’m in first book cover heaven.

(Edited to add - the problem with viewing and posting comments is now fixed - I hope!)

The finalists in the Romance Writers of America RITA and Golden Heart contests have been notified by phone calls and emails in the past 24 hours.

Super congratulations to the Australian and New Zealand finalists in these important awards:

RITA finalists, for best published novel:

Anna Campbell is a double finalist in the Regency Historical category, with Claiming the Courtesan AND Untouched

Emily Gee is a finalist in the book with Romantic Elements category, AND also best first book category, with (I think) Thief With No Shadow

Kelly Hunter is a finalist in the contemporary series romance category, with Sleeping Partner

Anne Gracie is a finalist in the historical category, with The Perfect Kiss

Golden Heart finalist, for best unpublished manuscript:

Tracey O’Hara, in the paranormal romance category, with Night’s Cold Kiss

Helene Young, in the romantic suspense category, with Beyond the Borders

The official list will be published at the Romance Writers of America website in the next day or so.

This is a fantastic achievement, and it’s great to again see so many Australians doing well in the major international awards for romantic fiction. The RWAmerica national conference - which culminates in the glamourous awards night - is on in San Francisco in late July, and I’ll be part of a large Australian contingent cheering my fellow DownUnderItes on!

I’ve been doing some sorting out - there’s a few boxes I’ve not unpacked since we moved here, 7 years ago, some of which I’ve carted around for many of the previous 12 moves since I left Canberra in 1988. Today I finished unpacking one of those boxes. A fair few papers went straight to recycling; some things went to the charity pile.

But there are other things that I can’t, yet, part with - even though I’d forgotten I had some of them, or hadn’t thought about them for years: the merit certificate from 6th Grade; the photo ID card from secondary college; my airline tickets, reservation letters, and receipts from my 4-month overseas trip when I was 20; the wedding invitation and thank you note from friends who have since divorced; letters from the never-quite boyfriend of long ago; postcards from friends I’ve since lost touch with.

Snippets of my life, my friends’ lives, and the points where they intertwined.

I’ve put them in a different, smaller box, along with other ephemera. They’re not important, official documents; they probably, at some time, will be tossed out. Even if by some small chance I end up being famous, I can’t imagine any archive wanting a silver-fish nibbled swap-card album from the late 1960s, with only a dozen cards in it… but that’s my name, written in a painstaking, childish hand on the front, and  my pre-1969 address printed in my Dad’s handwriting, and it and the letters, postcards and other items are tangible reminders of connections, the love, and the friendships, of my life.

Yes, it’s very slack of me to start a new blog and then neglect to actually post anything for ages. My apologies! As usual, things have been busy, and the brain has been full. I’ve now finished revisions AND copy edits on As Darkness Falls - the copy edits came a few weeks earlier than anticipated, so that threw my schedule out a little, but they’re now done and returned.

The cover - well, the cover is close to being finalised and I am over the moon with delight with what I’ve seen. Can’t reveal anything yet, but it’s definitely beautiful and impressive. My grin muscles are getting quite a workout, as everytime I look at it (a few gazillion times a day) I smile. Have I mentioned that it’s gorgeous?? The cover designer and the Hachette team have done a fantastic job.

In other writing news, book two is finally starting to find it’s re-plotted path. I still haven’t got the entire plot sorted out, but I’ve got enough to move forward, and I guess I’ll work out the rest as we go.

I’ve been very fortunate to have found a local police sergeant who has been extremely helpful in providing advice on police procedure. She answered a heap of questions for me when I was working on revisions to ADF, and then read the entire manuscript, and provided feedback. She’s also happy to help out with book two, which is wonderful.

As well as writing, I’m currently doing some casual work for UNE, including working with the mentor program with Year 12 students in the region who are doing the HSC English extension course. I’m one of four mentors who provide guidance and support to the students as they develop their major creative work, both through an online site, and in full-day workshops in April/May. I was involved with the workshop last year, and thoroughly enjoyed it, and am pleased to be a full part of the program this year. We’ve only been going for a week or so, but the projects that the students have so far posted about sound fantastic. There are some bright, interesting young people out there, and it’s a real pleasure and privilege to work with them.

Welcome to my new blog site. I’ve been planning to move from blogspot to a WordPress installation on my hosted space for a while, and now it’s finally done! CSS stylesheets and I are only nodding acquaintances, so there’s a few things I still need to fine-tune with the template, but I hope it’s smooth enough for now. I’m mostly concentrating at the moment on setting up a website structure and content. The visual design will probably change to complement my book design when it’s finalised - which should be soon!

This blog will incorporate my author blogging, photo blogging, and some of my research blogging.