Fiona Lowe's Blog, page 11

Renovations are not my favourite things!

As I type this, the noise of a jack hammer is floating up to the office as Jamie, the tiler is removing my kitchen floor.

Twelve years ago, when we moved into our house, it was newly renovated. Everything was sparkly and new inside the frame of a lovely old house. Then one day, you look around at your sparkly new house and realize years have passed and it’s not so sparkly any more! The grout in the kitchen floor has been coming away for a while now , cracks have developed and now the chips in the ceramic tiles can no longer be ignored. However, the rest of the kitchen is doing pretty well so we decided to do a kitchen make-over by getting a new floor, getting the chips on the cupboards repaired and replacing the door handles. The new door handles turned out to be the easiest part and I’ve had the 40 handles for about two months now waiting to be installed.

The tiles however were not an easy fix. They involved numerous Saturday mornings visiting tile stores and finding out our selection was limited due to the fact we were not changing the color scheme of the kitchen. Of course, this meant we had to get some of the most expensive tiles they had!

My kitchen is the heartbeat of the house. It has four doors leading out of it and I’m not able to use it for  a week. Yesterday, we had to move out the fridge and freezer, the table and chairs, empty the island counter and set up a very limited and temporary kitchen in my tiny laundry. Fortunately, it is just me at home this week and I have sent the cat to the cattery. Poor Pekoe wouldn’t have coped with the jack hammer and the tradesmen coming in and out. Fortunately, The Lad is back at university this week and Boy Wonder isn’t home for holidays/ vacation for two more weeks.Their bedrooms are now filled with the contents of the island counter/bench.

I will be getting a lot of exercise because to access the front of the house I have to walk outside and to get to the office I have to walk up the scary external stair case I never use. I’m not fond of heights!

It’s been a long time since I’ve done much more than painting in regards to house renovations because I am still recovering from the great bathroom renovation of 1995. Cue palpitations and counselling appointments!  I am hoping that this is going to be straightforward but who am I kidding? It is renovating (sort of) and already the plumber has stressed me but crisis averted due to some thinking outside the square on my behalf and an obliging tiler.

Not sure how much work I am going to get done on my current project but I am literally locked into my office…all doors to the kitchen are taped so I guess I put in my ear plugs and tackle chapter four!

So, hit me with your renovation stories! I want to hear the good, the bad and the ugly!

Spring Musings, Website updates and a new book.

Australian wattle; a sure sign of spring!

It’s September 2nd and yesterday it was not only Father’s Day ‘Downunder’ but it was also the official start of spring. Generally, the weather doesn’t feel like spring until mid-September but this year, with our warmest year on record so far, spring is well and truly here.

I can feel the energy the sunshine is giving me and as much as I love that, I am also a bit sad as it means the snow is melting fast and spring ski-ing in the school holidays/vacation won’t be happening. It seems every second year we have fabulous spring ski-ing. This is not one of those years.

Yesterday, the weather was perfect so we hop-footed it to the You Yangs, a national parkwith enough gum trees to fill my soul. We walked up to Flinder’s Peak and took in the view that stretches for miles and miles and miles. We saw flat plain, mountains, rivers, the sea, farms, bush, and the green of spring. Come summer, that view will be burned brown.

After our climb, we fired up the wonderful table-top Weber BBQ and cooked up Angus beef, herb & garlic sausages, which we enjoyed with salad and followed with fruit, melting moments and a hot cup of tea! Bliss. I lay on the picnic rug and watched the windy sky and gave thanks I live in a country were we can do these things in safety and in such beautiful places.

My husband enjoyed his Father’s Day and was fortunate enough to have one boy at home.

I have never been aware of my mood being affected by winter light but I confess this year, I found my motivation wavering for the gym. Getting up in the dark, walking to the gym, working out and walking home in the dark was getting wearisome. This morning it was so much easier. The garden is bursting into life and weeds and calling me to wrestle it into some order.

The start of September also means website updates so for all the current news, including latest releases, please head to my website. I have a short story in the Mammoth Book of E.R Medical romance, which is available in paperback and as an eBook. My story isn’t set in the E.R but on a ten day bike ride. Yes, I did get the idea from my cycle tour last year! .

My northern hemisphere friends are facing down autumn/fall.I confess to loving the fall colors.  My favourite seasons are spring and autumn/fall. Do you have a favourite season?

The New Zealand Romance Writers’ Conference

Last Thursday I flew to Wellington, New Zealand, the capital of this beautiful island country and the venue for both the RWNZ conference AND the Bledisloe Cup. Now, I’m not a rugby follower, but when the entire New Zealand rugby team are staying in the same hotel, a girl finds herself evaluating her sporting code. Those athletes are, well ….athletic

Are 100 middle-aged women restrained around athletic men young enough to be their sons? Ah, no. I witnessed drooling, stalking and entire body-slams. Conversations were frequently truncated with squeals and “OMG that’s…”

Sadly, I don’t have any people photos…I am hopeless that way  but it was great to catch up with fellow medical romance authors Louisa George and Sue Mackay along with many others. USA Harlequin and Berkley author, Shirley Jump, gave a great Friday workshop. It’s heartening to hear that other people’s processes are similar to yours. When I start a book, I have no idea exactly what is going to happen and I am writing into the dark and there is always a moment of panic. Turns out, that happens to other writers too!

Conferences are always a mixture of business and pleasure and this was no exception. Harlequin Australia were there and hosted an awesome dinner on the Thursday night and then on Friday I was fortunate to be standing in the right place at the right time when they were buying champagne! The food at the hotel was outstanding and now I have to hit the gym again to work it off.

On the last night, after most people had started their journey home, a few of us were able to enjoy a beautiful meal at one of the harbour restaurants. Here’s Frances Housden, me, Yvonne Lindsay, Megan Crane and Trish Morey. Thanks to Megan’s husband for taking the photo.

Now it’s back to the trackies, the uggies and the desk!

 

Life Potters On…my week in review

I’ve had a huge week and another one coming. Last Tuesday, Boomerang Bride became an Amazon best-seller, hitting #4 in the entire Kindle Store. Color me both stunned and stoked.

This excitement was followed by a lovely weekend. We had a dinner at Boy Wonder’s school. It was a cold, wet night with hints of snow in the air but the warmth in the dining hall  was wonderful.  The choir started singing beautifully and then there was a flash-mob  Lots of fun!

We visited friends and caught up with the “real” Maggie-May, the go-getter dog in Picture Perfect Wedding and then we came home for a rest!

The Australian Romance Writers’ Conference

was on this weekend and although Newborn Baby for Christmas didn’t take out the R*BY in the Short novel category, another medical romance did ! I am so excited for friend and fellow author, Emily Forbes. Doesn’t she look fab here?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On Thursday, I head off to New Zealand to attend their romance writers’ conference. I haven’t been to New Zealand in thirty years so I’m looking forward to it although I do have a degree of trepidation. The conference is being held in “Wobbly Wellington;” there have been two earthquakes there recently. Yikes!

I’m looking forward to meeting with editors and authors and refilling my writing well.

I just have to pace myself! What conference survival tips do you have

 

Picture Perfect Wedding is OUT NOW!

For those of you dear readers who are not on Twitter or Facebook I just want to let you know that Picture Perfect Wedding is launched! We’ve had a fun part over at Facebook with lots of bare-chested men, cute dogs and yummy food.

Picture Perfect Wedding is book 2 in my Wedding Fever trilogy. We’re back in Whitetail, Wisconsin, watching the town giving brides the keys to the town, no matter what it takes.

Amazon have Picture Perfect Wedding at the sweet price of $1.99 so I’d grab it now before it rises to $4. 

Reviews  have been really positive!

“This book was an absolute blast to read!”

 

“Oh my. Ms. Lowe writes a charming, entertaining, and sometimes wrenching story in Picture Perfect Wedding.”

 

“Fiona Lowe writes beautifully about people, relationships, wants, desires, needs, love, and romance.”

 

“There are so many reasons to like this book!”

 

Erin Davis will do whatever it takes to be the photographer for high-end brides. So what if capturing the moments of people’s lives means she has no time for her own. Nothing will get between her and the security she craves, not even the gorgeous farmer refusing to let her shoot in his sunflowers.

His family has always been tied to the land, but lately Luke Anderson feels more like he’s chained. While he ponders his future, he still has cows to milk and no time to deal with Erin or Bridezillas in his fields. Yet there’s something about the sexy city girl he can’t say no to. So he says yes: just this once.

With the town in need of a photographer, Erin agrees to spend wedding season in Whitetail. The sparks flying between her and Luke quickly ignite, but just as Erin starts to picture her own happy ending, Luke takes a gamble that could risk it all…

For more weddings in Whitetail, check out Saved by the Bride, available now!           

 Not to be out-done by her baby sister, Boomerang Bride has zoomed up the charts at 99 cents as part of Amazon Kindle’s “deal of the day”. So if you’ve been thinking of buying it, today is THE day.

For  more information on Wedding Fever and to see photos that inspired the stories, please visit my website.

Happy Reading!

Fiona x

 

Unleashing the Poet

 Both my sons spent year nine at school in the Victorian high country. In fact, my youngest son is there right now.

This is mountain country with towering gum trees and vistas of mountains that go on forever. The eucalypts give the view a blue hue. I love this part of my state and always breathe more slowly and deeply here.

It’s hot in summer and it snows in winter. Right now there is

snow and Boy Wonder is enjoying ski-ing. He’s downhill skied for years but recently he  was very challenging to keep his balance especially as his pack “had more bacon in it than water.”  :-) Boys have to eat!went on a winter expedition and had to cross-country ski with a hike pack on his back. He said it

Boy Wonder has always been a very descriptive writer but in the shadow of his extrovert older brother who wrote songs and poems, he tended to take a back seat.

Whether it’s the environment he’s living in or the fact he’s just turned 15 but the poet has busted out of him. He’s written quite a few for the school newsletter and this one came the other day and I had a proud mother moment so I thought I would share.

It was a cold day and he was on a long run well below the snow line when it started to snow.

SNOW

As you’re running through the single tracks, upside of the school,  there’s one thing that you don’t expect to see.

In amongst the grass and logs, its silver crystals cool, in patches, sitting underneath a tree.

As blood is pumping through you veins, your body starts to sting,  it’s hard to understand how it can be,

So cold and yet so hot at once, to keep this blissful thing, from melting down to something we can’t see.

This wonderful and peaceful scene, so beautiful and light,

Is such a sight to see while on a run,

It make the pain and anguish better, worth it for the sight, of snowy patches glistening in the sun.

Did you have a poetry phase when you were a teen?

New Month, New Book & a Party!

It’s August 1st,  Boy Wonder’s birthday, all the horses’ birthdays and a shiny new month!  Mostly, I am doing boring stuff like the washing and talking to locksmiths and tilers but I’m  also party planning!

The August website up-dates are live and so is the party invitation to join me on Monday August 12th USA time and Tuesday August 13th Australian time to launch, Picture Perfect Wedding.

Please mark the date in your diary and join me on my Facebook Author page for lots of fun and laughs!  There will be hot and sexy men, cute dogs, fabulous organic farm-fresh food, decadent creamy ice-cream and cheese! Plus a chance to win a $20 book voucher to the eBook store of your choice! Bring your photos of your own pets or farmers! See you in 12 days!

The Writing of the Trilogy is Over

Fifteen months ago, I came up with the idea of the Wedding Fever trilogy…Saved by the Bride, Picture Perfect Wedding and Runaway Groom. Today, I have just sent the final copy-edits for the final book, Runaway Groom, to my editor! I have lived and breathed Whitetail, Wisconsin for a long time and today I feel a bit adrift.

Wedding Fever is the first trilogy I’ve written and although part of me is happy the job is done,  I’m sad to be leaving Whitetail.  I LOVED this town and the people in it.

Now it’s over to the team at Carina Press to work their magic on covers and meta data and all that other technical stuff that goes into making my word document into a book.

Look what a great job they did on the cover for Picture Perfect Wedding? I LOVE love love it and not long for you, my readers to wait now as it’s up for pre-order and out on August 12th. For my northern hemisphere readers, this is perfect timing for the perfect summer read at the lake, on the beach or just holed up out of the sun inside under the cool of the AC!  For my southern hemisphere readers, this story will wash away your winter blues!

Pre-Order IT NOW!

Amazon Kindle ,
Barnes & Noble Nook
Carina Press, Kobo ibooks
and all other eBook retailers

Of course, on August 12th there WILL be a party over at my Facebook author page  so if you haven’t gotten around to ‘Liking’ the page yet, now is the time to do it so you don’t miss out on any of the party fun. There will be handsome men, gorgeous farm animals, food and prizes.

And if you haven’t quite caught up with book one of the series, Saved By The Bride, grab it now at $2.99 or less!

BUY IT NOW!

Amazon Kindle ,
Barnes & Noble Nook
Carina Press ,  Kobo   ibooks
 
AUSTRALIAN READERS:  Booktopia
Amazon Kindle ,   Sony Store,   JB HIFI Book
and all other eBook retailers

A Pictorial Diary of Central Australia

We’ve spent the last  ten days in Central Australia. It’s winter so we’ve had icy cold mornings and clear, sunny days. We’ve hiked canyons and gorges, ridden camels, had silver service in the desert and generally enjoyed ourselves.  Enjoy the photos courtesy of my husband’s new camera!

The Red Centre Way; a cluster of roads in the Northern Territory

King’s Canyon; a close up of the red, red rocks.

Desert daisies

Ghost Gum at King’s Canyon

Sunset at Uluru (Ayer’s Rock)

Sounds of Silence dinner in the desert.

Australia has a very healthy population of wild camels, which we export around the world.

Chester the camel wearing my hat!

Kata Tjuta…a cluster of rocks 50km from Uluru.

Dinner on the last night

Excited Am I!

I’m thrilled to announce that Newborn Baby For Christmas has been nominated in the Romantic Book of The Year award, affectionately known as ‘The Ruby’. This contest is run by the Romance Writers of Australia and the RWA website says,

This is our premier award and the only one of its kind in Australia. Voted on by Australian readers, this contest is open each year to any Australian or New Zealand romance author who has published a long or short romance novel.

 

I love this story and I had so much fun writing it. It’s a modern take on

the Christmas story wrapped up with family.  It’s up against some stiff competition and congratulations go out to Alison Roberts and Emily Forbes and Madeline Ash as well as all the other nominees.

Thanks also go to the readers and volunteers who coordinate the competition! It is a HUGE job and much appreciated!

For the complete list of books in the competition head to the RWA Blog.  If you haven’t caught up with Newborn Baby for Christmas you can buy it at the following places! Amazon, Nook, iBooks Australia, iBooks USA and where all eBooks are sold!