Fiona Lowe's Blog, page 16

Got to be in it to Win it!

In the run-up period to the UK & USA November 1st release date of Newborn Baby For Christmas, I’m giving away a copy via Goodreads.

Early reviews in for this book are saying,

“Mrs Lowe is on top form in this captivating story of long term friends progressing into lovers.

There are nice family touches and medical incidents and while the main thrust of the plot is a serious subject it is also humorous seeing Hamish’s confusion as he struggles with unfamiliar feelings.

The characters are normal everyday people whom you can easily identify with.”

“Thoroughly enjoyed this story.  Loved the way Hamish was down right blunt at first with Georgie and it took him a while to work through how he felt.  This character wasn’t quite as dark and brooding as some of Fiona Lowe’s leading men but I wasn’t disappointed at all and actually liked the change.

“This was a story of romance, sweet passion and a rather humorous situation …love behind the greatest gift of all during the most wonderful time of the year in one of the most unconventional manners ever.

The perfect holiday romance read !”

Goodreads Book Giveaway


Newborn Baby For Christmas
by Fiona Lowe

Giveaway ends October 30, 2012.

See the giveaway details

at Goodreads.

Enter to win

Book Giveaway

Goodreads Book Giveaway







Newborn Baby For Christmas



by Fiona Lowe

Giveaway ends October 30, 2012.

See the giveaway details

at Goodreads.

Enter to win

Back to Regular Programming!

The boys are back at school and I am back at the desk and this term is going to be HUGE!

Boy Wonder has the school play and training for the Great Vic Bike Ride in late November, The Lad has three weeks left of school before he starts Year 12 ‘swat vac’ so I have a Valedictory dinner and Speech Day at the end of the month. I remember when he started school and now he is finishing!!!!

I am writing a medical romance; part of a new series call the Gold Coast City Hospital and in between I am training for the bike ride.

The Great Victorian Bike Ride is an annual event that tours a different part of the state each year, but it is always nine days of cycling and roughly 590 kilometers which is 367 miles. I know,l I am totally insane.  I have done it before but that was 8 years ago and I think it is a bit like childbirth…you forget the hard stuff. I really shouldn’t have cos I almost died on my first training ride the other day.  Add in the fact I will also be riding with about 70 fourteen year olds and I really am questioning my sanity.  So in-between writing the book I am cycling up as many hills as I can find.

 

 

Holiday Snaps!

The boys and I have been enjoying a week of spring sunshine in two different places.

Boy Wonder (14) and I whooped it up at Mt Hotham for 2.5 days of skiing leaving DH at work and The Lad (18) studying for his final exams which start scarily soon on November 4th.

Spring in the Australian Alps is just glorious. Blue skies go on forever, the snow is white, white, and the tow-lines are almost non-existent. We skied ourselves silly and got sunburned.

For the full photo load of glorious high country snaps with stunning views try this link.

We shot home, did a load of laundry or two and twenty-two hours later we jetted off to Sydney, picked up DH, collected the hire car… yes we were just as surprised to find they had substituted a Mercedes Benz for a Ford…SCORE! and we drove to the Blue Mountains. The lovely Kandy Shepherd had invited us to her farm and we got to meet Albert, the 21 year-old cat along with the farm cat and the tubby cat as well as the horses and the chooks (chickens).

Nestled in a beautiful valley, we were protected from the dreadful weather up on the bluffs and we enjoyed sunshine and blue skies, although we needed the fire after 3pm. We tramped over the farm and talked writing while the two husbands went cycling up punishing hills!  I am sure their is an easier way  to get coffee!

We ate fabulous food, met with other writers and generally had a lovely time! The boys went horse riding and enjoyed exploring the secret spots on the farm like the creek and the pristine water that gushes over pink granite.

We headed off on Sunday after a scrummy lunch of leftovers and we showed the boys the famous, “Three Sisters” in Katoomba. As you can see my hair isn’t quite as red as theirs any more!

Monday was a public holiday in NSW so we headed to the Royal National Park; Australia’s oldest national park which was declared in 1879! Everyone else had a similar idea as it was very busy. So busy that we had to hike into the picnic area of our choice but it was worth it as you can see by the photos.

We’re home now and website updates for October are complete and I have final edits for Saved By The Bride and chapter two to write for my current medical romance. Hopefully, I can settle down after a lovely nine days away.

On The Road

It’s school holidays and we’re off for some spring ski-ing in Victoria, followed by a few days in the Blue Mountains in NSW. Promise you photos when I get back!

What sort of Dog?

I love this photo of a farm in Wisconsin. I took it on my trip in July and have used it as the setting for Lakeview Farm in Picture Perfect Wedding.

On Friday, I finally sent Picture Perfect Wedding off to my editor. The book I thought would be on the short side and close to 90 thousand words, came in at 99 thousand! Obviously I have clue about length! All I know is as I got closer to the end of the story, more story needed to be wound up.  When I was moaning it wouldn’t end, my editor kindly said, “you write delicious sub-plots so of course it will be long.”

The weekend was full of school activities with a dinner on Friday night and then the athletics carnival yesterday. I did the annual sausage sizzle and had fun chatting to parents. It was a good relax and total break from writing.

Now it’s Monday and I need to start my next project which is another medical romance. After the fun I had writing Tom’s Redemption for the Sydney Harbour Hospital Series, I jumped at the chance to write another series book. This time it’s a book set in sunny Queensland and out of sheer coincidence it is set on the Gold Coast where I just recently attended a conference! This makes picturing the setting very easy.

                                                                 I’ve spent this morning choosing photos of the characters and I’ve made a photo board at Pinterest!  This is my first ever gig at Pinterest and with all the copyright laws, I can’t display the board here, sorry, but it’s just one click away

Luke is a brooding plastic surgeon so Guy Pearce is my muse for him!

Chloe is a Greek Australian with a bubbly personality so I’ve chosen Nia Vardalos as my muse for her.

Let’s hope it helps because anyone who follows this blog knows I don’t start books very easily!

Now I need some help, please…..what sort of dog is popular with single women aged 30? Chloe needs a dog!

The Book That Won’t End

I’m lost in a big, black hole that is my current book.

Last week I announced to the family I would have Picture Perfect Wedding finished by the end of the week. Ah, no.

Yesterday, I said I had two scenes to go. I wrote a scene yesterday… a really big one, 14 pages long in fact. It appears I still have two scenes to go. I better get back to it……

Spring in the High Country!

I had twenty-four hours up in the high country on the weekend. The sky was blue, the blossom was pink and frothy, the wattle golden and gorgeous, and the snow was magnificent.

Now it is back to the deadline and trying to get Picture Perfect Wedding finished amidst a busy week. Argh! So I am leaving you with this photo which shows how glorious Victoria in the spring truly is. Hope you get some inspiration from it!

Fiona x

Covers!

I’ve just filled in the art fact sheet for Saved By The Bride.(Carina Press April 2013)  Basically, what happens is you write a blurb about your book, describe your characters, give some examples of some key scenes in the book and you attach some photos to give the graphic designer a feel of how you see the book. Then you wait.

All publishing houses have different ways of doing things and some houses give their authors a lot more input into the cover design than others. Sometimes the cover is a perfect match for the book and other times, not so much.

For example, I loved both my covers of Boomerang Bride and the Australian version got Matilda’s hair and eye colour correct.

Of course, being published in a variety of different countries means the same book gets a lot of covers. In October I am fortunate enough to have a book in an anthology with some other Aussie authors and the cover is gorgeous and glitzy. My book however, is set in a small coastal town a very long way from Sydney on the cover! Mind you, I guess the twins on the front didn’t say ‘small coastal town’ either!

In November, I have a Christmas story coming out and the UK cover has nailed the title: A Newborn Baby for Christmas. It reminds me of when my sons were small and we dressed them in Santa hats for a photo!

I have my fingers crossed for Saved By The Bride’s cover. I wonder what story element  they will focus on? The small town? The Wisconsin north woods lake? The bride theme? I’ll let you know as soon as I do!

Dizzy With Another Win!

This weekend was the Romance Writer’s of Australia’s annual conference and what better  place to spend a few days but on the warm and sunny Gold Coast in Queensland. For this girl from southern Victoria it was bliss to be able to walk along a beach in shorts and T-shirts and not feel that wickedly cold southerly wind making icicles in my chest!

This blog post is ALL about the conference and I’m thrilled to say that Boomerang Bride won the R*BY (Australian Romantic Book of the Year Award) in the long romance category! But more about that further down in the post

It was held at QT hotel, Gold Coast in Surfer’s Paradise and my first reaction when I walked through the door was, ‘Funky’. With its retro furnishings and staff dressed in 1950s- meets- 2000 uniforms, it was a fun, fresh place and the food was great. Thanks to Sarah Mayberry for the photos of the hotel.

This year I am told there were 350 attendees and there were a lot of people but at the same time the conference still maintained its friendly atmosphere. I loved and appreciated that the conference volunteers wore pink Fedora hats…so easy to find someone when you needed them. I confess that my conference didn’t really start until 4.30pm on Friday afternoon at the ARRA book signing.  Prior to that I had been lunching and reviewing the QT Spa and massage…all fabulous, BTW

The ARRA Book signing was so much fun. There were over 60 authors in attendance and along with Mills & Boon Australia’s generosity of free books, I was very busy signing away. One of my funniest moments was when ‘George the Ferret’ from Ebony McKenna’s Ondine series came to chat with RITA.

I shared a room with fellow Mills & Boon author, Ally Blake. Since Ally decamped from Victoria last year i don’t get to see her anywhere near as much so it was wonderful to have long chats in the night with her. We discovered that we both have a tendency to misfile things…put them down in the wrong places but between us we managed to find everything. I did have to keep an eye on her though with RITA.

The cocktail party on Friday night which launched the conference had a 1950s Hollywood theme which was so much fun. Some people have amazing talent for costumes and we had The Queen (Elizabeth 2) and The King (Elvis). As I have/had red hair, I went as Lucille Ball however next to Mz Glam (aka Melanie Milburne) I look more like her maid!

Saturday was busy with workshops and talking writing with good author mates like the talented rural romance author, Rachael John’s whose novel Jilted was seen everywhere at  the conference! I gave my copy to a friend on Friday afternoon and she’d read it by Sunday  lunch time! I taught a workshop in the afternoon and I got all the technology to work. YAY!

Saturday night was the awards dinner! Ally and I kicked off the night by having some champagne in our room with Nicola Marsh, Alison Stuart and Melanie Milburne. The ballroom at the QT was filled with excited writers who tucked into delicious food…I had the gnocchi with pesto, the duck and the scrumptious meringues with passionfruit.   (BTW, when I got home I started to tell my husband and sons about the food and they said, ‘We know, we saw the menu on Twitter’ (!!!!!!)

Throughout the evening, all the RWA writing  contest finalists were awarded their certificates and I had just finished my dessert when the R*BY…Australian Romantic Book of the Year awards were announced. I had two books nominated in two different categories. My medical romance, Single Dad’s Triple Trouble was in the short-sweet romance section which was won by the talented and much-loved Barbara Hannay. The short-sexy category was won by my great mate, Robyn Grady. She and I met in 2005 when we were both close-but-not-quite published. Helene Young who won the ARRA awards earlier in the year, took out the R*BY for the best book with romantic elements and Boomerang Bride won in the long romance section

Winning the RITA was amazing but winning the R*BY at home was very emotional and I got a bit wobbly…not to be confused with messy * (joke about my RITA speech)  I am so thrilled that Boomerang Bride, a book that I always believed in and a book that tested my faith in my ability to write, is shining so brightly at the moment.

Angela James, the executive editor of Carina Press emailed me the most wonderful news that Boomerang Bride will be on sale in print in North America in January 2013! And they’re going to use the stunning Australian cover. More !!! Can you tell I am excited?

Sunday was a day of more talking and listening, and I enjoyed a wonderful chat on the flight home with fantasy -romance author, MJ Scott.

So that’s conference over for another year! Now it’s back to finishing Picture Perfect Wedding which has been gathering dust while I’ve been jetting about.  Oh and there’s washing and finding out what homework the boys didn’t hand in and a husband who needs some attention. Real life just got started!