Simone Sinna's Blog, page 57

Thoughtful Thursdays-Simone Sinna's Blog on Books & Films

8th March

The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand

When I lived in New York for a while I was in Murray Hill- just around the corner from the apartment in Park St where Rand lived for many years. While there I read her biography, having read the Fountainhead in my early twenties. She was a strong willed woman originally from Russia, who adopted the US with passion and then through her books and talks and less so the movies of her books, strongly influenced American politics in ways that can still be seen today.

The Fountainhead is a book of big ideas, strong people and stronger philosophies. Like Rand, the hero, Howard Roark, an architect (played by Gary Cooper in the movie), is as unbending as the author, true to his dream of independence of mind and thought and all that this means. The heroine (played by Patricia Neal, who thought the film which did badly ruined her career, largely because of the 'rape' scene) I thought was similarly strong and admirable when I first read it. Now, after reading about Rand and realizing how flawed she was in her personal life, the Dominique character seems far too one dimensional and what I saw as strength may actually have been the inflexibility of a narcissistic ideologue.

Rand was married and her long suffering husband appears to adored and supported her through a long standing affair with a much younger man, a psychiatrist, Nathaniel Brandon, who became prominent in his own right. They treated the psychiatrist's wife appallingly and Rand seemed to believe in her own Barbara Cartland novel where as the heroine she would be adored and no one else's needs matter.

The characters of The Fountainhead are a little like this too. Yet they are also compelling. The story is well crafted and written, a fabulous way to stimulate thought about what is truly important in life and what political, social and personal constructs are needed to support a vision – whether hers, which is ultimately flawed in many ways, or one that is more merciful yet allows all that people love about the US to flourish. It is a novel to stimulate discussion and thought, but not to be taken on without serious consideration of consequences.

Ist March

'Just Kids' by Patti Smith

'Because the Night' was the first song I learnt in singing lessons. I had to later abandon the idea of singing it at my first jig. It was bad enough that I was singing at all with my boss in the audience. He was already ambivalent enough about me.

It's the only song really that I like of Patti Smith's, but that and the fact that the book was about her life in New York in the late sixties and seventies was enough for me to pick it up. My heroine, Stephanie, is a New Yorker. Though I will never be able to say this, having lived there, it is a city that has a hold on my heart. It is, for me, the centre of the world.

Patti Smith writes of course of a New York that is in some ways different to the one I knew, but I was surprised more by the similarities. She at the time was poor, and a would be artist then poet before a musician. But she lived in the Hotel Chelsea which was there around the corner from me (though not for much longer) when I lived there. More, the sense of anything being possible- which came true for her- is still the absolute essence of the city. It is the 'can do' and 'will do' that is one of the very attractive things about the USA.

Smith writes poetically and well. She keeps your interest though the only structure really is that of time. The core of her book is about her love affair with Robert Mapplethorpe, a photographer with whom she remained close until he died of AIDS, even though for much of their relationship he was openly gay, and that in the last years she was no longer in New York, having married and had children. I wondered if she waited until her husband died to write it, though it seems she may well have had a wonderful and loving albeit different relationship with him.

Smith would have to be the opposite in me in almost every way. Androgenous where I love being female, womanly and feminine. Her look, her hair, is the antithesis of mine. She can sing despite no lessons and she didn't pick up a guitar or musical instrument until the same age as me – 23- yet she can sing and play and I can only aspire to do so (and occasionally make people suffer through). I have a gay friend who I love dearly but gay men do nothing for me sexually. Yet I admire Smith enormously for her ability to see Mapplethorpe as he was as a person and an artist. She was able to see his sexuality as completely separate and it makes their relationship shine.

That said, any substance of the book tends to fall like sand through the fingers. More imagery and feelings, the essence of the relationship, but it leaves you feeling like you've read a poem, an ode, rather than a book.

23rd February

'The Sex Diaries' and 'What Men Want in Bed' by Bettina Arndt

Following on from last week- non fiction. But just as relevant to romance and erotica authors and I confess I have a particular interest because I'm meeting her for coffee tomorrow.

Bettina Arndt gets quite a bit of flack from the feminists and I can't say that its obvious to me why. Unless they just hate men and can't cope with the fact that she considers men are human (with all the positives and negatives) or they haven't read the books. There has certainly been a lots of misinformation put out about them. A colleague insisted that her survey results were useless because she only looked at a 'few' couples. Media reports headlined her telling women to 'just do it' ie have sex, give in to their partners, go back to the days of lying back and thinking of England… (Mind you in my new erritc book Expose and the following finale, Exclusive, if that meant thinking of Jeffrey the British hero- think Daniel Craig- I could cope…)

Let's dispense with the first bit of misinformation first. What she reports is not perfect science. They are volunteers so yes there will be bias. People would only respond if one or both of the couple were literate, thought sex was important and/or a problem. But there were 98 couples. A robust number by any account (and in my other life among other things I am a researcher), and an enormously rich amount of material- sex diaries of these couples over a whole year.

Every couple should read one of these books at least one. There is some repetiveness and both have some great core messages. If you're male and over 40, read 'what men want in bed'. Lot of really useful information.

Is she sympathetic to men? Yes. Overly so? I don't personally think so. Getting onto the sensational media headlines, she most certainly doesn't say women should quietly acquiesce to the sexual demands of their partner. What she does say, with lots of well reasoned and backed up argument is that where desire levels differ, it's important to be solved. She includes where female desire is sometimeshigher than their male partners (and I have seen this too, though less commonly). Burying the problem leads to marriage breakups which more than not, no one (kids included) are better off from. At the very least sex is a significant loss from a relationship which will impact the lower desire partner as well through decreased intimacy. Arndt also makes the point that for many women who 'just do it' they end up enjoying it. Many women later in relationships have their desire interfered with by 'life' – but once they get into it they enjoy it as much as they always did.

We need more sensible balanced discussion like this about real life problems.

 

15th February

'Guilty Pleasures'

A Documentary about Romance Genre by Julie Moggan (follow @SiobhanArgent)

Okay this isn't fiction. But very relevant to romantic and erotic writers. It starts off with a quote something like – 'Every four seconds someone, somewhere in the World is buying a Mills and Boon' and then proceeds to take as around the world to look into the lives of readers and one author. And the life of one of men who adorn the covers of these books.

It's funny, touching, sad, and interesting.

The cover man is hot. Seriously good body. Pity he opens his mouth, because then the whole power Alpha male fantasy goes out the window. He's actually quite sweet (um not intellectual however) and this is part of the contrasts that Moggan shows so well.

Gil Sanderson (www.millsandboon.co.uk/authors/gillsanderson/) the author is an older British man who has written over 50 Mills and Boon. He and the dears who enjoy the writing workshop are as he says 'not in their first flush of youth'. As opposed to who they write about…

The readers are the most fun though. A British couple that you laugh and cry with but honestly the spreading of rose petals on the table on Valentine's Day was nice. Corny but nice. The poor Indian woman who lived her life through the books (and her narcissistic Porsche owner ex who is just an arse). And my favourites- the Japanese dance couple who's story is beautifully developed.

Watch it!

9th February

Dead Poet's Society.

I may as well continue yesterday's theme. Teenagers. One of my favourite films is about teenagers and growing up. About inspiring teachers (I was lucky enough to have two, one in math which got me into university and the other in English Literature who inflamed an already present life-long love of reading and writing).

An absolute must for any teacher – straight after 'To Sir with Love'. I'm not a huge Robin Williams fan, but in this he is stunning. It still brings tears to my eyes when I picture his students all defying authority to stand on their desks and farewell him.

It's a sad movie, no doubt, and topical really given the concern in Western society about youth suicide. In this film while Williams is blamed, the film really says a lot about parenting and when our expectations get in the way of what our children themselves want and are capable of. We mostly (not the Chinese Tiger mother it seems) deride parents that push their children- yet Venus and Serena have done alright out of it (I think). I ended up with a career that has been fabulous because I did what my parents wanted initially and that opened to door to something I wanted. Now I have the opportunity to do what I've always wanted (writing) without the pressure and I wouldn't change a thing.

In this movie the lack of perspective of adolescence shines through tragically. Perhaps over all this is the lesson we most need to give our children: things often are better in the morning.

Shouldn't be missed – but don't let your adolescents see it too young or without you!

2nd February

Erotic/Romance Genre

Thought I'd talk about romance and erotic fiction genre and would very much welcome your thoughts!

I read two or three Barbara Cartland books as a late teen and felt that was pretty much enough for a life time. Predictable, same story, change of name. I then went onto the entire Victoria Holt/Phillipa Carr (they are the same person), Catherine Gaskin and Mary Stewart collections. By the by, the ones that stand out years later are the Ivy Tree (Mary Stewart: I still get tingles), Summer of the Spanish Woman (Catherine Gaskin- OMG I can still seeing them riding the Irish coast line, her on the white mare, him on the black stallion) and I think it's called the Lion Triumphant (Phillipa Carr)- the hero is so macho pirate … ahhhh. Anyway after that I studied English Literature so really never came back to this genre until my thirties with some Black Lace erotica, and always liked the ones with a difficult tense relationship between hero/heroine and a Darcy like hero.

So now I write romance suspense with erotica (capital E)– there's sex in every chapter (like Black Lace novels which were British and fidelity was never an issue), a strong story (capital S for suspense) and the romance(little r) is strong but takes the whole book to get there (the foreplay tension for me is what is erotic).

But having now read quite a few of other Siren authors (see my reviews at Siren) I seem to be in the minority. The rules for the subgenres really tell the story. Infidelity is a real no-no, yet more than one guy is more the rule but they have to all end up together. Oh and then there's the cowboys which I guess I understand sort of. I grew up with Westerns but progressed…

What I find really curious though – I have lived in the USA long enough to understand a key moral underpinning to society courtesy of the Puritans (though all of my British and Australian friends find it weirdly at odds with the TV programs eg Sex in the City and OC or films) to get the infidelity issue ­– is the character of the male heroes.

When Pride and Prejudice was shown with Colin Firth every woman I know wet their panties over his portrayal. But let's face it Darcy was never going to put the bin out. But given one of the key characteristics of the classical male hero is being rich, who cares? The butler can do it! So every traditional hero is tall (okay Clark Gable was short but they made him look tall), dark (this can vary) and handsome (a bigger range available here from Tom Cruise big nose look to Robert Redford sweet), rich and brooding (Darcy, Heathcliff, heroes in all books I mentioned above).

So will someone explain the gentle giant to me??? As in Heather Rainiers Siren best seller Lydia's Twin Temptation? Don't get me wrong, the idea of two guys who have hot bodies and are hot for me – yes please! But if they are so busy falling over each other in being considerate I'd probably fall asleep while they were still trying to work out if yes meant yes.

I believe the cliché menage includes the cave-man, playboy and conductor (author and owner of some 3,500 menage books! (@MenageReviewer). My books tend to have the last two but none of these read to me as gentle giants. Are women really turned on by men that help them with the vacuuming? I know this is the type of person we might want to live with (ie those without butlers) but is it a turn on? Really???

 

 

26th January

Book this week: Murder on a Midsummer Night by Kerry Greenwood

It's Australian day so for those down under, pull up a chair, a beer, and a good book! It'll be a Gin & Tonic for me….

Seen as I did her other series last week, I thought I mention this one this week. Still in Melbourne Australia, in a heat wave, Ms Greenwood takes us back to 1929 where her heroine Phyrne Fisher is a wealthy single woman of 29 who indulges herself as an investigator.

It took a while for me to settle into this. Given the historical setting part of what I needed to adapt to was the times. I certainly felt I should have been reading it with a cocktail cigarette dripping out of a long black holder in one hand and a gin and tonic in the other. (I went to a murder mystery weekend once set in this era and carried around a long black holder with pretty colored cigarettes…I've never been a smoker but this could have changed things).

The heroine is a bit unbelievable for current times let alone then, but maybe money can buy anything and she's certainly fun! The other thing I needed to get used to was the 'ockerisms'. In truth I never did and probably a reason I won't read any more of the series. The author clearly researched the slang and it's all familiar to anyone who spent any of their childhood in Australia, but every time she uses it I cringed and thought about the British Prime Minister saying 'streuth its a sheila' or something like that (in jest) to the current (female) Australian prime minister. Australians really don't talk like this!

Nice plot, plenty of action, good characters. Have definitely read worse – very distinctive and if you like her style, then the series is for you.

 

19th January

I read prolifically. I could start my own second hand book shop and probably keep myself fed for a year. I have started giving them away though to charity due to potential fire hazard. The first ones to go were the Ninja's (Lustbader – great name but I really wasn't going to read them again). I still have all the Enid Blyton's that got me started. Mr Tavish retired from the local second hand book store/library and I was the only person (aged taking out Enid Blyton and the Bobbsey Twins so he gave me the entire collection. I remember sitting in the back seat of the station wagon surrounded by books thinking all my Christmases had come at once. Heaven! My kids were more into Harry Potter (so was I) though they did enjoy the Enchanted Wood and the Faraway Tree.

Book this week: Earthly Delights by Kerry Greenwood.

Author is from Melbourne Australia, and I saw her presenting at a writer's festival there. Middle aged, plump and slightly flaky, she clearly enjoys what she writes about. I'm just starting her other series (Phyrne Fisher an upper class PI in the 1920's) but in this book, Earthly Delights she introduces a new character of which there are now a number in the series.

The heroine is Corinna Chapman, an unlikely heroine: plump (I'm being generous) and a chef. Greenwood has a very distinct style and once I got into it, I found myself liking her slight quirkiness. Definitely not your average crime book though as with the current trend (Lynda La Plante, Elizabeth George etc) the main characters are flawed and all the more real and likable for it. The hero is a social worker, (but drop dead gorgeous in the traditional mould), the setting the soup kitchen and an apartment block with a cast of tenants that makes you not ever want to own rental property. The black leather whip carrying character on the cover is not Corrina, but rather Madame Dread or is it Monsieur Dead? And there is a witch – seems only natural as the author says she lives with a certified wizard.

The other hook for me is the setting. Most people who come to Australia see Sydney and the Great Barrier Reef and if their rich (and probably not American as the Americans have the Grand Canyon) they go to Ayer's Rock. This book is set in modern day Melbourne where I'm currently living (and in my book Embedded there's a scene at the Melbourne Cup, a race that famously (in Australia) 'stops a Nation'). Definitely worth a visit. Don't worry about Corrina's bakery – some of the best collection of places to eat in the world with fresh ingredients and lots of variety to choose from.

Overall: light, readable, fun. Won't make me think deeply or lose sleep but I have gone onto the Phyrne Fisher stories by the same author, also in Melbourne eighty years earlier.

 

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Wicked Wednesdays- Simone Sinna's Seven Deadly Sins

Simone Sinna's Blog on the Seven Deadly Sins (Wrath, Greed, Sloth, Pride, Lust, Envy, Gluttony)
GLUTTONY

February 7th

In a time of an obesity epidemic, this is very topical. We were meant to be living as hunter gatherers. From an evolutionary point of view that is (and we haven't progressed far from a genetic point of view even if the high rise towers, aeroplanes and whizz bang computers suggest otherwise). So we were meant to have good years and bad years. Now, in the West, even many of the poor, have plenty. Even more so the poor because fast food is cheap, ready available and unhealthy (see Supersize Me). And obesity is epidemic in lower class (anorexia rages in upper…).

Why doesn't our brains yell out NOoooo!?

I gather the sugar in some foods fool us, I've read elsewhere that it's what your mother and grandmother ate in pregnancy, and in some cultures such as Indigenous Australian where the famine went to feast very rapidly the pregnant body didn't adapt well.

I guess I'm interested in how our early (psychological) environment affects our gluttonous instincts?

Friends adopted a six month old girl from Vietnam. She'd been in an orphanage from birth. They'd kept her physically healthy, more or less. But I doubt very much they sat her in a high chair and fed her individually. When I first saw her, a couple of months later, being fed in a high chair in my friend's house she was clearly obsessed by food. Everything her (very petite) mother gave her she grabbed and ate quickly. She watched every bit of food that was being served. This was a child that by eight months was showing having learnt that food was scarce and she was going to make sure she survived. Interestingly, now in her teens, she is petite. So she grabbed and took – but it seems knew when to stop.

Food? For me I listen to my body. If I'm full I just won't eat. But we've just finished a bottle of Beaujolais and are now onto a Cote du Rhone. Now I am feeling truly gluttonous…

ENVY

February 29th

Where do I begin?

I want to be 28 again. Permanently. It's the age my heroine Stephanie started out at and I'm even having problems with her getting to 31 by the end of the series. It's not that I feel any older (she starts to but then she nearly gets killed…).

And can I please have olive skin in the next life. I'm still suffering from the burns I got in Broome. I thought I was in the shade of the eaves (it was overcast) but the left hand side of my body now at the flaking stage with nasty red lumps is telling a different story. I haven't done this since I was about 15. Must be another age regression attempt.

So I'm sitting in my car flaking and pretending I'm younger than I am. I like my car. It's my baby. Really. I had just had a real one (baby) and went to buy a sensible family car, had a midlife crisis in the showroom and left with the Porsche (see photo on Blog on Homepage). Really.

So where is this going you ask? How can this possibly make me envious (no, I don't want a Lamborghini or a Ferrari)? Well its 38 degrees Celsius (about a hundred and four Fahrenheit) – too hot and I'm too sunburnt to take the roof off. The black roof. And it obviously doesn't get hot in Germany. The air-con has never worked. So yes, if you've ever been envious of people driving a Porsche this is your moment. Right now, before I die which feels eminent, I'm envious of anyone with even a dirt box with a working air-conditioner…

LUST

February 22nd

Now let's face it- this topic shouldn't exactly be a challenge for an Erotica writer. Right? Mmm…but small problem. What's fiction and what's real?

At a writing class once an author said his work was a third fiction, a third their own reality and a third someone else's reality. Sounds pretty accurate to me, but in any fiction you have to give something emotional of yourself – or part of yourself- to every scene. So where does this put the erotica author?

Everyone is different obviously. I have had correspondence and tweets from several female heterosexual authors who write gay male erotica. I can only assume that they do this because there is more money in gay male literature (both partners testosterone driven and both buying books!) though there seems to be (my interpretation, but I do interpretations for a living in my other life) an element of safety in distancing oneself. Even if the acts are different to anything you've experienced you can always tap into your own emotions from your own experiences.

In my books the distancing is in fantasizing about the character, not the sex. How can you truly write well if you can't or haven't experienced it? You can always add on, sure. But the more experience the more depth, the more richness. Why I'm sure my English Literature teacher in VCE despaired of me. 'You have talent, but something is missing!' When she found out I was two years younger than everyone else in the class she had sighed, now understanding the issue. I had bristled. But now, years later I realize she was right. The difference in emotional maturity between a sixteen and an eighteen year old – at least from very protected backgrounds- was immense. How much more difference to a twenty eight years old who and loved and lost when trying to decipher Cleopatra's response to Shakespeare's Mark Anthony? Or writing about being raped (not something that has ever happened to me, but must be surely easier for me to write after years of life experience and hearing many women's stories, than it would have been as a cocky know it all sixteen year old).

My editor is quite sure the best sex scenes are when I (the author) am really hot for the character (I can just about forget they're fictional…. when I saw Daniel Craig kiss his 'wife' in DreamHouse I was quite disturbed as I have just written my heroine (temporarily me!) off as living happily ever after with a character who looks a lot like Daniel Craig…) but then my web designer liked the casual sex way better (who's to say I didn't base this on reality too….) so there is a matter of taste too.

Decide for yourself…are the best sex scenes a sign of good writing, personal experience, or both?

PRIDE

I have a box that arrived with the first copies of 'Embedded' sitting in my office, and colored print outs of the front page stuck to the furniture. Around the rest of the walls are framed photos of Movie Stars including several scenes from 'Gone With the Wind'.  I am I guess an incurable romantic, but it is amazing that now one of these pictures belongs to me. Well courtesy of Jinger Heaston and Siren.

It's something I've wanted for a long time, something that the book cover of my non fiction book just didn't achieve (somehow severe drak red and a long title most poeople couldn't pronounce was a little astere). A little tiny piece of a fantasy. So am I proud? You bet.

But I did just a flick through it and found another error. Shit.

Pride Cometh Before the Fall…

SLOTH

February 8th

It's half past eleven in the morning. I watered the garden. I've been to gym. Okay, it nearly killed me but I did get there and I'm sure it was good for me. Actually, not that sure. Sinnaman ran a marathon once and had acute rhabdomyalysis and renal failure as a result, so exercise is not always good! Anyway I was only on a low impact machine (my knees may never be the same after walking over 1500 miles in France and Spain last year on the Camino St Jacques) and rolled around on the mat for a while.

Then I did emptied the dishwasher, did my emails, advised Sinnaman (via text, he's in the Netherlands) about a film edit (my lay person's opinion, I know nothing about film editing and Sinnaman would suggest little more about book editing…) and am writing a blog. Not too bad for a morning.

So Sloth?

My teenagers. Where are they? I know its holidays, but the sky is blue, it's over 80 degrees and beaches and pools are surely calling? No it would seem. I think they have more cat genes than human ones. The cat too thinks nighttimes are for being awake and daylight for lounging around. I don't think my teenagers notice the sun. Or maybe the Australian 'slip, slop, slap' campaign to eradicate skin cancer has back fired and we'll have to start infusions of vitamin D. And any other vitamin that might energize them. To do something. Anything.

GREED

February 1st

I want it and I want it now!!! The catch cry of the Western world at the moment. Well youth anyway, but from the baby boomers down it has been a case of having plenty leading to wanting plenty more. Happiness studies show that it isn't how much we have that makes us happy – rather that we have a bit more than the person next door. Generation Y and Z are in for a rude shock with predications of them being the first generations (well in recent time) to be likely to be less well off than their parents. Still as long as they're plugged into something technological they probably won't notice…

My parents started out life living with my grandparents and when they did move it was with second hand furniture and boxes for bed side tables. Even those on welfare have plasma TV's these days.

Unless of course we move to India (3% of the population have access to reliable power) or somewhere else in the third world. We don't tend to spend enough time reflecting on this- greed usually wins out.

I love clothes. But after walking 87 days of the Camino/Compestela St Jacques (2038km) carrying everything on my back (6kg) I have come to the realization that I actually don't need more clothes, shoes, accessories, jewellery. For three months I didn't miss any of my wardrobe. Returning was like getting a whole new wardrobe any way as most of it I had been apart from for over a year whilst working overseas. Maybe it'll start to feel old again sometime but for the moment, a pilgrimage is just what is called for in the fight against greed.

 

WRATH

25th January

I don't get angry often. Truly. It's just not a pretty sight when I do. My children are still traumatised by the one time they recall I directed my ire at them. They were picking on a troubled kid at school with prank calls (spurred on by a friend and in reality all pretty harmless). I just don't like injustice. I feel it my duty to care for and protect even though it's often not the best course of action.

Like when I took on a couple of druggies who were yelling obscenities at some old drunk guy. They were ten years younger, one of them male and he alone weighed twice what I did. And no I don't have karate skills nor do I run well (particularly in heels and is there any other sort of shoe?). Which left Sinnaman (also considerably lighter than the brute druggie) to protect me. We escaped unscathed but he wasn't impressed.

So I just take on people on the phone. Well to be fair, before I yelled and seethed I apologised in advance and asked the very nice AMEX person not to take it personally. By the time I slammed the receiver and cut up the card into tiny little pieces I was feeling much better. Who I really wanted to yell at was the company in the US who use a prestigious university name and suck people in (okay I'm annoyed at myself, I was an idiot, can probably put pride and envy in here somewhere too) and then keep doing it every year. The first year I paid legitimately and never got anything. The second year I rang and yelled at them (as I'd never authorised ongoing payment) and cancelled it and AMEX returned my money. The third year it was sadly paid as I was living overseas and my son didn't know to query it. This is the fourth year, and to make matters worse they charged me, I queried it (politely) with AMEX who agreed it was not legitimate and gave it back – and then in the same week sent me a statement with them charging me again!!! I now have master cards only.

So: don't take on druggies bigger than you are, don't yell at people on the phone if it really isn't their fault and let your kids make prank calls. But only if you're perfect, otherwise join the rest of us who get sucked in and need to give our kids something to complain about. The people at the end of the phone? Ask me and I'll give you the details of the con scheme and yell all you like!!!

 

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Travel Tuesdays – Stephanie Beauman's travel blog

Tuesday 6th March

Queen Charlotte Track, South Island, New Zealand

Okay I was hooked in by the penguins at Banks Peninsula (see last Tuesday's blog) and I forgot I wasn't really a walking type person… so I allowed myself to be talked into the Queen Charlotte track. Great views, walking between B & B's, with excellent food and wine at each stop. Who wouldn't be convinced?

It's worth the walk - Queen CharlotteNo it's not a Kiwi

I forgot to look at how far we were walking. And at the gradients. Day one after an exhilarating boat ride, started up. Straight up. Ninety degrees. Okay I'm told this is impossible but believe me this is how it felt – it was hot after all. When we arrived at the hotel I couldn't move.

It was five days over all. Every day the views were to be honest breathtaking. Like Switzerland in summer. Mountains, pine forests … but with the New Zealand wild life and wine. And they did take my pack by boat…After a glass of wine the feet started to feel a lot better. Actually right now, glass in hand looking at these photos, the views maybe even worth going back for.

No it's not a Kiwi

picturesque in every direction

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tuesday 28 th February

New Zealand: Banks Peninsula Walk, South Island

Okay, I thought I was mad too. I don't do walks. Manolos can't manage more than about five hundred yards. Max. What was I thinking???

Banks Peninsula Walk

I didn't have to carry much, and this was true. Accommodation was provided and you could buy food their too. So I agreed. I'd never been too New Zealand and everyone had told me it was beautiful. And I bought some walking boots.

It was only one night I was told. It would be good for me. What no one told me was that most people do it over four days, three nights. We were doing it at double pace and distance.

Showering Banks Peninsula style

Even though its summer, it drizzled as we started. Bit like Europe- very green and green for a reason it seems. But it was hard not to be caught up in the beauty. Mostly along the coast, across farmlands and through woods, I enjoyed it despite my certainty I wouldn't. Lunch was at stopover for the night for most of the walkers. I looked at them enviously as they took out the boats to go at swim with the dolphins. We kept walking…

Okay I was wrecked by the time we got there. I clearly need to spend more time at the gym.

But I forgot every ache as we came into what had to be the most gorgeous set of cottages set in green lawns and cottage gardens, across a quaint bridge and winding stream.

It looked more English than England! It only got better. Our cottage had a pot belly stove over which we cooked a warming stew, and our beds were high up ladders in the loft. But before bed – the most fabulous bath (even better with two of us…) under the stars, fire heating it below, bamboo fence around us. Tomorrow it'll be the shower in the shed around the tree (pictured). But the piece de resistance was what was in the box at the door of our cottage. Nesting yellow eyed penguins, apparently endangered. Every step of the walk was worth it – even the long way home the next day.

Nesting endangered Yellow Eyed Penguin

 

Tuesday 21st February

Broome, West Australia– Stephanie has kindly allowed Simone to blog this one!

The people are friendly, the skies blue (well for the first two days. At night there have been downpours, it is after all the wet season and today got drowned in one only five minutes from appartment) and the weather HOT! The humidity is such that sitting at the bus stop for ten minutes I think I lost a litre of fluid. I had to be at the bus stop because there aren't many taxis and unlike all the other tourists I don't have a hire car. This was because I didn't think I needed to go anywhere. However I arrived at the Pearle, Cable Beach, booked into a beautiful suite with our own pool, kitchen, BBQ area only to find the cafe closes at midday (and the bus stops at 7pm). So while there's a beautifully located place on Cable beach that is walking distance, the culinary level is such that we need to eat in once at least. So into Broome to get some fresh seafood.

Mmm Broome. I gave a talk here a few days ago and one of the guys has just moved here and said his wife was finding it hard. I kind of get that. Three days by the pool writing and reading a book? Great. But my whole life? The town is well, small. A ghost town at 10 am but then I found you couldn't buy alcohol until after midday so maybe it livens up then. There was one nice clothes shop (but nothing in my size) and I did find a pair of comfortable black sandals which I had scoured Melbourne for unsuccessfully (if you don't want stilettos-these are fter all intended for mundane work-and don't like platforms there seems to be no options).

Being here in February doesn't help. Yes the hotel is cheap but there's a reason. Still it does mean I saved myself $700 which I would have probably forked out for the one day flight and boat ride to Horizontal falls. I was told by someone at the talk it was worth every cent. Oh well. Maybe I'll make it back again (though seems unlikely given how far away it is from everything and hence very expensive to get here!).

There is a lovely long beach and a picturesque sunset under a night sky laden with stars. That'll be enough.

Tuesday 14th February

Great Ocean Road – Victoria Australia

The Japanese tourists come straight here from the airport. One of those bucket list destinations. Fortunately we missed the tourists.  But I see why they come.

But how romantic for Valentine's Day (and wonderfully isolated…) is a place called Shipwreck Bay? A gorgeous getaway at Moonlight Heads… Cape Otway Lighthouse. And cute Aussie creatures – no this isn't a hedgehog it's an Echidna.

 

 

 

 

Tuesday 7th February

Home – New York

I do wish I spent more time here! I now have an apartment in the West Village (you'll hear about it in Exposé, out as E-book in April). I loved Sydney, don't get me wrong, but New York is always going to be home. How many times can you go to the same park and find something new? Infinitesimal in Central Park. If it's not the change of season it's a fun dance act or a little trail you hadn't noticed before. It's a city of can do and will do, where people can make things happen- some amazing festivals and always the people you want to see and hear are here in person! And OMG the Giants won the Super bowl!!!

It's impossible to run out of great places to eat and drink: 

Favorite places to eat and drink :

Jimmy's bar has great views (possibly better than this one )

Stone Rose bar (overlooking Central Park see below in the Fall)

Great hamburgers behind the curtain at Park Meridan

Arturo's for pizza

Gotham Bar & Grill ( I meet my mother there- it's the only place South of 42nd she'll come to- see Exclusive, the final in the Stephanie Beauman series when it comes out)

Sushi Samba – fabulous combination of Mexican, Peruvian and Japanese

Campbell Apartments, a hidden cocktail bar in Grand Central

Other favorites:

Central Park any time of year

Winter Solstice performance in Harlem church

Nutcracker at Christmas

Broadway any day

MoMa

Museum of Metropolitan Art

Tuesday  31st January

Lima, Peru

The weather looks a bit bleak here but on any day it's a great location. Lima didn't do much for me – people very poor and where we were staying there were lots of barbed wire over the top of fences around homes, but dinning here at La Rosa Nautica was fun. The cerviche was heaven. It is easy to make too…just need great quality sea food and some lemon juice and chilli.

Read about it in Embedded when I'm there with Gabriel. www.bookstrand.com/simone-sinna or on Amazon. It just came out in paperback!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tuesday January 24th

Sydney, Australia

This time last year ago I was in a snow storm in NY.

Being in the Southern hemisphere has its compensations. Sydney skies seem to have more blue more of the time than anywhere else I've lived. NY in summer does but sometimes the haze rising off the pavements invades your consciousness and detracts, here it's stark and in your face.

I am having oysters at the oyster bar on the right of this Quay, looking out at the Bridge. If you've never been, make sure it is on your bucket list. I've been lots of places and this harbor is the best. Okay San Francisco has magic, Stockholm has charm, Rio has Jesus. Prague and Venice are gorgeous but they're on rivers. Sydney is just quite simply more dazzling than any of them. Sparking water, everything from tiny sail boats to ferries and ocean liners, hills, inlets and of course the bridge and the opera house. Where else would you have oysters?

Oysters are one of those mysteries of life. You don't really eat them, just let them slither down your throat, pretending they don't look like something left over after a year seven dissection (biology was not my strong suit), paying vast amounts for the privilege. And somehow in the process you can help but think about sex, or at the very least know the hot man sitting with you certainly is.

I'm trying to convince myself I should walk it – the Bridge that is, up and over I mean. There's a tourist company that outfits you (mmm just as long as no one takes a photo. Still a man in overalls …) and attaches you to something so you can't fall. Think I'll have another glass of excellent New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc and keep thinking on it.

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Great. Woke again because Pirate is on my face. As an erotic fiction writer this should be Johnny Depp and the day would be off to a great start. But it’s not. Pirate is a black Persian exotic – the sort bred to have a flat face, but it got so flat that one of his teeth no longer fits in his mouth. So the goofy pirate from the Caribbean saga, not Johnny. He gets lonely, and then hungry and whilst he knows to steer well clear of my husband’s side of the bed I have yet to train him that my breath is not his personal heater or the effective button to the food bowl.
I’m running late (well I like to be early so I’m always running late, which means I get most places on time. This drives my husband nuts as we end up spending hours of our lives in airport lounges). My time pressure is going to get worse because I am having a ‘what am I going to wear’ moment. I have lots of these. Not because I don’t have anything to wear – when we built the house our architect whose entire possessions fitted into the back seat of a small Toyota had to re design the bedroom to put in extra wardrobes as the walk-in just wasn’t going to cut it. I usually need a gym workout to decide what the day’s feel is going to be – sexy elegant, bohemian, studied casual, or ‘I’m not going to leave the house so what the hell’ – but today I don’t have time.
None of these. Trying a new look – kind of sexy bohemian. Tights and long top with clunky boots and a light long jacket that has ragged ends I picked up in Athens at a conference before the city started to disintegrate. More comfy for the flight – one side of Australia to the other (Sydney to Perth) which is pretty much the same as New York to LA.
Since my light bulb moment whilst I was walking the Camino St Jacques (also known as the Compostela or Pilgrim’s Way, through France and across Spain) when I decided that I didn’t want to work full time and was finally going to work on fiction writing (which I have been doing since I was 8, on and off) I have never been busier. I’d like to say this was because I am flying around Australia promoting my book but as blogs aren’t meant to be fiction I guess will stick to reality. I’m still working in the job I have been in for the last five years or so, just only two days a week. I’m an academic so I attend conferences (and write lots of nonfiction) and am on several committees which meet interstate. Now I just don’t have work paying for this. Great.
So when I was offered a talking tour (paid), looked into the bank account (no royalty check likely in the foreseeable future) I decided a top up was in order. Hence every state and territory (one twice, one three times) in a few months. Still miles off reaching platinum so the first class lounge which was available last year looks sadly out of reach. This is particularly critical at Heathrow after a 24 hour flight – the champagne bar definitely adds zest to the last hop to Paris.
As you can gather I travel a lot – not just for business but pleasure as well, and have lived in France and the USA. It makes a great background for writing. Embedded which came out as an EBook in October 2011 and is now just on Amazon in print starts in New York near where I lived in Chelsea but moves to Sydney (Point Piper where I have also rented once but now sadly couldn’t afford) and also includes a visit to Argentina, home of the male lead (I’ve only visited but the first Tango scene in the book really happened). There are now a number of reviews on Amazon and Sirenbookstrand.
Stephanie, the investigative journalist heroine moves to France and Spain filming the Camino walk in the next book Exposé which comes out in April as an E Book and print in August 2012! In the interim I’ve had one short erotic story published (Heat Wave ’76) and another one about to be with Stringybark publishers.
Contrasting with my usual job, erotic fiction writing is fun (well the editing is painful for someone like me who is not big on minutiae). But if people can read it, enjoy and spice up their sex lives, then that’s not such as bad greater purpose either. Life is not always easy- balancing the worry about debt, climate change, the family and in-laws is important! This is definite escapism – and Stephanie always knows what to wear (and I own just about every dress I describe even if I don’t look as good in them!).
The stories are written for women, but ladies, read it to your men! I have put several chapters past the men in my life (no, not my son or father) and the response has been very favorable. Guys get it for your partners to spice up your sex life!