+ An Early Christmas Present (24/12/2009 - 14:57:10)
+ A Week Of Many Exclamation Marks! (20/12/2009 - 12:16:16)
+ The Things I Do For Research... (15/12/2009 - 23:29:51)
+ The First Review (07/12/2009 - 23:02:27)
+ So Many Reasons To Love Libraries (06/12/2009 - 18:18:29)
+ What’s in a name? (29/11/2009 - 11:07:22)
+ Champagne and Jimmy Choos (22/11/2009 - 10:57:20)
+ The Difficult Second Book (14/11/2009 - 12:45:13)
+ An Authorial Accident (08/11/2009 - 09:29:00)
+ What Next? (01/11/2009 - 09:51:34)
+ Speechless... (25/10/2009 - 11:16:14)
+ Today Was a Very Good Day (20/10/2009 - 21:00:26)
+ Guilty Pleasures (18/10/2009 - 09:29:43)
+ Are We There Yet? (13/10/2009 - 21:59:16)
+ Talking about Love in Uxbridge (11/10/2009 - 10:37:45)
+ Lets Talk About Love in Uxbridge (04/10/2009 - 10:21:49)
+ Other People's Books (27/09/2009 - 10:03:41)
+ Defining The End (20/09/2009 - 10:08:24)
+ Displacement Activity (13/09/2009 - 15:00:49)
+ Nearly There (06/09/2009 - 09:40:30)
+ Facebook Fun (02/09/2009 - 19:44:18)
+ Location, Location, Location (31/08/2009 - 10:39:00)
+ It's Here! (24/08/2009 - 13:33:16)
+ The Waiting is Killing Me... (23/08/2009 - 10:30:08)
+ Getting a Boost... (18/08/2009 - 21:19:39)
+ Conquering Carthage... (09/08/2009 - 21:28:36)
+ Pictures of Stone (08/08/2009 - 12:40:12)
+ Shopping The Way They Used To... (05/08/2009 - 15:00:20)
+ A long time ago, in a country far far away... (02/08/2009 - 10:03:09)
+ I Love Weeks Like This (26/07/2009 - 11:51:24)
+ A Write Week... (19/07/2009 - 10:16:16)
+ It's Just Gorgeous! (13/07/2009 - 23:12:08)
+ A Collective Noun Please... (11/07/2009 - 18:20:05)
+ Talking Up A Storm (08/07/2009 - 20:46:39)
+ Romance Writers Rock (04/07/2009 - 13:01:11)
+ Embracing my Inner Hippy (29/06/2009 - 16:32:06)
+ Changing Places is Scary (21/06/2009 - 19:08:30)
+ My Very First Book (14/06/2009 - 10:02:44)
+ I gotta get me a new phone! (07/06/2009 - 12:33:31)
+ How Big is Biggest? (31/05/2009 - 14:12:26)
+ Handwriting in Dubai (22/05/2009 - 10:20:11)
+ A Great Night (14/05/2009 - 10:28:41)
+ Preparing to Party (10/05/2009 - 10:22:44)
+ Of Chairs and Things... (03/05/2009 - 15:32:40)
+ An Angel in New York (26/04/2009 - 11:22:07)
+ It's All About Men (24/04/2009 - 09:06:38)
+ Real Shopping (21/04/2009 - 20:18:54)
+ Heading For The Big Apple (17/04/2009 - 10:15:28)
+ Did I Write That? (14/04/2009 - 20:42:55)
+ Hearing Voices in My Head (13/04/2009 - 17:55:11)
+ Bouncing Off The Walls (06/04/2009 - 21:59:12)
+ Restoring my Faith (04/04/2009 - 10:24:00)
+ Farmer Goes Large (02/04/2009 - 19:32:43)
+ Book Three Begins (22/03/2009 - 08:48:14)
+ Gosh - it's so good to be home (19/03/2009 - 20:31:02)
+ Time to go Home (13/03/2009 - 00:09:40)
+ An On-line Party... (08/03/2009 - 23:23:38)
+ The End of The Road Trip (06/03/2009 - 23:17:30)
+ Postcard from Gundagai. (05/03/2009 - 00:00:18)
+ On the Road . . . (01/03/2009 - 23:16:14)
+ Book signing down under... (27/02/2009 - 03:17:33)
+ On Holiday . . . almost (20/02/2009 - 07:07:45)
+ It's a Birthday (08/02/2009 - 10:50:35)
+ It's Gone... (01/02/2009 - 10:59:04)
+ The Book Bonus (25/01/2009 - 13:01:40)
+ Almost a Quieter Life (18/01/2009 - 10:09:33)
+ I can't believe it! (12/01/2009 - 09:57:05)
+ I am exhausted... (11/01/2009 - 10:50:06)
+ What a night! (08/01/2009 - 12:51:57)
+ More Exciting Than Christmas And New Year Rolled I (04/01/2009 - 15:10:33)
+ Turkey with all the trimmings... (28/12/2008 - 09:56:40)
+ NicNak's Romance (21/12/2008 - 11:13:51)
+ It's Here! (13/12/2008 - 11:53:40)
+ A sad farewell. (10/12/2008 - 16:21:31)
+ You've Gotta Love This Time of Year (07/12/2008 - 11:07:45)
+ Shoes are back! (04/12/2008 - 21:40:22)
+ Turning to the Dark Side (30/11/2008 - 11:06:33)
+ Bling and Brainstorming (25/11/2008 - 20:01:28)
+ Romantic Novelists At Play... (21/11/2008 - 09:44:31)
+ A Circumstance With Not So Much Pomp... (16/11/2008 - 11:55:32)
+ A Box of Goodies... (08/11/2008 - 18:37:25)
+ Rewrite hell... (02/11/2008 - 13:22:19)
+ My Book Cover - It's Wonderful! (25/10/2008 - 11:08:47)
+ A Nice Surprise (19/10/2008 - 10:43:30)
+ A Final Flurry of Punctuation (12/10/2008 - 09:32:33)
+ 95 days - but who's counting? (05/10/2008 - 15:48:06)
+ Those dratted hyphens (28/09/2008 - 09:27:38)
+ A Confession (22/09/2008 - 19:06:52)
+ Farmer Needs a Wife Page Proofs (20/09/2008 - 08:59:36)
+ It's Stopped Raining (18/09/2008 - 14:27:58)
+ Postcard from Galway (14/09/2008 - 12:36:00)
A nice surprise (08/09/2008 - 20:55:24)
+ How many days in a year? (07/09/2008 - 12:05:36)
+ A great week! (31/08/2008 - 09:03:27)
+ Still in Leeuwarden... (24/08/2008 - 13:23:33)
+ Postcard from Leeuwarden (17/08/2008 - 14:22:49)
+ How Much Can a Girl Take in Just One Week? (10/08/2008 - 16:58:39)
+ The Doctor and The Bard (29/07/2008 - 22:52:54)
+ Finding Better Words (20/07/2008 - 21:18:09)
+ Thank-you Julia Roberts (13/07/2008 - 19:04:36)
+ A Write Good Weekend (06/07/2008 - 21:48:10)
+ More About Pandas (22/06/2008 - 21:57:56)
+ About Pandas (14/06/2008 - 12:16:26)
+ Postcard from Poland (08/06/2008 - 12:08:22)
+ What was I thinking? (01/06/2008 - 15:25:12)
+ Almost a James Bond moment... (25/05/2008 - 15:32:39)
+ Buddy Bears and Embarrassment (18/05/2008 - 14:31:04)
+ A Celebration (11/05/2008 - 10:08:05)
+ At Last! (04/05/2008 - 19:22:44)
+ Sky High (27/04/2008 - 12:13:15)
+ Finding a fairy tale (20/04/2008 - 10:19:09)
+ Trunks and Bottom Drawers (13/04/2008 - 18:27:13)
+ Snow and Mud (06/04/2008 - 15:35:04)
+ Starting a New Book (30/03/2008 - 15:58:10)
+ A Weekend Off (25/03/2008 - 22:15:30)
+ What's in a Name? (16/03/2008 - 15:45:32)
+ On Finishing a Book (08/03/2008 - 14:48:13)
+ Short Story News (28/02/2008 - 09:17:16)
+ The Last Chapter! (22/02/2008 - 09:14:54)
+ Valentine's Day 2008 (14/02/2008 - 14:00:56)



Reindeer have funny feet.
It's easiest to let the huskies just run. They know what they are doing.







It came!
I'm going to out myself - I watch Strictly Come Dancing.
I love it when bad boy Brendan stormed off during the judging so partner Jo wouldn't have to hear Craig's cruel jokes.
I don't have a favourite couple. Well, not just one. I love watching Ricki dance - what female doesn't. Zoe and James just sizzle. Jade and Ian... wow! Then there's...



The postman bought it this morning.




I'm in Tunis - once one of the great trading cities of the Mediterranean region.
The Tunis Medina is a World Heritage Site.
What a great place for people watching.
The shops were filled with dusty bundles of what looked like dried twigs and grass... but I'm sure they were something really interesting.
Books were to focus again on Thursday evening at Waterstone's in Notting Hill - where my friends 
The conference dinner saw some great shoes on display in friendly competition...




The conference kicked off with a lovely session at the Penrith Library - and we are now hard at work (honestly) at the University Campus.
This week's champagne was for my friend 


Until I saw this...

Apparently, there is some dispute among the people who decide these things as to how to define the world tallest... whatever.









She's just beautiful - a symbol of the purity of the water, and the benefits it brought to the city...







Then it was on to Goulburn - where the road trip ended at the feet of the Big Marino. For many many years it was said that Australia rides on the sheep's back - a reference to the importance of the wool industry for most of the 20th century. Riding this sheep's back looked a bit too dangerous.









The anthology will be called 

On the table while I was signing books ... MY books ... was the cutest little blue tractor - just the like the one the cover. It was a celebratory gift from Webmaster John.
Two of my colleagues from work turned up with Janet Gover Fan Club T-shirts! They were a total hoot! As they are such tall, handsome men, they attracted a fair bit of interest from the romance writers present.
Of course, in this dimension, she takes the form of a very sweet silver tabby cat called Habibe, but in her own world, I'm sure she must be a princess.



But fellow LBD writer
It was a late night talkfest - which had me running for the last train home.

We were all met at the door by
It was great to catch up with friends from near and far - including Liz Fenwick, who regularly flies in from Dubai for RNA events...
The London chapter was well represented...
RNA Chair
As always - glamour was the order of the evening. These killer heels score 


To celebrate the successful end to the project, and to say goodbye, they gave me some lovely flowers - and some gifts, including some traditional Frisian foods.
I found a tiny cemetery overlooking the water.
After my rant yesterday about how long I have to wait for the release of "The Farmer Needs A Wife", the pre-publication copy of one of my short stories dropped onto the mat with the mail today.
In the meantime, I am having a fab time writing the next book - tentatively titled "The Bachelor and Spinster Ball".

Cafes line the canal. When I stopped for lunch, I couldn't resist the cranberry beer (I love cranberry juice). What can I say except - I didn't have a second.
Then it was off to Norfolk for a touch of touristing. I went underground in Grimes Graves - actually a neolithic flint mine, with lichen that gave it a lovely Borg-green glow.
Then to Castle Acre Priory - one of the religious orders dissolved and destroyed by Henry VIII. I'll say this - Henry left us with some facinating ruins. On the ceiling of the private rooms of one of the priors, you can still see the painted roses of the houses of York and Lancaster, which Henry united as the Tudor rose.
We have tickets for Hamlet - starring the gorgeous 

Everyone who went near them had a smile on their face.
It was a gift from the Soviet Union to their Polish comrades during the communist era. The locals hate it, probably because it reminds them of a difficult part of their history.
Each bear was identical - but totally individual.
The bear from Australia had been decorated by
I have to confess to embarrassing myself in the restaurant of the Warsaw Hilton hotel. I was reading Pandora's Box, the novel by my friend Giselle Green (mentioned in last week's blog). There was a moment in the book which I found profoundly sad, but at the same time very uplifting and I shed a few tears into my continental breakfast. The businessmen all around were giving me curious looks as they talked into their mobile phones. Honestly - I thought I probably had a far more enjoyable breakfast than they did.
Henriette Gyland (left, with Giselle and me) has just won the 
The book told the story of a young boy growing up on a farming community on Ganymede - one of the moons of Jupiter.
Mine sit on my computer in a folder called - strangely enough - bottom drawer. It holds odd short stories and books from the last ten years.
Like most people, I woke up on Sunday morning to snow.
Despite the mud, I still had a great time.
This is how my desk looks as I start the new book./p> 

On Monday, I will start at word 1 and read the whole thing - all the way to word 84,978.
Steve is best known as one half of the popular duo "