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Showing posts from January, 2017

The enormous appeal of romance novels - why we love them

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I'm giving a talk in a library in a few months on the appeal of romance novels so have been thinking a bit about it. Everyone no doubt has a different reason for why they like a good romance. Just as those who read thrillers like the anticipation and the ride of the journey, those who read romance novels are effectively, I think, reading a story that ends in a better world than the one it started out with: the reader promise or reader expectation, as they say. It has to have a happy-ever-after but within that, there are a number of elements that make a romance such a great read, and that actually tie in Cover photo of upcoming story "Belinda's Valentine" with real life. For a start, experiences change us. Whoever we meet, whatever we do, we're often influenced, and that's just the way it is, and is generally a good thing. Generally,   a good thing. Relationships, whatever they are, are the essence, if you like, of being human. Helping, loving, serving,

DIY Home Improvement and the floorboards

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I am so not a DIY home-improvement, get-excited-over-renovation kind of person. I fully think that any couple who are even CONSIDERING renovating, especially if one of them is anal a bit fussy, should have a marriage guidance counsellor on tap. This stuff is rough. I also don't much care for it when, of course, I could be writing a book and doing legitimate things, like making stuff up. But there are times when wielding a crowbar, a rusty hammer (cos I never put tools away correctly), the (now munted) screwdriver, and copious breaks to make instant coffee and check the web (like now), are a necessity. It has taken me  the fam - no,  it has taken ME, I'm the one who goes down to Bunnings to stick the stuff on the credit card - two years but finally, the last of the rooms is soon-ish about to be polly-ed. IE polyurethaned. This would be the carpet gripper. Fortunately, one of the fam doesn't mind polyurethaning and actually takes quite a bit of pride in it, and so be

The "C" word, chickpeas, and a yummy recipe that did not fail

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The longer I have chickens (the half dozen that reside in my back yard) the harder it is to write that ingredient in shopping lists or recipes. It  feels very, very wrong, and I know it's only a matter of time before that white meat will disappear from the diet altogether. But it hasn't, not just yet, and the other night I did a rare culinary creation of some magnificence. Essentially it was this: Stir Fry (with vegetables and the "c word) and Chick Peas (or Gabanzo Beans) Roasted Chickpeas - pretty tasty and good! I stir fried the "c" word with vegetables - we had broccoli, carrot, red onion and I added in some frozen vegetables as well - some green beans, and the diced corn, carrot and pea mixture you get. Next, I mixed it all up with fairly decent amounts of lemon juice, salt and pepper.  The second bit was the chickpeas. I'd seen for a while how you can roast chickpeas in the oven to make a snack, kind of in lieu of nuts I guess. You just take th

Jane Austen, Harry Potter, Fifty Shades, Tolkien and the Luminaries

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In a nutshell, I have not read Pride and Prejudice, Harry Potter, The Luminaries, Lord of the Rings or Fifty Shades of Grey. (That's a pretty spectacular list, I must say.) This post was originally written for a different blog but being that "content re-purposing" is the in thing, I present it here.  A friend was reading some fiction I’d written the other day and after telling me what she did like about it, commented, “But you’re no Jane Austen.” I believe this is the book she was reading. I once read a Jane Austen.  It was Emma. It was read under duress at university. I consider myself a person of not massively low intelligence, but it took three reads to get my head around it. Interestingly, that paper was not only my first and only complete Jane Austen experience, but my first and only experience of analysing English literature. I did get an A but not without suffering a degree of depression as a result. Yes, I gained an appreciation for some things (Elizab

Being sick, losing weight

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No, I am not sick, but I have been reading Debbie Macomber's latest book " Twelve Days of Christmas " and there's a great bit where the heroine is sick. She, Julia, has the flu, and the hero is in her apartment helping her. He asks what he can do for her, and she says "Can you help me to the bathroom?".... whereupon she asks him to pull out the scale. (Or as we say in NZ, the scales.) "The scale?" he repeats. She looked at him knowing she was pitiful. 'I want to weigh myself and see how much weight I've lost." Yes! I did not know that was a thing that other people except me even did. But it gets better. Julia weighs herself and says, "Five pounds." He says, "You weigh five pounds?" "Don't be ridiculous. I lost five pounds." "Is that good?" To which she replies, "Of course. It's everything." Written by a woman who surely knows the madness of the battle.

Fare-thee-well Santa Bears, et al

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A week, almost, into 2017. Eiphany is upon us which means - time to take the decorations and the tree down, pack the santa bears away, and hope all the excess chocolates have well and truly gone. (Please let all the chocolate be gone so the recovery process can begin...) Over the new year, I've been planning my writing out for the next twelve months. Always subject to change and actually always does change. But as it stands.... Book Two in the Frazier Bay series is being written. I had toyed with the idea of making all the people related, with family trees and all that stuff, but in the end thought, nope, its about the town, its about the setting of Frazier Bay. Interestingly, the first time I wrote about Frazier Bay was as a short story which won a competition and years later I thought, hmmm. This would make a great place to set a novel. I also have book three of the Clearlake County series in the pipeline. Quite excited about that; introducing new characters but also bri