It's the weekend. What's happening in my neck of the woods? Well, visitors from Australia for a few days, which is always fun. Success in resisting the temptation to see who won Australian Masterchef before it aired, and making it to the end, months delayed. (See previous blog rant on this!) One of the Aussies did know, ha. Praise be, I have to say, that it's over. Sixty episodes. I managed not to watch them all, though. Masses of Black Friday sales everywhere. Everywhere. This is a relatively new thing in NZ.   We're I'm simple folk, so have no needs, there. Resistance not needed. I discovered a nice new series of gentle novels, the Pudding Pantry series. English-set, about a cook in the country who starts up a pudding business. The only thing is, they should all be obese and diabetic the amount of desserts they try, but they seem to have self control, (It is fiction , Jo, fiction....) However, one of them had a recipe for a Sticky Date Toffee pudding I really

The end of the year approacheth and along with it, the addiction to Australian Masterchef, which has been going on for months. I could, of course, have looked up months ago to see who won, and yes, I was mightily tempted at times. Mainly because of the way it dragged on and on and on and on and on.... But I did not give in.  Unlike reading a thriller where I often look at the end, and ruin the book. Nice to know I have some self control. Now, we are "supposedly" in finals week but... guess what? One week has passed, and there is still another week to go!  Finals fortnight, more like. That may be the fault of the TV programmers on the network here, I don't know, but the whole thing is mighty suspect, if you ask me.  Yet still I watch, frequently confused as to what the heck they are doing and what those ingredients even are, and in theory, there should be only one week to go which means, it will free up a bit of time. Having said that, a few weeks ago, the Great Kiwi

I recently had the opportunity to take a look at a theatre which is, hopefully, about to undergo restoration. It was part of a heritage-themed talk where the presenter took us into the old, deserted, falling-apart, you-name-it, theatre, and we got to go right to the bottom, below current road level, to where excavation has taken place. There's a photo of the rubble at the end of the post. It is dark and gloomy and dusty but amazing. The photograph to the right is looking up from the rubble at the royal box. Even its current state, it is something special. The theatre is circa 1920s, so not ancient, but hasn't been used for decades. There were movie theatres attached to the complex over the years, which have been demolished, but the actual theatre itself, with its balcony seats and projection room (and projector) are still there, as are many of the fittings. From down below you get a sense of what it could be again. Interesting when they excavated they discovered cobblestone

My writing is sporadic and slow, and I blame working full-time, aka earning a living. I have nearly finished “Bringing back Emily,” which will be the title of the new book, unless I can think of something else. I’m open to inspiration. It is the third in the City of Sails series, the the story of Emily Randell, the friend of Jack from “Falling for Jack” and his best mate Ethan, from “All About Sage. Emily was married to their friend, Brad, a former All Black, who left Emily, when she was pregnant. Now, she’s had the baby, Bella, and she’s just getting her life on track when it, life , gets in the way again.  Naturally, there's a bloke in there, the romantic interest, by the name of Patrick. I am planning to have the book released before Christmas, cross fingers. In the meantime, here’s an excerpt: PROLOGUE Emily Randell’s eyes were closed as she stood silently in her bathroom. Her baby daughter, Bella, was sleeping in the bedroom across the hall, and there was no

I am currently reading this gripping novel, Wanderers by Chuck Wendig. I am saying "currently reading" because it might be a while before I finish it. The reason being it is a massive book, it is heavy, and I can't be lugging it back and forth on the bus from work every day or I'll do myself an injury, so I'm only reading it in my breaks at work. So clearly, I will be buying my own copy and not relying on the library one. It's due back in a few weeks anyway, and there's a hold list for it.   I came across Wendig from a writerly-type blog he writes, Terrible Minds . I don't tend to read much science fiction or horror, which are two of the categories it's under,  although a local book chain calls it "The biggest thriller of the year."  Regardless of the genre, the premise looked compelling, I thought I'd give it a go, and damn straight, I'm hooked from the first page.  I'm always in awe of authors who can write such stori

I've had some fun recently doing a bit of research on how the romance genre came to be which was, in a phrase, Mills and Boon. I didn't realise, for example, that the company cemented themselves as a romance publisher in the 1930s and that it was due in a huge part to the private or circulating libraries that abounded, especially during the war years. We had the private libraries here in New Zealand. I have a vague memory of going with my grandfather, when I would have been only about five (he was killed just before I turned six)  to one in his local town. I remember the beige-coloured covers the books all had, but that's about all. In the UK, however, it was the Boots and WH Smith private libraries that were huge. You paid a subscription and could get a book out at a time, or pay as you went. Romances were the most popular genre. By the 1960s the popularity of the libraries was waning due in part to government legislation to encourage the building of public libraries