If you're going to write about a favourite author, then why not start with the best.  And that would be Nora Roberts . I first discovered the novels of Nora Roberts back in the day at a second-hand bookshop, the ones that I don't think exist any more. You know the shops, where you'd take in a stack of  paperbacks, you'd sell them for a dollar or two, and then get the money credit against your purchases. Man, I loved that. There has always been debate about them, because the authors get no royalties on a book once its sold second hand, but I may not have discovered one of my most favourite set of stories ever if not for those crowded and musty little bookshops, where I could browse the books and buy them cheap. And those stories were Nora Roberts Donovan series. At the time, there was Captivated, Entranced and Charmed. I fell in love with those books and not long after, when I heard that Nora herself was going to be at the Australian romance writers conference, I was in

  Happy Easter! This year we I decided to forego chocolate for Easter. The first time in living history but honestly, it feels like the excess of Christmas was just last week, so Easter Eggs were off the shopping list. However, we did not, I repeat, did NOT, forego the tradition of the Hot Cross Bun. So on Good Friday I found a recipe and made them. Now, we do have a breadmaker, kindly bequeathed to me some years ago by a friend who was giving up bread. We have enjoyed some marvels from that breadmaker. Fruit loaves, plain loaves, foccaccia bread, and last year, some rather nice Hot Cross Buns. But a few months back, we discovered the wee paddle in the machine had disappeared, the bit that does the churning, and despite much searching and re-searching, and doing it again for good measure, because how on earth could this paddle just vanish, like socks in a washing machine, this wee paddle had in fact gone AWOL. Now, I am paranoid about losing such things and take great care, and put it