• Whee!! The big spin-off from the Harlequin Memorial Day Challenge Contest is that I have been asked to revise RETURN TO ALA MOANA BEACH and then resubmit the full manuscript.  Happy! Happy! Joy! Joy!
  • I'm off to the Romance Writers of New Zealand Conference this weekend, Love & Other Crimes.  I'm looking forward to catching up with writers from all over New Zealand and friends from Australia who are coming over.   www.romancewriters.co.nz/conference/ 
  • I visited with Kylie Griffin.  http://kyliegriffinromance.blogspot.com/2011/07/whos-that-girl-with-toni-kenyon.html
  • My partial is now with the editors at Harlequin.  Here's hoping that the writing Gods are smiling on me.
  • I was thrilled to come runner up in the Harlequin Superromance Memorial Day challenge.  My entry can be found at http://community.eharlequin.com/forums/write-stuff/archives/special-events/memorial-day-challenge/return-ala-moana-beach
  • I witnessed the sunrise this morning while walking the dogs and thought, 'Oh, that's right the world was supposed to have ended yesterday.'   I guess someone forgot to tell the world that. Cool   The dogs seemed equally oblivious going about their glorious, autumn morning walk.
  • Live each day with passion.  Seize the moment and wring every last scrap out of the day.  
  • I fear winter is upon us.  This morning my world is clothed in a blanket of damp mist.
  • Another year older, but does that of necessity make me another year wiser?  
  • We seem to have gone from summer to winter in a single morning.  Come back summer, all is forgiven!
  • "To thine own self be true."  As relevant for me today as it must have been for Shakespeare when he wrote it.
  • A friend wrote a New Year note reminding me that "Time flies, but we are the pilot."  I like that.
  • I'm not really a Christmas girl, but I wish you all a peaceful festive season.  May 2011 be kind to us all.  Blessings.
  • I thought my life passed quickly, but in the blink of an eye, I find myself at my youngest son's graduation dinner.
  • Life is not a dress rehearsal.  Live each day as if it is your last - because it just might be.
  • Nanowrimo came in the wrong month this year!  In any event, a reasonable total has been achieved.
  • A writing friend shared her sale story this morning.  I am reminded how important it is to surround myself
    with positive people who support my dream, keep honing my craft, believe in my stories and never
    give up.
  • The retriever arrives at the keyboard at just the wrong moment!
  • Condensing an 80,000 word manuscript into 200 pertinant words is no easy task.

  • A friend opened her home and her heart to me in a time of need.  I will always be grateful she gave me a chance to heal and find myself in a safe and sacred space.

  • Phew, the New Voices competition has closed...  Normal scheduled living can resume.
  • "Love is .... being woken gently with a cup of tea at the bedside and a laptop on the bed."  Bliss, for a writer.
  • Recently I have had a very small insight into how much reading editors do.  Check out Mills & Boon New Voices at www.romanceisnotdead.com
  • They say that time waits for no man.  I just wish some days that it would give me a chance to catch up.
  • Check out my other creative outlet at http://www.slyriders.com
  • Be careful where you step, for everyone witnesses the journey.
  • There are so many things to learn, so many things to see and so many things to do.
  • I love watching the gulls riding the howling gale in front of the window.  The stormy weather encourages me back to bed - a chance to indulge in some winter reading.
  • Sunshine, sand and seagulls in the middle of winter - just brilliant.
  • A thought for the day - which I cam across this morning.  I touched and inspired me.
  • You're alive. Do something.
    The directive in life, the moral imperative was so uncomplicated.
    It could be expressed in single words, not complete sentences.
    It sounded like this: Look. Listen. Choose. Act.
    ~ Barbara Hall
  • I think I can stand anything, as long as I can continue to write and to sing.
  • Passing from this life is simply the removal of oneself from the exquisite pleasure of the senses.
  • There is absolutely nothing that will raise the spirits more than watching a Golden Retriever bound down the beach on a cold winter afternoon.  The biting wind which drives the rain like sharp splinters of ice onto your face does not worry him one little bit.   
  • Continue the search for those moments of sublime beauty.  When found, treasure the enjoyment and wonder that they bring.  Life is nothing more than a collection of those beautiful moments of celebration.
  • Find the fire  - connect - indulge wholeheartedly in life.
  • Exhausted in the morning and I can't throw off the sheets / Love note lays beside me where my coffee usually sits / Shower gently raining down from across the room divide / Cat sits on the window ledge longing for outside.

  • Here in the Southern hemisphere, winter approaches by stealth.  Autumnal leaves lie scattered on the ground.  This encourages me, as twilight falls, to sit with my laptop on my knee and write.

  • Passwords are a pain in the butt - especially when they don't work!
  • Two weeks on a remote gulf island reminds me that life should be savoured and enjoyed at a leisurely pace.
  • Keeping faith in my heart, means that fear remains at bay.
  • Summer appears to have finally arrived, with long hot evenings, copious sunburned bodies loitering on the beach and the Pohutakawa trees in their full radiant summer crimson coats.  Pure bliss.  
  •  Life may well be a journey, but some days, the destination sucks.
  • Nanowrimo update:  I did not make the 50k in the month of November, but I have added a healthy 25,000 words to the current first draft.  No mean feat.
  • November is National Novel Writing Month - or Nanowrimo.  The challenge is to write a 50,000 word first draft in the 30 days of November.  No mean feat, I can assure you.
  • Check it out at http://www.nanowrimo.com
  • Musings will return during the month of December!