Long Weekend!

The long weekend is here and I'm going to take a bit of time off to catch up on some reading, chocolate egg eating and assorted other fun activities. As a result, the blog will be on hiatus for a few days. Have a great Easter break everyone and see you on Tuesday!

(p.s. I am scheduled to blog at Between The Covers today. That post will be going up in about ten hours time if any of you want to swing by.)

Monday

I cannot believe it's April already. What happened to the first three months of the year? Anyone watch Heroes? Wouldn't it be great to have Hiro's power to bend space and time (but in a more controlled way!). Though being able to fly also appeals. Hmm, choices, choices.

VOH Meme Reminder

A reminder: If you haven't taken part in the Visions of Heat Meme contest, be quick. It ends March 10th!

Hope you all have a great Thursday/Friday. I'm dreaming of white sand beaches and blue skies - I can't believe I was on this beach only days ago!

Visions of Heat release & Blog-Hopping

First - as of a few hours ago Visions of Heat is officially out! YIPPEE!! :)

Second - I'm blogging over at RRAH about psychic powers - come over and join me. And I'm also over at Between The Covers, talking about happy thoughts, so swing by that way too. (How can I be in two places at once? Welllll, I have the power to replicate copies of myself, like the bank-robber guy in X-Men 3. Tangent - someone please tell me it wasn't really the Last Stand? More X-Men please!).

I'm back!

Just a quick note to say I'm back from my trip to Australia. I had a fantastic time and as promised there will be photos tomorrow. I'll also be updating the blog with a few other things. Also, if you emailed me while I was away and haven't yet got a response, it'll be coming soon. My Inbox is overflowing but I believe I've now attained some sense of order (I hope).Talk to you all tomorrow!

The Land of Oz

Visions of Heat sightings! Well, one. I have it on good authority that it's already available in a certain part of North Carolina!!

In other news, I'm taking off across the ditch (a.k.a. the Tasman Sea) for a short trip to Australia. I'll be checking emails while I'm over there, but I might not be posting anything unless I can get my friend's dial-up to cooperate. But I promise you a full post - with pictures even - when I return. As there are dolphins and koalas in the itinerary, hopefully the pictures will turn out great.

If I don't drop in during my time away, the next official blog post will be Monday my time (Sunday U.S.). Until then, how about visiting the meme participants? And if you've dropped by looking for the original Visions of Heat meme post, follow the link. Also, check out the OOTB blog tour (below this post) on Susan Grant's My Favorite Earthling.

Play nice while I'm away everyone! See you when I get back.

Excitement!

Guess what I got in the mail from my wonderful editor (I adore her!) - an advanced copy of Visions of Heat!

It's so shiny and new. The colors are so bright in the actual printed cover and did you ever notice that the dots above the letter "i"'s in the title are little flames? It's beautiful, stunning and it's on my shelf now, right next to Slave to Sensation. I feel compelled to go stroke it now. Must resist...oh, what the heck!

Okay, calming down (not really), I cannot believe it's Wednesday already. Where is this week going? What have you all been up to so far? Any plans for the coming days? I've got editing to do on my current work in progress, some super-secret blog stuff to prepare for tomorrow *g* and a bar of chocolate to eat (it's calling to me...)

Free stories & Ramblings

Here's a link I saw yesterday - a lot of Romance Divas have banded together to provide free short stories for your entertainment. Follow the link to read.

I'm working today to polish up stuff, so no tv watching for me - and after yesterday's blog, I have so many new shows I'm curious about! I do have a couple of ARCs to read, so I'm hoping to get to them sometime soonish. You know, not-watching-tv was much easier in Japan...when I didn't understand what was on tv!

Here endeth the random ramblings for today. Happy Friday!

TV

We haven't talked about tv for a while, have we? The new season has just started in NZ - we're one season behind the U.S. I'm already hooked on Heroes, CSI NY (go Gary Sinise!) and House (of course). Jericho looks good but only one episode has aired so far. I have Supernatural taped but haven't seen any of it. Should I watch it?

So, what's on the box over at your place?

Happy Valentine's Day!

Hope you all have a wonderful day filled with happiness.

I wanted a romantic topic for this post and as we've recently talked about favorite heroes from books as well as favorite movie songs, today I thought we'd talk about leading men.

Which leading man sets your heart thumping? Me? Ever since I saw him on Remington Steele, I've always had a crush on Pierce Brosnan. Those blue eyes, that smile...

Okay, your turn!

p.s. Here's a link to an interesting article in the Observer about The 50 Men Who Really Understand Women.

Answers to Questions

With Psy/Changeling or Human/Changeling couples, are the offspring always changeling? Or are there exceptions?

Since exceptions to the rule have a way of springing up without warning, I won't say "all" but in the vast, vast majority of cases, a child with a changeling parent will have the ability to shift. This doesn't mean they are fully changeling - their blood is mixed, which leads to all sorts of interesting things.

What would a Psy/Human couple have little humans or little psy?

Since the Psy, Changelings and Humans are capable of mating and producing children, it's genetically impossible for a child to be either/or. He or she will be both, though some genes may be dominant, others recessive.

Will the wildcat that worked for Lucas in StS (I can't remember her name right now) have her own story?

At this stage, I have no intention of writing a story about Zara. But that could change very easily. Heck, when I first thought of Judd, I thought he'd be a minor secondary character. Hah! He put me straight on that!

Is the series open ended or do you have a certain number of books planned?

I don't have the number of books planned but I do have the story arc planned. I know where this series is going, what final "end" I'm heading toward.

How long will we have to wait for Hawke's and Dorian's books?

It's looking like book 5 will be Dorian's book. He's talking to me, telling me he's ready. I think he's already introduced me to his heroine, though damn if I know how those two will get together.

As for Hawke, you'll have to wait a bit longer for this wolf to get his story. There is a very logical reason why, so I'm not just being a tease. I ache to write his story - I have actually written parts of it because I couldn't wait! But to tide you over - you get to learn something very important about Hawke's past in Caressed By Ice.

Where all have you lived/visited? Which did you like the best? Why? If someone were to visit your favorite place, what should he/she not miss?

I've lived in Fiji, New Zealand and Japan for long enough periods of time that all three places are home - I feel as if I could go back to any of the three and slide right back into life there. I've visited the USA (crossing from San Francisco to New York), China (including Inner Mongolia), Malaysia, Australia, South Korea and Tahiti (um, I think that's all...). Incidentally, if you haven't checked it out, the Travel Diary part of my website has a lot of pics from some of the trips.

My favorite - wow, that's tough. I love different things about all those places. And they're all so different that I find it impossible to compare. My tip for a visitor to any of those countries would be to find a local to show them around. You never see a country as well as you do when you're with one of the people. For example when I lived in Japan, it was in a small town, and I was invited into people's homes and lives, taken to their celebrations and festivals, things I might have missed otherwise.

There you go! Thanks for the great questions, Sweet, Casee and Jennifer K. If anyone has any more, hit me with them.

Questions

I'm opening up the floor for questions - writing related/reading related/plain old nosy (though I do reserve the right to be a smart-aleck about these *g*). Post them on this thread. Depending on the question, I'll either answer it in the thread tonight or do them in separate blog posts over the next week.