Thursday, April 26, 2012

The Lucky 7 Meme

I've been tagged by the lovely Robin Covington in the Lucky 7 Meme. Here are the rules: "Go to page 7 or 77 of your current MS/WIP, or go to line 7 (for short fiction). Copy down the next 7 lines, sentences or paragraphs and post them as they are written. Tag up to 7 authors and let them know and post a link to the author who invited you."

I have decided to give you 7 paragraphs from page 7 of something I'm playing around with right now. It doesn't have a title, I'm just calling it "Dean and Jess's story."

His short, rich-brown spiky hair had been artfully arranged; his jaw was beginning to show the shadow of a beard that held more than a hint of ginger. Those mossy green eyes had flecks of gold in them, making them look as if they were constantly sparkling—as if there was some joke going on that only he knew about. He was tall but not freakishly so—just a smidge over six feet Jess would guess—a good thing because very tall men always made her feel uncomfortable about her own five-feet-four-on-a-good-day. His tuxedo fitted him perfectly; tailored to suit his broad shoulders and narrow waist. 
He was, in short, devastatingly gorgeous. 
And he was Hayley’s new husband’s brother. 
Jess knew all about him. She’d known his name was Dean before he introduced himself. He was a writer of comic books or schlock-horror novels or something like that, and a nomad, apparently, of no fixed address. The black sheep of the Kennedy clan—the one they didn’t talk about at family gatherings. He’d dropped out of uni and run away. There had, according to Hayley, been a massive fight over Rob’s insistence on having his older brother as his best man. 
He was also—what were the words Hayley had used? Oh yeah—irresponsible and reckless and immature. Hayley said they were the adjectives his own mother invoked. 
Dean was the centre of most of Hayley’s more extreme hysterics about all the things that could go wrong on her wedding day. Dean would forget the rings. Dean would refuse to wear the suit properly. Dean would bring a hooker as his date. Dean would simply not turn up. 
Jess had patiently listened to Hayley’s rants. Listened, while secretly thinking that Dean sounded kind of thrilling, only to silently chastise herself immediately. She had appalling taste in men. Her attraction to Hayley’s brother-in-law-to-be, just from a description of his faults and the potential chaos he could cause, was yet further proof of that.

What do you think? Are you as in love with Dean as I am? Jess is initially wary but, as you can probably tell just from that description, Dean's charms are hard to resist...

I'm not going to worry about tagging another seven authors, but if you want to give it a try, feel free! I must admit it makes me a bit nervous to put words out there that haven't yet gone through the proving oven of the editing process, but (like Jess) I must find some courage to put myself out there...

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

In His Eyes cover

Check out the absolutely stunning cover for my August release, "In His Eyes".



From the back cover: 


What if everything he thinks about her is wrong?


Hugh Lawson and Zoe Waters have a tangled history. But she left him ten years ago and he’s put her behind him. Except she’s here again–just when Hugh’s ready to make an offer for her family’s legendary vineyard. And her version of those long ago events is enough to make him question everything he thought he knew.


Hugh can’t let the past destroy his plans for the future. Which means he has to unravel the truth. But as he does, he begins to realize that he may have been as responsible for what happened as Zoe. And that going back could be the only way to move forward.


Pre-order your copy now: Amazon | Book Depository | Barnes & Noble

Monday, April 23, 2012

Blog Tour Winner!

As you know if you've been keeping up with me these past few weeks, Cassie's Grand Plan came out on 6 March. And to help get the word out there, I've been doing a blog tour, visiting all kinds of places and meeting and talking with all sorts of wonderful people. Along the way, there have been a few winners who've picked themselves up a signed copy of Cassie's Grand Plan. (Those autographs will be worth a fortune in years to come!) Here's who's already picked up a prize:

21/2 Romance Bandits - Brenda
22/2 LoveCats - Scarlet
22/2 SuperAuthors - Linda
2/3 Get Lost in a Story - Desere
6/3 Romance Book Haven - Jennifer
14/3 Writing Playground - Chey
18/3 LoveCats - Cassandra
20/3 Fresh Fiction - Mary
22/3 RomCon - Alisha
27/3 Lacey Devlin - Sarah
6/4 Cathryn Hein - Natalie
12/4 Rachael Johns - Gemma

In addition to these prizes, the tour offered a "grand prize" for anyone who followed me on all my locations and left a comment. I'm thrilled to announce that the winner of the grand prize, a $50 Amazon voucher, is:

Maria Mohan from Gaelikaa's Diary!!

Congratulations Maria!! Drop me an email (emmie @ emmiedark.com without  the spaces) and I'll be in touch to arrange your prize.

Thank you to everyone who left a comment on the various posts I did, and special thanks to those people who "followed" the tour, leaving comments all over the place for me. Thank you so much! It's lovely to feel like the Emmie cheersquad is growing in numbers day by day.

Thank you also to Nas Dean who was the engine behind the tour, arranging dates, booking in slots and for always being so polite, even when I was running late, in chaos, and generally running around like a chook with its head cut off. Thank you Nas for all your help.

PS -- there's still a chance to win a $100 Amazon voucher in the Cassie Photo Bomb Comp. Entries close 30 April.

Sunday, April 22, 2012

Cassie cures domestic boredom!

The latest entry in the Cassie Photo Bomb comp is awesome!

Michelle Somers shows us how simply reading Cassie's Grand Plan can be a distraction from the most boring of household chores!!

Michelle says it's all about escapism: "I loved reading Cassie's Grand Plan because it made even the most mundane household chore bearable!" Yay! 
That's giving new meaning to the term multi-tasking. Thanks for submitting, Michelle! 

Friday, April 20, 2012

Emmie's Mum and Dad take Cassie on holiday

Okay, so I probably can't officially allow my parents to enter the competition. Isn't the general rule, "immediate family and employees are ineligible to enter"? Just as well there are no employees in the Emmie Dark corporation, then... (yet!).

Mum and Dad have just returned from a cruise that took them from Sydney through Asia to China, Korea, Hong Kong and Japan. Just as they were leaving, I said, "Don't forget to pack my book!".

Now my mother will be the first to admit that she's not that handy with the camera--and one of the reasons is that she often just forgets to take photos, because she's more of a "be in the moment" kind of person. But she surprised even herself with some of these shots and I have to say, trying to cull down the dozen or so she sent me was hard work!

My favourite, though, is this one, from the Beomeosa Temple in Busan, South Korea:
Here are Dad and Mum (don't think I need to point out which ones they are) with monks in South Korea. Apparently Dad wanted to get the monks to hold the book, but Mum didn't think it would be appropriate, so she wouldn't let him ask. What with it being a bit of a drrty book and all.... ;)

Dad in Busan, South Korea, taking a little rest from the temple sight-seeing to check in with Ronan and Cassie.
This is in Rubaul, Papua New Guinea. I love this photo and not just because the sky in the background is the same color blue as the cover. What a wonderful expression on this woman's face. So patient and sweet. I can just imagine her thinking, "Yes, I will indulge your very strange request." 
Mum loved this guy. He was the best tour guide they had in Japan, apparently. Although he did get them lost when he forgot to tell them that the bus wouldn't pick them up again if they got off. But that just meant they got to see a little more of Japan. And they didn't miss the boat, which is really the most important thing.
As if we didn't have proof enough, the sign says "Yokohama". Cassie was definitely in Japan!!

So, there you go. Pretty awesome, huh? Think you can beat it?

I'm giving away a $100 Amazon voucher to a randomly selected entry. All you need to do is send in a photo of yourself with Cassie, somewhere in the world! (Entries from other planets are automatically disqualified.) Competition closes 30 April.

Sorry Mum and Dad, you can't win. But you still got to have a great holiday and get in some good practice with the camera!

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Cassie meets Grace

Just as well we extended the deadline on the Cassie Photo Bomb competition, because the entries have been flooding in this week! I'm going to split the latest submissions over a couple of posts in the next few days. First up, let's take a look at the wonderful entries from my MRWG pals Serena, Elvina, Margaret and Josie, who took Cassie on a trip to Bendigo to see the Grace Kelly exhibition currently on there.

The best book Serena's ever read! 

Elvina and Margaret couldn't put it down!

Elvina is engrossed -- I wonder which
scene she's reading??? 
Josie uses her iPhone to capture the most
significant passages in the book...

The gang: Elvina Josie, Margaret and Serena
outside the exhibition gallery. They weren't allowed to take photos inside. :( 
Thanks gals! Looks like you had a great time too (although I have a suspicion that's a sure thing when you lot get together!).

More Cassie photos to come soon! You don't want to miss seeing Cassie getting to meet some Buddhist monks...

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Still time to send your pic!

How's this for a gorgeous entry in the Cassie Photo Bomb competition?


This is Christine E, enjoying a spot of brunch at the Richmond Hill Cafe and Larder which, as any Melbournian will tell you, is pretty much one of top places for brunch in the entire world. (Even better, looks like Christine has taken a leaf out of my book and is going with a something-yummy that is served in a martini glass...)

The photographer behind the lens of this photo is none other than Dan O'Brien, the photographic genius behind my fantastic author shot.

I had previously declared the deadline for the Cassie Photo Bomb comp to be 15 April, but I'm extending it so you still have a chance to go in the running for a $100 Amazon voucher!!

Just send me a photo of you reading Cassie's Grand Plan. That's it! How simple! It can be somewhere exotic, it can be in your backyard -- either is fine by me. :)

To get you thinking, I have a couple more photos of me to share with you from my recent US trip.


This is me at the Grand Canyon. Just casually sitting right on the edge, so carried away in my reading I don't even notice the one-mile sheer cliff right behind me... not! Never fear, I was on a very safe ledge, we were just tricky with the photo angles ;)

And here's one last one of me from yet another Walmart. I tried to find my book at Barnes and Noble, but none of the stores I visited had any in stock. :( But Walmart was an experience, that's for sure!


Thursday, April 5, 2012

When Cassie met Elvis

So I was in Las Vegas. And Elvis was standing there, as he does, on Fremont Street. So I walked up to him and said, "Can I get a photo with you? And my book?"

And he said, "Thank you very much, little lady." (Actually he said, "for a gratuity", but I'm pretty sure it meant the same thing.)

Elvis was pretty excited about Cassie's Grand Plan. He asked my travel companion and photographer to take a few different poses. To be honest, I'm not sure whether Elvis was as interested in helping me promote my book as he was in getting in a bit of dry humping. We really should have taken video at this point, so you could have seen the hip action. (That's my OMG-embarrassed-hilarious-this-kind-of-thing-shouldn't-be-happening-in-the-street expression below.)


Then he wanted me to grope him for a bit. So I did.


Unfortunately, the feather-headressed showgirls across the road who were next on my photo mission had disappeared by the time I'd finished getting to second base with Elvis. All that was left was a second-rate Spiderman and a Spongebob Squarepants that looked like he'd already done several sinkfuls of very dirty dishes. So I decided to let it go with Elvis.

It's good to be (dry-humping) the king.

Don't forget to send in your photos of Cassie in glam (or just plain bizarre) places. Comp ends on 15 April!!