Tea & reading

I just had to post a link to this amazing series of photographs by Joel Robinson that aim to express the joy reading a book can bring. This one, in particular, captured my imagination.

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I only wish I could step into this photograph, fill the cup with my favourite (long-running favourite now) Husk Green Lapacho tea, pick up any of the dozens of books on my TBR pile and settle in for a long snuggle. Especially right now. It's cold out there in wintery Melbourne today -- my handy weather app tells me the apparent temperature is only 0.3C and it's already heading towards 1pm. 


Sure, there'd be issues with actually drinking tea from the cup (spillage could be nasty unless you took cat-like laps from it). And it would get cold awfully quickly. But then I'm talking about crawling into a photograph to read, so let's not clutter the idea with logic, okay? :) 

Oh, Harlequin, you tease!

So I got very excited yesterday when a UPS guy turned up on my doorstep with a box. I don't often get UPS deliveries and the last time I did, it turned out to be pretty special. So with that in mind, I was a little confused when the box turned out to be much smaller than last time. Hmm. Maybe, I thought, my publisher has sent me a present?

As it turns out they had:

The box only held three copies -- my copies of the "larger print" versions of In His Eyes (the standard version is still to come). Although it's not quite the same as opening a large box filled with dozens of copies it's still a magical moment seeing my book in reality.

The same questions as last time struck me. Did I really do this? Is this real? Am I really a published author with Harlequin?

The larger print did nothing to clarify things. :)

I wonder if the wonder ever wears off?

Me, graffiti-ing books -- on purpose!

I'm very excited to announce that I'm going to be one of the 62 authors signing books for happy readers at the ARRA Book Signing event on the Gold Coast in August. The event is being held in conjunction with the RWA annual conference.

Last year was the first time I attended an RWA conference (where I proudly picked up my "First Sale" ribbon) and it was absolutely wonderful. I remember going to the ARRA signing event there and meeting some lovely authors and chatting to them about all sorts of writing-related stuff.

It's freaky-weird and wonderful that this year I'll be one of the authors on the other side of the desk, offering my autograph and whatever funky giveaway I can find. (Your ideas gratefully accepted!)

I'll have Cassie's Grand Plan on offer - In His Eyes doesn't come out in Australia until September. But if you're lucky, I might give you a sneak peak of the US edition. Maybe we should have a codeword? Hmm. That does give me ideas. Watch this space. :)

So, what's going on?

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Life's a bit crazy right now. Crazy busy. My day job (unfortunately that's not writing -- not yet!) has exploded with streamers and confetti -- which is basically my way of saying it's like a parade of footballers holding rabid possums: chaotic, amusing, slightly dangerous and somehow a little sleazy. I'm sure that clarifies everything.

And on top of that, I've just started studying again -- I'm doing a screen writing subject in the Masters of Writing at Swinburne University. Yes, I am an idiot. So far it's pretty good, but it's week two and I'm already two weeks behind. Luckily the universe arranged a long weekend in Melbourne this weekend, which I will spend doing homework.

Doncha wish you had my life??

What all this has meant is no time for writing. And no time for thinking about what comes next with writing.

Lunch with a friend today (*waves to Joanne*) reminded me of all the writing-related stuff I'd like to be doing -- if I wasn't working so damn hard and long on all the other stuff. But this too, will not last. Soon enough I'll be wondering where the next pay check is coming from, whilst merrily reporting back to my buddies at MRWG of my 30k word count for the month.

In the meantime, the point of this post (yes, there kind of is one) is to let you know that there is stuff going on in the world of Emmie Dark.

In His Eyes is available for pre-order from Amazon and all the usual places. (It's offically released in North America in August.) It's actually been doing pretty well already, if the rankings on the Amazon Top #100 SuperRomances are anything to go by. This is a very good thing. :)

Cassie's Grand Plan has also been popping up in the Amazon charts, even after having been out since March, which is lovely to see. And it comes out next month (July) in Australia, under the Mills & Boon "Blush" imprint. Here's what it looks like -- pretty pink!

Feel free to go find it in your local Target, Big W or KMart in July and buy one, just for the hell of it. Even if you already have the one with the pretty blue cover that Misha Collins read, you'll no doubt need the matching set!

I hope your lives are productively busy. Not crazy busy. Just nicely busy. That's what I hope for myself. I'm sure it will happen. Soon.

Inspirational quote to start the week

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This is from Rainer Maria Rilke's book "Letters to a Young Poet":

I beg you, to have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. Don’t search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer.

Feeling a little like my life is full of questions and very few answers right now, so I found this quite heartwarming. I'm going to spend the rest of this week trying to live it -- to be more comfortable with the questions and feel confident the answers will come when they are meant to.

(With thanks to Brain Pickings for bringing it to my attention -- one of my "must read" sites at the moment.)