Shelley Munro Blog

My special guest today is erotic romance author, Lillian Feisty. Lillian has a new romantic comedy out today with Ellora’s Cave called I love Lacy. You’ll find Feisty hanging out at Naughty and Spice and also Romance Divas and at the moment she’s very busy working on a new project.

Today Feisty is talking about body image in romance, and it’s a subject dear to my heart. I’ll be interested to hear what you say.

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In case people haven’t guessed I visited my local candle shop in the weekend. It’s called RETREAT and for those who live in New Zealand, they have stores in Glenfield, Newmarket, Sylvia Park and Manukau.

1. Candles convey messages of warmth, romance, spirituality and brightness and they are embraced by lots of different creeds, religions and nationalities.

2. The Egyptians have been credited with soaking reeds in animal fats for rushlights. But the truth is all civilizations have a history of illumination.

3. Tealights are tiny candles, encased in a thin metal or plastic cover. The candle liquifies totally while lit and burn times can vary from four to nine hours.

4. Votives need to be placed inside a tight-fitting holder to maximise burn times.

5. Pillars are free-standing and are long-burning, available in a round or square shape. They can have multiple wicks and are excellent for grouping with other sizes and accessorizing to add the final touches to home or office.

6. Floating candles create light in a bowl, fountain or pool. These are specially designed to float on water.

7. Do not leave a burning candle unattended.

8. Trim candlewick to 5mm EACH time before burning.

9. Burn for 1 hour per 2cm in diameter. Noe: a candle has a memory. That is, it will only burn to the same diameter it was last burnt to.

10. Candles make great decorations and provide good mood lighting, but cleaning up dried wax drippings is never fun. Here’s a video about removing candle wax.

11. Never touch or move a burning candle when the wax is liquid. That means not playing with a burning candle, Mr. Munro.

12. Flickering candles are one of the simplest and yet most magical ways of adding atmosphere to a scene. Ask your local candle shop about home decorating, color coordination, aromatheraphy, home fragrancing and everything candle. They’re the experts! The staff at RETREAT are certainly very knowledgable.

13. Think about personalised candles for a gift. RETREAT will design special candles for birthdays, anniversaries, weddings, memorials, Valentine’s Day, Mother’s day and any other special event. They can be decorated with text, ribbon, graphics and photos. Your imagination is the only limit.

What do you think about candles? Do you like them? Do you have candles in your house?

Ideas - they come in the strangest places at the funniest times. A writer’s life is never dull that’s for sure!

Mr. Munro and I were catching an Air New Zealand flight from San Francisco to Auckland. We hadn’t been on the plane long and I was settled back with my inflight magazine. It’s always the first thing I read when I get on any plane since they have interesting travel articles. Air New Zealand have this new products section and one of the items shown was a vibrating condom.

“Oh,” I said to hubby in a loud voice. “Look!” (and I have to point out hubby is always growling at me for muttering. I don’t but that’s another story. Anyhow, I spoke rather loudly.)

“What?” he asked.

“It’s a vibrating condom. Hmmm, I wonder how they test them?”

“Shush!” he said glancing at our neighbors who WERE looking at us.

“But it’s a vibrating condom!” I said. “Let’s buy one. How do you think they test them? Do you think people test them?” I asked, full of questions. The muse was at a full gallop, considering all the possibilities.

“Shush,” hubby said again. “I’m trying to read.”

“Oh, but don’t you think it would make a great story?”

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

“All right,” I said, a trifle grumpy now. “I’ll think to myself about how they test the vibrating condom.”

“Good idea,” hubby said.

So, I did. All the way back to New Zealand I thought about condoms and how they’d be tested. I thought about the possibilities of a girl inheriting a condom company and the rest, as they say, is history. I wrote Fancy Free, a story about a girl who inherits a condom company and is heavily involved in testing…

If you’d like to learn how my twisted mind works Fancy Free releases from Ellora’s Cave on 7 March 2008 - next Friday!! And meantime, if you’d like to read the blurb and excerpt go here.

Not this girl. I’ve always thought diamonds are rather cold and colorless. I much prefer color in my gemstones and since my favorite hue is blue, a sapphire wins hands down. Just as an aside, Jennifer McKenzie did a Thursday Thirteen on Blood Diamonds last week that was really interesting.

Anyway, to get back to sapphires:

Most people think of sapphires as naturally blue but in fact they come in an array of colors such as yellow, pink, orange and green. They are found naturally in corundum or can be manufactured synthetically. They are a remarkably hard and durable gem.

A sapphire is the birthstone for September and it is supposed to bring joy, peace, beauty, intuition, prosperity and fulfillment of dreams to the wearer. A sapphire is also thought to improve mental clarity and clear thinking. It clears mental garbage…hang on a tick…so that’s what I’m doing wrong…

Pause while Shelley goes to get her rings.

…okay, back now.

A sapphire is known as the stone of new love and commitment and is claimed to be useful in encouraging faithfulness and loyalty. It dispels evil thoughts and brings peace and amiability to its wearer. A sapphire is believed to offer powerful protection to its wearer from spells. It gives the wearer the ability to discern the truth and the future. A sapphire is also believed to offer healing properties for rheumatism, colic and mental illness. In Medieval times Sapphires were thought to be an excellent antidote for poison.

I learn some very interesting things in the course of my writing research.

If money were no option which gemstone would you buy from Tiffanys?

Excitement! I’ve sold the fifth Middlemarch book to Ellora’s Cave. I’m not sure of the release date for Cat and Mouse yet but will let you all know as soon as I do. Cat and Mouse features a cowboy hero and a heroine who owns a restaurant in Queenstown. Meantime, I’m hard at work on the sixth Middlemarch book.

I’ve opened a hotel. Yes, it’s true. I now own real estate space at Coffee Time Romance and you’re welcome to visit me at any time. There will be excerpts, inside info and fun discussion, news of contests and upcoming books and I hope to cajole some of my writer friends into posting some of their excerpts and covers in the Presidential Suite. Author friends? Are you there? Please come over to my new hotel, say hello and help me celebrate my opening week by posting an excerpt. To post you need to register but it’s free and only takes a couple of minutes. I hope to see you there. For all you paranormal writers out there, Coffee Time is having a special paranormal day on 27th. The Ellora’s Cave day I attended recently was lots of fun so check this out.

On 1 March I’m starting in the third Sweat for Sven challenge. I want to complete my current work in progress and make inroads on a tiger shifter story I’ve storyboarded. Is anyone else sweating with Sven?

I’ve read some great books recently. I was lucky enough to get my hands on an ARC of Lauren Dane’s Standoff. Here’s the blurb:

Cade Warden has put his Pack first for most of his life and now Warren Pellini and his thugs threaten everything he holds dear. Into that life of intense focus and increasing loneliness walks the woman he’s been waiting for.

Grace Pellini isn’t just Cade’s mate, she’s the sister of his greatest enemy and she’s been putting herself in grave danger to gather information to aid the Nationally Allied Packs. Cade is everything she could have hoped for in a man even if he is overprotective and pushy at times.

Against the backdrop of their increasing passion and deepening bond, they race against time to find a key to stop Pellini’s biological weapon. And then the stakes rise again when Pellini calls an ancient Challenge. It’s up to Grace to stand by and let her mate risk everything for his people. And his life is in her hands.

Standoff completes the series story arc and it’s a great finish. It’s no secret that I love Lauren’s books. True, she’s a writer friend, but check out her reviews. You know there’s a reason she’s selling to New York publishers now. Cascadia Wolves is an excellent series guaranteed to satisfy the paranormal fan with strong alpha heroes and equally tough heroines who don’t take any nonsense from their mates or anyone else. Each successive book is like a visit to friends since we get to see all the family interaction, their bickering and loving and the way they face a challenge. In this book we finally get to see Cade find his mate, and it’s a beautiful thing. Standoff is out from Samhain on 4 March.

Another book I’ve read and enjoyed is Another One Bites the Dust by Jennifer Rardin. It’s paranormal meets James Bond with Jaz Parks as the heroine. There’s vampires, wizards, bellydancing, acrobats and a winter festival. Jaz and her team need to retrieve a special piece of stolen equipement. I’ve mentioned the first book Once Bitten, Twice Shy before and I’m eagerly awaiting a chance to read the third book in the series. Really, this is a great series.

I’m guest blogging over at Sandra Barkevich’s blog today and giving away a download from my Ellora’s Cave or Cerridwen Press backlist. I’m talking about romantic suspense and there’s mention of weeds…

I hope to see you there!

My special guest today is author, Mechele Armstrong who writes for Loose Id and also co-writes under the name Melany Logen for Ellora’s Cave and Loose Id. Mechele says that while growing up she had a vivid imagination and lots of imaginary playmates to keep her company. After reading some of her paranormal and sci-fi tales I can report her rich childhood imagination continues into adulthood and translates to some wonderful tales!

Today Mechele is talking about the small details you’ll find in romances, the ones that make all the difference. She’s also giving away a download from her backlist to one lucky reader. All you need to do to go into the draw is post a comment. The winner will be chosen the following day so don’t forget to come back to see if you’re the lucky one.

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In honor of my recent visit to Wellington, THIRTEEN THINGS about WELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND.

1. Wellington is the captial of New Zealand.

2. It is VERY hilly, even more so than Auckland and San Francisco. After a day spent exploring, I woke up the next day with sore thigh muscles. No need to buy a thigh master, just visit Wellington!

3. The city of Wellington is known for its wind. Evidently this is because of its position to Cook Strait. (the passage of water between the North and South Islands of New Zealand. The prevailing North-West winds accelerate through the strait giving 173 days with winds greater than 60kph (32 knots) each year on average.

4. There’s an inland island rare bird sanctuary only 5 minutes drive from the center of Wellington, which is pretty amazing. See yesterday’s post.

5. The parliament buildings are known as the Beehive because of their shape. The Beehive is the newer parliament buildings while the old building is the elegant one alongside.

6. People seem to build their houses on top of hills and they balance precariously. Many of the homes are original Victorian buildings.

7. Wellington is home to Peter Jackson and sometimes called Wellywood.

8. Our national musuem Te Papa is in Wellington. My favorite part was about our animals and I really enjoyed the section on our geology. Mr. Munro and I went into the earthquake simulation, which was amazing - an old building that shook and trembled. The earth moved! In fact, the earth kept moving for a while after we left. It was neat but weird, too.

This is one of the Maori panels plus a model of a moa and our local hawk. Both birds are extinct now but were the largest birds in the world at the time.

9. Wellington sits on a fault line and they have lots of earthquakes.

10. Mt. Victoria gives a scenic view of the city and harbor. I’m glad we could drive up rather than walking! This is me up the top of Mt. Victoria.

11. There are quite a few vineyards around. We went to Martinborough - a relief to walk around here since it was flat!!

12. All the vineyards are close to town. We hired bikes and rode around the vineyards.

13. And we stopped to have lunch and sample some of the wines. This is me relaxing at lunch. We rode around 10kms on our bikes before heading back to the hotel to soak in a spa bath. A very relaxing weekend.

During our recent trip to Wellington we visited the Karori Wildlife Sanctuary. As the name suggests, it’s a special sanctuary for some of our endangered native birds. The 225 hectare site includes two dams that used to supply the city of Wellington with water. It was decided that the dams might break during an earthquake and a decision was made to lower the dams and use the area as an inland island. The first step was to fence the area with pest free fences.

These fences stop possums, stoats, weasels, ferrets, rats and mice from entering the sanctuary. Once the fences were installed a pest-control plan was put in place. A year later all 13 major pests in the area were fully eradicated. Thousands of native trees were planted (the area was previously all in pine) and this planting continues. The long-term vision for the project is to return the area to its original undisturbed state and this will take around 500 years.

Some of New Zealand’s endangered wildlife has been released in the pest-free area including brown teal ducks, the little spotted kiwi, giant wetas, tuatara, stitchbird, North Island saddleback, weka, North Island robin and bellbirds to name a few.

On entry to the sanctuary staff checked my bag for mice, cats, rats and other pests. Thankfully, my bag was found pest-free! I know I would have been more shocked than anyone if a mouse had jumped out. We explored some of the many paths, pausing to peer through the treetops searching for birds.

We sighted saddlebacks and bellbirds, lots of tuis and fantails as well as some kaka (NZ variety of parrot). I’d never seen kaka up close so was fascinated to see them at the feeding stations.

This photo shows two kaka. They’re a green parrot and blend in quite well with the trees, although they’re easy enough to spot because they make an awful screechy noise.

I would have loved to see a tuatara but since it was overcast they were all in their burrows, but we saw native fish and green geckos along with lots of our songbirds.

They also do a nocturnal tour where you can hear the evening song before the birds go to sleep and then go out hunting for the nocturnal kiwi. Maybe we’ll do this during another time. I’d highly recommend a visit to this sanctuary, if you’re ever down this end of the world.

I’m home. We had a wonderful long weekend down in Wellington, although the little dog wasn’t well and had to make a trip to the vet. She seems okay this morning, which is good news.

I received another new cover while I was away. This is for my April release, Wanderlust. I really like the cover since the artist has captured the exotic flavor I wanted. There’s an excerpt and blurb up on my website on the coming soon page.