Taste of Kiwi: Blog of Author Shelley Munro

No photos today since I’m tired and can’t summon the energy to download my camera to my laptop. Last night we stayed at Grand Lake – actually outside Grand Lake – at a campground called Elk Creek in some darling little cabins. Mr. Munro has been very clever with our accommodation and we’ve stayed in a real mix. I was sitting our our terrace having a beer and watched a mouse run across the steps. Mice don’t scare me (unless they choose to run over my feet) so I continued sipping my beer and casually mentioned it to hubby. When he investigated, he found more mice. A family of the wee things. Later that night I kept hearing noises and at one stage shot upright in bed and woke Mr. Munro. It was raining and the patter on the roof had woken me. The mice hadn’t decided to come inisde out of the cold, so I went back to sleep.

Today we drove through the Rocky Mountain National Park. I purchased a book on mountain lions and questioned the ranger for some time. Ranger Michelle was lovely and my story idea is fermenting nicely after all the info she gave me. We saw some moose and stopped to take photos. We also stopped to take photos of some elk. Their antlers were HUGE. I don’t know how they manage to hold their heads up. When we traveled farther into the park, it started sleeting – freezing when you’re wearing shorts! I yanked more clothes out of the suitcase and layered. It worked all right and a hot cider at the information center at the top of the mountain completed the thaw. We enjoyed all our wildlife sightings. Next on the list is bison and beers. We have a list and we’re ticking it off.

Tomorrow we’re driving into South Dekota. Deadwood – here I come!

Oh, I forgot to say that we had a fun time in Cripple Creek and for the first time in history Mr. Munro and I won some money at one of the casinos. Me – the last of the big spenders who puts $1 at a time in the machines, played poker and won. I’m still in shock.

I really like Colorado. It’s green and pretty, although I bet I wouldn’t enjoy it quite as much during the middle of winter. We stayed at Snowmass last night, which is quite close to Aspen. We spent an hour or so in Aspen window shopping at the expensive designer stores. Aspen reminds me a lot of Queenstown in New Zealand with the same Alpine flavor.

We drove through Independence Pass. The scenery is beautiful. We stopped at the top of the pass and here’s one of the photos.

We also visited Florissant National Park and wandered around looking at petriefied tree stumps, old cottages and root cellars and also a few fossils. The root cellar was nice and cool but a bit stinky. Tonight we’re staying in an old goldmining town called Cripple Creek. These days the saloons and brothels are casinos and shops, but the town has kept its old look. I can hear the toot of the old train from our room and it sounds like the old TV show Petticoat Junction.

We’re off to dinner now. I can hear a margarita calling my name.

We spent today exploring the Black Canyon at Gunniston National Park. We really enjoyed both the views of the sheer cliffs of the canyon and doing the walks to the viewing spots. I’ve had an awesome story idea. It’s a series actually, and of course, it’s top secret at the moment. All I’m saying is look for more feline shifters coming your way.

I’m taking part in Joy Nash’s celebration giveaway for her upcoming release. Her 50 day book giveaway starts today. (My giveaway date is in September)

Joy Nash’s Immortals: The Crossing–sixth book in Dorchester’s USA Today Bestselling series Immortals–hits the bookshelves on September 30. But 50 lucky readers will win autographed copies on or before that date!

Yes, that’s right – 50 copies of The Crossing will be given away on 50 participating websites and blogs, which means readers have 50 online chances to win this hot new paranormal romance during the 50 days between August 12 and September 30.

Here’s the link to find out where her books are being given away.

And finally, TEA FOR TWO is on the coming soon page at Samhain Publishing. Here’s the link to the blurb since I won’t have a chance to update my website until I arrive home.

We’re in Colorado at the moment, and it’s nice and green after the deserts of Nevada and Arizona. We spent most of the day exploring in Mesa Verde National Park. I’ve climbed ladders, squeezed through tunnels and huffed and puffed my way up hills because I’m not used to the high elevation. We visited the Balcony house, the Cliff Palace and Spruce Tree House, learning about the Anasazi and Puebloans. Fascinating stuff. The photo below is of the Cliff Palace.

It’s only a quick post tonight. We’re lazing in our Koa cabin in Ouray after a delicious dinner and a cold beer. Hopefully the little stream beside our cabin will sing me to sleep. I need it after a few sleepless nights. I swear I almost fell out of bed last night, which doesn’t make for a restful sleep!

My guest today is Nancy Henderson who writes both historical and paranormal romance for Champagne Books and Linden Bay Romance. Nancy says she writes romance because she likes happy endings. She likes to believe love can become the answer when nothing else in the world makes sense. Nancy is talking about a problem many of us face. I’ll let her tell you…

I often blog about my book problem. I own too many books. They’re everywhere: next to my bed, in my writing office, in the living room, even under the sofa. I even have a makeshift end table made up of books, which came about when a stack of reference materials became too high so I placed a lamp on top of them. Needless to say, after my recent trip to the Romantic Times Booklovers’ Convention in Pittsburgh, the book situation has gotten worse. How do people do it, going to one or more book conventions every year? It’s not like I can read them and toss them out or have a garage sale, either. Most of them are signed. So they’re natural keepers.

Maybe I should add on. I would love my own library; a cozy sanctuary with a chair I could sink down in, a warm lamp, my cat curled up in my lap. The extra space might help for awhile, but sooner or later I’d start buying more books and the problem would eventually rear its ugly head again. I know a couple who literally have bookshelves floor to ceiling in every room in their house. I don’t want to turn into them, but I fear I might. They’re a wonderful couple, but…they just own too many books.

Maybe an e-reader. I’ve checked out the Sony and the Kindle. Both made me drool, but the price was a little hefty. Although I could discover many e-authors I’ve heard great things about with the e-reader. Who am I kidding? I’ll probably end up buying the e-reader, keeping all my books and buying more.

Anyone out there have this same problem? What do you do?

~ Nancy
http://www.nancyhenderson.com
http://www.nancyhenderson.blogspot.com

We’re in New Mexico at the moment and visited Santa Fe yesterday. It’s a beautiful old town and my credit card received a bit of a work out since the shopping was excellent. I’m crossing my fingers that I win lotto because there are a few other things I would have liked to purchase. The art galleries had some amazing stuff – paintings and sculptures.

While I’m talking shopping we also visited the Hubble Trading post. (That’s in Arizona) The original buildings are the same as they were in the late 1800s to early 1930s. The floor creaked underfoot with every step, and as well as things to buy, there were displays of rifles and memorabilia. I like the way the buildings blend into the setting. The outbuildings were interesting too and smelled of hay and horses. They even had a chicken coop. I didn’t get close enough to smell that.

Mr. Munro lost his wallet yesterday. He was frantic and couldn’t remember when he last had it. We turned the hotel room upside down and retraced our footsteps by going to the bar where we’d had a drink. No luck. He didn’t have a lot of cash in it, but the credit cards and driver’s licence were a problem. Last night we did a final search before reporting it to the police. And this is where I start blushing…he discovered it inside my laptop bag. I’ve no idea how it got there, but we were both so relieved we had a celebratory drink. Talk about a stressful day!

No photos today since I need to jump into the shower and pack. We’re heading off to another National Park. Don’t forget I have a guest blogger coming tomorrow, so do pop by to say hello to Nancy Henderson.

In the last couple of days we’ve visited several National Parks. Grand Canyon is amazing and photos simply don’t do it justice. I made some other tourists laugh when I shrieked at Mr. Munro because he went too close to the edge. Cripes. I would have been a mess if I’d had kids as well. One husband was bad enough.

We stopped at a Meteor Crater. It’s big enough to fit twenty football fields inside and the astronaunts do some of their training here. While we were there another of the afternoon storms came, complete with lightning. They cancelled their afternoon tour because there were so many lightning strikes.

We also visited Petrified Forest National Park. I really enjoyed this park since it was so different. There are entire forests that have been petrified and the interior of the logs is a beautiful rich red color. They say that they lose 12 tonnes of petrified wood each year because of stealing and enforce a stern policy of no theft.

Mr. Munro and I have discovered a strange thing. We’ve obviously been married for too long because we’ve started dressing alike. I know! Scary, right? We can dress in different rooms and end up dressing in the same colored shirts and shorts. A server at Starbucks commented on it, asking if we’d done it on purpose. We’ve started consulting as to what we’re wearing now before we leave our room.

Someone stole one of my magnet signs. It’s good that they thought it was attractive enough to steal, but annoying too! I’m going to have to order more because I think they’ll look very cool on my little car at home. Just as well I took a photo on the first day.

We went to the top of the Eiffel Tower at the Paris Hotel. The view was incredible and all the vehicles looked like kids’ toys. I waited for a hand to appear but it didn’t happen. Vegas is SO noisy and full on. I’m not a big gambler – neither is hubby – but we did put a little in the slots and ended up ahead. Probably more fluke than good management!

My accent confused a lady this morning. I spoke to her twice and shouted the third time. After that I gave up. She got all huffy and said it was my weird Scottish accent. Hello??? I didn’t even try to explain since she wouldn’t have understood me.

This is me at the top of the tower.

This is a photo of the Venetian Hotel and one of the gondolas.

Whoa, talk about heat today. We skirted Death Valley and the temps rose as high as 100 F, which is very hot for this Kiwi kid. We drove to a ghost town called Rhyolite. It used to be a mining town. The above photo is one of the old banks. We explored here and had a quick lunch before driving to Las Vegas. There was an afternoon storm with heaps of lightning bolts, and we heard later that there had been flash floods in some areas. The temperature dropped immediately to around 64.

Hubby and I had a noisy celebration when we managed to navigate our way to the hotel without any unscheduled sightseeing.

Assassin, the fourth book in my Middlemarch Mates series is out today from Ellora’s Cave today, so here are some facts about leopards:

• Leopards are the most widespread of all big cats.
• They are also the most secretive.
• They live in different habitats ranging from rocky country to savannah lands and forests.
• Leopards are nocturnal and hunt at night.
• They usually sleep all day in a tree.
• Their spotted coat is excellent camouflage in the patchwork of light and shade in the forest.
• A leopard’s spots are actually small rosettes.
• Leopards are loners and only come together to mate.
• The mother brings up the cubs until they can fend for themselves.
• They are built for bursts of speed and for climbing trees.
• They have strong jaws, chests and front legs and can move an animal as big as themselves.
• Leopards like to ambush their prey, waiting in a tree for an animal to walk underneath.
• Leopards drag their meals up into trees to keep it safe.
• Black leopards are often called panthers. They are the same species, but their spots are hidden. They are more common in Asia.

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