Taste of Kiwi: Blog of Author Shelley Munro

Although ereaders have been available for some time in America, it’s not easy to get our hands on one down here in New Zealand. We can’t purchase a Kindle in New Zealand (you can in Australia) and we can’t purchase a Sony reader even though we have Sony stores. (They don’t stock them)

It was a real surprise when I received a newsletter this week from Whitcoulls, our NZ bookstore chain, saying they were selling the Kobo eReader. They’re $295 each (about US$230) and take up to 1000 books. I tried one out when we went to the mall during the weekend and was actually quite impressed. Not that I’m going to purchase one – I’m hanging out for an iPad, which is due to hit here around July. (I test drove one in Waikiki and fell in love.) But I have to say congratulations to Whitcoulls for moving into the future!!

I’m still busy with edits, but I have two very special guests visiting me this week. Jane Beckenham will be here on 2 June and Kaye Manro is here on 4 June. I hope you’ll come and say hello.

What are you up to this week?

This is Thursday, my sister’s new kitten. Isn’t she a cutie?

To see more animal photos visit Camera Critters.

The theme for this week is Summer, so the obvious choice of book to highlight is Summer in the City of Sails. Summer is a country girl, and she’s determined to make the most of her time in the city, especially since she’s finally escaped her parents and her eagle-eye, bossy older brothers.

Summer in the City of Sails by Shelley Munro

“I want you to look after Summer.”

Summer’s bare feet froze outside the door to her Uncle Henry’s study. Her hand slid from the brass doorknob. A babysitter? Indignation stabbed her mind, robbing her of the sense of accomplishment she’d felt only seconds earlier. At age twenty-two, why did they think she needed a babysitter? Her eyes narrowed as she placed the package she carried on a wooden pedestal table then pressed closer to hear the details.

“Do I look like a babysitter?” a masculine voice snapped. “Try the yellow pages.”

Summer nodded emphatically, giving a silent cheer for the owner of the low, husky voice. Way to go, mister. But while she waited for Uncle Henry’s comeback, she fumed. She knew exactly where the idea had originated. Her family. Or more specifically her mother who thought danger lurked behind every corner in sinful Auckland City.

“Think of it as a favor,” Uncle Henry said.

“No.”

The blunt, uncompromising answer made a smile surface. She liked this man. And she agreed with him. One hundred percent. Yes, she’d been a sickly child, but she’d outgrown the bad asthma attacks. As long as she used her preventer, there was nothing wrong with her health. Summer glanced down at her bust and hips, her expression turning rueful. Thanks to her mother’s excellent cooking, her body—well, the polite word was “curvaceous”.

“Nikolai,” Uncle Henry groaned. “My sister will make my life miserable. She’ll hunt me down on my honeymoon.”

Summer suppressed a snort as she flipped the end of her French braid over her shoulder. Why did Uncle Henry think she’d come to Auckland, the city of sails? Although her mother meant well, she was overprotective, especially when it came to the baby of the family. And now she was doing the smothering thing by remote control, all the way from Eketahuna. If Summer allowed this, her bid for freedom would end before it started. It was time her family let her make her own mistakes and let her fix any stuff-ups by herself.

When her boss at the Eketahuna Library had suggested further training in big, bad Auckland City, the possibilities had made Summer breathless. Eager. At last, a chance to spread her fledgling wings. Despite her parents’ protests, Summer had grasped the opportunity with both hands.
And she wasn’t about to let anyone take the experience away from her.

“Tell someone who cares,” Nikolai said. “With my track record, I’m the last person you should ask.”

A shiver goose-stepped down Summer’s spine. That voice… His voice did things to her. She thought about easing the door open a little further to check out the body that matched the sexy rumble. Meeting men was high on her to-do list. No time like the present.

“I didn’t want to do this,” Uncle Henry muttered, “but I’m a desperate man. You owe me. That time I saved you from the broad in—”

The heartfelt Anglo-Saxon curse made Summer’s brows shoot toward her hairline. She hadn’t heard her brothers use that one before.

“All right, dammit! I’ll check on her now and then, but if I see one girly tear, I’m outta there. And our debt is square once you get back.”

“That should do it,” Uncle Henry hastily agreed. “Just check to make sure her car is there and get a visual every couple of days.”

Get a visual? Summer thought, puckering her forehead. Good grief. Nikolai was one of Uncle Henry’s military friends. He’d take his duties seriously. This was not good.

“All I want is a peaceful honeymoon.”

“All you want is to get laid,” Nikolai muttered.

Uncle Henry chuckled—a smug masculine sound that made Summer ache to deck him on Veronica’s behalf. “Yeah, that too.”

Right, that did it. If she allowed this, she’d never escape her family’s well-meaning influence. Yeah, she loved them, knew they loved her in return, but enough was enough.

Summer shoved the door open and strode through. “I’m back. Oh—” She stopped in front of her uncle’s large wooden desk. Her hand fluttered to her left breast. “I didn’t know you had a visitor.”

“Summer, this is Nikolai Tarei. He’s my closest neighbor.”

Summer’s gaze had already snapped to the man with the sexy voice. Physical awareness floored her, made her tongue stick to the roof of her mouth. Luckily, her brain continued to function and nothing impaired her twenty-twenty vision. Oh, boy! Tall, dark and sinfully sexy was welcome to guard her body any time.

Summer in the City of Sails is available in both print and e-formats from Ellora’s Cave and Amazon.

To read other Snippet Saturday excerpts follow the trail below:

Mari Carr
TJ Michaels
Ashley Ladd
HelenKay Dimon
Eliza Gayle
Shelley Munro
Lauren Dane
Jody Wallace

Why is it on days that you’re really busy everyone decides they simply have to talk to you? I had one of those days today. My edits arrived from Carina Press. No problem. They were expected. I had breakfast and sat down to work.

Bang! Bang! Someone was at the door. Sighing, I answered it and came face to face with a woman who wanted to convert me to religion. I politely said I wasn’t interested, but she was a tenacious one. I finally informed her I was busy and shut the door. I sat down and half an hour later, the phone went. It was my sister. I know if I’d had said I was busy, she wouldn’t have minded, but she’s been going through chemo, and I wanted details. (She had an MRI yesterday and will know in a week if the treatment has helped or if she requires more radical treatment) Fingers crossed! Anyway, I finished talking to her, and decided I’d quickly check my email. That was a mistake because there was another set of edits waiting for me, this one from Ellora’s Cave.

Somehow, I think it’s going to be a busy weekend. I leave you with a relaxing holiday shot, meanwhile I’m off to attack more edits.

The person surrounded by fish is me. Mr. Munro and I did a helmet dive while we were in Bora Bora, Tahiti. It was so much fun and definitely makes my list of most memorable experiences. Note the stingray on the left of the photo.

I’m doing a guest post at Coffee Time Romance today on Friends with Benefits and The Bottom Line.

And, if you haven’t already, check out my guest post at Manic Readers about The Other Side of the Fence.

I’m guest blogging at Manic Readers today about the changes of going from an aspiring writer to a published one. Here’s the link to The Other Side of The Fence.

I was having a glass of wine a few nights ago and decided wine would make a great topic for a Thursday Thirteen. So, here goes…

Thirteen Interesting Facts About Wine

1. The Irish believe fairies are extremely fond of good wine. They have come to this conclusion because in the olden days royalty would leave a keg of wine out for the fairies at night. It was always gone in the morning – Irish Folklore

2. Cork was developed as a bottle closure in the late 17th century. It was only after this that bottles were lain down for aging, and the bottle shapes slowly changed from short and bulbous to tall and slender.

3. Poor soil quality tends to produce better wines. The trick is to “challenge” the vines by making them “work” harder.

4. Although red wine can only be produced from red grapes, white wine can be produced from both red and white grapes.

5. The wreck of the TITANIC, holds the oldest wine cellar in the world and despite the depth and wreckage, the bottles are still intact.

6. Wine is considered more complex than blood serum because it has so many organic chemical compounds.

7. A glass of wine (about 4 oz.) contains about 85 calories.

8. The lip of a red wine glass is sloped inward to capture the aromas of the wine and deliver them to your nose.

9. In King Tut’s Egypt (around 1300 BC), the commoners drank beer and the upper class drank wine.

10. When Mount Vesuvius buried Pompeii in volcanic lava in A.D. 79, it also buried more than 200 wine bars.

11. Grapevines cannot reproduce reliably from seed. To cultivate a particular grape variety, grafting (a plant version of cloning) is used.

12. Rose bushes are often planted at the end of a row of grape vines to act as an early warning signal for infestation by diseases and insects like aphids. A vineyard manager who notices black spots or root rot on the roses will spray the grape vines before they are damaged.

13. Labels were first put on wine bottles in the early 1700s, but it wasn’t until the 1860s that suitable glues were developed to hold them on the bottles.

And a final quote because it made me smile – “”Men are like wine – some turn to vinegar, but the best improve with age.” — Pope John XXIII

Sources:
www.800wine.com
www.greekwine.gr
www.articledashboard.com
www.beekmanwine.com

The 43rd World Custard Pie Throwing championship was held on 22 May in Kent, Britain. Teams from as far afield as Germany and South Africa entered the contest, with all funds raised going to charity. The object of the contest is for the teams to throw custard pies at each other and the judges score their performance.

From the official site – teams are scored in the following manner:

Direct Hit – 6 points for a pie directly in the opponent’s face
Near-Miss – 3 points for a pie shoulder height or upwards
Body-Miss – 1 point for a pie on another part of the body
Misses – 1 point deducted for 2 consecutive misses
Amusing/Original – the judges can also award up to 5 points for the most original and/or amusing throwing techniques.

The winners were a team of cleaners. I couldn’t embed the video, but here’s the link to footage of the custard pie championship

I wish it was closer because I’d love to take part. How do you think a team of romance writers would go? Or a team of romance readers? Heck we could slug it out together!

Would you rather throw a custard pie or eat it?

After my holiday I was having trouble settling down to write again. It’s so easy to waste time on the Internet, and that’s exactly what I was doing. I decided to take radical action, and for the last week, I’ve been turning off my laptop and writing on my alpha smart. It’s working! I’ve written 10,000 words since Wednesday (with the weekend off).

I’m expecting edits from my editors on two separate manuscripts this week, so my progress will slow, but I’m definitely going to continue using this strategy. I check my email in the morning and don’t turn my laptop on again until the evening. With three different manuscripts underway, if I run into a wall on one, I swap to another to make my word count. I figure one way or the other, I’ll end up with three complete manuscripts ready to sub.

Samhain Publishing have a brand new newsletter. The monthly newsletter will feature upcoming and new releases – both in eBook and Print – as well as free downloads and contests. Follow this link to subcribe to Samhain’s newsletter and keep up with all the news.

Do you limit the amount of time you spend on the Internet? How do you do it? How long do you spend on the Internet each day?

I’m so excited. My Georgian-set historical, The Second Seduction has found a new home at Carina Press. It has a new title – The Spurned Viscountess– but that might change. I’ll keep you posted. The tentative release date is September.

I’m thrilled to be part of this new digital company. I mean have you seen my fellow authors? And the books coming soon? In a word – amazing!

Carina Press opens for business on 7 June. Oh, and they’re currently asking for erotic romances. Their submission guidelines are here. Check them out.

We saw this dog while we were walking in Vava’u, Tonga. He craned his neck to see us and seemed to be guarding this partially built house. He looked a bit like a devil dog with his glowing eyes.

To see more animal photos visit Camera Critters.