Shelley Munro Blog

1. Flirting - according to Wikipedia flirting is a form of human interaction between two people, expressing a romantic and/or sexual interest. It can consist of conversation, body language, or brief physical contact. It may be one-sided or reciprocated.

2. Flirting is used as a means of expressing interest or gauging the other person’s interest in courtship or even casual sex.

3. People who flirt speak or act in a way suggesting greater intimacy than is considered appropriate to the relationship (or to the amount of time the two people have known each other), without actually saying or doing anything that breaches any serious social norms. They accomplish this by communicating a sense of playfulness or irony. Double entendres, with one meaning more formally appropriate and another more suggestive, may be used.

4. Flirting consists of stylized gestures, language, body language, postures, and physiologic signs. They include eye contact, batting eyelashes, wink etc, signals such as touching one’s hair, casual touches; such as a woman gently touching a man’s arm during conversation, smiling, sending notes or poems or small gifts, flattery, teasing or coyness, affectedly shy or modest, marked by cute, coquettish, or artful playfulness.

5. Different countries have different rules when it comes to flirting. Take care because it’s a minefield out there. Flirting is governed by a complex set of unwritten laws of etiquette. These rules dictate where, when, with whom and in what manner we flirt. We generally obey these unofficial laws instinctively, without being conscious of doing so.

6. Flirting is fun and a basic part of human nature.

7. Parties, pubs, bars and schools are all places we flirt as is the workplace and places associated with sports.

8. Research has shown men have a tendency to mistake friendly behaviour for sexual flirting. This is not because they are stupid or deluded, but because they tend to see the world in more sexual terms than women.

9. There is evidence to suggest that women are naturally more socially skilled than men, better at interpreting people’s behaviour and responding appropriately. Scientists have claimed women have a special ‘diplomacy gene’ which men lack. So men, take that!

10. Most people – usually men – focus on the verbal element: the ‘chatting-up’, the problems of knowing what to say, finding the right words, etc. The non-verbal element – body-language, tone of voice, etc. – is much more important, particularly in the initial stages of a flirtation.

11. When you first meet new people, their initial impression of you will be based 55% on your appearance and body-language, 38% on your style of speaking and only 7% on what you actually say.

12. I checked out some of the lines people use. It’s a wonder you didn’t hear me groaning from your place. Some are really bad! Evidently the following are some of the most effective…

1. All those curves, and me with no brakes.
2. Do you know why the sky is so gray? [No, why?] Because all the blue is in your eyes.
3. Don’t stop! I don’t usually get to see beauty in motion.
4. I can’t find my puppy, can you help me find him? I think he went into this cheap motel room.
5. Is your name Summer? ‘Cause you are HOT!
6. Let’s go to my place and do the things I’ll tell everyone we did anyway.
7. Mind if I talk to you until it’s safe down there where I farted?
8. My friend wants to know if you were born in those jeans.
9. When God said, “Let there be women,” he created you.
10. You’re so fine, you make me want to go out and get a job.

13. And here’s some links to some flirting quizzes. What Kind of Flirty Girl Are You?
Are You a Flirtacious Woman? and What is Your Seduction Style?

Are you a flirt? What’s your best flirting tip? Best flirting line? Best place to flirt?

I like sunflowers. Whenever I see one I think of summer and sunshine. They’re a happy flower, and they make me smile. October is the recommended month to plant sunflower seeds in New Zealand. I need to hurry up!

1. The scientific name for sunflowers is Helianthus. It comes from two words — Helios meaning sun, and Anthos, meaning flower. The sunflower often tracks the sun’s movement, a phenomenon known as heliotropism.

2. A sunflower is one of the few cultivated plants native to North America. It is believed that wild sunflowers covered thousands of square miles of land that is now the western United States. Sunflower remains have been found in North American archaeological sites dating from as early as 3,000 B.C. The center of origin for wild sunflowers is considered to be the Western Plains of North America, but the ancestors of the cultivated type have been traced to the Southwest or the Missouri-Mississippi River valley areas. The first breeders of sunflowers appear to be the Ozark Bluff dwellers who selected plants and seed for cultivation.

3. Early American natives used the sunflower before corn and beans were introduced to America. They ate the seeds, ground the small kernels into flour, extracted oil from seeds for their hair, and used the seeds, flower petals, and pollen to make dyes for face paint, cloths and baskets.

4. The tallest sunflower grown on record was 25 feet tall and was grown in the Netherlands.

5. The largest sunflower head on record measured 32 1/2 inches across its widest point and was grown in Canada.

6. The shortest mature sunflower on record was just over 2 inches tall and was grown in Oregon using the Bonsai technique.

7. Sunflowers grown in home gardens are divided into two categories - Helianthus and edible seed types. Helianthus are grown for their decorative flowers. They come in many colors and sizes. Gardeners can choose a dwarf (15 inches high) fully double, golden chrysanthemum type, or a 4 foot pure yellow or white Helianthus with shades of primrose. The tallest Helianthus, 5 to 6 feet, provides the widest color range - yellow, gold, bronze, mahogany red, and bicolor blooms. These flowers do produce seeds if left on the plant, but they are small and probably best left for wildlife.

8. The most widely grown variety for edible seeds is Mammoth. First offered in the 1880s by a U.S. seed catalog, it was listed as Mammoth Russian. One of the tallest sunflowers, Mammoth is most often used to produce prize-winning seed heads. New cultivars have been introduced that are shorter (only 6 feet), earlier (68 days), and that have been bred for disease tolerance.

9. Healthy, natural sunflower oil is produced from oil type sunflower seeds. Sunflower oil is light in taste and appearance and supplies more Vitamin E than any other vegetable oil. It is a combination of monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats with low saturated fat levels.

10. Sunflowers are a great choice for planting to attract birds to your yard.

11. Sunflowers are one of the fastest growing plants. They can grow 8 to 12 feet tall in rich soil within six months.

12. Sunflower heads consist of 1,000 to 2,000 individual flowers joined together by a receptacle base. The large petals around the edge of a sunflower head are individual ray flowers which do not develop into seed.

13. The former Soviet Union grows the most sunflowers. The sunflower is the national flower of Russia.

This photo was taken during our recent trip to the US, in Oregon, I think from memory.

And this photo was taken at our local botanical gardens.

What are your favorite flowers?

I bet that title made you look. My post today is about stomachs, mainly because mine has been center-stage recently. I’m working to reduce the size of it. (on the outside) So, what is a stomach?

1. The stomach is a muscular organ. It can change its shape depending on the amount of food in it.

2. When you eat, food from your mouth goes down a tube called the esophagus into your stomach, where it is stored temporarily, then later digested. As the food arrives, the stomach wall starts its glands working. One type of gland gives off a mucus that lubricates the food. Other glands give off acids which kill any bacteria in the food; while still others give off special chemicals, called enzymes, to break down the food into tiny particles. (which sort of takes the shine off eating a chocolate bar!)

3. Tall, thin people usually have long, narrow stomachs, while short, stocky people have short, wide stomachs.

4. Most adults’ stomachs hold about one quart of liquid and food.

5. Once a female is past her teens, the stomach is naturally rounded.

6. Once you are an adult, your stomach pretty much remains the same size — unless you have surgery to intentionally make it smaller. Eating less won’t shrink your stomach. (I’m thinking that’s inside your body because outside you could lose some of the fat off it, right?)

7. I consulted my favorite characterization book, Building Believable Characters by Marc McCutcheon for some stomach descriptors. There are flabby stomachs, spare tire stomachs, love-handles.

8. beer-bellied stomachs

9. flat stomachs

10. middle-age spread stomachs

11. pendulous stomachs

12. toned stomachs

13. And my favorite - washboard stomachs.

14. Oh, and pregnant tummies.

What do you think of stomachs? If you’re a writer what sort of stomachs do you give your heroes and heroines, your secondary characters? Do you like your stomach?

My next release, Cat and Mouse is due out on 1 October. I panicked a little when I realized it was just over a week away. Duncan Ross, the hero, is a feline shifter. He also participates in rodeos as a bull rider, hence the topic for my TT today.
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1. Yosemite, California - just beautiful. I’d visited before but it was much quieter this time due to both the petrol prices and a recent fire that had scared visitors away. We had a perfect day with excellent visibility.

2. Grand Canyon, Arizona. This canyon is awe-inspiring.

3. Petrified Forest, Arizona. My husband and I both enjoyed our first visit to this park. The petrified forests were fascinating.

4. Mesa Verde, Colorado. Hot and dry. Busy but well worth a visit for the peek into the cliff dwellings of the Puebloans.

5. Black Canyon of the Gunnison, Colorado. I didn’t know anything about this park until I visited but I loved the black rock and the deep canyons. It was stark and beautiful.

6. Rocky Mountains, Colorado. We didn’t have the best weather here. At the top of the pass it was freezing and sleeting. Ranger Michelle answered some of my many questions while I was here and we saw lots of animals at the lower levels before it started raining. A lot of trees are dying here after being attacked by the pine beetle.

7. Devil’s Tower, Wyoming. We walked around the base and saw our first snake here.

8. Little Bighorn Battlefield, Montana. An interesting place to visit although, man was it hot on the day we visited!

9. Yellowstone, Wyoming. This is a huge park and you need to spend a few days to explore it fully.

10. Olympic, Washington. This park covers both forest, lakes and mountains as well as part of the coast. Crescent Lake was gorgeous and we also enjoyed exploring the coast.

11. Mt. Rainier, Washington. I loved my visit here. The spring flowers were in full bloom and it was really pretty.

12. Lewis & Clark, Oregon. We didn’t know much about Lewis and Clark and after visiting Fort Clatsop we came away much wiser. This pair of explorers had great people skills and seemed well liked by everyone.

13. Crater Lake, Oregon. One of my favorites. It’s so pretty here. I could look at the lake for hours.

1. Middlemarch is a small country town, in Central Otago, New Zealand. It is about 80 km West of Dunedin. It’s located in the Strath Taieri Valley.

2. Several suggestions exist about how the township was named. One is that Mrs Alice Humphreys, whose husband Edward Wingfield Humphreys owned and had surveyed for sale of sections in this new township, was reading George Eliot’s novel Middlemarch. Another is that the name is from the obsolete English term “march” meaning a boundary - in this case a middle area between two rivers.

3. Middlemarch is the setting for my feline shapeshifter series, Middlemarch Mates.

4. Each year Middlemarch holds a singles dance and a special train (nicknamed the Love Train) carries women and men to the dance from Dunedin.

5. HOW IT ALL BEGAN - the dance.

In November last year our Community Board was presented with some statistics about rural health and other services in this area. As part of her presentation, Pauline Carruthers, the local Plunket Nurse, District Nurse and at that time only local practise nurse in the area, noted that we needed more nurses and made the flippant comment that we should marry some of our bachelors off to some nurses.

The Community Board took the idea one step further and suggested to the local A & P Society that it would arrange for the sponsor of the Dance for its Centenary Show. We contacted Country & City Contacts (NZ) Ltd. They are an Amberley-based dating service that has had huge success in the rural areas, especially of the South Island. Henk & Joy van Leir were enthusiastic and supportive of the idea of publicising the dance as a good place for their clients to meet each other and also some of our bachelors.

6. The area has some rare creatures - the mountain weta, the Otago and Grand skinks and the NZ falcon.

7. The area is also home to the Sutton Salt Lake. The water in the lake evaporates during the summer.

8. There are also special clouds in the area called the Tairei Pet. A cloud formation reportedly found only in one or two places in the world. It is formed by high north westerly winds being forced upward over the Rock & Pillar range - spectacular and unnerving by its sheer size and its association with the high winds.

9. It is the start of the 150km Otago Central Rail Trail, a path that stretches from Middlemarch to Clyde. People can walk, cycle or ride horses along this path, staying overnight at stops on the way.

10. As I mentioned earlier, there’s a train from Dunedin. It travels through the spectacular Tairei Gorge and is popular with tourists.

11. Scarlet Woman, Peeping Tom and Stray Cat Strut are all set in Middlemarch and feature various members of the Mitchell family.

12. Go here to learn about how the series was born, plus there are photos. There are also Middlemarch photos here.

13. Assassin, Middlemarch Mates book 4 is coming on August 6.

Here’s the blurb:

Feline shifter Leo Mitchell is the pretty brother who attracts women with ease, but he’s turned picky. He suspects the mystery blonde hanging around Middlemarch is the one for him. If only he could grab the elusive female and seduce her. Oh yeah. He craves some hot, sinful lovin’ with the lady in black leather.

Assassin Isabella Black has harbored a huge crush on hunky Leo for ages. Because the timing sucked she’s watched him from afar, praying another woman won’t snatch the hottie away before she’s free to stake a claim.

Finally the pair meet. Isabella offers her naked body but Leo counteracts with a cup of tea. Seems Leo likes to call the shots when it comes to sex. A day later they’re finally dancing horizontally. It’s smokin’ hot, steamy, delicious—everything she’s ever wanted. Isabella is ecstatic until another assassin threatens to ruin her happiness. It’s life or death now. One wrong move and her secrets will destroy the Mitchells along with everything that has become dear to her…including Leo.

Do you like small town settings or do you prefer sophisticated city settings for your romances?

With my trip coming up soon, packing is looming…

1. Make a list a few weeks beforehand of the things you think you’ll need to take with you.

2. Lay out the clothes you think you want to take, along with toiletries, shoes etc.
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I can’t take the credit for most of this list. It’s taken from the Persil website, which I visited after seeing the ad on our local TV. I love this ad because it shows kids getting dirty. IMO, kids should play in the mud and get dirty. It’s part of growing up, and I certainly created lots of dirty clothes when I was a child, growing up on a farm.

School holidays start here in NZ tomorrow, and I know it’s the summer holidays in America, too. Do check out the website since it gives instructions for all these things. Believe me, a bored kid makes everyone grumpy! Oh, and just as an aside, I’m a Persil fan. Dirt is good!!

1. Lie on your back and find shapes in the clouds.

2. Build a secret hut.

3. Camp out in the backyard.

4. Catch a fish.

5. Play in the rain.

6. Build sandcastles at the beach.

7. Learn to swim.

8. Whoosh down a mud slide.

9. Grow your own garden.

10. Make mud pies.

11. Learn some basic cooking skills.

12. Have a water fight on a hot summer day.

13. Climb a tree.

Do you have any suggestions to add to the list? Do you have memories of doing these things when you were a child?

I had no idea what I was doing for my TT this week. I thought about it while eating my porridge. I glanced around my kitchen and my gaze lit on it–inspiration in the form of one lonely banana. I hereby dedicate my TT to the humble banana.

1. Bananas are originally from Malaysia, but they have spread throughout the world and grow well in tropical areas.

2. Bananas plants are not trees but are actually herbs.

3. Bananas are high in potassium. They also contain protein, Vitamins A, B & C and have trace elements of iron and zinc. In other words, they’re good for you.
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In honor of my Pearl themed release, LOVERS AT LAST here are a few snippets about pearls.

1. Pearl is the official birthstone for the month of June. (as adopted by the American National Association of Jewelers in 1912)

2. Pearls are formed inside mollusks such as oysters and mussels. They are formed when an irritant (a tiny stone or bit of sand) gets inside the mollusk’s shell. A lustrous substance called nacre is secreted around the foreign object to protect the interior of the mollusk. The layers of nacre make a pearl and can take up to seven or eight years to form.

3. The most valuable pearls are perfectly symmetrical and naturally produced. Most of the principal oyster beds are in the Persian Gulf, along the coasts of India and Sri Lanka and in the Red Sea.

4. Once pearls were thought to be the tears of the gods. Greeks believed that wearing pearls would promote marital bliss and prevent newlywed women from crying.

5. Pearls are thought to give wisdom through experience, to quicken the laws of karma and cement engagements and love relationships.

6. Pearls vary in color from white to those with a hint of color such as pink, brown or black.

7. Pearls are quite soft.

8. Ancient Chinese literature refer to pearls as originating in the brain of a dragon and being lustrous and visible from a thousand yards.

9. Queen Elizabeth 1 loved pearls and wore them around her neck in ropes and embroidered on her dresses.

10. In the 1800s freshwater pearls were found in US rivers. The most famous one was found in 1857 in Patterson, NJ. It was sold to Charles Tiffany for $1500 and later resold for $2500.

11. In the 15th to 17th century people thought pearls were actually the eggs of oysters.

12. Pearls were considered the ideal wedding gifts because they symbolize purity and innocence.

13. During the month of June Ellora’s Cave has several releases all featuring the pearl. Lovers at Last by Shelley Munro (that’s me!) is the first release.

Do you like pearls?