My special guest today is Tracy Cooper-Posey who writes for several publishers including Ellora’s Cave. As you’ll see below, she was born in Australia (I don’t hold that against her…really!!) and she recently won an award at RomantiCon 2009 for “Most Erotic Use of A Chocolate Chip Cookie” in her release, Ningaloo Nights. I don’t know about you, but that definitely made me curious! Over to Tracy…
Kiwis v’s Aussies
I’ve been looking forward to doing this blog for about a month, now. I’m hoping Shelley won’t mind me indulging in a little cultural cliché. For years there has supposedly been this cultural rivalry between Australians and New Zealanders.
I live in Canada these days, and it’s interesting, sometimes, when people notice my accent, and can’t quite pin it down. They wrinkle their foreheads and very delicately say “Australian? Or…New Zealander?” and they wince, waiting for the explosion of indignation to follow.
Never fails to make me smile.
Well, Shelley is from New Zealand, and I’m Australian. And I’m guesting on her blog.
I couldn’t resist using this as the topic, especially as the reason I’m here today is because the book I’m touring, Ningaloo Nights, is set in Australia, and is part of the new Ellora’s Cave themed series, Going Down Under.
I thought I’d even things up a bit, by pointing out that New Zealand can more than hold its own weight when it comes to things cultural these days, which is why I don’t hit the roof over being mistaken for one, even temporarily. After all, it was a New Zealander, Peter Jackson, who conceived, produced and directed the Lord of the Rings movie, which sits at the top of my list of ultimate movies, movie adaptations, and favourite books of all time (oh, the book was written by J.R.R. Tolkein, I should point out!), and Aragorn is in the top five of my favourite heroes of all time.
I have the extended DVD set and every Christmas I sit down with whichever of my grown children will sit still long enough to watch all fifteen or so hours of the movie plus special features. I never fail to come away from viewing the movie inspired to write my best, and to take on the world.
If a little country like New Zealand (sorry Shelley – but I’m talking about geographical square footage and financial reserves now) can produce such an astonishing achievment like Lord of the Rings, none of us has any excuses to do anything less than knock ourselves out and give it our best.
Besides, you look at the natural scenery in that movie — the mountains, rivers, trees and so forth — and get blown away by just how beautiful New Zealand is.
Yeah, New Zealand can hold its own against Australia any day. So when people mistake me as a Kiwi, that’s why I smile.
And I guess I’d better talk a bit about my book, too, huh?
Here’s the blurb:
New York cop Sherry Abandonato cashes in her savings and dashes to Ningaloo in remote north-west Western Australia to find her sister who disappeared ten days ago.
The only one with the skill to guide her to Derremawan is Mason Hayward, once an official guide, and still with a reputation for getting people out of trouble, but now the town’s bad man.
In a searing afternoon of unexpected passion, Mason strikes a bargain: He’ll get her to Derremawan, if she agrees to go there with him unconditionally, on his terms, and his conditions. Sherry is astonished to find herself agreeing to the insane bargain, and worse, responding positively to the idea of three days of Mason Hayward dictating terms out under the Australian sun…
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