Away again … latest covers

Well we’re off to Port Stephen’s in the morning. *sigh* I really don’t want to go. Not that I don’t want to catch up with our friends, but I’m just over all the upheaval, packing and driving. We’re basically driving back to Sydney! LOL. Oh well.

Guess I’ll leave you with the latest releases over at Total-E-Bound

Nothing to Lose by Jamie Hill. This was one of those covers that I just couldn’t get into. I think the whole ‘handyman’ thing threw me and I got too wrapped up in the ‘renovation’ picture that I had in my head. Didn’t matter what I did it looked wrong so had to take a step back and simplify it a bit. I also had a different guy in a singlet top. He looked a lot more ‘handy-manish’ but also a bit boring LOL! So I replaced him with Mr Sack-of-Potatoes and ta-da … schmexy cover

Hello by Dakota Rebel. Simple and straight forward this one. This is pretty much the image I had in my head from the start. I’m happy with how it turned out. I think I originally had a white background but the red, white & blue gives it a whole ‘Do it for your country’ thang going for it LOL! Even her fingers remind me of the stripes on the American flag .. ha ha! The model originally had blue tinsel wrapped around her so I had to cut that out and paint in her fingers and add the phone to her hand. Worked out pretty well if I do say so myself

Well, time for bed. Will catch up with you all next week. Cheers!

Aussie Aussie Aussie .. Oi Oi Oi

Well it’s Australia Day today down here and I can guarantee the temperature will be a good 10 degree’s higher, thanks to all the Barbie’s and Webbers cranking up for the day. Yes folks, it’s a day of celebration. In fact, stuff just making a day of it, we’ll turn the whole bloody weekend into a paartay thank you very much! LOL

It’s today when people openly brag about being Australian Royalty. Usually meaning they have Convict stock in their blood. So I’m pretty proud to admit that not only do I have one convict but three *takes a bow* We were first shipped out here in 1798 from the mother land for the likes of highway robbery, theft from an employee and would you believe – stealing a cow, milking it and then getting caught taking it back. Yes, that was the Irish ancestor *rolls eyes* and no he wasn’t a Murphy .

So there you have it. Don’t expect much productivity from us Aussies this weekend

Anyway to keep with the theme of all things Australian, I thought I’d share a little poem that has always stuck with me since I was a kid and always puts a smile on my dial

Tumba-bloody-rumba

I was down the Riverina, knockin’ ’round the towns a bit,
and occasionally resting with a schooner in me mitt,
and on one of these occasions, when the bar was pretty full,
and the local blokes were arguin’ assorted kinds of bull,
I heard a conversation, most peculiar in its way.
It’s only in Australia you would hear a joker say:

“Howya bloody been, ya drongo, haven’t seen ya fer a week,
and yer mate was lookin’ for ya when ya come in from the creek.
‘E was lookin’ up at Ryan’s, and around at bloody Joe’s,
and even at the Royal, where ‘e bloody NEVER goes”.

And the other bloke says “Seen ‘im? Owed ‘im half a bloody quid.
Forgot to give it back to him, but now I bloody did -
could’ve used the thing be bloody self. Been off the bloody booze,
up at Tumba-bloody-rumba shootin’ kanga-bloody-roos.”

Now the bar was pretty quiet, and everybody heard
the peculiar integration of this adjectival word,
but no-on there was laughing, and me – I wasn’t game,
so I just sits back and let them think I spoke the bloody same.

Then someone else was interested to know just what he’d gone and got,
how many kanga-bloody-roos he went and bloody shot,
and the shooting bloke says “Things are crook – the drought’s too bloody tough.
I got forty bloody seven, and that’s good e-bloody-nough.”

And, as this polite rejoiner seemed to satisfy the mob,
everyone stopped listening and got on with the job,
which was drinkin’ beer, and arguin’ and talkin’ of the heat,
of boggin’ in the bitumen in the middle of the street.

But for me, I’m here to say the interesting piece of news
was Tumba-bloody-rumba shootin’ kanga-bloody-roos.

John Patrick O’Grady

ha ha ha … love it!

Anyway, so I’ve not much more to add today but I thought I’d leave you with some eye candy of this incredibly beautiful and diverse country of ours. As Amarinda says, come and visit. We’ll take your money with a smile

Some of our fella’s … (phwaaar!!!)

Our country …

Our loves …

A good party ..

Some footy and a good ol’ tiff with the neighbours

Tim Tams .. need I say more …

A good feed …

and need I say the best grog on the planet!

So to all my fellow Aussies who may read this – have a great one and knock back a couple for me. Get pissed as a newt but don’t drive home! Unless it’s via the porcelain bus – that’s okay Sleep like a log till Sundy lunch time then relax with a hair of the dog while you watch the V8’s. Oh and don’t forget to phone in sick for work on Mundy. Cheers big ears!

A bit over it

Well, as you can all imagine the press down here are having a field day over the death of Heath Ledger. We’ve got hours of movie tributes (amazing how the TV networks can get their asses into gear when someone dies, isn’t it?), endless interviews with actors who worked with him for like 2 seconds, neighbours, fans, people who’d passed him on the street, the man down the road’s dog. You name it, they’ve dredged them up. But what really did it for me this morning was an interview the poor guy’s old primary school Principle (headmaster). I mean, COME ONE people, get a grip!

Anyway, it really is starting to sound like more of an accidental overdose than anything sinister. They say he was getting over pneumonia, had been exhausted and unwell. It wouldn’t surprise me if this mix of sleeping pills and his general rundown condition just pushed his poor body over the edge. We’ve all become just so blase with prescription drugs. Who’d have thought popping a couple of sleeping pills to help you sleep through an illness would have you waking up at the pearly gates?

Anyway, I’m a bit over it now so enough of that. What else has been happening? Not much really. I’m just biding my time, waiting for the kids to get back to school and believe me there have been a few times where I’ve thought they wouldn’t make it LOL!

Now one of the few things that I DO get to do whilst down in Sydney is read. I think I do most of my annual reading when I’m down there. I managed to finish Eldest by Christopher Paolini, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling, Dangerous Games by Keri Arthur, A Girls Guide to Vampires by Katie MacAlister, and Gideon by Jacquelyn Frank (Book 2 of the Nightwalker series).

Not bad, eh?

My favourite at the moment would be Jacquelyn Frank’s book. I have since ordered the other two in the series and am waiting very impatiently As usual, I came into this series in the middle so missed a bit of the history of Jacob but his book is hopefully on its way as I speak. It’s a fresh take on all things dark and dangerous – of course. I noticed that JF uses big words throughout her work, rather than the ‘basic’ language style you see in many novels. It can be a bit off-putting as you find yourself balking at a word to make sure that you read it right. Then that little voice in your head starts up ‘Why didn’t she just say …’ and then you lose the flow and have to start the sentence/paragraph again LOL! But apart from that it’s looking like a fantastic series.

Oh, and I’ve just downloaded some more books from TEB! Can’t wait to get into these: The Watchers: Dark Awakening by Charlotte Featherstone, Redemption: Fallen by Brynn Paulin and Celtic Fire:Solstice Seduction by Bronwyn Green. They’re all from the Fallen Angels series and if the small amount that I’ve read of Dark Awakening is anything to go by, then I’ll be very, very happy with my purchases

Well that’s about it. I had typed all this once already and then lost it when I went searching for links, damn it! So I’m a bit over it now LOL.

What a Shame & Melting the Minerals

Oh dear .. what a sad day it is for the Australian Film industry. Actor Health Ledger found dead in his NY apartment of an apparent drug overdose. Silly, silly boy *shakes head in disbelief*. He was 28! What a wasted life.

Well I’m not going to dwell on it. He was a bit of a strange one but that was probably the drugs. What a dreadful time it will be for his family and young daughter. It’s hard enough dealing with these sorts of things in private, let alone having it all splashed across the world news.

Oh well. RIP Heath! May you have learnt your lessons in this life. Onwards and upwards and all that.

Okay on a lighter note here’s the latest cover to grace the pages of TEB’s out soon page.

Melting the Minerals by C.S. Chatterly (Book 3 in the Uniform Behaviour series). I really like the style of these covers and have been really happy with how they’ve all come together. Again this one was quite simple although I did have to add the guy’s head to the woolly jacket LOL! I used a similar technique to create the snowy effect as I did for the fire in Daring the Underworld. I just removed the colour So there it is, a simple yet effective cover.

Now I also want to congratulate Total-E-Bound on getting 5th place in the P&E awards. 5th out of 107 publishers and they’ve only been up and running for approx. 6 months! The team at TEB are just so helpful and professional. It’s a fantastic team to be involved with so why don’t you head on over and check them out!

The TEB Chat over at Nightowl yesterday was fun and very encouraging. Everyone seems really happy with the standard of covers which is great. It’s nice to know we’re on the right track LOL!

So Dakota was thinking about taking a week off, however, seems her muse has other ideas http://vampsmut.blogspot.com/ and just why is Amarinda walking around the neighbourhood with her clothes on inside out, prey tell? http://amarindajones.blogspot.com/

I’ve been Tagged

I’ve been tagged by the lovely Kaz Augustin! I have to admit that I’m a ‘Tag’ virgin LOL so I don’t know how interesting my Six Random Things About Me will be, but here goes.

Six Random Things About Me

Hmmm … *crickets* … okay, okay, here we go…

1. I got very close to getting my Level 2 in Parelli Natural Horsemanship. That’s gone by the by since my horse died a few years back. I hope to get back into it one day though.
2. I’ve had very little artistic training. I did do a short oil painting course with Aussie artist, Michael Zaiter. I’ve dabbled in sketching and water-colours but I wouldn’t say that I learned much from these little forays into art
3. I also have a dabble at writing when the mood takes me. Romance, of course. Unfortunately I get side-tracked easily so tend to run hot and cold with my projects. Hence, not one WIP completed LOL!
4. I collect green and amber vintage glass. Mostly Depression and Art Deco, with some Jadeite sprinkled in there as well.
5. I had a nose-job when I was 16! LOL
6. I’m allergic to dust, cockroaches and cats. Of course our house is filled with dust, cockroaches and cats!

So there you have it. Wasn’t so hard I guess. However, it seems I need to now tag six people with blogs. Gee, this is where I get a bit funny about passing things on to people. You can thank my administrative training for that so I will not hound you if you decide not to participate. Aren’t I nice You will see my selection has quite an Aussie feel to it LOL!

a) Amarinda Jones, fellow Aussie and kick-ass author of Erotic Romance,
b) Keri Arthur, fellow Aussie and Author of the the incredible Riley Jensen series,
c) April Martinez, amazingly talented cover artist for Loose ID,
d) Denise Rossetti, forum buddy, amazing Aussie author AND the person responsible for bringing TEB to my attention
e) Tracy O’Hara, another awesome Aussie author and soon to be in print!,

f) Charlotte Featherstone, author of all things Angelically yummy ! (LOL! There’s a new term for your editor AJ!)

The Rules

• Link to the person that tagged you
• Post the rules on your blog
• Share six non-important things/habits/quirks about yourself
• Tag six random people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs
• Let each random person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their website

I’m baaaaaack …

Orriiiiight!! I’m back *mmwaaahhahahahahah …*

Wow. What a trip. I’m exhausted! As usual we came back with ten times more stuff than we went down with, thanks to a belated Christmas and early birthday for dear daughter. Even scored an old computer off my big bro which will keep darling daughter happy. I’ll load up some basic games and educational stuff on there for her and she can have that in her room. YAY!! One less person fighting for access to MY computer.

It’s good to be home, but gee our house is a bomb compared to mum’s place. Everything has a place. There’s no crap lying around on benches. It’s just so clean. Its depressing coming home to this .. mess. SO. I’m on a mission over the next few weeks to get rid of the stuff just laying around. The kids toys are going to get a major work over and I’m going to invest in some more storage systems. Would you believe this house did not have even a linen cupboard in it when we bought it? How strange.

AND it looks like we may be revamping the bathroom. We can’t afford a full overhaul but we can fill in the ensuite door that leads to our bedroom. We never use it and it wastes good wall space. We’ll replace the toilet bowl that dear hubby broke while we were away. It’s useable, its just the rim that’s broken, but it’s a good excuse to get a nice new one. Then there’s the hateful vanity and mirror – gee I’ll be glad to see the back of that thing And last but not least, the shower screen that manages to fall off every time we go in or out. Oh, and the toilet roll holder and soap tray in the bath. Whilst I don’t particularly like the tiles, they’re not that bad so I can live with them if I have to. We’ll be doing it ourselves so we’ll do it gradually so as not to upset the workings of the house too much

I’ve got a couple of covers to do as well as keep the kids entertained this week before we head off to Port Stephens for a couple of days to catch up with friends. They’ve brought their identical twins out to visit all the way from London. I can’t say that I’d envy that plane trip LOL! Hubby did the trip over for their wedding a few years back. They got married in Slovenia (lucky, lucky people!) as that’s where his mate’s wife comes from. *sigh* I might get over there one day.

Anyway, there’ll be a few posts over the next few days. I’ve another cover and I’ve been tagged. So fun, fun, fun!

Cupids and Tumbleweed

Two more covers released over at TEB …

Karaoke at the Tumbleweed by Carol Lynne

Gee, don’t you wish all Barmen looked this good?? LOL

This one was needed quite quickly. I had the idea of what I wanted pretty early so it was just a matter of finding the right models. I’d been eyeing these two off for a little while now … well, one in particular , and I’m surprised how well they came together. She was hanging off another fellow but he was wearing too many clothes

Okay, so what have I done here … I removed the poncy buttons from his cardie and of course added his tatt’s and longer hair. I thought she looked a little odd just hanging there with no bottom half so I searched around and found her a hip *rolls eyes*. Yeah, I know I’ve practically covered it over but I don’t like missing body parts

Also her skin was a bit mottled. Actually she looked dead, so I airbrushed a bit of life back into her. I also managed to scratch up a bar/pub background and fussed around with the fonts to get a Neon feel and Voila! Karaoke at the Tumbleweed It is a nice change for Carol who usually writes M/M, so I hope she likes it.

The Cupids Kisses covers a couple of short stories – hence the Title & Author. This will cover Dirty Cupid by Lexie Davis, Attitude Adjustment by Bobbie Russell, To Catch a Cassanova by Erika Scott and Redemptions Incubus by Brynn Paulin. The sexy guy with the bow and arrow was pretty straight forward. I went with some rose petals for that Valentines feel. Not one of my better covers but it get’s the job done, I guess.

On the count down now. I haven’t done any packing. I’ve been on this computer AAAALLL day. My daughter is thoroughly disgusted with me as she wants to get onto NickJR and play games. Fair dinkum! The house is full of toys. I have one that I’ll admit to – my computer. So why am I forever fighting the kids and my husband off the damn thing? It seems that ever since I’ve become serious about forging a career in Cover Art, which requires endless hours at the computer, all of a sudden everyone else in the household want to get on it? Before I started my cover art no-one came near the bloody thing! Sheesh! Can you tell I’m stressed LOL!

Well, better keep going. Two more covers to try to get done before tonight and then we’re off.

Oops .. almost forgot to add that I was interviewed by the lovely Amarinda Jones so go and check out her blog!

Cheers!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Ah, so another year has passed us bye. Hope everyone had a great New Years Eve.

We all sat around and played ‘SingStar’ a PS2 game! Don’t know how the kids slept through it but it was a bit of fun. I must say that I’m showing my age these days. I was more than ready for bed by the time 12 o’clock came around. Certainly not like ‘pre-kids’ where the thought of missing out on New Years was like the end of the world. Now, it’s just like – meh! LOL.

Yeah, I really do miss having feelings. I can’t remember the last time I felt excited. I feel like I’ve numbed out to everything. I’m just so good at controlling my emotions now, I don’t even feel them any more. Hmmm .. a bit deep for the first day of the year, eh? LOL You’d think getting into a career that I just love would get the butterflies flitting, but no. Nothing!

Aaaanyway, three more sleeps until the dreaded drive south to visit the family. Hate the drive. Love the family

Here’s a pic of the Pacific Highway. Actually looks like the Pine Creek section just near us. As you can see by the crosses on the trees, it’s a deadly bit of road. There are white crosses littering the highway, all the way to Sydney. The worst spot is where there are 5 crosses lined up next to each other. Ghastly business. I always get so anxious before I do the trip. The best I can do is take it easy, I guess. At least there shouldn’t be so many Semi’s on the road at this time of year. Just idiots.

On other topics, I have two covers to do before I go away. Somehow I don’t think it’s going to happen so they will possibly fall into the week I get back. I’ll be home for the week and then heading off South again as I think I mentioned in a previous post. I knew five were coming so got myself organised before receiving the request forms. I got two out within the first 2 days which was promising but got stuck on the third. It took a while to get into it for some reason but I think I’ve worked something out. Just have to send it off to Claire and see what she thinks Glad to hear you liked your new cover D!

So it’s the two covers, packing, cleaning, packing away the Christmas tree and assorted ornaments, and keeping up with blogs and other online activites that are going to keep me busy for the next few days. Don’t know how I’m going to live without my computer for the next two weeks but I should be able to get onto mum’s laptop on occasion to check up on you all.

Oh, and the finger is doing well. I’ve managed to avoid the Dr for the time being. The skin has coloured up a bit but I’m still not sure if it will stay there. There’s quite a bump there now on the lowest & biggest slice and it’s all very numb. Doubt I’ll get feeling back in this bit of my finger. Kinda looks a bit like a writer’s callus from the side Will see what mum thinks – she’s the trained nurse

Can’t wait till I can use my finger to type again. It’s amazing the difference the lack of one finger makes when it comes to typing. Actually it’s more the bandaging that get’s in the way. Might have to cut back a bit to see if I can use it.

Anyway, got things to do. Take care and I’ll catch up with you all very soon!