If Money Were No Object by Paula Roe

There’s many things I love about being a writer – working from home, writing for a living, meeting wonderful readers and fellow writers. And one of the techiques that kick start me into a new story is asking ‘what if’. Some would call it day dreaming :-) but one of the frequent ‘what ifs’ when I was growing up (besides “what if I got a pony for Christmas?”) was “what would you buy if you won the lottery?”

Okay, so I’ve moved on from “building a chocolate volcano”, “new rollerskates” and “paying Nick Rhodes from Duran Duran to marry me” (although the chocolate volcano thing still holds great appeal...) But this question recently came up during a conversation I had with my 10 year old son. Of course, his answers were along the lines of “buy every single Lego set made”, “adopt a bunch of cats and rabbits” and “take a trip to Hawaii”. Mine? After I ruled out the obvious charity donations, I came up with these:

• holidaying in style. It’d be business class all the way, absorbing the wonders of Europe without worrying if the communal toilet would still be working when I returned to the cruddy, broken-down hotel that looked way better in the brochure.

• a nice car. Nothing over the top, just something cute and sporty, with a soft top. And a hybrid, of course!

• sparkles. I love jewelry, so I’d buy me a gorgeous pink diamond ring to mark the momentous occasion

• a personal trainer. Because given the chance, I like to laze around in bed, or relax in front of the TV or sit in front of the computer. Writers’ lives can be so sedentary and some cute muscley guy helping me work up a sweat would be a great motivator :-)

• a summer house. Somewhere along the Gold Coast of Australia, or maybe on one of the Whitsunday Islands. Or, heck, maybe I’ll just do a Richard Branson and buy the whole island instead and rent it out to the rich and famous when I’m not in residence!

So, what would your lottery win bring you? A Caribbean cruise? A house on Sydney Harbor? Share your fantasy – money no object! - and you could win a book from one of my backlist.

Paula’s next book, Bed of Lies (Harlequin Desire) is a February 2012 release. You can visit her at her website http://www.paularoe.com, Twitter www.twitter.com/paulawrites or Facebook http://www.facebook.com/paularoefanpage