Close to home – Kandy Shepherd

I love to travel but for various reasons (most to do with dollars or shortage thereof!) sadly no travel plans were made for this year. Most sadly, I didn’t get to the Romance Writers of America annual conference in Florida. It’s been a cold winter in my part of Down Under and I was looking enviously at peoples’ social media posts from the hot summer in Orlando and feeling sorry for myself.

But then I had to go spend some time in a town not too far from my home town in Sydney, Australia. My daughter was on a university placement at Lake Macquarie, near the city of Newcastle less than two hours drive away. We drove up and spent a few days with her. While it wasn’t a vacation, it was a lovely short break in a part of the world I hadn’t visited since I was a teenager. (And that's a long time ago!)

We loved the sea birds on the dock of our motel

We stayed in a family run motel right on the lake, which is more of an inland sea. Each morning we woke to a glorious view of the ever-changing sky and water. 

There's something about palm trees to give a vacation feel!

We went for walks on fabulous beaches that were practically deserted in winter.

There's something moody about a beach in winter!

 And we ate wonderful food at cafes and restaurants not far from our motel. 

This caramel stack was demolished in minutes!

It made me appreciate how sometimes the nicest places to visit can be not far from home.

Do you have a favorite place to visit or vacation that’s not too far from home?  I’d love to read your comments!

Kandy Shepherd’s most recent book Conveniently Wed to the Greek is a May 2017 release from Harlequin Romance in North America; Mills & Boon Cherish in the UK; and Mill & Boon ForeverRomance in Australia and New Zealand.

Kandy Shepherd is a multi-published, award-winning author of contemporary romance

and women’s fiction. She lives on a small farm in the Blue Mountains near Sydney, Australia, with her family and a menagerie of four-legged friends.

Visit Kandy at her website

www.kandyshepherd.com

Connect with Kandy on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram

We stayed at the Squid's Ink Motel at Belmont, NSW Australia.

Out and About in the Hunter Valley!

by Anna Campbell

The start of this year has been full-on writing for me. All that computer interaction has made Anna a very dull girl indeed. So I was really looking forward to a couple of days down south with my very dear friend and critique partner, Annie West, at the beginning of April. 

Annie lives in a very beautiful part of the world, Lake Macquarie in New South Wales. That's the lake behind me in the photo to the left of this paragraph. As you can see, we had lovely weather for my visit!

Her house is set amongst towering gum trees and I love watching the birds that visit - lorikeets and cockatoos and rosellas and other assorted natives.

So I thought I'd share a few photos and a few memories of my writerly visit. Annie herself blogged about my visit in April here at Tote Bags if you'd like to see some more pics: http://www.authorsoundrelations.blogspot.com.au/2012/04/joys-of-sunday-drive-annie-west.html 

Most of these photos were taken on the Friday of my visit. When Annie and I were unpublished, we both promised that once we sold, we'd take the other one out to lunch every time we had a book accepted. This lunch was to celebrate the acceptance of Annie's wonderful GIRL IN THE BEDOUIN TENT so she picked up the tab, bless her. We're at Milano's Restaurant, right on the edge of the lake. Gorgeous setting and lovely food and wonderful service.

I took pictures of the desserts. Aren't they spectacular? Annie's was the delicious chocolate looking thing and I had a very rich banana pudding concoction.

Are you feeling hungry? I've just had breakfast and I'm salivating!

Another lovely thing about being on the lake is that you get to watch the fishermen and the walkers and the prolific bird life. We saw black swans and gulls and cormorants who perched on the boat rails to dry their wings. I love it when they stand there like silhouettes!

It's always such an affirmation of the paths we've taken when we get together for one of our author lunches. The next one is  at the Gold Coast during the Romance Writers of Australia conference. My turn to pick up the tab for MIDNIGHT'S WILD PASSION!

Because I hadn't seen Annie for ages, we both had presents to deliver. Below, you'll see a shot of me clutching some goodies - I think I went home with a heavier suitcase than the one I arrived with! It was like Christmas all over again.

Don't mistake that we just played ladies of leisure on my visit. In between all the highjinks, we did a stack of serious critiquing work. We speak often on the phone and email like fiends, but there's something special about face-to-face sessions. So inspiring. I always come home with a million new ideas.

We brainstorm new stories, talk about writing problems, discuss issues with works in progress, dissect the wider writing industry and how any changes (lately there's been lots of changes!) affect us.

It's always wonderful for me to have such an in-depth session on my career and work. I hope Annie feels the same! I know I always feel very lucky that we hooked up together at my very first Romance Writers of Australia conference.

If any of you are aspiring writers and wondering whether attending a writing conference is worth the expense, take the chance. You never know who you might meet!

We also celebrate good news. Writing tends to be a fairly solitary occupation - after all, you're sitting on your own at a computer getting those words down. There are days when the only 'people' I talk to are the characters in my head. And while naturally those characters are excellent company, it's nice to raise a glass with someone flesh and blood. I dread to tell you quite how many bottles we empty when we get together. I think our livers are grateful that there's a recovery gap between each visit! Annie had recently won a Romantic Times Reviewers Choice Award for her sublime PROTECTED BY THE PRINCE so we raised a glass to Alaric and Tamsin. Hic!

Speaking of livers, for ages, we've been talking about visiting the vineyards up in the Hunter Valley, one of Australia's premier wine-producing areas. We had a lovely drive over the weekend up the valley and in the process, visited a couple of vineyards and some historic small towns.

The photo on the left shows the goodies we picked up at Tyrrells Winery, one of the oldest in the area. The views from the vineyard were beautiful - check out Annie's blog to see them! And yet again, the weather blessed us. It's been a wet year in Australia; I've learned not to take the sunshine for granted.

It was also great fun when I was down to catch up with super-talented Harlequin Mills and Boon Romance author Michelle Douglas. We had an uproarious get-together at a coffee shop down near the lake.

I love this fun photo of the girls. They look so happy holding up Michelle's latest book THE MAN WHO SAW HER BEAUTY.  Michelle made that very groovy tote bag Annie is holding up. Isn't she clever? I can't even cut wrapping paper straight so I'm in awe of anyone who does crafty stuff.

So have you been out and about lately? Tell me somewhere nice you've been!