Scorching Heat; it must be Christmas! by Fiona Lowe

I am just back from my first foray to the shops for Christmas. Usually, I start in November but this year I was on a nine day bike ride (300+ miles!!/591km) and I have come back to discover I usually do a LOT of preparation during that last week of November.

My key to Christmas shopping is two-fold. 1. On-line shop as much as you can. 2.If I need to go to the mall I go early ; in by 9AM and out by 11AM. As The Lad (18 year old son) and I walked out of the mall today, we walked into a wall of heat. Ah, it must be Christmas.

My husband and Boy Wonder (14) made an early trip and bought the Christmas tree because tomorrow they will all be wilted after today's scorcher of 102F. The house smells of pine and again, I know it must be getting close to Christmas.

I've shared three phone calls and five text messages with my sister so far today...again, another sign Christmas is coming!

I also have a Christmas novel out! Newborn Baby For Christmas which is a modern take on the original Christmas story. It's lots of fun...there is a family reunion (census), no room at the inn, three wise men and a virgin birth ;-) It's got it all and it's set in Australia so a heap of Aussie Christmas traditions are thrown in there as well. Please do check out the link because 'Down Under' our Christmas is a little different from friends who live in the northern hemisphere and I've described them along with some recipes!

Of course, I PINE for my northern hemisphere Christmases where all the traditions made made sense. I wrote about them in my Rita winning novel, Boomerang Bride, which is coming out in trade paperback in the USA on December 18th! just in time for Christmas :-) It's on sale right now at Amazon.

Also, talking recipes, the wonderful folk at Carina Press  who published Boomerang Bride have put together a holiday recipe book and it's free HERE as a pdf so Merry Christmas!

Wishing you all a happy and healthy festive season and I hope you get to spend time with the people you wish to spend time with!

Please take care, travel safely, hug the ones you love, spare a thought for those less fortunate and I hope your stockings are overflowing with great books!
Fiona xxx

A Modern Christmas Tale

Down here, in Australia, November means the shops deck their halls and the junk mail/mail box flyers quadruple in volume. Christmas is truly on the agenda. Magazines are filled with home-made gift ideas and despite part of me thinking, 'Noooooo, it's too early to think about Christmas' I know that really it's not.

This year, things are busier than normal because between now and Christmas I have a son writing his final Year 12 exams (all 13 of them) and an insane bike ride to complete, so I am starting to feel the pressure to ‘get organised.’  

The first week of November means I have to soak the dried fruit for my Christmas cake in whiskey, rum, brandy, vanilla and lemon essence. It soaks for a month and I bake it at the start of December. This cake featured in my RITA award-winning novel, Boomerang Bride.  It also means that any gifts I want to order from the USA, like Lego...it is HEAPS cheaper on your side of the world...then I have to do it know so it arrives by December 25th.  November also means its time to plant the tomato seedlings and the basil...yes, it's spring 'Down Under.'

This year, November also means Newborn Baby for Christmas is out in the UK and the USA. I love Christmas and I loved writing this book. The idea came from the original Christmas story, starting with the virgin birth. Almost all the elements of the original Christmas story are in my very modern, 2012, Christmas tale, although no camels. ;-)

Reviews for this story have been very positive, "Mrs Lowe is on top form in this captivating story of long term friends progressing into lovers. The characters are normal everyday people whom you can easily identify with. " "There is only one word to describe this story;fantastic!" So what's it about? Hamish and Georgie have been friends for 14 years and now, both in their thirties, one of them is very keen to settle down although not with the other. Like many modern women, Georgie's biological clock is ticking and in 2012, women are not dependent on having a man in their life to have a child. When Georgie asks Hamish one of the biggest favours a friend can ever ask, he reluctantly agrees. He has one caveat- his family can never know. Both Georgie and Hamish have totally different plans for Christmas but the universe has another idea. Hamish finds himself living his worst nightmare. He's in the heart of his extended family at Christmas, and Georgie and their secret is there too. I hope you enjoy spending Christmas at Weeroona with the Pettigrew family and if you want to drink the wine they drink in the book, then check out Leura Park Estate whose motto, Life is short, celebrate well, is one we should take on board! I set this book very close to where I live, which is a beautiful coastal part of the world and it's full of Australian Christmas traditions. What is your favourite part in the run-up to Christmas? Leave a comment to do into a draw for an eBOOK editions of Newborn Baby For Christmas

I hope you enjoy reading Newborn Baby For Christmas as much as I enjoyed writing it. Fiona x Newborn Baby for Christmas is out now and available  as a physical book or an eBook. It's available Amazon UK & USA and from Harlequin.  Fiona Lowe is a RITA® and R*BY award-winning, multi-published author with Harlequin and Carina Press. Whether her books are set in outback Australia or in the mid-west of the USA, they feature small towns with big hearts, and warm, likeable characters that make you fall in love. When she's not writing stories, she's a weekend wife, mother of two 'ginger' teenage boys, guardian of 80 rose bushes and often found collapsed on the couch with wine. You can find her at her website, facebook, Twitter and Goodreads.

Spring is here Downunder!

My boys have just headed back to school after our 'spring break'. We have four school terms here, broken up with a two week break between terms 1, 2 & 3 and then six weeks summer vacation after term four.
We took a mini trip during the break, funnily enough to visit Kandy Sheperd who blogged yesterday! It was so great to visit her and her lovely husband and to meet the cats and horses she often blogs about.

On the last day of our trip, we visited The Royal National Park in Sydney. Back in the 1870s, when this park was declared, I am sure it was in the middle of nowhere, but now it is surrounded by the southern suburbs of Sydney and on a public holiday, everyone was there taking advantage of having rugged coastal  beaches and glorious bush right on their doorstep.

And the flowers were out. I wanted to share some of them with you....

This is a Waratah and it is also the state flower of New South Wales. My photography doesn't show off how big the flowers really are but they are about 4 inches across and a glorious maroon red. They last in a vase for about six weeks. I love them but it is a bit too cool for them to grow where I live.

This is pink heath. Although I took this photo in New South Wales, it is the state flower of my state, Victoria.

Sorry, I have no clue what this is but it's pretty, right ? ;-)

 This is flower eucalpyt. Eucalyptus trees can flower in white, red or even orange, depending on the sub species.

I have exhausted my knowledge here but wanted to share them all with you.

So tell me, what is your favourite local flower? Or what is your state flower? I would love to know!

Fiona Lowe is a RITA^®  and R*BY award-winning, multi-published author with Harlequin and Carina Press. Whether her books are set in outback Australia or in the mid-west of the USA, they feature small towns with big hearts, and warm, likeable characters that make you fall in love. When she's not writing stories, she's a weekend wife, mother of two 'ginger' teenage boys, guardian of 80 rose bushes and often found collapsed on the couch with wine. Yyou can find her at her website, facebook, Twitter and Goodreads.

Her most recent releases are Letting Go Wiht Dr Rodriguez, Boomerang Bride and Sydney Harbour Hospital :Tom's Redemption

Her Christmas novel, NewBorn Baby For Christmas is up for pre-order now