Fiona Lowe: What do you buy your Mom when she turns 80?

My Mom is turning 80. Wow!! I won't even mention what that means in terms of my birthday this year, except she was very old when she had me ;-) All her life, my mother has never wanted the spotlight turned on her so although she had a 21st under sufferance, and then she had a large wedding, from that date onwards, she's never wanted a party for herself.

Imagine my surprise when she announced she wanted a party. It's still a couple of of months away but I've been helping her choose paper and fonts and I'm printing invitations because, at almost 80 she's pretty busy. She leaves soon for Scandinavia...as you do when you're almost 80. Dad, who is a spritely just-turned 79 is accompanying her on the six week trip.

They travel a lot and usually I write to them and fax the letter to their hotel. This year however, my mother's younger sister (aged 67) went on a trip and emailed Mom often. I think a bit of sibling rivalry sprung up and my mother thought, 'Well if she can do it, so can I.' Suddenly there were rumblings about, 'buying a laptop.' We came up with a better plan...an iPad 2.

How did we sell this to them? We said, you can email us but you can also watch movies, Dad can load up the holiday snaps and actually SHOW them to us on the iPad...we're two trips behind 'cos they are on his computer 90 miles away and you can Skype us.' Also, the Queen just bought one!

But most importantly, I pointed out she can read my books...I mean, that's important, right, especially as my first single title, Boomerang Bride (Out on August 8th) is a Carina Press book so only available electronically. For now though, I've set her up with, Single Dad's Triple Trouble to take to Europe.

According to sales figures, the older generations are taking up the iPad in droves and I am hoping that Mom and Dad find this new technology a LOT easier than the fight they've been having with Vista for the last few years!

What technology have your parents taken on that you least expected them to?


As well as organizing 80th birthday parties, Fiona Lowe writes medical romances for Harlequin and fun single-title romances for Carina Press. For more information about her books go to http://www.fionalowe.com

Wind, Rain, Fire and Locusts - Fiona Lowe

Australia is currently struggling with weather. A large chunk of Australia has been very wet and flooded this Janurary just past. The West has sizzled in heat with bushfires. locusts have plagued farmers and right now, parts of Queensland are bracing themselves for Cyclone Yasi. Where we are in southern Victoria we're been incredibly fortunate just to have rain and although the river flooded, we were not badly affected.

We did however have an incredibly wet week in a tent by the beach. Camping is something best experienced under sunny skies. Everything is harder when it's wet...and we didn't just have drizzle but torrential rain that didn't eased for five days. The flip side was instead of surfing, rockpool rambling and canoeing we were reading and learning new card games and honing our skills on existing ones. Playing games around a table is one of the things I love about camping. We laugh, we argue, we negoitate and all those skills are really important for the kids to learn because they're skills they will need out in the big, wide world.

We also did quizzes. Every day, DS2 would read out the quiz from the paper and it's amazing how much stuff we know between the four of us. The Scrabble dictionary also got a beating. So although it wasn't the most active holiday or even one of the best holidays, we had fun, a good relax and realised we could rub along together without iPads, computers or TV. (everyone is allowed their iPod for music).

And on day seven the sun did come out and all was well with the world:-)

To celebrate my latest release of Single Dad's Triple Trouble I'm giving away a copy. To be in the drawer, just tell me about your most challenging vacation!

Fiona Lowe is an Australian author who writes for the Harlequin Mills and Boon Medical Romance line and single title contemporary romances for Carina Press. When she isn't drying out soggy tents, she tries to juggle a weekend husband, two sons, writing and an out-of-control garden. For more information on Fiona, visit her at http://www.fionalowe.com. She can also be found at Facebook and Twitter