Thanks, everyone, for stopping by to say goodbye. It was lovely having one last chat with you all. Thanks for sharing your dreams, news and awesome book recommends. Hopefully I’ll be chatting to you all sometime in the future.

Until then, all the best,

Sarah

* Original post *
Hello. Lovely to “see” you all. This month I wanted to talk about my latest release, The Best Laid Plans. As you can probably tell by the photo accompanying this post, it’s a Super Romance, not a Blaze, but we’ll get to that later…

The Best Laid Plans is the story of Alex (Alexandra) and Ethan, both of whom are lawyers working for a prestigious Melbourne law firm. Alex and Ethan play racquetball and have lunch occasionally and generally see eye-to-eye on business issues to do with the law firm. They’re friends – sort of. Ethan is a good looking guy, and he’s got a bit of a reputation with the ladies – ahem – and Alex is very career focussed and professional. The last thing she would ever do is let herself “go there” with a fellow partner. It’s hard enough being a woman in a male-dominated industry – she’s not going to make it any harder for herself. So she keeps Ethan at arm’s length – until the day she runs into her ex on the street and discovers he’s become a father.

Eighteen months ago, Alex broke up with Jacob because, after seven years together, he refused to even discuss the idea of them starting a family. Heartbroken, Alex ended things between them – having a family is something she’s always, always wanted, and she refused to give up on her dream. But now Jacob is a father, despite all his protests that he would never want to be a parent, and she is single and heading towards her 39th birthday. Then she visits her doctor for her yearly check up and gets worse news – contrary to what she’s always imagined, her chances of having a baby with her own eggs after 40 are just 10%. Time is literally running out for her.

Freaking out, she joins Ethan for their weekly racquetball game and ends up blabbing far too much personal stuff to him. And Ethan winds up caring way too much about the stuff Alex has blabbed to him, because contrary to appearances, he was once a man who desperately wanted a family, too. Being lawyers, these two smart people make things very complicated before they acknowledge their feelings for one another – but then, of course, there are other issues to overcome on the journey to happiness.

This book was inspired by an ad I saw when I was living in New Zealand – a woman was advertising for a sperm donor, clearly having made a decision that even though she was not in a relationship, she didn’t want to miss out on being a mother. That ad really got me thinking – a woman would have to be really determined and sure about what she wanted to take this route to motherhood. Alex is just such a woman, and getting to know her and Ethan was a great journey for me. If you want to know more about this book and my thoughts when writing it (or if you ever wondered what I sound like!) I recorded a podcast with Malle Vallik, Harlequin’s on-line editor, a few weeks ago and it’s available here.

As I pointed out above, this is a Super Romance, as are the next few books I’m contracted to write with Harlequin. For some reason, these are the kinds of stories that are popping into my head at the moment, so these are the stories I am writing. As such, it feels a little naughty for me to keep blogging here at the Blaze Authors blog, so I have come to the difficult decision that it’s time for me to resign from the blog. This was a very tough call for me – I LOVE being a Blaze Babe, and I LOVE the Blaze line and everything it represents, and I LOVE Blaze readers – you are awesome, interesting women. But, as I said, it feels wrong to be talking about other Harlequin lines on this Blazing red hot site!

Rest assured, I will miss you all so much. I can honestly say with my hand on my heart that my blogs here are the highlight of my month, and I have loved sharing laughs, dreams, stories and opinions with you all. Sniff sniff. Please drop by my website occasionally if you want to stay in contact, or perhaps send me an email via my site to let me know you’d like to join by new releases newsletter list – this means you’ll hear from me whenever I have a book out or other big news.

To celebrate the release of The Best Laid Plans and to commemorate my time on the blog and send myself off in style (can you send yourself off? Not sure!), I‘m going to give away a copy of The Best Laid Plans and three books from my backlist (except Can’t Get Enough, all out of them!) as well as a $50 Amazon voucher for you to add to your TBR pile. Tell me about a dream you have that you refuse to give up on, or simply tell me how things are in your corner of the world, or tell me about your most recent great read – I’m always looking for new authors and books to add to my TBR pile.

Looking forward to our last chat!

We had our first run of sunny days here in Melbourne over the weekend. After months of overcast skies and rain, rain, rain, I feel like a bear coming out of my winter cave. We had friends over and sat by the pool eating yummy things and soaking up the UV. It was fantastic!

As you might be able to tell from the title of my post, I am high on the joys of spring. My garden is going nuts with the perfect combination of rain and sun – I’m including a couple of piccies for you all so you can marvel at the amazing color of the tree outside my bedroom window. Bubblegum pink – unbelievable!


And aren’t those magnolias gorgeous? I am such an ignoramus when it comes to the garden, I have no idea what half the trees are in our yard. So the discovery that I have not one, but two magnolia trees – one white, the other purple – was only made when they started to flower. I have a feeling it’s going to be that way with a lot of the garden!

So, I plan on getting out there and getting my hands dirty and enjoying being outside after a long, cold winter. I’m having a small writing break, and I’m going to read, garden, try to get my exercise routine back on track and generally just recharge the batteries.

How about you? What’s happening in your part of the world? Drop in for a chat and you’ll have a chance to win a copy of my September Blaze, Hot Island Nights. Looking forward to hearing from you…

*STOP PRESS – A special request last minute addition follows – the purple magnolia, in all it’s almost fully-flowering glory!

If both ladies could email me via my website (www.sarahmayberry.com) I will get a book in the mail to them ASAP. Thanks for chatting,everyone. As always, I loved hearing your stories.

Original post:
In case you hadn’t been popping by regularly, I have a book out! Yay. As I mentioned in last month’s post, I love having a book out because it means I have reader letters coming my way, and reader letters make my day. Sometimes, they make my week, and if they’re very special, my month.

But I digress. This month, I wanted to talk about taking risks. The heroine in Hot Island Nights – my September Blaze – is what you might call slightly uptight. A real good girl, well behaved, well spoken, polite, deferential to her elders… You get the picture. She’s also more than a little repressed, mostly because the one time she tried to tell her fiance and soon-to-be husband what she wanted in the bedroom department, he got all stuffy and respectful and patronizing on her. Elizabeth was left feeling foolish and a little smutty for wanting what she wanted – which, you know, in the Blaze world was really pretty vanilla.

But things come to a head in Elizabeth’s life when she learns that the man she thought was her father is not her father – he was, in fact, her stepfather. It seems that while she’s believed both her parents have been dead for many years, she still has a living parent out there in the world. This shocking news, and the fact that her fiance has known this secret and colluded with her grandparents to keep this information from her gives Elizabeth the kick in the pants she needs to take charge of her own life.

She calls off her engagement. Then she flies from London to Australia in search of her birth father. She winds up on a small island off the coast of Victoria, Philip Island, but instead of meeting her father at the address she’s been given, she finds Nathan Jones. And he’s wearing nothing but a towel and a hangover and a hell of a lot of grumpy bear attitude.

I don’t think I’m giving too much away by saying that first encounter doesn’t go, shall we say, well. But when they meet again at the local pub that night, things are a little different. Elizabeth is forced to acknowledged that she finds Nathan very, very sexy. And he can’t stop looking at her and thinking about her, even though he knows she’s got “complicated” written all over her, and for his own reasons he’s not up for complicated right now.

Elizabeth is faced with a choice at the end of that evening – let an opportunity to explore other aspects of herself walk out the door (literally) or grab hold of the challenge with both hands and go for it. She takes the plunge, and even though things get rocky before they get good, it’s the best decision of her life.

All of this got me thinking – would I have been as brave as Elizabeth if I was presented with such a big life challenge? I’m not sure I would. I’ve done my share of semi-brave things in my life – moved countries twice, spoken at big public events, launched a new magazine – but I don’t know that I would have the courage to turn my life upside down the way Elizabeth does.

What about you? Are you a risk taker? Or do you prefer to indulge your love of challenge and risk between the pages of a book? Or are you a mixture of both – a sometimes-risk taker who likes to walk on the wildside within the pages of someone else’s story as well? I’d love to hear your thoughts on this subject. And I’ll be giving away 2 copies of Hot Island Nights to 2 random posters, so don’t be shy! I’m really looking forward to your stories and responses on this one.

Ladies, if you could both email me via my website (www.sarahmayberry.com) with your street addresses, I will get those books in the mail to you ASAP. Thanks for coming along to chat, everyone. See you next month!

Original post:
I have a book out! Yay! I always love having a new release – it means I get reader letters, which are always a highlight, and I get to chat on blogs about my book. Hot Island Nights is a September release, but it’s available on-line now at www.eharlequin.com in the Blaze section.

This book is set on Philip Island, an unassuming little place in Westernport Bay, about an hour and a half south west of Melbourne down here in Australia. When I was a kid, we used to go there a lot for summer holidays, and one of my first boyfriends had a holiday house down there, so I have lots of fond memories of the place. The Island is fairly typical of a lot of Australian holiday spots – pretty laid back, not a lot of pretension, plenty of brown bodies and cold beer. Although holiday houses are getting more and more elaborate these days, on the Island there are still lots and lots of fibro cement weekenders, designed and built cheaply to accommodate Melbourne families for the weekend. The beaches are golden, main street is it as far as entertainment and shopping goes, and thongs (flip-flops to the rest of the world!) are de rigeur as far as footwear is concerned for about four months of the year.

Into all this relaxed casualness walks my heroine, slightly-uptight, very proper Londoner Elizabeth Mason. Brought up to be a nice girl by her grandparents, Elizabeth has come to the Island to find her real father, but she’s also in search of her real self. The not-so-nice, not-so-proper woman hiding beneath her well-bred exterior, if you will. Elizabeth has barely been on the Island five minutes when she meets Nathan. He’s hung-over, nearly naked and not very co-operative – but boy, does he have a great chest. From that first moment, Elizabeth and Nathan get sucked into each others lives, and they both discover that appearances can be very deceptive…

I had a lot of fun writing parts of this book. I also got a bit misty-eyed in parts. But hey, as far as I’m concerned, it’s not a good ride if you don’t have the highs and the lows. I want to give away two copies of Hot Island Nights this month. To be in the running, I’d love for readers to share their best holiday memory. It’s very cold and rainy down here in Melbourne – I want to live vicariously!!! Looking forward to hearing your stories…

Thanks everyone for your tips, advice and congratulations. The move went well, I’m mostly unpacked, and we love our new house. All good!

Original Post:
In two sleeps time, I will be moving house. That’s Monday, for those of you who don’t measure time in sleeps. I do at the moment, because we will be moving into our own home after nearly three years of renting. And I cannot wait!

In many respects, this will be my first “real” home. We’ve owned before, but the first time we bought with my brother, and the second time it was in New Zealand and we always knew we would be selling the house in a few year’s time. This time, though, we are staying put. If it kills us!!! I have big plans. An extension, including a new kitchen and bathrooms and a walk in robe (my idea of heaven, the walk in robe). But in the short term, it will all be about wallpaper stripping. All the bedrooms and the living and dining rooms are bedecked with wallpaper. And it Has To Go.

I grew up with wallpaper. I’m not totally against it – there are some really funky one’s around these days. But this wallpaper is not funky. It’s flowery and busy and overwhelming. Which is great if that’s what you’re into, but I am not. I want nice, clean walls that I can hang art on. I prefer making a statement with soft furnishings than with my walls. So the next few weeks are going to involve lots of scraping and steaming and scrubbing. And swearing and cursing and, no doubt, even the odd argument with my man as we both realise afresh what a horrible job stripping wallpaper is.

But you know, it’s been so long since I was in a position to change anything in my home, I’m kinda looking forward to it, painful bits and all. Sick, huh?

Once I unpack, I will unearth my author copies of my books, so this month I’d love to give away any two (2) books from my backlist that tickle the winning poster’s fancy. Except for Can’t Get Enough. I’ve officially run out of my debut book, so you’ll have to make do with the others, all of which you can preview at my website (www.sarahmayberry.com).

To be in the running, I’d love to hear your moving tips, stories, disasters. Or, if you prefer, your advice for anyone about to undertake a renovation. I’m more than happy to learn from other people’s mistakes, believe me! Over to you…

Congrats Virginia, and thanks to everyone for chatting. It was fun! Virginia, contact me via my website (www.sarahmayberry.com) and I’ll get the books to you ASAP.

Happy reading until next time everyone,
Sarah

Original post:

I have pretty much always wanted to be a writer. I say pretty much because there was a short period there when I was four or five when I wanted to be a shopkeeper. And I also hankered after being an air stewardess for a while, too. But mostly it was always a writer, and I have been fortunate enough to make my dream come true.

This topic is on my mind at the moment because my mum cleaned out her cupboards recently when she had new carpet laid, and as a result asked me to go through a bunch of stuff she’d saved over the years. There are school reports in there and drawings and stories I wrote for school. I thought it might give you all a giggle to read some of my very early writing efforts. This one, for example, is obviously my first attempt at romantic suspense:

“A robber in a dark cape and black hat crept mysteriously behind the jewel shop. He suddenly stopped. He was at the garden shed. He threw off his cape and…he was an old lady. Well, actually, a man cleverly disguised as an old lady. He headed towards the jewel store. he went into the shop. Well, well, hello old lady, could I help you, said the shopkeeper. The old lady (well, man) said nothing. He did not want to give himself away.”

I have no idea how old I was when I wrote this – quite young, if the careful cursive script and hugely spacious lines on the page are anything to go by. I have no idea what the robber was going to do dressed as an old woman in the shop, either, but I can’t help noting my conversational style of writing. I wonder what the teacher made of it!

My favorite amongst the writings my mother kept is the little book I made called “Words* the mean the same but different people.” I’m not quite sure what the asterisk in the title was supposed to refer readers to. Perhaps I just thought it looked pretty?

Please note the anatomically correct drawing of the man – yes, that’s a blue penis I’ve given him. And apparently they both have a terrible case of pink eye.

Inside, I wrote (complete with circa 1977 spelling):

“If you look at someone (undressed) you will find a differents in a man and a woman. If you have had a look at a woman you will see she has two big bumps coming from her breast. these things are breasts and graghly (gradually) you will grow some one day. (that is, girls). A man has a different body from the start – he has a penis (the woman has a different body) and his penis has a bit a little further on.”

Note again the correct use of anatomical references. Clearly, an early Blaze attempt.

We had a lot of laughs when we discovered these amongst my mum’s things, but it really made me realise how much I have always loved telling stories and making little books and living in the world of the imagination. I know I’m very lucky to have achieved my childhood dream, and it got me wondering, what did you want to be when you grew up?

I’m going to give away a set of my Blaze DayTime Divas trilogy to one poster – that’s Take On Me, All Over You, and Hot For Him – so go on, share with all of us what fantasy occupation you envisaged for yourself when you were a kid. I’m really looking forward to hearing these…

Thanks to everyone for playing and for introducing me to some awesome new buildings. Happy reading until next month….

Original post:
Hmmm. I suspect I may have made this blog post sound more interesting than it is with that title. Oh well. You’ll just have to humor me! I wanted to talk this month about one of my enduring obsessions, the art, architecture and fashion of the Art Deco era. Ever since I was a youngster I have loved the rounded shapes of Art Deco furniture, and my first house had some fantastic stained glass feature windows with gorgeous Art Deco landscapes. I love the art, particularly the old travel posters, but my absolute passion is reserved for Art Deco architecture.

I love it. I love its curves and clean lines. I love the big windows and generous rooms. I love the simplicity. And when it comes to cinemas, I love its elaborate grandeur. We are lucky enough to have several fabulous Art Deco cinemas in my home town of Melbourne. I went to one recently to see Withnail and I, with the bonus of a pre-screening chat with one of the stars, Paul McGann. While everyone else was asking Mr McGann why he parked the car so strangely in scene 19 or something like that, I was gazing rapturously at the decorative plasterwork on the walls and the lovely old light fittings and the vaulted roof and…well, suffice to say I was off in my own little world.

When my partner and I went to Italy a couple of years ago, we spent two months renting an apartment in Florence and one of our favorite things to do was to go to the Odeon Cinema at night time to watch English language movies. This cinema has to be seen to be believed – it’s truly, breathtakingly stunning. I’ve included a couple of piccies here for you, but they in no way do this place any justice at all.

I tell you, you felt like royalty sitting in that cinema. Even bad movies took on a new gloss under that gorgeous lead-light dome. Every time someone tells me they’re going to Florence I urge them to seek out the Odeon – it lives large in my memory as one of the highlights of my trip.

The reason I’m sharing my obsession with you this month is because my latest book, Her Best Friend, is out at the moment and the heroine, Amy Parker, is also obsessed with Art Deco architecture (fancy that!). Her great-grandfather built The Grand Picture Theatre in the main street of Daylesford, a small Victorian town, back in the 30s, and ever since she was a little girl Amy has dreamed of buying back the now-decrepit cinema from the local council and restoring its grandeur. Every cent she’s ever earned has gone towards this goal, and now, at the ripe old age of 29, she’s about to achieve her dream. She’s got a big loan and she’s convinced the council to sell the cinema to her so she can restore it and turn it from an embarrassment and an eyesore into a tourist attraction – but there’s one small hitch.

I’m not going to spill all here, but you can read the excerpt over at my website here and it will get you started on the story. I loved writing this book, for so many reasons. I loved Amy and Quinn’s friendship, I loved the setting, and I loved creating The Grand. That place is so real to me, it’s going to be a rude awakening not to see it in main street when we next visit Daylesford.

I’m going to give away 2 copies of Her Best Friend or any other of my backlist books for posters this month. My question for you is this: what’s your favorite building/monument/architectural style? Are you all about modernism? Or are you nuts about gothic or the baroque? Does the Eiffel tower do it for you, or the Empire State Building? I’d love to hear from you, so over to you.

PS. And Happy Easter to you all. I hope you all made yourselves suitably sick on chocolate. My stomach is still aching…

Congratulations to Michele L and Patricia, you’ve both won a copy of Her Best Friend. Send me your snail mail addys, and I will get some books in the mail to you ASAP. Thanks everyone else for popping in to chat – and for reassuring me that I’m not the only freak of nature out there!!! Until next month….

Original post:
My friend forwarded me an article recently that really got my back up. Basically, the author of this article contended that women like to be wooed by men – taken out for a night of fine dining and a “sophisticated” theatre show, then home for some “casual flirting” on the doorstep before parting company. Men, on the other hand, would prefer a big burger, a war movie with lots of stuff blowing up, then a dash to the closest motel for “wild monkey sex”.

Now, maybe I’m a freak of nature, but I have always hated the stereotype that women are precious, unattainable vessels that must be wooed and feted and gifted and schmoozed into a) going out with men and then b) allowing them access to their bodies. You know what I mean, the whole box-of-chocolates and bunch-of-roses on arrival cliche – as though we need to be offered collateral up front before we would even consider going out and getting to know someone or (God forbid) having sex with them.

This is so far from my experience of the dating world that it always makes me feel like I live on a separate planet when I see these scenarios in movies and books and TV shows. Maybe dating is different down here in Australia (for starters, we don’t really call it “dating”. It’s usually “seeing someone” or “going out”), but when I was single and I went out with a guy it was on the basis that I wanted to get to know them as a person. Could something happen here? Could he be The One? Or, at least, could he have the potential to be The One? It wasn’t about him proving himself to me or investing dollars to impress me – we were two people exploring the possibilities.

And, you know, sometimes those possibilities included sex. Because women – just like men – have Needs. The very fact that the Blaze line exists is testament to the fact that women have Needs. Just like men, we enjoy sex. I know, it’s a revolutionary concept. Imagine having sex with someone simply because you found them attractive and likable and wanted to have sex rather than because you felt obliged or because he’d jumped through all the flaming hoops in the correct order (the flowers, the chocolates, the big meal, the fancy show…). Imagine!

While I’m ranting, I also object to the fact that the things us women supposedly prefer are so…uptight and not-fun. I mean, fine dining and sophisticated theatre over a burger and a shoot ‘em up movie? Who would you prefer to hang out with? Don’t get me wrong, I like a nice meal out as much as the next lady, but if someone held a gun to my head and made me choose between negotiating haute cuisine and pantyhose and snooty waiters and scary wine lists or a big, juicy burger on the beach with my favorite guy, I know what I’d be opting for. As for opera versus Con Air or any other action movie…again, pass the popcorn.

I had a good rant about all this with my man after reading the article, but then it occurred to me that maybe I really am a freak of nature. Maybe this is the way the rest of the world operates…? Maybe I’m the only burger-loving, action-movie-enjoying woman out there who would prefer to pay her own way rather than be showered with gifts and attention…? I’d really love to hear from readers on this one – what do you expect from a man? What’s your idea of a great first date (a real world one, not a fantasy one)? Do you want to be wooed and made to feel precious before you even think about offering up the keys to the kingdom? Am I hugely out of touch…?

I’m giving away two copies of my latest SuperRomance to posters this month. Her Best Friend is available now at eHarlequin, and will be on the shelves in April. It’s about Amy and Quinn, two people who grew up next door to each other and have known each other all their lives, and what happens when Quinn returns home with his divorce papers in hand. Post away and I’ll choose two winners over the next few days. Looking forward to your answers!

Okay, we have two winners for my February post. They are : Ellen Too and Jane, posts 7 and 13. Ladies, please contact me via the Contact page on my website (www.sarahmayberry.com) and I will grab your snail mail addresses and get the books to you ASAP.

Thanks for chatting, everyone, and see you next month!

Original Post:
I’m going to write about a subject close to my heart this month – personal space. The reason it’s close to my heart is because I’ve just moved countries (New Zealand to Australia) and am currently ensconced in my mother’s spare bedroom. Me and my man (my six foot plus man) are sharing a tiny double bed in this room, and our five suitcases worth of shoes, clothes and books are shoved into the wardrobe, under the bed, beside the bed, around the bed… You get the drift.

Compacting your life down to a small 3 metre by 2.5 metre room is not easy, believe me. And it’s made me realise how much I take for granted the joy of having my own home – my own kitchen, my own bathroom, my own boudoir, and most of all my own writing space.

Now, I have never considered myself a particularly demanding person when it comes to what I need to write – having worked for years as a journalist and a script writer I don’t need special music playing or to wait on my muse to come calling to get down to work. For years, it’s pretty much been about putting my bum on the seat and my fingers on the keyboard. In fact, I’ve kind of prided myself on my ability to just zone out and get down to it. But living in my mum’s house, staying in her spare room, I’ve been finding it…difficult to settle down to write. Apparently I need my own space to let my imagination off the leash – who knew?

Fortunately we’re about to move into a rental property while we continue our search to find a new home of our own. But’s all of this has got me thinking about what I want my new writing space and I can’t wait to make a little nest for myself.

I’d love to give away two copies of my latest Blaze Her Secret Fling this month, and I’d love to hear your own stories about your favourite space or place for reading, writing, thinking, or just daydreaming. Share with us, and I’ll draw two winners in the next few days.

Over to you!

Hate at First sight WINNERS are…

Thanks to everyone for coming along to chat. The winners for this month’s give away are:

Alina Duffer
Moth

Could both ladies email me on sarah@sarahmayberry.com ASAP with their snail mail addys and I will get those books in the mail pronto.

Merry Christmas to everyone! Speak again in the New Year!

In my very first Blaze, Can’t Get Enough, I wrote about two characters who thought they hated each other, but who wound up falling in love. They worked in the same office and had tons of pre-conceived ideas about each other. And then they got trapped in an elevator for several hours on a hot and steamy day…

My latest Blaze, Her Secret Fling (Jan 2010, available now at eharlequin.com) revisits the idea of two people who think they can’t stand each other but who are forced to reconsider when circumstances force them together. Poppy is a new recruit to a big Melbourne newspaper, a former Olympic-medal winning swimmer who has been forced into retirement by a shoulder injury. She’s been brought in by the paper to write a “celebrity” column in the sports section, and she’s excited about the job since she wants to move on now that swimming is no longer an option for her – and because she gets to work with Jake Stevens, one of her all time favorite writers.

Jake wrote a book a few years ago that marked him as a novelist to watch in Australian literature – and since then he’s written nothing except his weekly pieces for the Melbourne Herald. There are reasons for this – there are always reasons, right? – and there are reasons for why he isn’t exactly thrilled to learn Poppy will be joining the sports writing team. Which is why he’s pretty mean to her on her first day at work, and why Poppy’s hero worship quickly sours into dislike and leads to her christening her new colleague “Jake the Snake”.

Then they both get stranded thanks to an airline strike and the only way they can get home is to drive – and Poppy happens to score the last rental car in the whole city. Guess who’s going to have to do some serious sucking up if he wants to get home any time soon?

I had a lot of fun writing the banter between Poppy and Jake. Poppy’s really open and honest but she’s not afraid to stick up for herself, while Jake has definitely got a smart ass, dark side. There’s also a scene up early that I giggled all the way through writing – I call it “man versus machine”. I’ll be interested to hear what readers think of it….

So, my question for you today is this: when have your first impressions ever been horribly wrong? I have a couple of examples to throw on the table – when I first met one of my best friends, I did not like her at all. For some reason, she drove me nuts. And then I got to know her and fell in friend-love with her. The other example is my man. When I first met him at a mutual friend’s party, I thought he was funny and smart but for some reason his good looks just didn’t register with me. I don’t know why. Perhaps I simply wasn’t on the prowl for a hot guy at the time (I know what you’re thinking – did I have a pulse? Possibly not!). It wasn’t until I caught up with him again that I kind of blinked and went “Holy Cow, Batman, you’re HOT!!!” So. Over to you. I’ll be giving away two – 2!!! – copies of Her Secret Fling to posters today. Looking forward to sharing your stories.