I spoke to a woman recently who said she lived at Mission Beach. ‘How are you doing?’ I asked, thinking she’d be over the worst of it by now.

‘Fine,’ she said. ‘We’ve just moved for the fourth time and we’re in a demountable now so that’s better.’

‘Demountable?’

‘Yeah, we’re been in tents, then caravans so this is good.’

‘And your house?’

‘It’s trashed. Insurance will never cover the full cost of rebuilding’ She shrugged. ‘We’ll probably have to sell the land. We don’t have money to rebuild and we still owe the bank.’

This morning when I went for a walk on the beach a large chunk of pontoon had washed up on Trinity. It’s an ugly reminder that while we’ve all got on with our lives the immense damage to property and, most importantly, people is a long way from being repaired.

We spend a lot of time planning for that eventuality – completing emergency procedures training, and flying flight simulators where we deal with emergencies and abnormalities right through to landing with only one engine operating. The training has to be rigorous and exacting because there will be no second chance in real life.

Yesterday I had to put that training into action when a malfunction in one of our engines meant we were required to shut it down on descent to our destination. For any nervous flyers out there I can now personally reassure you not only does the training work but when the captain says in their PA ‘This aircraft can comfortably fly on one engine’ they aren’t lying. The aircraft does perform as the manufacturer claims (even better, I suspect!!) and some of our passengers didn’t even notice we’d shut one down until I made my PA and woke them up!

I had a fantastic team with me both in the air and on the ground. Thanks guys, you were exemplary.

While this particular incident isn’t going to end up in a story any time soon, the way my body felt, the adrenalin rush, the clarity of vision, the colour of the world around me, may do. It’s easy to forget that we are pre-programmed by genetics to react to threats by our ‘flight or fight’ response. The role of good training is to keep that response focused on the job at hand. All that makes great fodder for a writer’s devious mind

The catering was wonderful, the company entertaining and I’ve come away with a list of new books for my already precariously balanced ‘to be read’ pile. What more could I ask for!

Thanks, ladies!

From left to right – Judy, Kim, Bev, Christine, Cathy and Helen

Find it here Herald Sun Lifestyle

When I write the world retreats and becomes white noise (ask my oh so patient husband…). I know I pull faces that mirror my characters actions, as they journey through a scene. I’m probably even guilty of sticking my tongue out now and then when a particularly recalcitrant phrase is eluding me. I also know, when I’m reading a book that I can’t put down, I end up in a similar zone.

Perhaps it’s a luxury that our busy lives don’t allow anymore. How wonderful to be a child and feel none of that urgency and pressure, but just the joy of creating to the exclusion of all else.

For anyone wanting to see some wonderful children’s art, then Glaskins Gallery should be on your list for Tuesday 16th June! I wish I could be there but I’ll be in Sydney… Enjoy the talent!!

Glaskins Gallery and Trinity Picininis of Aboriginal Creative Art invite you to the first exhibition at 5.30 pm on Wednesday 16^th June, 2010, of our “up and coming” child artists, aged four to nine.

The exhibition will feature works by the Trinity Picininis of Aboriginal Creative Art children. Our aim is to create and teach our children about Aboriginal and Hawaiian culture by means of art, story telling and music and to link the old ways into modern times.

Other local Cairns artists Thomas Storrie, Pat Lynas and Tanya Ashworth will also be exhibited on the night.

Two of the student artists’s mural pieces will be auctioned on the night to assist funding of further programs developed by Trinity Picininis for our children. The artwork is available for viewing at the gallery and pre-bids will be accepted. A reserve price has been set by the seller.

Teacher Facilitators, Mr and Mrs Trevor and Olivia Peckham and Mr Garry Glaskin, will be attending, to promote the program to new participants.

The artwork will be on display for one week at the gallery, before the child artists take home their pieces.

Please RSVP by 10/06/2010 if you will be attending. 6 1 (7) 4057 4200   Mobile : +61 (0) 438 924 838

Hi Anna, thanks for dropping by my blog. It’s fantastic to be able to welcome you here. Congratulations on your recent ARRA Awards – Favourite Australian Romance Author and Favourite Historical Romance, woohooo!!! Well deserved wins.  Since we finalled in the Emma Darcy you have been an inspiration to me – and your support and encouragement have been fantastic. It’s a bonus that I love your books too!

Hélène, it’s brilliant to be here. Thank you for inviting me! I’m so excited about BORDER WATCH coming out and seeing a book of yours on the shelves. I’ve been waiting for this moment since I met you all those years ago. Congratulations! I hope you’re enjoying life as a published author!

Hmm, life as a published author and a pilot still feels a little frantic some days but I am enjoying it! Themes are important in your stories, Anna, and that’s a big part of what makes them so wonderful to read. CAPTIVE OF SIN has a hero who is captive to his own fears and incapable of moving forward until he’s faced them. (He’d be treated for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in today’s society…) What’s the theme in MY RECKLESS SURRENDER?

Thank you, Hélène. There’s a Shakespeare quote that I kept in mind the whole time I wrote MY RECKLESS SURRENDER. “Oh, what a tangled web we weave when first we practise to deceive.” Wow, just looked that up and it’s actually not Shakespeare (I thought it was MACBETH!) but Sir Walter Scott. We live and learn!

Diana Carrick is offered the chance to make her dreams come true but first she has to commit what she believes is a victimless crime and seduce Tarquin Vale, the Earl of Ashcroft. But of course there’s no such thing as a victimless crime. So it’s a story about temptation and the consequences of giving into it! I think of this book as a ticking bomb romance – because of course the reader is waiting for the revelations to come out and mayhem to ensue!

Yep, we do love mayhem! So do the themes come first or do the characters bring their own themes and conflicts with them? How do you strengthen those themes?

What a great question! Actually what comes to me first is sort of a job lot! I get an opening scene, generally involving my hero and heroine (I like them on the page together as soon as possible), and there’s always a problem there. The story grows organically from that. With CAPTIVE OF SIN, I had that really vivid image of Charis cowering in the stables on a cold winter night and Gideon coming to her rescue like a knight in shining armour, which of course is exactly what he is, even if the armour is slightly tarnished! With MY RECKLESS SURRENDER, my opening scene has a woman going against her deepest instincts to offer herself as a notorious rake’s mistress—and finding that the rake isn’t at all the selfish, careless debaucher she expected. I then write the story pretty much without editing and the themes emerge as the story does. Once I’ve got a whole story arc from go to whoa, I know what those core issues are and I go back and strengthen their presence throughout the novel.

Tell us some more about MY RECKLESS SURRENDER.

I describe this book as a dangerous seduction in Regency London. It features two strong, complex characters who get more than they bargain for when they begin a liaison to while away a few summer weeks. Diana is a woman who sees a chance to break out of the strict class barriers of 19^th century England and exercise all her frustrated talents and ambitions so I think people will relate to her, even if they don’t 100% approve of her actions. Tarquin is a real change for me – my first non-tortured hero, or at least he is until Diana starts turning his life upside down. He’s a man with a reputation for debauchery but he’s also got a powerful sense of personal honor, evidenced by his reformist politics. I really had quite a crush on Tarquin when I was writing the book!

I always think it’s vital to love my leading man and your heroes are very easy to lust after… Your books are often described as Regency Noir. What influenced you to write the darker side of human nature?

This always makes me laugh because as you know, I’m not actually that dark in real life! I think my natural voice is comic but one day, I came up with an idea for a book about a courtesan and the Scottish duke who wants to marry her. Definitely not a comedy. I was positive I couldn’t write that story but the characters wouldn’t leave me alone. So one day, I sat down to write the first chapter to shut up these people and show them they had no place in my universe. And CLAIMING THE COURTESAN, my first published book, was born. Sometimes working against the grain can have its benefits!

Whose books have had the most impact on your writing?

Oh, how long have you got? I’ve got a career writing Regency romance because of Jane Austen and Georgette Heyer. I love the Brontes and in terms of voice, I’m close to the gothic feel you get in something like JANE EYRE. I devoured Victoria Holt and every Mills & Boon I could get my hands on when I was a teenager. Then I discovered historical romance starting with Kathleen Woodiwiss. I adore Dorothy Dunnett, Loretta Chase, Laura Kinsale, Anne Stuart, Liz Carlyle. I’ve always been a voracious and omnivorous reader so I think everything has had some influence! As a how to book, I love BIRD BY BIRD by Anne Lamott and BECOMING A WRITER by Dorothea Brande.

Your sex scenes are hot, Hot, HOT! How do you go about writing them? I need to be sitting under a fan to read them, so I’m wondering, do you turn up the aircon, grab a good glass of wine and take the phone off the hook? Phonus interruptus might not be a good thing…

Phonus interruptus? Ouch! That sounds really uncomfortable! LOL! I’m so glad you love the naughty bits. Thank you! I really work hard on those – MY RECKLESS SURRENDER is my sexiest book yet. The nature of the plot means that these two people spend a lot of time in the bedroom! In the early drafts, the love scenes are usually pretty prosaic, but I love the way a good sex scene doesn’t just get your characters naked physically. They’re naked emotionally too, even if they don’t want to be (believe me, Diana and Tarquin don’t want to be!). Then I go back and rewrite and rewrite and rewrite – generally I shorten to make it more intense. My first draft love scenes meander on for pages and pages but in there, there’s the germ of something really strong, both emotionally and physically. Actually I think the emotional heat of a love scene is much more important than the physical heat. And I always try to have something at stake with the plot. They’re never just having good (or bad, as sometimes happens in my books!) sex – there’s lots of other stuff going on at the same time. You need that dramatic tension to keep the reader involved.

I know you’re up and working early in the morning. Gives us a glimpse into a normal writing day – if there is such a thing…

Snort! Is there such a thing as a ‘normal’ day? My routine varies according to how close to deadline I am. But you’re right, I always wake up horrifically early, check emails, do anything urgent like blogs or interviews or promotion. Then I work through until around 11, 11:30, have some lunch, a snooze, then go back in the afternoon for another few hours.

Where to for Anna Campbell’s next story?

I’ve written the first draft and it features my first genuinely bad boy hero. He wants to put his evil plans in motion but finds himself distracted by the last woman he ever thought he’d be attracted to. I’ve always adored stories about alpha males completely at sea after they encounter lurve! At this stage, it’s scheduled for the middle of next year.

Oh no, that’s such a long time to wait… sigh…

Anna, it’s been fantastic to have you on my blog and, as always, I’ve learnt so much.

So folks, tell us your favourite love scene – book or movie – and why it resonates for you. Anna will draw a winner on 25th May and that lucky person will receive a signed copy of My Reckless Surrender.

MY RECKLESS SURRENDER – Anna Campbell, Avon Books, June 2010

I’m back in Sydney now and I have one final story from holidays that I want to share. We decided we’d go fishing in Darwin and dutifully turned up at 5.30 am at the Buzz Cafe. There were eight happy little anglers – Carol and Dennis from Melbourne, Wendy, their sister from Katherine, Ron from Mackay, his brother, Don, and Dolly, Don’s partner from Darwin. And the two of us!

Carol's Fish - The Catch of the Day

It must have been pretty obvious to Simon the Skipper and Dan the Deckie that they had two raw recruits on board, but they patiently explained everything to us as we motored out into the waters north of Darwin. Carol, Dennis and Wendy had spent the week fishing. Carol caught the big fish of the day. Lucky someone knew what they were doing…

Ron looked like a sprightly retiree and I settled down for a chat. His opening line stopped me dead. ’Eighty years it took me to find me brother that I didn’t even know I had,’ he said, jerking his head at John. He went on to explain that they’d been separated when he was eight and his pregnant mother had moved out. I did a quick calculation. That made him eighty-eight and here he was out fishing like a spring chicken!

But this is really Dolly’s story. She was an indigenous Australian and I think she and John had met at a mission school near Darwin. She was elderly and silent, with a shy smile, and preferred a hand line to the high tech whippy little rods we were all using. She didn’t catch anything and standing clearly tired her out. I offered to move the seat so she could sit closer to the railing. She shook her head. ‘I’ll watch you,’ she said.

I could only laugh. So far I’d caught one undersized snapper that had thankfully lived to swim another day.  ’So what am I doing wrong?’ I asked.

She leant over the side and peered into the water. I joined her. Looked crystal clear and empty to me. ‘Be still,’ she finally said, with a little pat on my shoulder. She sat back down and folded her hands and smiled at me.

Right, I thought, be still. Reckon I can manage that for a bit. A minute, maybe two at the outside, went by then my line went tight, my rod bent and I only just managed to hang on to it. ‘Bloody hell, Dolly, I’ve got one.’

She just smiled as the guys cleared the deck for me. Clueless as I was, I figure that poor fish had decided it was time to give some lucky angler their thrill. Afterwards when I thanked her for her advice, she just nodded again and said. ‘Be still.’

Thanks Dolly, I will!

We went all the way to Darwin to have catch-up sunset drinks with Ray and Owen. They’ve spent the last week, along with 300 other bikers (as opposed to bikies…), riding from Brisbane to Darwin as part of a Ulysses Long Ride, raising funds for Prostate Cancer research.

A worthy cause for a couple of old fella’s intent on living up to the club’s motto – ‘Grow old disgracefully’!!

Stingray in Pinky Bay

This blog was meant to be about something quite different, but then we took our glasses of Dukes Cabernet Merlot and walked to the Bathurst Lighthouse. (I love a sunset over water….)

Over the last couple of days I’ve been watching the beautiful stingrays swimming along the beach. They look like black velvet as they glide through the shallows, the edges of their wings rolling to show their pale underbellies. Yesterday an old fisherman and his mate were catching herring off the rocks. He used the scraps from his filleting to teach several children how to hand feed the graceful animals. I was sorry I didn’t have a camera.

Tonight he was there again, but there were no small children to follow this marine Pied Piper.  The five rays turned up, rolling in the shallows.

The gulls came to fight for scraps and the sun set into the long line of the India Ocean.

Gulls diving on the food