Joy To The World

On the Christmas Theme because I love it.

 

 

 

 

 

Have just sent off my twentieth book to my editor, and a big sigh as I drop my shoulders. The house is a mess, the Christmas shopping is looking pretty thin, and the wasps have built a heap of nests I’d love to shift before Christmas. But the granddaughters have put up the decorations, crooked and clumpy, and I love it.

I’m on holidays and I’ve just finished my first Italian hero so that’s a fab thing.  Gianni’s  a fish out of water in Lyrebird Lake and it’s been fun. And I’m learning Italian which I’m absolutely loving. I play the audio tapes from the library in my car on the way to work every morning and despite my atrocious accent I can understand enough to be able to add, subtract, and ask your name – all in Italian. What a great language. When I get really good I’m going to try and read one of my own copies in the Italian translation (‘cause at least I can guess a bit) and then I’ll be hunting down my friends books. Can anyone read Italian? I’m giving away an Italian copy of one of my books as well as the competition.  Just send a contact Fiona form from my webpage and mention this blog at fionamcarthur.com

Tomorrow I’m off to Brisbane (485 kms Google maps tells me) early tomorrow morning to see the gorgeous KEITH URBAN in concert with my youngest son tomorrow night. I’m so excited. Has anybody seen him in concert?

Then picking up my lovely mother-in-law the next day to come home. May turned eighty-five and just laughs at the mess in my house and the troops that pass through it. After Christmas I’m camping with my fifteen-year old and my two little granddaughters so that will be fun. If 2010 turns out to be half as good as 2009 for me then I can’t wait.

My other good news is I’ve sold my first non-fiction Last Minute Little Birth Book to Penguin Australia. To come out late next year it’s a very simple, very quick guide for those who left it too late for heavy study before labour and my friends tell me it sounds just like me talking to my young mums in antenatal classes. I absolutely LOVED writing it so wish me luck for that one. I’m very excited about it.

That’s it from me, have to rush off like a chook with my head cut off, and try and make order out of chaos. Excuse the copy of this on eharl as haven’t time for webpage fixing. Keep well, keep reading and most of all keep happy for Christmas and 2010

Best wishes for the festive season to all

Love Fi

Read More

Hello to Australian Woman’s Day Readers

My big smile for the month came from the publication of my short story, Little Boy Lost, the Australian magazine Woman’s Day (16th Nov Issue) and I’d like to welcome readers who’ve found their way to my website. I hope you enjoyed the story. It still brings a tear to my eyes so I guess it strikes a cord in most mothers.

There’s a cute real event behind this story – I met a lovely mum in maternity one night who’s 4 year old son tripped around two streets home from his aunty’s  in the middle of the night. His mum was booked to have her labour induced early the next morning but hadn’t left for the hospital when she heard the gate open. Can’t imagine how scared the little boy was.

For those readers I’ve re-posted the info on how to find the free downloads if you scroll to the bottom of the page.

MIDWIFE IN A MILLION, my first outback Australia book set in the KIMBERLEY’S of Western Australia hits the shelves in the UK on the 5th February and Australia and North America in March. I’m so excited about this book, the first of my two Kimberley books because the landscape and the people grabbed my heart when I visited in May this year.

Well, my husband and I went to ther MELBOURNE CUP horse race this year.

This is something we’ve wanted to do for a long time and finally made it. Of course the incentive was our anniversary and a BIG birthday for me this month.

The seats at the racecourse were up in the sky but WHAT A VIEW!

To make it all even more exciting we actually travelled to Melbourne on a 6 night cruise. Here’s the view as we left Sydney.

Pretty Cool, I thought. Actually it became a tad chilly but Oh so worth standing on the bow of Pacific Dawn to watch the harbour glide by. I forgot to do the TITANIC pose that Carol Marinelli asked for.

CONGRATULATIONS to CATHY B. who won the first three Lyrebird Lake books in our HAPPY WEDDING ANNIVERSARY draw.

It’s been fun but that’s all for this month. I’m hard at it finishing Emma’s Story in Lyrebird Lake. I’m afraid Emma’s found a man who certainly needs some healing by the mystical Lyrebird. And its’ back to work tomorrow night. Hoping for lots of lovely babies to come in for me to catch. Follow me at FiCatchesBabies on Twitter.

Happy reading and have a great month

love Fiona

 

Great news. Download my free eBook today, The Midwife’s Little Miracle. I love this book. There’s another nine books from other authors to download if you have fun. And it’s all free for a year.

Mills and Boon’s eBook sales arm in the UK are celebrating their first birthday of eBooks. While for some they’ll never replace the feel of a book in your hand, the idea of a backlit small screen where I can choose the size of the font, have no light needed to annoy my husband, and holds a big fistful of novels in my bed – isn’t too scary.

To try the feel of an eBook (excuse the pun), you can easily download to your computer.

To read eBooks on your computer you need a program like:

• Adobe – Digital Editions (Runs on Windows and Mac OSX, and can open .epub files)
  OR
• Calibre eBook Management (Runs on Windows, Mac OSX and Linux and can open .epub and .mobi files)

The Midwife’s Little Miracle.epub (you will need Adobe Digital Editions or Calibre eBook Management or a similar program that can read .epub eBook files)

The Midwife’s Little Miracle.mobi (you will need Calibre eBook Management or a similar program that can read .mobi eBook files)

The eBook is on a special site set up by Mills and Boon for the ten books they are offering. One from each line of romance and of course mine is from the Medical Romance Line. So enjoy.

everyonesreading.com

There’s an interesting discussion on ebooks and e-readers at http://community.eharlequin.com/content/medical-authors-group-blog – look for the photo of my colourful scarf in New Zealand

Read More

Free e-book offer

GThe Midwife’s Little Miracle. I love this book. There’s another nine books from other authors to download if you have fun. And it’s all free for a year.

Mills and Boon’s eBook sales arm in the UK are celebrating their first birthday of eBooks. While for some they’ll never replace the feel of a book in your hand, the idea of a backlit small screen where I can choose the size of the font, have no light needed to annoy my husband, and holds a big fistful of novels in my bed – isn’t too scary.

To try the feel of an eBook (excuse the pun), you can easily download to your computer.

To read eBooks on your computer you need a program like:

• Adobe – Digital Editions (Runs on Windows and Mac OSX, and can open .epub files)
  OR
• Calibre eBook Management (Runs on Windows, Mac OSX and Linux and can open .epub and .mobi files)

The Midwife’s Little Miracle.epub (you will need Adobe Digital Editions or Calibre eBook Management or a similar program that can read .epub eBook files)

The Midwife’s Little Miracle.mobi (you will need Calibre eBook Management or a similar program that can read .mobi eBook files)

The eBook is on a special site set up by Mills and Boon for the ten books they are offering. One from each line of romance and of course mine is from the Medical Romance Line. So enjoy.

everyonesreading.com

There’s an interesting discussion on ebooks and e-readers at http://community.eharlequin.com/content/medical-authors-group-blog – look for the photo of my colourful scarf in New Zealand

Read More

Mystical New Zealand

I‘ve just returned from flying visit to fellow med author Alison Robert’s

(Hot shot Surgeon, Cinderella Bride, HMB Medical Aug 09) home country of New Zealand. Such a heartwrenchingly beautiful country – no wonder she writes such gorgeous books.

We drove down to Akaroa Harbour and I loved the little waterside township of Akaroa with all its French influences and scenery.

Tiny bays, larger bays, and always soaring peaks and rocky outcrops. And sheep.

Alison’s dog, Molly, loves riding in the car. She’s a wind-in-her-hair kinda girl.  We drove west over gorgeous farm land and back over the mountains  to the spectacular view over Christchurch. As a person who lives in a very temperate zone, 15 -25 degrees celsius most of the time, it was very exciting to see snow on the far Alps.  Short trips are great,  and then again it was lovely to be back with my DH in my own bed and back into my writing. But now I have to slip off to work, Well Women’s Clinic today, so take care, keep well

and look after you

 warmest wishes

Fi

Read More

Spring is Here!

I love Spring. The Liquid Amber tree outside my bedroom is budding up waiting to unfurl and greet the warmer weather. The branches  stark and bare for a month now, have stopped waving in the howling wind. Yesterday, the birds in the grevilleas opposite the veranda were singing to each other like performers at the opera and I had to smile at the purity in their song. Nothing like the squeaky screech I can produce. Not that it stops me singing. Did I ever mention my very own, fabulous Aunt Maurine, was a soprano for Sadler Wells Opera Company? She still has a glorious voice. But back to spring.

Now, this morning, under a deepening blue sky I can see a fluffyblack baby water turkey hop across the tops of waterlillies to follow his mum and dad. Babies everywhere. And you all know how much I love babies.

Yep. Love Spring. New beginnings, new life, new people to meet, friendships to make, and for me a new book to start. Emma’s Story. For those who’ve read any of my Lyrebird Lake maternity books – there’s one out this month, Pregnant Midwife Father Needed- fabulous little Emma has been in them all.

It’s Emma’s time to shine and show us the amazing woman I know she is. And she’s got a lot on her plate. Her mum’s disease is progressing, and she’s returned home to Lyrebird Lake. Now her daughter is asking why can’t she have a dad like all the kids at school as Emma carries the secret she believes no man can love.  But I need to get to page one, chapter one and start listening to what she has to say. But before I go…

Congratulations to Margaret Lawson of Canada who’s won a copy of  Pregnant Midwife Father Needed. I really hope you enjoy Mia’s story, Margaret.

In celebration of spring, I have a new competition starting today that will run until the 25th October. That’s my wedding anniversay and the prize is all three of my published Lyrebird Lake books in a romance pack to mark that important day in my life.

My hero and I have been married for 29 years this year and he still makes my heart skip a beat and feel warm inside when I catch sight of him unexpectedly. Like magic. Can you tell I watched Sleepless In Seattle with him last night?

Wishing a wonderful spring to all the lovers and the lovers of romance out there at this beautiful time of the year.

warmest wishes

Fiona

Read More