New Year's Blog Hop - Something to Celebrate with

Although it may be a little late in the day to celebrate the arrival of the New Year - some of you may even be recovering from it - I thought I'd share a fruity, fizzy cocktail you can continue toasting the New Year with, or save for your next celebration. Let me introduce the Champagne Diva!

Champagne Diva

Take three strawberries, 1fl oz of strawberry vodka, 1 tbsp lime juice, 2 tsp sugar, fresh mint leaves, 1/2 glass of chilled champagne and a mint sprig for decoration. Place everything except the decoration and the champagne into a cocktail shaker with a handful of ice and shake hard. Strain into the champagne and garnish with the mint. Simple!

To sweeten the taste even more I have a giveaway! To win, I'd like you to tell me how and/or with what you like to celebrate the New Year, be it a cocktail and excitment, or a cup of cocoa and an early night. In return, I'm offering internationally a $5 gift card for Amazon or B&N (winner's choice), and here's a little something you could spend it on - a hot scifi romance short to go with your chilled Champagne Diva - only $1.50!

A Science Fiction Romance Short Story

Available now via Smashwords.com, Kobo, Barnes & Noble, Amazon US and Amazon UK

“Welcome to Venus Ascendant, a Public Grade space station in the Andromedan Galaxy. With our open-to-all policy, any being in the universe can find their perfect R & R, romantic getaway or dangerous liaison at our purpose built resort. The on-board empathic AI Ganesa ensures that anyone coming to Venus Ascendant will find their heart’s desire, with suites that transform from luxurious boudoirs to sunset-lit beaches to dark BDSM dungeons. So come to Venus Ascendant and find exactly what you’re looking for!”

It was meant to be a romantic getaway for Marie and the love of her life Jaisen; a chance for him to get to know her better after months of her denying him more than a few stolen kisses. Instead, Marie finds herself dumped and alone on Venus Ascendant with no credit for a transmat and the next starship home not due for another hour.

But the all-seeing AI isn’t going to leave anyone aboard the space station with their dreams unfulfilled. Marie's boyfriend might not have made it to the station, but there are others willing and able to take on the role - even if they aren’t entirely human.

WARNING - Not suitable for under 18’s due to adult content.

Don't forget, for every blog that you comment on (and remember, you MUST include your email addy to qualify), you get an extra entry into the grand draw, as well as a chance at the individual goodies on offer!

So here are the GRAND PRIZES!! (Please bear in mind that all the prizes BAR THE SWAG BAG are international).

Visit the other blogs on the hop by using the linky below, or you can return to the main site by clicking on the blog hop graphic at the top of this post. Good luck, and a very Happy New Year!

St. Patrick's Day Blog Hop

It's the St.Patrick's Day Blog Hop! First, a huge thank you to Carrie Ann for organizing this and all the hard work she's put in. Second, as before there's a grand prize up for everyone who comments on the posts for the hop. That means the more posts you comment on, the higher your chance of winning!

So, the prize for the blog hop is....1st Grand Prize Winner: A choice of a Kindle Fire or Nook Tablet
2nd Grand Prize Winner: a $90 Amazon or Barnes & Noble Gift Card

As for one lucky commentator on this blog, the prize will be a $15 Amazon Gift Card.


For the St.Patrick's Day Blog Hop, the suggestion was to tell how I celebrate (which I don't) or why I wear green. Green happens to be one of my favourite colours, so I thought for something slightly different I'd share a university project I had to do on the use of colour for inspiration.

The task - choose a colour. Choose a piece of music that matches the colour in your mind. Sit in isolation with your eyes closed and the music playing. Picture the colour in your head. Then free write, without correcting, without grammar, whatever comes into your mind, as fast as you can.

I chose green - emerald green to be specific, though I don't think the exact shade was required! And my piece of music was the theme from Harry's Game by Clannad - the reasoning behind that may become apparent later on.

I felt a little silly sitting there and thinking green thoughts, but then I picked up my pen and scribbled furiously for the requisite minimum of five minutes, and a little beyond. This is what I came up with.


Emerald green makes me think of velvet, soft and warm. The medieval tunic I bought with a long pixie hood, laced up the front with black cord and through little brass rings, like something out of a book by Tolkien - elves and magic.





Walking through deep, dark pine woods. Needles all glossy green, the dead brown ones crunching slightly under my feet. Soothing silence and the smell of resin. The smell of damp. Black soil beneath the needles as I dig them up with the toe of my boot.

Thick grass shaking in the wind on the hillside in Ireland. (Here the association to Clannad leapt to mind - Irish!) A long green slope down the the cliff's edge before it falls into the sea. Even the water looks green - beautiful blue-grey-green under a cloudy sky.



A circle of stones on the Isle of Arran.Three huge stark slabs of slate or something, 10, 12 feet tall with long brown streaks down them like rust. Grassy slopes leading up to them and then down the other side, open moorland.

Tiny emeralds in a ring my mum wore, one of them missing, replaced by another paler stone.
Pistachio icecream.
Lime cordial, so hard to find now. Am I the only person in the world who drinks it?
Peppermint cordial. Tastes like toothpaste, ug! But looks so pretty in the bottle, clear emerald green.

I'm offering a $15 Amazon Gift Card for one random commentator on my blog. So tell me whether you like green or not, and why (with your email included so I can contact you if you've won.) Then stop by the other blogs on the lists for more prizes and your chance to win the grand prize!

And on the subject of freebies, you can download my free scifi short story - The Bones of the Sea - from Smashwords here.

Visit the other blogs on the tour by clicking on a link in the list below. :)

The New Year Blog Hop - A Memory

A New Year's memory ...

I stared. The two pink dots stared back. They didn't move. They didn't change.


I looked at the instructions again. Yes, I'd followed them to the letter. Yes, I'd left the required amount of time pass - I'd even used a damn stopwatch for goodness sake! But I still didn't believe it.


Five years of trying. Five years of tests, some of the most painful, invasive and humiliating procedures I'd ever gone through in my LIFE! And only two more months of fertility treatment left before we were on our own and forced to pay for it.

But no more. Those two little dots were what we had been waiting for. I was finally pregnant. :) Happy New Year, baby!

And a Happy New Year to you too! As part of the New Year Blog Hop, I'm offering up a $10 Amazon gift card to a random commentator on my blog, winner to be announced tomorrow. Also, don't forget there's the grand prize up for grabs of a Kindle Fire too, with a second prize of an $80 Amazon GC. All you have to do to enter is comment on this blog and any of the others taking part in the hop. The more blogs you comment on, the greater your chances of winning. Woo hoo! Good luck!


To visit the other blogs participating in the hop, just check out the list below. :) And a huge thank you to Carrie Ann Ryan for organizing this event.