I'm a R*by Award Winner!!

I have finally got around to blogging about my winning the R*by Award for Beneath the Surface in the Romantic Elements category at the Romance Writers of Australia conference last week. My other entry, Crash into Darkness, came second. As you probably know, both those books are e-pubbed and yet they won over all the other print published books so I am very proud of myself.

Not only did I not think I would win, I hadn't been told that the winner had to give a speech. I managed to splutter out something but I was in a daze for some time.

Here at the left is my award. It is very beautiful but was difficult to photograph.

The winners of the other three categories are:
Short and sexy: Trish Morey
Short and Sweet: Marion Lennox
Long Romance: Anne Gracie

I had a fantastic time at the conference over there last weekend and have just got home from the New Zealand Romance Writers conference here in Auckland this weekend. I am exhausted but happy at what I have learned and all the people I have met or caught up with.
Time to write, write, write to meet my commitments.

Peru - Machu Picchu

I'm sorry I haven't blogged before about Peru because I have been sick with the flu and I'm not going to write much today either for I have two writing conferences coming up on the next two weekends and I must prepare pitches for them etc.
However, I thought I would post one photo of my son, Dario, on top of a mountain he climbed with Machu Picchu in the background. Machu Picchu is even more amazing than expected. It was raining the day we were there - the only day it did rain on the trip - but it was still mind-blowing as it sat amongst the clouds with incredible steep mountains all about. This was taken the day before with brilliant sunshine. We woke the next morning to heavy rain. Can't win them all.
I will post more photos and tell you more when the conferences are over.