Australia Day

In Australia today - although the day is almost over there, it is Australia Day. It commemorates the arrival of the First Fleet at Sydney Cove in1788. The First Fleet consisted of eleven ships which had set sail from Britain on 13th May 1787 with about 1487 people on board. I just can't imagine spending that long on board a ship all those years ago.

As it is Australia Day I thought it was an appropriate day to mention the RWA Flooded Communities Book Appeal. Even just a few books would help and if you are the author you could sign them or simply send a few good condition books you've read and enjoyed.
Here's the details.
What is wanted.
FICTION BOOKS! Romance books, children's books, young adult books, genre books, whatever – either new or in sparkling condition.


Please send them to:
RWA Flooded Communities Book Appeal
PO Box 1717
Noosaville Post Office
Noosaville BC
Queensland
Australia 4566

When to send them?
Now! And any time over the next few months. The books will be boxed and delivered to the appropriate libraries/schools/neighbourhood centres/community centres in batches as soon as the communities are ready to receive them. We’ll be liaising with councils, libraries and schools to ensure this is done appropriately. Feel free to pop a note inside, or if you're an author, sign it.

I have a small parcel to post off today.

St Dwynwen's Day

Here in Wales, today is St Dwynwen's Day, the Welsh equivalent of Valentine's Day.

Dwynwen lived in the 5th century and was the daughter of Brychan Brycheiniog - one of twenty four! Legend has it that she fell in love with Prince Maelon Dafodrill, but as her father already had an arranged marriage planned nothing could ever come of her love for her prince.

Upset she turned to her belief in God and begged him to help her forget Maelon. She then fell asleep and was visited by an angel who had a potion to erase all memory of her lover and turn him to a block of ice. God then gave her three wishes. The first for Maelon to be thawed, the second for God to meet the hopes and dreams of lovers and third that Dwynwen should never marry.

After this Dwynwen never married, but founded a convent off the coast of Anglesey, where a well was named after her. This well was visited by pilgrims after her death in 465AD as it was told that a sacred fish that lived within it could predict future love and luck.

There are cards especially for today and popularity of the day is growing.

So why not say 'Dwi'n dy garu di - I love you in Welsh to someone special today.

Happy New Year

The first day of January 2011 is drawing to a close and I'd like to wish everyone a Happy New Year. I hope that it will be a creative and successful one for all my writing friends.

After a dreary day and all the recent snow I thought I'd post a sunny picture to brighten things up!

HAPPY NEW YEAR



Fantastic Competition

Could you write about being a foreigner in Italy? That's the theme for a great new competition run by The Watermill at Posara and all the details are on their website. This is a wonderful place to have a creative writing or painting break. It really is as good as it looks, that's why I'm booked to go again next year for Sharon Kendrick's course.

It is so peaceful and quiet, what could be better for writing and the scenery is stunning for those who paint.

What could be more perfect than views like this?

Competition News

Finally the snow and ice has gone and daily life on the farm is normal again. Over the last few weeks the freezing conditions have created so much extra work. Its been hectic keeping water flowing to the cows and keeping them all warm, but at least the sun is shinning- for now!

One of the things I enjoy doing is entering writing competitions and I recently had the results back from the Romance Writers of Australia's High Five contest. I was really pleased with my result of 91% and 12th out of 75 entries. This is a big improvement on last years mark.

The competition required the opening five pages of a novel aimed at Mills and Boon and the feedback from the judges is well worth receiving.

Also I won a signed book from Kate Walker's Advent Calendar Giveaway. This competition is going on daily until Christmas and you can enter by visiting her blog.The book I won is Bound by Blackmail.

For my Australian readers here's a picture I took when the snow started two weeks ago. I'm sure readers in UK are fed up with the stuff.

Christmas Fair

On Saturday, despite the Arctic-like conditions, I went to the Christmas Fair at the University of Wales, Lampeter. Together with other members from my local writing group, Cwrtnewydd Scribblers, we sold copies of our new anthology, Of Cakes and Words.

This is the second anthology the group has published and this year the Co-operative very kindly funded the purchase of ISBN numbers through their Community Fund. Each member of the group has contributed poetry or short stories. The book costs £3.50 and 50p from each book sold is going to the Air Ambulance.

If you wish to purchase a copy please click here.

Blenheim Palace

Blenheim Palace is a place I've longed to visit for years and last week I finally managed to do just that. Together with two friends, Jo and Andrea we had a lovely day at this wonderful palace.

Work was started on this magnificent building in 1705 for John Churchill and his wife Sarah as a reward for his victory at Blindheim on the River Danube in Bavaria.

Blenheim also recently became a film set for Gulliver's Travels, the new movie to be released on Boxing Day. You can find out more about that here.

The Column of Victory stands in the vast and magnificent grounds, which I just have to go back and explore in the summer. You can just see the Column in the distance in this photo I took from the house.