Nicole Flockton

Be whatever you want to be.

27 June 2006

Book Challenge - Books 49-50

So it's been a long time since I blogged about the books I'm reading this year. Well its almost halfway through the year and I've read 72 books. Well the 72nd book isn't a Harelquin book but I'm still counting it because its a fabulous book.

So here its the next two books. My next three I read are all part of a series and I read them one after the other so I'll post them all in one post.

Looks like I have a few of these posts to do. Blog is going to be a bit boring for the next few. LOL

Book 49 – His Secretary Mistress by Chantelle Shaw – Modern/Presents/Sexy

This was Chantelle’s first book and I really enjoyed it. Jenna and Alex first meet each other in a rain storm. She is running late for her first day on a job and he is also running late. After speaking to his secretary he finds out the new assistant was late as well. See where this is heading? LOL

Anyway I’m not sure if it has been released yet in the US but I suggest you get it. It kind of harks back to the early 90’s Presents. Not saying our Alex is a brute just some themes I felt were reminiscent of those days.

I really did enjoy this book and shall look out for more of Chantelle’s releases.

Book 50 – Betrothed for the Baby by Kathie DeNosky – Desire

The final book in Kathie’s series. This is Hunter and Callie’s story. Although the back blurb says our heroine’s name is Cassie. Good typo there.

I really enjoyed this book as well. In fact I liked the whole series.

Hunter has been given a Medivac company to look after. He is a former helicopter pilot but after an accident that killed his fiancé and unborn child he hasn’t flown in years.

He arrives at this little town in the middle of Texas and finds Callie, his pregnant flight nurse. Of course his protective instincts kick in and he wants to ground her. She digs her heels in and says she is perfectly capable of flying.

The thing that annoyed me about this book is that Callie continuously baked when she was stressed. Making all sorts of cookies. It’s not really a big thing because it doesn’t affect the storyline at all just drove me crazy. LOL

Anyway the father of Callie’s baby comes to town and Hunter says they should get married to prevent him from getting his hands on the baby.

A near miss makes them both evaluate the trueness of their relationship.

Looks like there could be more to this series as well. Guess time will tell.

If you've read any of these books I'd love to hear what you thought of them.

JN

26 June 2006

Contest Etiquette

WOOHOO this is my 50th post. Yay me. LOL

Okay so as you know entered a competition didn't make the second round which I was totally cool about. The point of the exercise was for me to actually DO something with my writing. Actually follow through on a commitment.

A couple of weeks ago the finalists were annouced. There was 6 finalists in all. Great opportunity to have your synop put in front of an editor. But here is what kind of annoyed me. There were only 3 finalists. Once person had 3 entries make the final round, another person had 2 entries and one person had 1 entry. Is that really fair?

The contest rules state that you can enter more than one entry. You pay a fee for each entry but you can put in as many as you want. But I think when it comes to the final round only one entry per person should go through. So in this instance one person had 3 places in the final and guess what she placed 1, 2 and 3. Why bother entering?

So I'll say it again, its not sour grapes on my part, I honestly didn't think I'd get the marks that I got and for me it was stepping out of my comfort zone.

I think everyone should have an equal and fair opportunity. Now the contest co-ordinator would have known that this one person had 3 entries go through to the final round so a co-ordinator would have the power to pull out the other entries by this person, thus giving another 2 people an opportunity to get their work in front of an editor.

I feel the contest rules should change and am considering writing to the contest co-ordinator about it. When it comes to the crunch everyone should have a fair go, particularly when it could be a chance at your dream - publication.

Incidentally this particular person that scoped the pool in this comp has finaled in another major RWAus comp and won another of this years competitions. It is obvious this person is talented and I wish her well but give someone else a go!

JN

19 June 2006

Birthday Pictures

After much struggling I've got the photos attached.


The Birthday cake


Butterfly Skylar



And because I love this cake so much, Zane's birthday cake last year.

Each cake has been made and decorated by my incredibly talented husband.

JN

Time Flies...


Wow its been nearly a month since I lost blogged. How did that happen? Anyway what has happened since then.

Oh yes the Birthday party. Well what can I say it was a HUGE success. We had 25 kids, including Skylar and Zane, and about 20 or so adults. The weather was supburb. It was sunny and warm which I was thankful for.

We had the party at my mum's house and they have a really large undercover patio area as well as a strip of grass. The face painter was a hit and the only game that I ended up having to play was pass the parcel because all the kids were having heaps of fun playing with the tub of toys my mum got out.

The biggest hit of all was the cake. Another masterpiece by my hubby. Every single mother was so impressed. They wanted to know who made the cake and when I told them, some what proudly that it was my wonderful hubby they were all in awe. They wanted to know if he had a cake shop and if he took orders.

I swear if Jason did decide to make a business of cake decorating he would have had about 15 orders there and then.

Skylar had a ball and got a heap of presents. One minute we had one kid there, the next we had 20!

I have to say though I have the best parents in the whole world. It first started out with them letting us have the party at their house. But then on Friday night when I had all the family over I started to get the stuff ready to make the lolly bags. My mum comes in and said "Dad got me to make 21 lolly bags for you." I couldn't believe it. The job I was dreading was done! Only problem was I wanted to have a few spare. Mum said no worries she should have enough lollies at home to make some more.

The next morning I arrive at her house and she tells me that there are now 33 lolly bags. WOOHOO! Plenty. Also my dad then says, "I've interferred again. I was thinking yesterday about the mum's of the kids. They'll stay and need food so I've bought 40 sausages and rolls and we'll have a sausage sizzle." Could my dad be any better! Thank goodness he did this because I wouldn't have had enough to feed the kids and the parents.

All the kids seemed to enjoy themselves and left with happy faces. All over but next year I think we'll only ask a few kids. LOL

In another post I'll load a picture of the Cake and Skylar with her face painted.

JN