INVITATION: Guest Posts to Celebrate Spring

In the southern hemisphere we look forward to the advent of spring with all the fresh air, and cleansing Highveld thunderstorms and the blooming flowers and greenery that result.
Our summers are hot and as soon as the weather starts to warm up, people are planning and looking forward to their holidays over Christmas.
To help me celebrate this time of year, I am looking for 6 guest posts in September for this blog from my fellow authors, or aspiring authors.
Consider your life and writing and tell me and my readers about your time management, social media management. marketing your book, choosing editors, proofreaders, cover designers, ie all the activities that are involved when you write, publish or market your book, except the writing itself. What works for you and what doesn't.
Leave a comment, tweet me (no DMs please) or PM me on Facebook to pitch your idea. Remember our summer holiday is coming, so your bio and the details of one book should accompany your post.

Looking forward to hearing from you!

Remember to sign up for my newsletter for notification on any future events.

Happy Birthday Mom!

This week my Mother is celebrating her 72nd birthday! She is one amazing lady, having survived cancer last year, it is my absolute pleasure to have her on my blog today.

In honour of her, I am offering my scifi romance short story, PERFECT, for free this week.

You can use the coupon code, NA54E, from 19 to 24 August 2013. The free ebook download is only available here on Smashwords.

I hope you will enjoy the story and give your Mom a hug too!

Follow Me @ Mabula Private Game Reserve

For the past few days I had been to Mabula, just a couple of hours north of Pretoria, with the absolute intention of writing and finishing my current work-in-progress, Michael's Mystery (excerpt here).
What I did do was take a few photographs of birds and animals that visited me at the  bungalow where I was staying.
While my word count was a pathetic 2600 words in four days (head hanging in shame), I have come to the realisation how hypocritical humans have become.
 
The photographs you see here are of animals that approached me!
What?
Exactly.
They should have been running or flying their little legs off to get away from the highest predator in the food chain!
Instead they approached me, because people who come to the reserve (that focuses on conservation I have to stress here) feed the animals because they are cute.
I beg to differ.

While a small antelope might not be a predator, it is still dangerous. I had a run in with a male impala when I was younger and almost got run through by it horns.
The birds and animals are fed things that could potentially be poisonous to them. Or their babies. But no, we feed them because they are cute!

Tell that to the next woman whose child is bitten by a baboon, or gored by a sharp horn. And it is always the animals that get put down because people never think about the consequences of their actions.

The warnings are there for a reason, don't ignore them.

Blog Tour: Embrace Me by Rebecca Turley

What will happen to the girl who has everything?

After a rough start to life, Shannon Downing finally has it all. She has her Mr. Notice Me, she has reconnected with her long-lost mother, and she is the sole heiress to a multi-billion dollar company. The only problem is going public with that information.

Hidden away at a ranch in Texas at her mother’s insistence, Shannon’s world starts to crumble. Not only does she learn of Maisy Field’s kidnapping, but she hears a secret that could destroy everything and everyone she loves.

What will happen when news comes out that she is the missing heiress to Downing International? Will she become the next target for the elusive kidnappers? And what about the secret she overheard? Will the love that she and Mr. Notice me share be enough to hold them together?

Excerpt:

Some parts of my New York life were the same. The main thing being that my dear friends Lorna and Bradley were still a big part of my life. Charlie and I now lived in his stunning penthouse flat together in Brooklyn. By far, the best part about living there was waking up every morning in Charlie arms with the New York skyline surrounding us. I always felt as if I was home.

Luckily, I had seen nothing of the Field family; my mother made sure of that. I could only imagine what she must have said to them in their board meeting once we left our island. A few months later, I noticed the Fields lost a lot of stock in some unstable deal, which would have cost them dearly. I had a feeling my mother was making her point.

The only major change in New York was my high powered job and how much I loved it.

Charlie had been right, and I threw myself into making Headcom the best marketing front line company New York had ever seen. Contracts were coming in from all over the world. As the workload began to double, I took Lorna on as my Assistant Director. She almost squashed me to death in celebration.

“No way! Are you being serious?” she screeched as her long red hair danced frantically behind her back.

“Yes. I couldn’t think of anyone else I’d rather work with.”

“You do realise you don’t have to do this? I mean, I know you are grateful that I helped save you from the evil William Field and find your mother, but I did it because you are my friend. You don’t owe me anything.”

“I know that, silly,” I laughed. “I am doing this because you are the best. You have had input in every major contract we have gained. Lorna, you deserve this.”

Author Bio
Rebecca Turley lives in the captivating town of Malvern in Worcestershire with her husband Jon and cat Millie. With a view of the Malvern Hills from her writing desk, all she needs for inspiration is to look out of her window. A hopeless romantic like most women, she enjoys becoming lost in a love story almost as much as writing one. 

Embrace Me is the sequel to her debut novel Notice Me.

Links
http://www.rebeccaturley.com/
https://twitter.com/@RebeccaTurley1
https://www.facebook.com/RebeccaTurley82

Links to buy
Notice Me: http://www.amazon.com/Notice-Me-ebook...
Embrace Me: http://www.amazon.com/Embrace-Me-ebook/dp/B00E9J3N9I/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1375514394&sr=8-1&keywords=embrace+me+rebecca+turley

Coffee, Trains and Statues

We needed more coffee at home, so Francois (alias Hubby) and I hopped onto the Gautrain this morning to Sandton as it is our closest mall to get hold of the brew we prefer.
But first we had to get breakfast! As always the restaurants on the Nelson Mandela Square were quickly filling up with locals and tourists (heard quite a few foreign accents this morning) in search of something to fill the stomach.
It was not our first visit to Sandton, and it never seizes to amaze me how many people take photographs of their friends or family members next to the statue of Nelson Mandela.
This morning I dug out my Samsung S3 (having recently discovered its panoramic setting) and took this 180 degree view of the Square from left to right with the statue in the middle. I was even impressed with the way the camera handled the light changing from sunlight to shade.
We got our breakfast, bought the coffee and made our way home just as the lunch crowds were pouring into Sandton. It was a lovely outing, and one we will do again soon!