Fiona Lowe's Blog, page 6

As I turn the calendar over to November I am very aware the end of the year is coming at me fast especially as I always cut up and soak my Christmas cake fruit the first weekend of November.  My eldest son will be home from college/university on the second weekend of the month as the academic year is over. Can’t believe he has finished two years already.

Later in the month, my parents are celebrating their 60th wedding anniversary…wow those are a lot of years!!  We also have my husband’s birthday and and a music festival.  Garden wise, the roses are flowering and we’re busy planting for summer. Guaranteed, if I plant the basil it will bring the frosts back or a massive heat wave.  I have handed in the manuscript for Truly, Madly Montana so I imagine I will also be doing some editing. I’ve also had a sneak peek of the cover and it’s gorgeous :-)

Aussie Readers:  You have one week left to grab  Picture Perfect Wedding on shelf at Big W, Kmart and Target.

US Readers: Saved By The Bride and Picture Perfect Wedding are out in mass-market paperback and available to buy only from Harlequin.com.  Runaway Groom will be available in 2015.

Montana Actually is up for pre-order. YAY!  I’m really excited to tell you about my cover quote from NYT best-selling author, Catherine Anderson.

This is a funny, sexy, and heart-warming novel that I feel is a must – read and a keeper. It made me laugh. I loved each character, and wish I could visit Bear Paw. Catherine Anderson

Montana Actually, the first book in my new and exciting Medicine River series featuring sexy doctors and hunky cowboys releases January 6th but if you pre-order either the print or eBook copy from your favorite retailer, most of them have it at reduced price. All sale links are HERE and the Book Depository has FREE postage! 

Montana Actually features an uptight Chicago doctor who thinks he’s landed on Mars, a nurse practitioners who’s found herself back home for the first time in eight years and is reassessing her life, a ranching family, the sexiest cowboy you’ll ever meet and a town on the plains that risks being blown away by the north Montana winds. Read the first chapter here.  Check out the Pinterest page for photos of the setting and inspirations for the characters.

Wishing you a happy and healthy November.

Fiona x

Family life got in the way numerous times while I was writing Truly, Madly Montana, book 2 of my Medicine River series so when Boy Wonder got on the plane to France at the start of October, I went into increasing hibernation so I could meet my October 30th.  This means I go no where and do not much else than write seven days a week.  I don’t think it’s healthy but it does keep my brain totally in the story!  I needed that after being pulled out of the book so often in the previous months.

I also pulled back on social media because I needed all the time I could get and given the constant noise out there in SM land, I doubt anyone noticed I was virtually AWOL, but I noticed something. I was a calmer without the constant bombardment of information. With the rise in screen use, decrease in exercise and the rise in teen/YA depression, I can’t help but think there are connections. I am not sure our brains/bodies have evolved enough to deal with it all.  Thoughts?

Aussie Readers, Picture Perfect Wedding, my husband’s favorite book of mine (!) and book 2 of my Wedding Fever trilogy  is on shelf in print at Big W, Kmart and Target. Of course, it’s always available as an eBook and all the sale links are HERE.  With a 4.2 star rating at Goodreads, this book is well loved and comes with a cast of cute dogs, big, brown-eyed cows, cheery sunflowers and a very sexy farmer and the secondary hero is a firefighter. What more can you ask for ;-)

I’ve seen the cover photo for Truly, Madly Montana and it’s just goregous and I can’t wait to show it to you. I’ve had a wonderful time creating the small town of Bear Paw for this book and for Montana Actually.

Montana Actually is up for pre-order now (print and eBook) so if you’re a fan of small town, contemporary romance,  you might want to check this out. Sexy doctors and hunky cowboys are just two reasons to pick it up. Read an excerpt here. It releases January 6th and you can order it from The Book Depository,  Amazon, Barnes and Noble, iBooks, Google Play. Amazon and Google Play have it on sale at the moment for almost 50% off.

Now I’m off to play tennis, do a massive spring clean of the house, buy summer sandals, plant some annuals in the garden and get some balance back in my life. I’m not very good at balance….how do you do it?

Today’s Monday October 13th and that means the Australian & NZ print edition of Picture Perfect Wedding is IN STORE today :-)  The easiet and cheapest places to grab a copy is at Big W, Kmart and Target.  If you can’t get to the shops, you can always order it from Booktopia.

Picture Perfect Wedding is book 2 in my Wedding Fever trilogy. I know that authors, just like parents, are not supposed to have favourites, but I love this book! Perhaps it brought back fond memories of holiday visists to a dairy farm when I was a kid and milking cows or Breakfast on the Farm in Wisconsin. It might be because sunflowers are just so cheery, or because there are two really cute dogs, but whatever the reason,  the characters in this book stormed onto the page, misbehaved and I had fun along with them.

Reviews for this book have been enthusiastic.

‘I have to start by saying the sexual tension between Luke and Erin is OFF THE CHARTS! These two dance around their attraction to each other for chapters upon chapters, and the heat continues to rise and rise and rise without taking a break. They torment and flirt and tease each other like I’ve never read before, and although it takes them awhile to actually get naked, but it is worth the wait! *fans self* Book Pushers

“Lowe provides rich contexts with conflict and power struggles even with a family in which all the members really do love one another. Picture Perfect Wedding is a terrific addition to any contemporary romance collection. If you like small-town contemporary romances with heat, humor, and heart-winning characters, I think you will enjoy it as much as I did. I recommend this book.” Just Janga

The blurb says….

Erin Davis will do whatever it takes to be the photographer for high-end brides. So what if capturing the moments of people’s lives means she has no time for her own. Nothing will get between her and the security she craves, not even the gorgeous farmer refusing to let her shoot photos in his sunflower field.

His family has always been tied to the land, but lately Luke Anderson feels more like he’s chained. While he ponders his future, he still has cows to milk and no time to deal with Erin or Bridezillas in his fields. Yet there’s something about the sexy city girl he can’t say no to. So he says yes: just this once.

With the town in need of a photographer, Erin agrees to spend wedding season in Whitetail. The sparks flying between her and Luke quickly ignite, but just as Erin starts to picture her own happy ending, Luke takes a gamble that could risk it all…

I promise you a big read full of heart, family, laughter and a few tears. For photos and more information head to my website.

Of course, the eBook version is always available if you’d prefer it. You can buy it from iBooks, Amazon Australia, Booktopia, or your eBook store of choice!

It is also availabe as an audio book from iBooks.

Don’t have a designated eReader? No problem! You can read it on your phone, your computer and your tablet. For form information on how to download apps, clickHERE.

On November 10th, Runaway Groom, the final book in the Wedding Fever trilogy will hit the shelf. If you’d like a reminder, sign up for my newsletter over at my website.

Wishing you a fabulous week with plenty of time for reading!

This blog has also appeard over at Everyone Needs a Little Romance….

Australia is a very long way from Europe. Yes, we’re at the bottom of the world so it takes about 29 hours of elapsed time to fly to France. You wave them through the “International departures” doors at the airport, you drive the hour and a half home and arrive just as they take off. You do some work, you have dinner, watch TV and go to bed. You wake up, they are still in the air, you have breakfast, you have lunch and then around mid afternoon they technically arrive in Europe. Yes it is THAT long.

Four years ago I put my eldest son on a plane to France and waved him goodbye. This time, it’s his younger brother’s turn and I was a bit more sanguine about it. They go, they return, they have great experiences but a LOT has changed in four years.

There are now Flight tracker apps! The perfect thing for an OCD mother who wants to know exactly where the plane with her precious cargo is. Oh! Kazakhstan. Oh the Black Sea suitably south of the Ukraine, yay! BTW, who KNEW how many planes there are in the sky at anyone time, right? Kinda scary! Unless you’re in Australia..not so many here.

Now there is free wifi in airports so  I got an iMessage from Boy Wonder sent from his iPod at each airport along the way.  I woke up to ‘we’re in Hong Kong” which had been sent hours ago.  I jumped on flight tracker to find they were delayed out of Hong Kong due to the riots and roads closed and people unable to get to the airport. This meant that they were going to miss their connecting flight out of Munich to Marseille, France.  I really didn’t want his host family turning up at 8am on their Saturday morning to collect him when he wasn’t there. But it was 1am in France. Hoping, she had her phone turned off, I iMessaged her as she conveniently has an iPhone. She replied saying she’d go to the airport anyway. Uh-oh! I tried to explain in French there was no point.

Then I worried…did we go to the tree planting in the afternoon  as planned which would be over the period of  when he landed in Munich and had to sort out flights. I wasn’t worried about him; although it is Boy Wonder’s first trip without us, it is his 9th overseas trip and he was with four other students. No, I was worried about the French mum!

But we had an iPhone so we went coastal tree planting where we camp each summer. Things don’t grow fast in this environment–salt, wind, sandy soil, a diminishing rainfall– and after the huge drought of four years ago, many trees had died so we’re replacing.  The first hour was uneventful; dig, plant, hammer in the tree guard, water, mulch and move on to the next one and then we checked the phone because BW was landing in Munich.

There was a message from France…’What flight will he be on? We haven’t heard from him.” (that would be because he was still in the air. Did I mention how far away Australia is ;-)  An email from Lufthansa, “The flight to Marseille is now this…”

So commenced a lot of  iMessages flying between Australia, Germany and France and  I was stuck by the fact I was sitting at the beach looking up flight times and texting around the world and HOW DIFFERENT that is from when I was an exchange student way back in the day when there was no contact at all until a very expensive international phone call when you finally arrived.

Even four years ago, there wasn’t free wifi in airports. I had no clue where The Lad was until he’d arrived.

Australian tea-tree

So Boy Wonder had four hours in Munich airport…we finished planting trees, came home, had dinner, watched TV and at 9pm our time, we got an iMessage and photo. He was in France! It only took him 35 hours from our front door  to his new French front door!

Now I have to rein in my texting to a letter on email once a week so he can fully enjoy his time without his hovering mother.  Did I mention I have the France time on the computer? The Aix en Provence weather? Google Earth where he’s living…

So now the challenge as a parent is to give your kids the space they need to mature and learn so how do you juggle the ability to be in constant contact with the need not to be?

Oh and book news? 

Montana Actually , Book 1 in the my new Medicine River series is up for pre-order now at ALL online bookstores. Both the print and the eBook version are currently reduced. Buy Links to all stores are here.

What’s it about? Take one sexy but uptight city doctor, one country woman who knows her way around a tool-box, throw in a hunky cowboy, a lot of cows and the spectacular scenery of the Montana rockies and that’s some of Montana Actually.

New York Times bestselling author,  Catherine Anderson said, “This is a funny, sexy, and heart-warming novel that I feel is a must – read and a keeper. It made me laugh. I loved each character, and wish I could visit Bear Paw.”

October and the garden has exploded into life with the bulbs giving us much needed color :-)

Life is a little chaotic here at the minute as I juggle trying to write Truly, Madly Montana, book two in my Medicine River series and help my youngest son leave for France. He is very fortunate to be able to spend ten weeks at highschool doing Year 10/10th grade in Aix en Provence. This time last year, I was in the south of France cycling along the Canal du Midi, drinking rich and creamy chaud chocolate and eating my body weight in the most amazing food. Are my husband and I jealous of Boy Wonder getting three months over there? You bet!

Book News!  

Here’s a roundup of what’s happening book wise.

Aussie Readers: On Monday October 13th Picture Perfect Wedding will be in print and on shelf in Australia :-) YAY! You can grab a copy at Big W, Kmart, Target as well as Booktopia. Runaway Groom hits the shelf November 10th!

US Readers: Saved By The Bride and Picture Perfect Wedding are out in mass-market paperback and available to buy only from Harlequin.com. Runaway Groom will be available in 2015.

Montana Actually now has a cover and is up for pre-order. YAY!  I’m really excited to tell you about my cover quote from NYT best-selling author, Catherine Anderson.

This is a funny, sexy, and heart-warming novel that I feel is a must – read and a keeper. It made me laugh. I loved each character, and wish I could visit Bear Paw. Catherine Anderson

Montana Actually, the first book in my new and exciting Medicine River series featuring sexy doctors and hunky cowboys releases January 6th but if you pre-order either the print or eBook copy from your favorite retailer, most of them have it at reduced price. All sale links are HERE and the Book Depository has FREE postage! 

Montana Actually features an uptight Chicago doctor who thinks he’s landed on Mars, a nurse practitioners who’s found herself back home for the first time in eight years and is reassessing her life, a ranching family, the sexiest cowboy you’ll ever meet and a town on the plains that risks being blown away by the north Montana winds. Read the first chapter here. Right now I’m writring book 2 in the series, Truly, Madly Montana. It comes out on  July 7th 2015 release date.  Meanwhile, check out the Pinterest page for photos of the setting and inspirations for the characters.

Most days I’m over at Facebook and Twitter so do call by and chat, although with an October 30th deadline, I may be quieter than usual but I will still be there :-)

MIlls & Boon Australia have teamed up with Take 5 Magazine and today, September 11th, there are three FREE novellas in the magazine. I’m excited to tell you that my novella, Return To Love is there along with one novella each from Melanie Milburne and Robyn Grady.

 My novella, Return To Love is a reunion story. Two busy doctors with two kids find themselves estranged and their lives heading in a direction neither had ever intended. On one hot summer’s night in a frantic ER can they save lives and save themselves?

 

So grab a copy of the mag today at your local newsagent or supermarket, enjoy the puzzles and competitions AND three great stories to ready. It’s a win-win all round!

 I’m super-excited to announce the cover for my next book!!  Montana Actually, book one in my new Medicine River series, is set in Montana (you probably worked that out ;-)  ) and it features sexy docotors, hunky cowboys, glorious mountain scenary and a rather clueless city doctor who thought driving six blocks to his favourite Chicago deli, was a long way. Fortunately, there’s a Montana gal who knows exactly how to educate him :-)

Just below, you’ll find the blurb and the pre-order sale links. Right now, the book is on sale for pre-orders so if you grab it today, you will get a lovely surprise on January 6th and be soothed that you paid less now than you will then.:-) Plus, depending on where you live, it will be the perfect winter read to cheer you up, or the perfect summer read down on the beach or at the holiday shack.

So without further ado, here is the cover!!!  What do you think?


Montana

Actually

Book 1 in the MEDICINE RIVER SERIES

Fiona Love

Releasing January 6th, 2015

Berkeley / Penguin

A big-city doctor in a small-town Montana practice….A former nurse who has sworn off doctors forever….The scene is set for passions to ignite in Big Sky Country. For readers of Robyn Carr and Sherryl Woods.

City doctor Josh Stanton and his sports car don’t suit the country, but with his medical school debt about to bury him, Josh has to make the best out of a bad situation. Adjusting to his new job and life in the middle of nowhere isn’t easy, but at least the views of the mountains—and one distractingly attractive local—are stunning…

After eight years away, Katrina McCade is back in Bear Paw for a break from her life, bad choices—and men. But when a broad-shouldered stranger bursts into town, she finds herself unexpectedly saddled with the town’s sexy new doctor as a tenant. Katrina doesn’t need a man to make her happy, especially a disgruntled physician. But try telling her body that…

Read an excerpt HERE.

 

 

Fiona Lowe is a RITA® and R*BY award-winning, multi-published author with Harlequin , Carina Press and, Berkley USA. Whether her books are set in outback Australia or the USA, they feature small towns with big hearts, and warm, likeable characters that make you fall in love. When she’s not writing stories, she’s a weekend wife, mother of two ‘ginger’ teenage boys, guardian of 80 rose bushes, slave to a cat and often found collapsed on the couch with wine.

 
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WOOT! SQUEE! Saved By the Bride is out today in paperback all across Australia! Mills & Boon Australia are print-publishing the Wedding Fever trilogy starting with book one, Saved By The Bride! So, if you don’t have an eReader and you missed the book or you loved the book and you’d like a large paperback copy, your time has come :-) You can grab it at Big W, Kmart and Target.

So, what’s it about?

**Welcome to Whitetail, Wisconsin, future home of Weddings that WOW!**
==========
As acting mayor, Annika will do anything to revive the economy of the town that’s been her refuge ever since her art career imploded and her fiancé walked out. Even if it means crashing an engagement party to talk business with the bride’s billionaire father. But the evening starts with a kiss from a gorgeous stranger and ends with a night in jail.

Finn Callahan can’t believe his sister is getting married, not after their parents’ disastrous track record. And he’d rather be anywhere than working from his family’s vacation home. Until he catches a leggy blonde sneaking in the window, and suddenly telecommuting for the season is very appealing.

Unable to resist their mutual attraction, Annika and Finn are soon mixing business and pleasure just for the summer. Too bad Annika’s heart missed the memo about not falling in love.

Reviews for this book were very favourable. “The first in the Wedding Fever series is a fun, romantic romp in a quirky small town. Anni and Finn are well matched in both wits and stubbornness. Their journey from enemies to friends to lovers is one that will keep readers turning pages. But what really gives this book its edge is a secondary romance, which shows that even when there is trouble in paradise, love can overcome any obstacle”. 4* RT Review.

The easiest way to buy the paperback edition of Saved By The Bride is at Big W, Kmart, Target or Booktopia during the month of September only because on October 13th, Picture Perfect Wedding, book 2 in the series will move in to take its place.

Of course, it’s still available as an eBOOK and buy links are HERE

 

The Lad is on his spring break and as he is a poor college/university student with few funds, he agreed to go snow ski-ing with his mother :-) I tell you, if you pay, they come!  Sadly, my husband and Boy Wonder had to stay home and work and attend school (sorry, guys) so it was just the two of us. We had a great two days ski-ing, didn’t argue, got along really well and we shared the driving! This vacationing/holidaying with adult children really has its pluses :-) The King Valley and the Alpine region are flush with pink and white bloosom and yellow wattle and it is such a beautiful part of the world the I always feel my soul reviving just being there.

As it is in spring, we got the full range of weather from cloudless, blue skies to blizzard conditions. The blizzard meant fresh powder snow to ski on Tuesday morning and I tell you there is nothing more magical than swooshing through the snow gums on 10cm of powder snow.  Here are some phone pics just to prove I was there cos now I am home dealing with the washing and it already seems a distant memory.

The Loo With A View! Mt Hotham, Victoria

 

Sunny & blue skies one day…

Blizzarding the next!

 

Cynthia D’Alba is a fellow blogger on Everybody Needs a Little Romance and today is her release day for her latest Texas Montgomery Maverick’s novel, Texas Twist. And yee-hah! I love the cover!

So if you fancy a cowboy story, you might want to check this one out. There’s also a giveaway and details of that are further down.

Real bad boys can grow up to be real  good men.

 
Hit hard bythe death of her parents, Paige Ryan needs to figure out what to do  with her life. She moves to Whispering Springs, Texas, to be near her step-brother. But just as she starts to get her life on track, the last man she ever wanted to see again sends it right back off the rails.
 
Cash Montgomery was on the cusp of having it all. Three bull riding titles, fame,

fortune and respect from his family. Until a bad bull leaves him injured, angry

and searching for comfort at the bottom of a bottle. With nowhere to go, he

moves into his sister-in-law’s old ranch house in Whispering Springs—which he’s surprised to find already occupied.

As Cash rebuilds the dilapidated home and Paige starts out on her medical career, their old friendship begins to reemerge and sparks are ignited. Paige knows that Cashis nothing but a heartache waiting to happen. But maybe this bad boy has grown
up to be a real good man?
 

Warning: Watch out for falling lumber, falling in holes, and falling for the wrong guy…again. You can leave your hard hat on.

 

 

Award winning author Cynthia D’Alba was born and raised in Arkansas. After being gone for seventeen years, she’s thrilled to be back home living on the banks of an eight-thousand acre lake. When she’s not reading, writing or plotting, she’s doorman for her two dogs, cook, housekeeper and chief bottle washer for her husband and slave to a noisy, messy parrot. She loves to chat online with friends and fans.

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