Nope. I'm in before Sunday night this week. Amazing!

I've been struggling with what I thought was an errant Muse this last couple of weeks (as you might be aware if you've seen my posts regarding same. Apologies for boring you to death.)

Actually, I've discovered that the Muse is not errant at all, just otherwise employed as a character in a local theatre production, an adapted version of Gogol's 'The Government Inspector'.

Doris has a favourite saying which has something to do with low flying ducks, one of which you can see is creeping out of her big 1960s hair-do. She's here with Ivana, the postmistress and with Pip, the hospital matron. (By the way, the local Kangaroo Island Players team is the best, a great bunch of fun-loving people).

So why did I feel Muse-abandoned? I watched other writers' FB posts, marvelled at the talent and success and wondered why I couldn't do/write/engage like that. Why can't I be like that (and etc)? was the wah-wah cry. 

(Stay with me - the Muse bit is back on) ... Then I realised I do 'do' like that, I do 'write' like that, I do 'engage' like that, just not like any one else ... I do it like me.

Because Doris is from the Muse as well. She came channelling in like a mad thing to take over for a couple of weeks sucking up all the creativity, bursting forth like an alien being chewing gum (you had to be there...). Any wonder the writing bit stalled.

Over the last couple of years my delight in returning to the thing I love to do (writing) and also taking up something I have always wanted to do (acting), has turned my life around. Not that life was bad. I just suddenly I realised I didn't give a toss what others thought of my output or ability, I was free to do what I wanted. (Improving my craft as well, one would hope). There is relief, wonder, joy, satisfaction, fun in having something to love, love, love, and do, guilt-free.

We are near the end of our KI Players little season and though Doris is still top billing in the Muse stakes, she's on the wane. I can hear the simmer and rattle of other Muse projects in the background. 

Doris has been good for the process. The Muse is not errant at all; she's alive and well doing her thing, and I'm so heartily glad she's bullied her way to the forefront. Low flying ducks, besides.

Really. It is Sunday night this time.

Nope. I missed Sunday again. There's something about Sundays I keep missing...

Anyway, that doesn't matter right now. Right now, what matters is that the Muse, damn her to all places, has disappeared again. Apparently she's off into the biggest black hole some-thing-or-other with other recalcitrant muses making like they need a holiday. With music.

Muses do not need a holiday! What is that with a holiday? MUSES do NOT need a holiday.

There I was, finishing up a book and lucky enough to have it published. Yep, doing a bit of marketing, hoping my readers enjoyed the story and all that jazz. I admit it was a little different to my usual, but you know - we have to stretch ourselves a bit this way and that.

Well, I learned something. You can hurt yourself stretching ... but the doesn't mean it's not good for you. And that's OK. It's all part of it. After you hurt stretching, your muscles get used to it. You know what not to do again. (Yep, Your readers like s-e-x in their stories. Note to self: put s-e-x in your stories. Next note to self: do it.)

Anyway, that doesn't matter right now. Right now, what matters is finding a solution to this problem about the Muse. A friend suggested that the Muse was absent due to an infliction of a character called Doris (not affliction. Infliction. Really.) Here's Doris... she's a bit shy. Not. (Well, in this pic she is.)

Anyway, this sort of thing takes up a lot of time. But wot FUN!

Then aside from Doris, there's all this interesting stuff on Facebook, and Amazon, and there's other time-wasting stuff like the laundry etc and then -

There's learning about deep POV. (Not time-wasting). I love Kristen Lamb. (Thanks for posting, Kylie Short.) Kristen Lamb makes you realise how long you've been dabbling in the mysterious art of story-writing for the masses. (Let's not go into the other mysterious art of just story-writing for yourself. Or for your mum. Or your PG nieces. But anyway...) She makes you realise that unless you're really awake, the omniscient author-dude voice can still lurk even after careful self-editing and therefore give the game away. You've been doing this a long time.

This revelation was a little startling. I have been around the traps (not doing an awful lot by all accounts) for a LONG time. Then, why do I not have JK Rowling's bank account?

Which brings me back to my original grizzle - where the hell is my Muse?

Not really - it's actually Wednesday. Another one of those weeks again.

The fabulous Emerald Romance  has re-released one of my personal favourites (as an author I'm allowed to have a few favourites...even more than a few), This Time Forever, (formerly This Forever Game). Perhaps it's time to say that some my Australis Island novels and novellas are stand alone and contemporary titles, with a few upcoming ones being shorter single titles.

Emerald Romance will re-release all four other previously published Australis Island contemporary novels this year.

ANYHOOO - one of my esteemed colleagues, the very talented Susanne Bellamy (who edited Island Proposal) suggested that a bit of Australis Island history might be in order.

You might know that I'm a local on Kangaroo Island, South Australia - a magical place full of magical scenery, wildlife and produce. The people - well, I make them up.

I felt I wanted to write about KI, but living and working here might have made things a little bit sticky on occasion. I decided to take all the stories I'd written and set them on a fictional place, namely Australis Island and hopefully avoid said sticky.

So if I were going to do that, I'd need a bit of history. KI has as rich an Australian history as any other location in the country - its exception, like some other places, is that it was never settled as a penal colony. Rather it attracted escaped convicts and ship-jumpers, sealers and whalers who often made the place their home. This is pre European South Australian official settlement, I might add. Our first official landings were in 1836, before the South Australian mainland arrivals.

These were generally solo men; women were often brought from far away, the most well-known of whom came from Tasmania and were aboriginal. It is said that these women on KI outlived Trugannini as the last remaining Tasmanian full bloods. That's an amazing call.

So. I wondered how I would populate my Australis Island. I didn't have the ancestors arrive pre-official settlement, which  was about 1802-3, but post 1836 so that they had a legitimate reason to arrive. 

They were immigrants from Europe as many were, and for some reason they came from the Netherlands - if for nothing else, because they'd be tall, strapping, hard working stock. (For the record, one side of my own ancestors are short, dark haired and a wee bit fiery from another island in the Mediterranean known for its ...ah, Organisation.)

Henricus and Sybilla arrived late 1800s and they had four sons. Most of my heroes and heroines descend from these four brothers and their wives. The family even has its own genealogy on myheritage.com to keep me on my toes.

But there are characters in my Australis Island novels who fall outside this sprawling fictional family and who are not connected to them.

The characters in The Time Forever are some of these non-related characters, but they do know of Australis Islanders who are descendants.

But that's enough from me. There's lots of stories yet to come from Australis Island, so please, stay tuned - I'd love for you to catch up and visit - if just from your chair - the magic of Australis Island.

It's actually Monday but that tells you about the week I've had so far. No matter ... Island Proposal is out, and proud.

I've had a thrill of a ride lately! Which is probably why this is called Sunday night and not Monday night.

Island Proposal - number 6 of my stories set on fictional Australis Island is now published with the discerning Emerald Romance. I'm in great company with Annie Seaton and her team of authors.

And very happily, luckily for me - Emerald Romance has also offered to re-release all five of my previously published books in the next few months in 2015.

What a roller coaster ride the last two years have been! What I have learned along the way! What I have had the most delicious fun doing! (That should be the sum total of my exclamation marks throughout this blog.)

Island Proposal

Writing this story, as with all my Australis Island stories, I have taken the opportunity to showcase life and land and produce on the island on which Australis Island is based.

It, too, is a magical place - great food, great wines and spirits, great landscapes and seascapes, and great companies carrying our visitors in style and comfort, or accommodating them in great B&B's, the best of which, in my oh-so-humble opinion - Stranraer Homestead - is featured a little in this story.

In Island Proposal, our heroine, Madelaine is a chef whose business caters for the independent traveller. Troy, our hero, is also a chef, and a descendant of one of the founding families on Australis Island, one who's about to become very rich - IF he marries by his birthday.

Throw in a pot of aromatic, rich and tongue-tingling native currants bubbling away to become a piquant chutney, Troy's father and Madelaine's mother who have a little surprise, a suspicious marriage celebrant, an icky baby at a wedding and spectacular coastal views from a house set on a secluded hilltop, and I reckon you might have just as much fun reading it as I had writing it. I certainly had fun 'working' in Madelaine's spectacular kitchen.

Australis Island comes alive again with Island Proposal ...open the cover, have a peek inside and visit - we'd love you see you there.