Yes, getting published was right up there for me, too. And like you, I love my editor. I thank my lucky stars every day that I wound up on Wanda's slush pile. Sometimes I make myself stop and consciously recognise that I am a published author. Literally, a dream come true. It's easy to get caught up in the every day and overlook the good stuff.

As for the weight loss, well, it's nice of you to say I looked okay before, but I am a short person and I was carrying way too much weight for good health. When we moved into our house here in NZ I made myself a deal that I would stop making excuses for myself (eg "I'm in Italy. This delicious custard filled donut sprinkled with sugar will never be in front of me again. It's stupid to try to lose weight when you're on holidays." or "You're just back from holidays. When you're feeling more settled you can start eating more healthily".) The first four weeks were definitely the hardest. But now I hope I have made a new habit of healthy eating for myself. Fingers crossed!!

I love that cover! And I second the congratulations on your weight loss. What a wonderful accomplishment! I know how much of a struggle it is.
At this point in my life, my dream is to get my kids through school and on their way to successful careers of their own. They're both teenagers. My daughter uses more spiral notebooks for her stories than for her schoolwork. She's always submitting stories on the fan-fic sites. And my son's the artist in the family; always drawing. I keep telling them when they get older they can collaborate on books - she can write them and he can illustrate them. Then they can take care of their mommy in her old age. lol.

Now that's a goal! LOL I'd need a miracle to ever be able to do that. ;)

Anyhow, welcome back, Sarah. :) Just got my copy of Below The Belt a couple of weeks ago, but I'm not letting myself read it until I read a few more from the TBR pile. Crazy, I know, but if I read all the ones I know will be great first, I'll never read the 'iffy' ones. :) (BTW, because I have a copy already, please don't include me in the contest. :) )

Congrats on the weight loss!! I'm just starting on that journey too (again). I need to go back to work six months or so and before I do that I need to downsize my computer/writing butt. :(

As far as goals go, I haven't completed it yet, but at almost 30 years old and with three kids (four if you count my husband), I'm back in college again. It's something I've wanted to do for awhile and when the opportunity presented itself, I jumped at it. I'll be done in December (I hope).

Glad to see you back, even if just for today!!

...As we call it Down Under. I must admit, there is a part of me that would love to do some life modelling, too. I know a few women who have done it and they are quite shy, introverted people. I was always kind of surprised that they had had the gumption to get their kit off for a room full of people. But I think it would be so freeing to just say "here I am, this is me" and be done with it. My October release is a "best friends falling in love" kind of story, and hinges around her doing some life modeling for him. How's that for a coincidence?
As for your great list - knowing what you want is halfway to getting it, yeah? Good luck!!!

My hat is off to you. I love running on the treadmill at gym, but the real world defeats me every time. The uneven ground, the hills!!! The traffic. The staring motorists. At gym, I just zone out and get lost in my ipod tracks. No need to worry about stepping on doggy do or bowling over an old lady. I seriously question how good my cardiovascular fitness is becoming, but at least I'm moving, right? Like you, a day on the derriere doesn't do much for my jean size, so I figure it's something.

First off, I should explain that prior to changing the way I ate I was prone to the odd pig out, craving sugary things, and always dipping into the choccie supply in the cupboard until my partner went to get some and found there was none. Oh, the guilt! I realised that I had a pretty unhealthy relationship to food. I used it to comfort myself, to reward myself, to celebrate, to commiserate. I ate when I was bored, for Pete's sake. My first thought (still!!) when my partner says 'what do you want to do this weekend?' is "go somewhere nice and eat yummy stuff." So, my first thing was to consciously monitor myself for when I was really hungry or when I was "eating my feelings" in some way. And I cut out the carbs in my diet. Not ruthlessly like in the Atkins Diet or anything, but just sensibly. A typical day of food for me is: 1/3 cup of oats made into porridge with some kind of high fibre cereal, a little bit of honey and trim milk. If I get hungry mid morning, I try having a glass of water and remind myself that 'hunger is my friend'. My partner and I came up with that one! If that doesn't work, I have a piece of fruit or a small handful of raw nuts (almonds and walnuts are super good for your heart). At lunch, I have some kind of lean meat, typically at least 100g, with soup or salad. I prefer the salad option since the soup is from a can and a little lacking in the sensory stimulation area. I discovered this great salad back in Australia - I get fresh green beans and cut them into quarters, effectively kind of shredding them. This makes a really fresh, crunchy base for the salad, much more satisfying than lettuce leaves. Then I finely slice some red onions - just enough for flavour. Then some cherry tomatoes or just normal tomatoes. I make sure I sprinkle salt and pepper on the tomatoes and beans, and sometimes I dress my salad with some virgin olive oil or sometimes I make a raspberry vinaigrette (olive oil, raspberry vinegar, Dijon mustard, mix to preferred taste). I dress the salad, then mix my protein of choice through - smoked chicken or lean ham, sometimes left over roast beef from dinner. Then for dinner I have more lean meat and veges or salad. The key is the lean meat for me - it makes me feel full and it seems to last a long time in energy terms and I don't have big sugar highs and lows. Occasionally I have a single square of dark chocolate and just suck on it for dessert. I know, how Spartan, but it's actually very satisfying to eat a small amount of something and really savour it. Okay, I could go on for hours, but my basic rules are no pasta, rice, bread and other products based on white flour (which rules out pastries, cake etc). Eat food as close to it's natural state as possible (so no pre-prepared packet things) and make sure that whatever I eat is still damned delicious. I am a hedonist, and I'm never going to be any other way, so I need to make my healthy food tasty as well as good for me. You notice the difference pretty quickly in weight terms, in my experience. But it's very hard to do away with bread and pasta. But, so far for me, it's been worth it. After nearly five months, I hope I have actually changed the eating habits of a lifetime. Fingers crossed! And good luck!

Isn't it wonderful to work with someone who gets your writing? And yes, my goal is to grow as a writer, too. Like Sam I dream of hitting the big time, but I figure that the only way I can really achieve that is to keep writing the books that come from my gut and my heart and keep learning as much as possible from the authors I adore. I read them over and over and try to analyse why I like a particular scene, how they have achieved the ache in my chest. Then I try to apply it to my own writing. So far, who knows how successful I have been? It's all a work in progress after all. Good luck with your own writing, Jeannie, and finding your own lightbulb moments.

Day to day I understand, too. Sometimes that's the only way to make the unmanageable manageable, yes? What a great celebration you and your hubby can have in 2 months time, though. I so admire mothers. Every time I visit a friend with a small child I realise how much love and attention and time they require. And two of them at once!!! Kudos to you for staying sane. And thanks for the feedback on Below the Belt. It's funny you should mention Ray... As I was writing about him I was wondering if I shouldn't find him someone to love, too. He seemed like such a nice guy... hmmm....

So impressed! I think the WW program is excellent and the first time I lost all my weight I did it with them. For some reason, it didn't work so well with me second time around. Maybe the mystique had worn off a little - I went to WW hoping it would be a bit of a magic wand, and it was, but then I let my guard slip and before I knew it was climbing up the weight scale again. Sigh. I think I am probably always going to be someone who has to be careful, but when I see younger women starting to put on weight I want to stop them in the street and say "stop now! it's so much easier to stay slim than to lose weight!!" That would make me a very welcome guest commentator in people's lives, wouldn't it?!

You know, I just did a big rummage through this morning to see what I could fit into again. My pinstripe, old-style suit with button-on braces and double breasted coat. My other pair of teeny-tiny pinstripe pants. The dress I wore on my 30th birthday party - admittedly still a little tight across the bust. But it's looking good. And, weirdly, there were a couple of shirts I'd been hanging onto that I now fit into that I just realised I don't like any more. Huh. Well, they can find a good home elsewhere, I'm sure.

As for your dreams - all so achievable, especially with the ST you have in your in-tray right now. I have great faith!!! And am more than ready to brag to my friends that I know you.

Your two boys were obviously just meant to be. I always get a bit teary when I hear about people's little miracles like this. I think it gives you a heightened appreciation of children when they don't come easily.

And it's nice to be back, Ani. I have missed the blog, missed chatting with you all, but I think it was probably a wise decision to bow out before I got kicked out!!! I had no reliable internet connection for three months when we got back from Europe, and I have a crazy schedule this year. I've signed on for 5 books (eeek!!) and I'm still writing scripts and doing odd bits of other TV work here and there. My days are full, what with the French lessons, the writing, the shopping for skinnier clothes, the writing, the exercise, and the writing! But, you know, it's all good. I just heard recently that I'm a finalist in the Romantic Book of the Year Award (RBY) in Australia for my Island Heat book, and I'm attending my first romance writing conference in Melbourne later this year. Like I said, all good!

How fantastic. And you know, as a lawyer, you'll be able to afford that trip to Europe sooner rather than later. I have only seen England, France and Italy, but I adore both France and Italy. We are thinking of tackling Germany next, but I must admit it doesn't excite me as much as Paris and Rome do. We only had four days in Rome altogether, but it's a spectacular, breathtaking city. And Paris...well, I LOVE Paris. My October release, Amorous Liaison, is set in Paris and I loved writing about all my favorite places, foods etc. Sigh. I hope you enjoy Below the Belt if you get a chance to read it.

Congrats on the weight loss and the book. The cover is lovely. I need to do the exact thing--get started on losing weight and feeling better. Help!!!

You know, they're always the killer, aren't they? I'm not down to them yet - still got another 6 or 7 kg till I hit my goal weight, which is pretty generous given I am only 5 foot two inches and probably is at the upper end of where I 'should' be. But I am not 18 any more and the last time I was at my "ideal" goal weight was a looooong time ago. I'm being realistic. And, you know, I like having hips! As long as I am in a healthy weight range, I'm going to be happy, I figure. Good luck with your own journey. Food is a great pleasure - I just had to learn not to make it my only one!

Great to "speak" to you, too. Ta for your congratulations on the weight loss. You know, from this end of things I look back and realise it wasn't as hard as I imagined it would be. Once I'd worked out the things I could eat and meals that satisfied my need for yummy, filling stuff, I was away. Like I said above, the first four weeks were the killer. And occasionally Chris would buy a big, sugar-dusted donut from the bakery around the corner and the saliva glands in my mouth would literally ache with lust. God, I love donuts!!! But it's worth not having them to fit into jeans again and feel a bit saucy as I walk down the street.

Dance lessons. Hmmm. You know, Amorous Liaison (October book) is not only set in Paris and about two best friends falling love, it's also about dancing. Maddy is a ballet dancer, Max a retired one. I will be terrified I have used the wrong word for something now that I know you take dance classes, but it will be interesting to see what you think. I did a lot of research about dancers and retired dancers before I started writing. I found it a very emotional subject. Dancing demands such devotion and it chews up dancers and spits them out with most of their lives still ahead of them. Many of them are devastated when they can't do what they love any more. We went to see a US based dance company perform here in Auckland recently and I had to blink away tears for much of the performance because I could tell how much they all loved what they were doing. (plus, I may have been mourning that lost donut, you never know!)

Best of luck with de-cluttering. The best advice I can give you is to move house 10 times in five years. That helps get rid of the extraneous stuff pretty quick smart. I don't recommend it as a solution, however. Not much fun,not very practical. And it makes you crave donuts hourly.

Thanks Kim. Glad you enjoyed it. I really enjoyed writing it, too. I mentioned in my readers letter inside the front cover that some of the ideas for the book came to me when I watching K1 fighting in New Zealand. For the uninitiated, it's basically kickboxing - very exciting and dynamic. I was a little uncertain about what to expect the first time we went, but I loved it - the smell of the linament, the sweat, the ferocity. Dare I say...it was kind of primitive and sexy. There - I've outed myself as a closet cave-woman. All the best, Kim.

I have actually just been trying on my new dress and my old clothes for my friend Kirsty, swanning about admiring my newly discovered waist and hips. Frankly, I'm feeling a little "up myself" as we say down here in Australia and New Zealand. Normally not a state I usually aspire to, but I'm going to let myself enjoy it after years and years of looking the other way when I caught my reflection in a shop window. All the best.

I have only cottoned on to the joys of traveling fairly recently, but I'm with you on those cool, historical places. I'd love to go to Egypt, and I've always been fascinated with China and the whole Forbidden City thing. Unfortunately, I'm still wearing my water wings where traveling is concerned - I like everything planned and very orderly and civilised. So,probably both those two destinations should wait a while until I'm off my travel training wheels! As for wanting to be more forgiving and relaxed...well, I think we could all take a leaf out of your book. It amazes me sometimes how long I can dwell on something that is really, in big picture terms, not that big a deal. But our lives are made up small moments that all kind of quilt together into a whole, so maybe focussing on the small moments is only natural. And I so know what you mean about wanting an author's backlist. I have been chasing down a few of my favorite author's backlists lately and some are a) impossible to find b) into triple figures. Needless to say, I shall try the library!!!