Hi. Theo here again. The book is out — The Santorini Bride, that is. Grab it. Read it. Don’t be too shocked when you discover we don’t actually get married there. We should do another contest to see who guesses where we do get married.

No, we should not! Enough contests, already! Hi, everyone! It’s Martha. Yes, the book is out and I hope you enjoy it half as much as we have. Well, admittedly there were parts of it when I absolutely wanted to KILL Theo. But in the end — well, in the end, he redeemed himself.

Redeemed? Me? Oh, come on! I was there for you for months. MONTHS! And you kept throwing me out!

Why shouldn’t I have? After what happened on Santorini –

Santorini was fantasic. Wasn’t it? WASN’T IT, MARTHA? Remember when that night when you —

Yes, yes. Of course, I remember!

And the day at the beach with the paints?

You’re making me blush! And of course I remember. How could I forget? But I remember some other times, too. it wasn’t all wonderful. There was the day you left — I remember that!

I had to leave.

Oh?

I thought I had to. No, I did have to. I needed some space. I needed to think. Nothing like that -- like YOU — had ever happened to me before. But I came back. Didn’t I come back? And where were you?

Never mind.

Right. Uh-huh. So it’s not all my fault. Is it, Martha? Is it?

Stop it! Quit tickling me! And kissing! You’re not supposed to be kissing now! This is a G rated blog. Well, a PG-rated blog! And the dog is watching, Theo!

Maybe he’ll learn something. What’d you say, Ted? Want a girlfriend of your own?

Stop corrupting Ted!

I’d never corrupt Ted. We have an understanding, Ted and I. Don’t we, fella?

You bribe him.

I feed him when he’s hungry. Not the same thing.
He’s always hungry!

Guys are like that. I’m always hungry. But not always for food. Come on, Martha. Time’s up. We promised Anne we’d blog. We’ve blogged.

We had a great time with the readers — and with Max and Louise and Alice and Dom (he’s not here, so I’m NOT calling him DoMENico). And the contests have been a blast. Yours is almost over now — just a couple more days for that. But they can still win a BIGGER prize with our Grooms’ contest until February 10th.
Enough with the BIGGER, Theo!

Whatever you say, sweetheart. Here we go —

Put me down, Theo! Put me — Oh, fine. Don’t! Bye, Anne! Bye, everyone! Theo, at least wait until we’re out of the room!

………woof!

There is a comment on last night’s blog from CJ of ClustrMaps explaining why Invercargill might not have been mislaid after all. It has to do with where the ISP of the person connecting actually is. So maybe Pat Snellgrove’s ISP is in Christchurch . . . or Wellington.

I’m so impressed with how well they monitor the comments about ClustrMaps. Amazing customer service. Thanks again, CJ et al!

And, if you are from Invercargill, drop by and say hi (and tell us where your ISP is!). And while you’re here, reassure me that Invercargill is where I left it, please. Thanks.

I got a copy of Max and Louise’s book, The Valentine Bride, in the mail today from Liz Fielding. I can hardly wait to read it. I started it before dinner and almost didn’t get the meal on the table. It was too much fun reading about Louise and Max. That’s Louise over there beneath the pic of Max. She does look like she can give Max a run for his money, doesn’t she?

I’m hoping to ask Liz a few questions for my upcoming week of Q&A on the eharlequin boards beginning Feb 5. I’m going to be talking about “creating fictional worlds.” And while I have done it for my own books and in conjunction with a couple of other authors when we’ve linked books, I’ve never done it with a “bible” provided by the publisher. Liz has. She did it in The Valentine Bride. So I’m hoping she’ll be on hand to answer some questions.

If anyone has questions about the topic, please post them in the comments section before Feb 5 or drop me a line from the “contact” tab on my website and let me know what you’d like to talk about. I think it should be fun — especially if we get a good dialogue going. Please stop by. I’ll post a link as soon as I can figure out what it is.

Flynn and Sara are doing well. They sent their best wishes from the coffee shop in New York — the one I never thought they’d get to. It took 40 days and 40 nights of walking the streets of NYC, believe me. More, in fact. And finally I just started outside the coffee shop, junked the earlier stuff, and, hey, it worked!

Of course I had to throw out 6000 words, but it’s a small price to pay for some sort of progress — and energy. Can’t minimize the energy.

Theo and Ted and Martha should be around tomorrow and will, I hope, provide some sort of blog before they head off on their honeymoon (yes, Ted is going, too). I had to get them all registered on “new blogger” today because I got forcibly switched (no choice involved really) this morning, which put a crimp in the first half of my day.

They all have gmail addresses now (well, all except Ted. You have to draw the line somewhere.). How weird is that?

Two and a half years ago my husband and I spent a month in New Zealand. It was one of the best months of our lives. We had a wonderful time everywhere we went from Bay of Islands where we visited wonderful Harlequin Mills & Boon author, Robyn Donald and her equally wonderful husband to the tip of the South Island at Bluff and many many places in between.

It would be hard to say which bits I loved the most because I loved so many of them in so many different ways and for so many different reasons that the list would run on and on. But for sheer, “this place feels like home” attraction, it would have to be Invercargill.

We only spent a couple of days there — one on our way via the Southern Scenic Route to Milford Sound and Te Anau and a sheep and cattle station not far from there — and one on our way back via Lumsden and Gore and Mataura. The whole drive back felt like home because it was like driving through Wyoming, Montana, Nebraska and Iowa and ending up in the midwest-by-the-sea. In other words, pretty much my comfort zone.

Even renting a car in Invercargill ended up being in my comfort zone because everyone in the Invercargill airport, it seemed, helped us get on the road. They gave us directions, maps, let us make phone calls from their office, drank tea with us and offered advice, gave us rides to garages and lugged our suitcases around. By the time we left, I felt like they’d taken us into the family. And when we came back a week later, we were treated like long-lost relatives.

I wrote about Invercargill a few months ago on this blog and hoped that someone from there would show up to read it so I could have a dot where Invercargill is on my ClustrMap. Someone did — my “minder” from the Romance Writers of New Zealand conference where I was speaking, Pat Snellgrove. Pat doesn’t live in Invercargill, but she doesn’t live a long way away. It counted.

Except on the map.

The map says no one in the bottom half of the South Island has been near my blog. That can’t be true. Pat was here.

Did someone move Invercargill? I desperately hope not. It’s on my short list of places I want to go back to. If I had to make a list of places I would go to live if given half a chance, Invercargill would be in the top five.

So they better not have moved it!

Maybe the ClustrMaps people need to re-examine their dotting structure. Maybe their dots have drifted north.

I do know that I am pleased that the map is working again. For a while there it seemed frozen. But apparently they’ve moved servers and now all is well again. Thank you, ClustrMaps (and CJ who answered my questions when I asked even though I’m sure there were many other more urgent questions from people who get far more hits than I do).

And speaking of wonderful add-ons, the flag counter folks have detected more countries! We’re up to 49 now! I’ll have to go through my list and figure out which ones they are and celebrate them next week. Maybe by then we’ll hit 50. Who do you suppose 50 will be?

Norway would be nice. Or the Bahamas? Someone from beautiful Harbour Island, perhaps? Russia? The Ukraine? Ghana?

Theo is going to make an appearance early next week. He and Martha are back, beaming, because they’ve just heard from my fourth cousin once removed that their book The Santorini Bride (Theo told me to plug the title) is on sale in Waverly at the Wal-mart. He figures if it’s in Waverly at the Wal-mart it should be pretty much everywhere. He suggests you all go out and look for it! So does Ted.

And don’t forget, the Here Come the Brides Contest ends January 31, so if you haven’t entered, check my website for details. And Theo’s own contest, which he will be back to talk about next week still has a couple of weeks to run. But it is more work, he reminds you.

BIGGER PRIZE, he also says.

Sigh.

And if anyone knows where they’ve moved Invercargill, tell them to put it back. It was perfect right where it was. And I want to go there again. Preferably soon.