New in November!

Releasing today – time to spoil your e-reader!

From the dark mind of Rhyll Biest comes a story about a Teutonic god, a guarded recluse, some dirty pictures, and the spark of curiosity that leads to a dangerous attraction.

Contemporary romance, heat level: scorching

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As the Black Raven, she’s cold, distant and alone…untouched by the gossip and scorn of her aristocratic peers. Until he enters her house — and her life — then suddenly her icy shell is no match for the heat of attraction…

Historical romance – Regency, heat level: steamy

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One treasure map; a pair of priceless emeralds; two very keen hunters — only one can win, but who says that competition can’t be a little fun?

Contemporary/Action & Adventure romance, heat level: steamy

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What began as an impersonal-but-cheerful holiday gift for a soldier far from home becomes so much more…

Contemporary/Holiday romance, heat level: sweet

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and don’t forget that our first Sydney Housewife made her debut this week:

From the hottest writers in Australia comes a scintillating new series. Enter the world of Sydney’s elite, and find out what goes on behind the doors of the most exclusive addresses in the country…

Contemporary/Erotic romance, continuity series, heat level: scorching

Happy reading!

Seven ways to smash action-adventure characters out of the ballpark

by Wendy L Curtis

Giveaway details found at the bottom of this post!

I’m often asked what inspires me to develop my characters. Are they me? Are they my hubby? Are they anyone that I know personally? The fact is I draw my inspiration for my Action & Adventure heroes and heroines from everyone I’ve known. But especially I look to everyone doing the daily grind, keeping their heads above water, being a part of a family, and continuing the pioneering spirit of our people.

Here are seven must-haves for my action & adventure characters to ensure they can handle all that I’ll throw at them:

1. Working Class Values – every one of my heroines and heroes must work hard. They have to know what it’s like to do an unfair day’s work for too little pay, or at least they have learn along the way that sometimes you have to put in more than you seem to get out.
2. Be Resourceful – when something needs to get done, I like to know that it will get done. It may not be the prettiest way, or neatest way, or even the logical way but it gets done. This comes from the wonderful attitude that there’s more than one way to do things. Sure some ways are more advisable, but when the chips are down and resources are limited, don’t give up; find another way.
3. Be a Teacher – a chain is only as strong as its weakest link and breaking that link won’t help. Just because a person can’t do something doesn’t mean they are an idiot, they just need to learn, practice, get confidence. Teach, support, and build confidence. Never criticise, ridicule, or assume it’s a gender issue. This is where my support characters come in also. To break down barriers and stereotypes.
4. Have passion – yes, okay, my books do have the detailed sexytimes, but we all know passion is about way more than that. My characters must have passion. They need something that they swoon over, something that makes them livid, something that tickles their funny-bone, something that breaks their heart every time. If they have a goal, they have it for a good reason, and even if it takes forever, they keep plugging away. Emotions people. Have them. Feel them.
5. Cooking skills – I don’t care if it’s a sausage on a stick in the flames or a six course gourmet meal, but my characters will get some food on the table. I also don’t care who‘s cooking; male or female, as long as they both can do some kind of food then I know no one is going to starve or sit around wasting time waiting to be fed.
6. Dream Big – if they don’t have a dream then they are going to get one. Just like in real life, my characters have to dream big, have to want more. There has to be a reason to get up in the mornings. Even by the end of the story, they still need to have things to aspire to.
7. Sense of humour – if we don’t laugh we’ll cry. We do this, all the time. Humour can help diffuse a situation, it can help people find rapport. Looking at the funny side of things is an endearing quality, and can also be infuriating. There’s real skill in having and great sense of humour and knowing when it is appropriate and when it isn’t appropriate, and sometimes failing at both.

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In the sticky, steamy jungles of Papua New Guinea, they fight for the lives of the world’s most vulnerable people. They didn’t expect to have to fight for their own.

All investigative journalist Roxy Williams wanted was a hot one-night stand: quick, dirty, and completely one-off. A business transaction to ease stress, loosen tension, and allow her to get right back to her job — exposing the heart-breaking realities of people smuggling. So when all hell breaks loose in a small village on Papua New Guinea, the last person Roxy expects to see is her one-night-stand and male escort, Rob, with a boat, a beach, and an escape plan!

Rob is supposed to be long-gone from this assignment, but after their one night together, he can’t seem to let Roxy go. Using all his resources, Rob risks his job to keep track of her — and when a huge storm threatens, he goes after the sexy journalist. Now they’re together, in danger, and fighting for their lives. People smuggling is a big money industry, and the smugglers are playing for keeps.

We’re giving away a copy of Wendy’s Above and Beyond title. To be in the running, leave a comment, including your email address, telling us your favourite action hero/ine of all time.

High Stakes

by Nina Hamilton

Giveaway details found at the bottom of this post!

Whether our characters are saving the world or surviving the elements, Action & Adventure tends to be a high stakes game. The moment that leaves both the character and reader breathless as we await the outcome of a rope (and character) slipping off a cliff is why I write about the rescue heroes of the emergency services.

My romances, set in Far North Queensland, tend to be grounded in the real world because I continue to be genuinely amazed by the courage that the emergency rescue teams show in their work. When saving lives comes in the job description of men and women, the sexiness isn’t just in the uniform.

Out of respect for the real life protagonists involved in rescues in the area I definitely shy away from depicting real life incidents on the page, However, I do also try to make sure that the scenarios that I create are both plausible and interesting. I regularly read the rescue helicopter updates available through their website and with my mother as part of the volunteer emergency rescue community I often get the behind the scenes stories.

To that end, my brother, a doctor, and my friend Rob, a former lifesaver, often get a call or email late into the night. A few times they’ve laughed and I’ve known I had a little more research to do. Apparently one of the lifesaving techniques I had considered for a scene really, really couldn’t have happened and what I thought was the protocol for cracking a chest wouldn’t have worked out well for anyone… so we work towards the moment where they say,”Yeah that’s cool.”

The best romance is one where both parties are changed by the moment of falling in love and I can’t imagine a more powerful time to do that than in the action of saving a life or in saving each other. The Action & Adventure romance genre is a long established one and millions around the world love a bit of suspense mixed with a love story. Favourites of mine are Nora Roberts Chasing Fire and Linda Howard’s Cover of Night. Looking up Linda’s title just added three more of her backlist to my Kindle’s to be read (again) list. Getting addicted to those thrills is a danger of being a fan of the genre.

What is your favourite romance where the stakes are that much higher?

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Hanging, strapped together, ten metres above a sea platform forces a quick intimacy between workmates. For Dr Brigid Adair, dangling from a helicopter wire is an everyday occurrence in her job working for the helicopter rescue crew in North Queensland, Australia.

For former US Army medic Matt Roberts, Australia means a new future; a place to escape from the war zones of his past. Despite his significant wealth, he’s taken a job as an elite helicopter paramedic, wanting to make a positive contribution to his new community.

Matt Roberts knows very well the destruction that romance can reap on a unit, so when he first arrives and sees the gorgeous single doctor, Brigid, assigned to his rescue crew, he’s nervous. Very nervous.

Dr Brigid Adair is going to need more than just her medical training to lead Matt back from his self-imposed isolation. High-pressure situations hovering over some of Australia’s deadliest land and sea and the ignition of a passionate flame might just do the trick.

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Opposites attract in this medical romantic suspense set in the high adrenalin world of the Cairns Rescue Helicopter team.

English surgeon Andrew Wentworth left behind a successful career and a failed engagement to join the Cairns Rescue Helicopter team, but it’s not shaping up to be the rejuvenating working holiday he expected.

Rescue paramedic Kate Spears is used to proving herself in a man’s world, so informing the handsome surgeon that all his orders now come from her is deliciously satisfying. But she soon finds that Andrew cannot only take everything she throws at him, he keeps coming back for more.

They couldn’t be more different, from their histories to their personalities to their plans for the future, but the flames between them can’t be ignored. And, in the close quarters of chopper rescue, they’re about to find that there’s no place to hide from love.

We’re giving away one bundle featuring both of Nina’s fabulous Rescue stories. To be in the running, leave a comment, including your email address, telling us your favourite high stakes romance: it could be physical, emotional, or psychological high stakes!

An idiot’s guide to action & adventure romance

by Serenity Woods

Giveaway details found at the bottom of this post!

One Hot Winter’s Night is an action/adventure, fun and sexy romance novel that follows two archaeologists as they travel around the globe on a treasure hunt for priceless artefacts. How easy is it to transfer action and adventure stories to novel form? Here’s an idiot’s guide to the top five things you need to write action/adventure romance:

1. A gorgeous gamma hero

What do I mean by this? Well, Harrison Ford has been labelled the ultimate gamma hero—that is, a blend between the arrogant alpha and the boy-next-door beta. Think Indiana Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark, Han Solo in Star Wars, or Michael Douglas’s Jack T. Colton in Romancing the Stone. Your gamma man takes all the best bits from the alpha—he’s tall, dark, and handsome (or a variation of), arrogant, or at least confident in his abilities, brave and adventurous, but he also wields the wicked sense of humour and down-to-earth qualities of the beta hero. Heath in One Hot Winter’s Night exemplifies my perfect man, and yes, there’s more than a little Harrison Ford about him!

2. A feisty, courageous heroine

Think Kathleen Turner in Romancing, Karen Allen in Raiders, Princess Leia, Lara Croft, and The Mummy’s Rachel Weiss. Heroines have to be independent, adventurous, gorgeous, funny, and determined to resist the hero (although of course they can’t.) Cat in One Hot Winter’s Night is classy, witty, and smart, but like all these heroines, she can also be amazingly clumsy and she doesn’t mind getting her hands dirty!

3. An exotic setting

Raiders went from jungle to desert to cities like Berlin. Romancing delves deep into the heart of the Columbian jungle. The Mummy moves from London to Egypt. One Hot Winter’s Night starts in an ice hotel in Sweden under the Aurora Borealis, travels to the Pyramids in Cairo, to Xi’an in China, the sub-tropical Northland of New Zealand, and finally to London. Want to write an adventure story but never been to that country? That’s what’s the internet’s for!

4. A priceless treasure

Your hero and heroine have to be hunting for some kind of ancient artefact. In Raiders it was the Ark of the Covenant, in Romancing it’s a gemstone, in The Mummy it’s…well…a mummy. Often the artefact has religious or historical significance. In One Hot Winter’s Night they begin by fighting over the necklace of an ancient Swedish princess, then an Egyptian cat statue, then the Terracotta warriors. If the artefact has some kind of supernatural power, so much the better.

5. Romance

Ultimately, the novel has to have romance. What would Raiders or Romancing or The Mummy be without the love story? Your hero and heroine’s relationship has to be packed full of chemistry, and although these are ultimately romances, they’re not soppy stories but fun-packed adventures often full of sex ‘n’ sizzle. Cat in One Hot Winter’s Night seduces Heath so she can steal the priceless necklace from under his nose. Little does she know it’ll start a chase around the globe!

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Indiana Jones meets Lara Croft in a hot, desperate treasure hunt that spans the globe and captures the imagination.

Dr. Cat Livingstone works for the British Museum, and she’s frustrated as hell when the mysterious man she knows only as the Silver Fox snatches yet another artefact from under her nose. Determined to steal the priceless necklace back, she tracks him to the Swedish Ice Hotel, but she doesn’t bank on him being the most gorgeous guy she’s ever laid eyes on.

Heath has no idea that the hot blonde in the ice cold hotel has ulterior motives. But when a night between the sheets ends with both Cat and the necklace gone in the morning, Heath jumps into action.

Unfortunately for Cat, Heath lives for the thrill of the chase. And the chase is on.

We’re giving away a copy of One Hot Winter’s Night! To be in the running, leave a comment, including your email address, telling us your favourite Action movie pairing!

Strong feisty girls

by Fiona Palmer

scroll all the way down for the giveaway!

I love them. I’m constantly drawn to this type of female character. I always wanted to be tough, to do what the boys did, to prove myself. That’s why I learned to drive my dad’s trucks, raced speedway, drove tractors, changed tyres, and generally just loved spending time in the shed with the men. Even if sometimes, I was scared. Sometimes those scary things can be so rewarding, life changing, and give you confidence when you thought you had none.

When I was younger, I was drawn to shows like Dark Angel and Alias, where kick ass girls had the staring roles. I’m still no different, loving books and movies like Vampire Academy, Hunger Games and Divergent. I worship these strong, determined ladies…even if at times they don’t think they are. Yet they have courage in spades. And I want to be them. (Maybe the gorgeous guys they end up with is a huge plus too!)

So it was no surprise that I wrote a YA series with a tough, determined and courageous leading lady. Jasmine (Jaz) believes she’s just your average normal teenage girl but most kids don’t love spending time in a gym, nor do they know how to do karate or fight men twice their size. Jaz is everything I’d love to be. (She also has abs. I would love abs, not this squidgy middle that having two kids has helped create along with my love of chocolate.)

I like these girls to have spunk, to be witty like Rose from Vampire Academy. But still they aren’t perfect either…they have flaws, normal human traits, which only makes me adore them more.

Of course, Jaz has to have that obligatory gorgeous guy, so in comes Ryan. He’s older, strong and muscled like a soldier. His dark eyes are mysterious, but intriguing, but Jaz is cautious…he seems dangerous. But there is something about him she can’t shake. He draws her into his secret agent life, recruiting Jaz and changing her life forever. Hopefully I’ve made Jaz just as awesome as my favourites like Rose, Tris, and Katniss.

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From one of Australia’s Queens of Romance comes the debut in a brand new YA series about secrets, strengths, and what lies beneath the surface.

Jasmine Thomas may not be completely normal, but she’s a pretty typical seventeen-year-old girl. She hates the rich mean kids, loves her best friends, and can’t wait to get out of school each day. Her spare time is spent at The Ring — a boxing gym where she practically grew up — learning karate, boxing and street fighting. So, yeah, Jaz can kick some major butt.

Life seems pretty normal until the day Ryan Fletcher enters her gym…mysterious and hot with heaps of bad boy charm. Sure, she checks him out. Who wouldn’t? But what doesn’t show on his gorgeous abs are secrets and lies that dominate his very grown-up world. Now Jaz has to figure out just how far she is willing to go to know more. Could Ryan really be offering the life-fulfilling life path she’s always dreamed of?

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From bestselling author Fiona Palmer comes the second in a young adult / new adult crossover series about sexy spies, a super secret agency and the work they do to save the world.

Recruited into the secretive, shrouded MTG Agency, Jaz dives headfirst into her training, regretting nothing about her decision to help save the world at the age of 17. Now she’s ready and anxious for her first mission — to prove she has what it takes…and to start making a difference.

The only thing that stands in her way is Ryan, the dangerous and sexy agent who first recruited her, and is now guiding her. He doesn’t want Jaz to sink too deeply too quickly into his world of secrets and lies, but his inability to trust her to know her own mind only makes Jaz furious.

When a job comes along that only Jaz can do, Ryan has to let go, and Jaz soon learns that she can swim with sharks, but she’ll come away with scars.

We’re giving away one fabulous bundle of both of Fiona Palmer’s titles – to be in the running, leave a comment, including your email address, about your favourite feisty girl – in real life or fiction!

Action and Adventure are in my bones

by Kendall Talbot

White water rafting, hang gliding, snow skiing, scuba diving are my adrenalin-rush drugs of choice. I write action adventure stories. I love the ‘set your heart racing’ scenes where exciting, danger-fuelled journeys take my characters from one cliff hanger moment to another. And I’m an action adventure movie junkie.

I grew up watching Indiana Jones. I confess to watching it so often I can almost recite the dialogue word for word. “Indiana, we are simply passing through history. This… this is history.” Or how about this one… “It’s not the years, honey. It’s the mileage.” I may have fallen in love with Harrison Ford a couple of times too. How could you not? He’s the epitome of an action adventure hero if you ask me: sexy, suave, flawed, brave and reckless. He can throw me over his shoulder any day.

Another favourite is Romancing the Stone. In fact I watched it again the other day. I love a good treasure hunt. I love them so much I’ve written a whole series. Treasured Secrets is due for release in April and it’s a modern day hunt for a 13^th century treasure. It was so much fun to write. Blurring the lines between fact and fiction offers unlimited creative potential. How about Jurassic Park for blurring the lines between fact and fiction. This is another series I’ve devoured over and over. Actually anything to do with dinosaurs has me hooked. If only I’d been an archeologist. I’m hooked on survival themed action adventure too: Cliffhanger, Hunger Games, Poseidon, Titanic are a few of my favourites. Maybe that’s why I wrote Lost in Kakadu. Crashing my characters into Kakadu National Park offered many opportunities for action and adventure. It was important for me to keep the survival aspect very real. From wild animals, to wild weather and near starvation, every day my characters had a new aspect of living hell to get through. Fate brought them together but they needed more than luck to escape Kakadu alive.

So I say, bring on the big action adventure block buster movies any day.

What are your favourite action adventure movies? And do you watch them over and over like me?

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Winner of the 2014 Romance Writers of Australia RUBY (Romantic Book of the Year) Award.

An action adventure novel set in the Australian jungle where two unlikely people prove just how attractive opposites can be…

It’s pretentious socialite Abigail Mulholland’s worst nightmare when her plane crashes into an ancient Australian wilderness. Things go from bad to downright hellish when rescuers never come. As she battles to survive in an environment that’s as brutal as it is beautiful, Abigail finds herself also fighting her unlikely attraction to Mackenzie — another survivor, and a much younger man.

Mackenzie Steel is devastated by his partner’s death in the crash, the only person with whom he shared his painful past. Now, as he confronts his own demons, he finds he has a new battle on his hands: his growing feelings for Abigail, a woman who’s as frustratingly naïve as she is funny.

Fate brought them together, but they’ll need more than luck to escape Kakadu alive. Could the letters of a dead man hold the key to their survival?

To celebrate Action & Adventure Romance, we’re pleased to offer Lost in Kakadu, the award-winning novel FREE for this week only. Get in now!

And…Action!

This week, we’re celebrating Action Romance! Five fabulous writers – five fabulous blogs – five fabulous giveaways – and a great new subgenre to dive into!

Right here on The Escapades, all this week!

 

6 Reasons why Science Fiction is the new Paranormal

by Kate

Think SF is too hardcore? Too bogged down in details? Not sexy enough for a paranormal reader like you? We beg to differ…

1. Worlds – same, same, but different
   Just as in paranormals, much in a science fiction world is quite familiar, but with a few key changes. Whether it’s set on a space ship, a distant planet, or a dystopian Earth, there is enough that is familiar to ease your way into the world, but enough different to add a bit of spice and excitement.
   

   Stargate – the movie

    

2. Sexy heroes – the galaxy is your oyster
   Whether it’s the strong warrior, the diplomatic politician, or the unflappable scientist, the universe is populated with gorgeous new heroes, just waiting for you to find them.
   

   the warrior hero – Chris Pine as Captain Kirk

   

   The moral outlaw – Nathan Fillion as Captain Mal Reynolds

   

   Logic has never been sexier – Zachary Quinto as Spock

   

   Humour and strength – Will Smith in Independence Day

   

   The unlikely hero – Bruce Willis in The 5th Element

    

3. Strong heroines – kicking alien butt
   Kick-ass, anti-, or just complex, three-dimensional heroines, Science Fiction features an array of women taking care of business in an array of situations, from facing down alien abductors or setting up planetary governments, to kicking some inter-galactic ass. Looking for strong female characters? You’ll find them in SF.
   

   Jean Grey – the most powerful of the X-warriors. Sure she almost kills everyone, but everyone has off days.

   

   Dana Scully – the smart, sceptical scientist that holds the X-files together

    

   

   Ellen Ripley – the warrior heroine of the Alien series

   

   Sarah Manning in Orphan Black – an anti-heroine chasing down answers behind an apparent cloning – hers.

    

4. High stakes
   Whether it’s planet-wide destruction, a chilling villain, or war on a galactic scale, something is always going on in SF that drives the relationship stakes into the atmosphere.
   

   Luke – I disapprove of your girlfriend…

    

5. Favourite tropes, with a twist
   Bodyguards, arranged marriages, damsels who can save themselves from their own distress (but get a little help along the way), friends-to-lovers, even billionaire playboys – just throw the word ‘space’ in front of them, and you’ve got an SF plot, just waiting to be written or read!
   

   Or, in this case, superhero genius inventor boss hero meets capable, intelligent, organised assistant/secretary heroine

    

6. Happy ever after ending guaranteed
   

Who’s your SF OTP? Let us know below (pictures optional, but wholly encouraged!) for a chance to win a selection of books and upcoming ARCs from our science fiction catalogue!

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Whetted your appetite for some sexy SF? Check out some Escape titles below!

From Escape’s fresh, exhilarating science fiction romance catalogue comes a story of corporate espionage, betrayal, sex, and bodyguards. Just another day in the colonies.

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What if your only chance at survival was to seduce the man who broke your heart?

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The first book in SE Gilchrist’s bestselling erotic Sci-Fi series about a dark and delicious alien race on a desperate quest for survival — and the human women who can cure their years-long curse.

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For fans of The Walking Dead and The Hunger Games comes a YA novel about freedom, choice and family — and the terrifying disease that makes them mutually exclusive.

 

7 Reasons to include Rugby League in your Romance Reading

by Cate Ellink

You don’t need to know anything about rugby league to read Deep Diving even though it features a rugby league playing hero. He’s on holidays, so not a football to be seen! But I love rugby league and here are a few reasons why a little rugby in your romance can be a good thing:

7.  A rugby league team needs men with brute strength, sneaky men with brains, speedy men fleet of foot and super agile, and every one of them are built with muscles upon muscles. A man-type for everyone!

6. It’s an extremely physical game with no helmets and generally no padding. When you’re at the game, close to the field, you can hear the whooof as air is expelled when two men hit each other in a tackle. There’s the thud of hard-packed muscle against hard-packed muscle. Sometimes the hits are so big, you jump in your seat. It’s EXCITING!

5. The National Rugby League (NRL) competition that has 16 teams competing. The teams come from the Sydney area (9 teams), Newcastle, Canberra, Brisbane, Gold Coast, North Queensland, Melbourne and New Zealand. The competition begins in March and finishes in October each year. Each year they take a few games to grounds far and wide—interstate and regional. As well as this, there’s rugby league played in suburbs and towns right across NSW and Qld and scattered through other states too. You can always find a game to watch and they’re always exciting – even the kids!

4. There’s a State of Origin series where three games are played between the best NRL players chosen to represent NSW and Qld. These games have become the most physical and a showcase of Rugby League. Many of these players go on to represent Australia.

image via news.com.au

3. 13 men take the field, plus 6 on the interchange bench. With 16 teams, that’s 304 very muscly men to watch each weekend…not to mention linesmen and referees.

image via illawaramercury.com.au

2. I have family ties to rugby league. It developed and split from Rugby Union back in 1908 (my great grandfather was involved). Rugby Union was the amateur game (i.e. not paid) whereas Rugby League was professional (i.e. paid). Although they’re both paid now, don’t be mixing up your Rugby League and your Rugby Union; they’re very different games. Rugby Union is the one called ‘rugby’. Rugby League is abbreviated to ‘league’.

And the Number 1 reason…

…is unfathomable. Two of those sneaky men with brains snuck their way into my affections – one when I was a teenager and one more recently when I should know better. Put them side by side and there’s little similarity. So, it’s not their looks that captivate me. It’s something about them, their attitude, their brain, how they play footy. I think they both play similar style games and they’ve had similar career achievements. My infatuation is some abstract thing I can’t understand or explain but my heart beats strong for both my sporting heroes.

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From Cate Ellink comes a sun-soaked, sandy, seaside erotic novel about a tropical paradise, two athletes used to getting physical, and a sex-filled, no-strings holiday fling. 

Samantha is celebrating her newly retired status from competitive triathlons with a diving holiday in her favourite place in the world: Australia’s Lord Howe Island. But all divers need a buddy, and Sam can’t dive solo. A chance meeting with rugby league superstar Cooper Sterling in the dive shop seems serendipitous. Sam can’t wait to have a partner who might be able to keep up with her.

It soon becomes evident that Cooper and Sam are compatible both in and out of the water, and things gets seriously sexy. But Sam is disinclined to be another football groupie, and Cooper has been burned before. So the rules are clear: a holiday fling, no strings attached, and they part as friends at the end.

But as the final days of their time together come to a close and a life apart becomes a reality, Sam and Cooper start to question their decision. Is this holiday fling really the finish line or can Sam and Cooper turn their friendly competition into more than sizzling sex?

Deep Diving is available for pre-order now from all good e-book stores.

Inspiration Behind the Story – Georgie Tyler

Our Common Humanity

by Georgie Tyler

I watched a short film many moons ago and it got me thinking. Now when I say short, I mean very short. I think it was attached to a popular movie, Love Actually and rolled after the final credits.

Picture this. Two African women sauntering across a dry, cracked earth, each carrying a stack of sticks strapped securely to their backs. You get the idea that this isn’t the first or last time they’ll be taking this journey. In fact it’s a daily routine for them. They’re chatting in their own language and it’s subtitled for the English speakers of this world. While listening to their banter, I was captured and a little stunned, I’m embarrassed to say, because their discussion surprised me, and at the same time connected me to them. Why? Because they were commenting on their life, husbands, children, neighbours, community not much differently to what I do when enjoying a coffee or meal with friends.

Sometimes we forget the common humanity we all share, whether you live in a war torn, famine ravaged country or safely nestled away in a suburb of Sydney. It was one of the many factors that led me to write my debut romance Doctors Beyond Borders released in January, 2014. Ariadne Tate, a doctor with Medecins Sans Frontieres is eager to escape the world of work based gossip having been a prime target in Sydney and discovers that the same observations, elucidations and interpretations are made amongst the Sudanese medical staff about certain employees in Sudan as they are in temperate, laid back and flourishing Sydney.

Ariadne and Ford, the heroine and hero of my story and both doctors represent the many people in the world that dedicate months or years of their lives using their skills to help the afflicted and less fortunate. My ex-pat characters chose this path for many different reasons but the common thread is the desire to offer up their skills in active charity. I admire them. I applaud them. I wish in my younger years I had been more proactive like them. I’m so glad I penned a story around them that’s now available for others to read.

Kids and family are my priority at the moment, but maybe in my twilight years when my brood have flown the coup my passive assistance may transform into something more active. I’d like to think so as these people have the same hopes and dreams as the rest of us; the eradication of poverty, improvement in health and a better world for themselves and their children.

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She’s about to find out that nothing is fair when it comes to war, except, the healing power of love.

When Ariadne Tate takes a deployment to Sudan with a medical aid organisation, romance is the last thing on her mind…but Dr Ford Gosden puts a glitch in her plans. Too damn attractive for his own good and a thoroughly nice guy, Ford slowly seeps under Ariadne’s skin.

But Sudan is not a stable place to form a relationship, and as political tension escalates in the region, Ariadne has no choice but to focus on her job and her safety. Under the protection of a UN convoy, she heads out into the war-torn countryside — and the unthinkable happens. Captured and held hostage by a renegade with no chance of escape, Ariadne’s hope for a new life with the man she loves begins to fade and the fight for her life begins.