I've been reading a few books where I have been a tad annoyed at epilogues which are often a bit of a waste of space - a nice way to fit an extra thousand words into a novel and nothing more, really. So when I was editing Falling for Jack , I decided I wouldn't do an epilogue. I hadn't done one for the previous book and as a reader I'd gone off them as being quite unnecessary so I figured I wouldn't inflict that torture on anyone who was doing me a favour by forking out their money for the book. Well. Big mistake. Big, big mistake. Once the reviews starting coming in for Falling for Jack, there was one thing that really made me sit up and start thinking. A lot of people (not just one or two) were commenting that the book felt unfinished. That they wanted to know what happened after. It's not giving anything away to say that the couple in the story, Jack and Robyn, do get together! But I had made the mistake of having a plot line that did leave some things open

While a few of my indie author colleagues are quite over the idea of pursuing traditional publishing for their novels, the attraction of it, for me, hasn't gone away. It still lingers, in spite of three novels and one short story collection now indie-published. After the RWNZ Conference in Wellington back in August, I was even more enthused about pursuing print publication. So a few weeks ago I was following SYTYCW - So You Think You Can Write - on e-Harlequin and decided I might as well enter. I'd entered before and I'd entered the previous incarnation a few times as well - New Voices. It's where you submit a chapter or so on line, people can read it, comment on it, and the prize is a publishing contract. I completely dipped out in all those previous contests, and I've always been a bit wary of them as they appear to be popularity contests to some extent - if you're active on social media and round up all your friends and rellies to vote for you, you'll

At the recent RWNZ conference, I was interested in a list of movies that Harlequin editor Sheila Hodgson suggested as good to watch if you're considering writing for the new KISS line - a short, contemporary line out of the UK. One of the movies she mentioned was Bridesmaids which I'd heard of, but had never seen. Naturally, I am totally up for watching DVDs in the name of business, so I did. And I loved Bridesmaids. So much so that I watched it twice. Yes, it was crude, disgusting in places, it was outrageous but it was so much fun. You can read more about it here on IMDB. It was completely over the top in places (the scene at the dinner where the two bridesmaids first meet was a bit much and too cringe-worthy for me) but there were so many funny moments. The food poisoning one especially - who can forget the scene of Melissa McCarthy sitting in the sink. My gosh, that woman is funny. I loved Kristen Wiig too. I'd seen her in "Friends with Kids (another movie on t