A Birthday in paradise and It Must Be Real - It's In The Bookseller!

I have woken to the most beautiful morning in paradise another year older. I can hand on heart heart say I have never been happier, which says a lot as it's thankfully been a very happy life, a very blessed one.
This is view this morning. DH has been out snorkelling already and all three kids are still sound asleep. They have planned a birthday breakfast here in the room and then they day on the beach lounging and reading...bliss. We fly back to Dubai late tonight and then realities of being a mum with kids studying for important exams takes over....attila-the -mum...up at 8:00 at the books by 8:30 (I hate this part of motherhood)...oh and I guess returning to the realities of being a writer too and thinking about book two...(still pinching myself!)

But I can hold onto the most wonderful week ever...I am going to published in the UK, Holland, and ??? It must all be true because it was in the The Bookseller. As a trying-to-get-published-writer, The Bookseller looms large in your imagination and now to be in it....well, a dream come true.

A Morning Snorkelling in the Reethi Rah Maldives

All I'll say is that it was bliss...

Book News - a Dutch Deal with the wonderful de Boekerji

I love my agent and here's one reason why (we won't mention that she loves shoes and champagne....) my first deal...with de Boekerij. Their list is amazing and I'm thrilled that A CORNISH HOUSE will be on it.

Of course it's also brilliant to be with the whole family while celebrating and even more wonderful to be in the Maldives while doing it....

Paradise - The Reethi Rah in the Maldives

I know you will hate me as I write, but I have to share. At the moment I am sitting with my little lappy in the hammock with sound of the breeze moving the palm fronds so that they click in gentle contrast to the waves shushing their way on to the sand. White hermit crabs are chasing each other on the long stretch of beach. The sun has risen just high enough that the turquoise is beginning to colour the sea from the outside edges.

Yes, I am in paradise for the second time and to be honest it only gets better. Many times things do not live up to what we create in our heads but I have to say our return visit to the One and Only Reethi Rah has excelled my expectations. The resort itself is perfect the setting beyond compare, but to be honest it would be nothing more the exquisitely beautiful without the staff who are so kind thoughtful not to mentioned well trained. Nothing seems to much for them. There is one member of staff who unbelievably remembered us from our last stay. He would make dd a teddy bear from her napkin every morning at breakfast...now he is training to be a villa host...she found a beautiful 'puppy' on her bed made from a towel and last night DH and had our bed covered in orchids and circling a heart .......... It is the little things that make it all so much more special.

The boys who were not with us last time have at points been stunned to silence - and it's not just the swimming with sharks and turtles it is the kindness of all the people they meet. I have probably ruined my kids for life by sharing this all with them, but I hope that this holiday which is a special treat for us all will teach them that service with a smile means nothing if it isn't from the heart and that their father has worked very hard indeed for us to be here to have this family time.

So that I won't be in breach of my banning of 'puters (except mine) I will sign off but I wanted to share a few of the images of paradise with you.

P.S. It's very hard to believe that Christmas is around the corner despite the carols playing on my ipod.

P.P.S. Ben Johncock - the photo of me is there so that you know these are not photos pinched from the Internet! :-)

One Last Shot

I'm sitting in Dubai airport trying to stay awake......my flight to London leaves at 3am. I have just downloaded the last of the Maldives photos. If you didn't hate me before this just might put the nails in my coffin!

Farewell to the One & only Reethi Rah

Bliss.......

I feel like lying down on the floor and throwing a tantrum as I don't want to leave paradise but the upside is that I will be with writer friends in London at the Romantic Novelist awards luncheon!

Sand Bank

Yesterday we went snorkeling at a sand bank and to watch the sun set. I can't show you the fabulous fish or coral because those photos were taken with an underwater film camera but I can tell you that we have a fabouls picnic (For Jess - began with skewers of baby mozzarella, tomato and olive plus little wraps of shrimp and lettuce followed by french bread sandwiches of roast beef, turkey or more mozzarella and finished with fruit skewers of grape, honedew, papyia and pineapple - washed down with crisp white wine.)

But even paradise has a phone signal as one of our guides demonstrates. Fancy a game of coconut catch???

Hated

My son hates me as it appears many of my blog friends do and quite frankly I would hate me between the clicking palms fronds in the ocean breeze, the nights filled with shooting stars, jumping fish in crystal clear waters. So to complete the cycle of hate here a few more photos of paradise.........

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Bliss

What can I say? I have clearly died and gone to paradise. I am not only on a coral atoll in the middle of Indian Ocean but I have has just devoured the first of my reads....... C.S. Harris'sWhat Angels Fear. Absolutely gripping.......It kept me glued during the flight and even on the beach today when I could have been well looking at other things........If you love Regency like I do and you like a bit of mystery with a bit love thrown in.....well 10 out of 10. I could rave on about how it was brilliant to look at the period from different eyes but well the sunset on my beach is calling.................

Confession

I have a confession to make and I feel very guilty - I'm going on holiday - not just on any holiday but to the Maldives! With DH on gardening leave we are taking advantage of the time and indulging in some serious R&R! We are taking the dd with us so the two ds's will not speak to us when they realize that their sister is being spoiled..........



So I will be taking three books with me to read......C.S. Harris's What Angels Fear, Lucie Whitehouse's The House At Midnight, and Rowan Coleman's The Baby Club. Plus I will be taking my own revision work with me not too mention having to write the next chapter of Explosive dreams. I have no idea where the heck this is going. It is utter cr.p but I am treating it like a cw assignment. So the next chapter of my chit lit meets thriller will be written while I sit and look at this view.

It's tough but someone gotta do it!