Housekeeping

My blog has now moved over to www.jasmineaherne.com

Please follow me there, and I look forward to your comments!

Thursday Contest!

Ok, well I suppose that was a bit of a lie. It won't be every Thursday. But some Thursdays at least!

I've been looking over my stock of fun promo bits and pieces, and I've realised that I have some cute spares to give away.

-1 keyring, patterned with pink cherryblossom
- Postcards advertising my promotional read, Last Wish
- 1 very cute grey bear, who enjoys hugs
- British candy

If you'd like to recieve a parcel containing these lovelies and probably assorted other surprises I find on the street have spare, answer this question:

My new novella, Lucky Mr M, due out on April 22nd, is released by which publisher?

Email your answers to jasmine@jasmineaherne.com by April 20th.

Happy Thursday!

Egg-cellent

Late again. But I think I'm excused because it's Easter - or it was, anyway. Did everyone have a good one? I trust you all ate too much chocolate and spent time with people you love.

J and I went to visit his family in deepest darkest Devon. We spent some time walking around the countryside. It was amazing to breathe in clean country air after living in a city. Not that Cardiff is particularly smoggy, but I do think that because I'm asthmatic I notice it that much more.

There were quite a few people around as it was the bank holiday weekend, despite the chilly and rather muddy weather. It was great to get some excercise - not that I slob around here in Cardiff, but it's not often I go for a proper walk, although I think J and I will be getting out and about more and more as the weather gets warmer - if we have a summer this year. It's been a total washout the last three years running. My summer clothes are hanging in my wardrobe, sobbing...

Oh, well. Despite the weather never doing what it promises, I thought over Easter that I have a lot to be thankful for. Food is plentiful, I can spend my free time with the people I love, I'm mostly fit and healthy, and I like my job. There are a lot of people who don't have any or all or those things, and I have to remember that whenever I want a little whinge about the weather or anything that, in comparison, is so unimportant in the grand scheme of things.

So, happy belated Easter all - be thankful for all the wonderful things in your life. Not least the large amount of chocolate you probably have left over from the weekend.

I can't look at another piece of chocolate for at least a week!

New Release

Today I'd like to tell you about my latest release, Lucky Mr M, from Pink Petal Books. It's a lightly erotic novella about Lorna, a young woman who learns to explore her own sexuality, which in turn helps her to realise some of her own desires.

While on this subject, I'd like to talk about the realisation of dreams and desires. How many of you have had dreams that have been forgotten about or pushed to the wayside? Or how about those you just never thought could come true?

I only bring this up because I was talking to a friend recently about fate. Do you believe in it? In that whole "one person for everyone" theory. I used to believe in that. Then I got older and I thought, "what happens if you find that one person for you, against huge odds, and then they're taken from you by some means or another?"

It seemed so grossly unfair. Now I think that perhaps there are 1000 people you'd be a nice match with, 100 people you'd be great with, and a handful that you'd feel blissfully happy with, a total personality match, let's say.

And then, how do you KNOW? Is there a sign? Do you get a letter?

Hollywood has a lot to answer for when it comes to love, I tell you. So does fiction, I suppose, but what can I say. I love escaping into a good book, and part of that is why I write. You get to take on someone else's dreams for a while, to experience their highs and lows, to cheer them on and comfort them. And then maybe, when you turn the last page, when you've read the happy ending, when the protagonist has made their dreams come true, you'll be spurred on to realise your dreams, too.

Lucky Mr M will be available for download from April 22nd.

It's raining, it's pouring...

So. Today (at 2am to be exact) was the start of BST, or British Summer Time. It's been what, only a few hours and already I am excited about the prospect of sunglasses, flip-flops and ice cream. Ah! The great British summer.

...Except the great British summer normally consists of getting wet. And a bit damp. Then maybe a peek of sunshine...

Then Autumn.

Actually no. I feel I'm being overharsh here. It's perhaps that I haven't experienced a proper summer since 2006, when I moved to the fair city if Cardiff. 2006 was so lovely and hot. Not a raindrop in sight. I lazed around by the canal, wore only a bikini indoors, devoured ice lollies daily on the walk to work.... absolute bliss.

I'm hoping for the same this year.

But, I put this to you: why does weather affect us so? Is it just us Brits who seem so consumed by what the weather will do tomorrow, next week, next month? If you watch the news, you'll know that we aren't very good at handling any kind of weather at all. Too hot = we have a drought. Too cold - we don't have enough grit to make the roads safe. We fail at everything except the "in between" times - the mild weather. Maybe we don't deserve a blisteringly hot summer.

But I hope we get one. I can taste that Mr Whippy ice cream already... straight from the van, slathered in strawberry sauce.....

Friendship

Happy Thursday everyone!

Today my posting topic is friendship. This week J and I watched an episode of Flight of the Conchords in which one of the characters draws a "friendship chart" to determine whether he and two other men are friends yet. Extreme maybe, but is this a comedic reflection of how it happens in real life? How do you know when you and someone else have become friends? And are there different levels of friendship?

I personally would say there are - just the way there are different kinds of love. Friendship comes in all shapes and sizes and varying degrees of trust and depth. For example, I have some friends I love having fun with, but whom I wouldn't share any secrets with. At the other end of the scale, my very best friends are people I could spend hours on end with, without feeling as if I had to entertain them, as it were.

My housemate K put it perfectly last night: "you are friends with someone when you would walk through pouring rain to see them, even if it was a long way and you didn't have an umbrella."

That's the kind of friend we'd all like to have.

Aaaargh!

Late again. But late for a good reason. Yesterday, Sunday was the day I give into my crazy person urges (i.e run around the woods dressed up and hit other dressed up people with a foam-coated stick. Yup, LRP - live roleplay).

For those uninitiated, LRP is sort of like being in a play, only the other actors are your audience. It's immersive, leave-your-life-behind fun at its very best. The system my friends and I play in is well developed, has a good few members and has proper safety rules. You won't get really hurt unless you a) are silly or b) have an accident - but accidents happen everywhere.

It's a great way to meet people and is, infact how I met most of my very best friends. There's nothing like bonding over saving a few peasants from murdering bandits, or mourning the death of a friend (strictly roleplay death, people, we're not hardcore!).

It occurs to me that I haven't explained myself very well, so I'll direct you here: www.frothrealms.co.uk, where you can see pictures and read aout the wonderful world of LRP.

In other news, my new website should be ready soon. The wonderful Lex Valentine is hard at work at it for me, and I can't wait to unveil it!!

Until Thursday.... try and behave yourselves.