Monday 28 May 2012

A Sparkling Weekend!

We've had a wonderful few days. Last Friday was our wedding anniversary and we decided to book ourselves into one of the fabby hotels here on the island for an all inclusive weekend.

The hotel is in Puerto Calero, with panoramic views of the volcanic mountains and breathtaking views across the ocean to our neighbouring island, Fuerteventura and is a perfect place to chill and be spoilt.
One of the swimming pools

View from our room


It was a wonderful three days and if all that was not enough, on opening my emails this morning, there was another reason to keep smiling. This message was from one of the super peeps who follow me on Twitter...."loved your 3 books I downloaded for my hols....brilliant reads :) xx "

All in all a fab time!



Thursday 17 May 2012

The Gruelling Ironman & Melt Down Temperatures!

This week we’ve been on red alert with soaring temperatures getting up to 40c in the shade. The nights are only just a little cooler! The weather forecast has indicated that the intense heat will abate and temperatures should slip back to normal, around 27c and we do hope so.


This Saturday, it’s the 21st Ironman Lanzarote, a test of endurance beyond limits and renowned to be the toughest Ironman in the world.


Swim: 3.8km Cycle 180.2km Run 42.2km

Lanzarote is hot, windy and made up of volcanic mountains, a paradise for a relaxing holiday, but a testing, gruelling island when you have an Ironman medal in your sights.

Swimming is the first event and all participants take to the sea at 7am, this is followed by the 180km cycle ride through the island, on their return, it's the marathon! Every participant must be over the finishing line by midnight. We will be there to see the highlights of this amazing event that has the island pulsating and we’ll be there to cheer the last competitors over the finishing line before midnight.

Monday 14 May 2012

My Other Passion Famous Five Plus!

I'm not going to talk about the weather, surfice to say it is melt down temperatures down here. Though I am going to talk about one of my other passions and that is my Indie Author site, Famous Five Plus.

Today, you can watch our brand new professionally produced video showcasing all the FFP authors and their five star publications. The video will make you feel so summery with its tropical theme and music.
All of this has been possible thanks to the wonderfully talented Cathy Helms from Avalon Graphics.

So please pop along and soak up a few sunrays as you discover some amazing new authors and some must reads... see you there, Pimms awaits you! http://famousfiveplus.blogspot.com/

Saturday 12 May 2012

Shades & Shade!

In this heat, I could not resist buying these fabby sunglasses, but it's more than designer shades we are needing at the moment!

The temperature for today is 34c, tomorrow, 37c and Monday 38c and that is shade temperatures....... phew!

So inbetween trying to keep cool, I will be working on my WIP. I have actually written 43,000, but really do need to crack on, the characters are getting restless!

Whilst I'm tapping away at my keyboard, whatever your weather is this weekend, I hope you are having a great time.



Thanks for stopping by and I'm sending you all very hot sunny smiles!

Thursday 3 May 2012

THE KINDNESS OF FRIENDS

Today, I am honoured to have the lovely Alex Gutteridge, author of eight children's books sitting around my pool. And no, it's not a fairytale it's real! Ok, I'll pour the bubbly, Alex you take it away....

"I have never met Pauline but I consider her to be my friend. She is everything you want of a friend, generous, sociable and supportive hence her asking me to be a guest on her blog.

I am a children’s writer. I have been writing for fifteen years and have had eight books published over that period. I have written young fiction, a novel and a graphic novel for reluctant readers.

My young fiction was issued on audio-tape and my novel, Oven Chips For Tea was broadcast on the radio and is now available as an e-book.
Like most writers, my career has had its ups and downs. During the very down period, when nothing seemed to be going right in my writing life, three things kept me going; an innate stubbornness, my family and my friends.



 Friends are good for our health as well as our happiness but I wonder if those of us who work in the Arts are more in need of friends in the same profession as say a lawyer or an accountant. Often we work alone and we are always the first judges of our own output. As a writer I believe that it is really important to have other friends who are writers, who understand the ups and downs of a writing life.

The lunch photo is of Ros Adam, Josephine Feeney and Bridget Blair
I am lucky. I live in Leicester, a place which seems to have attracted more than its fair share of writers. I have a close group of friends who are children’s writers and we meet a couple of times a month. At the moment I am deeply immersed in editing a book which is due to be published by

Templar Books in 2013. When one of my friends says ‘edits are always more complicated than you think they’re going to be’, it is like music to my ears. She knows what it is like, she sympathises, she has been there and got through it. When one of the group announces that she has been awake in the night, grappling with a plot we all nod. We can understand the compulsion to sort out a witch with a bendy hat or a princess who has lost her horse whereas such a confession to our non-writer friends might lead them to secretly think that we are barking mad! When you have produced a book that is described as ‘fun’ or an ‘easy read’ only those closest to you or another writer can truly appreciate that ‘easy to read’ does not necessarily mean easy to write. In fact it may be the most difficult thing you have ever written.

So, I treasure my writer friends. They, along with my family, have celebrated the good times and kept me going when all I was receiving were rejections. Dealing with rejection letters is hard but a good dose of determination and a pat on the back from other writers will keep you plodding on when what you really feel like doing is curling up in a corner and never touching the keyboard again.

For our writer friends are less biased than family and therefore they can be better equipped to judge the quality of our work. If they say it’s good, then it is. If they say it needs tweaking, then more often than not, they are right. So let’s raise a toast to our writer friends, whether they live down the road or have come into our lives through social networking. They are funny, generous, encouraging, supportive people and they spur us on to be better, more resilient writers. If you are new to writing I would urge you to seek out other writers either in the flesh or over the internet. There are lots of us on Twitter and we love to chat. In fact I’m sometimes surprised that we get any writing done at all!


Finally a big thank-you to Pauline for inviting me over to her blog and for being my friend."

Thanks Alex, you've made me blush, but it's been great having you dipping your toes into the pool. Thanks for calling in.


Why not visit Alex on her Blog: http://alex-gutteridge.blogspot.com/
or chat on Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/alexgutteridge1

Wednesday 2 May 2012

There's More to Bougainvillea Than Meets The Eye!

You never know what grows on trees these days!
For my May Poster, look what I found growing in this beautiful bougainvillea!

Bougainvillea is seen everywhere on the island and grows effortlessly and is always a riot of colour. The photo used in May's poster is of one of two bougainvillea we have growing in our garden. Though don't be taken in by the beauty they have very long and piercing sharp thorns! When I trim these fast growing bushes, I always wear leather gloves and still they prick!

Hope your May is as colourful as my poster.

Thanks for stopping by, keep smiling and the sun will shine.