Hello all!
My name is Jaime, though I’m more commonly referred to is JM. Down Under Views is my new blogging home as of January 2011. Before that, I blogged at The New Australian.
I moved to Australia in 2006 to explore living a completely new life and meeting The Bloke – the man who is now my husband. We met in late 2005 on a writing forum. At the moment, it’s just us and our fuzzy little kitten named Asimov (who will officially stop being a kitten in late February 2011). Asimov loves eating, running around, boobie time on mum (me) and being very vocal.
I’m not such a new Australian anymore, but I still have a lot of giggles at Australians and the Australian way of life. When I’m not blogging about Australian peculiarities or my own peculiarities, I’m probably posting up pictures (I love taking photos) on Wordless Wednesday or posting about other things that make me laugh on Friday Funny.
Basically, this blog is a combination of personal blog, Australia blog, expat life blog, and foodie/attraction reviews site.
There are plenty of good and exciting things coming up for us in 2011, and I’m looking forward to blogging all about it…
Hi JM!
I’ve seen your several sites and wondered if you’re interested in reviewing my book.
My contemporary romance A Little Bit of Passion will be published by Avalon Books in April 2011. The cover is very pink, so if you need something colorful for spring, this will fit!)
This traditional and sweet romance novel is entirely written in the form ofe-mails between the heroine and her best friend, that’s why the reader is immediately drawn into the story and experiences everything “first-hand” with the heroine.
Another interesting angle might be the fact that I’m German, live in Germany, and that English is not my mother language. However, I chose to write in English because the US offers better education for aspiring writers, and much of it online!
Maybe you are familiar with the sales concept of Avalon – producing attractive hardcovers and selling them in package deals (10 books every two months) to libraries all over the country. It is an interesting niche and an unusual strategy, though the novels are of course also available elsewhere.
Below you can find the flap copy text of A Little Bit of Passion and an author biography. Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you should need any additional information or a book to read. I’d also be happy to guest blog or interview my heroine on your “PLOT” site.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Best,
Beate Boeker
http://www.happybooks.de
phone: 011-49-511-84 90 95 65
FLAP COPY TEXT:
Karen calls herself a modern gypsy because she has split her life into two perfect halves: In winter, she’s a skiing teacher in the Teton Mountain Range, and in summer, she works at her book store on Long Island. But one Easter holiday, John and his son Gerry join her skiing
group, and her perfect universe is shaken. Can she overcome her need for independence and find a compromise between her free life and the man who might be the love of her life?
AUTHOR BIO:
Beate Boeker is a product manager by day and a writer by night. She’s also married and the mother of an energetic kid who loves snow as much as she does. If you mix Latin and German, Beate Boeker literally translates as Happy Books . . . and with a name like that, what else could she do but write romances? Beate would love to hear from you. You can get in touch via her website, http://www.happybooks.de
A Little Bit of Passion is Beate Boeker’s third book for Avalon. Wings to Fly and Take My Place are also available.
re: book review request by award-winning author
Dear Down Under Views:
I’m an award-winning author with a new YA book out this fall. Ugly To Start With is a series of thirteen interrelated stories about childhood being published by West Virginia University Press.
Can I interest you in reviewing it?
If you write me back at johnmcummings@aol.com, I can email you a PDF of my book. If you require a bound copy, please ask, and I will forward your reply to my publisher. Or you can write directly to Abby Freeland at:
Abby.Freeland@mail.wvu.edu
My publisher, I should add, can also offer your readers a free excerpt of my book through a link from your blog to my publisher’s website:
http://wvupressonline.com/cummings_ugly_to_start_with_9781935978084
Here’s what Jacob Appel, celebrated author of
Dyads and The Vermin Episode, says about my new collection: “In Ugly to Start With, set in the eastern panhandle of West Virginia, Cummings tackles the challenges of boyhood adventure and family conflict in a taut, crystalline style that captures the triumphs and tribulations of small-town life. He has a gift for transcending the particular experiences to his characters to capture the universal truths of human affection and suffering–emotional truths that the members of his audience will recognize from their own experiences of childhood and adolescence.”
My short stories have appeared in more than seventy-five literary journals, including North American Review, The Kenyon Review, Alaska Quarterly Review, and The Chattahoochee Review. Twice I have been nominated for The Pushcart Prize. My short story “The Scratchboard Project” received an honorable mention in The Best American Short Stories 2007.
I am also the author of the nationally acclaimed coming-of-age novel The Night I Freed John Brown (Philomel Books, Penguin Group, 2009), winner of The Paterson Prize for Books for Young Readers (Grades 7-12) and one of ten books recommended by USA TODAY.
For more information about me, please visit:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Michael_Cummings
Thank you very much, and I look forward to hearing back from you.
Kindly,
John Michael Cummings
Hey Jamie,
Found your site by accident when I searched centre Stage in Chelsea! (By the way it’s a lovely cafe!)
If you like arts and crafts, please contact me and I will take you to a really nice place in the neighbourhood!!
Have a lovely day!
MM
Hi mm,
Thanks for stopping by.
I love Centre Stage. I haven’t been there in ages. I don’t live anywhere near there, unfortunately… If you want to leave recommendations, definitely do. Always nice to have on hand if I get back there sometime.