Such a Drag...

Researching for the young adult fantasy series I'm working on at the moment is such a drag. 
My present series (Emporium Sister's Escapades) is about five sisters who are given a magical emporium by a grateful dragon. (Although they are unaware of both the magical nature of their emporium and their donors identity or, indeed, existence.) Each sister has her own shop, one a spice shop (think candles & perfumes as well as cooking spices) one a cafe, one a tea-shop, one a silk shop and the youngest lucky sister a chocolate shop. Each shop has a secret door leading into a world of lost lore relating to her shops goods. 

Obviously, proper research for this book entails gallons of reading about lost lore (Arabian Nights, Herodotus, history of Spices, 16th century merchants...) but also... taste tests... 
In the spirit of sharing, in the course of my research I can tell you that my favourite chocolate in Melbourne is Coco Blacks (their raspberry ganache, pear and caramel and Passion are prime favourites, but in the interests of cross-shop research the cinnamon chocolate is also fairly divine.) The chocolates are so rich that a quarter of one leaves you feeling full and savouring the different layers of flavours. 

 I can also inform you that T2 sell my favourite teas. My sister-in-law recently gave me a wonderful selection of teas for my birthday and I have since become obsessed with a T2 tea called Liquorice Legs. It's not something I would have thought to try, but it's entirely addictive and I could drink several litres in a day. It's made of liquorice root, fennel and peppermint and has a wonderfully sweet aftertaste. Sans added sugar and sans caffeine (unless liquorice is a source of caffeine I was unaware of) it yet has the buzz of both. And, unlike most sweet drinks, if you eat something sweet after it, say some grapes, the grapes taste sweeter, not less sweet. And if you eat something sweet before it... your Liquorice Legs tastes sweeter... its a sweetness enhancer! I am afraid to Google the ingredients in case they're horrifically bad for me.. 

And then of course there is the essential intensive examining of cafes and different tea, chocolate and spice shops to work out how my Emporium looks... The kids have come on many exploratory trips with me to the Melbourne CBD and Fitzroy (where I've chosen to plonk the Emporium!) 

Also trying to visualise my Emporium I am forced to spend extensive time on Pinterest (nobly forgoing mopping the floor or scrubbing the toilet) trying to find the perfect Gothic-Victorian style for the Emporium, enchanted towers, French Windows and mythical creatures... 
Research for one of my previous books entailed getting stuck in a gale in the middle of the rather cold Atlantic on a (showerless) yacht for 5 days - so far this series has involved a lot of coffee, spiced tea and chocolate. How I suffer for art...
Research is such a drag! 

Sweet Dreams...

Bedtime, when the kids are all washed and clean and looking angelic, is one of my favourite times of day.
As my beloved gave me a new lens for my mother's day present * (I know, it's not mother's day yet, but once he had it we decided it wasn't doing much good sitting around) we have been experimenting with taking photos in low light. So here are some photos straight from the bath and about to launch into stories.


                                          Big smile from my Golden Girl

                                                     
                                                       Jumping on Daddy

                                                    My milk. All mine. Stay Away.

Now you might be thinking there's a bit of a bias here. Quite a few photos of the Poppet, but not so many of the Sprocket. There is a very simple reason for this. All the photos with the Sprocket in them looked like this:

So the verdict on the new lens? Great for little girls who stay still. Not so good for little boys who caterpault around!
The following shots were taken with the old lens, but I took them during the day when the kids randomly decided to pretend to go to bed. (This is a brilliant game! We can play it every single day or even every hour of every day) In daylight we could even get some photos of Caleb!

*My beloved said that when he told the lady in the shop the lens was a mother's day present she rolled her eyes, but capturing memories of my kids when they're little and cute is my favouritest thing. 

What's in a Name?

I'm itching for a name change.

It keeps tugging at me, sort of like the Poppet tugging my top for her milk. Change me, change me! (Lordy, and now I'm thinking of nappies. Sigh!) 

It's not my own name that needs changing of course, not even the title of my novel - although I'm still undecided about that as well. It's characters names. 

There are two names in my present novel that-just-aren't-right. Which is particularly distressing as each of these characters later gets her own novel - so if I stuff up now I stuff up good. I keep hoping if I give them a little time they'll turn out to be right. But so far, several years later, no luck. For the five sisters in my present series so far all but one has had a name change. But... I'm still not feeling the rightness. Nell, Bella and Susie are right. (As right as their first-incantation names were wrong) but Rose and Amaya are... irking me. 

At present I think Rose needs to become Rosa (she needs a floral type of name) and Amaya become Mai-Mai... is Mai-Mai too annoying? 

Sigh. Help!

Princess Maisie-Mu in the Enchanted Forest

What? You think I've been playing around with the photos? You wrong me! The colours looked exactly like that! Well... sort of. At the tail end of summer everything was just a little bit dry and brown. So I fixed it - the little green there was is now really green!
I took these photos on the way to and from the sea along my very-favouritest path through the ti-tree grove. As a kid I was convinced it was a fairy path, and I do still think it's the ideal setting for a fairytale. With of course, the amazing Princess Maisie-Mu as the heroic, kind, courageous, witty and assertive heroine. Prince Caleb can play side-kick, but in my stories... the girl is always the protagonist! (But we promise to read you lots of books with very heroic heroes, my Sprocket!)

Easter Egg Hunt

Some very late photos of our Easter Egg hunt...
By the time Easter arrived the kids had got so many easter eggs from playgroups and church and various other places they were almost chocolated out. The Sprocket had already decided the little mini-Cadbury eggs were not for a palate as discerning as his own and the Poppet was thinking of a similar decision. Kinder-Surprises saved the day! Although the kids looked for the little eggs, only the kinder-surprises were eaten. (Mummy was given the rest) As we were down at the beach we thought it fitting that the Surprises were little seals and penguins from Happy Feet!
We had our hunt late in the day and then went inside for a roaring fire. Bliss...