CHRISTMAS EXTRAVAGANZA: Susanne Bellamy

 

Mistletoe Madness with Susanne Bellamy

What are your plans for Christmas 2014?
Family time is most important to us; our two uni-age students and partners will join us at the coast.

Tell us about a usual Christmas in your home?
Our usual Christmas is at the beach. We have hosted my husband’s family for a number of years for lunch that extends into the evening. The younger members usually swim and some of us walk off the extra food we always indulge in!

Any gift in particular that you’d love to see wrapped under the tree?
Il Divo’s latest album, A Musical Affair. Or a ticket to Europe – I’d be happy with either! 😉

What is a typical Christmas lunch and/or dinner at your house?
Prawns, turkey, glazed ham and lots of different salads, followed by my mum-in-law’s mince pies and rum butter. If anyone is still hungry after that, they get their own!

Tell us, what is the one dish that gets served every single year?
Those mince pies and rum butter are always on the menu, even if the main dishes change.

Essentials for an Aussie Christmas…
Sunscreen and swimming cossies

Your best Silly Season survival tip?
Given we are always at the coast – “Slip, slop, slap!” And every second drink is water.

What will you be reading this Christmas?
I’m saving three books to really savour at the coast: Elizabeth Ellen Carter’s Warrior’s Surrender, Noelle Clark’s Honor’s Debt, and Diana Gabaldon’s Cross Stitch. I will also be diving into a couple of Christmas novellas to enjoy the flavor of the season too. Anna Campbell’s Her Christmas Earl is likely to feature.

What have been your big achievements in 2014?
My first release with Escape Publishing, Engaging the Enemy; a new contract with Entangled Publishing for a romantic suspense set in Nepal, and two wonderful Christmas collaborations. The first is with three fellow SE Queensland writers in a free Christmas anthology (A Season to Remember) which gave me the challenge to write a sci-fi novella; the second anthology is with two overseas writers (Nicki Flockton in the US and Dilys J Carney in the UK) for All I Want for Christmas. This gave me the opportunity to revisit Tuscany, if only in my imagination.  I also collaborated with three wonderful writers on a continuity series, The Emerald Quest. The first book, Annie Seaton’s Capturing the Pirate’s Heart released mid-November, and mine, Winning the Heiress’ Heart, is third in the series and releases mid-January 2015.

What are your plans/goals for 2015?
Aside from The Emerald Quest? I’ll be finishing Her Mountain Man (Nepal, of course!) and beginning work on the second book in that series; and I have two Mediterranean men whose stories I need to finish! There’s a coastal novella in another anthology for Emerald Romance and I have this idea for Valentine’s Day…

 

 

Engaging the Enemy
Susanne Bellamy

One building, two would-be owners and a family feud that spans several generations: all relationships have their problems.

Andrea de Villiers can’t lie to save herself. But when developer, Matt Mahoney, buys the building she and a friend have established as a safe house in the Melbourne CBD, she decides that protecting The Shelter is more important than her aching heart. She will confront Mr Mahoney, and she will emerge victorious. There are no other options.

But Matt has other plans for Andie, and she soon finds herself ensnared in a web of well-meaning lies and benevolent deceit. To protect the building and the families that depend on her, Andie agrees to play the part of Matt’s fiancée, and play it convincingly.

But lies soon bleed into truth, and what was once a deception starts to feel all too real. Can Andie accomplish her goals and protect The Shelter, without losing her heart to the charming Irish developer?

Amazon  |  iBooks

 

 

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