I've been chatting away in Coffee Time's live chat room most of the afternoon, with the lovely Regina, who has already reviewed my first novel Spiral. She says such wonderful things about me, and has really helped me take the first steps away from the writer's block I have been suffering with Tidal Wave, as well as plugging me in the chat that wasn't even anything to do with me! *grins*

Ahem, so I was already feeling in a pretty happy mood, when the wonderfully and fantastic Kitty Strauss sent me this review from TwoLips.

Spiral's descriptive settings bring the continent of Australia, specifically the Melbourne region, and the island of Ireland, to vivid life. The characters are quite detailed as well, and their friendships and relationships evolved. The unexpected plot turns will catch the reader quite by surprise, as well. Nikki Watson demonstrates a grasp of her geographic settings and makes the reader feel as if she or he is right in the middle of the setting and events of the story.

So thank you for today, I'm feeling overall as though it's been a very productive one after all. *smiles*

I forgot to post this straight away, but it's no less exciting because of it! This week, my guest blog topic, which I posted to the lovely Michelle Pillow, has made its way onto the http://ravenvampireclub.blogspot.com/

For anybody who would like some free promo like this, Michelle says to write up a blog topic and send it in to http://ravenvampireclub.blogspot.com/2007/01/how-to-be-raven-guest-blogger.html
Easy!

For anybody who would like to reply or discuss my genre blending topic over at the blog, the link is right here. This is really exciting for me! Thank you Mandy M. Roth and Michelle Pillow for letting me appear on your blog, and lots of future prosperity to it!

I'm sorry I forgot to write it here, but the newest Masquerade anthology, which got its first review over here has just been released by Aphrodite's Apples.

I think I was in a very strange mood, the day I titled my short story Awakening On Arcadian Shores Between Full, Orange Moon and Shore-Side Foam.

After seeing his best friend, Patrick, in the underworld with Persephone and Hades in Masquerade 2, Aaron comes back to his empty home despondent and alone. This is where Aphrodite, the goddess of love, takes an interest in him and brings him back to Arcadian Island, after he "wishes" for it, of course. While there, he meets up with Artemis, the goddess of the hunt, and realizes that to find happiness, he himself must take a chance at love.

It does sound like a badly dubbed Hong Kong movie title, huh? *grins* But I like it. And the title can be bought here in PDF, LIT, HTML and MOBI formats.

Also includes short stories by the lovely Katrina Strauss, Kate Sterling, Yolanda Sfetsos and Desire Lee.

All of you blog fans,

Here's another blog that you might be interested in keeping an eye out at. The maintainer of this is even another author published with Aphrodite's Apples, and she's done me the pleasure of making me featured author at her blogspot.

Here is the blogspot, for anyone interested. What her hype up my less new than it was at the beginning of the month, book, Spiral.

Thanks to Candice!

I am so loving the regularity with which these reviews keep coming in to me! I have here with me another stunning review to post for everyone (including my!) pleasure. This isn't a review for my novel Spiral, but rather, for the short story I put into the Masquerade 3 book. It isn't even officially released, and yet!

This is what was said about me: Awakening Upon Arcadian Shores Between Full, Orange Moon and Shoreside Foam by Nikki Watson returns to see what happens to Aaron, first seen in Pomegranate (MASQUERADE VOLUME TWO).  Aaron doesn't expect to find himself caught between two Goddesses but his invitation to Arcadia Island has unexpected consequences.  What choices will Aaron make this time with the Goddesses?

Nikki Watson delves deeply into mythology with her tales of the MASQUERADE.  Awakening Upon Arcadian Shores Between Full, Orange Moon and Shoreside Foam picks up where Pomegranate left off with Aaron but it is not necessary to read the first story to understand the events in this one.  This reviewer suspects, however, that readers will want more of Nikki Watson after reading Awakening Upon Arcadian Shores Between Full, Orange Moon and Shoreside Foam!

For the full review, please go here.

School has started up for the year all over again, and so strangely, I have found myself almost utterly without time again. And that isn't just time to pay attention to this little blog, this is time even to work on my story, which I am proud to say, has finally been titled:

Changeling has 26,000 words total so far, and I have just rounded the end of the second part to come into a crashing climax towards the final chapters of the novel. It is an urban fantasy novel, which I see as being the first in a series of romantic fantasy novels set in our world, with a fantasy element. Two other books are already set to follow and are fairly comprehensably planned in my head. However, I fear that this first title is still a little way off finished completely yet.

Further news on these exciting events when I have it. *smiles*

I just got my second review for Spiral!

*bounces with excitement*

Spiral is a highly emotional coming of age novel. It is filled with descriptions of what true love is, both platonic and romantic. Ms. Watson pens a tale of despair, as well as love and what it can be like to experience loss. At times incredibly dark, I found myself with tears of commiseration running down my face for Elena's pain, while at other times I wished she was right in front of me so I could smack her for some of the stupid decisions she was making. Spiral reads like a memoir, even though it is written in the third person, which made it very engaging. I look forward to reading more by this new author.

For the rest of the review, please go here.

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Happy Valentine's Day to me!!

And of course, for Valentine's Day presents to others, I'm pleased to gift both Janet and Lia a free copy of the novelSpiral! Emails will be sent with details to both of you today.

Happy Valentine's Day everyone.

I'm thinking of writing a take on The Twelve Dancing Princesses fairy tale, drawing parallels to the original tale with forbidden same sex relations in the place of Princesses sneaking away to dance and some form of school board and parents in the place of the well received soldiers and the king. This is all thanks to a dream I had last night, so I thought I would put the original tale here for me to pick and choose plot points from.
**

Twelve beautiful princesses slept in twelve beds in the same room; every night their doors were securely locked, but in the morning their shoes were found to be worn through as if they had been dancing all night.

The king, perplexed, promised his kingdom and a daughter to any man who could discover the princesses' secret within three days and three nights, but those who failed within the set time limit would be put to death.

An old soldier returned from war came to the king's call after several princes had failed in the endeavour to discover the princesses' secret. Whilst traveling through a wood he came upon an old woman, who gave him an invisibility cloak and told him not to eat or drink anything given to him by one of the princesses who would come to him in the evening, and to pretend to be fast asleep after the princess left.

The soldier was well received at the palace just as the others had been and indeed, in the evening, the eldest princess came to his chamber and offered him a cup of wine. The soldier, remembering the old woman's advice, threw it away secretly and began to snore very loudly as if asleep.

The princesses, sure that the soldier was asleep, dressed themselves in fine clothes and escaped from their room by a trap door in the floor. The soldier, seeing this, donned his invisibility cloak and followed them down. He trod on the gown of the youngest princess, whose cry to her sisters that all was not right was rebuffed by the eldest. The passageway led them to three groves of trees; the first having leaves of silver, the second of gold, and the third of diamonds. The soldier, wishing for a token, broke off a branch from each grove; only the youngest princess heard the noises made, and voiced concerns that the eldest princess again ignored.

They walked on until they came upon a great lake. Twelve boats with twelve princes in them were waiting. Each princess went into one, and the soldier stepped into the same boat as the youngest. On the other side of the lake was a castle, into which they all went in and danced the night away.

The princesses danced until their shoes were worn through and they were obliged to leave. This strange adventure went on the second and third nights, and everything happened just as before, except that on the third night the soldier carried away a golden cup as a token of where he had been. When it came time for him to declare the princesses' secret, he went before the king with the three branches and the golden cup, and told the king all he had seen. The princesses saw there was no use to deny the truth, and confessed. The soldier chose the eldest princess as his bride for he was not a very young man, and was made the king's heir.

**
Now all I'm debating is whether to write the piece in first person or third person. *frowns*

I gave the lovely Sophie Del Mar a copy of my new release Spiral, and today, she pleasantly surprised me with a nicer review than I had hoped to expect.

She says: This story follows the young woman's voyage of discovery, and the writing style reminded me of Emily Barr's novels. The novel had, if not a traditional happily-ever-after, then a hopeful one. I felt it was written more in a chick-lit style than a traditional romance. As well as a voyage of discovery, the novel was a beautifully-written coming of age story for the heroine.

To read the full review, click here.

I've also been included in a book blurbs list given by Book Trailers, over here, three down from the top.

The rules are: Once you have been tagged you can't be re-tagged, you have to write a blog with 10 weird random things, facts, or habits about yourself. At the end, you chose 10 people to be tagged and list their names. Don't forget to leave a comment that says "you are tagged" on their profile and tell them to read your latest blog.

10 Random Things About Nikki Watson

1. I have an irrational fear of cows.
2. While I was staying with a friend of mine in New Zealand, she put together a funny comic about it. I wish I knew where that was now.
3. The first pieces of writing I did were based on Enid Blyton's "Naughtiest Girl in the School" series.
4. I always wanted to have an older brother.
5. I'm obsessed by stories about people taking drugs, but I don't really know why.
6. I never really saw myself writing romance before I was published, but hey, it seems to sell well. *grins*
7. My mum used to make us a meal called "Bangers and Mash." I never knew it was a real meal until I went to England.
8. I miss the old school cartoons that nobody really remembers from the early 80s.
9. I miss the friendships I had in high school.
10. I really hate tagging things, so I'm probably not going to tag anybody. Sorry! Or maybe, you're welcome! *grins*