Guest post: A few of my favourite things'by Nicola Moriarty

Todays guest post is courtesy of author Nicola Moriarty

It's not quite as romantic as raindrops on roses, and it's certainly not whiskers on kittens (cats make me sneeze: bad hay fever, terrible asthma' you get the gist), but nevertheless, these are the things that inspire me'

1. Music: From the instrumental theme that plays at the beginning of In The Night Garden (really, it's hauntingly beautiful) to my old Rebirth of Cool Album to Hill Top Hoods, De La Soul, Vampire Weekend, Kate Nash and The Submarines. And of course, if we're talking muses, you can't go past Muse. Basically, music helps me to write. I've been known to hit repeat on the same Coldplay track fifteen times because it was keeping me in the exact right head-space for a particular chapter of my book. It lifts me if I'm feeling a bit' flat and the right song can make me clean the house twice as fast when I'm in 'domestic' mode ' as long as I don't stop too often to dance around the kitchen with my three year old.

2. My children: From their tiny hands to their round tummys to their wispy hair to their soft and extremely kissable skin. And how could you not be inspired by the following proclamation: 'Mummy, I love you 'one hundred million making cakes, playing outside on my slide, visiting Grandma and painting pictures of butterflies'.' But yes, they do still drive me crazy when they won't go to bed at night, or they won't eat their vegetables or they redecorate the cream couch with my bright red lipstick.

3. Bad-for-you-food: From dark chocolate to milk chocolate and every variation in between. 'From Mars bar slice to cornflake-choc-chip cookies to toasted banana bread smothered in butter. And then there's chocolate mouse, lava pudding, creme brulee, pana cotta' oh and did I mention the wonderful combination of popcorn with Maltesers?

4. The Gym: Okay, so I was going to continue with the 'from this to this to this' theme I had going, but I've become tired of it already, and I expect that you have too. So I'll just say, I never thought I would be the type of person who could fall in love with exercise, but the gym has become my happy place, my escape, my solution to the excessive desserts'

5. Great Movies: A really good movie will leave me thinking about it and talking about it for days and days. A few of the best' Punch Drunk Love, How to go out on a date in Queens, Go, Pulp Fiction, Juno, Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist, Garden State, Kickass, 500 Days of Summer. Of course, there are thousands more, but I'm trying not to get carried away here.

6. Good-for-you-food: So I was one of those kids who ALWAYS ate her vegetables. In fact, sometimes I'm secretly happy when my eighteen-month-old refuses to eat her bowl of mashed pumpkin, sweet potato, broccoli and zucchini, because that means I get to finish it off for her. And fruit! Pineapple! Watermelon! Strawberries (preferably dipped in chocolate)! Mandarins from the tree in our garden! These things make me so very, very happy.

7. A boy called Steve: My magical husband. Need I say more? Everyone needs a Steve. Well, okay, I guess yours might have a different name, but still' you get the point right?

8. Books, books, oh so many books: And obviously, I like to read. Fantasy, Adventure, Crime, Chick-Lit, the odd classic here and there, YA fiction, a little bit of Sci-Fi and more, more, more WORDS! That goes without saying though, doesn't it?

That's it. That's my list of favourite things. Who ever heard of a list of eight things though, right? Should have been five, or ten, or my top one hundred, that's a going theme isn't it? But then I'd be typing all night and you'd probably stop reading somewhere in the eighties (provided we're counting down and not up here). Anyway, thanks for reading! And if you get the chance, come and visit me at my new website, or maybe on Facebook, or perhaps at Goodreads.'I'm doing a book giveaway there at the moment which will end on the 30th of April.

About the author:

Nicola Moriarty lives in Sydneys north west with her husband and two small daughters. She is the younger sister of bestselling authors'Liane Moriarty'and'Jaclyn Moriarty. In between various career changes, becoming a mum and studying teaching at Macquarie University, she began to write. Free-Falling is Nicolas first novel.

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