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MEET LEDA SWANN
Leda Swann is the writing duet of Cathy and
Brent. We write out of our home overlooking the sea in
peaceful New Zealand. When not writing we have busy lives
bringing up four children and enjoying an adventurous
outdoor life that ranges from the mountains to the sea.
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WHY LEDA SWANN? We
often get asked how our name Leda Swann came about. When we
decided to write an erotic romance together we wanted a sexy
name. We discussed how the Greek gods made for themselves a
pretty good time of things, so a name from Greek mythology
would be good. In any case, the word erotic comes from the
Greek 'erotikos' and 'eros', meaning sexual love. We just
needed to find a name that was more or less easily
pronounceable. The tale of Leda and the Swan came to mind,
and so Leda Swann was born. Read more about Leda and the
Swan
here and
here.
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Leonardo da Vinci c1506 |
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LEDA'S DIARY
In this diary we write about some of the major things
going on in the lives of the Leda Swann duet. Check back
here often for updates.
November
2009. Cathy gets a near-fatal snake bite
September 2008.
Doug makes a music video
August 2008.
Earthquake TV documentary
June 2008.
Alice in Madagascar
February 2008. A
boat named Leda Swann
August 2007. Lizzy leaves for
France
August
2007. Doug and his band wow the judges
August
2007. Sam's birthday ski trip
March 2007. On
morning TV
February 2007.
Poor Knights Islands Holiday
November 2006. A
Movember moustache
October 2006. We got
married
October 2006. Article in the New Zealand Women's Weekly
April 2006. We're
on TV
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November 2009 Cathy gets a
near-fatal snake bite
We've had an extremely busy year, hence the
big gap in updates to ledaswann.com. Desperate for some
relaxation we went to Australia, just over three hours
flying time away. We wanted to explore an area of the
forested mountains outside of Sydney.
Our desire for relaxation came to an abrupt
end on the first morning of our trip when Cathy stood on a
snake, which bit her (twice) in self defence. It turned out
to be a
Brown snake, apparently the second deadliest land
snake you could have the misfortune to step on.
We don't have snakes in New Zealand, so we
were unprepared for dealing with a snake bite. However the
locals knew what to do and rushed Cathy to hospital by
helicopter. She spent four days recovering before we could
resume our break. We carried on exploring, and still managed
to have a great vacation!
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September 2008 Doug makes a music
video
Doug and his band "Too Funky" won Television
New Zealand contest to have a music video professionally
made. Read the
news story.
top
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August 2008 Earthquake TV documentary
Our family featured in a TV documentary
Would You Survive?
This documentary, made by local TV people
Gibson Group,
featured a "typical kiwi family" (us!) and how the family
gets through the first few days immediately following a
large earthquake. These photos by Gibson Group.
We had to survive with minimal food and
shelter for 3 days, all while dealing with situations like
hypothermic neighbours and hysterical injured people thrown
at us by the producer.
Where we live, near Wellington NZ, is on a
fault line and we experience quite a few small quakes a
year. We're overdue for a big one, much like our friends in
San Francisco. The focus of the story was on being prepared
as a family with food, water and shelter.
To help you get through, the NZ Government
has a useful website
Get Ready, Get Thru. The equivalent in the United
States is
Ready.
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Family [click for bigger]
Doug and Sam [click for bigger]
Lizzy and injured neighbour [click for
bigger] |
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June 2008
Alice in Madagascar
Our eldest, Alice, went to Madagascar for
three months of volunteer work with
ReefDoctor. While there she carried out underwater
surveys to establish the health of the reef system and
promoted reef conservation in the local communities. She
also had lots of fun travelling round, seeking out Lemurs,
as well as experiencing the culture.
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Alice and locals [click for bigger] |
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February 2008 A boat
named Leda Swann
For quite some years now we've explored our
wonderful coastline in our inflatable boat. This year we
decided with the kids getting bigger and all of them divers
we needed a larger more sturdy craft. Naturally we had to
name it Leda Swann. The whole family agrees its a great boat
with a great name.
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Leda Swann boat
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August 2007 Lizzy leaves for France
Our second eldest, Lizzy, left for a year in
France. Living with a family in Maresche, Lizzy goes to
school in Le Mans. She's finding it tough going at the
moment, especially learning Spanish in French. She's quite
good at English though.
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Brent, Lizzy, Cathy
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August 2007 Doug and his Band
Doug and his band
Too Funky have been practicing nearly every day,
organising their own gigs, and entering competitions. Too
Funky did well at the recent
Rockquest, coming third in the Wellington regional
finals.
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Rock star |
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August 2007 Sam Goes Skiing
Sam turned 11, and wanted to go skiing at
Mt Ruapehu for his birthday. Sam's a type 1
diabetic, and so we had to monitor his blood sugar levels
quite closely as he expended energy zooming down the slopes.
His illness doesn't hold him back in any way, and by the end
of the day he was skiing better than his Mum. Learn more on
kids with diabetes.
top
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Sam the Man
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March 2007 TV 'Good
Morning' Show
We were guests on national television, appearing on the
Good Morning show at around 10:00am on a weekday
morning. It was a lot of fun, with a
good bit of banter between us and the presenter. Our
interview was around 8 minutes long, and we discussed all
sorts of things from what our children think of our writing
(they're proud of our success) to where we get our
inspiration from (the world around us). Click the image to
download a short excerpt from the interview [5MB Windows
Media Video file].
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Click image to for a .WMV file [5MB] |
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February 2007 Poor
Knights Islands Holiday
We loaded our four kids and lots of dive equipment into both
our cars and headed north for 12 hours to the
Poor Knights Islands. We chartered a smallish boat
for three days, living aboard and diving, swimming,
snorkelling, kayaking and snoozing. What a great little
holiday!
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Daughters Alice and Lizzy
Moray Eel
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November 2006 - Movember
Supporting men's health. Down here in New Zealand and
Australia, and to a lesser extent in other countries there
is a charity event to raise awareness of men's health called
Movember. Participants start the month clean shaven,
then during the month grow a moustache while seeking
sponsorship for the charity. This year the health
issue was prostate cancer. So Brent dutifully grew a
moustache, much to Cathy's distress. But it was all in a
good cause, and it was funny walking around laughing at
other mo bros (as we call ourselves). Click the image
to download silly 1MB Windows Media Video file of the
moustache growing.
top
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Click image for a .WMV file [1MB] |
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October 2006 - Married
This was a busy month! On a fine day in tropical Rarotonga
we got married in a romantic sunset ceremony on the beach.
What a great day it was! We got up and went for a dive in
the warm clear water. Later we snorkelled with our kids,
admiring the colorful wrasse and giant clams. Late in the
afternoon we got married barefoot on the beach, followed by
a lovely dinner with friends and family. Just a
usual day for romance writers!.
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A different wedding day photo
Another wedding day photo
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October
2006 - New Zealand Women's Weekly
Before we set off
for Rarotonga, Cathy was interviewed by the
New Zealand Women's Weekly. That was fun. Jennie, the
reporter, sat down with us and talked with Cathy about our
writing. Then the photographer turned up with a giant bag of
equipment and took lots of photos.
top
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Click image for bigger [800kB]
Click image for bigger [800kB]
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April 2006 - We're on TV
We appeared on national TV, in an article on the main
TV One news programme of the day. You can read about
the article
here, and you can
click the image to download the 5MB Windows Media
Video file.
top
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Click image to for a .WMV file [5MB] |
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