BOOK LAUNCH! 

I'm very excited. Crow Country is going to be launched at La Trobe University, Bendigo, on Thursday 15th September, and I would be so thrilled to see you there.

If I haven't already sent you an invitation, rest assured, it's only because for some reason I don't have your email address. Please consider yourself invited, forthwith. Please come! It's going to be fun. There will be emu sausages, and kangaroo sausages, and crocodile sausages (and vegie stuff). There will be dancing. There will be speeches (short ones). There will even be another book launched at the same time (Footprints Across The Loddon Plains, by Paul Haw and Margaret Munro)!

Information on how to get there can be found here.

I can't wait to see you there!

Party Observations

Last weekend I went to a 21st birthday party. It was the first 21st birthday party I've been to since I was...um, 21.

Some things I noticed:

1) The music was very loud. So loud that conversation was rendered almost impossible. (But only people over 21 are interested in talking, right?)

2) Frocks at the moment are extremely short. Almost not even frocks, actually. More like a bandage that barely covers the midriff. Or the chest.

3) Shoes at the moment are kinda horribly ugly. "Nude" (ie white-people flesh colour), chunky, with thick straps around the ankle. This left a lot of LEG exposed between the microscopic frock and the hideous shoes. Possibly too much leg. I genuinely thought that the aunties, and even the grandmas, looked a lot more attractive than the lassies did.

4) Girls make a lot more effort in dressing up than boys do (I think this has been true forever, though)

5) The music was from the 80s - long before most of the guests were born! I have a theory about this -- was that the last era when music could be a truly popular experience, before the consumption of music became a private, fragmented, i-pod thing to do? The last time it was possible for everyone recognise the same songs, and could dance to them? (You can't really dance to Nirvana.)

Anyway, even if I have become a grumpy old lady, I still had fun.

PS Two nice reviews of Crow Country here and here. Thank you, lovely ladies!

TV For People Who Don't Like TV

A friend of mine has suggested that I should blog about television shows for people who don't like watching television (like him). I think he was joking, but hey, I'm going to do it anyway.

These are the must-watch shows at our house at the moment:

Monday
Mythbusters (SBS1, 7.30)
Inscrutable Jamie and over-excitable Adam put "myths" to the test eg is it possible to find a needle in a haystack? Could a man survive a fall from a skyscraper using a sheet of plyboard as a parachute? Along the way, a surprising amount of science is imparted to an unsuspecting audience which has tuned in to enjoy the explosions, car crashes and general mayhem.

Tuesday
QI (ABC1, 9.30)
Stephen Fry hosts a panel show like no other, where the bizarre trivia invariably outshines the efforts of the guests to be hilarious. Guaranteed to teach you something fascinating you didn't already know.

Wednesday
Top Design (Gem, 8.30)
Contestants vie in weekly design challenges eg transform a caravan, build a rooftop garden. Alice and Evie both want to star in "Kids Top Design," which must surely be forthcoming. We specially love cute Rob the architect and clever Dee.
The Gruen Transfer (ABC1, 9.00)
Witty and enlightening dissection of the advertising industry, hosted by Wil Anderson.
Judith Lucy's Spiritual Journey (ABC1, 9.30)
I feel as if I know Judith Lucy because we once attended the same party. I love her. Her meandering search for meaning has been very personal, thoughtful, funny and sometimes cringe-making. I wish they'd give her an interview show. She takes self-deprecating to a whole new level of pain.

Thursday
Supersizers Go... (SBS1, 8.30)
Unpromising title, but this show is a gem. Food critic Giles Coren and comedian Sue Perkins undertake to eat the food and live the lifestyle of a particular historical period for a week, with medical checks before and after to see what effect it has on their health. A couple of weeks ago they reeled beneath a Restoration diet of meat and claret (no water, and no vegies - those Restoration types thought they were dirty and unhealthy). Not for the squeamish - they often consume things like boiled calf's heads, fish head pie or stuffed dormouse. This week: the seventies.

Saturday
Before The Game (Ch 10, 6.30)
Our favourite show about the footy, because it doesn't take the game too seriously and there's a chick on the panel. Almost free of the weighty blokes-only atmosphere that spoils most other football shows for the female fan. 

Sunday
Grand Designs (ABC1, 7.30)
Kevin McLeod hosts this long-running UK programme which follows the building of a house from design to completion. Usually the projects are ambitious - in past years, they've often been huge, glass-walled monstrosities, but lately the houses have tended to be clever and sustainable. Everything I know about architecture (not that much!) I've learned from this show.

Tree Poem by Alice

Forlying, Forlying, Forlying
Smash!!
days and day prse by
and not a thing happens
the brown shall is
an skoth
an tell a crak
a sprout a tree is bern

Falling, falling, falling
Smash!
Days and days pass by and
not a thing happens
The brown shell is unscathed
Until a crack
A sprout a tree is born.

Book Launch!

Because a new book in the world...

... especially a book as gorgeous as this...

... is always a reason to celebrate...

... Penni had a book launch at Readings...

... and then we went out for a drink while our children behaved like wild animals.

Can you tell what a divine pre-spring Carlton it was yesterday? All in all, a perfect afternoon for the launch of a very lovely book!

(Apologies for the fuzziness of some pics, but the photographer is still learning to drive his new i-Phone camera)

Writing With My Eyes Shut

This week I had the chance to look at a draft of the teachers' notes which will accompany Crow Country. These are detailed notes which are available for schools to use, unpicking the themes of the book and the use of language, and providing suggestions for classroom activities. (When they're completed, there will be a link from here.)

It's a strange, and not altogether comfortable, experience to read study notes for a book you've written. It feels weird to see your story dissected and deconstructed. Also, it makes me seem a lot cleverer than I actually am. Teachers' notes ask questions like, why did the author decide to do this, or this? when often I didn't consciously decide to do one thing or the other. If I had to answer those questions myself, the best I could offer would be, it felt right, or that's what the story needed, or that's just what that character would do. Which, frankly, would sound pretty lame in a book report.

For me, a great deal of the writing process takes place below the level of conscious thought. Choices are made by intuition rather than reason. A lot of the time, I don't really know what I'm doing, or at least I can't explain it. I think this is one reason why I sometimes feel uncomfortable when I'm taking writing workshops in schools. I feel like a fraud. If I don't know why or how I do what I do, how can I possibly hope to teach it to anyone else? What can I say? Close your eyes and write down what you see?

Maybe instead of writing workshops, I should offer to hold daydreaming workshops. Now there's an idea.

8th August

2011 (aged 44)
Minor victory - managed to get the girls to school before the bell rang. Can't understand why we are late every morning when we live literally over the fence. Alice was busy with some game, driving her wooden car through a minefield of mandarins. At least Evie was doing Mathletics on line.
2010 (aged 43)
Evie: When I grow up I want to have an animal shelter and help animals. But not be a vet because I don't want to cut them open.
Me: The primary colours are red, yellow and blue. Evie: But the Bell Primary colours are blue and white!
2006 (aged 39)
Evie: I go car. Go park? Hello, what's your name? Toast icecream butter? (this is Nutella) Evie's turn!
2003 (aged 36)
Alice: Look Mummy, wiggy worm. Alice gloves on. Aeroplane? Oh no, broken! Mama fix it? Alice turn. Wine, Alice wine? Book, Mummy read it.
2002 (aged 35)
P & L arrive to put the roof of the pergola on; K shows Alice the Masonic apron.
1999 (aged 32)
I'm ready to plunge into the whole house/marriage/baby thing right now, but M isn't sure... I trust us enough to make the leap, and I'm dismayed that he is hanging back. But then, I've always been about a year ahead of him...
1996 (aged 29)
an uncompromising slate-coloured sea
1994 (aged 27)
Reading "Women, Celibacy and Passion," evaluating my life and the decisions I've made... Not been celibate exactly because I've always been in love with someone, however unsuitable.
1991 (aged 24)
Reading "The Songlines" by Bruce Chatwin - an absolutely brilliant book on travelling and nomads and the nature of human restlessness. Thought "I am a nesting bird, this isn't for me" - but then, I'm here, aren't I?... Revelations on the bus from Dover to London - this isn't real life, real life is in Melbourne. Am I growing up? Is there more to life than angsting about love and sex all the time?
1990 (aged 23)
Dinner at D's tonight, WEA workers' night. I shouldn't be playing Mary Coughlan. They've been so long down lonely street they're never coming back... Am I ever coming back?
1989 (aged 22)
Reading "Cassandra" and thinking about madness. I need other people around me to stop me thinking about myself.
1987 (aged 20)
Well, I'm happy. Temporarily, no doubt, but happy!... Our TV set blew up at the cast party, which has led to some tension in the house. B has run away to avoid taking any action, much to L and G's crossness.
1986 (aged 19)
Brooding about B's unexpected seduction attempt... Do I love you? Yes, I love you. Will we always be happy-go-lucky? Do I love you? Yes, I love you. But it's easy come... and it's easy go... - The Blue Nile, "Tinseltown In the Rain"
1985 (aged 18)
Fell asleep in Philosophy. Politics was Graham Little on Bob Hawke - very interesting... Played pool till midnight, picked up L from Pancake Parlour, mildly groped by PB in the taxi. Went to PH's room but didn't have the heart to wake him, sat in his chair freezing cold reading "Will" by G. Gordon Liddy till 5-ish, wrote him a note and went back to bed.
1983 (aged 16)
To do in the holidays: redecorate tabletop
See Chariots of Fire (again); Reds (if  it's still on; unlikely); The Heat and The Dust
Write two bits of saga
Have hair cut
Write up Pliny letter
Read Book xii Aeneid
1979 (aged 12)
Look up lemmings
1978 (aged 11)
We had to find the names of football players on a grid. We ran around the school once the rain let up. We did word sums. For example - chest + nut = chestnut. Rather silly, really. L and I are going to do a play.
1977 (aged 10)
We went over to the school this morning. Everyone looks so different! We made a little house under the bush, and when it rained, we didn't get wet. Read a lot.
1976 (aged 9)
Winnie had her operation. Poor dog! We gave Jasper the puppy away. I'm sad.

The Knock At The Door

It's like having a treasure chest delivered.

I Knew It...

Someone had to have thought of this before I did!

I actually heard her speaking on late night radio - unfortunately I missed most of the discussion because I fell asleep almost instantly... Damn bedtime radio, this always happens. I always try to stay awake for Sunday Nights with John Cleary which is invariably fascinating, but no matter how hard I try, I always drop off.

Anyway, I'm glad someone is doing it. I've been a bit slack with the eliminations lately. Although today, Alice was looking for a four leaf clover which she claims to given me once upon a time, and rifling through the top drawer beside the bed, which is stuffed with home made birthday cards, little notes and gifts the girls have given me. Like "dolls" made out of scraps of rag. Bracelets of wire and plastic beading. Random stones. And I have to confess, after they'd gone to school... I did... eliminate... some of them.

A Day In Bed

I am feeling poorly today. I'm a great believer in the curative powers of a Day In Bed. For the Day In Bed to operate effectively, the weather outside the room should be pleasant and sunny, clearly visible through the window, but any temptation to emerge from the bed and enter the outside world must be strenouously resisted.

The following activities ONLY are permissible: listening to the radio; a short nap (no longer than 45 minutes in duration); consumption of tea (may contain sugar, to impart strength to the feeble sufferer) and light snacks; reading.

Fortunately I have just acquired a new book which is assisting me immeasurably in the healing process.

Laughter is supposed to be good for you, isn't it? That's lucky...

UPDATE: Well, I finished Clara. And it's fabulous. I laughed and I cried, and I found more than a little of my younger self in Clara's struggles. An absolute treat.

Ten Years Of Alice

Ten years ago today, to the very minute, I was giving my new baby daughter her first cuddle. She was wide-awake, staring around like a fierce, cross little owl. 'She's very alert, isn't she?' all the midwives said.

She was a Wednesday baby, and she has indeed at times been full of woe.

But she is tougher than she looks. She's survived being nearly starved in her first few weeks of life, almost drowned on Sorrento back beach, having half her teeth pulled out, allergic reactions to sunscreen and strawberries, and Michael almost backing the car over her just two days ago.

Happy birthday, my clever, brave, funny, contrary little girl.