Here it is. And my reaction is crazy: crying, dizzy and shaking (so much I can’t type).
Is this weird or is it because it is just so wonderful — the cover and the significance of this achievement … this dream come true.
Thank you Larissa Edwards and the Simon & Schuster team. You are the best in the business with a beautiful boutique way of conducting that business. It makes you very special and I am very grateful you loved my book so much.
On her blog, Helene Young asked recently, “What do you love most at this time of year”. http://www.heleneyoung.com/2012/12/whats-it-to-you/ and I left a comment that was probably a bit ba-humbug.
I’ll explain why…
If you were to come to my house in December you would be completely underwhelmed by tinsel, fake snow and festive glitter; no tree (hate plastic and I refuse to cut a real one anymore); no gifts (I prefer ‘just because’ gifts throughout the year).
I am not a Christmas person. I do appreciate the tradition and the meaning, and I remember as a child the
excitement of waking up to a Christmas tree cluttered with parcels, but these days, I am older, wiser … more frugal! (Besides, December/January also happens to be the busiest of time for my B&B. No rest for the wicked, as they say!)
I’m not all ba-humbug, though. I am really just more of a NYE girl—always have been; and no, not for the reasons you are thinking! It is not the partying, the champagne, the countdown. And it’s certainly not the fireworks.
Since 2001 I’ve boycotted fireworks. (I’m probably the only one who cheered when they banned crackers and cracker night years ago!) Since then, I’ve never understood why we have to spend so much money sending hundreds of thousands of dollars into the sky for a single night’s entertainment when we have people living in poverty, volunteer emergency services personnel who should be paid in gold … Okay, I’ll stop. You get my point!
Why am I writing this now?
Remember the Black Christmas bushfires that burnt for almost three weeks from 25 December 2001 across New South Wales? It was the longest continuous bushfire emergency in NSW history. Low rainfall across winter & spring 2001 combined with a hot, dry December created ideal conditions for bushfires.
On Christmas Day, strong westerly winds fuelled more than 100 bushfires across NSW, creating a plume of smoke that extended across Sydney. This plume of smoke did not clear for some days as the bushfires continued to burn, creating some of the worst pollution that Sydney has ever experienced. **
So I was surprised (and a little disappointed) that Sydney went ahead with its NYE
fireworks spectacular, despite fires burning Lane Cove National Park, the Royal National Park & Blue Mountains National Park. I thought, they must be crackers! Overall approximately 3,000 square kilometres (740,000 acres) were burnt. 121 homes were destroyed across the state and 36 damaged, mostly in the lower Blue Mountains and west of the Royal National Park around Helensburgh. So intense, Sydney made CNN News and The New York Times, and smoke could be seen from space.
I know the NYE fireworks mean a significant income for the City, and people travel from all over the world (I guess that’s something to be proud of). But as I sit here watching the catastrophic fire conditions of January 2013 unfold I have to hope some of those multi-millions of tourist dollars we’ve collected over the years are going to help those brave souls in the thick of it right now.
As you can see, NYE no longer glitters for me in quite the same way. Instead, the festive season is solitary and very personal moment as I not only look towards the future but also reflect. What I did—what I didn’t do—and how I can be a better person, a better partner, a better friend, a better sister, daughter, aunty…
Personally, NYE 2012 was a time to reflect on a year of such incredible highs and lows and so, when the clock struck midnight a little over a week ago, I added one more thing to the list for 2013…
How can I be a better author?
May 2013 make you a better ‘something’ too.
(Thank *Wiki and Credit: Image courtesy Jacques Descloitres, MODIS Land Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC )
It’s here! 2013. Where did the last year go? At last my countdown to March has made it to ‘weeks’. (No more, ‘next year’. My book is out THIS year.)
That’s right.
In about six weeks from now House for all Seasons will have been printed, packaged and posted off to bookshops** all over Australia and New Zealand. (**bookshop: (noun) – a place where books are sold.)
In eight weeks from now (the official release date of March 1) I will be sitting where I am right now – at my computer, hitting the F5 refresh button and waiting for… I don’t know what I will be waiting for actually. It’s all a bit weird still.
March 1 for me will also will be an early one. I intend celebrating the same way I celebrated the New Year today – at Sawtell Headland, watching the sun rise on a new phase in my life (my life as a ridgey didge published author. My ultimate, never-thought-it-would-ever-happen dream).
Which leads me to my New Years resolution – keep dreaming – and to my plan to inspire others, as part of the Writing Novels in Australia program. Each month during 2013 I will be a guest blogger, sharing my thoughts and experiences as an emerging author.
I’m especially keen to inspire those who think they’ve left it too late to dream. My advice:
Dare to dream.
It’s never too late.
Extraordinary things do happen to ordinary people.
I hope you’ll join me. http://writingnovelsinaustralia.com/
(** Of course I jest. We all know what bookshops are. But I fear we need to treat them like we treat all endangered species so they don’t disappear and become a thing of the past. Perhaps make your new year’s resolution to support yourlocal bookshop a little more than you do already (as well as embracing technology.) In other words… Share the lurve a little.