And?...

The SO is off crutches (we have them on stand by just in case), he's had an MRI and we are waiting for confirmation that he has indeed turned the inside of that joint in to knee soup. Surgery is most likely - he's my very own six million dollar man (except much better looking but unable to leap tall buildings or run faster than a freight train - he could probably beat a fully laden burro if he had a tail wind). He's back to driving which is a bit of a relief as I found the roads very trying today. Wanted to ram a few cars but luckily managed to resist. Whew.

Did a couple hours writing on an old, new thing. About 12,000 words in. Am back to avoiding completed first draft of WIP which has hard to solve issues. Wondered today if solutions are not possible. Didn't like this train of thought and am hoping it will pass. Was greatly cheered by this link found today at The Rejectionist. Sometimes the simplest things have the greatest affect. I laughed out loud...

The couch makers win...

Life is what happens when you're making other plans - personally I blame John Lennon. So my uber-fit SO has gone and damaged himself playing soccer (ruptured ACL most likely) leaving me as sole taxi-driver for the foreseeable future. I do not like driving (just a touch phobic really) and avoid it wherever possible. And his excuse is better than any excuse I can come up with to get out of all the chores that need doing. Yesterday we went to hire some crutches, today we are off to the sports medicine specialists over in the hinterlands, and I'm not sure what is on the agenda for tomorrow. Poor thing - it is a cruel twist of fate that sporty people, who by their very nature find it difficult to put their feet up and do nothing, are often forced through injury to put their feet up and do nothing. Couch potatoes on the other hand, who are not really using their limbs, don't get injured at all. I guess the couch manufacturers are happy either way.

I was surprised (and gratified) to hear that my picture book The Were-Nana had recently topped the library list at Owairaka Primary, a school I visited at with Kyle Mewburn last year. And I have been invited to Greenhithe School for an author visit next month as my book is popular there also. I hadn't expected this second wave of interest and activity so long after publication but I am delighted it is happening and very excited and happy to go and meet the children who have been reading it.

The Bologna Childrens Book Fair is on soon and as a member of the NZ chapter of SCBWI my books will get a bit of an airing over there. Thanks to Frances Plumpton, regional SCBWI organiser and one of the few children's author agents in NZ who is taking over a heavy suitcase so she can tout local members books. I made up a little brochure about myself to accompany my books and I'm hoping that at least one gets taken away. Someone once said that taking an author to a book fair is like taking a cow to an abattoir but I have heard rave reports from attending authors and if I could ever get myself there I would love to go, just to see the books, the hopeful artists gallery, feel the atmosphere and try and understand the process. I guess if you are a hot property it is easy to feel the love. If no one knows who you are I guess it might be depressing and disappointing, so the best strategy might be anonymity. I'd be happy to be an anonymous author in a small but perfectly formed italian town on a book jag.

They're growing up...

I can't seem to make Creative New Zealand care for me. They still don't want to give me money. And I am still struggling to find out what part of my application is letting me down. Is it my writing, my project, my newbie-ness or my chocolate addiction (I have been trying to get help!). Will they ever give me the big tick? Hmmm - its all very frustrating.

Still these pictures cheered me up no end - my eldest up on high during warm up at the Allstar Cheerleading Internationals held in Auckland recently (her two teams 1st and 2nd equal) and above, my SO and my sweet Halloween baby. (There are only videos of my youngest so I will have to post a piccie of him in the future).

And I am nearly finished a junior fiction novel. It was previously unfinished (at around 32,500 words) because it had plot confusion so I've been editing to tidy that up and have finished that and now just need to write the ending (which I already know). I intend to complete that before we go away on holiday in December. All of you out there will have to keep me honest :)