Lift Off

Well, the book has been officially launched. Friday night at Avid Reader Bookstore in West End was the venue and Mr Benjamin Law was my launcher. He did a marvelous job and I must bake him something yummy by way of thanks. Actually I think I'll just buy something because I can't bake to save my life. It was so nice to meet his gorgeous mother as well.

There were people there that I hadn't seen for over thirty years and of course we hadn't changed all that much (in our own eyes). I met my editor for the first time face-to-face and she brought along her beautiful baby boy. My own darling son Ben was there as well. Old school mates, new friends, a sprinkling of family and some complete strangers as well.

The after party saw us reveling through the inner city, eating Chinese food, taking in some music and stumbling home very late/early. The last guest is yet to leave two days later!!!

Where to from here? Well just lots of coffee and Berocca today....cos I've lost my bounce.

I must get on with the job of being a writer. Finish the final draft of the sequel....I'll post photos of the event as soon as I get some from my sister. My camera has gone psycho and all my photos came out with a disco.neon blur but maybe that's how the night really was. I just don't know.

I can't believe I told the audience the other night that the best way to score a try with a rock-star is to target the ugliest guy in the band.....and that I'm still waiting patiently for Rod Stewart to  rock my boat!

I think I even said that I fancied one of the guys in One Direction.....Hey, while it's fun to knock the latest cutie-pie boy band....the fact is that there is one that is definitely interesting....he has a bit of facial hair so he can't be all that young, can he???? Oh I must stop....it's all that Berocca....going to my head.

Book Launch

Tomorrow is blast off day for my baby, One Way or Another. It's about Goddamn time too. This book publishing business is valium-slow. I wrote the book at the beginning of 2010. It took me six weeks to write it.  It took three months to get shortlisted in the dear departed Queensland Literary Awards (R.I.P) . It took seven months of thumb twiddling for one publishing house to lose it. One week from then to get a kick-ass agent, Ms Sophie Hamley from Camerons Management and then six weeks or so to get Black Inc to step up and offer me a contract. Then came four months of editing with the most brilliant editor, Denise O;Dea and then another five months to do all the fiddly bits, like endorsements, cover design, printing, distributing, marketing etc.....and now....dadadadada...drum rollllllll.....we arrive at the book launch. But of course it's not like I'm launching it as an author-virgin because the book has actually already been in bookstores and libraries for weeks.

The incredibly charming, clever and hilarious Benjamin Law is my launcher. He plans on embarrassing me wickedly before my guests tomorrow night. I have friends flying in from Sydney and Melbourne. Eldest son, Ben is attending. Yippee. I have friends from school coming who I haven't seen in thirty years. My, how we all will have changed. Ex-boyfriends, the girl I first smoked pot with, other groupies, new writer friends, my little sister....and whoever else might show up.

I am so proud of myself for having persisted with the dream of publishing a book. It has taken more than thirty years to get here so there will be champagne showers, that's for sure.

Writing is a lonely profession for much of the time and I've spent the last four years or so as an agoraphobic  hermit. This is actually the first night out away from the kids in two years!!! I feel so blessed to be getting ready for this launch. Five years ago I was literally homeless, living in a two-room tent in a caravan park, no car, no possessions. Just me and my family who had gone belly-up financially. We had fallen off the cliff. Two adult uni students and six kids between us ....it just snapped and we had nothing but each other.

Now, five years later, I have a stupid Bachelor of Law and Justice degree lying around somewhere, my husband is a Primary School teacher with full-time work, the kids are all healthy and happy and I am about to be a celebrated author....celebrated by me and my family at the very least.

Life can and does turn around. One Way or Another.

More about the launch from hangover central on Saturday morning....with photos.

Death of the Queensland Premier's Literary Awards

I am shocked and appalled by Campbell Newman's decision to scrap the Queensland Premier's Literary Awards. It is the move of a small-minded man who cannot see the forest for the trees.

I was short-listed in the 'emerging author' category in 2010 and I am certain that my recently published book and the career that I have embarked upon would not have been possible (or at least made much harder) without the attention that shortlisting gave me. Noel Mengel won in my category and went on to publish a wonderful book 'RPM' which painted a beautiful story set in rural Queensland. My book recounts an age when Joe Bjelke Petersen was running Queensland like some mad Draconian despot and I fear we are heading into the same territory.

For years, Brisbane and Queensland in general, have had to fight the label given to them by the rest of the country 'backward'. We were the Tasmania of the mainland. And in the last few years I have seen Brisbane bloom into a contemporary and exciting city of the world, a place I am proud to call home, where once the thought of living in the nation's biggest country-town capital would have been unthinkable. Brisbane has glossed up nicely and important cultural advances, such as the Queensland Premier's Literary Awards were a fundamental part of that evolution. That piddly $244, 000 that you are saving, Newman, was a small investment in some cultural cred.

Campbell Newman has brought shame and embarrassment to Queenslanders and he's only had this new job for short time. Things do not look good for the future of the arts in my home state. I am so upset by this murder of an important cultural event that I am thinking about de-camping......maybe Sydney with her exorbitant rents and beautiful harbour or Melbourne with her sassy artistic flair.....Brisbane I fear is going to the dogs!!!!

Not happy, Newman (said in Jerry Seinfeld's voice).