Wow, that was a week!

I’ve made the appointment for bub to have his six month needles, and so I’m not worried about keeping track of weeks anymore 🙂 It’s been good for me to (try to) post weekly at the very least, and I hope to keep my LJ ticking over with more of a personal tack, with the professional stuff being primarily hosted at FableCroft. We’ll see how that goes anyway! 

Hubby is on holidays this week, and he and Master Seven took off to Kalgoorlie to check it out this week (after the boy lost another tooth – looks like a thug now). Miss Four, bub and I kept well occupied with visiting, and went to the zoo with friends yesterday, followed by quick driveby pickups from   and  , in preparation for tomorrow. It was the perfect day for it, best of the holidays I think, so Helen did well to pick it 🙂 

Have no idea why, but Miss Four then vomited for the night – no one else is ill, no one else we’ve been spending time with is ill, so I wonder if it might have been something she ate – got my fingers crossed for that anyway! Spent a quiet day at home washing a million loads of sheets/towels/clothes – doesn’t matter how much I do, it keeps on coming darn it!

This week saw me send Australis Imaginarium off to the printer, and I received a firm date for landfall of Worlds Next Door – very exciting! The book launch for WND is August 19, but we’ll definitely have both books there! Pretty cool. You can pre-order Australis Imaginarium with a special discount over at the website here. I also finished off my main part of the judging for the 2009 WA Premier’s Book Awards, sending off the Children’s shortlist (I sent the YA shortlist last week). Now waiting to get the shortlists of the other categories to work out final winners! Very exciting. The Aurealis Awards nominations are starting to come in as well, which is nice, and I made my Ditmar nominations too – fun!

Tomorrow I’m off to "A Toe in the Ocean", a mini-writer con here in town – the Batts are facilitating one of the workshops, and I’ve been invited to join in and be there to sell and promo, which is very nice! Have a stack of TPP books, Swancon fliers and WND launch invites to take along. Will take my one copy of WND to show off – shame I don’t have FableCroft books, but it’s still fun to go somewhere new with different people to talk about what I love.

Oh, and on Monday I got a lovely serendipitous out-of-the-blue phone call asking if I’d like to do some sessional work for one of the unis here! Another notch on the resume, and a subject I really enjoy, all online, so perfect! Things are moving along nicely, very pleased!

Wonder what next week will bring!

Australis Imaginarium Pre-order special!

Australis Imaginarium is off to the printers, so it’s time to offer a special pre-order price! RRP is $24.95 plus P&H, but if you order before July 31, you can grab yourself a discount! Overseas postage isn’t cheap I’m afraid, but it *is* available, and if you choose to pick up at Aussiecon 4, you save a bundle on postage AND get a discount! Select from the drop down:

RRP + Postage

with Australian P&H $25.95 with NZ/Asia Pacific P&H $32.95 with Rest of the World P&H $37.45 Pick up at Aussicon 4 $22.95

Um, oops? Week 24…

I had to go back and see how long ago I actually updated the "weekly" post. Appears I missed a week, and it’s been almost two weeks since I did an update! Oops.

To be fair, we’ve been pretty busy. Week one of the school holidays is done and dusted, and other than Monday, when we stayed in our jammies all day and didn’t leave the house, we have been significantly out. We’ve had a full afternoon at the Batt-house (Tupperware party then we just stayed…), a full afternoon at Helen’s for a big catchup with a whole bunch of like-minded nutters (kids had a ball), six HOURS at the Fun Station with friends from kids’ school, and a bunch of other play dates. In between all that, I have knocked over a bunch of proofing for  , finalised the Australis Imaginarium lineup and layout (goes to print next week, as soon as I have the cover!), acquired quotes from three printers for a the forthcoming TPP & FableCroft books, and done some work on marketing & promotion for Worlds Next Door. Oh, and some WASLA work too. And got a new car. And studiously avoided the shops while all these bloody toy sales are happening!

Worlds Next Door was paid in full last week, and shipped yesterday. Landfall is estimated at July 23!! Am very excited 🙂 I finished the shortlist for one category of the WA Premier’s Book Awards, and will finalise the second this weekend. I can finally attack my groaning TBR shelf! And start getting some reviews written again! And then hook into Aurealis Awards judging – as   said to me, my reward for finishing my reading is … more reading! Lucky I love it!

In kid news, bub is apparently enormous – bigger than all the other babies we’ve met lately, most of whom are a couple of months (ahem, or more) older than him. He watching the act of eating avidly, and enjoys his real food now too. Starting to get very wriggly (have found him round the wrong way in his cot twice now), but not really sitting up yet or rolling. There’s a lot of him to manouvre I guess! Big kids are enjoying the holidays, especially with daddy home. Miserable weather past couple of days, but lots to keep them entertained. I need it to fine up so I can get out the the shed to do some clothes sorting (and yet more de-junking).

And in other news, we have a new (to us) car! Finally got it yesterday (a full week later than it was supposed to be) – it’s rather nice actually. So it’s been a busy fortnight, and still more busy to come I think. Second week of holidays, ahoy!

Week 22

Seems to have been a productive week.   gave me a shock about deadlines so I kicked Australis Imaginarium into gear and have now got the lineup almost finalised. Waiting on a couple of responses, still making a decision on two or three stories, have eight laid out and almost completely proofed. I think my artist fell off the world, which is sad (I had a whole bunch of gorgeous landscapes paintings lined up…) but not the end of the world. After all, I have a beautiful Shaun Tan cover, which delights me 🙂 I’ve also powered through a bunch of my judging books, and am down to my last handful of YA books. Quite a lot of kids ones left, but they take less time and intensity! I worked a half day on Wednesday, and am booked for Monday too. I had a meeting with my principal and have a really good resolution about my return to work when my leave ends in Term 4 (five days a fortnight in Term 4 then three days per week as of Term 1 next year with late starts to accommodate kid drop offs at school – my school ROCKS). 

Master Seven got his report for his first semester of guitar this week, and he’s doing okay. He needs to practice more 🙂 Miss Four is now going to ballet on her own as her little buddy quit, and while she whinges about this a bit beforehand, she is actually doing much better in class (which doesn’t surprise me). Bub is getting better with his hands and has started picking up toys from his chest and wriggling them about in front of him. He’s not been sleeping all that well, but I think that’s the cold more than anything.

Today was the day of blogging – uploaded a guest blog post by Paul Collins about his story in Worlds Next Door, "A Wizard in Trouble". I then formatted and uploaded some more teaching materials to the Worlds Next Door site, and did a special blog I’ve been sitting on for a while (was submitted to an external site as a guest blog post but they’ve not responded to queries and I didn’t want to waste it!) about book covers.

Oh, and Ditmar nominations opened this week! Nominate nominate nominate! Anyone active in fandom can nominate (only members of last year’s Natcon and this year’s – called Dudcon – can vote on the final shortlists though), so go do it! To help you out, I’ve created a spreadsheet of eligible works – please email me more stuff that’s eligible if you know of it, particularly in the Special and Fan categories, and also any errors!

We went to see Shrek Forever After (in 3D for lack of choice) at the cinema this afternoon which everyone, including the bubba, really enjoyed! He’s very good in movies. He watched from his pram for ages, fell asleep, woke up for a bottle, then watched the rest (quite interactively!) on my knee 🙂

This weekend I’m attending a Tupperware party on Sunday and then we’re going to one of hubby’s work mate’s houses for dinner. Think I’d better scoot down to Mandurah tomorrow to drop some Tupperware off too, and hubby and Master Seven are off to the Rugby League in the city tomorrow night. Not TOO full up…

Still a lot to do, but working on it 🙂

Week 21 (on time for once!)

 I’ve been sick this past three days. And my kids totally stepped up! Miss Four was a legend, playing peacefully or watching telly on her own while I caught a few naps while Bub was napping on Wednesday, when it first hit, and all three of them were so good when I felt so rotten. I’m heaps better today, but got nothing done cos Bub has a touch of it now, and was alternately screaming and sleeping for much of the day. A little frustrating as it’s one of only two days I’ve just got him home, and I usually get lots done, but I completely understand how he’s feeling, poor bub. 

I had planned to go see my auntie, who’s just out of hospital from major surgery, this weekend, but spoke to my uncle and said we’d best not, in case we’re still buggy – big kids haven’t shown any symptoms yet, so whether it’s bypassed them or whether it’s coming is too much of a risk to take! So no real plans now, other than a visit to Miss Four’s best friend’s house on Sunday to meet their new puppy. So might just spend the weekend catching up on washing and ironing etc, and hopefully lots of reading for Australis Imaginarium! And I really need to get some podcasts done. Hopefully will feel up to that tomorrow night!