I’m back, sort of….

Yes, I’ve been remiss. I came back from Australia over a month ago and haven’t been blogging.

And yes, life—work, children, parents–has gotten in the way. As it should.

But some of it has to with not knowing where to begin again.

Our trip to the north of Western Australia was wonderful. We went camping in Karijini National Park where the earth spectacularly red and forms a gorgeous contrast against the azure sky, the smooth white bark of the trees and the scrubby green bush.

Our campsite was peaceful and remote. At night the Southern Cross blazed in the black sky and a young dingo wandered through, nosing around for scraps. And the bottle of Shiraz each night was…bliss.

Next stop was Coral Bay where the reef stretches just off the beach. All you have to do is wade through the turquoise waters and sink down and swim as if in an aquarium. I held my seven year old son’s hand and watched the locals float by: snapper, clown fish, electric eels, sting rays, lion fish and turtles the size of our lawnmower.

Of course, I was still on London hyper mode and, being so used to everyone wanting to do the exact same thing as I want to do at the exact same time, I arrived at the beach in a sweat.

I rushed up to the man at the boat hiring shack in a tizzy. He was leaning against the counter, his hair dried salty white and stiff, his smile cracked and serene.

I pointed at the lone kayak by the hut. “I’d like to hire that kayak. But I don’t want to hire it now because it’s going to take 15 minutes for us to set up on the beach. Then about 5 minutes to walk back here. So I want it in 20 minutes. Alright?”

“Yeah,” he said.

“So you’re not going to rent it to anyone else, right? I’m reserving it, OK?”

“Yeah.”

“Are you sure? Do you want me to pay for it now? I can do that,” I said, pulling out the cash.

By this time the man was looking at my husband with that look that signals between them, Is she always like this?

“No worries,” he said. “Too easy, mate. Too easy.”

It took me a while to slow down.

Now, I’m finding it hard to crank back up.

photo by iansand (flickr)

Book Club Queen

The good thing about being a writer is that sometimes when you’re on holiday things happen. Like a review of Believe Me and an interview with the Book Club Queen.

I personally think that internet book reviewers should be given a medal. In a time when it is very difficult to get any sort of publicity they keep the fires burning. Book Club Queen’s site is impressive: interviews, reviews and general news. The amount of work she does must be exhausting. So please take this time to clap with me.

Here’s the review.

Here’s the interview.

It’s been a grand holiday in Western Australia. We went camping in Karijini National Park which is a vast rugged wilderness. We swam in the magnificent cold gorges, letting the warm waterfalls temper the chill. We turned red from the gorgeous iron ore dirt. At night, we camped in the bush and had a young dingo sniffing around at dinner time looking for scraps. And the stars, oh my stars: Orion, the Southern Cross, the Milky Way, all burning bright in an endless black sky.

Next stop was Coral Bay: a pristine, near secluded beach where all we had to do to snorkle was wade through the turquoise water to the deeper blue and look down to find ourselves nose to nose with turtles, sting rays (eek!) , lion fish, parrot fish, pink snapper and beautiful swirls of coral. 

Right now we’re having a lovely stay in Bunbury with my husband’s parents. My daughter is learning to knit and my son is becoming a demon Scrabble player.

At the end of the week, we’re off down south to Margaret River to the wine country. This will be fun….

Oh, and am I getting any writing done? Um….not really.