I do admire obsession of this kind

Someone has made a flip-book that is synched to the Gangnam Style song. A reason to listen to it just one more time.

OK, here it is. I can say I have an agent.

The phone call went excellently. V is sending me her literary agent agreement. V has a short-list of pubs to send it to. V is very excited about it, loves it and will be phoning/emailing publishers next week, I guess (I have to get some stuff to her by end of this week). Melba is a bit sweaty and excited. Melba has toast sitting going cold in her toaster. Melba has coffee in her guts, making her twitchy. Melba has to go to lunch now with mother, and can say she has an agent. Melba is very, very happy. Melba promises she won't refer to herself in 3rd person any more.

More to hand when I have it/can say but the key word for now is ORANGE.

Thanks everyone for well wishes and encouragement. Special thanks to Mr E's testicles.

Important phone call tomorrow

BUT while I'm waiting for Tuesday morning, let me just say two things.

I'm looking forward to Gatsby but even more than that, I'm looking forward to Anna Karenina, and I'm glad that Baz didn't get his hands on it. I love Baz and I love all his movies - yes, I even enjoyed Australia when the whole world scoffed - but looking at the two previews, can you just imagine if he'd done Anna?

Might have some news soon

Fingerrrrs crossed. I received a very encouraging email t'other day. The agent says she hasn't finished reading yet but is loving, LOVING my revised ms. Also that she can see how much thought and work I've put into it, and she finished by saying 'well done you!' She said she'd be in touch as soon as she's finished reading it.

You'll be glad to know I didn't wee myself - that will come later, if at all - but I did do an undignified sort of arm-wave, face-scrunch victory chair dance.

Oh, for the even very small steps, they are to be celebrated. And I have to say thank you to Alex for being one of my readers; you read very closely and had terrific feedback. So, thanks!

Just because I love it so much...

Don't say I never do anything for you.

Getting a little jittery here

Isn't this a beautiful picture? Looks like a painting but it's not. It's a photo (probably shopped) of a landscape in Namibia I think it was. I can't find the reference which makes me a bad blogger. Aha, here it is.


So my deadline is tomorrow. That's not the problem, revisions are done, I'm just reading through 'one last time' (fuck that makes me laugh).

And then I'll email it to the agent.

And then she'll say fantastic, it's ready to send to my shortlist of publishers OR you just need to change this and this.

And then I'll say wonderful OR sure, no problem. Doing it now.

And then I'll say can I tell people?

And she'll say sure, but you know until I hear back nothing's definite.

And I'll say of course, I understand that.

And then I will become a bit insomniacal.

And then I will draw on my amazing reserves of patience and resilience and stamina to be very still about it all.

And I will keep working on the next one; wrangling with the structure, the points-of-view, the tense, the narrators and the voice.

And then, in I don't know how long, she'll email me and say well, congratulations, there are two interested.*

And then I'll wee in my pants a little.

Wish me luck.




* this is the only part where I've let myself veer off into fantasy. Why not try a little creative visualisation?

Sexism in comic panels

These are from Gabby's Playhouse  and are a clear, visual representation of why I (a) usually avoid articles on sexism and (b) especially can't bear to read the comments about articles on sexism.

And these helpful panels, so that commenters to the above can avoid being human clichés:

Hidden mothers

I love it when I find seriously interesting shit. This photo is from The Museum of Ridiculously Interesting Things, and is on a post about a Victorian phenomenon called 'hidden mothers' where parents posed with children 'hidden' by covers of fabric or sheets. Whether it was to keep the kids still, stop them crying who knows. It's suggested that in some of the pictures, the hidden mother is holding a dead child.

Dear Esther

Anyone heard of this?

Hot in Melbourne Town

Am about to leave and go pick up my mother to drive down to Inverloch for a swim, maybe dinner and to pick up Princess who was there overnight with a friend.

Inverloch is special for me. It featured in the Bad Eighties Diaries a lot, long-term readers will remember.
My dad had a house down there, a fibro shack only a block from the inlet in what they now call 'Old Inverloch' - ie the best spot.

Last night I got on google for the first time and looked at what became of his block. We knew when he'd sold that someone had subdivided and put up two townhouses. They are predictably revolting. But getting on google and virtually walking the streets of Inverloch made me homesicky and nostalgic. Partly because it features in a chapter in my book; partly because I wish dad still had that place. I wish there was somewhere in our family that we still had. Everything is gone. Every house and therefore every home. Our family home - gone. Sold, knocked down and now with two fucking Georgian townhouses. Inverloch, gone. Barwon Heads, gone too.

I would LOVE to have my own beach shack one day. After selling the flat last year, the money sits safe in the bank. Last night I looked at real estate, and I could buy outright a place somewhere down that way, near the beach. I've looked in Castlemaine, Ballarat, Bendigo, all sorts of country areas. When P and I were driving back from Byron last year I made her take notes of the places we passed through, so I could look them up on google.

Last night, I found this place in Castlemaine. I'm not giving you the address cause then you'll go and buy it (I can't afford this one so I'm hoping it stays unsold until something magic happens and I can buy it):

This one is more in my price range, and I love it no less than the grand Castlemaine one:

Off down there now. Should I take my cheque book? I'll probably be disappointed because if it's changed and is different, it won't fit my memories.

2103 hey?

Some people have been saying 2012 was terrible for them. Before that, people were saying 2011 was a terrible year, or 2010. Not to demean people and their individual experiences but I don't think it's the years that are what's relevant, it's just that people have bad times sometimes and sometimes it seems to all come at once. I remember some really bad years. For me, mostly, cumulatively, they were the first half of the 2000s; it all started getting much better in around 2007 I think and then creatively, really kicked in during 2009.

2012 was a great one for me, the best for a long time maybe ever. It was rich and varied, with lots of new things as well as comforting old things. I am really pumped about 2013, this brand-new freshly minted year and I wish happiness and health to my four readers. Thanks for being my blog buddies.