Ah, yes. Slack again. Sorry! I've given up making excuses for it!

Hope you guys are all well. Things are… interesting here at the moment. Teddy has gastro, the washing machine packed it in for the 5th time in three years (Whirlpool told me yesterday they will fix it in about eight weeks from now – ha! The best laugh I've had in ages!!!) and to top it all off, we're moving house. I think I might crawl into a hole somewhere and come out next diary entry. We're definitely looking forward to the new house. Especially its ducted heating (with winter coming) and… ooohhh… the storage. I almost wet myself with excitement when I think about the storage. There are even little shoe racks in all the wardrobes… mmm… (I am a bit of a storage junkie!). Anyway, hopefully things will be on the up from here on in. They must be as I can hear my brand new Bosch washing machine going through its first cycle in the background (with the dodgy Whirlpool sitting beside it waiting for its new motor).

In other news, I have morphed into Ugly Alli. Yes. I have braces (or grills, if you will!). They're ceramic, but they're still hideous. Only upside I can see so far is that they are a fantastic diet. You really can't be bothered to snack, as every bit of food involves a half hour clean of the braces afterwards. And flossing? Seriously, I have to go to bed an hour earlier these days. To floss each tooth you need to thread the floss in and out of the braces. It takes forever! And they're only going to be on for… 2.5 years. Yes. 2.5 years. Then six months of a full-time retainer and then six months of a night-time retainer. Gah! If I don't turn out to be a Colgate model when this is all over, I'll be very disappointed.

In book news, I've just finished the edits on my next YA book, Blondetourage, which will be out in December. It's a fun read – kind of a cross between The Simple Life and home schooling. That makes no sense, right? Ah well, you'll have to wait till December and tell me what you think of it then! I'm also almost finished the edits on my next Alli Kincaid adult novel which will be out in January and will be called Mad About Moo (this was The Dairy Queen in the US). I've been busy writing the first 10,000 words of another YA as well, so fingers crossed my publisher likes it. I think they will, as I've loved writing it and my agent thinks it's great (always a good sign).

I've also still been writing my pieces for The Courier-Mail. God love them, they let me write about almost anything. Last week I wrote an ode to double roll toilet paper. And I'm now working on one about vomit. What a job! What a paper!

Well, must run and go and watch my washing machine spin. It's an amazing sight after running to the Laundromat every second day for over a fortnight!

Till next time,

Allison

P.S. Have included some strange pics from Ivy's toy digital camera. She has turned paparazzo tot. Am sure she will soon start blackmailing me with the ones she took of me in the shower!

Hope you all had a great Chrissie and are lining up for a fantastic New Year! Ours was heaps of fun, mainly because it's the first year one of our kids has 'got it'. Ivy got very excited about Santa and even wrote him a letter with her dad's help, though strangely ran screaming every time we saw him in the shops (okay, so he is kind of big and red and hairy and it is kind of weird to talk about 'stranger danger' all year, then want her to sit on some unknown guy's knee…). In her letter, Ivy asked Santa for an orange drink bottle (which she'd seen at our local chemist), lollies, chocolates and a banana. The big guy managed to deliver. Teddy was happy with the wrapping paper, like last year. A cheap Christmas, all up, but I'm sure they'll get me back in future years and then some. As for me, I showed them how it's done and sat on Santa's knee and asked him for a) a gold Porsche Cayenne; and b) a steam mop. I was a bit hurt that he didn't deliver the Porsche, but he was smart enough to also forget the steam mop, which was wise on his part.

Am definitely looking forward to 2008, which I'm hoping will shape up to be a big writing year for me. As you can see, my web site has been updated by the amazing James (who got a credit on his exams, the smart boy!). And… drum roll, please… The Inner Gentleman by Alli Kincaid (my new pseudonym) is OUT NOW! Very, very exciting stuff. It feels like forever since I had an adult book out in Australia and I'm really looking forward to talking about it with the media, signing a few books and hearing what you think about it. I'll have a piece out in The Sydney Morning Herald 10 January about Coaxing out his Inner Gentleman and a few other pieces as well, including one in The Courier-Mail's Today section about a Brissie guy who runs an Ethical Bachelor course. Apart from this, I hope to be writing more mummy pieces, finishing my half-finished YA manuscript, editing my 2009 release, Mad About Moo (The Dairy Queen in the USA) and maybe thinking about writing something brand new.

What else is happening at home? Oh, yes. The current story we are dining out on is Ivy's wanton criminal behaviour at day-care. Over the holidays, Teddy has had a couple days at her day-care centre, which she's been very excited about (you can tell by the way she pushes everyone aside saying, 'My Teddy!'). Anyway, on his first day at the centre, she managed to sneak out of her pre-school room undetected, sneak into his toddler room undetected, kidnap him and sneak back to her pre-school room, carrying him all the way. Very cute. I just try not to think too hard about all the 'undetected' stuff!

Now, are you into this Facebook thing? Everyone has been hassling me to set up shop on Facebook, so I finally cracked and set up a very dodgy looking page. I can tell I'm ageing by the day, because I have no idea how the whole thing works and sit, squinting at the monitor, trying to work things out. I hope the kids grow up really fast so they can help me out with this stuff. Have a few friends on there now, so I don't look quite as pathetic as a week or so ago, but really, the page is a bit spartan. Tips appreciated!

Till next time,

Allison

I am a bad, bad, naughty novelist. Once again, I am severely late in updating my diary. Someone send me to the naughty corner (with a magazine. And a cup of tea. For 33 minutes. Ooohhh… what bliss!).

Still absolute madness around here, as per usual. Still very little time to write. Or, you know… think. I must be getting a few things done, however, because I've had a couple developments at least. I've continued making money off my scatty mothering skills by writing a few more stand-alone pieces for The Courier-Mail, for a start. I had some fun speaking at the Brisbane Writers' Festival and have been loving replying to the emails I'm still getting about How to Date a Millionaire. I had some new publicity photos taken as well and will be spring cleaning the old web-site soon (well, okay, summer cleaning).

In exciting writing news, the final few touches have been made to The Inner Gentleman. The (very cute) cover has been finalised and now it's a big waiting game till 1 January. I can hardly wait! It's going to be so very exciting to have an adult book out in Australia again as it has been quite some time. Am dying to know what you will all think (good things, I hope!). The edit process has been hard, but worth it. I had to completely re-write the first 70 pages and make dozens of other changes besides. It's been so worth it, though. The book is 100 times better since super editor Sophie and super freelance editor Fiona took it to pieces and got me to put it back together again. I'm a very happy little author with how it's all turned out. My 2009 book has also been accepted and is currently called Mad About Moo (the title may yet change and it has already been published by Red Dress Ink in the USA as The Dairy Queen). It's all about three girls, a crazy black and white cow-coloured town and failure. Out of all my books, it was the easiest to write. It just begged to be written and my fingers simply flew as I typed away. If only all books came that easily. Unfortunately, they don't. The young adult manuscript I'm writing at the moment has been my hardest yet, but hopefully the pain will be worth it in the long haul! 

On the home front, Teddy is taking his first steps (so cute!) and saying lots of words. Apparently I come quite low in the pecking order, below 'Daddy', 'Vi-Vi', 'Flo-flo' (our two cats, Violet and Florence) and 'poop' (well, you know what that is…). I very rarely get a 'mummy' out of the little bugger. Meanwhile, Ivy has turned into a tragic fashion victim (see picture). This morning she went off to kindy in a mummy co-ordinated cute pink with white polka-dotted plus purple mary-jane Crocs outfit which she then added knee-high bull-dotted 'Spain!' emblazoned black and red socks to. As Kath and Kim would say… 'Noice! Unewsual!'. Last night, she got in trouble for sticking her tongue out at me and when I told her off, her excuse was she was cleaning her dirty chin with her tongue. I almost gave her a treat for creative thinking.

Well, must run, kids. The fat cat's dodgy shoulder is due at the vet…

Allison

Oops time has run away from me again.  Must be all that fun I'm having changing nappies and wiping up vomit!

Dum dum-dum dum, dum-dum dum, dum dum dum!  No, I'm not going crazy (give me 15 more minutes).  Even though the kids are both at kindy and family day-care today, I can't get this STUPID noise out of my head.  My mother (who I will 'get' later), bought Ivy a toy duck recently and it's the toy of the moment around these parts.  Ivy wasn't sure about it at first (it's quite noisy and a red light shines out of its beak!), but she got used to the thing way too quickly.  If the duck doesn't live at your place, it's extremely amusing.  It sings the dum-dums, whizzes around the floor, and pops eggs out of its bottom at various intervals.  Ha ha!  Yes, very cute.  I can quite see why my mum bought it at the shops where it was being demonstrated.  But after an hour, the duck does tend to lose the ability to amuse.  The best bit about the duck is actually the box (which is, of course, very quiet and still!).  Here's what the box says:

Amusing duck

Toys series with strong sense for playing

lay egg – is true!

as the duck advancing, flicking the plumage and yawning the mouth go with music and light

the duck stop, it swaying tail then the duck lay an egg as open it's buttocks go with the duck's call

watch mummy throw the duck at the wall

Yeah, okay.  So I made that last line up.

Lots of other things going on here on the home front as well.  Teddy (bored with life already… see pic) is just starting to commando crawl.  We've also had a ringtail possum family move in with us – a mother and two babies.  They're very sweet and sleep curled up in a corner of the pergola all day, occasionally having a bit of a clean and a sigh and a turn around and a bit more sleep.

To writing news… well, unfortunately it doesn't look like my The Courier-Mail Desperate Housewife Tuesday column is coming back anytime soon.  Boo hoo!  I have column grief!  I loved writing my column so much and even months down the track, I still miss it terribly.

Thanks for all your luvverly comments about How to Date a Millionaire.  I'm so happy everyone liked the book.  Like my column, I'm also missing Nessa.  I don't usually miss my characters when I finish writing a book (generally I've had enough of them!), but I have with Nessa.  Maybe because I spent so much time with her – three books in all.  For everyone who is asking about more young adult books, my agent is currently talking to my publisher about another one, so fingers crossed!  I've written about 10,000 words of it so far and really enjoyed myself (no, it's not about Nessa.  We've got to let her go, people!).

Hmmm.  What else?  Well, I've signed a new adult contract with Random House Australia, so will have two adult books out soonish.  The first, The Inner Gentleman, will be out in Feb 2008, it's looking like.  The second will follow in 2009.  It'll be lovely to be writing for the Aussie market again and getting out and about mixing with my readers more.

Well, poo and vomit calls!  Till next time…

Allison

Tuesday, January 2, 2007

Yikes!  The months are whizzing by.  With two kiddlywinks on my hands now, there never seem to be enough hours in the day and I'm starting to realise 'me' time is a thing of the past.  Don't get me wrong – there a lot of benefits to having a couple of kids underfoot.  Like everyone thinks it's okay if you have straggly hair, wear nothing but tracksuits and have forgotten what lipstick is.  Their constant supply of food treats from grandma means you're never without sustenance yourself (and no worries on outgrowing your clothes because of said treats – tracksuits stretch!).  Plus, they're generally pretty cute. Generally (one of them is screaming at me as I type!).

I hope everyone had a great Chrissie and New Year.  We must have been mad to offer, but we hosted Christmas Day this year (mainly because we have air-conditioning!).  I set the celebrations off with a bang by dropping a six-pack of beer on the floor.  Oops.  It took a good twenty minutes of sweeping, vacuuming and mopping to recover from this, but the room did end up smelling very Aussie Christmassy.  Continuing the Aussie Chrissie tradition, we drank too much (well, maybe a little less beer than we might have…!), ate too much, gave and received too many pressies and got some great photos.  Like one of Ivy eating 'floor chips' (yes, the chips people had dropped) and one of Teddy eating everyone's wrapping paper.  Got to love it.  My husband and I spent waaaaay too much money on pressies for each other this year.  As he's studying for a huge final medical exam and is utterly miserable, I splashed out and bought him a new coffee machine.  Coffee will be about his only joy until his exams in April and May, so I'm sure the new machine will have been worth it!  As for me, I got a very flash new mobile phone.  So flash I now need a child of the right age to show me how to work it.  Talk about feeling your age!

With all of the getting up and down in the middle of night and the million loads of washing I seem to do every day (I think the low dam levels may be due to me alone), I haven't had a whole lot of time to write lately.  That looks like it's going to change pretty soon.  I've just been offered a new two-book contract for two adult novels, which is great news, and I'll probably also be writing a new young adult novel.  My column in The Courier-Mail, Desperate Housewife, is on hiatus at the moment and will hopefully return in early January.  I've had so many fantastic emails from readers about it and have laughed myself sick sitting at the computer with everyone's stories about their own kids.  I really hope I can continue writing it as it's so much fun.

The third book in the Living Blonde trilogy, How to Date a Millionaire, is due out any day now, but quite a few readers have been in contact to say they've already seen it out and about and have bought their copies.  Thanks for letting me know!  I can't wait to hear what you think of it…

Well, I hope you all have a great 2007.  As for New Year's, I was sadly tucked up in bed by 9.30pm with a book, listening to the neighbours party on.  But when you think about it, 9.30pm is actually pretty late when you're dragged out of bed at the (just plain wrong) time of about 4.45am every day!

Allison

September 2006

Ha ha ha.  Can you believe it?  I actually just had to check the calendar to remind myself what month it is!  I guess that tells you what life's like around here at the moment – with a newborn, that is.  And as if this isn't enough to be getting on with, we're currently going through toilet training as well.  Yikes!

Theodore (Teddy) (7lb 4oz) ended up arriving two weeks early.  I started having a few little contractions late Saturday evening, 12 August, so got my parents over to look after Ivy and we raced off to the hospital just to make sure.  I gave birth very fast the first time around and decided that, this time, I'd rather be wrong about being in labour, have all the midwives laugh at me and get sent home, than be right and have the baby on the kitchen floor (even if it is tiled!).  Anyway, the contractions kept coming and going and I ended up dozing through the night in my assigned birthing suite with just a hot pack – it didn't hurt at all.  Audrey Hepburn kept me company (The Nun's Story?  I think that's what the movie I watched was called.  I distinctly remember thinking those nuns wouldn't have to do what I was about to do. Lucky things!).  At 8.30am Sunday morning, the obstetrician arrived, took a look and said he 'wasn't sending me home with a cervix like that' (lol!). He broke my waters and whammo – thing really started to happen. The contractions started coming thick and fast, but I managed to get some nice drugs in.  After two good pushes, Teddy was born at 9.40am. No stitches – just a few grazes. I got off pretty lightly, I know!!!  The kid has perfect timing as everyone ships out of the ward at 10am, which meant that we scored the best room in the place just in time for lunch!  Am still getting my head around the fact that I have a boy now – I keep doing stupid things like picking up baby girl nappies at the supermarket instead of baby boy ones and I still get a bit of a surprise when I open up his nappy and see extra bits and pieces in there!  If I'm still doing this a year from now, yes, I promise I'll get some help!

Now to writing news.  Of all the times to get a new gig, this is probably the worst (I think I only have about three brain cells left and all they think about is sleep and food!).  Still, I couldn't resist.  I have a new column in The Courier Mail called Desperate Housewife, which I'm loving, loving, loving writing.  It's in the Today section on either Tuesday or Wednesday.  I've been getting some great feedback on it already.  It's so nice to know there are some mothers out there with equally dubious mothering skills!

I've also been getting some lovely emails about the second title in the Living Blonde trilogy, The Seven Month Itch.  It came out in August and the third title, How to Date a Millionaire is still scheduled for January.  I've just seen the cover for it and love it as much as I love the other two.

Hmmm.  Next up?  Well, I'm not quite sure what I'll be writing next, but I'm hoping to pool those three brain cells and start writing something in the new year.  Right now, though, I'm off to change yet another nappy…!

Allison

July 2006

Yikes!  I'm already coming into the home stretch (am 32 weeks tomorrow) and have scarily got close to nothing done.  Okay, so maybe that's not quite true.  Most of the baby's things have been bought and set up and Ivy has a new 'big girl' bed (see piccie) and a gorgeous chest of drawers, but mentally…?  Something tells me I'm going to be presented with a baby boy (yep, it's a boy this time!) and I'll then completely and utterly freak out.  I have no idea why I assumed the baby was going to be a girl, but I did.  Maybe it's fear of the unknown?  Maybe I thought I couldn't make them in other flavours?  Who knows!  I've been getting heaps of tips from any girlfriends I know who've had boys (hot tip no. 1: make sure those extra bits point downwards in the nappy, or you'll be changing and washing a lot of wondersuits).  Scary stuff.

Have been very busy writing like a demon in the hope of getting everything sorted before I pop (not likely).  Apart from the usual emailing and editing and proofing, I've also been writing several bits and pieces for The Courier Mail, mainly on my lack of mothering skills.  It's been heaps of fun and I'm hoping to keep right on doing it (at least until Ivy starts asking for a cut!).

I'm still getting lots of lovely emails about The Dairy Queen from my US readers, though I've been very surprised to find the swearing up the front of the book has almost scared a lot of people off.  Maybe we Aussies are just a ruder bunch?!  Still, like I keep telling everyone, the swearer is a nasty sort anyway.  And everyone seems happy that he gets his comeuppance swiftly!  Nasty, nasty man.

I've also been getting some amazing feedback on Diamonds are a Teen's Best Friend.  For all those gorgeous people who are asking, The Seven Month Itch, the second book in the trilogy, will be out in August and How to Date a Millionaire will follow in January.  The cover for The Seven Month Itch is just gorgeous and I can't wait to see what you all think of it (the cover and the book, of course!).  Of the three books in the trilogy, it's probably my favourite.

Having finished writing the Living Blonde trilogy, it's time to move on and I'm madly planning a new YA book at the moment, kind of like the Nessa books in the way that it has an international setting and deals with celebrity.  It's proving to be challenging, but fun, so I hope it all pans out nicely and I'll have something for you to read not too long after How to Date a Millionaire.

Well, better run.  As per usual, the fridge has emptied itself surprisingly fast (of the yummy stuff, anyway), which means another grocery shopping trip and there's always more writing to be done…

Allison

March 2006

Wow.  Have not had the best four weeks or so.  Ivy came home from day-care with a cold, which I promptly caught (she does like to slobber all over one!).  After a week or so, I couldn't seem to get rid of the lurgy, so took a course of antibiotics, which didn't work at shifting anything either.  It turned out I had pneumonia and things kept going downhill from there.  I managed to catch another bug on top of this one and soon found myself in hospital attached to a drip and (thankfully) cable TV, self-cleaning linen and food that came six times a day (Yes!  Six times!  That's if you include my evening cup of Milo and Arnott's bikkie, which I definitely do).  It was all very civilised and I may move in there full-time. 

The thing that really made me laugh was that the hospital computer system got a bit confused and tried to admit me into the maternity ward.  I'm pregnant (due 25 August) and had already booked in to the maternity unit to have the baby.  Needless to say, when I rocked up to the hospital with pneumonia at only 17 weeks pregnant, it would have been a looooong wait in the maternity unit to have that baby!  The big 18-week scan happens on Tuesday, so I'll find out then if it's a boy or a girl.  I was quite sure Ivy was a girl, but this time around… hmmm.  I just don't know.  It looks like Ivy will be quite happy with either.  She's currently obsessed with babies and we have to stop to look at them (and try not to poke them in the eyes in excitement) wherever we go, Ivy chanting, 'Bubby!  Bubby!', at the top of her voice.  Here's a photo of her with my friend Sam's baby, Bella.  The difference in their colouring always gives us a laugh.  As does Ivy's incessant need to cuddle the poor kid half to death.

Now, to book news.  The Dairy Queen was released earlier this month in the US and has had some great reviews (phew!).  The Chicago Sun-Times was particularly nice and gave the book a large review, saying it was 'great entertainment' and 'funny, smart and engaging'.  Better than a kick in the pants, that's for sure.

I've been getting some lovely reader email from Diamonds are a Teen's Best Friend, my first young adult book (released in Australia/New Zealand in January).  I love to hear from you guys, so keep it coming!  The Seven Month Itch, the second book in the trilogy, will be out in August and How to Date a Millionaire will follow in January.  I can't wait.  I've had so much fun writing these books and have to admit I was a bit sad to let good old Nessa, with her weird and wonderful life, go.

I'm not quite sure what's next for me on the writing front.  I have another young adult trilogy idea whizzing around in my head that I'd love to write, but am also being pulled towards writing an adult book.  I'll have to let them battle it out and see who wins.

Till next time,

Allison

January 2006

Well, I've done the dumb January (no joining fee!) thing and joined a gym.  This week, I'll probably go four times.  Next week, I'll probably go three times and, well, you get the picture!  I got some strange looks from the guy who spent nigh on two hours signing me up (seriously, I had to fill out more paperwork joining this gym than I did when I had my will done!).  He wanted to know what I liked in a gym, answer: good air con and good entertainment (read: a big bank of TVs fitted out with cable and headphone sockets that actually work).  I think he was looking for more of a fancy pants equipment kind of answer to his quessie, poor lamb.  Later on, he asked me if my husband was 'supportive' of my coming to the gym and by this stage, forty minutes in, I was cranky this was taking so long so I told him, 'As long as he gets his dinner'.  Got a weird look for this one and he didn't write it down on his little form.  Oh, well.  I'm already a bad little gym bunny.

Hope you all had a great Chrissie and New Year's period.  We spent ours a bit frantically as, as well as the festivity bits and pieces, we moved house from the Gold Coast back to Brisbane.  We've got a lovely new house that's completely flat (our last one had lots of stairs).  It's such bliss not having to open and shut child safety gates and having a free-range tot for a change.  If only I could get the air-con working, things would be perfect.

Ooohhh, lovely.  I just had a very nice delivery of a box of books from Random House.  I may be a weirdo, but I just love it when they pack books in that biodegradable cereal-like stuff.  I think it smells divine and (yes, OK, I am a weirdo), I love making that cereal-like stuff disintegrate in the sink.  Hmmm.  Yes.  Anyway.  The box of books contained my first young adult novel, Diamonds are a Teen's Best Friend, which is out this month (in Australia).  It's meant for girls of around 9-12 years and is all about Nessa, a crazy chickadee who's Marilyn Monroe's biggest teenage fan.  I can't wait to start getting emails from readers to see what the kiddies think.  The Seven Month Itch will follow in August and then How to Date a Millionaire will follow in January '07.

If you're in the US, I'll be having a few books out this year.  The mass-market paperback edition of Hating Valentine's Day is out this month, The Dairy Queen will be out in March and a mass-market paperback edition of Friday Night Cocktails (with a groovy new cover) will be out in July.

Well, I'd better run.  I'm absolutely starving after my first trip to the gym.  I can never quite work out if it's worth going.  I seem to eat twice the calories I burn off as soon as I get home!

See ya!

Allison

P.S. a couple pics for you – me out on my pub date book trip (my mum, aunt and I always go around the bookstores, check out my books when they come out and secretly move them around to better positions!) and Ivy on her b'day, very, very tired from eating too many pink cupcakes.

October 2005

Ouchy.  If you can avoid it, don't get your wisdom teeth yanked from your head.  It hurts.  More than you'd think, actually.  More than I thought it would, that's for sure.  To be fair, it hurt less than having my tonsils yanked from my throat two years ago, which hurt more than having Ivy (drug free, I might add!).  Anyway, am getting over it all now, which is when they'll start talking braces and a bit more surgery.  Mean doctors.

What else has been going on?  Ivy's starting to come out with a few words here and there, which is nice.  Not so nice is where 'mummy' seems to come in the order of things.  So far I haven't had a 'mummy'.  We've had 'poopie', 'nappy', 'daddy', 'miaow', 'cracker' and a few others, but no 'mummy'.  Nice to know where I stand!  She has quite short hair at the moment because I went away to a conference and Dad gave her a haircut.  Big mistake.  I came home to a little shorn sheep and almost didn't recognise her at the airport when I arrived home!

On the writing front I've been really busy writing, revising and editing.  Diamonds are a Teen's Best Friend will be out in Australia January '06 – yay!  This will be closely followed by The Seven Month Itch in either August or September '06, then How to Date a Millionaire will be out January '07.  I'm not sure if I've told you about these books, but they're young adult novels (for girls of about 9-12 years) and they're all about Nessa, a chick who's more than slightly obsessed with Marilyn Monroe.  Nessa is always a complete laugh to write – she's forever trying to incorporate Marilyn's film plots into her own dull, teenage life (as she sees it…) in order to make things a bit more interesting.  I've had such a blast writing the series so far and will soon be moving onto writing the third book in the series.  I love the cover Random House has given Diamonds are a Teen's Best Friend.  It's just gorgeous – very retro – and I can't wait to see what you think of the series itself.  I've also been busy with The Dairy Queen, which will be out in the US in April '06.  I'm really excited about having that out there as it's my fave book so far.  Not sure when it'll be out in Australia, but I should know soon.

In other news, the new Girls' Night In anthology has just hit the Aussie shelves.  This time around it's called Ladies' Night and I'm already loving my copy.  So many great short stories and for such a good cause – the profits go to the charities War Child and No Strings, who do the most amazing work for kiddies in war zones all over the world.  As per usual, it's a gigantic stonker of a book, so it's great value for money (perfect for the beach this coming Summer!).  The story I donated is called The Temp from Hell and I hope it gives you a giggle or two.

Well, must run.  I have brownies to ice for a lunch I'm off to today!

See ya,

Allison

P.S. Hope you like the piccie of Ivy's shoe.  What is Target trying to do to the youth of today?

That aside, we had a luvverly trip. We spent two weeks in Japan holidaying (Tokyo, Hiroshima and Kyoto), a week in Boston with friends and a week in NYC for work and a bit of fun. Japan was just great. I didn't think Ivy would be such a huge hit as she's not a blondie, but her big eyes went down a treat. We kept getting stopped in the street to tuneful 'kawaii's. At first I was scared it meant 'dirty', but we quickly found out it meant 'cute' (phew!). Ivy was royally spoiled (I've included a picture of her in her special dog glasses, given to her at a restaurant and also with some gorgeous schoolgirls who just had to have their piccie taken with her). Other highlights included watching the Hiroshima Carp baseball team play in Hiroshima and spending a morning walking around Love Hotel hill in Tokyo (love hotels are weird and wonderful themed hotels where you rent rooms by the hour – yes, we really do show our daughter all the cultural sights…!). You can see some piccies of the different hotel interiors here: http://www3.tky.3web.ne.jp/~edjacob/hotels.html/ Don't know what I think about the Hello Kitty S&M room. I guess it takes all sorts! We also met up with some puffer fish (the poisonous ones). Too scared to taste any, though!

Yay! Friday Night Cocktails is out today in the USA (ooohhh! That rhymes! Ooohhh! Think I need a second cup of coffee and also need to stop talking to people the same way I talk to the baby…). I can't wait to see what you all think of it. It was my first published novel (it came out in Australia in September 2000) and when I re-read it recently as I was doing the proofs, I realised that my writing is quite different now. I think I've mellowed in my old age. Anyway, we'll see what you think…

What's been happening on the home front? Well, we had a lovely two-week trip to Tasmania in late September, early October. We drove down from the Gold Coast to Sydney and caught the ferry from Sydney to Tassie. The ferry took about 22 hours. We'd been focussing on getting to Tassie itself and so were totally surprised at how much fun we had on the ferry. Now I can't stop looking at brochures for cruises, though I am a little bit scared that they'd have to lift me off the boat with a crane. All that food that I haven't cooked myself. Yum! Speaking of food, Tassie has a lot of it and it's all pretty good. We ate our way around Cradle Mountain Lodge's buffet breakfast (highly recommend the bircher museli. Oh, yeah, and we also took in some of the scenery), ate our way around Salamanca Place (highly recommend the porridge and poached pears. Oh, yeah, and we also went to the markets) and bought a great bag of apples in the Huon Valley ($2! Oh, yeah, and saw my friend Nat who lives there and was the reason we all went down to Tassie in the first place). Hmmm. Food is good. Now, where's that second cup of coffee? Honestly, I need to get some people…

We came back from holidays and then, bam, it was upon us – the tot's first b'day. It's quite a bit of pressure, the first b'day party. Too much pressure for me, anyway, so I decided to get most of it catered and just do the cake. I ended up making little pink-iced Nigella Lawson fairy cakes with mauve sugar roses perched on top. And, I don't mind saying it myself, they were pretty damn good! Here's one for you… oh, OK, two. Ivy got heaps of lovely presents (as always), including a super-cute pair of Italian shoes.

What else has been going on? I've been sucking that old stomach of mine in (see Tassie food, see Nigella fairy cakes, see my ever-growing stomach…) and having some pics taken in the lead-up to Hating Valentine's Day, which will be in stores in February. I spent a fun day cutting up bunches of roses and popping heart-shaped balloons. Yes. I am the queen of cheese!

Have a great Chrissie everyone, and see you in the New Year!

Allison