A happiness of book creators

And other incidental news

After my last post, I got a dose of Influenza A which, in spite of being physically unpleasant, gave me a bit of a moment to reset. Which was much required after an extended period of stupid-busy combined with sad if not unexpected deaths of people in my circle.

I was recovered enough to recover more at the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators annual PAL* retreat.

I spent quite some time communing with kangaroos, reading A Fortunate Life (which I cannot believe I’ve never read before), and hanging with my author/illustrator buddies - laughing, talking, catching up, remembering, forming new connections, making jokes about zamias’ lady bits (you had to be there). It was confirmation of the delight of community that I rhapsodised about in my last post.

AND we happened to be having our dinner on Love Your Bookshop Day, so it was organised for us to show up at the lovely Margaret River Bookshop, which had most of our books in stock.

I also got to finish the proofing of Trapped! The Entombed Miner of Bonnie Vale, my verse novel for middle-graders which will be out next June. I am so excited for this: when I get the cover, I will share it with you. And it includes photos of the rescue divers and of Modesto Varischetti himself.

*

I also, in among all this, got to re-meet Dana, who lived with Carita in the share house in Sydney, and in which I stayed on the couch for January 1988. (I also nicked Dana’s Kick cassette and listened to it on the long bus trip back to Western Australia. I have apologised profusely :)) Dana, who is from the US, only recently found out about Carita’s fate, and was prompted by the grief this engendered to contact me. While she was here, we also met with Carita’s mum and sister: the first time I’d seen them for a long time. It was a beautiful, bittersweet, healing meeting.

And I now have a new Virgo soul mate.

It made me think: if I had not written, none of those things would have happened. I think I’ve spent a lot of my life wishing I didn’t feel the need to write - wished I might have had a passion for something more normal, or lucrative, or better understood. But I am making peace with myself, now. And grateful I have the opportunity to.

Some of Dana’s photos including Carita and her lovely self from back in the day

As always, thank you for reading and subscribing!

* PAL means Published and Listed - books published by traditional publishing houses which do not charge authors or illustrators.