Arise, August!

1.  So many people launched fabulous books in July.  I went to the launch of  Meg McKinlay and Kyle Odgers'  new book Ten Tiny Things, which I'd been tantalised by in Rottnest, and James Foley's In the Lion, which I'd been tantalised by in Singapore.  I adored them both.  I didn't end up at the launch of Jon Doust's To The Highlands, which I also can't wait to read and have heard some hysterically funny parts of, but I have every confidence it will live up to the anticipation it is generating.

2. Also, AJ Betts won the Text prize for Children and Young Adult Writing.  I've heard some of the early draft of this book, and I assure you, it is ten types of wonderful (and ten types of moving).  I don't know if it's our splendid isolation, but Western Australia is coming into its own this year.

3.  I am delighted to be going to the Melbourne Writers Festival.  I need Melbourne like oxygen, and its writers festival is full of ideas and perspectives that are good for the soul.  I also can't wait to appear with Vikki Wakefield, who I already feel kinship with.

4.  I am scribbling bits and pieces.  I have no expectations about what they will end up as, but the process is deeply pleasurable.

5.  Cheers!