Firstly I should mention that, yes, I do suck for not seeing out Blog Every Day April (BEDA). I blogged right up until April 28 and then I could blog no more. Like a marathon runner who gets to the finish line ribbon, looks at it for a while and then sits down for a rest.

But let’s move on.

I started my moving on this weekend when I stayed a friend’s house on the Mornington Peninsula with a few writing buddies. It sounds like we were at the beach but I believe the place we actually stayed is called the inlandy-bit-of-the-peninish: a nice big paddocky property that included a collective noun of hay bales (It’s a truss of hay but I’m not sure what it is for hay bales).

That’s me and Housemate #1 workshopping some ideas on said trusses of hay. I really wanted to sleep up there too but was put off my the sounds of tiny mice playing within the trusses.

Truss!

The Greatest Blogger in the World went to press yesterday. Nothing will stop it now. Fate, destiny, something else, yada yada, etc.

And to really kick home the subtle ‘journey’ theme of this blog post, here’s the first notes I made about the book, late in 2007.

So I officially suck at BEDA (Blog Every Day April). Blogging every day is hard work especially when the world offers distractions like french toast, Fleetwood Mac and Hannah Montana. Plus the Melbourne weather decided to cut to the chase this weekend and sent us headlong into Winter. Which meant it was time to get out the ultimate piece of protective/comfort gear – the Womb Jacket.

Call it Mummy Issues, or maybe just plain old Issues, but for years now my Womb Jacket has been a stalwart of my torso come Winter. Waterproof on the outside, warm and sheepskinny on the inside, wearing the Womb Jacket is just like being back in the…well, you get it by now.

Now that the Emerging Writers’ Festival program for 2009 has been announced I can let y’all know that I’ll be partaking in a EWF session with YA author Anthony Eaton:

Into White Silence – Young adult fiction
Sunday 31st May 11am to 12pm
Written after a residency in Antarctica, Anthony Eaton’s book combines historical events with fictional elements. He interlaces of history and the present through two young men’s journeys of cowardice and courage
In conversation with Andrew McDonald

Anthony’s book Into White Silence has been shortlisted for the CBCA Book of the Year for Older Readers and we’ll be chatting about the process the book went through from, well,  here to there, as the event title says.

It should be a fun conversation. Anthony’s book is – I think – an excellent read that focuses on an anonymous author’s quest to unravel the mystery of William Downes who joined an expedition to the Antarctic in 1920 and never returned.

www.emergingwritersfestival.org.au

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