I have been remiss…

Slackness the First:

I’ve been back from Continuum for two days and have yet to post a con report. In short, the convention was brilliant. Got to Melbourne on Thursday evening, had a lovely dinner with Angela, Kirstyn and Mondy and then recorded our ‘guest appearance’ for the Writer and the Critic podcast. We had such an excellent time talking about our book choices (Voice of the Fire by Alan Moore for Angela, Galore by Michael Crummey for me) AND we were plied with brownies (huge thanks to Mondy’s wife, Julie — they were delicious!) and bat and owl-shaped gingerbread baked by Kirstyn herself (and, might I add, YUMMMMMMMMMMM.) Also, I am no longer a podcast virgin!

The program organisers were fantastic, scheduling me for only two panels (huzzah!) and putting both of them on Friday. I couldn’t have asked for a better schedule! My panels were done and dusted before the Twelfth Planet party on Friday evening — and what a party! Check out Cat Sparks’ flickr stream to see all the incredible cupcakes Terri Sellen made –– with icing themed to match the book covers. Tasty, tasty artwork!

Saturday saw the launch of Ishtar, a collection of three novellas by Kaaron Warren, Deborah Biancotti and Cat Sparks (see Amanda Pillar’s pics as well as Cat’s for loads of images from this event),  ASIM‘s launch, as well as a bunch of great panels — and a reading session featuring Angela Slatter, Felicity Dowker, Claire Corbett and me. Great fun — I love doing readings (even though, at this one, I somehow managed to let the book slip from my fingers halfway through, and had to flick for my place…)

And Sunday was jam-packed with some of the sessions I’d been looking forward to most, along with the Ditmar Awards ceremony and Felicity Dowker’s book launch… and I missed them all! Thanks to the Japanese dinner I had Saturday evening, which proved to be totally dodgy, I had an awful case of food poisoning that kept me locked in my hotel room until Monday. So instead of partying it up with everyone at the bar on Saturday night or Sunday after the awards, I was confined to my bed, throwing myself a pity party. And even once I emerged for a bit of fresh air at the end of the con, I looked and felt like death warmed over.

The image on the right shows my awesome “farewell Continuum” dinner on Monday evening. Not exactly the sort of thing I had in mind. All my plans to catch up with friends in Melbourne were cancelled. I had a date with Hydralyte, jelly beans, and some calming ginger.

Remind me never to get food poisoning ever again, won’t you?

Despite the illness, it was fabulous catching up with everyone over the long weekend, and I’m really looking forward to seeing people again at Conflux next year. (Where I think I will be going vegetarian.)

Slackness the Second:

Last week, the puntastic Jason Fischer posed some of the most entertaining questions I’ve ever had the pleasure of answering, and posted them as the first in a series of interviews called “Conversations in the Fisch-bowl”. I’ve been meaning to point you all to Jason’s site since it went up, but, well, slackness. The interview be here.

Slackness the Third:

Tuesday Therapy posts have been MIA this week and last week. This isn’t the end of Tuesday Therapy, merely a brief hiatus. The manuscript of Midnight and Moonshine is due at the end of the month, so I’ve been preoccupied with it for the past two weeks and foresee much the same for the next fortnight. So please stay tuned: regularly-scheduled Therapy will resume next month — once the MS is delivered!