Word is insisting that I change 'X came to slowly' to 'X came too slowly'.
Which really changes the meaning quite substantially...

From irreparable

If you would like some questions to answer, express your interest via comment...

1. What author has influenced your writing?
That's actually really hard to say, because I don't actively choose to write like anyone (except for that one time I tried to write a short story in the style of Dylan Thomas...). There's no doubt that I'm influenced by things I read, and when I started writing I was very strongly influenced by writers like Raymond E Feist and David Eddings, simply because there wasn't much else in the way of epic fantasy that I could get my hands on. That was more in terms of theme than style though, and I'd like to think I've moved away from that a bit now, and found my own voice.

2. What's your favourite shop in Adelaide?
I like Fireflies in City Cross Arcade.
This is quite aside from kitchen supply, craft and fabric stores of course....

3. What has been your best online purchase?
My phone :-)

4. Favourite way to unwind at the end of a stressful day?
A long, hot bath with some fancy bubble bath/bath salts etc; a book that doesn't require too much thought (but isn't so badly written I feel like I need a red pen); some Earl Grey or chai; and good quality chocolate.

All at the same time, naturally...

5. What's your current favourite band/song?
I hope by current you don't mean contemporary. Because I pretty much stopped keeping up with popular music when I had kids (something had to give). But I have a lot of greatest hits albums on shuffle at the moment, and I have to say I'm rather enjoying me some Queen at the moment. Cheesy I know, but fun, and Freddie Mercury had such a great voice...

Liam was still ill on the weekend, and got worse, so we took him back to the doctor and got a diagnosis of pharyngitis. Then Erin got it. And I have had a stuffy head since the weekend too. Which was unfortunate because on Tuesday I had a short sharp and shiny visit to Melbourne for a big meeting. As a result of which I've spent the last two days with my left ear blocked up. It seems to be going at least, which is good. I once had my ears clogged up for more than two weeks after flying with a cold. It was not fun.

And the hayfever on top of that, of course.

Despite the lurgy I came home from yoga feeling pretty good this evening, only to find my first rejection slip in my inbox. Which has put a surprising dent on my good mood. I keep telling myself I will take these sorts of things in my stride and it totally never works. Although I think the cowardice that kept me from having this experience earlier in my life has possibly done me good service here. I might once have found this discouraging. Now the overwhelming feeling is 'dammit, more work!'

So I suppose this becomes a kind of confession - yes, I write. Some of you probably know this. I've been writing for, well, pretty much since I could. There seem to be two kinds of writers - those who keep it to their chests and those who rush about showing their work off at every opportunity. I morphed from the latter to the former some time during the massive crisis in self-confidence that was partly why I dropped out of university, perhaps understandably. So I don't talk about it much. I also came as close as I ever have to stopping writing for a while around the time I got pregnant with Erin (losing 50k words of the book I'd been writing in a hard drive meltdown probably didn't help).

But then when Liam was a baby and I was having somewhat of another mental health crisis I picked up the pen again, and I haven't really put it down since. Things progress slowly. Very slowly. I don't have a lot of time, and I don't devote as much energy to it as I should. But somehow I seem to have written a book.

Also I just got a copy of Guild Wars 2. I've avoided MMORPGs so far because I just can't afford the time to get sucked in. But this one looked so good on Good Game. If I'm not back in a week someone may have to come in and get me.