If you recognise the lyric I’m quoting above, you are probably too old to read my books!

So, it’s been a while, and there are reasons for that. I’ve had some time off, but am starting to find that writing space again. Here’s a summary of what I’ve been up to over the last month:

Writing: completed a picture book and a short novel and sent them off with fingers crossed. Uncrossed fingers again because I was finding it difficult to type, and started a new novel. This is another short one and is coming quite quickly so far, which is usually a good sign. I’m also working on a picture book, something I’ve been playing around with for a year or so. It’s very conceptual and a bit tricky to write, but I’m in love with the idea, so keep hammering away at it. Hopefully I’ll find a way through soon.

Launching: attended the launch of the FAW(WA) anthology Lines in the Sand, which contains my poem ‘Ancestor Games’.

Translating: The Italian poetry journal Ludwig asked me to send them some poems. They said they are seeking work from ‘young voices in the Australian poetry landscape’. When I queried how young ‘young’ was, they replied ‘For us YOUNG means under 35 yo, but obviously it’s the same if you’re 36, 37 etc…’. It is excellent news to me that being ’36, 37 etc’ (with emphasis on the ‘etc’, in my case) is the same as being both under 35 and young. So I sent them some poems and they’re going to translate a couple into Italian and publish them.

Having done a bit of poetry translation myself (from Japanese into English), I’m excited that some of my work will be going through this process. I only wish I could speak Italian so I could have some insight into how it travels across the languages. Translation is a difficult art at the best of times, and translating poetry is a particular challenge.

Selling: Going for Broke seems to be doing well. I’ve had some great feedback from readers, and there’s a chance the Lightning Strikes series will be out in the UK early next year. Italy! England! I wonder if I can now call myself an internationally published writer?

Preparing: For BookWeek 2008. At this stage, I’ll be visiting libraries/schools in the cities of Melville, Joondalup, Swan and Armadale. I hope to see some of you there.