If you’re wondering why I’m looking so tanned and relaxed it’s because I’ve been in Broome! Okay, it was only for three days and there wasn’t much time for lying around in the sun, but it was a fantastic trip nonetheless. I spent time with Years 8 and 9 from Broome Senior High School, then an afternoon with some keen readers and writers from Cable Beach Primary School. We talked about how stories get started – about images that fall into your head and priests on oceanic balloon flights and chihuahuas that get blown away in storms and about ways in which you can take all your wild and crazy ideas and turn them into stories.

During one of my sessions, I had the best feedback ever from a reader. Here’s how it went:

Reader: Yeah, I read that book, Annabel, Again. Half of it, anyway.
Me (laughing): What, did you get bored and give up?
Reader (shrugging): Yeah, basically.
Me: Oh.

Note to self: Make stories less boring.

I also spoke at the NorthWest Expo and read some poetry there, and on Sunday before I came home, I did a workshop for some local writers. It was a flying visit, but a good one, and I managed to squeeze in some wandering around time, during which I took myself up to the Japanese cemetery, among other places, and found the beginnings of many poems.