So this appears to be the fourth in the three-part blog-a-palooza I embarked on recently with Sally Murphy and Anna Branford.

Yes, I am aware that makes no sense.

I’m adding this coda simply to say that although it was fun, I doubt I’ll be doing something like that again. I have no idea how anyone keeps to a regular posting schedule and still manages to keep up with all the regular aspects of work and life and writing and all of that. Impossible.

I really enjoyed thinking about all those topics, and there’s a satisfying discipline in committing to setting my thoughts in order for public consumption. But when writing time is at a premium, I’d rather be chipping away at stories than composing blog posts.

And it does seem as if writing time is at something of a premium this year. With the National Year of Reading thrown into the mix, I have a very busy schedule of school visits, festivals and residencies that spans the year, much of it involving travel – some local-ish, but others further afield.

This is all stimulating and fun. And time-consuming and taxing. I won’t be taking anything else on this year.

Apart from the writing, that is. There are three books I want to write in 2012. Two are probably YA, and I’m about halfway through one of those. The other is junior fiction, middle-grade-ish.

There will be a chapter-book revision to complete later in the year, about which – watch this space for an announcement very soon.

There are three books coming out with Candlewick in the US which will require energy of one sort and another.

And picture books! There are many bubbling away under the surface, and it must surely be time for a new one soon. Just yesterday, at the Perth Writers Festival, an illustrator and I shared a moment in which we lit upon the same idea at the same time, resulting in this exchange:

“What a great idea!” “We should do that together!” “Yes, we should!”

Ah, but when?

There are poems to be written, for a reading I’m doing at Perth Poetry Club in March. And also for my own creative sanity.

There are two books to be launched.

My website really needs a complete overhaul, about which I am in total avoidance mode.

There is one blog post to complete with the title “On Being Exhausted”. One window of self-indulgence in which to say that I feel a little tired already just thinking about all this, but that I am lucky. Very lucky. And looking forward to it all, every last drop.