August 27   Twelfth Planet Day

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Today was such a big day for TPP! On the east coast, lots of TPP crew gathered at the Melbourne Writer’s Festival for the Twelfth Planet Press Showcase. I followed the event on Twitter and discovered it’s a lot harder to throw a party long distance than I thought it would be – I desperately wanted to be there and was so hungry for every photo and tweet – and text! – I got as the event progressed. I have such a big thank you to Jason Nahrung who first brought the idea to me and then worked really hard on the ground in Melbourne to make it happen and without his tireless organising, liaising, schlepping and programming, it would not have been possible. He even fixed that unfortunate TNT error from Natcon by collecting the books and passing them on to Dymocks who are the official bookstore of MWF:

(Thanks Deb for this lovely shot of the TPP books on the shelf!)

Also a big thanks to the authors who could make it to the event, some flying in from outer state – Deb, Kaaron, Cat, Rosaleen, Narrelle, Lucy, Kirstyn and Jason. (Hope I didn’t forget anyone?) And also to Julian Warner who MC’ed, Kerry Greenwood who spoke for the 12 Planets and Talie Helene who provided music. And to everyone everywhere who attended the event. I hear it was packed and I must admit I had fretted the “what if noone comes” a bit, so it was so exciting and overwhelming to hear that all the seats were taken and the standing room.

Whilst this was going on, I was at home preparing for a speech this evening. I was doing that thing where I couldn’t focus on anything else cause I had this thing to do, even though it was still hours away. Luckily, the universe has a way of filling a vacuum. I’m not *saying* it was the puppy’s fault and I know this sounds a bit conspiracy theorist but, he *was* the first to know, and sure, he spent a good 7 to 10 minutes trying to tell me about it before giving up, but he does seem like the other one to have profited from my dishwasher flooding the house. Yes. Water. Everywhere and not at all in an ironic way. About half an inch deep in the kitchen, dining, and half way in the tv and sitting area – under carpets and couches. And … and now you see it, right? but I had to move couches to mop up all the water and check for electricals and this, you see, exposed what was behind the couch – TWO uneaten treats, long forgotten…. or so i thought …

Anyway, that gave me something to do before heading up to Perth for the National Council of Jewish Women Australia WA evening for Women’s Achievers. Where in exchange for speaking for 15 minutes about myself and TPP, I won an award for being a Woman Achiever. It was a truly great honour to be recognised by this group and the other two award winners for 2012 (its a biennial award) were absolutely inspirational – Commander Michelle Fyfe APM (the 2012 Australian Police Medal recipient, did you know that in 1984, women police officers could only wear the uniform pants after sundown and part of their uniform included a handbag because they had no holster with that dress?) and Susan Cromb (Chairperson of the Adopt-A-School Partnership Bali-WA).

The evening also included a speech from the President of NCJWA in which she spoke a lot about the programs the organisation runs. A lot of really good work, and projects I really admire. And I was so chuffed by how many people came over to tell me how much they enjoyed my speech. It was really hard to write 15 mins worth about myself and I wasn’t sure the audience would care about science fiction :) I’m so glad my doubts were unfounded.

The evening was a fundraiser and my uncles and aunt, parents, family friend and Kathryn came to make up my table. I had a day where my heart overflowed because of all the love in it. Such a really great day. Thanks to everyone!

 



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