Yesterday’s grey and wet has carried on into today for a bleak, rainy Queen’s Birthday with a decidedly chill wind blowing in from the south (think the same as “north” if you’re in the northern hemisphere.)  A good day for staying close to home and doing a bit of a round up for the past week, in which I:

• Started this blog—and so far have kept to my resolution of posting, however briefly, every day.
• Celebrated the launch of the  Supernatural Undergound blog and also the launch of Helen McKinlay’s fourth book, Grandma Meets the Queen, in the best selling Grandma series.
• Went along to the Catalyst Open Mic poetry night—a once-a-month gig where mainly poets, but also storytellers and musicians “rave on” at Al’s Bar in the Central City. And it’s not just about the poets—there’s an “audience participation award” as well, won this week by my partner, Andrew. (Yup, he’s definitely the “live one” out there.)
• Interviewed poet and writer, Mary McCallum, initiator of the exciting Tuesday Poem Blog, for Women on Air, (Plains 96.9 FM)—the interview aired this Saturday and you can listen to it here (to listen: press the play icon or download the mp3 version.)
• Checked out the shortlists for both the Hugo and Mythopoeic Awards (so many great stories to read, so little time); and of course (most importantly of all)
• Kept writing The Gathering of the Lost (The Wall of Night Series, Book Two.)

And just to get the new week kicked off right, today I got two great emails:

• the first was from Tim Jones, asking if he could feature a poem from my Ithaca Conversations sequence, Homing, as next week’s Tuesday Poem on his Books in the Trees blog.  Tim selected Homing and another Ithaca Conversations poem, The Trojan Shore for  JAAM 26 when he was guest editor in 2008, so of course I am happy to see it featured again.
• the second was from Tracey O’Hara, Paranormal Romance author and blogger on the Supernatural Underground to say that her novel, Night’s Cold Kiss, has been shortlisted for a Romance Writers of Australia Romantic Book of the Year Award (a RuBY)  for a novel with romantic elements. Way to go, Tracey!

And last but not least, today being the official day: to the Queen—Happy Birthday!