Darwin is a small town

The other day I decided to pop into one of my favourite boutiques here in Darwin – Viva La Body. I was on a bit of a smash and grab mission to pick up a birthday present for a friend, but alas when I arrived the door was locked. I figured the shop assistant must have popped off to the loo, so popped myself off to the Post Office and popped into Viva La Body on the way back.

Yep, that’s a lot of popping!

The store was open on the way back and as I was browing around, the assistant and I had a casual conversation – just the usual Darwin fodder: strange how it’s not wet yet, isn’t it hot though, town is SO quiet with no tourists in town. Etc etc ad infinitum.

I made my choice of present (some lovely resin bracelets – Darwinites must check them out!) and took them to the counter. As I was unloading my lovely new Botaniska tote / satchel from Kikki.K (now discontinued so purchased on special), the shop assistant commented, “You’re not from around here?”

Thinking this was a reference to the fact that one isn’t truly regarded as a Territorian unless they have lived here for 20 years, I said, “Oh, no, I’m not from the Territory, I have only been here for almost three years.”

(Note, there was no sarcasm in my voice when I made that statement).

“Oh,” she said.”Well, you’ve definitely been shopping somewhere outside of Darwin lately!”

“Oh,” I said. I was a little puzzled, wondering how she could tell…

“Yes, you didn’t buy that purse here. Or your bag!” she said.

Ah ha!

“No I didn’t,” I said. “I bought the bag in Brisbane and my purse online.”

“Ah,” she said. “I don’t know what I would do in Darwin without online shopping.”

Neither do I, nice lady. Neither do I.

All in all, a very strange but not unpleasant conversation.

An international best-selling author is my new best friend… Part 2

This is the long-awaited followup to Part 1 of my interview with Nikki, which took place in November last year. Two things got in the way of me doing this earlier – I had a little spat with the PR company that organised this, and my big girl fell over and hurt her teeth and mouth, which caused me A LOT of stress in the lead up to Christmas. Spats with PR companies aside, I am respecting the time Nikki gave me by publishing Part 2 of the interview here.

LMM: I know many authors say writing is an intense process and the protectiveness they feel for their book can be likened to that feeling a mother has for a baby. As you are both author and parent, how do you juggle the intense, dedicated periods writing requires, with parenthood?

NG: It’s really hard, and the whole reason for the anonymous publishing of The Bride Stripped Bare was because I didn’t want to have the intensity of the book around the intensity of a baby, and babies won out [this was around the time Nikki had a baby]. I didn’t want to go through the gruelling process of caring about the book.

This [With My Body] is the 7^th or 8^th book coupled with my fourth child and babies win out – I’ve lost some of that protectiveness for the books. I still care but I have the defensiveness up. With my first books I was so hovery and worried for them and now I have learnt more to let them go.

LMM: Writing can be a solitary profession and some authors are finding it easy to connect with their readers and contemporaries through social media such as Twitter, Facebook and blogging. Have you delved into the online world? Do you enjoy the experience?

NG: No I haven’t, but I feel like I’m a rarity because there are a lot of writers around me who have Twitter. For me, I just find with four kids, one a young baby, and a column in The Australian and writing the fiction, I don’t have the time to have my brain eaten up by that, and it’s a slippery slope. So I have to try to have the discipline not to enter!

LMM: As an author in Australia, and particularly in light of the debate in recent years about parallel imports of books to Australia, do you think the electronic format of publishing will give up and coming Australian authors more opportunities to enter the market?

NG: Publishers were talking about publishing in the future straight to the electronic format; that they would have books that go straight to ebooks. Some writers might be horrified by that but I’m excited because I think it may mean more books are being taken up, and younger, newer writers might get a chance they may not have gotten previously. It’s a new and exciting world.

LMM: When you’re asked to give advice to aspiring writers – of which there are many online – what’s your best advice?

NG: If you want to actually write a novel – write as if you were dying. It’s the great motivator.

Thank you so much to Nikki Gemmell for giving up her time to have a chat with me.

New year, better version of me

Glamming it up on a coffee date

Well it’s been a while now since I had my little rant/tanty (ranty?) about how being a mum makes me feel like I’ve been ‘put on the shelf’ so to speak.

Let’s recap shall we? Back in November, I made a few ‘I feel’ statements (some corporate HR gurus would be proud of me there!). Along the lines of: I feel old. I feel tied down. I feel ugly. I feel unglamourous. I feel bored and boring.

So what have I done to make myself feel a little better about myself?

• I bought some new clothes. They aren’t fabulous by any means; in fact they are mostly from Target. But they are new, they are rip-offs of on trend clothes, they are comfortable and I like them.
• I put away my maternity clothes and pulled out my old clothes. I still can’t wear many of my dresses because I’m breastfeeding, but they are in the wardrobe to remind me that they are there, and it won’t be long ’til they’re back in rotation.
• I wear earrings everyday. There’s nothing better to jazz up some bad hair than a pair of earrings. If I don’t have a pair of big dangly earrings on, I feel like I’m walking around in my underwear.
• I love my new glasses. Once again, bad hair and no makeup can be disguised by my big specs. People notice the specs, not my worn out face. Now the wet season is here and it’s overcast often, I’m wearing them a lot.
• I bought some cheap accessories to match my new clothes. Hello Diva! I actually shopped instore – but when I googled Diva to provide that link, I found out you can shop online. Oh dear! Bad news!
• I got a haircut. I finally got rid of the mop when I was in Brisbane. Thanks to Christmas holidays, I got some babysitting time and used that time to get my hair chopped.
• I wear things that smell nice. Mr Moi bought me a goodie bag/box of Aesop stuff. And living in the tropics makes things go off in half the time, so I use something nice every day, thank you very much.
• I have become a little houseproud. Keeping the main parts of our place neat and tidy helps me feel a little less out of control. I have purged a little, and tuck mess away behind closed doors, and I’m quite comfortable with that.
• I surround myself with pretty little things. I’m a stationery addict, so have stocked up on things from Kikki.K and Typo in my recent travels down south. Obvs this was before Typo got itself into a lot of bad books with some of their silly designs.

And last but not least, I try, at least once a week, to take part in Andrea from @FoxInFlats weekly style dare. It’s a fun way to think about how I look and try something I wouldn’t usually try. This week it’s red nail polish – and I NEVER wear nail polish. Thanks to Andrea for pulling me out of my fashion rut every now and then!

The next step to feeling good, for me, will be all about using my brain more… so I’ll have to get thinking!