MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

I'm in a post Christmas lunch stupor at the moment. The presents are opened, the food has been eaten and now we're just relaxing.

It's been a mild Christmad day with a touch of rain, so we had the full trimmings of roast chicken and veggies for lunch, plus some slices of ham and turkey, and we'll have meat leftovers tonight with salad. And best news is that I don't have to go back to work until Thursday.

Dorkus the cat (above) bought me a very appropriate present (of course, he had a little help from me).

It's a book called You Know You're a Writer When... by Adair Lara.

Here are some examples:

'After your book is rejected, you fire off a 4,000 word email to your friends vowing to never write another word.'

'Something bad happens to your friend and you're glad she's not a writer, so you can use it.'

and

'You go to bed at night and it's not your own problems that keep you awake, but those of your characters. How will Clarissa get her letters back before the wife of her married lover publishes them in the newspaper?'

Very appropriate book and I will enjoy reading the rest of it.

Dorkus was also very impressed with present. A toy mouse that squeaks when he touches it. He's already thrown it around the room several times.

I received a 'keeper' copy of The Unknown Terrorist by Richard Flanagan (someone paid attention to my wish list), the second series of Dead Like Me on DVD, a book on digital photography, a nice framed photo of my very cute nephew, and a cute little blue bag with bamboo handles.

All in all, a nice relaxing Christmas!

Hope your Christmas is as nice.

3 more sleeps

It's that time of the year again. The time when Dorkus dons a Santa hat, much to his disgust and we count down the number of sleeps to Christmas.

3 to go until we can unwrap the pile of presents under the tree. Amazingly, Dorkus hasn't tried to unwrap the presents already, and hasn't even tried to climb the tree this year. Perhaps he's over Christmas!

I've spent way too long on the computer today - too much time on Facebook (very addictive) and too much time on Stumbleupon. Many of the sites I 'stumbled upon' today made me laugh out loud. And not just 'LOL' which I rarely believe anyway!

I've been reading The Joy of Writing Sex which I bought a couple of weeks ago on ebay, plus Bet Me by Jennifer Crusie, plus my incomplete manuscript 'I'm with the band' and I also have a friend's manuscript to read, so its time to get off the computer and do some reading.

How's the Christmas shopping?

Ok so the Christmas shopping is done, just one or two more presents to buy, and then food to buy. No relatives for Christmas this year - we're just going to stay at home and enjoy the peaceful surroundings of our lovely home.

Last night I watched the final four episodes of Six Feet Under. Very impressive, great writing, and the way it was wrapped up was very fitting. I discovered the first season DVD set on special on Thursday night so I bought it and it is now wrapped up under the Christmas tree from Dorkus the cat, much to his disgust.

He wasn't impressed with his new Santa hat and scarf either.

This morning I woke to no electricity. So I couldn't jump onto the net and check my email as I normally do. When I went shopping on Thursday night, I had no idea what to buy my brother for Christmas and came home with nothing for him. So this was playing on my mind, and I was considering venturing into town again to find something. Instead, I started sorting out through some boxes in my study, and found the perfect book for him that I had bought several months ago, and forgotten. Duh! So, he's now set. And I also went to the local occasional market and bought a bag of tomatos - everything else was just junk. No inspiration there. When I arrived home, electricity was restored and was swiftly followed with a courtesy call from the power company to ensure everything was okay.

So while I have almost completed my Christmas shopping, I'm wondering if everyone else has.

I have uploaded a heap of Jennifer's new designs to the Chickollage store.

Here is just a small sample available on t-shirts, journals etc. Face it, Jen has the bug:

And here is the Queen of Collage Poetry herself, Ms Jennifer Gordon, launching the Nambucca Valley Writers Group 2007 Collage Poetry Diary.