Queen’s Birthday Holiday.

( What a joke. About Australia having a queen, I mean. Do we need one?)

Hi again!

I’m in the seventh heaven. After thee years of slogging and sweating over the birth of Reading Magic I’m happy to announce that it has behaved very nicely by appearing on bestseller lists all round Australia, immediately after its publication. This weekend in my home town of Adelaide it’s No. 4, and in Sydney it’s No.2. If it ever gets to be No. 1 on any bestseller list anywhere you may never hear from me again: I’ll die of excitement.

The two-week book tour around Australia in May was very hectic, and the days were long, but it was so much fun that in the end it was like being at one long party. I loved meeting the thousands of people who share my passion for early literacy, my passion for kids’ books and my passion for a good laugh. The thing I miss most about teaching is the laughter. When I was at Flinders University I used to laugh with my students all day long. At least that’s how it seemed. (Writers don’t laugh when they’re working because they work alone. Sad!) So it was fun to be on the book tour, laughing and crying over literacy, throwing out a challenge or two, and providing a few answers to the many questions that people have about how children learn to read with ease and happiness.

The other hysterical thing about the book tour was being able to disobey my 86 year old mother who used to tell me endlessly never to talk about myself. I was interviewed up to seven times a day by journalists from newspapers, magazines, radio, and television, and all they waned me to do was to talk about myself all day. Brilliant! The only trouble was that I very nearly began to take myself seriously - I got back home just in the nick of time.

This week, incredibly, I’m going back to the USA for the 5th time this year and the 63rd time overall. I’ll be at the American Libraries Conference in San Francisco and then at the “Read To Me International” conference in Hawaii. I hope to meet some of you in both those places. I’m particularly excited about the Hawaii conference. I was invited as an author of children’s books, not because I’d written Reading Magic. When the conference organisers and I communicated with each other and discovered that we had the same passion about reading aloud there were screams across the Pacific in both directions. Reading Magic comes out in the USA in late July/August.

On the home front, I’m back at my exercise classes for the middle-aged unfit, puffing and panting, lifting weights, walking fast, and feeling fantastic. Malcolm is fine and seems to be looking more gorgeous with every day that passes but after thirty two years of marriage I might be biased. The dogs are cute but they hide in corners when they hear raindrops on the roof because they’ve forgotten the sound of winter rain. (This year we had the longest, hottest summer since 1906.) My mum and dad: well, what can I say? I’m with them for about two hours a day, watching them and caring for them as they crumble slowly, like ancient monuments.

I also have two sisters whom I mention rarely but whom I love, nevertheless. Jan lives in Italy and Alison lives in Adelaide. Alison is beside herself: she’s about to be a grandmother for the second time which means I’ll be a great-aunt for the second time. Me?! Surely I can’t be a great-aunt again. Aren’t all great aunts in their nineties?

Next week on June 17th the Sunday program on Channel Nine (in Australia) has a segment about me and Reading Magic. The producer, Catherine Hunter, was absolutely fantastic so I have high hopes for the program and hope that everyone who see it loves it. I’ll be in the USA, thank heaven. I detest watching my fifty five year old self on television when I know other people are watching too. It’s embarrassing. I’ll watch it in secret on video when I get back.

In the meantime, to those in Australia: keep warm. And to those in the northern hemisphere, keep cool.

Much love

Mem xxx