(I thought I’d actually posted this on Sunday – but must have just pressed ‘save’ rather than ‘publish’. Oops.)

I didn’t get into town on Thursday after all, as a thunderstorm started as I was getting ready to go, and I didn’t want to leave the dogs outside during it. I didn’t have anything urgent to do, so I went in on Friday instead – and also had to go in yesterday, as well.

My book is in the shops It’s quite a special buzz, to see it on the shelves in the bookshops and in Big W and K-Mart. Big W even has a promotion for it on their in-store radio, which happened to air just as I was walking towards the book section. Dymocks, who are hosting the local launch event next Thursday evening, have it prominently displayed right beside the front entrance. I know they’ve sold at least two copies – I minded my friend Danielle’s wool shop for a few minutes on Friday while she went up to buy it, and yesterday my friend Martin asked me to wait while he bought it so that I could sign it for him, as he can’t make it on Thursday.

I’m definitely going to have to practise writing by hand again – I’m so used to using the computer these days, that my handwriting takes effort to keep readable!

As Darkness Falls will be out on the shelves in the next couple of days. Okay, I confess I checked a couple of bookshops today, just in case they had it out early, but there was no sign of it. It’s not supposed to be out until tomorrow or Thursday, so this is no major surprise. I will, of course, being a neurotic enthusiastic first-time author, check the airport bookshops tomorrow as I’m flying home, but they’re the only bookshops I’ll see for a day or two.

But what did happen today was that the book’s website went live – asdarknessfalls.com.au

Please do hop on over and have a look around. There are character profiles, an author Q & A, questions for reading groups to discuss, and you can download the first chapter to read.

After the fun, inspiring, and motivating weekend at the RWAustralia conference, I flew up to Canberra yesterday to see my Dad. My Mum came down to Melbourne for the book launch and stayed with me in the conference hotel for the weekend, attending the awards dinner on Saturday night, but my Dad isn’t strong enough now to travel that far. So, I’m having a couple of nights here with them. We went out to dinner tonight with my sister and her family, and had a thoroughly pleasant evening.

Tomorrow, I’m off home – two plane flights and about 5 hours of travelling all up, so not too much of an epic journey – all going well! Then from Thursday morning, it will be BICHOK: butt in chair, hands on keyboard, working on book 2. Although I might have to go into town to check a bookshop or two

The book launch was a great night – thanks so much to everyone who came, to Bernadette for introducing the evening and the book, and to Louisa at Hachette and Louise and all the Dymocks staff who organised the launch and the catering and made everything run so smoothly on the night. It was a great venue, and I really appreciate the support of the Dymocks owners and staff both for my book, and for the genre as a whole.

I only have a few photos so far, none of which convey the size of the crowd or the venue, but here they are:

Valerie Parv, who graciously launched the book, with me.

Me, with Valerie and Bernadette Foley.

Signing books.

Thanks to everyone who bought a book or who just came along and celebrated with me. It was a magical night because of you all.

I arrived in Melbourne this afternoon, after an early-ish start to the day, and two plane flights to get here.

I’m finding it hard to really believe that tomorrow evening is The Book Launch – I’m excited, nervous, and have to keep reminding myself that this time tomorrow, things will be well under way at Dymocks in Collins Street. There’s quite a crowd coming, so it should be a fun, if busy, event.

In the meantime, Melbourne is a city that I love, although I haven’t visited much in recent years. I wandered around the shops for a while this afternoon – after having afternoon tea at the Hopetoun Cafe in The Block Arcade, a personal tradition I started when visiting Melbourne as a teenager. The historian in me loves the fact that people have been having afternoon tea there for around 100 years!

The sun was setting as I walked over the pedestrian bridge over the Yarra River – wisps of pink clouds draped the skyline behind the tall city buildings, and the light that magical twilight with touches of apricot settling into dark blues.

Tomorrow I may do some more exploring, before coming back to the hotel to get ready for the book launch.

My book launch. Tomorrow.

Now I just have to decide what to wear!!

I can hardly believe that the official launch of my book is just over a week away, and that it will be on the shelves of bookshops by the end of the month.

After leaving the RWAmerica conference in San Francisco, it was a pleasure to travel to Queensland’s Gold Coast, where I had the wonderful experience of meeting with booksellers at the Dymocks International Conference, and the privilege of being able to talk about my book and my research with them – as well as the opportunity of getting to know more about the bookselling and publishing world. Despite the jetlag and the head-cold I’d picked up in San Fran, I thoroughly enjoyed my two days at the Gold Coast, and managed to not lose my voice totally until after I’d made it to Sydney!

Two days in Sydney followed, with medical appointments (everything’s fine for now) and a couple of relaxed meetings with my publisher and the publicity manager. Plus some shopping A jacket in Myers that I’d admired a few times in recent Sydney visits was marked down to below half-price – so it came home with me. So did a couple of tops, that were reduced. With the two jackets that I bought in San Francisco, and other purchases in the past couple of months, I think I now have a reasonably respectable wardrobe – much more presentable than the jeans and big baggy pullovers I’m currently wearing during cold winter days at home!

Next Wednesday – a week tomorrow – I’m off again, this time to Melbourne for the book launch and the Romance Writers of Australia conference.

All are welcome at the launch – it will be held at 5.30pm on Thursday, 21st August, at Dymocks at 234 Collins Street, Melbourne. For catering purposes, RSVP’s are requested – please email levents@dymocks.com.au

In the meantime, I’m having a quiet week (mostly) at home, far away from big city lights, crowds and shops. Some writing is taking place; once I get rid of this cold, more walking will also occur. And it’s nice to be in the bush again, and watching the wildlife, including this echidna who came to our front veranda last night, looking for bugs amongst the strawberries and other potted plants: