I have a son. I still remember how odd it felt, when pregnant, to be carrying a boy. Obviously, boys are born all the time—but it felt instinctively strange to me to go through such an intensely female experience to produce something masculine. (When we were told Louisette was a girl—again, at the 20 weekContinue reading “About My Boy”
Category Archives: Love and CJ
Christmas: Jesus, Gifts, and Stress
So Christmas is about three things for me. (Cunning readers may guess what they are based on the title.) This is the beginning of a three-part blog series on Christmas (aka holiday therapy for yours truly). Fairly obviously for a Christian, Christmas celebrates the birth of Jesus aka the God I follow. Yes, I’m awareContinue reading “Christmas: Jesus, Gifts, and Stress”
Insert Toilet Joke Here
August is an exciting month. GammaCon (where that pic was taken) is over for another year (it RULED by the way) but the Canberra Writers’ Festival is approaching (23-26 August) and I’ll be launching TWO books that weekend. Murder in the Mail: A Bloody Birthday will be launched with a week-long art exhibition at TheContinue reading “Insert Toilet Joke Here”
How to Make an Epic Dino Cake
My son turned four this week, and asked for a dinosaur cake. Once I had the revelation that (a) I don’t like cake, so (b) Why bother making it? but (c) I do like creating peculiar things, and (d) The only thing they’ll eat is a horrifying amount of icing anyway… It all fell intoContinue reading “How to Make an Epic Dino Cake”
The familarrr
Edit: For those of you who keep telling me you wish you could make it to one of my Interactive Fiction workshops (I generally run one at Conflux every October long weekend), here’s a video course I made on udemy: Introduction to Interactive Fiction. It’s $20. This was, of course, taken at the PirateContinue reading “The familarrr”
Christmas Letter
Each year I make a calendar (using Vistaprint) for the following year, in which the photos roughly correlate with the same months of the previous year. I sure hope that sentence makes sense. For example, this was taken in March, during which Canberra hosts a massive international hot air balloon festival every year. So,Continue reading “Christmas Letter”
48 hours
A few minutes ago, Chris and the kids drove away. They’re going to Sydney to stay in a house by a beach with relatives. I’m not going to see any of them for about two days. The idea of sending them off without me has the ring of genius about it. Today is the lastContinue reading “48 hours”
One-Quarter
As I was sitting in a doctor’s waiting room today, I realised something. My job as a parent is to love my kids and help them grow up to be vaguely functional, content, and decent adults (to the extent that is possible). John Scalzi recently wrote a lovely post on his daughter’s 18th, opening with:Continue reading “One-Quarter”
Two-fifths of TJ
Sick of excessive scrolling through literally hundreds of pics, I’m gathering some of TJ’s baby pics here. It’s two-fifths of TJ because they’re only from his first year, and he’s now two and a half.
The artist formerly known as Miss Four
Last Sunday, Louisette turned five. She’s about to start Kindy. Today was her party. Five years. She’s grown all the way from a giddying hypothetical notion to a wrinkly spew machine to a distinct person: smart, focused, creative, affectionate, gentle, passionate, and gorgeous. I took a photo a day for the first year of eachContinue reading “The artist formerly known as Miss Four”
Four years
I’m crying, but it’s not sadness. My husband Chris and I have been following the US election with increasing horror today. We both chose not to speak openly in the car on the way home, because our kids were with us. We exchanged a few careful words, and I asked Chris to drive. He knew without askingContinue reading “Four years”
Parenting
Well, it happened. Louisette told me she wanted to be a writer when she grew up. Being a writer is a terrible idea! My dream for my kids is for them to have steady, 9-5ish jobs with sick leave and annual leave and a pay rise every year. I want them to be healthy andContinue reading “Parenting”
Dancing, Duelling, Delicious: The official book launch for HEART OF BRASS
You know what’s cool? Nurofen tablets are sugar coated. * HEART OF BRASS had her official Book Launch yesterday as part of the inaugural Canberra Writers Festival, an absolutely huge event. I was written about (with a cover image) in Canberra Weekly magazine (96,000 readers!) and in the Canberra Times, as well as various otherContinue reading “Dancing, Duelling, Delicious: The official book launch for HEART OF BRASS”
Party Post-Mortem
Yesterday was TJ’s 2nd birthday party. It was also the family party/get-together for Chris… and my brother. And my nephew. My brother didn’t actually come, which he probably enjoyed very much. It all started with the knowledge that my parents were visiting Canberra that weekend. With four family birthdays around the same time, I hadContinue reading “Party Post-Mortem”
Louisette Interview Age Four
Based on a set of questions from Crappy Pictures, I’ve interviewed Louisette around her birthday at age two, three, and now four: Me: What job do you want to have when you grow up? Louisette: LOTS of jobs. I want to be a waiter….and work in a cafe. And in the cafe I willContinue reading “Louisette Interview Age Four”
Deadlines
I love deadlines. That’s not sarcasm. The writing life consists largely of sitting alone in a room (or worse, sitting in the same room as young kids who I desperately hope are sufficiently distracted by the blaring TV) scowling at a screen as I invent worlds and people that absolutely no-one cares about except myself. Deadlines giveContinue reading “Deadlines”
Medical Drama of the Week
A few months ago I had post-partum surgery #1. I wouldn’t call it a success, exactly, but things did improve – so much so that I returned to work after a year and a half of unpaid sick time. I didn’t return to my old work (there’s a long and fascinating story there which I doContinue reading “Medical Drama of the Week”
Reflections on a Scrapbooking Mania
Today was my daughter’s third birthday party. It started at 9:00am. I was up until 2:00am scrapbooking – again. Why on Earth would I do that? I know why. Last June, Louisette became a big sister. It was also the time when we realised she was now actively forming memories – which meant that ifContinue reading “Reflections on a Scrapbooking Mania”
Plans Made While Pregnant
When I was pregnant with Louisette, I wrote down some of the stuff CJ and I were desperately looking forward to doing with our kids. Lately, Louisette is old enough to appreciate most of these, so I’ve added comments – three years after writing that list. And on to today’s official topic! Here, in noContinue reading “Plans Made While Pregnant”
Party Time
Louisette is turning two, so we had a party this morning. It has been my belief for a while that first birthday parties are about the parents celebrating having kept their bundle of joy alive for a whole year. It’s certainly not about the child, who is usually terrified by the whole thing, and spendsContinue reading “Party Time”