I’m here. I’m awake!

Hi! I know. You thought I’d forgotten you, and you were right. Sometimes I ask myself if I’m living or merely working. I’ve been unusually busy, even for me, and I’m tired, tired, tired.

The cheerful news is I’m going on holiday to Syria, Lebanon and Jordan for two weeks next week, with Malcolm and two friends, to escape the Olympics and I can’t wait. I travel a lot but rarely for pleasure, so I’m really looking forward to fastening my seat belt on that plane!

I hope everyone who loves sport has a fantastic time during the Olympics and that your favourite athletes win. My greatest desire of course is that every visitor to the Olympics falls madly in love with our beautiful country and all the divine people in it. We Aussies are so fabulous!

I wish the Aboriginal demonstrators in Sydney good cheer and an effective campaign. It’s time the world knew what we, the white population, has done to you over the last 212 years. I am deeply sorry about the past and hope that reconciliation will bring a brighter future to us all.

On the family front, all is well. Each one of us is alive and kicking except for our darling dog Ajax, a fox terrier aged fourteen who is now buried in the back garden under a riot of daisies. Sob.

On the work front, ‘Harriet, you’ll drive me wild’ is out in Australia this week, finally. It had a stunning review in the New York Times.

And Possum Magic the Musical has been spinning around Australia on its tenth anniversary tour, playing to sold out houses. Alas, when it come to Adelaide (my home town) I’ll be in Syria.

Children in Brisbane have been flocking to the Twelfth Night Theatre to see a wonderful, lively, hilarious show (so I’m told!) called Meet Mem Fox, written and acted by Gail Wiltshire and a great cast. Gail plays me. I hope she isn’t too glamorous or people will be really disappointed when they see me in real life!

My main focus however has been my read aloud book which was 60,000 words. I had re-written it eight times. Then my agent and editor thought it would be better if it were half as long, so I cut and cut and cut and felt I was bleeding, sometimes. I was writing early in the morning and late at night: couldn’t get it out of my mind or my hair or my life. I am BESIDE myself over this book. I love it to death and I hope it will have a huge impact on parents of pre-school children. I have no title yet. It’s due out mid next year (2001). I will have written several more drafts by then, so it should be pretty good by the time it finally hits the book-stores!

I had a happy time in Vermont at the Vermont TAWL conference in August and saw the gorgeous Chloë in Paris en route. Today I leave for Perth in Western Australia for two conferences. In October I’ll be back in the USA for three weeks and four conferences in Florida, Oklahoma, Boston and Portland, Oregon. I may not have much time to rest but I don’t have much time to be bored either, for which I thank my blessings.

I hope life is treating you well and that you remember Koala Lou whenever someone comes second in an Olympic event this September!

Much love

Mem Fox xxx