I haven’t forgotten…

Hello, hello. I’m late again! It’s way past my two-month target for updates to the Hot News Space. Apologies for having forgotten you for a while. I feel as guilty as a child who hasn’t completed homework on time.

I’ve been at home, that is, in Australia since June 25th and will be here for another two weeks: an amazing record in my recent history. It was meant to be a time to rest and recuperate before my Reading Magic book tour in the USA in September but somehow the e-mails kept coming, work kept arriving, the phone kept ringing, I kept travelling to events that kept happening in Tamworth, Sydney, Brisbane, Canberra, Perth and right here in Adelaide, my parents kept relying on me, and Chloe kept needing me during her relationship break-up (which is all I’m allowed to say) and then there was Malcolm who keeps on loving my cooking, so I’m sort of looking forward to being on the road again, much though I love being loved and needed!

Since I last wrote I have twice expected my father (Wilfrid Gordon MacDonald Partridge) to die overnight but he hasn’t, and today when I asked him if he liked the flowers I’d bought for his 89th birthday last week he said, with his blue eyes wide open and his sweet Dad-smile: “Beautiful!” This from a man who rarely says a word, who is bedridden, and whose eyes are now usually closed, even when I’m feeding him. It was very exciting and made me wildly happy. I sing him songs and do clapping rhymes with him, and move his arms in time to rhythmic chants that I make up on the spot such as: “You’re my dad, you’re my dad, you’re the best I ever had!” And: “Mr. P., Mr. P., I love you, and you love ME!” We have a noisy, lively time together, even it’s only me being lively.

My mum is at the interesting stage of asking the same question several times per visit which means I get to tell my good news many times over, every day.

Chloe is hanging there, loving her teaching course and doing fabulously so far. Must be in the genes. Of course she might well have original talent but it’s unlikely, given her parents and other ancestors! In the usual manner of Australians I’m down-playing my pride as a parent. She’s great.

Malcolm loves his job so much – he lectures in drama at Flinders University – that he keeps putting off his retirement. It was to have been June last year but now looks as if it will be December 2003. I suspect that he knows I want a resident slave and is too scared to retire in case I work him to death.

I’ve done no writing for about six months, and what a joy it’s been. As you know, I detest writing picture books because it’s so easy to do badly and so hard to do well. I’ll get back into it next year, if the spirit is willing. My new picture book: The Magic Hat (written ages ago, thank heaven) comes out early next year, in Australia first, then in the USA. It’s illustrated by Tricia Tusa from the USA and has a very English feel to it although neither of us is English in any way. We hope you’ll adore it.

Reading Magic has been wonderfully received in Australia. It was reprinted within two months, much to my joy, and remained on Sydney’s best selling list for nine weeks. If it reaches sales of such-and-such by May next year I’m taking my agent Jenny Darling on holiday to Broome as a thank you for all her work, so for her sake please spread the word about this essential book for parents of children aged 0-5. Hah. It’s a perfect present for a new mum or dad (says she, without shame) since most of a child’s brain development happens in the very first year of life. Scary!

Heaps of love to you all, young and old and those in between – like me.

Mem xxx