Well I’ve come to the end of ten straight weeks packed full of school visits and author events, all of which involved on my rough reckoning – 24 Schools, 3 Festivals, 4 States, 9 Cities and 13 plane trips. And I feel surprisingly good!

Of course I can no longer talk, and I have nightmares about forgetting a line in the Pre-flight Safety Demonstration, and my wife has trouble remembering my name, but apart from that …

Here’s just a short sample of some of the things from the past two months.

Mainly I did a lot of talking about my books (accompanied by excellent hand gestures!) …

… to some BIG audiences …

 … and some slightly disappointing ones.

I signed lots of books (a few of them were ones I’d actually written!) … 

Spent a lot of time driving to schools (and getting arrested taking photos of myself whilst in charge of a vehicle) …

Met plenty of fabulous and unique teachers …

… along with wonderful librarians who made fantastic displays for my visit.

Had a short story involving the ISHMAEL characters published in a German Anthology by Carl Hanser …

Made a little VIDEO with Joe because ERIC VALE OFF THE RAILS was selected as one of  the GET READING 50 Books You Can’t Put Down.

Was assaulted by a Samurai in Toowoomba …

Went to the Melbourne Writers Festival and shared a great session in The Edge with the lovely Jacqueline Harvey (Alice-Miranda) (That’s the lovely me on the left!) …

Saw some EPIC stacks of ERIC VALES. (Although they might have been less epic if people were actually buying them …)

Visited Healesville Wildlife Park outside Melbourne where my daughter Meg and I were attacked by the second biggest parrot I’d ever seen …

… and I attempted to stroke this echidna in the wrong direction and had to have it surgically removed from my hand!

I presented sessions at the Brisbane Writers Festival and met plenty of very bookish people …

… and caught up with some lovely writerly friends … (Top to bottom/Left to right: James Phelan; Oliver Phommavanh; Simon Higgins; Brian Falkner; Sheryl Gwyther; Narelle Oliver.)

And while at the BWF, Eric had an EPIC WIN one day at the Bookshop.

Spent a week’s residency in tropical Cairns at St Augustine’s College where I passed out one day from the heat and took this photo as soon as I regained consciousness …

Visited Gippsland Grammar in Sale Victoria and got to stay in a renovated stables. It was fantastic but the cows were a bit noisy and smelly – and they kept stealing the sheets!

Visited the Great Wall of Eric at Padua Jnr College in Brisbane. Awesome work Grade 5!

Had the great pleasure of launching Samatha Wheeler’s first book Smooch and Rose (UQP Press) at Riverbend books …

Visited 5 great schools in and around beautiful Hobart …
  

… and saw the Tall Ships in the Harbour (and some cute height-challenged ones as well).

And while in Tassie my daughter Meg and I took the ferry to fabulous MONA (The Museum of Old and New Art) …

… where we saw many wondrous and amazing things including this Fat Car …

    … and this comparatively thin truck.

That’s just the tip of the ice-cube as they say, but hopefully it gives you some idea of what I’ve been up to.  A big thanks to the many students, teachers, librarians, readers and book people in general who have made the last two months so enjoyable for me.

For the rest of the year I have only a half a dozen local school visits,  so the focus from here on in will  definitely be on writing and editing.

Cheers
Michael