Conflux over... and a new niece

Conflux is over for another year and, towards the end of it all, I became an uncle again.

My sister-in-law gave birth, quite unexpectedly and six weeks early, to a little girl very late on Sunday night. Mum and bub are both doing well but we rushed back to Sydney fairly early Monday to be there and help out. This means that Kylie and I, unfortunately, missed out on saying good bye to a good many of my friends. So, sorry to all those I missed.

And Conflux? For some reason it all seemed to just go much too fast! I barely got a chance to actually sit down and chat with anywhere near as many people as I wanted to. Most of my chatting was probably done on the 3 panels I was on. So, if I missed you and/or didn't get a chance to catch up properly, my apologies. This especially includes Donna, Phill, Gillian, Karen, Sharyn and Chris - all of whom I wish I'd had more time with!

But, the panels I was on and the panels I attended were all great! My readings went well, I think, and I got involved in much behind-the-scene discussions on some very exciting future events and publications.

Now, I have to: catch up on a heap of work related emails; finish writing my 'Black Roads, Dark Highways' article for Black magazine; start reading the first three Black Company novels in their entirety within 7 days in order to review them for Black; write a review of 'The Birthing House' by Christopher Ransom (luckily I've read this one); and, do a couple of loads of washing and get them out on the line while the sun still shines.