back...back on the blog

Not that i've really been away from you, dear readers, have I? I've gone from thinking I wouldn't blog at all while I was in the mountains to blogging almost every day. I also suddenly seem to have a heap more people checking this blog out than ever before...not sure what it is. My sparkling wit? My elusive charm? Accidentally clicked on 'next blog' and have no idea what you're reading?

Either way, welcome, if I haven't met you. Leave me a message if so inclined.

So I'm back from my wild mountain retreat, acclimatising to the warmth and noise of Sydney, and got my first wonderful full night's sleep in a fortnight last night. I also have a nice chunk of manuscript, something that feels vaguely book-like in form, and the determination to finish a full first draft by the time I go back to Varuna in June. I'm a writer! Hurrah!!

Just as an interlude, and an addendum to the earlier post on reading and favourite childhood books, I've scanned in some pages of The World is Round, by Joan Berg Victor (sadly out of print).

I loved this book so much and wanted to have hair like this pic to the left. For a while, all the girls I drew (I rarely drew guys) had piled up hair, and also wore Cinderella type dresses with tight bodices, huge skirts and fancy overlay detailing. Sadly these works of art are also lost to antiquity, so you'll just have to take my word for it.

I must have read this book a gazillion times. It's a wonderful, fairly random kind of book about what makes people different, how we all make different choices about everything in life, and that these choices help us to decide who we are. So here are some insights into what turned me into the person I am today (click on the pics for a bigger, readable version).

What are the books that influenced you as a kid? Ones you remember with fondness? Ones you would read to your kids if you had any? (or ones you read to your kids now?)