Next time, Dad, don't lend my book; tell the people to BUY a copy!

Gotta wonder at times. Tonight my father said to me that a woman, I'll call her 'Sally' (after all, it is her name) told him to congratulate me on 'Abernethy' (Zeus Publications, http://www.zeus-publications). She read it and enjoyed it. I was preening, and thinking about my bills as I said, 'Did she buy a copy? That's great!'. The man who sired me and passed on my tallness, the way-I-tilt-my-head gesture, and the ability to solve cryptic crosswords sheepishly said, 'Uh, no. I lent her my copy.' Gee, thanks Dad. Next time tell her to buy one, okay? She told hlm one could tell from the narrative that I grew up in the bush. This, dear reader, is a load of hooey. Yes, I grew up in rural New South Wales. I do not believe for five minutes this is apparent in the narrative of 'Abernethy', and although set in a smallish town, it is not a 'bush' story. I'm issuing a challenge. Read the book, and then tell me if it's apparent the author is a country girl. Yes, yes, I know reading the book might entail actually BUYING it, but as I get more and more bills, I do not necessarily consider this to be a bad thing (not from my perspective, at least). One good thing, this woman is a local teacher and asked my father to ask me would I consider going and speaking to the students. Well, I would be delighted to. And I might just take along a few business cards with the details of my books printed on them.

Copped a bill the other day, in the form of a traffic infringement notice issued by the local highway patrol, who reckon I shouldn't have turned when the light was yellow. I'm going to request leniency; I was unaware I was doing wrong (I know it's actually not a legal defence) and was not driving unsafely. Seriously, when I pulled into the shopping centre car park and discovered I'd been followed by a pigmobile I thought there must have been a defect with my vehicle. I could not imagine what I had done wrong. Well, I soon found out. I did not succumb to my inner smart-arse and ask, 'So, did you mother have fun when she coupled with Satan?'. This is most likely a good thing; it would not have been politic.