The Arts on Sunday and other stuff

Phew, there have been lots of publicity interviews and bits and pieces with the launch of Containment, which is great because, lets face it, the window of opportunity for getting your name and your book out there is pretty narrow. And as you all well know, I'm certainly one for shameless self-promotion.

I'm always delighted when I get to speak with Lynn Freeman on the Arts on Sunday programme on National Radio. It's always good to get nationwide coverage, but I also like the questions she asks. The interview was played this Sunday gone, and for those of you who missed it the link to the podcast is here.

Today is the first of December, yes, it is the first day of summer (not that you would have noticed here in Dunedin!) and the countdown to Christmas.

I love Christmas, and the festivities and traditions. Tomorrow my Mum arrives on the plane from Napier, and when she gets here we'll have a wonderful time decking the halls and trimming the tree and Christmasing out the house! There will be decorations everywhere, and festive lights, and my collection of Nativities. The boys have been planning for weeks how they are going to decorate their room, they have a mini tree each with mini baubles too, and I have even found some mini Christmas tree lights for them, though that's a surprise they wont know about until tomorrow. They have also been planning the Christmas baking, with my Christmas cook books having been poured over and carefully post-it noted at the appropriate pages.

Christmas time seems to bring out the big kid in me and seeing their joy brings a huge grin to my face. I still have a sense of delight in the season.

There's no bah-humbug in this household!