Part One: Come along for the ride!

Well as some of you would know, I’ve just finished a whistle-stop tour in NSW.

Friday was my first day home and I’ve had a sharp jolt, back to reality! Back out feeding the cows as soon as the kids were on the bus, as we still haven’t had enough rain, to grow any grass.

But I thought I’d share, in a couple of blogs, some of the highlights of the tour.

I left the farm Monday night, flew to Perth, had a short stop-over there and then went on to Sydney, via the midnight horror flight! Despite the fact there was not very much sleep during the journey, I couldn’t contain the excitement that was building, for Tuesday morning, I was meeting my whole ‘team’, not just the girls from Allen and Unwin but my whole team.

So, as I disembarked, very bleary eyed, at 6:00am, the fact I wanted to keel over and sleep, didn’t stop me from walking very quickly down the ramp, in search of my publicist, Kate. For a brief moment, I was worried we wouldn’t recognise each other, or I wouldn’t be able to find her in the crowd, but there she was, right at the door as I walked into the terminal!

I was surprised that airport wasn’t busy. I thought you wouldn’t be able to walk for people, but there was plenty of room and everyone seemed to be fairly leisurely – not at all how I imagined it!

After coffee, much jumping up and down and squealing with excitment and a few hugs, we went to Circular Quay – wow! The Harbour Bridge and Opera House were amazing – having only seen them once before, I was captivated… especially when we drove over the bridge.

The Allen and Unwin offices were on a quiet, tree-lined street and to have a look around them was a real privilege, as was to meet a lot of the people I had names for, but no idea what they looked like.

Breakfast was fantastic. I met my agent, Gaby, who I had only ever spoken with on the phone, Nyssa, my amazing web-guru, Siobhan, my wonderful editor and friend, Louise, the woman I owe so much to, as she picked up my MS and who is my publisher, Lauren, my marketing ‘manager’ and the exceptionally capable Alice Grundy, who also Louises’ PA, but also managed to get the padlock off my bag, when I stupidly left the keys in the taxi!

The woman with the crazy pose pointing at all my book, in her office is my awesome publicist, Kate. She has spent the last three days looking after me, making sure I got to all the signings and so forth, on time, calming me down when I got too nervous and just organising everything. I was so lucky to have her with me, as I’m sure that nothing would have gone as smoothly if she hadn’t.

More coming up on where I’ve been – with more photos – soon!