shiny and new

last night i went to a launch for paul morgan's 'the pelagius book'. it was held at readings in carlton. we share a publisher, hence my invitation - it was interesting to see a launch happening for someone else, and to stand there and listen to him reading from his novel and to know exactly how he felt. his book sounds very interesting, so check it out if you get the chance.
while at the launch, as i tussled with internal demons as to whether browsing the shelves at a book launch really was appropriate behaviour at all, my publisher pulled a 'present' out of her handbag for me - a final-final version of my cover, glossy and goldfoiled and cut to size. as i wasn't expecting it, my reaction took me totally by surprise. my internal demons no longer gave a shit about what was on the shelves, but soon even they began to clear their throats and gently point out that stroking a copy of your own book cover at someone else's book launch was possibly maybe rather very bad etiquette. so i beat a hasty retreat, and to appease the devils within i purchased (alongside a copy of paul morgan's 'the pelagius book', of course), a copy of the lost in translation soundtrack. tracks four and five on that cd (and quite possibly the bonus track at the end) are the sole reasons why this girl now wants an mp3 player of her very own (but not an ipod - refer to post dated tue, june 14 on my other blog).

fyi, i am doing a reading from 'the bollywood beauty' on tuesday june 28 at monash university's clayton campus. if you're interested in attending, full details available here.