T minus five...

so, the counter on my blog right there is all counted-down. right now we're roughly five hours away from the official launch of the book, yet it's been on shelves for longer than that.

last week thursday, mid mid-afternoon-browse i spied a copy in mary martins southbank's australian fiction section. i yelped audibly (the sales person near me turned around suddenly, presumably to see if i'd stepped on a chihuahua, or turned into one) and ran out the store bellowing 'mark! maaark! come here!'. then i pointed at the shelf from across the store. he went over, knight in shining armour that he is, and fetched it off the shelf. my knees were seriously jelly... i blushed and ran to hide behind the greeting card shelf in a move i later recognised as cheap imitation of a classic bollywood over-reaction. then the bubbles subsided, and in a moment of classic mood-swingery, a voice in my head said:

hang on! one copy, spine-out? does that really warrant a bollywood duck-and-cover?

then the knight came through again, gathered me up in his muscular arms and whispered, i found the other four. face-out, new release section. and that was it, i had to leave.

i have also heard that at dymocks in collins street, 'phoebe' has picked my literary debut as her read of the month. thank you, gentle phoebe. let it be known that i am in no way connected to this obviously highly intelligent dymocks-person with very good taste in books. long may you live, phoebe, and long may this month be.

yes, i am going a little silly in the head. but really, do you blame me?