Thank you!

Just a quick post to say thank you. Firstly to the lovely New Zealand author (and my blogging friend) Mary McCallum, who wrote an enormously kind post about my good news, and who was a tremendous help and source of sage advice when I was going through the agent-hunting process. Secondly, to BestFriendAlly, who also wrote a lovely post full of kind words and Transformers (yes, the robots).

Thank you both so much!

And, for no reason at all, here's a picture of Mink and me napping on the weekend. I love his proprietorial paw. "My human!"

P.S. In response to quite a few comments, no, I do not usually nap with my heels on. This was one of those unplanned naps that happen unexpectedly on a sunny afternoon!

It's my birthday!

I am officially 24 years old. I have a feeling the year ahead is going to be a particularly good one!

Thank you so much for all the birthday wishes, everybody. I feel so lucky to be a part of such a warm, supportive online community. As I've said many times before, I would have gone completely mad working from home this past year if I hadn't had all of you to talk to. I'm very grateful for the inspirational people I have met online, and the lasting friendships I have made with people - often on the other side of the world! - whom I would never have met if it weren't for the blogosphere. Your comments and messages mean more to me than you know.

One such friendship has been with the beautiful Aya of Strawberry Koi, a kindred spirit who has been both friend and inspiration to me. Today she surprised me with an amazing present: this stunning portrait!

(Aya holds the copyright for this image, of course, and all rights are reserved).

Isn't she talented? What an amazing gift, and one that I'll always treasure.

Thanks again, everyone, for your kind words, encouragement and support! I'm having a wonderful birthday, and will tell you all about it tomorrow. I hope you have a lovely weekend, wherever in the world you are.

P.S. And the dress in Aya's picture is the very one I'm wearing today!

Post-signing glee

Thank you all so much for your kind words on the signing of the contract! I was very excited about it. It has been posted off this morning, and I was able to write my own 'rejection letters' to a couple of other agents who were considering my work. They both wished me well, and one said that she had really enjoyed my book and was disappointed that I had signed with someone else, which was very kind of her and nice to hear. Mink would also like to thank those of you who paid him compliments. He is usually quite cavalier about compliments, but then he has never appeared on a video before and I think the excitement rather went to his head.

I thought this might be a good opportunity to ask if you had any questions specifically related to writing, editing, publishing, agent-hunting ... anything of that nature. Not that I'm an expert by any means, and there may well be nothing you're wondering about but, well, if there is, leave it in the comments and I'll do my best to answer!

P.S. Auctions on Trade Me close tonight.

Thank you!

Thank you so much for all your congratulations on my previous post! I really appreciate them. I'm behind with comments after the 48 Hours Film Festival, but I will catch up soon.

I don't know if you realise how helpful you have all been throughout this entire process. When I started writing this particular novel at the beginning of 2008, it took me a while to adjust to the writerly life of being a hermit and staring at a screen all day. This blog provided a way to connect to people with similar interests; interest in writing, and also interest in vintage clothing and thrifting. It was wonderful to be able to both record my progress and escape from my work through the fashion side of things. Your support through all the work and all the rejections has meant a lot - really. So thank you! I'm so thrilled that someone wants to represent me, and as soon as everything's all official-like, I'll tell you the whole story (as much as I can).

All right, sappy part over. The 48 Hours weekend was fantastic - exhausting and full of adrenaline, but fantastic. We had a really amazing team of people with great skills in lots of areas - we're very lucky to have such great friends. Our genre was 'Family Film'. I'm not going to say too much because the films have to stay hush-hush until after the official screening at the cinema this Saturday. Once it has screened, I'll post it here.

My brain isn't working very well today due to lack of sleep and far too much junk food. Thanks again, and I hope you all had a wonderful weekend!