I'm exhausted, and it's not over yet.

What a weekend! On Saturday Houston, a friend, and I went to see "Hi, How Can I Help You" (there are two performances left), then had a nice dinner in Petersham, then Houston and I went on to go see "The Governess in Lessons Learned" (there is ONE performance left). The former, as you may recall, contains my short play "Hold" and a number of other very entertaining short pieces. The latter is an unnerving and extremely funny one-woman show devised and performed by the multitalented Anne-Louise Rentell, and if you're in or near Sydney, PLEASE try to catch that last performance! It MAY be coming to Wollongong, but there are no guarantees, and you'd regret it all your life if you missed it.

Today I spent all day in a gymnasium. Those of you who know me from of old know that unless the gymnasium held a book sale, an arts festival, or a karate tournament, there wouldn't be much chance of my sticking around anywhere near that long. But this was almost like a karate tournament: a fencing tournament. To my deep and lasting shock, I ended up equal-third in the novice women's foil state championship — I have a medal and everything! Considering that in ALL the years I did karate, in ALL the tournaments I entered, I won exactly, precisely ONE sparring match, to have achieved medallist status is really quite a profound thing for me. And in my first tournament, too — I'm more than a little bemused. Moreover, it was on Talk Like a Pirate Day: could there be a better day to win a fencing medal? I think not. Arr. (Thanks to my fencing buddies, family, and friends who were so supportive!)


Tomorrow it's back in arts mode as I attend a day-long series of short readings from long plays: the Kicking Down the Doors event. I'm attending because one of my plays is on the menu. Wish me good fortune.

Then Tuesday, at what will doubtless feel like the crack of dawn, I begin another high-school spec-fic writing workshop.

Meanwhile, I have a searing, nuclear-hot-and-scary deadline for two stories. So any spare moments are spent trying to meet it (the deadline, that is).

It's going to be another wild and crazy week around here. Just like pretty much all the other ones.