has it really been a year?

january 2015. the girl is a full-time editor again. she walks the docklands trudge; walks saltwater sandals beside the bankers.

the people are kind, interesting, creative, friendly, very tall. mothers of punk singers. mentors, inspirations, enthusiastic, passionate, helpful.

Find Me A Castle by Beci Orpin

the girl is given the most incredible projects to work on. there are more people to meet: busy, successful arty people who work really hard doing what they love. (beci must not sleep, i think.)

Ickypedia by The Listies

there are hilarious loose cannon first-time authors to work with, who write clever, disgusting things and are very good at puns and drawing queues. (‘pub date?’ they ask. ‘which pub shall we go to?’)

Celebrating 30 years of Paul Jennings!!

there are the authors who’ve been around for yonks, been your childhood favourites. this, this was pretty damn special. have you read ‘a dozen bloomin’ roses’ lately? or ‘skeleton on the dunny’, ‘nails’ or ‘cow dung custard’? have you ever, ever felt like this?

coffee by long shot, mostly. and bonus grammar fun with mary norris! (seen at the interrobang & you can listen to the podcast of the event.) many excellent books over the year. some writing (more on that later). lots of changes, lots of learning. lots of fortunate moments (hashtag blessed).

december 2015. the girl will wrap up her job at the end of january and bid farewell to the random penguins. elle va aller en france pour se détendre et ... 

ffor the love of fforde

I would that you'd excuse me my absence. I'm on something of a reading binge. A re-reading binge. A Ffordian, Thursday Nextish re-reading binge. I began with the latest release, The Woman Who Died A Lot, and then had trouble recalling the rest of the series (I suspect a mindworm) and the rest is the last week of my reading history.

First Among Sequels not pictured, and One of our Thursdays is Missing is missing, but you can read a review here.

This series is just delightfful. And so clever. The idea is that Thursday Next is a Literary Detective with SpecOps. They police things like counterfeit Shakespeare plays, bootleg copies of Dickens and stolen manuscripts. But it's when Thursday realises that she has the ability to actually enter books and interact with the characters within that it really gets interesting. The world Fforde has built is bonkers: it's an alternative world where the Crimean War is still ongoing, Wales is a socialist republic, people travel by airship or these ace Gravitubes (UK to Australia in about 45 minutes or so), cheese is a rare commodity - sometimes smuggled illegally across borders - and, best of all, people prize books and literature above most things.

Wouldn't you love a tv series based on these books? I know I would. Kind of Doctor Who meets Lost in Austen with a dash of Life on Mars via your local bookshop.