Out of the Frying Pan is up on the Finch Publishing website, looking extremely official (and still very bright!). It will be out in all good bookstores by the end of the month. It even looks like there will be a book launch (in Perth, sigh, which I cannot afford to get to *weep*). More publicity coming!

It feels different to be talking about this book, even a little strange. I think it’s because my story inside it is, well, real. It’s actually my story. And personal, and even a little embarrassing in places (although hopefully also quite funny!) So even while I’m doing this good author thing, part of me is a tad uncomfortable with the idea of people reading it. Obviously not that uncomfortable, after all, I’ve put this story out there, haven’t I, hoping it will be read. But still, I don’t have characters and magic and another world to hide behind.

…

Which gets me thinking, do we really hide behind those things? Just because my stories are not about things that actually happened and people who really existed, does that make them any less real? Maybe the things I put poor Tanyana through say more about my fears and concerns and dreams than I realise. Do Jill and Molsey’s human-dragon bond reflect the place of my pets in my life? And what about the themes that reappear, unbidden, in so much of what I have written? Does all of this, actually, say more about me (and more honestly) than the ‘real’ story in Out of the Frying Pan?

Oh dear, that’s just all a bit deep and meaningful. I think I need a cup of tea…