What a wonderful day. We headed over to Bondi for the annual prilgramage to 'Sculpture by the Sea'. I enjoyed it, but I did feel that overall the exhibition had more 'wow' moments for me last year.

Then a quick dip at Bondi. Very icy. I got wet up to my chin - but decided it needed to be a couple of degrees warmer before I was prepared to get my hair wet.

Then a lazy hour and a half in a cafe - catching up on the crossword and consuming a very late breakfast. A quick trip to the shops and then a nap. Bliss!

Now about to shower and run out the door for dinner with friends. Life is pretty wonderful.

Check this out http://www.csfg.org.au/publishing/anthologies/the_outcast

Pretty cool huh!

There's always a sense of satisfaction when you hit the send button (or drop an envelope in the mail) that releases a new story in the direction of an editor.

I've just sent a 750 word piece of nastiness (and I don't usually specialise in nasty) off. A couple of my Clarion buddies were kind enough to bounce me some feedback over the last few days - suggestions which I think have helped the story. Is it any good? I don't know - as Kim Wilkins would put it - today I'm a God. Bouyed up with the adrenalin of creation. By tomorrow I'll have decided it's a miserable little piece of prose and I can't write - I'll have gone from God to sod.

Lovely dinner out last night with some Thorbies types. Much 'in-house' talk. I felt terribly sorry for the couple who weren't writers.

Now the next project is the rework of something I wrote earlier in the year which didn't quite come together. I think I've worked out how to fix it.

I'm feeling grumpy. Unjustifably so. More so than I have in months. I want to snap at people and be nasty. Why?

I got up early this morning and hit the gym - but I don't feel that tired.

I'm trying to get the Annual Report finalised - but I don't feel that stressed.

The moon is potentially over the red house... but I refuse to make womanish excuses.

I'll have to make sure I kick something before I go out tonight or I'll be bad company for sure.

I worry about trees. The art of writing and the act of tree killing are closely related. I write on paper using a pen. Then I sit at a computer and type away. When typing is done I hit the print button and then edit on paper.

I try to recycle but let's be honest I am a cold blooded killer.

I'm environmental in other ways. I have short showers and put my plastic and glass into the right bin. I don't pour oil down the drain and I own a small economical car. At the fish shop I never order flake or hake or any of those other ones that might be shark and I have never been whaling. True I don't own a worm farm - but that's because I sympathise with the worms. Under my tender care I suspect they'd go the same way as all the pot plants on the balcony have gone.

In other exciting news Margo Lanagan has won two World Fantasy Awards. Is this the first Australian to be so honoured? If you haven't read her 'Black Juice' yet you should race out and buy it now.

AND I think I've worked out the missing subplot for a short story I wrote a while back. Now all I need to do is kill a few more trees and get it out of my head and down in cold hard print.