2009 has been… busy.

February: Threw a killer launch for The Death Mook. Its going really well, and is still selling in a whole lot of different places which is fantastic.

July: Completed a grad cert in Food Writing through the University of Adelaide (and got a third of the way to completing a masters, yay!)

October: Launch(es) of Neon Pilgrim! Response to my book has been mostly good. I think I’ve handled it being out there pretty well, and I’ve enjoyed the whole launching and media side of things. I’ve had a lot of amazing feedback from individuals – emails and people telling me what they thought of it. It’s a good feeling.

Also, I turned 30… and ate a lot of cake.

November: Launch of The Words We Found! This was a fantastic project for me – I learnt heaps and I love and am really proud of how it all turned out.

December: I’m enjoying my first writers residency – online! Blogging at Insideadog has been fun!

Festivals and stuff: Once again I had a great time at Format, NYWF and EWF. With the launch of Neon Pilgrim I also got to start doing author talks and library talks, which is sometimes fun and sometimes bizarre and sometimes even kind of dull.

Travel: Indo was the highlight! (Not for EC though, who flew home early cos she got very very sick.) I was surprised by how much I really loved Bali, and it was great to unwind. I had massages, drank a lot, and even had a few pedicures. Not to mention the food… tempeh, mmmmmm. I also spent time in Tasmania, Adelaide (more than once), Brisbane and Sydney. And a day in Darwin.

Blogging: In April Emily and I canned our joint blog and I pulled in all the old Locusbooks posts, and in November I ran a multi-part series on Writers, money and the web. Plus who can forget the sensation of LordoftheFries-gate? About mid-year I started to blog more frequently and think more about the medium. I’m still can’t entirely articulate why I blog, or what ends I’m pursuing, but my thoughts on blogging have changed a lot over the past six months. Check out Freeform: this blog and blogging, Blog stats, and The (il)legitimacy of blogs for more on that.

Writing: This year I wrote for aduki online, Trespass Magazine, I eat I drink I work, T.O.F.U and The Reader. I also continued freelance copywriting.

Working: I worked full time for pretty much most of the year. As a result of that plus all of the above, I had a pretty stressed-out, tired, anti-social and sickly year.

Looking forward – 2010: I’m currently feeling anxious that I don’t have enough lined up for next year. So far, I’ve got two new mook projects on the boil, one on indie publishing and one on food. I’m organising the writing and publishing component of the 2010 Format festival and continue to sit on the programming committee for the Emerging Writers Festival. And, um, that’s it. PANICSTATIONS!! Seriously though, I feel genuinely stuck about what my next steps are: I have no offers, but many ideas and much indecision. (Hello world – editorial/writer hack for hire!)