Jennifer Crusie's Blog: Argh Ink

The shoes in Australia are fabulous.

We meant to go see the Opera House and do serious sightseeing but we stopped by the mall across the bridge first and sort of lost our grip. I bought $75 of kangeroo jerky (big family who need gifts) and a stack of t-shirts (ditto) and great shoes.

And then jet lag hit us both and we tottered back to the hotel, so as tourists we suck, but as shoppers we rule. Then out to dinner with the loveliest people from Harlequin Australia, and I am now desperately in love with Stuart Macdonald, a passion that began when he left the warmest welcoming message on my answering machine. We met and i said, “You and me, Stuart,” but fortunately nothing much bothers him including dinner with forty romance writers, probably because he’s the director of Harlequin Australia/New Zealand/Singapore/Fiji/and many other Faraway Places with Strange Sounding Names that I am now dying to visit. I think he’s the director. I miss on the details sometimes.

The dinner was terrific and the people were even better, especially my minder, Alison, who kept a sharp eye out and kicked me whenever I was about to go face down in my broccoli (I forgive you, Anne).

Then Anne Gracie got up to do the Woman Fuzzy awards, which is why she and Linda have those pink things on their heads. I think. That’s Emma Darcy in the middle. Anne, who’s president of Australian Romance Writers, Emma who’s a legend, and Linda Brumley who survived writing an anthology with Krissie. Tough women. Uh, sheilas.

Then Alison said, “You must have a cab” when Krissie and I really started to droop, which is what everybody else had been saying, too, which just SHOWS you how terrific they are, especially since we’d been saying, “Oh, no, we’ve conquered jet lag” and then dropped in our salmon (me) and lamb (Krissie who has no problem eating baby animals). I’ve conquered jet leg so well that it’s 4AM Friday and I’m up typing this. Which means it’s early afternoon on Thurdays in the US, right? I’m so confused.

And I have just now decided that all my slides for tomorrow are ugly, so I must go change them all. Somewhere Bob is screaming, but then Bob is always screaming somewhere. And I have great shoes (the blue ones sparkle like Glinda shoes but you can’t tell from the pic):

We’re having a great time. Thank you, Australia.