Dear S.A.M

Dear S.A.M,  (I didn’t know your initials are an acronym for my name.)

Today is your birthday. It’s a day for pure lavishing and non-stop love and attention. Good food, fine wine (including 37 year old port) and great company. You deserve it all!

Tonight’s blog is dedicated to you on this last day of August. There are many events and memories that mark this special day. Some are great memories and some are not.

Jack the Ripper’s first victim was found on 31^st August.

Lady Diana also parted ways and forever mortalised this date.

There has also been hope at the end of one August with Trinidad and Tobago becoming independent. Poland also recognizes this day as one of solidarity and freedom for their country.  On the other side of the globe, Robert Menzies founded The Australian Liberal Party on no other date but 31^st August.

On a more personal level, can you remember the 31^st of August 1997, when we placed Gussie (our Old English Sheepdog pup) on your bedroom floor? She was a ball of bounding black and white fluff, with a lolloping pink tongue and eyelashes even Lady Gaga would envy.

I can be forgiven if the details are a little hazy, but thirty-two years ago you were also born on this last day of winter. I was already blessed with an older sister and suddenly I had a little sister to cherish as well. I remember you being bathed in your green bucket outside on the bricks, and being plonked in your empty Fosters beer box – nothing like being the fifth child!

Life was great. Life was simple. A Buffalo Bill ice-cream after riding bikes at the cricket oval, a packet of Fruit Tingles at the tennis club, wearing skirts as dresses, an afternoon at D & J’s with the plastic coits and crystal powder-puff bowl and later on our concerts …“Portable beep houses…”

It still makes me laugh and a few decades later you have turned out o.k. In fact, better than o.k! You are generous of spirit and quick of wit. Not to mention thoughtful, slightly stubborn (but always forgiving). You’ve got spunk and style and you’re very street-wise. Simply put – you’re gorgeous!

Presents are just that – presents! A letter on the other hand is something for you to cherish and think about. Why did she write it? What does she mean? Was it just a blog –blank night? Is she pissed? You decide...

Many Happy Returns S.A.M!

S.C.P x

P.S She wrote it because it’s your birthday and loves you very much. She knew she was going to write you a blog letter (just not the content) and, “no,” a thimble-full of port has not put her into a drunken emotional stupor!

Happy Quitter

I haven’t had a D.C today but I’ve had a good dose of how to be a “happy quitter.”

As promised (for my five followers,) I finished Alan Carr’s: Easy Way to Stop Smoking. On a whole, if the messages can infiltrate a smoker, it is a good book. Carr purports to have saved 1,000’s of smokers and his messages are set out under distinct headings with relatively simple explanations that lead into dispelling the next myth.

The book tells you in the first chapter the methods it will not adopt to help you quit smoking. The reader (smoking addict) is drawn in to see what Carr will actually do. He doesn’t give it away in the first chapters, instead he allows you to smoke through his whole book until you know the answer at the final page - with your last cigarette.

Carr challenges the notion that smokers chose to smoke. He supports his argument by emphasizing that smoking has absolutely no benefits. He tricks the smoker into answering a quiz with a ‘yes’ or ‘no,’ when in actual fact every question should be answered with a firm ‘no.’ He then refers to this list as he uncovers his secrets to stopping smoking the easy way.

According to Carr, most smokers know and think a cigarette tastes awful and costs a lot of money, but they still manage to become smokers despite this knowledge. Carr attributes this addiction to what he describes as the ‘Big Monster’. A subconscious thought that tells us smoking (or other drugs) are a crutch – a pick-up and a pleasure. He believes this massive brainwashing occurs even before a smoker starts smoking.

‘Big monster’ has a co-conspirator ‘Little Monster,’ who stirs up panic and fear in smokers. Smokers believe this is caused by not having the cigarette but it is really triggered and instigated by the 'brain-washing' nicotine driven monsters in a smoker’s head.

I like Carr’s positive spin on something so addictive and ultimately terminal. He says that it is not a sacrifice to give up an addiction, rather, a release, a restoration of health and gaining control of your own destiny again.

I can definitely see valid points in this book that can be applied to my reliance on a D.C. I believe that a D.C will help my mood after a crazy day with the kids. Carr uses an analogy in the same vein of a Mum needing a smoke after a stressful shopping experience with toddlers.

I am glad that I read this book (despite never being a ‘choofer’) because I have a greater understanding of the battles a smoker faces socially and mentally. I probably won’t go ‘cold turkey’ on the D.C because I haven’t been told it kills 1 in 3 yet, but we had that same ignorant view about sun baking a few decades ago. Perhaps, I should drink more water!

Addicted to D.C

I’d like to say that water, being healthy, refreshing and free, is my favourite drink, but I’m actually torn between a good old Diet Coke (D.C) and Amarula on ice.  I discovered the latter camping in South Africa, with hippos and lions lurking outside, while I was having a little tipple inside (o.k. a little embellishment – admittedly I was tucked up safely in my tent with an Askari* on stand-by.)

Amarula is a blend of cream and wild fruit from the Marula Tree (native to South Africa).  Elephants are renowned for getting ‘pissed’ on these tasty treats. It’s just like a Baileys (only better). Impossible not to over imbibe on this creamy treat!

D.C, we all know, has phenylalanine and all sorts of other chemical ‘crap’ that is probably eating away at my insides as we speak. I don’t smoke, nor do I drink heavily or ‘do’ drugs so I have to have some sort of vice. As much as I’d like to think that everyone else is the addicted fool, I am hopelessly devoted (addicted) to the silver and red can and its caffeinated contents. I get such a rush from an icy cold DC sliding down my throat.

This takes me back to the current stockpile of books on my bedside table.  I am reading Allen Carr’s Easy Way To Stop Smoking.  I can hear my friends and family snorting with laughter, saying “ you’ve never even had a puff!”

It’s a book for addicted smokers and I’m definitely not part of this group. However, psychological trickery fascinates me. Perhaps I can apply the same reasoning to my current one can a day addiction to D.C? The Amarula nightcaps now and again are not so worrying.

To find out more about this book you will have to wait until after the weekend when I have finished reading it. Stay tuned…

 * Askaris (‘soldiers’ in Swahili) are traditional African warriors who carry poisonous spears and use traditional defence weapons. Many safari groups pay for askaris to guard the westerners and their possessions in the African campsites and ward off any prowling animals.

Natural Selection

A bookstore can say a lot! Especially when you have chosen the wong foo king book!


MockingJay was released today ($12 at Target) and when I read it I am going to do a trilogy review for the Hunger Games, Catching Fire and MockingJay. Still got 4 in the pile before it!


Spent more time on the kinder correspondence than my blog today.


I did say it was going to contain more than words...

Words Can Be So Simple...So Beautiful

Words can be so simple…

“To laugh often and much; To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; To earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; To appreciate beauty, to find the best in others; To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.”

Ralf Waldo Emerson (1803 - 1882) American Essayist & Poet

I’ll admit when you read quotations like this you can’t help but see its “Little House on the Prairie” undertones. Frilly smocks aside; my point is to illustrate these simple words and their profound meanings.

There are many books that weave magic with this delicate simplicity. One of my all time faves is The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. It is so beautifully written and spoken through the eyes and ears of death ‘itself’ during NAZI occupation. 

I can’t wait to read I am the Messenger – his latest spun masterpiece.

No time for chitchat tonight – I have more books to read. One down and four to go…

Great Oxymoron!

There has been a lot of hype about Beautiful Malice and how gripping this book is. A friend of Mrs F (my friend,) reviewed it on radio and I was excited that an Australian YA book was causing a stir. I decided to see just how much it grabbed me, shook me and shocked me to the core. Read on….

Beautiful Malice’s oxymoron title instantly grabs your attention. It alludes to something alluring but conniving, deceptive and cruel. It is a perfect way to describe this psychological thriller by Melbourne author, Rebecca James.

The main character, Katherine, narrates the story and it is evident from the first page that she has a dark family secret she is trying to hide.

Leading a new life, Katherine befriends Alice, who is beautiful with “corn-blonde hair” a “model-like body” and “”eye-catching clothes”. She is carefree, bordering on reckless and as the story unfurls she is exposed for who she really is, but is it too late for Katherine who has trusted Alice with her dark past?

This is James’ debut novel and it draws in its young adult target with the “don’t flirt with my boyfriend” storyline style. The story flits from present to past and deals sensitively with guilt, isolation and grief. I could feel the realistic awkwardness between Katherine and her family: “It’s my father’s fears that keep me from pushing down on the accelerator as hard as I can.”

James is touted as the next J.K Rowling, making over a million with her first signing, but I think she still has a lot of work to do and at times her story was predictable and typical of a revenge-based novel.

I admit that I couldn’t wait to solve the secret that implicated her and her family, but was disappointed when a death was mentioned on the first page and hinted halfway through the novel. It is unnecessary to know this much detail at this point.

In short, I was sucked in but I wasn’t shocked and there were definitely no goose pimples. On a scale of 0-10 I give Beautiful Malice a 6.5.

It's an easy beach or ‘by the fire’ read that you should knock off in less than a week. You remember the name and the crime – just not the detail.

Wheels in Motion

We’ve all had a gym membership that’s lapsed, movie tickets that have expired. or worse a $200 dress we’ve only worn once!

The longer you leave it, the quicker it expires or goes way beyond the point of return.

I did the same with my Create a Kid’s Picture Book course. For a variety of reasons I let it slide just as I was in the final 10^th module. I didn’t just give up or get bored. I had the best of intentions, but we all know that famous Robbie Burns quote in John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men: “The best laid schemes o' Mice and Men gang aft aglee".

But Mousie, thou art no thy lane,

In proving foresight may be vain;

The best-laid schemes o' mice an' men

Gang aft agley,

An' lea'e us nought but grief an' pain,

For promis'd joy !

Robert Burns

This poem is about a mouse lamenting a man who has just ploughed over his home in the field. Just like Mousie things did go astray in my case (my house is fine thankfully), but I always intended to bounce back into books.

A  ‘few drinks’ in between courses, I am attempting to get my wheels in motion again and not only finish this course but embark on the novel writing course as well. It will put me in good stead when I eventually help publicise a book.

To understand how an author works and what is involved in writing, I believe it is important to do this groundwork. Besides, I love to write…in case you haven’t noticed.

The wheels are turning and I feel great!

Piles of Pages

You should see my bedside table! Apart from all the lotions and potions to keep me young and beautiful forever (not really working…ha ha,) you will find a mountain of books.

I have finally got around to buying the trilogy in the Bronze Horseman series – The Summer Garden (it’s a mere 839 pages). I also have the second in the Tomorrow series: The Dead of the Night; Morris Gleitzman’s Once (inspired by stories of the Holocaust) and to imbalance all my books Allen Car’s Easy Way To Stop Smoking (ironically I’ve never smoked but the idea of a psychological trickery book intrigues me.)

I can’t complain about variety and depending on my mood I can choose a junior, young adult (YA) or adult book.  When I am tired, I prefer the less complex language of a YA book.

My good friend Mrs Jingle can take the credit for my vicarious pleasure. She came up to me after Hoshiki Kiritsu class * and said I have a good book for you to read: Marcus Zusak’s “the Book Thief – need I say more.

Mrs Jingle has quite a collection of books and it’s growing by the day. I can honestly say that my pile and smile wouldn’t be so huge without her influence.

I better get cracking on my combined 1,881 pages. Shiver and Linger are nipping at my heels…


* Hoshiki Kiritsu is a Japanese freestyle martial art that combines many different combat disciplines, including: joint manipulation; reflex conditioning; wrestling; boxing; ground defence; and kickboxing. It incorporates katas and self defence techniques into the curriculum as well as mental discipline. I started in 1998 to learn a few 'groin flicks' in case I got into trouble and I am still there over a decade later (with a few kid stops in between.)


 Check it out:  http://hkmartialarts.com   

Pink Macaroons and Performing Baboons

Strawberry French (Pink) Macaroons!!! They were supposed to be pink anyway! I had a few disastrous hours in the kitchen, cracking eight eggs to get the whites for three, running out of almond meal when I decided to double the mixture, slopping half the mix out of the piping bag when it was too runny and then losing half my macaroons when they cracked and stuck to the baking paper (that was suppose to be non-stick!)


It had started off as a promising morning and I was excited to test out my new Women's Weekly afternoon tea cookbook*. According to the front cover, the recipes, (including my Pink Macaroons) were "triple tested for your success every time". I thought they'd have to be conversation stoppers and with a reputation to uphold after my decadent chocolate fudge Love Bites from last time, I needed something with colour and 'wow!'


To cut a long story short, the finished product looks like insipid salmon-coloured rice cakes and yes you can definitely taste the $8 worth of almond meal in them. I may be the master at meringues and pavlova's but these 'macaroonies' are in a league of their own.


They will be sandwiched with jam and cream and dusted (covered) in icing sugar and served at the dinner party tonight. I will not resort to a box of chocolates or the 'Safeway special'. I have wasted enough blood, sweat and tears on these sugar crusted suckers that they are even going to  haul me out of my 'nothing to write in my Blog entry today' dilemma. 


I should have known that if Veruka Salt was demanding them: "Pink macaroons and a million balloons and performing baboons..," they were going to be difficult!


When I lay my dessert next to the other seven contenders tonight, I will be thinking 'at least my dessert has character'. As for their desserts: "give it to me now!"


I wonder how I will go with my next attempt - the Limoncello Mini Meringue Pies?


* This beautifully illustrated cookbook contains over 100 pages of elegant looking afternoon tea options from Vanilla Bean Scones to Toffee Crunch Cheesecakes.  Every time I turned the page I thought, "yes, I could make that". (RRP $12.95 at selected retailers)

The Only Good Thing About Winter Is Soup!

The only good thing about winter is soup (and maybe snow!)

On this bone-chilling day, I am going to wish on summer with this activity I did in my Create a Kid’s Picture Book e-course*. I had to write a description of the beach without using the letter ‘a’. Sounds easy? Not when sand, water, wave and shark all have this taboo vowel. Here’s my attempt below. Give it a go.

Beckoned to the shore by her mischievous blue curls, swimmers dive through her cheeky crests, before being tossed to the gritty floor below. Sun conscience children in protective vests scurry on the shore, while the less-concerned fry their oily torsos under the sun. The dunes shimmer with bright towels, fenced in by Eskies. Birds drop by for lunch, unperturbed by the sun shelters dotting this wide space. Beyond this busy picture, fish swim freely in rocky pools, gliding towards the murky blue mystery – secrets of the deep.

Speaking of beaches and descriptions of the tumultuous ocean – Tim Winton’s Breath draws you in and sucks you under with its vivid descriptions. Winton uses the ocean to convey emotions and change. It deserves all the accolades it receives!

*Check out a very rewarding story-writing course –also offer a junior/YA novel writing component

http://www.createakidspicturebook.com.au

Gathering Snow

I take my daughter dancing (of the ‘non-costume-sewing, slightly-more-earthy -than-me’ variety) every Tuesday. The yoga teacher chooses a different theme and the children create, express and laugh along. They could be painters, snowmen, frogs, flowers or shapes. A few simple props open up their little minds. All the while, a calm envelops the room (not to mention Mum, who gets one hour uninterrupted reading/writing time.)

This dancing could be used as an analogy to describe my thought process for writing. I get little bursts of creative ideas that can be inspired by meeting a quirky dog or waking up from a dream (apparently this happened to Stephanie Meyer for her Twilight series). These themes and storylines become ‘gathering snow’ and as I connect brain to pen, begin to form into something tangible. Resembling a story. Something exciting!

Where does a famous writer go to release this cataclysm of ideas? What inspires them?

Jane Austen

Jane Austen produced her works with a fine brush and a fragile 12-sided piece of walnut on a single tripod.

She was allowed writing time, but having no room of her own, she established herself near the ‘unfrequented’ front door, and here "she wrote upon small sheets of paper which could easily be put away, or covered with a piece of blotting paper".

Cited by Tomalin, Clare, The Guardian, UK, Saturday 12 July 2008

Roald Dahl

Roald Dahl turned his private shed into his realm. It was set up to be as comfortable and private as possible for his writing with: an old wing-back chair; a sleeping bag for the cooler weather; a footstool; and a writing table with a bar across the arms of the chair and a cardboard tube that altered the angle of the board on which he wrote. His stories were written on yellow paper with his favourite pencils.

Dahl kept the curtains closed so that nothing could interfere with his imagination. He wrote until lunchtime but only did editing in the afternoon.

Source: guardian.co.uk Friday 23 May 2008

Tim Winton

Tim Winton gets his main inspiration from landscapes and coastal Western Australia: "The place comes first. If the place isn't interesting to me then I can't feel it. I can't feel any people in it. I can't feel what the people are on about or likely to get up to".

Cited by Steger, Jason (2008) "It's a risky business" in The Sydney Morning Herald, 25–27 April 2008, Books p. 29

Dan Brown

Dan Brown writes in his loft and spends hours researching and being meticulous. He keeps a sand timer on his desk and stops for pushups and stretches by the hour.

Source: Brown, Dan,Witness statement; Pages 6 & 7.

 Me

I love to be warm and snug with cosy socks, definitely shoeless (perhaps this is the ‘inner hippie’ in me). I pump the heater up to 22 C (when hubby isn’t looking) and just get those ideas down. Call me old fashioned but I feel more creative and authentic when I write and watch the words flow onto the page instead of just electronically popping up. I have three or four ‘jot books’. When I write a story I leave it and come back to it weeks or months later with a new perspective and fresh eyes.

You

So what are you creative at? Where do you like to be creative? Get out that pen and paper or paint brush today and let that snow gather…

Tomorrow’s Everlasting Love – Book Review

I’ve just replanted a very lack-lustre Frangipani called Everlasting Love. My husband gave it to me for our 9th anniversary and it was such a beautiful vibrant plant with tiny white flowers and smudges of yellow in the centre. I thought at the time the odds were against this plant surviving in a climate other than its native Queensland. It showed no signs of fading…that was until our coldest and wettest winter ever hit!

As I was digging its new home (grave,) I thought about the book I have just finished and how everlasting love drove these teenagers to survive and ultimately fight back.  There are many ways of expressing love and experiencing love, but one of the most enduring and poignant loves is the love a parent feels for their child. From the second they squirm into your hands at birth, it is a love that most parents feel to the very core. As this affection filtrates into the growing child, that love is more often than not reciprocated.

Tomorrow, When The War Began (my latest read) was engulfed in a few reading sessions. I’ve always had a fascination with books that pose the “what if the unthinkable happened?

John Marsden draws you in with an initial adventure and chatty teenage dialogue. However he sows the seed for conflict and change when he drops in present tense comments and alludes to characters changing and happiness being an emotion the narrator, Ellie, is now void of.

The story is about the world changing forever, but everlasting love and hope for a reunion with their parents helps the teenagers to develop strategies to survive and later take on the evil forces at work.

Tomorrow, When The War Began tackles themes of loneliness, trust and intuition. It forges friendships and relationships and exposes the courage and vulnerability of humans and the ability to snap into action, at whatever cost.

‘Hell’ is a mysterious and rugged bush land and Marsden’s descriptions of nature give one a sense of its density and remoteness.  He personifies the creek: “just chattered on, minding it’s own business’ and the track that “brought us cunningly into the bowl”. He manages to turn this eerie landscape into an eventual safe haven.

Marsden subtly mentions several famous novels about adventure, disaster, or the forbidden, including: The Famous Five and Secret Seven; Z for Zachariah; Heart of Darkness; My Brilliant Career; The Scarlet Letter; and Fallen Angels. This gives the book a realistic edge and the reader feels as though Australia really is in trouble.

Once the war begins, the reader is held captive by the seriousness of the situation. Blood is shed, lives are lost and teenagers who should be enjoying just being teenagers are thrust into the jaws of war.

Tomorrow, When The War Began, is a testament to the teenagers’ everlasting love for their families, friends, community and country. It is a must-read YA novel for anyone who doubts the possibility of war on one’s own soil.

Freaky Friend Friday

I’ve had one of those Celestine Prophecy type days when you meet people for a reason. Did I mention that I love stopping to chat with complete strangers, in shopping queues, on a footpath, at parks and swimming pools? I often form characters for my personal stories from these chance meetings. The wrinkles, the posture, the pitch in the voice - it just starts me ticking.

I was greeting a friend in my driveway when Anne (my 80 + year old neighbour over the back fence), who inadvertently supplies me with citrus fruit (thanks to the overhang), walked past with Honey her dog – my cue to give her the organic grape fruit marmalade that's been sitting on my Singer since the end of July.

Then I was sitting sipping on my ‘not too sweet’ hot chocolate in the local shopping centre and a lady I needed to chat to about trees and arborists dashed past me (well she tried). We caught up on pleasantries and I was able to get the contact details needed to challenge the council on the sorry demise of my Mum & Dad’s Grey Ghost Gum…but that’s another story.

As I was deep in conversation about ‘ tree hugging arborists vs. tree chopping vigilantes, a school friend who lives in Abu Dhabi strutted down the travellator. She was out visiting for a month and was meeting up with another school friend, in fact the first friend I made at secondary school when I lost my locker key (unfortunately I still have the habit of losing my keys). Any way a catch up is on the cards.

Then a kinder/karate friend forwarded a link to an online mag I may be interested in browsing. This friend and I have struck up a very chatty and easy-flowing friendship as we drive to work each Thursday to teach intellectually disabled adults self-defence. Our conversation gushes out with such enthusiasm and we hardly draw breath in our 50 minute round trip. She calls a spade a spade and is also one of those career support/advice friends that I ‘ear-chew’ quite often. There she was again with her email giving me another avenue to explore. Thanks Mrs F!

The free online mag is called Maeve and I love it. Love it. Absolutely Love it! It is so ‘me’ and wonderfully eclectic – one article about women in business, another about the tragic social implications when new borns die and an interesting article about networking and how natural, social and ‘unscary’ it really is - not to mention book reviews, quirky pics, tit bits and so much more.

Tonight I’ll close on a question posed in a Maeve article: “What can you do today to change your life forever?” It struck a chord with me. Check it out…

http://www.maevemagazine.com/content.asp                                                                           

In P.R By Default - Pray Tell

My earliest passions as a young girl were talking, reading and writing and doing anything I possibly could with books. While others were building cubby houses, I was stamping library ‘picture’ books from my book case (much to Mum's horror). I could have been a great librarian – if I didn’t talk so much…ha ha.

Several family members and primary teachers thought I'd be a journo after reading my wildly imaginative stories written on that dinosaur A3 computer paper (80’s memory).

My first memorable story in primary school was about how my Old English Sheep dog Zesty lost her tail (in those days it was legal to dock tails). According to my story, Mum accidentally pegged Zesty’s tail as she leapt up at the clothesline. That’s how Ugg boots came about too did you know? O.K, it needed fine-tuning but my imagination was unleashed that day and it continues to roam today.

Somehow I didn’t go down the journalism path and got swept into Post Grad. P.R after an Arts Degree. I'm actually quite a genuine (non spinner), socially intelligent (sees through the fluff) but 'reluctant to press the flesh' (with insincere spifs) kind of gal. How I ended up in PR is a mystery. Must be the allure of publicising, which we all know is more than words.

So now I’ve got my opening spiel out the way. I can have fun with books and words on my Blog.

When I said to a friend tonight that I still have a desire to write a book, she suggested that this may be the medium in which I fulfill that dream to be a writer. Ever the optimist my friend, but for once I think ‘yeh I can’.

I’m off to sink my teeth into John Marsden’s Tomorrow, When The War Began. Heard it’s great. I love YA fiction even though I can’t quite squeeze my 35 year old ‘Crows Feet’ into that category any more.

Still learning about Blogging so if you have any words of advice "pray tell".

Can't Beat Them - Join Them!

I've joined the Blogging Brigade! That deserves an exclamation mark - maybe even two!! 

Why have I ventured into this social medium you ask? The truth is that PR/marketing has progressed at a staggering rate since I traded my suit and three-inch heels for the Wiggles, thongs and kinder duty 6+ years ago.  I have the quals, experience and results...if only six years hadn't passed in between.

I'm out 'there' again in my new suit (my pre-kid one gave me a 'parking inspector' look rather than a corporate whiz vibe) trying to get my foot back in the revolving PR door. It's a scary world when you have literally been out of 'the game' for so long.

Since thinking about my return to work, I've had three interviews and I have to admit that I am being selective. Being a Mum puts life into perspective and balance is crucial so I am looking for part-time work within a 30km radius of home. The problem is that so are 500 other Mums!

Any way, I was pretty chuffed to get the interviews on my own merits without any 'C.V fluffing'. I actually used my three year stint as Social & Fundraising Coordinator at the kinder to show them I could captivate an audience, make over $30,000 and juggle other commitments.

"Love your can do attitude" was a familiar response BUT "we are really looking for someone with experience in the book industry". 

So I figure if I can't beat em, I'll join them (at least in a blogging sense).