Occasionally in life, the interconnectedness of things is so obvious you can’t help but sit up and take notice. On Monday, there were four such ‘coincidences’ that took place. Four different books of mine converged on that day, all of them at different stages of their lives.
8.30am Little Paradise. After working for almost two years on Little Paradise, my first Young Adult novel, I finally sent it to my publishers to have a look at for the first time. (this is always a scary moment because you hope they will like it as much as you do)
2.00pm A Ghost in My Suitcase. This novel has already been written and is soon to be published so I met up with my editor to discuss any changes that it might need.
4.25pm The Lion Drummer. When I arrived home, to my delight, there was a package in the mail from my publishers which contained copies, hot off the press, of my new Aussie Bite novel, The Lion Drummer. It’s always such a thrill to hold your new book in your hands.
6.05 pm The Pearl of Tiger Bay. A Ghost in my Suitcase is inspired by Por Por, the ghostbusting granny in my previous novel The Pearl of Tiger Bay. But during my discussions that afternoon with my editor she felt the two novels should not be linked, that Ghost in my Suitcase should stand alone. I still held to my original idea that Por Por is one and same person and that Isabelle from the Ghost in My Suitcase is cousin to Jin and Maisie from The Pearl of Tiger Bay. After all how could there be two Chinese ghostbusting grannies written by the same author?!! Later that afternoon, to my great surprise, I received an email from my editor saying that in the Age newspaper supplement, there was a review that day for The Pearl of Tiger Bay. This was such a strange coincidence as this novel was published four years ago, back in 2004!