Fabulous of you to drop in…

I spent part of June and July cruising Alaska on the chic Silver Shadow, part of the Italian-owned Silversea line. I had to be dragged kicking and screaming on board, but from the minute we pulled out of Vancouver harbour I was hooked. What was most wonderful about cruising was the number of passengers playing Scrabble and Bridge, building jigsaws, sitting in deck chairs wrapped in blankets reading and challenging each other to games like shuffleboard and table tennis. There was satellite TV, of course, but the Internet connection was dodgy, so we were forced into old fashioned pursuits. It was like that scene out of Brideshead Revisited when they cross the channel – without the waves. Bliss.

You can catch me in Melbourne in early September at two events. On Wednesday September 3 from 2-3 pm I will be appearing on a panel discussion called Doing the Block: Fashionable Melbourne at the State Library of Victoria. This panel discussion is part of the Melbourne Spring Fashion Week official program of activities. Doing the Block refers to an art work by iconic Melbourne artist ST Gill, created in 1880 depicting the fashion and ‘fashionistas’ of 19th century Melbourne. He describes ‘It was Saturday morning and fashionable Melbourne was ‘doing the Block.’ Collins Street is to the Southern city what Bond Street and the Row are to London, and the Boulevards to Paris …’ A panel of Melbourne ‘fashion’ experts have been assembled for an entertaining discussion to determine if this trend still continues today in Melbourne. For further information check the State Library website.

That same evening, September 3 at 6:45 pm, I will be guest speaker at a dinner, sponsored by Dymocks and Leader newspapers, at the restaurant Upstairs at Georges, 819 Burke Road, Camberwell. Ph: (03) 9882 0032

I would finally like to thank the Literature Board of the Australia Council for granting me a residency at Ledig House, Omi, New York for spring 2009. I’m thrilled to be able to take up this wonderful opportunity. Eight weeks in the quiet of the country to work on my next novel – priceless!





Fabulous of you to drop in…

The Sydney Writer’s Festival is over and I’ve been to Mauritius and back since. This bucolic island in the Indian Ocean east of Madagascar was a perfect place to recover from the punishing promotion schedule for The Woman in the Lobby. It’s all a bit of a haze now, but I recall standing in the dark alone in an industrial estate north of Sydney outside a radio station one morning at 5:30 am, which was surely the low point. Lots of high points, though, including plenty of enjoyable tomfoolery on breakfast radio. It seems all the guys want to know, “How come women prefer rich men to funny men like us?” That I can’t answer. I always prefer the funny guys.

If you’d like to read more (including some very private stuff I shared with The Age) please check out my latest press clippings here.

And you can go here for a podcast of my session with Christine Cremen at the Sydney Writer’s Festival.

Many people have commented on the light box posters for The Woman in the Lobby that seem to be everywhere at Australia’s airports. When viewed six-foot high that pair of legs looks pretty sensational. I have been claiming that they’re mine, but my story was blown by Paris-based author Bryce Corbett who wrote to tell me they belong to his wife, Shay, who is a dancer at the Lido. No wonder they’re so shapely!

I’m talking with the lovely Julie McCrossin for her program “Up & Away” on Qantas in-flight radio throughout the month of June, so if you’re flying anywhere in the world with Qantas be sure to tune in.

My next adventure will be a cruise from Alaska to San Francisco at the end of June. I’ve never been on the high seas and have a pathological fear of waves, despite being married to a surfer but I feel it’s one of those experiences you have to have. Stand by…





Fabulous of you to drop in…

The Sydney Writer’s Festival program has been unveiled at last. I’ll be appearing twice. On May 23 4-5pm I’ll be joining Thomas Kohnstamn, Marc Llewellyn and Grace Pundyk on the panel Traveller’s Tales. And on Sunday 25, 3:30 - 4:30, I’ll be talking to Christine Cremen about my new novel,
The Woman in the Lobby. It’s wise to book ahead for the latter.

I’m also thrilled to join Derek and everyone at Newtown’s wonderful
Better Read Than Dead bookstore for Books@TheBank on May 6 at 6:30 pm.
I still fondly remember a dinner held in the bookstore when I was promoting Two Shanes a few years ago. I live on the other side of Sydney from the store, but every time I go across there I think, “These are my people.” Maybe I should move. Go here to book.

Madison magazine has posted a terrific review of The Woman in the Lobby in the April issue, which has stirred quite a few readers into rushing into bookstores to demand a copy. Trouble is, the novel is not released until May 5. I’ve posted a little of it on this website, with thanks to the editors at Madison: “Punch-in-the-guts substance and moral complexity. You’ll never look at a five-star lobby in the same way again.”

A brief interview with me is currently appearing in the May issue of Vogue magazine, the one with the glorious pink cover. Coincidentally, my feature on niche perfumers in Paris is also running in the same issue. Now that was a tough job!

Look out for an extract from The Woman in the Lobby in The Australian Women’s Weekly later this month.

And book clubs, do remember that you can contact me here for a list of topics that personally intrigued me while I was writing the novel. I’m also happy to answer questions about my other books.





Fabulous of you to drop in…

The Woman in the Lobby is now proofed, printed and bound and in a few scant weeks it will be off to the bookstores.  Now for the fun bit. Even before publication day (May 5) I’m in the swing of pre-publicity. It’s always curious for me to be at the receiving end of the interview and it becomes a little surreal sometimes switching hats from journalist to author. I’m still doing both, although a little less journalism these days. Note to self: must find time to start new novel.

I’ve been travelling. In the past six months, I’ve been to Munich, Prague, Budapest, Salzburg, Vienna, Paris, Beijing, Shanghai, Tokyo, Hobart, Spa Country in Victoria, Melbourne and Fiji. Quite ridiculous, really, especially for someone who doesn’t like flying. And I’m not likely to slow down, although I’ve promised to be in Australia when The Woman in the Lobby is published. Already a few commitments are locked in. For instance, I’m on the program for the Sydney Writer’s Festival from May 19-25, and I’ll know what-where-when on April 5, when the program is published. Keep checking this page for further details of bookstore appearances, readings and other literary events.

Book clubs and reader’s groups should feel free to contact me. I am happy to answer questions by email and I can provide a list of topics relevant to
The Woman in the Lobby – issues and questions that personally intrigued me when I was writing the novel.

This month, my friends are up to all kinds of good things. Gillian Armstrong’s new film, Death Defying Acts, starring Guy Pearce and Catherine Zeta-Jones, opens March 13. Wendy Harmer’s TV series Stuff is starting on ABC TV on March 11. And my husband, Anthony Amos, has an exhibition of his photographic works at Depot 2 Gallery, Danks Street, Alexandria, Sydney, from April 1. (His birthday).

 

Much more soon,
Lee