Success!

Signed two contracts today for children's educational fiction with Blake Ed. They are part of the 'Sparklers' fiction series.

I already have three 'Gigglers' with Blake Ed. They are a sensational company to work with and the 'Gigglers' were top class books. Can't wait to see the finished product.

Back in NZ

What a great place NZ is! Each town is only 1 1/2 hours from each other and each town holds a whole new set of adventures.

The trip went like this:
Tennis in Auckland
Yachting & rubber ducking and exploring Rangitoto island in Auckland harbour
Rugby night in Orewa
Icecream and theatres in Warkworth
Hotpools and waterslides in Waiwera
Digging our own hot pools on Hot Water Beach at Hahei
Birthday party at a friend's restaurant and golf at Mt Maunganui
Zorb, Luge & Gondola at Rotorua
Rugby and blaster cars in Hamilton.

I was hoping to put my feet up and do a bit of writing... silly me.

One thing that did disappoint me is that last time I filled a trolly full of groceries in NZ it came to $400 and that wasn't too bad because it included loads of specialty cheeses, smoked salmon, and mussels that were cheaper than in Aus. This time it was still $400 but all the dairy was more expensive than in Aus (thanks to some Fonterra bastards), even the stuff they import to Aus was more expensive! Seafood had also gone up. The things that were cheaper than they were in Aus were of poor quality.

Apparently in the push for cheaper groceries a whole country now find themselves without a decent peanut butter on their shelves. They can choose from several types of peanut butter but they are all grown and processed in China, and I'm not sure how they managed to stuff up a product with only three ingredients (traditionally PB in NZ never had sugar), but they have (and now every brand of chinese peanut butter has sugar added as well). Still at only $8.00 a kilo, you can't expect too much.

Many consumers have demanded peanut butter grown and produced in Aus at any price rather than continue with Chinese PB and apparently Sanitarium are coming to their rescue. Hang on... aren't Sanitarium owned by the US?

Anyone who has read Dick Smith's speech about foreign products will now be wondering how long it will take for Australians to be forced into eating Chinese PB despite Aus having perfect peanut raising weather. Don't worry tho, there's only four ingredients and none of them need painting.

According to Dick Smith Foods ( www.dicksmithfoods.com.au ):
CAN’T FIND OUR PRODUCTS IN YOUR SUPERMARKET?
- THIS COULD BE THE REASON
Over the past 36 months major changes have occurred as the two major food retailers in Australia move towards reducing the range of all products they offer customers. This is so they can maximize their profits and return to their shareholders.

One of the instigations of this change is the foreign owned (German) Aldi company. They offer lower prices by offering a very limited range and the big supermarkets will have to follow or go broke.

This policy, which is being adopted by both Coles and Woolworths (who together have nearly 80% of the market place) is to free up supermarket shelf space to allow for the introduction of their own private label range. In effect it is proposed to limit consumer choice across all products sold. For example the jam or tomato sauce category will include their two top selling products plus a range of Coles or Woolworths branded products.

The majority of the Coles and Woolworths private label products are sourced from overseas using significantly cheaper labour and where the agricultural and manufacturing standards and regulations are not nearly as strict as they are in Australia. We expect the number of overseas sourced products to increase even further in coming years as Coles and Woolworths find other supply sources.

The effect of this policy is creating major difficulties for all the Australian owned manufacturers, including those that produce our products, to the point where we have been struggling to keep a large proportion of our product range available on supermarket shelves for our loyal customers to purchase.

Whilst we will continue to strenuously fight for Australian owned and made products to remain available on supermarket shelves, it will be extremely difficult to compete with the wealthy multi-national companies and the increasing power and domination being exercised by the major retailers.

Please assist us in our fight to save the small number of Australian owned food manufacturing businesses which still exist by asking your local Supermarket Manager to stock our products.

Haven't I been complaining about the lack of products? After seeing an NZ grocery store, I'm a bit wary of where this is all headed... that and I'm sick of being offered up the same sugary substances as sauces from Kraft Praise and the Supermarket brand, knowing they all come out of the same US owned factory. Where have all the good sauces gone?

I already buy very locally produced bread, juice, dairy and eggs via the milkman at www.aussiefarmers.com.au.

And now I've found this site: www.onlyoz.com.au

They offer this little story:
He wonders why he can't find a good paying job in Australia...
Joe Smith started the day early, having set his alarm clock (MADE IN JAPAN) for 6am. While his coffee pot (MADE IN CHINA) was perking, he shaved with his electric razor (MADE IN HONG KONG). He put on a dress shirt (MADE IN SRI LANKA), DESIGNER JEANS (MADE IN SINGAPORE) and tennis shoes (MADE IN KOREA).

After cooking his breakfast in his new electric skillet (MADE IN INDIA) he sat down with his calculator (MADE IN MEXICO) to see how much money he could spend today. After setting his watch (MADE IN TAIWAN) to the radio (MADE IN INDIA) he got in his car (MADE IN GERMANY) and continued his search for a good paying Australian job.

At the end of yet another discouraging and fruitless day, Joe decided to relax for a while. He put on his sandals (MADE IN BRAZIL) pored himself a glass of wine (MADE IN FRANCE) and turned on his TV (MADE IN INDONESIA), and then wondered why he can't find a good paying job in Australia...

I suppose you could be cynical and say why pay slightly more, or it's marketing jingoism, or even, if you were very naive, say the govt will step in before it gets too bad, but I've already had enough of my local supermarkets. I can't stand products made by Kraft or Masterfoods, sugar and cornsyrup should not appear in the top four ingredients on EVERY food they produce. Time to put myself out and go further afeild in search of decent local foods.

2007 Snapshot of ME!

Some generous folks in the Aussie SFFH scene are conducting interviews of local authors at the moment as part of a 2007 Snapshot. They did this once before back in 2004 and thought it'd be fun to do it again. I missed out last time but my 2007 interview is here:

MacDibble 2007 Snapshot

Hey, where have I been!

Ah well, you know how it is. You're busy being a writer, mother, house renovator, housekeeper, cook, part time teacher and and part time webpage builder and you think, I need more cash, I'll get another part time job, surely I can juggle everything else.

And then all the balls fall down and roll around the floor you just revert to spending your time picking up the noisiest balls.

It seems lately I never have meat, veggies and groceries in the house at the one time. Or if I do, then the house is a trough. When the house is clean, you can bet there's no food. Generally I only manage two shops a week and the meat and veggie shops don't take credit cards, and the meat shops don't open late so I'm always going to the simplest.

Unfortunately, I still can't buy supermarket meat and veggies and make one trip. Tough, old, watery. That applies to the meat and the veggies. I'm not sure what they do to get them like that. It must be a skill.

I think, if I could avoid supermarkets all together and just go to local shops, I would. With the Asian supermarkets, the fresh pasta shop, the grain and nut shop, the discount grocery shop, there are times when I can. I like those times. Generally they are early on a Sat morning when the local shops are buzzing. It doesn't seem to matter how cold it is, the sidewalk cafes are packed on Sat morning. I swear they're all just checking out the scene. I do it myself a few weekday mornings. Just go to the local cafe and see who's there for a coffee. But I have a bit of trouble if that's my only reason to get out of my nice cosy bed on a Sat morning.

Oh and the milkman delivers now. Locally produced milk, eggs, cream, butter, cheese, juice and bread. The food is fresher and my life is easier and it's delivered for exactly the same price as the supermarket shelf. Makes you wonder how they get away with it those evil, evil, supermarkets. And they'd charge more for delivery.

Now I'm trying to figure out other ways to simplify my life so I have more time for writing and the kids. For instance, there's no point in keeping any of my regular fish tanks if cleaning them means I don't have time to write a great novel or the kids turn out to be mass murderers. Mind you, there is always the crime followup novel... nah! So I'm keeping two natural planted tanks which require no work and selling the others. Most are empty at the moment anyway. Having decided a while ago to cut back.

There are no chickens at the moment and no homestay students. That's given me more time altho, replacing the chickens is still a plan and if the Homestay people stop trying to send me boys from countries where women do all the work and send me a nice girl, then I'd probably take them. Sounds a bit biased, I know, but there's all sorts of subtle implications that come into play once you have to live with someone, and with the shortage of homestay accommodation, it's easier to just say no, give me a girl, and avoid any possibility that some teenage boy is going to look at you like a lazy cow if you ask him to take his plate to the bench. Besides there's altogether too much testosterone in Hotel MacDibble, we need balance.

Now over at my Mentor blog, I'm celbrating that my mentee got published. What a good mentor am I? Or maybe not. Anyway, my mentor work is done she has now flown the nest.

At my Beast of Moogill blog, I've been talking about my efforts in marketing "How to Become a Children's Writer" which has had moments of reward and moments of disappointment effectively leaving me numb. Marketing sucks, which is something I knew and why I've never even considered self-publishing for a moment. I also got the most awesome review for my story "A Complete Refabrication" in Orb#7 and I quote: "MacDibble is another one of those rising Australian writers who is really starting to hit her stride in short story land. This one really stunned me with its originality and brilliance - it's about online "afterlife" communities for the recently-deceased, and the struggles of a wife and mother to hang on to a some kind of a relationship with her loved ones through a computer screen. It's sad and weird and funny, and made me want to both cry and cheer."

I really like that last sentence. I consider myself to be sad, weird and funny and that I made someone cry and cheer at the same time stuns me. I mean, that's what I ultimately go for... I just never expect to pull it off. It's like I wrote me and someone not only understood... they liked it!

Sometimes I stop writing like me because I don't think that it will find an audience, but to get a review like that, gives me faith in me.

Well, Australians aren't supposed to do it...

... but nobody said the Americans couldn't make fun of themselves:

Holiday Gift Guide 2006

Hidden cameras

There's hidden cameras at my supermarket. There must be. I can't think of any other reason for their behaviour.

They are systematically removing all my favourite brands... and then filming my reaction.

First, they kept having specials on 1kg Mainland Tasty cheese, and in a house that can plough thru a kilo of cheese a week, that's a welcome thing... only... the shelf with the special sign was always empty: a cheese special with no cheese. They did that for three weeks in a row to film my reaction and since I have to buy food at least three times a week, I bet they got a lot of footage. Then they removed the sign... but still no Mainland Tasty. Just a space where cheese once was. More footage. And I don't want any other kind of tasteless kiddy cheese. I pick them up, they look insipid, watery, I put them down. More footage.

I do the same when I get to the smoked salmon section. If it's not at least 220g, it's pointless purchasing it. And the shelves that used to contain packages over 100g... are mysteriously empty. More footage.

The bacon section. Little Chef products, no liquid to boil out of the bacon and ruin the dish. Superior product... gone. What remains? Insipid, watery, fatty. I pick them up, I put them down. More footage.

The sauces and salad dressing section? That weight watchers balsamic was top stuff. The Aussie produced gormet sauces and salad dressings - great. The vietnamese dipping sauce imported from Thailand - perfect for so many things. Gone. All gone. What remains, Kraft, Praise, Masterfoods, Select, and for some bizarre reason Paul Newman. Now I can't tell the difference between Kraft, Praise, Masterfoods or Select. The first ingredient in all those products is sugar, and surely only a British primary school chef would start out making a sauce or salad dressing that way! And Paul Newman... how fat is he? Because his salad dressings seem to consist of straight oil. Definitely some footage there.

Generally as the supermarket brands increase, all the other brands decrease... and who remains? Kraft, Praise, Masterfoods. How is that a choice? I swear they all come from the same factory!

Dick Smith peanut butter no longer comes in large jars. I have to buy multiples... because there's just something wrong with Kraft (and I'm not saying that because they poisoned all those kids with peanut butter in 95). Insipid, sugary... and what's that? A supermarket brand? Did that come out of the Kraft factory? More footage.

Now the soap and shampoo aisle. I've saved this till last. This is where things get blatantly ridiculous. And it's not all the Supermarket's fault this time. Mostly it's the manufacturers' fault.

People in my family are allergic to Methylchloroisothiazolinone AND Methylisothiazolinone. Easy to spot with long names like this. They are preservatives. They are there to stop your soap, hand soap or shampoo going rancid. They are incredibly nasty incredibly strong preservatives. They are usually last on your list of ingredients. If you have any skin irritations from using soaps or shampoos I can almost guarantee it is from these preservatives.

Now I don't mind that manufacturing companies use this product in their shampoos or soaps (altho the products that use other presevatives are generally cheaper). I'm resigned to reading the incredients on every product I purchase. What I OBJECT to is picking up products labelled "Organic" or "Natural" or "For Sensitive Skin" or "Low Irritant for Kids" and seeing this preservative in the ingredients!

Are they trying to tell me there are Methylchloroisothiazolinone and Methylisothiazolinone trees out there, growing in the wild, waiting to be harvested for organic soaps and shampoos? And if you already have sensitive skin, this is the LAST kind of preservative you should be letting near it! What are they doing, setting up a clientelle of super sensitive skin owners to buy more of their products?

Oh. My. God. The range of stunned expressions they must have recorded of me by now! Oh the footage from that aisle! Pick up, read, slam down, pick up read, slam down, pick up read, slam down... I do around 40 products by the time I've found a handsoap, and a couple of kinds of shampoo. I pride myself on my ability to speed read ingredients and manhandle bottles... but oh the footage!

Honestly, it's wrong. It might even be more wrong than supermarket brands pushing out decent brands... at least that only hurts your taste buds. And when you buy Kraft/Praise/Masterfoods/a supermarket brand, you're expecting sugary dullsville. When you buy a shampoo with the above labels on it that still contains these preservatives you're being misled and you may end up with a nasty rash.

I hate supermarkets. I spend around $450 a week on food. The supermarket gets less than 40% of that, I'll go to deli's, butchers, fruit and veg shops, bakeries, asian importers, nut shops, anywhere to buy the rest because I'm SO FED UP WITH THE HIDDEN CAMERAS!

Oh dear!

http://www.drawthings.com/

Your personality analysis based on this drawing:
You are a suspicious person and have some paranoid tendencies.You think you are very intelligent.You get depressed easily.You are defensive.You have an aggressive personality.You deny your needs and can be passive aggressive.

I'd argue with that assessment but I'm worried that it might be right and I don't need to know in case it makes me sad. Maybe they know me? Maybe I can let their tyres down later?