This morning, I walk into the family room and stop dead. There’s a kookaburra perched on the wingback armchair. I’ve had birds inside before – a king parrot sometimes goes for my muesli if I leave the table, or a confused noisy miner might wander in. But never a kookaburra. Instead of flying out when it sees me, it fluffs its multi-tone taupe feathers and fixes me with a stare.

It’s a year until my next memoir, Bounty, will be released by Vine Leaves Press. This might seem like a strange date to mark, but all of a sudden it feels real. Save the date for May 26, 2026! Since signing the book contract with Vine Leaves and being admitted to their author group, I’ve learned so much from other authors about what goes into launching a book into the world these days…

Since babyhood, my twin granddaughters, Isla and Mia, had always babbled to each other in a stream of random vowels and consonants. But when they were about seventeen months old, these exchanges began to seem more intentional.This curious phenomenon even has a name: cryptophasia.