Book #5 is coming along nicely. It even has a name. I’ve had a wonderful time researching this book and will tell you more about that in my next post. In the meantime, back to Chapter 1…

Best Wishes,

Michelle

                                  

Which is why animals tend to figure so much in my books.

The first photo is of Zoe, our dog who passed away in March. She was eleven, had bad hips and cataracts and she was deaf. Zoe was my writing buddy. She spent long hours snoring in her bed on the floor in my office while I wrote. She had a talent for turning the air toxic which I would complain about in emails to Kate Stone at HarperCollins who edits my books. Kate awarded Zoe a nickname – but that’s between Zoe, Kate and me. Zoe came to live with us when she was five. It was the first time we’d rehomed a dog; previously we’d had a golden retreiver who we got as a puppy in the UK. When we moved back to NZ he came with us, settled into life as a beach bum and never looked back. He died when he was 14 and we loved him very much. We weren’t sure if we’d feel the same way about a dog we hadn’t raised but Zoe proved us wrong. She was the gentlest, kindest girl. When she arrived she was so overweight if we’d put a piece of wood on top of her she’d have made a great coffee table.  She couldn’t jump into the back of the car, just stood there looking at us with an “Are you kidding me?”  expression. I was on the way to a hernia lifting her into the car.  We took her to the local vet and Zoe joined Weight Watchers. Yep, there’s one for dogs and cats too. She went on a special diet, was only allowed carrots or apples for treats (not cool for a Dustbin Ladbrador), had regular weigh-ins and Before and After photos. She reduced to 34kgs and in the After shots looked like Playmate of the Month. Zoe was entered in “Pet Weight Watcher of the Year” – yep, they have one of those too – but got beaten by another black lab called Rosie. As a consolation prize she got a pedometer, something she’d always wanted and that I wasn’t sure how to use because she had four legs instead of two. Was I supposed to divide her steps by two? Her fame spread and she was a regular visitor at my children’s primary school when Health Eating and Exercise was being taught. We’d show the kids her before and after shots and she’d lie on her back and let them scratch her belly. Even the most timid ones patted her. She belonged to my son, slept in his room at night and was such a creature of habit that if he wanted to stay up late and put Zoe to bed without him she’d get out of bed, come down the hall and stand in the lounge staring at him until he joined her.

The other two photos are of our new puppy. After Zoe died, we were too upset to consider getting another dog but the house seemed so empty and there’s alot of dogs that need homes. We got her from the SPCA . She’s nearly five months old and is a Labrador/Border Collie X. She’s busy, energetic, hilarious and pees when she gets excited – working on that. She knows the value of a human butt i.e. it’s not just good for sniffing but makes a great pillow as well; in the second photo she’s got my husband right where she wants him. Things keep going missing and turning up in the garden, particularly shoes. Last weekend, my husband and son discovered their soccer boots had vanished. The puppy had hidden them in the garden and thought it was great following them around while they tried to find them. “Are they here? Are they there?”  her happy little tail wags taunted. The International Sisterhood knows no boundaries, it crosses species as well, I know that because I regularly gripe about soccer boots being abandoned on the deck instead of put away in the garage WHERE THEY BELONG, and just as regularly I get ignored. The puppy is a girl, she is on my wavelength. When I see her steal those boots I look the other way. She is my secret weapon. As you can see in the third photo, she is also a bit of a tart. We have her booked in for Obedience Classes next month. Let’s hope she’s got the old excitement/bladder thing sorted out by then. I don’t want to get thrown out of the class. 

 Best Wishes, 

Michelle. 

Sorry,I haven’t posted anything since December but I couldn’t. My aging computer was getting more and more grumpy about coping with new fangled technology and as I’m more than a little cyber challenged myself , which is why teenaged children come in so handy and I was on deadline to finish my next book, I put it into the into the too-hard-I’ll-sort-it-out-later box. I couldn’t spare the computer to take it to the experts (What do they do? Give it counselling? A stern talking to?) because my kids need it for school assignments. So I decided to treat it like a child, good behaviour rewarded/bad behaviour ignored. Ignored it for months but no improvement. Collected new computer last week. Thank you to all the people who sent me messages and were so patient waiting for answers.

If this works, I will add some more info on what’s been happening at my end of the world.

Best Wishes,

Michelle

Yes, you will get to see how Lisa and Dan are doing and they’ll be a few more Bonkers/EH characters who’ll be making a reappearance. I haven’t settled on a  title yet but the book is due for release sometime towards the end of 2010. I’ll keep you posted on progress and when I finally manage to evict them.

Best Wishes,

Michelle

I love the South Island. It’s so different to the north. I’m staying with a friend who’s mother owns a cherry orchard and that’s where I plan to set one of the books.

I’m doing an author night at Feast Restaurant, Cromwell on the evening of Friday, 4th December starting at 6pm. If you’d like to attend please contact Michael at PaperPlus in Cromwell.

I’ll let you know how everything goes when I get back.  I might even have photos which I promise to post, provided their not too embarrassing.

Cheers,

Michelle

PART OF PARENTING: Cambridge author Michelle Holman discusses breast cancer and screening with her daughter believing it will equip her to make decisions about her health.

Waikato author Michelle Holman considers what her breasts mean to her.

Buzzies, hooters, boobs, breasts. Considering they’re two inanimate objects composed mainly of fat, there’s a long list of names to choose from when it comes to breasts.

Men love them. Women accept that they’re there, sore at certain times of the month, gushing like garden hoses after giving birth. We complain that they’re too big or small but take them for granted until something goes wrong.

My paternal grandmother had breast cancer. I met her when I was 17, and she was an old lady. She had dementia and forgot my name within 30 seconds but I remembered her when I went for my first mammogram a couple of years ago.

I’d never thought about my boobs. They’d fed my kids, I had a matching set, my husband was fond of them – why think about them? But, waiting to go into the screening room I thought about Nana Holman and wondered “what if”?

My buzzies were okay. My visit to the screening unit at Waikato Hospital was a positive experience – like visiting a select club staffed by women for women plus token males so nice they deserved honorary ovaries. I left thinking what was all the fuss about? Yes, breasts are private parts but, unlike kidneys or bowels or livers, they’re accessible. A mammography doesn’t involve needles or tubes, just a bit of wriggling around and Swan Lake arm lifts.

As well being a fiction author, I’m a “lapsed” registered nurse. I stopped practising clinically about 10 years ago. Not surprisingly, I’m a big advocate for breast screening.

My third book, Knotted, has an underlying breast-cancer theme – Daneka (Danny), has lost her mother and twin sister to the disease. Since it came out I’ve discovered two friends, both nurses, have had breast cancer or a breast cancer scare. Hilary is a vibrant woman who I respect and admire and have worked with for five years.

Hilary was presented with an award for services to nursing last week and her husband mentioned to me that she was diagnosed with breast cancer when she was 28. I had had no idea. I worked with another friend, Helen, at Starship Hospital in Auckland. We had our kids around the same time and our families used to get together for barbecues. Last week I spoke to Helen for the first time in two years. She had read Knotted and asked if I knew her family history. “What family history?” I asked. Her oldest sister and one of her triplet sisters (yes, there are three versions of Helen) had been diagnosed with cancer. Helen had found a lump in her breast, too. Thankfully it proved benign.

I thought I knew about my friends and about the women I saw every day. I don’t.

You might not either. If you asked all the women in your family and all the women you count as friends or colleagues to stand in a circle around you, put out your hand and turned, you’d touch a woman who has either had breast cancer, has somebody in her family with breast cancer, or a friend with breast cancer.

My daughter is at an age when mothers say embarrassing things, but have some shoes and clothes that are worth borrowing.

I have talked to her about breast cancer and screening. She knows I go and get checked.

I am the mirror she looks into that will help her to make decisions about her health and future wellness. Every woman owes it to herself and her family to take care of her breasts. Every man should be encouraging his wife, girlfriend, mother and sister to get checked. It’s another way of saying I love you.

Cambridge fiction writer and registered nurse Michelle Holman’s third book Knotted (HarperCollins, $26.99) touches on breast cancer. She also manages community youth health projects in the Waikato.

Me with one of the lucky prize winners.

Me speaking. Rachel's expression says it all.

Me and Rachel Goodchild, author of Eighty Eight Dates.

Rob Smith, CEO of Paperplus

Kerre and I at the beginning of the night.

In the meantime, I’m off to Christchurch on Friday morning for an interview with Megan Banks on CTV around 9:45 am and a pre-recorded interview with Morrin Rout at Plains FM. I’ll let you know how my television debut goes and might even post a link as long as I look and sound like that other Michelle…Pfeiffer. Friday night I’ll be joining Kerre Woodham (Short Fat Chick To Marathon Runner), Joe Bennett (The World Is Your Lobster), Wendyl Nissen (Domestic Goddess On A Budget) and Rachel Goodchild (Eighty Eight Dates)at the Hotel Grand Chancellor for the Paperplus “Girls Night Out”. Can’t wait. Will report back on goings on, wine drunk, food eaten, clothes seen in due course.
Best Wishes,
Michelle

Signing Books

Hamish doing the introduction

Wrights Bookstore, Cambridge