Only twenty more sleeps now, and I’ll be on a journey that will involve my participation in some wonderful events. First, the Adelaide Writers Festival, which runs from 2-7 March. We are lucky in Australia to have several excellent Arts Festivals, and they tend to have free “Writers Weeks” associated with them. This will be my first time at the Adelaide one, courtesy of my friend Annalou, and I’m looking forward to hearing some of the panels and talks by authors and publishers. I especially have my eye on sessions involving Margo Lanagan and Lian Hearn, two fine Australian Speculative Fiction writers, and the panel on “Directions in British and Australian Publishing”, with representatives from Scribe Publications here in Oz as well as three British houses. Another panel is called “Germaine’s Legacy”, with Germaine Greer herself on the panel. Still another is entitled “They Fuck You Up”. I must hear that one to find just who it is that’s causing all the problems in my world.

Then a few days with my daughter Billy in Adelaide before heading off to Perth (plane trip courtesy of another kind friend) where I’ll spend a week catching up with groups and individuals before the second highlight of the trip, Swancon, where I expect that, as usual, I shall be informed, entertained and embraced by the lovely SpecFic community. One of my favourite Aussie SpecFic writers, Glenda Larke, is one of the guests of honour. There is an excellent academic stream at Swancon this year as well as the usual discussion panels (they are always very good) book launches, demonstrations and social events. And books! I always go determined to buy only one book but it's impossible. I don't eat much in the week that follows a convention:-)

After Swancon, there should be three weeks house-sitting if all goes to plan and something else if all doesn’t, then another highlight – the Vipassana meditation retreat organised by Perth Insight Meditation Group. Insight meditation, I have found, is one of the best possible tools for the acquisition of self knowledge and the development of tolerance and compassion. We will spend twelve days in almost total silence, each meditator or "yogi" watching the mind's silly chatter and the body's reactions to thoughts and emotions as they arise. Many people are horrified at the thought of twelve days without talking - no mobile phone, no TV, no radio, no MP3 - but believe me, a Vipassana retreat is one of the best gifts you can give yourself. I have been honoured with a scholarship for this retreat, which will be under the care of Patrick Kearney, an excellent teacher.

I have been very lucky in my meditation teachers. I toyed with meditation, on and off, for perhaps twenty years before I did my first retreat. That was with Chime Shaw in Perth in 1988. I studied with Eric Harrison at Perth Meditation Centre for several years on and off eventually completing his Teacher Training course. The "on and off" was due to the three and a half years I spent overseas, sitting with many fine teachers in Nepal, England and the USA. It was at the Bhavana Centre in West Virginia where I was given the name Satima, which means “mindful”, and it is indeed a good reminder, every time I hear it, to stay present in the moment and to be as aware as possible of the fluctuations of the mind and body and of the world around me. Later, I moved on to the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts, where I had the privilege of sitting with world renowned teachers such as Joseph Goldstein, Sharon Salzberg, Jack Kornfield, Stephen Armstrong, Kamala Masters and many others. I was on staff at IMS for about a year and a half and it was one of the happiest and most contented periods of my life. Even now, ten years later, I sometimes go to the IMS website to look at pictures of my beloved teachers and workmates there, and every time my heart is filled with joy. It’s a painful joy because I am no longer there, but all the same, a joy like no other to think of them all and send them lovingkindness.

Over the years I was away, “dharma-bumming” I learnt more about my mind than I ever discovered in a university or the many self-help books I’ve read. And Vipassana can help you with mundane things, too. It was at my last retreat with Patrick Kearney that I found the beginnings of the trilogy I’m writing – you know, the one that I can’t get right and am always complaining about! Maybe this time I’ll find out how to get it out of the unconscious and onto the page!