Paperback out now

The paperback edition of Billabong Bill's Bushfire Christmas is in the shops now!
Clearly it's the best kids' book to buy for Christmas - although I may be a little biased. I just found out, though, that it was shortlisted as one of the Australian Books of the Year by Speech Pathology Australia this year, which is nice because they know all about reading and story-telling.
But today I've been raking leaves and whipper-snippering grass and picking up fallen branches because it's bushfire season again.
I could hear the fire truck sirens blaring somewhere - it sounded like there must be something very serious going on. A fire, maybe, or a car accident.
I heard the truck coming up the hill and along our road, horn beeping and siren wailing. Then over the top of the noise I heard, "Ho, ho, ho".
It was Father Christmas, riding on top of the truck, throwing lollies to all the kids in the area, who were running along behind.
He looked a little hot and dusty, I must say, since it's 30 degrees here and he's used to the North Pole.
And that made me realise just how important the fire brigades are to little communities like mine, and I remembered all over again why I wrote the book in the first place.
Happy Christmas to you, too.