Progress with the jet lag – I almost slept through the night, just one brief period awake, and then the alarm went off at 7:00am because I need to be up and packed. My friends in Auckland have escaped their work-imposed quarantine and are able to pick me up, thereby allowing me to see some of the local area and saving me a night of hotel bills (yay!).

Yesterday seemed to go well. I don’t suppose we had a lot of people watching the live Sir Julius Vogel Awards webcast, but some people clearly did watch it. Many thanks to Lynne Jamneck for keeping me company through the ceremony. Congratulations to all of the winners, especially my new pal Russell whose books I clearly need to read.

I also bagged three more interviews – the promised ones with Nalini Singh and Norman Cates, plus a bonus interview with Helen Lowe who picked up two SJVs last night. Helen has a YA book out from Knopf and a 4-volume fantasy series due from Eos starting next year. It is great to see all of these NZ-based writers having success. All of them have mentioned the Internet as having helped them work easily with US publishers despite the physical distance.

I’m going to try to find some free wi-fi today so that I can download my email, but I am not sure how much I’ll be able to be online between now and getting to my hotel in Wellington tomorrow night. If you need to talk to me urgently, use Twitter because I can check that from the iPhone without incurring too much in the way of roaming charges.