As you've probably noticed I haven't been updating this blog very often either because a) I'm not the blogging sort and/or b) because we've been so flat chat getting our new book and website up and running. Think it could be a combination of the two! So head over to our new site for the Australian Baby Guide www.australianbabyguide.com.au and check us out there - forums, competitions, great articles and interesting bits and pieces.

Cheers
Pen

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For the first time in months I am pottering around in my office having a bit of a clean up, a sort through papers and finally I have time to write a blog update. The Australian Baby Guide has gone to print and we can all finally relax a little. The new book came together beautifully after a huge amount of work redesigning, reformatting and compiling.

I am still a little sad to see the end of The Nappy Bag Book after publishing it for ten years but I must say that the new guide will be a far better book. The Australian Baby Guide is a terrific mix of practical information supplied by experts in the industry, vox pop contributions from women and men around Australia and detailed listings on products and services available to new parents. 640 pages, full colour and gorgeous images throughout. I should receive advance copies from the printer end of January (I feel scared and excited just thinking about it) and bulk copies in Feb (when it will be available for sale from our site)  then on sale through bookstores and Big W in April. 

Okay, I think it's time to head home and face the state of the house - eeeew. My partner is pretty good at handling things when I'm flat chat at work but there's a particular smell coming from my youngest child's room that has been ignored for long enough. I have no excuses now, the time has come to investigate. Will I find a school lunch that she rejected back in October and then hid under her bed? Or perhaps a small dead critter that she has placed in a shoe box with a now rotting bit of fruit? Hmmmmm. Maybe I should head home, shut her door, sit in a comfy chair in the garden and do absolutely nothing for the rest of the afternoon. Decision made …

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Wow, okay what happened to May? I always think things are going to settle down in here once the new edition has been printed and goes on sale but for some reason things keep ticking along. We're actually already gearing up to start work on the new edition – it takes approx seven months to research, design, produce and print – and since it's ten years since we began publishing The Nappy Bag Book we have decided it's time for a major overhaul, a bit of an extreme makeover.

The title will be the first thing to go as some people think it's a book about what to put in your nappy bag (hmmmm) so we're going to call it something much more obvious and simple and hopefully a little more catchy. Any title suggestions are welcome! We're also going to clean up the internal pages, publish it in a slightly larger format with fewer pages (so that it's not so heavy) and alter the way the content flows throughout so that it's a fully comprehensive and very easy-to-use guide for parents from pregnancy to age 3. 

So even though I'm attached to the NBB (it's almost like my middle child) I'm looking forward to some drastic changes in 2009 and producing an even better book for parents. If you have a copy of the current Nappy Bag Book and have any suggestions on how we can improve it or things you would like to see included then I would love to hear your feedback. If you would also like to be a part of our Vox Populi section in the new edition out next year then send me a quick email and I'll forward you the discussion topics.

All the best and I look forward to hearing your thoughts!
Pen 

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Time for a quick update while the kids are off seeing a movie. School holidays, aaaahhhh you've got to love 'em.

Things are busy at Goose Books. The 9th edition of The Nappy Bag Book goes on sale through bookstores next week which is always exciting and great to see it go 'out there'. I have also just taken on a challenging new project: I'm ghost writing a true story (title at this stage: Love and Chaos) about a mum with 11 kids, 3 dogs and 2 cats. Not sure how she does it all really; some of her stories are absolutely hysterical, some extremely sad. I'm hoping to publish this book later in the year; not sure if that's going to happen given the amount of work involved but I'll keep you posted. I'm also working on another gift/humour book titled 'Too Damn Busy to Bake Cupcakes' which is great fun. I love working on these small books and letting my dry, dark humour run free. Very therapeutic too I think. Dog Poo on the Pram Wheels and Dog Poo on the Trike (New Holland changed it from 'Tricycle') Wheels go on sale next week in New Zealand and so it will be interesting to see how the books go over there.

Okay, kids are due home any minute so that's it for now. Feel free to post a comment, it would be great to hear from some of you.

Pen

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Hi and welcome to our revamped Goose Books website, we hope you like it.

This is the spot where I will list all updates to The Nappy Bag Book such as changed phone numbers, businesses that close, exciting new products etc. If you have any updates to the book as well then please feel free to let me know and I will post them here. In fact feel free to respond on any aspect of the books or ask questions, it would be great to have some discussion going on.

This is also the place where I'm going to chat away about what we're doing at Goose Books and keep you up-to-date with news about upcoming titles. I predict there will also be times when I rant and rave about the more challenging aspects of book publishing/being a mum/life in general - there's nothing better than thumping a keyboard and venting your feelings sometimes - very therapeutic!

Pen

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