4 July (rebellion day!)

Australian Embassy evening

Last month I leanred about the "special relationship" not between the UK and the US, but between the US and Australia. In an evening visit to the Austalian Embassy I discovered the close ties between the two countires since the First World War that are very much alive in Washington, DC.

Of course, there was plenty of VB - Victoria Bitter - flowing freely. It's a drink with obvious connections to England, but one the Americans seems to have adopted as their own when they visit Down Under.

The evening was a celebration of the semester abroad a lot of Americans enjoy in Australia, in this instance the annual alumni of American students who were a part of the University of New South Wales, Sydney exchange!

You can just about make out the Ozzie flag in the background, and the Embassy has an interior ceiling lit up as the southern sky at night.

My niece, Beatrice Rose!

Red Bull Truck!

Say no more, England! Here's the Red Bull truck, coasting along in Georgetown, Washington, DC, a fancy neighborhood clearly in need of some late night drinks. And we all love our vodka red bulls!

I recently noticed the can size increasing - plus special editions. And of course the market is now flooded with a host of enrgydrinks, from Amp to Monster to Rock Star and the list goes on. Check out this link for a full list of the available drinks and their health and energy pros and cons!

Who's the odd one out?

Not Grover!

New York storm!

A few weeks ago I met some friends in New York, and though not international news, we got caught in a quite incredible rainshower, thunder, lightning the works - summer storms USA!


Paddy and me after the storm. Sir Pad is currently Lecturer in English at St. Hilda's, Oxford University, and keeps a firm hand on the Paddy Hayes Jazz Quartet. The man!

Voila the Brits in Central Park with token American! Say hello Ms. Willers!


Trying to flag down ubiqitous New York yellow cabs - ubiquitous except where we're standing.

Matt wins Unpublished Novel Competition!

Bookhabit.com is pleased to announce the winner of the inaugural Bookhabit Unpublished Competition is Matt Fullerty's The Pride and the Sorrow. Matt receives a US$5000 prize and is "thrilled" about winning the first Bookhabit competition. We will be posting an interview with Matt on Bookhabit.com shortly. Congratulations from Bookhabit!

You can see full details with an endorsement of the novel at http://bookhabit.com/competition/
The Pride and the Sorrow is the story of Paul Morphy (1837-1884), born in New Orleans as a chess prodigy, his famous journey through Europe and his ultimate downfall on and off the chessboard. He is celebrated in fashionable European society, honored by Napoleon III of France and Queen Victoria of England and returns to New Orleans a local celebrity, only to find Civil War looming, a storm brewing in his family and his own mind coming apart ...

The novel itself is available at http://www.bookhabit.com/competition

Kerouac House - I am Alternate!

I am pleased to say I am the alternate choice to live in Jack Kerouac's old house for 3 months! The Kerouac House in Orlando, Florida, is the house Kerouac lived in with his mother when On The Road was published, made him famous, and where he subsequently wrote The Dharma Bums!

If Brian Turner, the soldier-poet known for his 2005 poetry volume Here, Bullet decides not to live in the house (from June-August 2009), I am first alternate choice! Voila the house!

The Kerouac House is now run by the Kerouac Project of Orlando at http://www.kerouacproject.org/ Plus you can tour the Kerouac House here.

Voila the house!

Novel's first review - thanks Geoff!

Geoff Cush, a member of the judging panel, had this to say about THE PRIDE AND THE SORROW : "What made Matt Fullerty's writing stand out, from the very first sentence, was an unusually strong and individual way with words. Taking us into the vanished world of old America and Europe he uses a highly textured language to give an almost physical experience of being in that place and time. Drawing subtle lines between a society top-heavy with leisure and the profligate genius it produced in Morphy, he holds back the historical and personal reckoning while letting it gather and brood like the storm that finally washes away New Orleans. In my view this makes THE PRIDE AND THE SORROW a stand-out all rounder in the craft of literary fiction."

This smart-looking chap is Paul Morphy. You can follow this link to find out more about his New Orleans family. And to learn more about his formidable chess opponents with slideshows of the players click here!