As all those who know me will attest, I’m nowhere near ready for kids. I’m far too selfish for that – I love being able to come home and read for hours without interruption, I can’t imagine having to look after someone every single day for the rest of my life (even after your kids leave home, you never really stop worrying about them – we all know that). But this lack of desire for children is underwritten by a deep belief that as soon as I want to have a baby, I’ll be able to. And more and more these days, that isn’t the case. Infertility is becoming more and more common, and it’s one of those problems that nobody wants to talk about. Isn’t that crazy? It’s just like any other physical condition – it shouldn’t be something to keep hushed up.

But it is. Which is why I am so moved by this beautiful video by Keiko Zoll. It gave me goosebumps. When you have five minutes to spare, give it a watch. It’s the kind of video we all need to see, so that we can start talking about infertility and sharing the burden a little more.

What if we stopped dealing with difficult things on our own, and shared a little more? What if?

What IF? A Portrait of Infertility from Keiko Zoll on Vimeo.

For more from Keiko, visit her blog – Hannah Wept, Sarah Laughed.

Then check out this great website, Spice4Life, specifically aimed at women who want to succeed…

And while you’re there, check out the profile they did on me – http://www.spice4life.co.za/bridget-mcnulty.asp

Spicy!!

As part of the celebrations for said release in said USA this week, I’m going on a Blog Tour this week! How exciting.

Here’s the schedule, please pop by these lovely bloggy people and read my guest posts and say hi:

Monday 11th May 2009: Naturally Nina – http://www.naturallynina.com/

Tuesday 12th May 2009: Book Patrol – http://www.bookpatrol.net/

Wednesday 13th May 2009: This Ordinary Day – http://www.thisordinaryday.com/

Thursday 14th May 2009: Fiction Writers Review – http://fictionwritersreview.com/category/blog

Friday 15th May 2009: International First Love Day (various blogs, all over the blogosphere, all over the world. Read all about it here.)

Today’s post, over at the wonderful Naturally Nina’s blog (which is really rather inspiring and should be on your recommended reading list every day) is all about Growing in Love – about how our relationships make us into better people, by challenging us in ways we could never imagine. Go and check it out! (You can also win a copy of Strange Nervous Laughter by leaving a comment on Naturally Nina’s blog!)

I’m in the midst of an extremely busy day – figuring out how much our round-the-world trip is going to cost, working, beavering away at a secret project I’ll tell you about tomorrow – but I keep coming back to this lovely site and just looking at it. Isn’t it delightful?

And it’s going to get ever-so-slightly more delightful in the next few days, when my man makes me a logo to go up there in the left-hand corner. It’s extremely handy being surrounded by such talented people!

The website design is courtesy of my very smart (and very patient!) brother Niall. Check out what else he does at www.niallmcnulty.com – he knows a whole lot about many things of which I am clueless, not only websites, but cultural tourism, archives, all kinds of media, and facilitating workshops.

And, of course, succulents!
One of his hobbies is gardening, and he recently started this winner blog all about plants, gardens and nature in Durban. It’s called Sprig, and it’s a treat.

Go and read it while I carry on with my work!

I know I’ve been a bad partner lately, what with the long absences, the promises that haven’t been fulfilled, and the distinct lack of reliability. But I have a good excuse, I promise. Three good excuses, actually.

First of all, I feel like you need a makeover. I’m sorry to say it, but your look is a bit stale. It might sound harsh now, but you’ll thank me later! I think the fire is dying between us, and I want to make sure I resuscitate it before it goes out completely. Nothing drastic, just some fresh design and a new format, you’ll like it, I promise!

Also, dear blog, there’s the impending American Book Release. It’s in May, you know, which is all of a sudden just around the corner. And I think you need to be working a little bit harder for it. So I’ve been doing some behind-the-scenes work for you, to assist you in your forthcoming hard slog.

And lastly, I might be leaving you. You see, I’m going around the world. For ten months, from the beginning of August this year till the beginning of June next year. With my man. And although we’ve been talking about it for a long time, we are now in Crunch Time, where we have to start doing some work and organising it. Don’t worry, Blog, I won’t be leaving you completely, I’ll link you to another website that has weekly updates from our trip and lots of photos and the daily Best Moment of the Day as well as all sorts of other treats. But I thought you should know… our time together as a one-on-one couple is limited.

So there you have it – that’s where I’ve been. I’m sorry to have neglected you.

I’ll be better from now on, I promise.

Yours sincerely,
Warm regards,
Best wishes,

I’ve been on the lookout for an inspiring cause, and yesterday I stumbled upon the perfect one. It’s called Literacy for All and you’ll find it here: http://www.literacyforall.org.za/
It’s based upon a terrifying statistic from the Department of Education in 2005, that 61% of South African children cannot read by the end of Grade 3. Literacy for All is trying to change that. In their own words:

“The Literacy for All programme not only puts accessible and attractive books into children’s hands, it has been developed by teachers and linguists to promote mother tongue learning and provides preparatory training and on-going support to teachers.

The readers are also suitable for second and third language learning. The Literacy for All Readers are not just “a good idea” or a collection of books. They are the only complete programme in each of our official languages, backed by a Teacher’s Guide, Learners’ Workbooks in Grade 1, a Training Workshop entitled “How to Teach Reading” and continuing support for teachers.”

Best of all, they are easy to support. With a donation of as little as R200 (or around $20 US at the current exchange rate), you can buy a set of 6 books for Grade 3 students. The set of 8 books for Grade 2 students costs R250, and the set of 14 books for Grade 1 students costs R375. Two students share one set of books, and with care the books can last a couple of years. They also need donations to provide essential teacher training – get in touch with them from their website if you’re interested.

I think this is an extraordinary and inspiring cause well worth investing in. Anyone want to join me?

It turns out that the editor I was working with has now left, but before he left he put my reviews through for publication, without letting me know. Apparently when I said that the pieces were ‘just to give an indication of style’ he thought that meant, ‘go ahead and publish them’.

Hmm….

Still, I got a really lovely apology letter from the publisher, and apparently (although their website looks uber professional) they’re still starting up and don’t often pay contributors.

So what have I learnt? Do my homework! Don’t send out work to any website that looks good. And it’s possible to deal with things in a constructive way without getting upset…

Practical philosophy was amazing last night – I’ll update you on what we learnt soon!