How can one dream of things so vividly when one has never experienced what one is dreaming of? Last night I was with a party of communist Chinese being taken through the back of beyond near the Nepalese border. The people, the architecture, the roads and flora were spectacular. I got to know the rural Chinese so well and we both respected each others customs. Then, near dawn, we made out way through the snow to a very primitive hostel in the mountains and all of us collapsed on a huge bed and slept.

The joy of making an animal sublimely happy is worth quids, wouldn't you say? Freddy's full of great food and asleep on my lap. He is in a state of Nirvana. Making a child laugh (or feeding a hungry one) is the same. But hey, I'm getting all fuzzy...

Everyone's worst nightmares will be realized in....12 days. Whooooaaaahhhhhhh. Homeland Security is probably checking me out!

Now it's thew Swine flu? Amazing. My book's being published 12th May and the world's very possibly going to end a week before then? How unlucky can you get? Did I cause all this? well, no - my vanity doesn't reach to this level, but usually when I go skiing every other year the Aussie dollar plunges against the Euro, I lose a motzah, then it snaps up again the week after I return and I get less dollars when I change the Euros back. Happenchance? Of course. Last week I was actually looking through holiday brochures. Guess where? Yup, Mexico. I was going to take a two day trip down there after BEA. Now? I don't think so. It's Brighton Beach and a few Coors now.

I just sent a video to David Letterman. I thought it might amuse him. Hope so. Possibly it won't get past his producers - he must have a thousand to sift through videos from mad authors such as me. Worth a try, though. Maybe they'll think I'm bonkers and call me?

I'm having recurring nightmares myself now. Very karmic!!!  I dream my agent calls me. She says she was misinformed by her assistant - I didn't make # 2 on the NYT Best seller list. That was someone else. In my case the number 2 signified I was the second person she had to call that morning. I wake up and am sad. But I have this sneaky feeling things are going to work out.... don't ask me how I know. Off to the land of nod. Life is good nevertheless.

Waiting for copies of the book to arrive in Sydney from New York. For an author, to hold the finished copy is very exhilarating. After several years hard work (and  great deal of help from publishers and editors) I get to sniff the paper and hold the weight of the book. Then there's the BEA to look forward to. Book Expo America - the biggest book expo in the world (of course, it's in New York!) Vanguard will have a big presence (Publisher of the Year 2008!) and I will be there, Tiffany pen in hand (present from Wendy several years ago) hoping to sign copies for people who stop by. Then in the evening....jazz clubs, Broadway shows, dinners in Little Italy with gangsters, checking out the toilet systens out back and seeing how many guns are taped there, pastrami sandwiches at Zabar's, a trip down to the Tribecca Grill hoping that MABE de Niro will be there (in my top five actors of all time - Newman, Pacino, Brando, Katherine Hepburn, de Niro).....the list of things we plan to do in the Big Apple is endless. It's a wonderful time for me right now, being published by Vanguard.

I hope everyone who reads my blog visits my web site. www.worstnightmares.com. Ther's a link to all the short videos I made which give you an idea of what to expect in my very dark suspenseful book.

Beautiful day in Sydney! Spectacular. How could I live anywhere else? Antibes maybe. Or Paris. But the heating had better be good.

Not many people reading my blog but hey, it's early days. Off to the Surry Hills Fest today. Should be cool. Stalls, food, "stuff" then lunch with Kylie and dinner at Government House. Shaping up to be a big day. Might even buy a plasma screen - they have one for $900 that's 50 inches! Imagine. A bit too big but a smaller one costs another grand so it's a no-brainer!

Less than month to go before my book, Worst Nightmares, is released. Reaction's been great so far! Can't wait to get to America and touch base with my uber-agent (Curtis Brown, natch!) and publishers (Vanguard Press, it goes without saying) in New York. Always had that Sinatra song in the back of my mind..."if you can make it there...." So... can I? Hope so. I want to visit the coolest jazz clubs in NY. but right now I don't know where they are. If anyone knows the coolest places to hang out in the Big Apple, lemme know. AND cool restaurants - not the super expensive ones, but maybe the Italian joints in Little Italy where fat guys are 'packing heat' and sitting in a back room eating meat ball spaghetti; where you'll always find a handgun taped in the toilet. That's the real New York. Maybe I have to go to Brighton Beach for that kinda action?

My family are avoiding me right now 'cos they're worried that I am one dysfunctional SOB for having come up with a story like Worst Nightmares. "What the hell's going through your mind, Shane." They keep their backs to the wall when they see me coming. But really I'm a sweetheart... Ever seen 'Dexter'? That's a cool series.