I'm delighted so many of you entered the Morris Gleitzman Quiz and I can't wait to see all your answers to question 20. That was the one where you got to be creative and imagine what happens to Mr Napier, the not-very-nice acting school principal, after the end of Teacher's Pet.

Good luck to everyone who entered. The Judging Panel will probably spend several days choosing the winner. But don't worry, we'll have breaks so our jaws can recover from gasping with admiration so much. And we'll announce the winner on the 21st July on the Puffin website.

If you haven't got your entry in yet, too late I'm afraid, June 30 was the closing date. But there will be more competitions in the future, so any memorizing you did of every word in every one of my books won't go to waste.

My jaw's already in need of a sauna and a massage because I've been travelling to all sorts of places and talking to loads of people over the last eight weeks. I had a great time, but boy I'm glad to be home and able to lay in my own bed with my head on my own cat.

Authors are a bit psycho like that. When we're locked in our writing rooms wrestling with words, even though we mostly love it, we dream of being out on the road, travelling, talking to readers, dropping into bookshops and libraries to steam-clean our shelves. Almost as soon as we get out there, even though we mostly love that too, we dream of being back at our desks with our precious familiar things around us – our desk lamp, our keyboard, our dictionary with all the hard words crossed out.

Now I'm back I'm looking forward to finishing my next book, Toad Away, which I'll tell you more about next month (when I know more myself). But I'm also enjoying lots of warm memories of the people I met and talked with in Bendigo, Stawell, Horsham, Warracknabeal, Dimboola, Casterton, Heywood, Portland, Hamilton, Melbourne, Perth, Subiaco, Moorabbin, Nhulunbuy, Darwin, Casuarina, Nightcliff, Karama, Palmerston, Oenpeli, Jabiru, Humpty Doo, Batchelor, Adelaide River, Katherine, Tennant Creek, Alice Springs, Blenheim, Christchurch, Wellington, Auckland and Warrnambool.

If you're one of them, good on you. To everyone, until next time, oo-roo and happy reading.

2 July 2003