Today, here in Australia, it’s Mother’s Day – possibly an adaptation of a British religious festival dedicated to the Virgin Mary, or possibly a feminist creation taken over by the greeting cards industry. Either way, in my opinion it’s both good and right to have a day to celebrate one of the most important people in everyone’s lives, not least because that person is half of what gave you a life.

My own mother is a PhD at the University of Canberra, and she went into labour with me twenty-six years ago while doing the vacuuming before giving birth at about 1am the following morning.

Now, I’ve had writing sessions that went on all night, but unless I have kids of my own one day (unlikely), I’ll never really know what the original form of creation feels like. But more importantly than that my mother has always been there for me, and the rest of the family, no matter what she herself might want or feel, and that’s the greatest gift that a good mother gives after the gift of life itself.

And finally, and more relevantly to this LJ, longtime readers may have noticed that a good number of my important female characters are tough and no-nonsense, but loyal to those close to them. Why? Because that’s the kind of woman I grew up with. That’s my mum. There’s something of her in Senneck, in Saeddryn, in Skade, and probably even others like Elkin and Riona.

(My father, on the other hand, was the unconcious role model for the artistic, solitary and slightly neurotic men that seem to pop up in my books from time to time. But don’t tell him I said that!)