Bunyip Dreaming goes into print!

So, at last, my latest book is also available in the print edition. I think it comes close to being my favorite cover yet!  Rosie is posing with it to show it to you.  My proof copy is already looking rather battered. Must remember to photograph it before reading!

 "Hurry up and take the pic so I can have my treaty for posing so well!

The book is 16.99 US from amazon.  I've had great reports from everyone who has read it so far. People are really loving it, which I in turn love very much to hear!

I still haven't got to the vegie garden yet, and with summer seemingly coming early this year, I've nearly missed my window to get the seedlings started safely before the sun gets crispy hot!  Ah well, Istill have masses of silverbeet!

You can see my chookies behind there, waiting for me to pick them some.
     

I'm having an odd mood kind of day today.  Very conflicted. Andyroo is off at fire training for the volunteer bushfire brigade. After this weekend and the next, he will be a fully active firefighter.  I was supposed to be there too, but I've been having so much trouble with my tum that I had to pull out.  A lot of my lyme symptoms are gone or much lessened, but GI tracts take a long time to heal, and tummy troubles and fighting fires, or even long days of training, are a bit beyond me just now.

I'll still be able to help in some ways, but for now I will not be joining the ranks of the active firefighters.  My mood is mixed because I've so been looking forward to being a full member of the team and having some adventures, but also for quite a while have been worried I am just not up to it.

Ah well, such is the way of life with chronic illness: Hoping, and grieving what you find you can't do, and always trying to do more than you probably should.  Today I'll go up to the station and treat a few Jarrah trees there for dieback. That is something I CAN do.

One of my favorite trees here at home is in full flower now.  It's known as a Native Frangipani.  I have no idea where it is native to, though!  The flowers are amazing, and the birds and bees adore them.

There were ring-necked parrots in there even as I took the photos, but they are green and yellow and too well camouflaged to see easily.  You know they are there because they drop flowers, and you can hear the sound of their beaks nibbling away.  They are also known as 28's, because of their distinctive alarm cry that sounds like they are calling out, "Twenty-eight! Twenty-eight! Twenty-eight!"

Here is a lovely pic of two, taken by John Dart.   

Ah well, better go treat those trees!   With spring coming on apace, their sap is running and it's the best time to get at that horrible dieback. 
             

The making of the art for Bunyip Dreaming's cover

I don't usually do two book postings a row, but I said I'd post this one today, so I will. :)

I wanted to do something for this cover that didn't reveal too much, yet I wanted it to be alien, and to have a feeling of freedom and strength about it.  I think I managed that.

Since I'm getting better at Gimp, I wanted to make the cover all in one so that it tied together well from the front to the back of the book via the spine.  I achieved that too!  Very pleasing!

So, anyway, back to the beginning.  I began with a pretty firm idea in my head but needed to refine it, so I got the good old sketchbook out.  You can see my twiddling much more clearly if you click on the pic to embiggen it.  
 

I forgot to take a photo of my drawing onto the painting board.  I'll get better at remembering, I promise.  :) The next stage I remembered to photograph was where I'd blocked in the colour.  I used acrylic paint on masonite for this one.

This board was an overpainted old one.  At times you can see the textures of the underneath paint showing through as the light hits them.  It came out ok in the end, though at times during the process I was worried it might detract from the final work.  I've got to get some new boards!

Next stage was just adding detail. It was by no means a complicated project. My main issue was making the night sky look night-skyish without making it too speckled for the words that had to go over the top of it.  I wasn't sure how bright or blotchy to make the moons either.     

Blinder added. You'll have to read the book to find out what a blinder is, or a broofer or a Tarintarn!  There's one of each on the cover.  :)

So, it was finished or at least finished in the painting stage. I planned to fiddle a lot once I got it onto the computer.  It's a heck of a lot easier to experiment there than with the original! 

Andyroo took it out and took high quality photos of it at this stage.  It's interesting how much the colour changes from the photos I took inside. This is much closer to how I described the night in the book.

 
But I wanted it more orange and zippy, and a bit darker to bring the lettering out, so I fiddled and managed to get it to this in iphoto using mostly the boost effect, of all things.  It's amazing what you can do with those little buttons!

 
And so to Gimp, and I'm getting better and better with Gimp.  The final cover only took me a few hours and there was no strangled crying involved at all!

I hope it makes you want to read the book!

 

Bunyip Dreaming goes live!

 
Well, finally my newest novel, Bunyip Dreaming, is available for Kindle on Amazon!  It has been a slow and steady sort of process to get it there, but it's been fun too.

This is the official short blurb for the book:

"Would you take a boon if it was offered to you by a mythical Australian water beast?

Trapped in an ailing body and an empty life, Anna is desperate enough to do just that, but like all such mythical wishes, this one is granted in a way that Anna doesn't expect. She finds herself not only with a new life, but on a new planet as well, with alien invaders to fight and a desperate populace to lead.

Anna has what she wished for, if not in the way she might have chosen. Can she take advantage of her newly-strong warrior's body and powerful place in this new society to make a life worth living?

Finding a purpose at last and quickly becoming fond of those around her, Anna is determined to make good, but even if she somehow saves her new people, will this existence turn out to be all a dream after all? Will she find herself back in her old body and life no matter how well she does?

Only the bunyip knows!"

I guess it's a bit of a Sword and Sorcery meets aliens kind of book, but it's also got more going on as well.  The experience of being trapped in a body that is failing you is one I know well, and I put some of my heartache and frustration into giving Anna a new body. I wanted to see if she could make good without that health millstone around her neck any longer.  

I had so much fun giving her a new body and a new life, and new people and strange alien animals to love.  Escapism?  Oh yes!  You betya!

As usual, I did the cover art too, and on Monday I'll do a progress post to show you how I got to the cover I ended up with.

In the meantime, please read it!  At 99 cents US for the Kindle version, what have you got to lose?  My sister, Jen, says it's one of my best ever books, and she should know because she's read them all.  :)     

Mice, chickens and turtles.

 

The chickens have been enjoying the early spring weather. Here they are on their jungle gym.  Doesn't Nanny Ogg the black Australorp look lovely at the moment?   Mrs Guppy on the far left there is having her first moult.  Seems a bit early (or late) to me but, hey, she always does everything weirdly.  It's her thing! 

I've let them put of their run a few times. I do think happy, scratching chickens about the yard equal a purring cat by the fire for making a home feel cosy and contented!

We got out of the habit while Buffy the confirmed chicken murderer was alive, but we really should be able to now we only have Labs about the place.  Tuppy has been known to chase a chicken, but not when there are mice to be caught!

Madame Blavatsky, our adventurer chicken, especially wanted to join in on the digging. I got a little bit of video.  Talk about fearless!

It's not like she's out around them all the time.  She's just like that.  The looks on the dogs' faces the first time she just walked right up to them was priceless.

I know I showed you lots of flowering plants last time but this wattle tree at home is really pulling out the stops this year, despite being on its way out. It is far older and bigger than most wattles get to be. Its older than twenty, so very impressive even though some branches are now black and dead. This is the lowest branch. You can see a little of the blackened trunk on the very right.  

My other favorites at the moment are the lucerne trees, also known as Tagasaste.  They are natives of the Canary Islands but do very well here.  They nitrogenise the soil and feed the birds and bees with their flowers and seeds.  Also their leaves are edible by horses and goats and chickens, they are soft and green in winter, they are cool in summer, and they flower in cascades of white in early spring. They even share their nutrients from their long tap roots with their neighbours of other species!  What a top tree!

Latest news in crocheting...this is Princess Turtle.  She is made from a pattern by Planet June. 

I made her for a friend who I don't think reads my blog.  She has no time for that sort of thing, being as she's a very busy mum of two sets of twins!  If she does read this... Hey Aimster, come have a cuppa and get your turtle!

The pattern on her back was very interesting to do. I used light green plus a variegated rainbow yarn to get that effect.  For some reason, I felt she needed a little rainbow crown as well, and Princess Turtle was born!    

Lorie of C-ing Spots, this one is just for you... our neighbour working one of his Appies, Crystal, in the round yard.  :)  She has roaned out so much.  She was chestnut as a bubba.  He keeps his horses all their lives and looks after them very well.  She's a lucky girl.

Writing is going swimmingly.  My first two readers of Bunyip Dreaming loved it, so now I can get onto final edits!  Woo hoo! The cover art is done too but I'm keeping that a secret for now.  Heh, I'm a novelling dynamo!  The new book is flowing well too.  15 902 words on Heroic Plans as of yesterday.  I haven't written today as we've been out a lot. I'll write tomorrow, Saturday, instead, because Andrew is off for the whole day doing an amateur radio activation for the Anzac's 100th Anniversary.

They've been working as a team and using a special call sign, VK100ANZAC, activating for the four days of the beach landing at Gallipoli that killed so many Aussies and New Zealanders 100 years ago. Tomorrow they will activate Blackboy Hill Memorial Site, the place where a lot of WA soldiers camped and were trained before shipping overseas to war.  We've been there a bit making sure it is a good place for transmitting and receiving signals. It's a lovely spot.  Some gorgeous trees and plenty of birds nesting and calling. 
 

    
Check out my girls doing a lovely sit stay for mama!

Amateur radio is a fairly incomprehensible obsession as far as I'm concerned, since it is very technical and seems to mostly involve wrangling finicky aerials, but that's what a partnerships is about, hey?  Supporting the other person's interests even if you think they are crazy.  :)

This nesting Pink and Grey Galah thought we were an interesting diversion from the somewhat mundane process of incubating eggs, anyway!

 
  

Saturday morning with the Fireys.

Andyroo and I are still involved with the local volunteer bushfire brigade.  Saturday mornings are regular days where we go over the vehicles and make sure everything is ship shape.  I thought you might like to come along for the morning.

First thing is to open up the big doors.

Then we get out the clipboard and begin to work our way down the list.

If there are two of you available, one of you does the checks while the other one carries the clipboard.  We take turns so we can both learn the vehicles well.  We actually did both vehicles this week, the .14 and the Light Tanker so we both got to do the practical bits.
 

You check oil and water and such, then start the vehicles and drive them outside so noisy sirens and pumps and things can be checked.

I'm not licensed to drive this baby yet but I can pull it out onto the front standing.

Once we have the pump running we also get to check all the watery bits.

I did of course manage to spray myself in the face once and another Firey as well.  (Sorry Warren!)  Since it was rather cold, this wasn't as much fun as it would be in summer!

There is a radio check-in with the local control centre for all vehicles and stations, so for a little while you sit in the cabs and wait your turn to do that.  Not surprisingly, volunteer fire brigades are very common in Western Australia, both around the city edges and in the country.  Tens of thousands of people around the state are out on Saturday mornings doing just what we are doing.  

 
After vehicle checks, it was back inside for cups of tea and bikkies, chats, and snuggles with Harley the First Lieutenant's dog, who is a rescue boy and loves his dad so much he prefers to be with him all the time. It makes us happy that others at the station are dog lovers just like us. We feel right at home.   

 After that we often take the vehicles out and do something interesting like some four wheel driving in the bush that is part of our area to cover, but this week we didn't.  Too cold I think.  Yes we are wooses for cold here, and it really isn't that cold.  

In other events for the weekend, Bunyip Dreaming has gone out to my first readers!  As usual, an exciting time for me.  Will they enjoy it?  Have I fallen into any major plotholes?  Will the characters have depth?  Will my readers finish reading the book feeling happy, fulfilled and wishing there was a sequel already?

I have to refrain from trying to guess if they are reading yet and just get on with other things. So, while I wait for news from my readers, I can begin work on the cover art for the book.  I don't want to give too much away with this cover, so I am thinking alien landscape at night, with maybe just silhouettes of people and beasts to tempt the imagination.  Hmmm... time to get out the sketchbook again already!   

Making of the Cover Art for Dog Slobber!

Hmm, not sure I can call it art as such.  More cartoons really.

The front cover image didn't get too much working out before I went for the final event.  Actually at the time I drew it, it was going to be one of the inside illustrations, but I couldn't go past it for the cover once I'd done it.

Here's the sketchbook page where I messed with ideas.  If you click on it you can see it much better.

I didn't think to do progress shots but here is the scan of the image once painted.  I ended up having to photograph the images used both inside and outside the book (with Andyroo's help) because our scanner has gone weird and was kind of flaring out areas, as you can see here.

 

Here's the back page.  I remembered to take more progress shots of this one.  Here's the sketchbook page.  Once again it looks much clearer when embiggened!

You can see I was working with ways to pose the dog and person so that they fit the page nicely beside the text, and you also always have to factor in the barcode box which generally goes on the bottom right of the back page.

Once I'd decided which composition I liked, I redrew it in my watercolour pad.

Then did it in ink with my trusty old permanent pigment ink fineliner.

And finally the watercolours.  Sorry, I forgot to take progress shots here, just went for it!

So there you have it, two images, some work (and a little swearing) with Gimp, and my new cover was ready!  I love it, especially the cheery colours.  I hope the young readers do too!  

I've had a good time with my writing this week.  Been having a blast editing Bunyip Dreaming, and enjoyed it so much I kept doing more of it, so am almost ready to send it to my first readers.  Woooo hooooo!!!  Not long to a new book now, peoples!

Today I had lunch with my sis, Jen, while we nutted out some ideas I have had for my next book, which is a sequel to Cunning Plans.  She's horsier than me these days so I wanted to make sure I wasn't getting too farfetched with my ideas.  It will be another mystery, set in the horse world like Cunning Plans, to be provisionally called Heroic Plans.  Jen could totally be a novelist as well, if she wasn't so busy being a mum, IT guru, and horse nut!  It was a lot of fun and we got plenty of good stuff worked out for the book.  I'm very lucky to have her for a resource for idea-bouncing.  Andrew too.

May you have encouraging, kind, creative-collaboraters and supporters of all kinds about you!  It's what we all need.  Avoid the critics and seek out the supporters.  We all have quite enough critics in our own heads. 

And for a little giggle, the face recognition thingy in my photo programme decided this bit of a pic of Ferry from the book was a face and made a separate image that I found when searching for the pics for this post.  Too funny!