Poor Andrew!

When your missus blogs, you're never safe from being photographed.

When the phone rings while you are half way through a shave and she comes in and thinks you look sexy rockin' your braces...

 

...to when you get an eye test and she thinks you look all steampunk.  :D

Some of the plants here are looking pretty good too, though not as good as Andyroo.

I put this Illawarra flame Tree in the ground at least 20 years ago. It is one of my all time fave trees.  Right now it is doing that thing it sometimes does, which is flowering.

Google offered me that last one as an artistic rendering. It kind of captures the feel of it better than the ordinary pic.  The camera can't quite get the flare of the red.   

The blues and purples of the last few fresh flowers on the pet hydrangea, Pompom, caught my eye yesterday.  So pretty!

She's a pet because they require a lot of water and she's pretty much the only plant we have like that.

We've just got back from a ride on Andrew's motorbike, known as Whim, because he bought her on one.  Whim needed a longer run since she's been a bit neglected lately, so we took her across to a hills pub in Gidgegannup and had a drinky on the high verandah.  I took this pic of our trusty steed from up on our airy perch.  We played rummy in the shade and had tall, icy, non-alcoholic Fire Engines.  (Red cordial and lemonade, with a slice of lemon.) Never let it be said we aren't exciting people!   :)

 
Being on the pillion isn't as much fun as riding for yourself, which I used to do, but generally I always chose to take the car so the dogs could come and my bike was not used enough and I sold it long ago.  I only get the urge on lovely days like today when it is warm but not hot, or on hot nights after a stinking hot day, when to ride through the night feels like bathing in warm milk.

Actually, as to being a bit boring these days, the weekend looks like it might be a bit lively.  I'll see how we go and report back!

My recent writing foray is finished. I wrote a Freya shortish story for my good friend Gavin for his 50th Birthday.   The nice thing about the Freya world is that you can pretty much do what you like, and I did, and had a lot of fun doing it too!  I might put it up to Goodreads or somewhere for you to read, or here if it isn't too long.  Perhaps I can do installments?  Wait for it!

The baby Pink and Grey Cockies are starting to arrive in town.  They are on the wing now and following mum and dad around driving them nuts.  I got video of them but they are a bit far away. I'd have cropped the video but actually what I love best about it is the magnificent Marri trees blowing in the wind.

The endless sawing sound is the baby nagging, then the weird noise is her being actually fed by the parent, who has their beak down her throat.

I always think it is mean of the babies not to give the long-suffering parents a rest after a feed, but they always start nagging again straight away.  Yesterday I saw one or the other parent lose their temper and give the baby a bit of a biff as if to say, "Shut up, you little brat!"  It was probably dad.  Daddy birds are less patient than mummy birds, as a rule.   :D

If you want to see a close-up, this one is much better.

I'm lucky bird noises don't bother me, because between all the nagging and then the feeding, it can all go on for a long time!              
 


  

The Making of the Cover Art For "Freya and the Hairy Goddess."

I'm writing and posting this on Thursday because my computer has been behaving a bit oddly and I don't want to miss posting tomorrow.

Starting tomorrow for four days, Freya and the Golden Bear, the first book of this series, will be free for kindle from Amazon.  Go for it!  Have a read!  What have you got to lose?  It's a wild adventure full of interesting friends and foes, and should make you laugh too.  I certainly wrote it to be light and funny, and by all accounts it hits the spot.  


The second book of the series, Freya and the Hairy Goddess, is now available on Amazon as well.  My first readers tell me it's as if the first book never ended, except that the two stories do stand alone.  I'm not a big fan of cliffhanger novels, I'd rather give you your money's worth with each book.  So, if you enjoy the first one you've got for free, which I'm sure you will, do buy the second one too.  :)       

I was a good little artist this time and remembered to do some progress shots for the art work, so here goes.  There were a few pages of sketches done first.

Some were me working out how I wanted the cover to work.  The first idea wasn't quite right.  Too much of the giant vulture went onto the spine and back cover.  I tried some very different ones but kept coming back to the snow vulture.  I'd had that image in my mind for ages and knew it could work, I just needed to change the way the three figures interacted with each other and the required cover format.  

So I kept sketching.

 

Until I hit on the right one.  See the bottom left drawing?  Oh yeah, that was it!

So it got played with some more. Note the studies of vulture feet down the right hand side.  :)

And I spent some more time getting Freya and Dinna just right.

And then it was time to go for the actual canvas, already base-painted with blue, and to draw it one more time.  Actually it was drawn twice more, because I decided my backing blue was too dark, and I got the positioning of the figures a bit wrong, so I over-painted the backing again and redrew it.  

 

 
Then I began to line in some colour. I was aiming for most of the scene to be in blues and whites to let the main features really stand out and yet allow the text to be easily visible, so I needed the white feathers to be outlined in a slightly darker blue to bring them out of the white and blue background just enough to show up.

So, then it was time to block in some white. 

 

I'd drawn a kind of topknot on the vulture but decided it looked too much like angry Bigbird, so I changed it into a full ruff type thing around the head, which looks way cooler.

I also had the neck bare of feathers, and therefore pink, at one stage, but it looked hideously... well... the best word to use here is probably,"phallic," so that had to go too!  :D  

And so I just kept fiddling and layering till I had it how I wanted it. I was deep into art space by then and forgot to take more photos as I went!  Whoops!   

After that it was kindly photographed by Andrew and it was time to open Gimp to get the cover finalised.  What do you think?  I wanted Freya and Dinna's bravery and teamwork to stand out on the cover.  I hope they do, and I hope it encourages you to want to read the book.  It was so much fun to write, and I'm sure you'll find it so if you read it.  :D

 

 

     

Messing Around on the Anglo-Saxon Lyre Again

This is the silly tune I wrote for my book character, Freya Fjordrider.  It's a dialogue between two people sitting outside a tavern watching the world go by.

Usual provisos involving amateur status of musician.  :)

Quality of the video is a tad low since it was taking forever to load at a better quality.  The internetz was feeling a bit crappy. But, it looks and sounds ok.  The background noise is wind in the trees, and that was always going to be there!

I'm late getting this up due to video-loading slowness, and it's time for dinner,  so that will do for today.  Friday I'll tell you about a free offer on Freya.  :)    

   

Anniversaries, Margaritas and Cats.

It is mine and Andrew's 19th Anniversary of being together, today.  Last night we went all the way to Cottesloe Beach on a date to celebrate.

The sea was so obliging.  The water was calm and beautiful.  We had our first swim in ages, then got changed into our glad rags and went up into the Indiana Teahouse.

This pic from here

This photo by Marc Russo

It's a bit of an institution in Perth.  It must have been built before the rules came in to protect the beaches from building, so it holds a very special place, being right on the water as it is.

We had a table right by the windows but someone seated closely next to us had strong perfume on, so we moved.  Always a risk when you go out with Multiple Chemical Sensitivity. (Thanks again Lyme disease, for all you've done for me!) Ah well, we liked our second table better anyway!

The view was to die for.  The atmosphere of the restaurant was lovely. We didn't go silly, but Andrew did have a margarita. 

And we got to watch a couple right in front of us get engaged. It was so sweet and very  fun for a pair of old crusties to get to see young love in action!

As the sun set the view got even better.

The colours!  The colours!  Made my little artist heart happy!  We are rather sunset deprived up in the hills because the sun goes behind trees very quickly, so this was just wonderful.

After very nice main courses and a shared yummy desert, we pottered along the shore-front.  

  
Then it was time to head all the way home again, to where our dogs and Cyrano were very glad to see us.  The dogs had been over visiting Grandma, so they were ok, but kitty misses us when we go out too.

       
 Do you think he will achieve total roundness as he gets older?  He assures me it is all fur.  A fat kitty is fine by me.  No bird hunting!

I also feel rather celebratory because my ninth book, Freya and Hairy Goddess, is up on Kindle now, and will be available in print form soon.  There will be a special offer on the first Freya book next weekend, so I think I'll launch this book and announce the offer at the same time next Friday.

Do you think I should have a big party when I publish my tenth book?  Won't be long now.  I just have to edit Heroic Plans.  Think I will do that and get it up and running before starting to write the sequel to Land of Fire. I have a feeling that particular story might take quite a while to write!      

Other stuff this week.  We've been to one small fire call-out this morning, and twice this week we went out painting H's on the road to mark hydrants and power poles for our Brigade.  The easier they are to find, the quicker we can fill up and get back to a fire.

It's kind of fun pottering about the local roads in the trusty Light Tanker.  Amazing how much of a friend that vehicle has become.  I love Land Cruisers.

Don't tell our lovely Mr Whippy the Commodore that, though.  Mr Whippy has been a true-blue, reliable car for us all along.  It's not his fault that he replaced our creaky old Cruiser, Bruce, and he's a hell of a lot faster and more comfortable!            

Short Blurbs and Brave Firey Mothers.

Fireys this morning was fun. Mum came along, since she missed the Sawyers Valley Volunteer Bushfire Brigade's Christmas Party on Tuesday.  Today they were planning on having another little get-together to use up the spare food left over from the sumptuous nosh we had on Tuesday, so we suggested she come along and meet some of the members.

Not only did mum come along, but she agreed to gear up and ride in the 1.4 with us when we went out!  How cool is that?  Good on you, mum!  She's going to join as a social member, which they jokingly told her means she has to come to *every* party.  :)

First we took the two vehicles up to the local shops and did our checks up there for a bit of PR (to see if we could get any new members!) and then we went out into the bush nearby and checked the site of a fire from the week before, which came very close to the Sawyers Valley townsite. I was very glad to see that this venerable old gentleman, the Jarrah tree I call the Faraway Tree, was saved on the day, though the fire came within metres.  Many thanks to the PAW and Volunteer firefighters who saved it!

Nikki, my fellow lady firefighter (and inspiration) got this fantastic shot of one of the helitacs over the bush on that day.

By the way, the Christmas party was fun.  Lots of good energy.  Rather reminded me of those neighbourhood parties we sometimes went to as children back in my young days.  Ah, those long, long ago days!  The kids had lots of fun climbing on the old truck, and all squeezing into the cabs of the new ones too. There were all ages there.  It really is a community Brigade.

This is the newest member, a third generation Firey, in his special PPE, made for him so he can be like Dad and Grandad.  He was so proud to wear it at the party.  The cuteness!

This afternoon I've been working on a short blurb for my newest Freya book, Freya and the Hairy Goddess.  They're always tricky because you want to get people interested, but I don't love it when the back of a book tells you too much about the story, so I try to avoid that.  As it stands right now, it goes like this:

Freya Rides Again!

As wild as ever, Freya and her evil horse, Dinna, join old friends and new in an adventure that takes them rampaging across the frozen wastes of the far north. This time, it's a quest to save the Goddess of a people she once knew only as myths. Along the way, she gets to do lots of fighting, has plenty of fun, boinks a few likely blokes, and gets into a bunch of shenanigans as only Freya knows how.

Over-the-top, funny, rude, bloodthirsty Sword and Sorcery for almost all of the family... or perhaps not! 

What do you think?  Does it make you want to read the book?  The Freya books really are a bit rampant, so if you have tender sensibilities, stick to my other titles.  They're much gentler.  :) 
  
   

Cover Art Sneak Peek

I've been really occupied today with working on the cover art for Freya and the Hairy Goddess, in between baking and cleaning and goodness knows what else. I don't know where the days go at the moment!

We don't take much notice of NYE here.  I think it tends to make people too desperate to have fun, since it is *supposed* to be such a fantastic night.  We'd rather avoid the freneticism. Instead we're going to have a date night at home.  We're planning to put a roast in the oven and snuggle up on the couch to watch Romeo and Juliet, the first movie we ever went to see together, then we'll take a walk into the paddock and look at the stars.

We'll probably be all tucked up and asleep well before midnight.  (So long as the local firebugs refrain from lighting any new ones!) Thank Goddess for the sense a bit more age bestows upon us.  In my younger years I'd have been out "freneticking" with the best of them.   

I don't want to show you too much of my cover art yet, but here's a teaser, one of the sketches, of which there are rather many!

I hope it wets your appetite for the full cover, and the book!

One of those "memories" things came by my facebook page the other day and showed me a picture of Tuppy this time four years ago. Hard to believe that exactly fours years ago, Tuppence was only this big. 

Already obsessive though!  She's trying to hypnotise me into coming to do some training in this pic.

 And she drove her mum, Rosie, bonkers at times as well. These pics always crack me up. Poor Rosie was so patient!

Tuppy wore us all out, herself included.

 

But she loved her Mama.

 

And embarrassed her just like all daughters do. 

She was such a bright little cutie patootie! (Still is at four.)

 

Have a good New Year's celebration, and keep safe!  I'll see you in 2016! 

          

Some More Lyre playing by me.

Some videos, posted with the usual provision that I'm a very amateur amateur.  :D

I couldn't believe it, I did one recording of, "The Wanderer," outside with my old camera and only did a tiny flub once, and the memory was full about 5 seconds before the end, dammit!

So we set up again with a newer camera with more memory, this time inside because it was noisy home-from-school-time outside, and I played the song about five times and came to a messy halt every time, so I had a go at this lovely tune, written for the Anglo-Saxon Lyre by Keith Seddon, to settle myself down a bit.  It's called, "For My Lost Love," and was written for his wife, Jocelyn.  It has sadness in it, but joy too. I always think of their love while I play it.

  
After that I flubbed, "The Wanderer," a couple more times and then Cyrano Kitty decided the table was where the action was to be had, so he joined me.  I thought he might help and he did a bit.  I eventually got it about as well as I was going to, and you'll just have to take my word for it that I can play this tune all the way through very nicely when there isn't a camera around.  A born performer I am not! :D  Still, I know that folks are very interested in my lyre, so here you go:

I learned this song by watching and listening to the video of Peter Pringle playing it, and now if you like, you can go watch his version, tuned a little differently and enhanced electronically.  It is more impressive than my version, that's for sure, but I do love playing it, and you'll notice I slipped Odin in there.  In the 10th C, it could have been either Odin or the Christian God he was praying to, and there is some talk that the poem is older and was perhaps modified to be Christian at a later date. Odin likes it better that I put him back into it.  :)  

 
Yesterday I finished my first edit and read-through of, "Freya and the Hairy Goddess."  I did it in four days because I was enjoying it too much to stop.  I really do let myself go a lot when writing these Freya books and it is always fun to read them and giggle away to myself at the situations and quips I come up with. 

I have notes to help me go back and fix this place and that, and more grammar and spelling checks and read-throughs to do, but the book is good, if I do say so myself.  Like the first Freya book, Freya and the Golden Bear, it is Sword and Sorcery, but far from serious or dark.  It is rather naughty, and quite funny. Music may not come naturally to me, but writing novels surely does!

This morning we made a big trek across town to find me a Djembe.  It still smells a bit goaty from the new skin (they have to be skinned here in Oz) and the dogs were rather keen on a nibble.

"Can I eat it mama?"

It was made in Ghana and the guy who buys them, Paul, from Akwaaba, purchases them directly from the makers, so that is a good way to make sure the artisans get a fair wage. It's going to be my Christmas pressie, but I don't think I'll be able to hold off playing it till then. It will be off to drumming circle with me next week!  It has an antelope and a big old tree carved on the base and I knew it was the drum for me as soon as I saw that tree!

May your coming week bring you lots of lovely music to make or listen to, and some silliness and giggling too!

          

Bracing for Summer

Andrew is, anyway.  I'm liking this back view of him in his new Firey's pants and braces.  I'm especially loving the red braces.  They're fireproof too, though as we've joked, if your braces are in a position to be on fire, you have more problems than just your braces!   

His helmet is here too.  It's a new kevlar one and it weighs a tonne.  Still, we've heard about one guy who had a tree fall over and pin his head between the tree and the truck, and he walked away thanks to his kevlar helmet, so here's to kevlar!  We'll just have to build neck muscles like rubgy players to wear them. 

Andyroo is still waiting for his own new fireproof coat to arrive.  You can't go on the roster to go to bushfires until you have all your own new gear. 

On Saturday, we popped into the local communications brigade to see what they get up to.  Andrew, being a radio nut, is interested in joining them too. He's got a bit of a sabbatical from work coming up and I think he plans to fill it with all sorts of interesting activities.

The local guys have a brand new vehicle. It's very high tech and comfy.   It looks a bit like this one from South Australia, and inside it reminded me of some high tech surveillance vehicle from an episode of X-Files. 

 
 As the folks there said, if you don't feel up to fighting a fire, you can still be of great help.  If they ever even see the fire, then they are too close, and they even have air conditioning in the new truck, so you could be doing your community a great service in comfort.  :)   They seem like a nice chatty group too, as you might expect from people in a communication role.

With things gearing up for summer here, our own Brigade is really coming to life.  On the weekend, nine of us went to a local dam and practiced drafting water out of it to fill the tanks of the vehicles.  They're a nice crowd to hang with, and it was very interesting.  It certainly is helping my brain to expand to be learning all these news things, and it will have to expand even more in the next few weeks, as I have a radio course to do this coming Saturday, and then the two weekends after that will be spent at the intro to fire fighting courses. 

It's worked out well, really, as Andyroo will be home to mind the dogs. I didn't like the idea of them being alone for two long days in a row.  They're too used to having me home nearly all the time.

In non-Firey news, I would guess Heroic Plans would be about three weeks, mabe a tad more, away from completion of the first draft.  I'm over the highest plot peak and coasting down the other side to a happy ending.  After that I can get into the first edit of Freya and the Hairy Goddess.  I'm looking forward to that! 

I'm having all sorts of fun making Amigurumi for Christmas, but I can't show you, and it's killing me!  I have such cute new characters here now, just waiting for their time to go to new homes.  Ah well, here's Red Riding Mouse and her Granny.  I made them a good while back but it was before I started blogging so I don't think they've ever had an outing on here.

I couldn't bear to part with them, so they sit on my windowsill by the kitchen table and watch me make more cute critters.

Not sure how blogging will go in the next couple of weeks, but I'll do my best to post twice a week as usual, even if it gets a bit hectic. I'd love to play you a tune I have recently learned on my Lyre, but need to check with its composer first.  It's a pretty personal bit of music.

For now, may your life be filled with purpose and may you find many things to do to keep your mind bright.  As Heinlein said, specialisation is for ants!