Bonfires and firetrucks

I started writing again today.  Ahhhh, that feels better.  Gives my ratty brain something productive to latch on to. Heroic Plans will be my tenth novel, if you count Dog Slobber!, which at 30 000 words is more of a novella.  It will be fun to get back into the horse world, even if only in my head, while I write this one.  Amazing how the characters come back to life for me as soon as I begin thinking about them again.  I've got some new characters to bring in as well and a new mystery for them to solve.  Fun!

First reports on Bunyip Dreaming from my brave pioneer readers are that they are loving it!  Yayyyy!

We took the firetruck out into Wandoo country on Saturday with our intrepid First Lieutenant and his dog, Harley. 
 

It rained on the way up the highway but had stopped by the time we hit the dirt tracks.  Everything was still nice and wet though!

You can see some Wandoo trees on the side of the road there, and that's Harley's backside as he stands on my lap to get his head out of the window better. Luckily he doesn't stay there for long and was soon sitting beside me having a cuddle again instead.

 
Wandoo is a locally native ghost gum. For some reason, just ten minutes up the road, you can find areas in the forest where it is the main tree.  Lovely.  In some areas the trees are nearly white, and in some other areas they all shade to apricot and pink.  Evolution in action!

This is very like what we were driving through.  Photo linked from here.

The pinker areas looked more like this.  Photo link from here.
  

The country is more open than the Jarrah/Marri areas, with many grass trees and plenty of kangaroos.  We stopped in the middle of nowhere and had a go at locating ourselves on the map using the GPS.  Must admit I wish I'd noticed the set of reading glasses on the dash a bit sooner.  I'm getting to that age where you need to start carrying your reading glasses about with you!  :)

It was lovely to be back out there.  More than twenty years ago (Could it be nearly thirty years ago?  Yegods!) I lived very near this area and used to ride my Sherry out there with my dogs beside me.  I loved it then too.

They use 1080 baits out there now to fight foxes and feral cats and 1080 is lethal for dogs, so I no longer go out there for walks.  We were very careful to keep Harley in the truck. It was nice to have a reason to be out there once again.

It was a frosty walk we had up the block the other morning.  Droplets weighed down all the webs in the paddock and silvered the ground.

The sun was only just poking up his head.

And lady moon was yet to go to bed.

It was good to see that the Wavy-leafed Hakeas were in full flower, smelling mildly and sweetly of honey and waiting for the bees to get up to come sip at them.

 

I'm very pleased with how well the Hakeas we've planted over the last five years or so are going up there. 

The Flinders Ranges wattles have been flowering for a while now.  They were early this year.

It's bonfire season here now, and we've had our first one.

Will it go?

Yes it will!

Cyrano loves it when we do outside things at night. 

 

But Rosie felt that it was time to inside and get dinner.  She was right!

We had a lovely meetup yesterday with some fellow Druids from Perth in a delightful cafe, The Bodhi Tree Cafe. Andyroo and I shared a piece of raw chocolate and beetroot cake that was particularly delicious and that I would definitely recommend trying if you go there! The atmosphere was great too, and it was the perfect place to meet a bunch of new and interesting people and do a lot of talking and laughing.  I love Druidy people.  They are so open, friendly and intelligent! 

It was good to be meeting new people and very good to be feeling well enough to manage it.  Take that Lyme Disease!  I'm getting my life back!  Rarrrr!     

Mum and I and the Dogs go to Noble Falls

Saturday afternoon was a totally beautiful winter afternoon. The light was golden and slanting, the air was crisp, the sun was a little warm if you stood right in it.  Andyroo was off at his amateur radio club, so mum and I got the dogs into the car and went off to visit Noble Falls.  It is about 25mins from where we live.

Someone was a little bit excited to be getting a bonus walk! (The same someone who is excited quite a lot of the time.)

 

Mum walks Angus on a Halti because he is a little bit strong for her aging joints if he takes it into his head to suddenly lunge. He sulks a bit but he behaves himself very well while wearing it.  Usually he only wears it while they walk to and from the bush or training so he was horrified to find he had to be on lead for the whole walk this day.  There is a busy country road nearby to this falls and when he and Tuppence get together they are inclined to range too widely.  Better safe than sorry!

Angus doing his, "I hate my Halti but I'm a good boy," face.
 

It's a really pretty spot here in winter. I usually try to get across here at least once each winter.  In summer the Wooroloo Brook dries up so it's not so nice then.   The water is pretty low for this time of year, actually.  Sometimes that little fall you can see at the back of this photo and behind mum in the one below is spread right across that shelf of rock.

This is a very short video I did four years ago when Tuppence and Angus were just a twinkle in my mum's eye.  This was Rosie, Buffy and I, and you can see how much more water there is going over the falls.  I was sitting a little left of where mum is standing in the above pic.

   
 We walked along a little walk trail that goes beside the water for a while. I usually come in the morning so it was lovely to see the way the late afternoon sun shone across the water.

After we had a little walk we sat on a rock near the falls and soaked up some negative ions.  The dogs would have preferred more walk!

But once they realised we were stopped for now. They sat and enjoyed the sights as well.

Sweet Rosie, happy as ever.

Tuppence.  I don't often get a smiling photo of her because when she is smiling she is usually also on the move. 

It is a great place for paddling but some places are very slippery so we got to enjoy watching a kid inevitably fall into the water (sorry no photo).  When did I turn into the person who was watching instead of the person falling on her arse in the water?  Not sure it is a good thing, but then no way was I going to try to skate round on the slippery wet rocks while being towed by two Labradors!

The site of best slippage and wet bums.

Instead of going paddling, we sedately sat and enjoyed the peaceful water.

   
  Then we went home, feeling happy. 

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!

Winter in the Perth Hills

We had a lovely dawn the other day.  In summer the sun comes up behind trees but in winter it comes up across next doors' more cleared land. I see it each morning when I wave Andrew and his motorbike goodbye at the gate.  It isn't usually this nice, though, and in the very middle of winter it is just a promise on the horizon.

Cyrano continues his winter hibernation. He likes this spot for a change, hiding upstairs in his kitty house in the mezzanine, while still seeing all that goes on below. Can you see the shine of his superior kitty eye watching over his minions below?

You'd think he never moved apart from changing sleeping spots and eating, but actually it was only last summer that we got this footage of him chasing Tuppy while she is playing her fetchy game.  He got OTT after a while and really started having a go at her claws and all, and we had to stop him, but it was a shame he couldn't control himself a bit better, because he enjoyed it so much.

Our firewood guy also grows Proteas for the cut flower market and he generally brings us a bunch when he delivers the wood, since they flower in winter. 

I've been dealing with some pretty agitated brainery this last week.  The private school across the road is mangling the bush 'buffer zone' again and once more we have to go into battle to save it, or what's left of it.  I hate that arrogant assumption of nature automatically needing to make way for more dollars.  Think that school's motto should be, "Cram 'em in and take their money!"

I get so upset to see the trees go down, and when you add that to the after-effects of Lyme inflammation on my brain, it can be hard for me to handle.  It stirs up the anxiety and obsessive thinking and then my peace is very hard to maintain. All isn't sweetness and light in the world of me. A lot of practice and learning has gone into keeping myself mostly sane.  :P     

Ah well, there's always amigurumi!  This is my latest amigurumi finished.  He is a little mini Cthulhu for my hubby who is into H.P. Lovecraft.  The wings and tentacles were a bit of fun to do!  It is this lady's very first pattern and she did a great job! 

We've had some foggy mornings this week.  Doesn't look much like the usual images of Australia, does it?
  

And then we had a bright sunny morning, and the early sunlight picked up every little web on the fence and plants.  So pretty. 

My current batch of orange chooks like to pretend they are wild chickens in the trees, although all they can manage is this low branch.   Nanny Ogg the Black Australorp thinks they are nuts. She stays firmly on the ground apart from her bedtime roost in the chook dome. 

The blue tarp is part of their 'pergola'. I put in an old bit of curved tin and the tarp when we had a few new youngsters that the old girls were chasing out of the chook dome.  They all like it so much that I've kept it in there.  They use it for shady snoozing by day in summer and for avoiding quick showers in winter.  I've also seen Nanny Ogg shift her fluffy pantaloons to run to shelter under it when she saw something fly over that she didn't like.

It looks messy, but eh, what can you do?

A couple of times this week the Pink and Grey Galahs have been in town at dawn.  They are a noisy gaggle of birds and like to act the clown, hanging off branches upside down and deliberately doing aerial tricks around the trees. I tried to capture the noise of them for you.  Turn up the volume!

You can also hear the odd "Wark!" from the Red-tailed Black Cockatoos, some of whom were also hanging about, probably watching the Galahs with dignified horror.   Red-Tails would never indulge in such silliness!

I started working on the second draft for Bunyip Dreaming this morning. I've been away from it for, hmm, maybe four months, while I wrote the first draft of Freya and the Hairy Goddess. A bit of time away from a manuscript is very helpful.  It's good.  I can tell that now.  I don't want to stop reading and editing it to go do other things.  I'm already hooked up into the story!   

Next post will be one of those 'stages of art' posts, showing the making of the art for the cover of Dog Slobber!   

Dog Slobber goes live!

Dog Slobber! is now available on Kindle!  The print copy will be a bit longer yet because I need to receive and approve the proof before it can go up for sale.

This book tells the story of a lass from the year 3007, who lives in a science stronghold in a world where the waters have risen and there is a lot of mud about, and a lot of uncivilised people too, or so they believe.  When her giant dog, Ferry, is stolen, the girl has to go out into the world to find him.  She meets some bad people, yes, but she also makes new friends and has some fun adventures.  Along the way, she learns to appreciate her annoying older brother, she finds out how brave she is, and she learns new ways to look at her world and other people.          

This is what my sis, Jenny, said about it when she and her two youngest girls, 9 and 11, read it together:

When part way through:

"They loved the two chapters we just read. Molly giggled at the jokes and they both wanted to keep going but I try to keep it to a chapter or two each night.  I think it reads really well for their ages.  Nice and chatty like the modern kids' books are, like Diary of a Wimpy Kid etc."

And when they finished it:

"We just read the last five chapters and it was really good.  I read my normal two then the girls read one each and I the last. Great story and characters as always.  Nice to have the girls able to read your writing without the language concern :) 

It was so nice to see how much the girls loved it."

Heh, I'm not going to change my language-use in my adult books any time soon, but I did enjoy writing one especially for a younger audience.

If you have read my books for adults and want another, I can tell you that Andyroo, my mum and my sister all read this and enjoyed it, despite being "grown ups", so have at it.  For 99 cents US it is a bargain.  :)

One of the 15 illustrations from inside the book: