The foggy foggy dew

Well, the plan was to shoot some wallaby this evening - but the ground hugging mist was creeping by sundown, making that impossible.

It is very beautiful, but a little irritating. I imagine the wallaby don't see it that way, but well, I'd rather have my meat from a quick clean death they weren't expecting, rather than a confused and not very nice long trip to the abbatoir. That's my choice, and I don't expect anyone else to live by it, nor do I turn my nose up at a meal at the pub or a friend's house because of it. I was reading a newspaper piece on the fellow who lived a couple of years without any money. Admittedly he did it with the support of pre-bought caravan and solar panel, and by using a bunch of sites that let him take advantage of other's affluence, rather than our sort of gifting society. But it got me thinkng of how the state must hate the cashless transaction. Not that we can do without money - but the tiny bit of tax they collect from cartrige sales and seed sales and dive gear and fuel sales is so small compared to the transactional income they get on every stage of most of the rest of what we produce. Of course it has other knock ons - if no-one buys from the butcher he can't pay rent, or for meat... which may have not so good effects on others. Still, it lets me continue writing and we eat well, and live quite well, and we do not take anything out of the system, but pay our way, where we do spend. It's a balancing act though, and hard to store - unless it is good-will, words or preserved food - for a rainy day or a foggy one. Those preserves work well here, but I don't think they'd be much use in the city.

As you can gather by the waffley post all I did today was the usual chores, a little gardening, a bit of writing, making the week's rolls. Country life. There are much worse things.

I've been a bit off colour - not really sick, but not really well. Just tired. I've put it down to a low grade ear infection. It has made the last few days quite dull, work, research, writing. Cutting wood. The weather has been beautiful, but dry. Anyway,Hopefully things look up. Peter has ordered LED's for the flounder lights, and my hookah regulator has arrived. Barbs has her 10 000 step challenge pedometer. And now to cook our tea.

Only males need apply

Female crays are now protected. We had to return two. Three males (all 2.8-3.5 kg I reckon) did eventually come out, but Norm and I had to work hard for them. And one of them dern females took off with sunnies (that's my story and I'm sticking to it. Next season I'm looking for a girl-cray with shades.) Mind you we played tag with a few, that really worked well. (long holes - one diver on either side of the hole.

We've had frosts and now mild weather. Very strange. The cats dug some carrots again. I must look into Quilly's cat-off herb. I've made my little greenhouse again, and hopefully that will get some capsicums through the winter.

The Forlorn

My first novel, that I now have the rights back for, is availble on Amazon. This means I get 70% of the cover price - 76% if you follow the link above, as opposed to the 6% I got from each paperback sale of the original. It has been available, for free, on the Baen Free Library for some years. I'm hoping there are a few readers out there who haven't got it yet, or who think giving Dave $3, for a story that gave them pleasure, is worth it.

I have included my original epilogue, which was cut from the earlier version.

THE FORLORN

Across the one human colony world, a place technologically regressed to near medieval, possibly the last place humans still survive, a desperate search continues. Scattered across the deserts, tangled jungles, and alien fortresses, lie the core sections of the matter transmitter.

These sections hold the key to vast wealth, power, or… the fulfilment of the colony’s purpose: to help humankind survive the rabidly xenophobic alien Morkth who will tolerate no other intelligent species. The Morkth managed to follow the colony ship, and, despite their mothership being shot down and their queen being killed, they continue their relentless struggle to destroy humankind… and to reconstruct that incredibly valuable matter transmitter. If they succeed, they’ll be able to return to the hive with the location of the colony of vile humans, and have a new world to occupy. If they fail, they’ll destroy the planet.

The search has gone on for centuries, and it is all reaching an end point. The future hangs in the balance.

The Morkth have lasers, aircraft, nukes. Those who want the core sections for their own ends… have vast armies. Against them are three unlikely reluctant heroes: A street child thief, a dispossessed spoiled brat of a princess, and a confused, amoral Morkth-raised human, armed only with 14th century weapons and their own wits.

It’s a lost cause, a forlorn hope.

But it’s all humans have.

50's...

I'm going to '50's party tongight. Given my age, maybe I should recapture my youth and go in what I was wearing in the bit of the 50's I saw. Bloody cold for a nappy, though.

The pig continues piggish, destroying sty just because it can. She's a very voluble pig, of many and varied grunts, unlike her male predecessor. Are girl pigs more talkative than boys? I only have 3 grunts of pig so my contributions to the conversation are limited, but that does not stop her for an instant. Not even having her mouth full stops her. She's fond of her tucker, but not in the same league as her predecessor. Yet.

Some of the carrot seedlings are up, some of the beet seedlings are up, some of the garlic is up. Some parsnips might be. I cut wood, and hopefully finished prepping THE FORLORN for Amazon. Norm and I fixed a water-leak, getting our annual shower, and I only had one 4 months ago! It was warmer then! Seriously, probably saved the pressure pump.

And now I go to use some of that firewood, because it is turning cold and dark, which it does here at this time of year, nearly every night :-).

Podcast

Wearing my sf/fantasy writer hat - a podcast

Hmm. I should have stayed in bed.

It was the sort of day that common sense says that oought to return to bed ASAP. And then the bed would collapse, catch fire and the roof cave in... Not that it wasn't a beautiful day. It was - with our first frost this morning, clear and perfect for going to sea (and thank heavens I didn't. The SES would be out))... only I had some work to do, had to stop rotating the cat with writing, get the cover for THE FORLORN finished, get the last two strips on the roof of the little shed, get the capping on, cut another load of firewood, and dry some more apples, as well as the normal daily tasks of feeding Barbs feeding the chooks, feeding the new piglet (Fairy. She lives in the bottom of the garden and sh... sits on toadstools. Dances going umph.) etc etc. So - I went up and collected some grain for fairy, offloaded the wood I had in the ute alreadey from yesterday, and that was the last thing that went well. I needed one long narrow strips of corrugated iron to finish the roof. Only had one broad short one - but cut in half, it would add up to two of the right length. I found tinsnips and found it was impractical. So I went to grab angle-grinder, and discs I got from Peter. Couldn't find them. Tried again with tinsnips, swearing at my put-down syndrome. Went looking again. Found a disc bought for another purpose... Looked for the special spanner thingy. Searche high and low. Finally found it in the last place any sane person would look, ie. the the right place, the box I took the grinder out of. What kind of idiot puts it there!

So I start cutting. good thing I was wearing safety glasses because the blade lost it's metal hole piece half way. Bits all over. At this point I tear the corrugate sheet in half. It's not too straight but it's meant to tuck under. The bits are hoiked up onto the roof, and I climb up - and it's tricky because the ladder is kinda short, and the roof steep, and there is only a tiny gap left open in which there are beams to hold onto. I'm a fairly competent rock climber, and if I find it tricky, it's... awkward. I have a rope and a waist strap, because you actually can't stay on the roof. But now we're up there with the drill, power, roofscrews. What can possibly go wrong... job will be done in 10 minutes.

I break the drill bit within seconds. Climb down. More tricky now, with rooftile in the way. Return with last hex-headed drill bit - power drill only take hex-heads.Put it in drill, reach for the spot, and the bit falls out, slides down roof and lands in the long grass. I climb down swearing. hunt for drill-bit and cannot find it. Go get cordless, change battery, as it will take ordinary bits and I have lots. It's a cheap old cordless, and not too strong and the battery is worse. still we drill the hole - and realise it actually needs to go through the 4th sheet. Insert said 4th sheet too, removing place I had to stand. Realize that hammer, screws, and power drill are now unreachable inside the roof. Take off the tile, perch screw box and hammer on the open ridge. Wedge the in good-o so they don't fall off. They fall through instead. And off comes the roof tile and in I get again, and fish them out. Do not wedge them so tight. Drill hole... as I am starting to drill box of screws slithers off the roof and crashes onto walling tin below. Climb down, and put enough screws plus a few spares in my pocket, and sharp pointed screwdriver (to make a dimple so drill does not skitter), climb up awkward angle and scredriver falls out onto the ground below...Drill bloody hole anyway. Screw on tile. Start drilling the next hole... battery is dying... Take a screw and hammer hole through (you can do this without a lead hole, it's just much easier with one). Lower cordless down to get other battery (charging). The slip knot slips... and the drill falls the last 6 inches, with the battery falling off.

Climb down, bloody awkward now. The drill is fine, battery is fine, but... the bit is broken.

And the other battery is only half charged. Bugger it I'll make do with a hammer - only 3 more to go... and the cap - 4 at least. And I have 8 screws in my pocket. I put the cap where I can reach it, climb up, put in the other screws and put on the cap. 1 screw in fine. Best check the other end... oi. it's a little shorter than ideal, but stuff it.... (I am hot, tired, cross) hammer screw. Hit my thumb, the same one the lobster tenderised. And so I try to drill it in -and the bloody screw falls out and slithers off the roof.

And now I discover I have 2 left in my pocket and need 3

So I put the 2 in...

And get off the roof while I am still alive and sane.

I stuck to trying to work on the cover for THE FORLORN (which was as fraught, as slow but less damaging)

And I decided that anything involving chainsaws should best wait for another day. Even Scottish dancing could be life-threatening.