Krumhorns and other oddments.

Barbs went down to Lady Barron and heard all the excitement and drama of some boat being pushed against the reef and having a man overboard, and being pulled over the reef by the police boat... it's wil and wooly out there. I am very glad I was not running up Strzlecki mountain in in the flurries of rain and with intermittant moonlight. It's race for tough guys...

I've done some more words, more research into the fine arts of playing the Krumhorn, making traditional breads, coke (as in suff you make out of coal). And you thought a writer's life was dull.

I'm drying figs and more tomato. They are coming to an end... Winter creeps towards us.

We had a small wallaby inside the garden early this morning - I looked out the 'loo window at about 5 in bright moonlight -thereby solving my 'who is breaking this darn pipe' mystery, and a wild cat this afternoon. I just couldn't be sure it wasn't Batman. I'm afraid I want wild cats as little as I want wallaby breaking a pipe-join on its way into the garden. I was blaming the dogs.

melon

We had some of our own melon (we have two, but they're not going to win any size prizes, either of them) with strips of wallaby biltong (in leiu of parma ham) as a snack with our Australian sherry (which has no flor yeast taste at all, so Barbs quite likes it. It's not a patch on a good Jerepigo, but these are things we leave behind. For now, anyway. If I live long enough, and make enough money for that place to put in the vines, I want to make some.) The melon was sweet, juicy and scented (it smelled just like melon) - and as we try not to buy veggies or fruit beyond the essential, like the capsicums that we've grown, they really get appreciated and savoured in their brief season.

The easter weather has turned to rubbish... well wind and rain. Good for hot coss buns and tea. And to be annoying the circling 'flu/cold/mysterious tropical disease seems to have come back. Grumble. I've been back from Zimbabwe two and a half months, and spent about a week not feeling average or very average - and most of that was in Melbourne. We've had a really hot late summer here, with some good weather, and I feel I haven't been able to capitalise on it much. If I'm not better by Tuesday, I think I'll go and pester our doctor.

Other than that, I have made some small headway with the story I am wrestling with. Barbs is going down to Lady Barron to have breakfast and see the three peaks racers but I will soldier on... I must say I don't envy the racers. It's not a fun night to be taking a sail-boat into the sounds.

one a penny...

My day started quite early this morning, as I'd agreed to make 70 little hot cross buns for the Anglican church this morning. To have in Whitemark by 9.45...or 10 at the latest. Unfortunately it turned into one of those nights where the elements of plot I had fermenting in my head started to come together - not moment too soon for the story I am due to give Baen for the teaser to BURDENS OF THE DEAD. So sleep had been scarce anyway. But I did have their buns there hot enought to still juggle if you dropped them, in the rain at 10 on the nose. Then I forgot to pick up the Island News, did some shopping, and came home minced 4kg of wallaby forthe dogs, filleted and minced 2kg of wrasse for the cats, took the debris to the tip, put some beets into the dryer and... tried to work. Brain like cheese (Swiss), full of imported holes (they buy the hole in bulk from Kimberly). So I cooked our tea, flathead and chips, hoping fish would be brain food and take me into a productive evening... only I forgotten that it is Barbs's Scottish dancing tonight.
Maybe tomorrow will be better...

Dog and Dragon, paperback

I believe - no one tells authors these things, what do they have to do with their books? and of what possible interest could it be to their readers and followers, after all? - that the Paperback launch of DOG & DRAGON was today. I believe Barnes and Noble and Simon and Schuster (who do a laughable -in the if I don't laugh I'm gonna cry sense job of distribution of my books for Baen) are having a 'how's-your-father' which means B&N have apparently reduced their order by 90% - only taking bestsellers. So: if you haven't got a copy, if you want a copy, or want to support a struggling author to the princely tune of 7.99 (yes, I will get 64 cents of that :-)) - please, it's available.



(that's a link, folks, if you click on the picture. I get almost just as much from you using that link to buy this (as well as any other Amazon products you happen to buy at the same time) as I do from my publisher. Also, I get it sooner.)

It's also there as an e-book. I'm not sure how much I'll be paid for that, but I am almost sure something.



The link however good for me :-)

Surfing dolphins, albacore...

Surfing dolphins, Albacore, sharks coming up out of the depths... It was an interesting day at sea. And my tail end suitably bruised by the trip back, wich was a little lumpy. The dolphin were magnificent, surfing in our bow wave close enough to splash us. The Albacore (I am pretty sure they were juvenile Albacore, I saw low pectorals, but it could have been skipjack) were frustrating. They let us get close enough to see their little fat bodies, leaping, but wouldn't take anything we had to offer, and were inclinded to sound when we got too close. Any advice on how to catch them, much appreciated. Jamie caught and retured a number of small charcharinid sharks - 6-10 inch long with nasty teeth, in the days old category, and I got taken by a very big one that ate all my tackle (3 hooks) and swam off, leaving me with burned hands and no tackle. Then, later, one followed jamie's flathead up, but didn't take it. That is the first time in 3 years I've ever seen a shark. We did a steady but slow trade in flathead - 27 I think, and I seemed to be the prince of the few tiny fish we returned (I returned about 3, and a gurnard perch, I don't think Jamie got one small one - not my day)about 6kg of fillets, which at todays prices would be treat if we were to buy them - of course not happening. Then we had bumpy trip home and a tricky surf extraction. No disasters, but a few exciting moments.

And now to shower and bed. But on days like this it is easy to be happy and love the island life.

Last seen flying east, attached to a sheet of tin...

Our Scots folk singer last night was good - not great, but good. Sadly - for me - he sang his own compositions. I wanted some of the traditional melodies and songs. Still, it had me digging the Corries cd this morning.

Came back home just after lunch to find part of the new corrugated iron flapping in the breeze, of which there was a little... interesting time with ropes and some roof work in the breeze ensued. No lives were lost, and I was actually not last seen heading in the direction of New Zealand grimly clinging to a sheet of roofing tin. It came close though.

Everyone's apples are coming in, and, although we don't have any, a lot of kind folk have given us apples. It's te way it works here. I've been peeling coring and drying and must start making some apple pulp for pies soon. It makes a change from tomatoes. I always wondered why on earth people bought extra trays for the dehydrators - now I know. Summer glut.

I did a bit of a freezer clean-out / sort today - big chest freezers are good for keeping the cold in, and everything else too. I was amazed to discover some things buried near the bottom... more wallaby cut for biltong and a lot of wallaby shanks. So we're having wallaby shank and apple pie for tea.

Rain, wind and work.

I'm busy re-reading the galley proof of Burdens of the Dead, as I have to produce a short story for that universe in short order. I've just finishe MUCH FALL OF BLOOD which I enjoyed very much although the villian is a nasty piece of work. I hate knowing what she's going to do. It's odd re-reading your own work.

It's the weather for this sort of thing, windy, miserable, and flurries of rain. I don't think a lot in mm, but enough to allow the rain of the day before to sink in. Not much fun for doing anything outdoors, which is a good thing for me. We're off to listen to the Scottish folk singer tonight, and given the weather I wonder what sort of audience he'll have.