Basil was not a happy doggy today. The owner of the sheep next door came and took away half of his flock. We had to lock Basil up inside the house he was carrying on so much when outside he was making it hard to round them up. Paula felt so bad for him that we took him along with us when we went into Campbeltown today. He was allot happier in the backseat than he was the other day in the front seat. Unfortunately Paula had forgotten to bring along his lead, so Basil had to stay in the car while we did what we needed to do. Needless to say he was confused as to why we brought him along.
Our windscreen was cracked by a flying rock thrown at us by a logging truck while on the way home. The crack had spread to over a third of the way across the car by the time we got home. Even so, Paula decided it was pizza night tonight, so a little after we got home, we went back to Campbeltown to try the pizza from there. Disappointing would be an understatement for our reaction when compared to the pizza we got from Perth last month. The ones we got tonight not only cost more than Perth's they were easily half the size and bland to boot. Perth may be about fifteen kilometers or so further away, but we'll be going there again rather than Campbeltown for pizza if the urge ever takes us again. The other restaurants in town looked interesting though, certainly more open and later than in Perth or anywhere else within a seventy odd kilometer radius of sunny Avoca.
Friday, 12 March 2010
Thursday, 11 March 2010
The Great Wall of Wood
Basil and I took a walk down by the two rivers again this morning. There was an older couple strapping a boat onto the roof of their land rover. The whole arrangement of the land rover looked like a more or less permanent camping vehicle, very neatly set out. Packaged meals in compartments all along the side with a fold up wooden panel like on the side of the meal trucks that come around to industrial sites. They had folded up push bikes in the back and what looked like a windsurfer on the roof next to the boat. An all around retirement adventure, looked fantastic. And both of them looked as though they could run circles around me even though they had a good thirty years on me. I've got to get back in shape.
It was cold enough to see my breath this morning. It's only march, early Autumn for heavens sake! It only gets cold enough to see your breath in Sydney maybe once or twice a year. It's going to be a long cold winter for me here, especially if we never get this missing baffle plate. I finished stacking our wood this morning. As an exercise to keep warm in the cold morning air, it has few rivals. Quite an imposing structure now it's complete, makes it look like a lot more wood than it had when it was just in a pile. Hard to believe we're probably going to end up burning more than five or six times that amount in the cold months.
I applied the idea I had last night about Dream Stealers politicians not having policies to the story today, fits in nicely. The story has doubled in length in a day and is now beginning to look more likely to be a ten thousand worder than the two thousand worder the first Stealers story was. I can't help but have a little bit of 'Yes Prime Minister' sitting in the back of my mind when I write about my hero and his political advisor. Not that there's anything even remotely funny about a Dream Stealers story, they give me the willies. It would be fun to write comedy some day, but it's probably going to be a long way off yet. I need to hone my craft a great deal before I'm ready to attempt comedy.
Basil now has a new charge to guard in the backyard. The wall of wood. He now sits dutifully in front of it, sitting to attention (at least whenever he knows we're looking) making sure that... well making sure it doesn't get away... I think.
It was cold enough to see my breath this morning. It's only march, early Autumn for heavens sake! It only gets cold enough to see your breath in Sydney maybe once or twice a year. It's going to be a long cold winter for me here, especially if we never get this missing baffle plate. I finished stacking our wood this morning. As an exercise to keep warm in the cold morning air, it has few rivals. Quite an imposing structure now it's complete, makes it look like a lot more wood than it had when it was just in a pile. Hard to believe we're probably going to end up burning more than five or six times that amount in the cold months.
I applied the idea I had last night about Dream Stealers politicians not having policies to the story today, fits in nicely. The story has doubled in length in a day and is now beginning to look more likely to be a ten thousand worder than the two thousand worder the first Stealers story was. I can't help but have a little bit of 'Yes Prime Minister' sitting in the back of my mind when I write about my hero and his political advisor. Not that there's anything even remotely funny about a Dream Stealers story, they give me the willies. It would be fun to write comedy some day, but it's probably going to be a long way off yet. I need to hone my craft a great deal before I'm ready to attempt comedy.
Basil now has a new charge to guard in the backyard. The wall of wood. He now sits dutifully in front of it, sitting to attention (at least whenever he knows we're looking) making sure that... well making sure it doesn't get away... I think.
Wednesday, 10 March 2010
Basil Rides Shotgun
When I went to the tip today, I took Basil with me. Since there wasn't any room in the back for him as I had to put the back seats down to fit the bin, I had him ride in the passenger seat up front, doing what i believe the Americans call "Riding Shotgun" I guess a throw back to the old sage coach days, when the driver needed an armed guard for protection. Basil normally loves car rides, but being up front was not for him. He got out at the tip and was very hard to get back into the car. I guess he didn't like that he couldn't lie down stretched out, or that he couldn't get to the windows on both sides. Whatever it was, I wont be doing it again. Basil is a back seat car rider and that's just fine with both of us.
I think I know why my current inspiration for the latest Dream Stealers story is political. Tasmania is having a state election on the 20th of this month and every second television commercial is about it. It's one of the strangest campaigns I've ever witnessed. Most of the ads are about individuals who happen to be standing for election with various people, probably relatives, saying what nice people they are and how good they'll be for the state without actually saying anything about policy. One of the adds talked about it's candidate for what seemed an eternity without even showing a picture of him, they trotted out his Mum (I think) and a guy in overalls, the main speaker was some older guy in a suit, I suspect it was his father. The only adds that actually mention policy specifically are that one party is apparently in favour of building, well okay, 'improving' a road, while the other is going to improve hospital care in some unspecified way that they're not already doing. (They're the ones in power at the moment.) Sure, it's an important road for Tasmania, it's the one that links the two biggest cities, but it does seem a little odd to be the only issue at stake. And as for hospital care, how about a GP or two? There isn't a GP within a hundred and fifty kilometers of here who's taking on any more patients! My wife and I will have to go all the way to Hobart in order to have medical care and checkups. I guess that road being upgraded will be handy. The other odd thing about the up coming election is the average age of the politicians. They almost all seem strangely young compared to similar samples from NSW, or maybe that's me seeing through my Dream Stealer goggles again. That's one of the odd byproducts of the Dream Stealer world after all, as I established early on in the Barefoot Project, all the major movers and shakers in the Stealers world are in their early twenties or so. Maybe I could use this bizarre scarcity of policy as a feature of Stealers world too, it would make sense with the baby faced politicians being more about personality than substance.
I think I know why my current inspiration for the latest Dream Stealers story is political. Tasmania is having a state election on the 20th of this month and every second television commercial is about it. It's one of the strangest campaigns I've ever witnessed. Most of the ads are about individuals who happen to be standing for election with various people, probably relatives, saying what nice people they are and how good they'll be for the state without actually saying anything about policy. One of the adds talked about it's candidate for what seemed an eternity without even showing a picture of him, they trotted out his Mum (I think) and a guy in overalls, the main speaker was some older guy in a suit, I suspect it was his father. The only adds that actually mention policy specifically are that one party is apparently in favour of building, well okay, 'improving' a road, while the other is going to improve hospital care in some unspecified way that they're not already doing. (They're the ones in power at the moment.) Sure, it's an important road for Tasmania, it's the one that links the two biggest cities, but it does seem a little odd to be the only issue at stake. And as for hospital care, how about a GP or two? There isn't a GP within a hundred and fifty kilometers of here who's taking on any more patients! My wife and I will have to go all the way to Hobart in order to have medical care and checkups. I guess that road being upgraded will be handy. The other odd thing about the up coming election is the average age of the politicians. They almost all seem strangely young compared to similar samples from NSW, or maybe that's me seeing through my Dream Stealer goggles again. That's one of the odd byproducts of the Dream Stealer world after all, as I established early on in the Barefoot Project, all the major movers and shakers in the Stealers world are in their early twenties or so. Maybe I could use this bizarre scarcity of policy as a feature of Stealers world too, it would make sense with the baby faced politicians being more about personality than substance.
Tuesday, 9 March 2010
The Dream Stealers Conspiracy
Working on the political stealer story today I further solidified in my own head the hidden conspiracy side of the Dream Stealers. It was a fun experience playing with some of the more absurd theories bandied about by real life conspiracy nuts and confirming them as true... within the Dream Stealers world anyway. The Stealers neatly explain a whole lot of some the theories thrown about, just a shame for the conspiracy nuts out there that THEY'RE NOT REAL.
I went out to the back paddock to attack the thistles again today. I've decided to gather just as many as I can carry in one load per day, my back just wont handle more gardening than that at the moment.
Basil has taken to digging on both sides of the front path now, so the whole entrance to the house from the street now resembles a dirt track with craters on either side. A little like a relief map of Queenstown (Tasmania) if you haven't been there, photos don't do it justice, you just must visit the place, it'll turn you into a conservationist in an instant. When Paula and I first considered coming to live in Tasmania, Queenstown was one of the places we considered... until we visited the place. It'll give me inspiration for writing about mines on the lunar surface. I'm serious, it's out of this world.
I took Basil for a walk through to the other end of town today, up to the tip and back. There's an apple tree by the side of the road just past the last house, doesn't seem to belong to anyone. There are apples on the ground around it, I'm guessing they were blown off in the virtually gale force winds we've been having today. Not the kind of apples we have on our tree, which are good cooking apples, these are reddish. I think they're Fuji's or some such similar variety. I must remember to ask the nearest house if the tree is theirs or if the apples are considered communal property.
It's very cold tonight, so I'd better get to bed, it's my job to provide warmth to the felines and the female I share the bed with. Until we get our four month overdue baffle plate for our wood heater, (the land lord was supposed to have had it fitted before we even moved in back in December) I'm the best provider of heat in the house.
I went out to the back paddock to attack the thistles again today. I've decided to gather just as many as I can carry in one load per day, my back just wont handle more gardening than that at the moment.
Basil has taken to digging on both sides of the front path now, so the whole entrance to the house from the street now resembles a dirt track with craters on either side. A little like a relief map of Queenstown (Tasmania) if you haven't been there, photos don't do it justice, you just must visit the place, it'll turn you into a conservationist in an instant. When Paula and I first considered coming to live in Tasmania, Queenstown was one of the places we considered... until we visited the place. It'll give me inspiration for writing about mines on the lunar surface. I'm serious, it's out of this world.
I took Basil for a walk through to the other end of town today, up to the tip and back. There's an apple tree by the side of the road just past the last house, doesn't seem to belong to anyone. There are apples on the ground around it, I'm guessing they were blown off in the virtually gale force winds we've been having today. Not the kind of apples we have on our tree, which are good cooking apples, these are reddish. I think they're Fuji's or some such similar variety. I must remember to ask the nearest house if the tree is theirs or if the apples are considered communal property.
It's very cold tonight, so I'd better get to bed, it's my job to provide warmth to the felines and the female I share the bed with. Until we get our four month overdue baffle plate for our wood heater, (the land lord was supposed to have had it fitted before we even moved in back in December) I'm the best provider of heat in the house.
Monday, 8 March 2010
Angry Mutant Killer Thistles
Well, it seems my story following a politician in Dream Stealers World is what wanted to be written most urgently. It's a very different flavour of story to the original Stealers story which was first person, this one is in the third person and follows the later stages of a Lawrence Kilremey... well, I'd better not say any more about it here, don't want to pre publish before submission, but I suspect I may have something ready for my pre submission editorial team within the week.
The farmers who's sheep are staying next door dropped by to check on them this morning. Basil went wild. Someone in with "his" sheep. I explained to the farmer how Basil has been reacting with them there and he said he just may be a natural sheep dog. I think he may have been humouring the "city boy" but he did offer to let Basil loose on them the day he takes the sheep out of the yard. Not sure when that will be, but I know Paula will want to see it.
It was eight hour day here in Tassie today. I've never heard of it, but apparently it's what Labour day used to be called in other states (and countries) all started in Victoria over 150 years ago... but then dear reader Mr google will give you all the info you need (or want) on that subject. Just odd that it's still labeled with the original title, but then this is Tasmania and old fashioned is what we do here.
We have angry mutant killer thistles. I found a whole bunch of them all over the back of the back paddock today. They weren't there yesterday, but this morning some where fully the size of cabbages. How is it possible for a plant to grow that fast? I can't wait till we get some veggies planted if that's what's going to happen. Maybe it's only because they're weeds though, I remember someone describing a weed as the fastest growing plant in the area, that's part of what makes it a weed. Murphy's law of crops, only the weeds grow exceptionally well, everything else needs encouragement and constant attention.
The farmers who's sheep are staying next door dropped by to check on them this morning. Basil went wild. Someone in with "his" sheep. I explained to the farmer how Basil has been reacting with them there and he said he just may be a natural sheep dog. I think he may have been humouring the "city boy" but he did offer to let Basil loose on them the day he takes the sheep out of the yard. Not sure when that will be, but I know Paula will want to see it.
It was eight hour day here in Tassie today. I've never heard of it, but apparently it's what Labour day used to be called in other states (and countries) all started in Victoria over 150 years ago... but then dear reader Mr google will give you all the info you need (or want) on that subject. Just odd that it's still labeled with the original title, but then this is Tasmania and old fashioned is what we do here.
We have angry mutant killer thistles. I found a whole bunch of them all over the back of the back paddock today. They weren't there yesterday, but this morning some where fully the size of cabbages. How is it possible for a plant to grow that fast? I can't wait till we get some veggies planted if that's what's going to happen. Maybe it's only because they're weeds though, I remember someone describing a weed as the fastest growing plant in the area, that's part of what makes it a weed. Murphy's law of crops, only the weeds grow exceptionally well, everything else needs encouragement and constant attention.
Wednesday, 3 March 2010
Misty Mulberries
I took Basil for a walk in the mist this morning. We went down to the junction of the two rivers just outside town. St Pauls River (the smaller of the two) has a whole lot of Mulberry bushes growing along the bank where there's a picnic ground. I've not noticed the mulberries there before, not seen or tasted them for years. They're just coming into ripeness now too. Three interstate caravans where parked down there this morning too, fairly sure it's not a legal campsite, but they're not hurting anyone... so long as they clean up after themselves.
Dream Stealers stories are tough on me. They're not my normal taste in reading, but oddly I find them easier to write than what I would normally read. My first one had been cooking away in my brain for over twenty years before I had it ready for submission. I'm fairly sure these two I started today aren't going to take that long, and I'm making much better progress on them than I am on any of the other stories right now. It would make things easier on me if I just heard back about my first submission. Either way, acceptance or rejection, I just want to know. The scientist story seems to hold the most promise at the moment, so I think I'll focus on that and see if I can make something of it in a week or so. I need to redevelop some momentum. If it's going to take this long to find out about one submission, I need to have a much larger number of submissions out there so I can at least hear back about some/one a month maybe.
I'd been forgetting to take the garbage to the tip for the last couple of weeks. I put the "bin" in a shed in the backyard and kept forgetting it come garbage day... till today. The bin was pretty ripe when I dragged it out of the shed, so I let it sit for a couple of hours to hopefully dissipate the smell somewhat before I contaminated the car with it. Basil decided it was his bound and duty to sit guard by it under the cherry plum tree in the backyard. He even forsook looking over "his" sheep in the neighbours yard for the afternoon just to make sure nobody got to the bin... or was it to make sure the bin didn't get away? He does take his guard duty seriously. When we got back from the walk this morning he raced out the back to check up on his sheep, and whenever I go away from the house he sits by the front door waiting till I get back. He's not waiting for me, he doesn't even like me very much he's Paula's dog, but when I'm away from home he sees himself as the household protector. Just one small problem with this brave guard dog... well a few of them:
1} he's afraid of the dark.
2} he's not afraid of or even disturbed by Jehovah's Witnesses.
3} he barks at tradesmen, but only if they're visiting next door neighbours, not us.
4} he jumps up and nips at people (mostly me) when he gets excited.
5} he's afraid of the dark.
6} the holes he's digging in the yard are big enough to bury him in.
7} he destroys footwear if it's left on the ground... but only left shoes.
8} HE'S AFRAID OF THE DARK!
Dream Stealers stories are tough on me. They're not my normal taste in reading, but oddly I find them easier to write than what I would normally read. My first one had been cooking away in my brain for over twenty years before I had it ready for submission. I'm fairly sure these two I started today aren't going to take that long, and I'm making much better progress on them than I am on any of the other stories right now. It would make things easier on me if I just heard back about my first submission. Either way, acceptance or rejection, I just want to know. The scientist story seems to hold the most promise at the moment, so I think I'll focus on that and see if I can make something of it in a week or so. I need to redevelop some momentum. If it's going to take this long to find out about one submission, I need to have a much larger number of submissions out there so I can at least hear back about some/one a month maybe.
I'd been forgetting to take the garbage to the tip for the last couple of weeks. I put the "bin" in a shed in the backyard and kept forgetting it come garbage day... till today. The bin was pretty ripe when I dragged it out of the shed, so I let it sit for a couple of hours to hopefully dissipate the smell somewhat before I contaminated the car with it. Basil decided it was his bound and duty to sit guard by it under the cherry plum tree in the backyard. He even forsook looking over "his" sheep in the neighbours yard for the afternoon just to make sure nobody got to the bin... or was it to make sure the bin didn't get away? He does take his guard duty seriously. When we got back from the walk this morning he raced out the back to check up on his sheep, and whenever I go away from the house he sits by the front door waiting till I get back. He's not waiting for me, he doesn't even like me very much he's Paula's dog, but when I'm away from home he sees himself as the household protector. Just one small problem with this brave guard dog... well a few of them:
1} he's afraid of the dark.
2} he's not afraid of or even disturbed by Jehovah's Witnesses.
3} he barks at tradesmen, but only if they're visiting next door neighbours, not us.
4} he jumps up and nips at people (mostly me) when he gets excited.
5} he's afraid of the dark.
6} the holes he's digging in the yard are big enough to bury him in.
7} he destroys footwear if it's left on the ground... but only left shoes.
8} HE'S AFRAID OF THE DARK!
Tuesday, 2 March 2010
Thistle Wars
I just can't believe how many thistles I keep finding every day in the back yard. It seems for every one I dig up, two more grow back the next day. Maybe now summer is over, they won't grow so fast. It was freezing for the first day of autumn (yesterday) nice today though.
I made some more progress on both the belt wars story and the third world war book today. Especially the book. I was working on what will probably be chapter two. I managed to nuke about 80-90% of the population of the planet and turn every major city into something between smoldering ruins and radioactive glass with a reasonable explanation as to why for every group of people. The stage is set for a grim battle of survival and or extermination (with possibly a smattering of forgiveness and understanding if I can swing it...) for the rest of the story.
TV reception has been greatly improved in house thanks to a daring (if I say so myself) stint on the roof. I changed the antenna orientation from an approximation of next doors, pointing towards a nearby mountain top, by about 55 degrees south pointing more towards Hobart through a valley. It just made more sense, I can't see any transmission towers on the mountain tops near here, and despite Launceston being a whole lot closer than Hobart the Hobart channels have always been clearer here. Less mountain tops in the way I guess.
Tomorrow, I may have a go at starting another Dream Stealers World story... or two. I've had a couple of ideas I could explore there. Rather than focusing on a washed up writer, this time it'll either be following a meteoric political career, or a scientist who's stumbled on the existence of the stealers themselves. Maybe both and I'll submit one story to one mag and the other to another. They're both different stories after all, not simultaneously submitting the same story to two mags, I don't want to even think about alienating my potential market. I don't want to serialise them either, these are just short stories that happen to be based in the same world, with the same rules, like Asimovs robot stories. I have a feeling I may well have the stealers stories ready before any belt wars story ever sees the light of day.
I made some more progress on both the belt wars story and the third world war book today. Especially the book. I was working on what will probably be chapter two. I managed to nuke about 80-90% of the population of the planet and turn every major city into something between smoldering ruins and radioactive glass with a reasonable explanation as to why for every group of people. The stage is set for a grim battle of survival and or extermination (with possibly a smattering of forgiveness and understanding if I can swing it...) for the rest of the story.
TV reception has been greatly improved in house thanks to a daring (if I say so myself) stint on the roof. I changed the antenna orientation from an approximation of next doors, pointing towards a nearby mountain top, by about 55 degrees south pointing more towards Hobart through a valley. It just made more sense, I can't see any transmission towers on the mountain tops near here, and despite Launceston being a whole lot closer than Hobart the Hobart channels have always been clearer here. Less mountain tops in the way I guess.
Tomorrow, I may have a go at starting another Dream Stealers World story... or two. I've had a couple of ideas I could explore there. Rather than focusing on a washed up writer, this time it'll either be following a meteoric political career, or a scientist who's stumbled on the existence of the stealers themselves. Maybe both and I'll submit one story to one mag and the other to another. They're both different stories after all, not simultaneously submitting the same story to two mags, I don't want to even think about alienating my potential market. I don't want to serialise them either, these are just short stories that happen to be based in the same world, with the same rules, like Asimovs robot stories. I have a feeling I may well have the stealers stories ready before any belt wars story ever sees the light of day.
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