The contract of a lifetime!

Occasionally something astonishing happens.

I'm still "happy dancing," because the contract has just been signed, and --

I'm going to be in ANALOG SCIENCE FICTION next year!

The story is The Way Back, and this is beyond amazing. In fact, it's something of a dream come true, because I've been reading ANALOG in one form or another since the 1970s, and to be published in it is such a thrill, it's difficult to describe. I'll post again, when the issue is published with my story ... can't wait!

Happy New Computer!

Eventually, the day had to arrive. HAPPY NEW COMPUTER! It's been a year since I turned off my old sesktop before I fried it; I haven't even tried to do art in that time -- therefore, the old machine still works, and will stay right here it is. And the new machine, designated "Hulk" on the LAN, is here some weeks early (thank you, Dave!) ...

It's humongous. Also whisper quiet and running cold even i the hot weather since summer began. Look at the size of the main cooling fan; there are two more in there. Whooooo!!! 😁😁😁 Dave hooked it up for me (saves my back and knees the hurt of climbing around under the desk; and I appreciate this muchly) ... and I took over, to install software. It's my Christmas present, of course. Happy, happy, joy, joy!

For those who are into the hardware side of things, here are its specs:

• AMD Ryzen 9 3900XT, 
• 12 cores threaded as 24; 4.7Gh; 70MB cache. 
• B450 Tomahawk motherboard (MAX AM4); 
• 16GB of RAM (Thermaltake ToughRam Z-ONE RGB, DDR4 3200Hz, CL16 Memory). 
• Hard drives: SSD, Samsung 970 EVO 1GB boot + 2GB internal. 
• GPU: the MSI GeForce RTX 2070 Super Ventus GP OC Edition, 8BG, with another dedicated cooling fan (Thermaltake Pure 140mm). 
• Bluetooth 5.0 (NIC Herald).
• Power source: Thermaltake -- Suppressor F31, with its own big cooling fan. 
• 8 USB ports, half of them USB3, one USB C, plus ethernet, 4x speaker-line outs etc.,
• Win10 64. 
• "Water cooling ready;" and we can double the capacity of the GPU and RAM, if needed

Sooo, the first thing was to "migrate" from one machine to the other...

A couple of days saw me slogging through the job of installing miles of software.Word 2016, Affinity Publisher, Affinity Photo, Krita and Irfanview were all quickly on, though I needed to import about 750 fonts, plus 4,500 brushes to the photo and paint programs, from my old system. Turned out to be easy. Next came Amberlight (on and tested) ... then, when everything was set, I got into the big stuff, for which The Hulk was built (by IT Warehouse at Marion).

First bit of bad news along this road: Bryce 7 Pro is a 32 bit program only, so it will not run on The Hulk. End of statement there; and all the more reason to keep the old computer on and working (it's a Windows 7 machine, 32 bit, and though Bryce stresses it, it will run okay).

DAZ Studio was an all-day install job, to get the new version (4.14) plus enough "assets" to get my oars back in the water. Done. Then, start up DAZ and ... urk. Talk about a learning curve! The interface has changed significantly from the 4.11 I was accustomed to; and I've simply forgotten a lot. I have to relearn some things I used to do automatically. Also, Studio is simply not cooperating in one or two ways, though I'm sure there's either a solution or a work-around. I'll get there; I;m just not quite there yet! 

I also have to manually install many hundreds of third-party assets, from Renderosity and various other 3D marketplaces. That will be a loooong job, so I'll do it a bit at a time. Not a problem, just a chore.

First bit of fabulous news: the unbeatable "file save error" I was getting on the old system right throughout 2018 and 2019 has not, repeat not, recurred in Studio 4.14 under Win10. I can now build a project, save it, reopen it, and have everything right where it should be.

The downside? I can't seem to get raytracing to work! This is terminally weird, and I'll be working on the issue. It's way beyond odd. But that's my problem, and I'm on it, albeit slowly.  

Can't wait to see how this system handles the workflow. I'm hoping that what took three hours last year will take twenty minutes now. At the moment, everything is working fine, and the system is dazzlingly fast; I just have to climb halfway up the learning curve before I have pictures to upload here; and I'm thinking that I might blog my progress in Studio 4.14,  just as I blogged my baby steps, 11 years ago, in Studio 3! Stay tuned, and bear with me. At the same time as all of this, I'm editing a novel, and while it's not actually difficult, it just guzzles time. Eats up your day and pushes art to the sideline. Done by Christmas, though, and then ... art!!  

How to Neglect a Blog, Part 3: Have your health fall apart

Not the best of news today -- which is why I'm blogging it. This blog is solely for me; no one else looks at it, and I do need something to jog my memory in time to come. My health is plummeting again. The doctor's appointment was made this morning, but the earliest time we could get was 13 days from now, and I actually doubt I'll make it that long. I rather think I'll be at the ER long before I get to that point. 

The problem is essentially identical to the drama in 2017, not long after Mom passed away, when I landed in hospital for two surgeries. I have the same pain I had when the gallstones were giving me a massively inflamed liver, which triggered pancreatitis. But since they took out the gallbladder, how is it possible to have the same trouble?! 

So I looked it up -- let Ma Google be your friend. And imagine my surprise.

It turns out that 15% -- yes, one in seven! -- people who have their gallbladder removed continue to get stones. The stones just form in the bile ducts instead, and find their way into the liver and into the ducts to the pancreas; and when they block those ducts -- well, this explains much. It certainly explains why I can't digest worth a damn; why I have pain right through the middle; and so on.

For the last week, I've been treating this thing as if it were gastritis (caused by Ibuprofen ... I don't drink, never did, but I've taken loads of Ibuprofen for 35 years. I wouldn't have been surprised to find out the stuff had given me gastritis, and the symptoms are the same). But it it were gastritis, it should have healed itself and settled down by now, right? 

No joy. If fact, the pain is worse than ever. So the phone call was made, and the rotten news is that "See your GP promptly" is a meaningless phrase. You can't get an appointment for almost two weeks. See a GP promptly --?? That might work, but there's very few I trust, and trusting strangers isn't in my nature. So I've decided to wait, and just not eat, and see the one I do trust, when I can. Hmmm.

Two weeks. Who knows? The situation might have calmed down, given that much longer of resting the whole system. I doubt it, but we can do this. I'm not going to fall dead for want of a few dozen meals! God knows, I might even lose a few pounds (though I doubt that, too: weight loss does not happen for me). So, what nutrition can we get, when we can't eat?

This is a puzzle, especially when you remember to strike off the list all the migraine triggers. I've just completed one of the biggest, nastiest migraines I've ever had, probably triggered by a small amount of orange juice (I though I could get away with it, and was wrong), and the wild, whackadoodle camera work of J.J. Abrams, which is -- for me -- sudden death. It was Mission Impossible 3, and even closing my eyes didn't help. Maybe I didn't get them closed in time? Whatever. The last movie that did this to me was another Tom Cruise film, Edge of Tomorrow, which is a fantastic movie and -- for me -- sudden death. So ... food???

Fruit juices, unsweetened almond milk, acai powder, vegetable greens powder, beetroot powder, turmeric; an occasional dry, plain cracker; a half-serve of rice bubbles with stevia; a spoonful of low-fat yogurt; lots of rooibos tea. And that's about it --

Needless to say, the next two weeks are looking like two years, and my brain will barely be functioning. Your brain needs feeding, it won't run without fuel any more than the rest of your body will run without fuel. But I'm going to have to find a way to run on next to nothing until I get a diagnosis, and see what I dare eat, without risking blowing up pancreas right up!

And before we get to any such diagnosis, it's going to mean a lot of tests. Blood work, for a start; ultrasound and/or CT scan? Okay. That should show the problem. 

If it's not more stones, what is it? And what's to be done about it?

These are different questions, and at this moment I'm not going to speculate. Suffice to say, I feel very weird, with my brain starving and my body trying to tumble into sleep for want of fuel. I'm also getting over one of the worst migraines in my personal history -- the full on deal, complete with hypothermia, shaking, tingling extremities, vomiting, and the skull tearing itself apart. And remember to add to this lumbago, hip bursitis, probable arthritis in my left ankle bone, scoliosis in the top of the spine. 

How to neglect a blog royally? Have your health fall apart. 

So, more and more, this is becoming a photo blog as this wretched year, 2020, wears away, and you wonder what else it can do! And it's "over and out" from me, for a while, unless something significant happens. Such as, a spontaneous recovery (ha!), or a diagnosis of something easy to fix, or a really good sale of a story to a terrific marketplace. One lives in hopes. 

Silver Certificate! We're doing something right!

 

We must be doing something right -- I made it all the way to Silver in the Writers of The Future Competition. The story this time is Memory Tree, which I hope to see published next year, though it hasn't found a berth yet. Patience. 

With Dark is The Valley complete, it's time to decide on which project to run with next. And the more I think about it, the more I think Pet Shop Dragons is the way to go. Not the short story version ... the full on development, as novelized from the screen story. Yes, I think we'll go that way next. 

(This image, below, isn't from Pet Shop Dragons, but I always liked it -- Mage's Pet. It features the character I created, "Consulting Mage." And I wonder if I can do something with that, too?!)

How To Neglect a Blog Part Two: Have a book to finish and edit

And that's not perfectly true. Having a book to finish and edit has been a major reason for the sheer neglect of this blog in recent weeks, but not not the only one. Desperately needing to get out of the house and breathe fresh air, enjoy sunshine, birds, flowers ... all of this was at least as, uh, inspirational when it came to setting blogging onto the back burner.

The good news is that Dark Is the Valley is actually done, and I'm currently performing the final line edits. Anything that changes in the book from here on will be at the behest of a publisher, and after I've signed a contract -- which I realize is an enormous thing to say, given that the world is still unraveling with the pandemic, a situation which is unlikely to change anytime soon.

How will the pandemic affect publishing? I honestly have no idea, but I suspect the business all begins at grassroots, with readers, many of whom will be saving their money for leaner times ahead. Will they be buying books in great numbers? Possibly not -- and not when you can read a friend's copy, borrow it from the library, or pick up good books for $2 at the Op Shop. What will this do to the publishing industry? I suspect publishers won't be eager to take major chances on unknown writers, while literary agents will be charged with the gate-keeper's role, made responsible for holding the wannabe professional writers out of the picture. I understand this; I see how it works, and why this must be so.

But dang, it's a bitter pill to swallow. If I were twenty years younger, and had near-limitless time to spend just waiting for the global economy to shore itself back up and return to normal, it wouldn't be so difficult to deal with that's happened, and what's going to happen in the world. 

Back in 2008, I had a career coming together nicely, and it was sunk without trace by the GFC. It never recovered. Fast forward 12 years, and just as I'm ready to go to market with a number of pretty darned good books (Dark Is the Valley, The Hesperides, The Sea Witch, Petshop Dragons...), suddenly there isn't a market to be addressed. It's as if ... I'm not actually supposed to succeed as a writer: Dame Fortune has something else in store for me. 

That's fine, too, but Dame Fortune is going to have to hurry up with whatever she intends, LOL, because time is no longer on my side. So...

...so I'll do what I can, and write the books; but what happens next is an enormous question mark. In the meantime, South Australia remains covid-free, and people are back at work, traveling within the state, enjoying cafes and restaurants. This state, in and of itself, is a peaceful, safe microcosm, and I'm sure there are places in the world that look upon us with a touch of envy. I remind myself, I have nothing to complain about, and that impossible things happen every day. If I can produce something unusual enough, something with the potential, I might still be able to get out there and be read.

That's my goal, and two things make it iffy. The first is that I'm not as young as I used to be, and success in this business is a long, hard road even if one is. The second is that my healthy is bloody awful. I'm living with far too much pain, which is slowing down the creative process. How are you supposed to concentrate on writing and editing, when you're full of pills, with blurry vision, and you still have a headache? When your spine is shrieking, and your feet don't want to be walked on. Every day is a challenge. So far I've met the challenge, but I also admit to myself, I'm extremely tired. Fatigue is a constant companion, which is another reason this blog has been neglected.

There's only so much energy I have to budget with in a day, and when it's gone, it's gone. I have to prioritize things. Writing and editing would come first if I were on a contract, but since I'm not keeping a clean, tidy, happy house comes first. Then writing and editing. Then keeping myself moving with walks, photography, excursions, all the healthy things that keep you same. Then blogging. If there's any energy and brain cells left.

If I were the praying kind of person, I'd pray to be out of pain, because when one is more or less crippled, one is perilously close to being a passenger. On bad days, this is exactly what I am -- and I've had four consecutive bad days ("passenger days"), which tends to change the way one looks at the world, and the future. If being out of pain is impossible, then I must find some way to deal with pain, transcend pain. This is where we cross over into a realm of magic and miracle. The fact is, though I write fantasy fiction, I've never seen any evidence of magic and miracle actually happening. Yet.

Of course, I'm entirely ready to be convinced otherwise! Dame Fortune -- over to you, darling!

Vacation Week 2020!

For a week when we has to dodge showers and dress for winter, we did an amazing amount. The forecast had been for rain and unseasonable cold, and this didn't tell the half of it ... snow fell in South Australia on Friday, -- it was lucky we'd done our day trip into the Flinders Ranges on Thursday, because the storm which brought the snow was coming in just as we drove south! We might have been lucky once or twice ... in retrospect, if the heavy weather had arrived even 12 hours earlier, we could have been caught out in the wilderness when the "floodways" started to run, unable to get back to civilization! I guess Dave's guardian angel was looking out for us, because we didn't get caught, and we did have a fantastic time...

I wouldn't have believed you could do this in a day ... Flinders Ranges, out and back, between 6:00am and 9:30pm, including a storm?! It had to be a joke. But no -- it turned out to be perfectly doable, and this was Thursday! Previously, we'd stayed in our own neck of the woods, getting as far afield as the Laratinga Wetlands on the other side of Mount Barker, and Mannum (it rained), via Mount Pleasant (so cold, I had to drink hot chocolate to get back to life); and on Saturday -- I traded Dave for Friday: he did his bike ride a day early, and we hit the road again on Saturday instead -- we headed south and stumbled over the Ferries McDonald Conservation Park, where the wildflowers and orchids are in full bloom. That was a tremendous pleasure, but I'll post those photos -- also the Fairy Wren pictures from Laratinga -- another time.

So ... Flinders Ranges in a day! Breakfast at Locheal, with its pink lake, north of Port Wakefield, and then lunch at Quorn, followed by three hours of tarryhooting on wilderness roads where the views are beyond amazing, before we turned for home at 4:00, with a four-and-a-half-hour drive ahead of us, returning by a different rout ... Willmington, Gladstone, Laura, Clare, Gawler, at which point you connect with the northern expressway and you'll be home in less than an hour. 

The trip had one last amazement in store for us:

As I mentioned before, the weather was due to change, big time, though we hadn't realized quite how violently it would change. In fact, in about twelve hours this storm front would be dumping snow on the Flinders Ranges! We drove right into it, at a time when it was all about torrential trail. The kind of rain where your wipers can barely keep pace. Spectacular -- also a wake-up call, to be a little more careful and plan a bit more assiduously next time! Because we'll definitely be going back; the only questions are when and how! 

How to Neglect a Blog, Part One: have something better to do...

The first thing you need, if you're going to blog assiduously, is plenty of time to devote to it ... and not much else to do. Or, perhaps, nothing better to do with the time. As soon as you get busy, though there's a lot more to blog about, you don't have the time to put into it -- and you lose the urge to sit in front of the computer for hours on end!

Still, I want to keep up with this blog, because if nothing else it's a kind of journal. In ten years I'll be able to touch down here and see what I was doing at this point in my life. 

So ... what have I been doing for the last month and a half, if I haven't been blogging? To begin with -- writing and editing. Dark is the Valley is now finished and edited. All I have to do is lop about 700 words out of the manuscript to bring it down under 150k, to fall into line with publishers' requirements; and this is the work of a few days. Then we can put this one on the shelf and say, "Another one done!" 

This is enough work to bump blogging onto the back burner, even before I mention photography. 

And the truth is, in these last months, since I got my hands on the Lumix (in February), life has been about photography. It's given me a reason to be out and doing, hiking, being active, getting the fresh air and exercise one needs to hang onto sanity, if not vitality. And that's one thing you can't say for sitting behind a computer, working six hours a day! Photography has put the zest back into life...

We've visited many places that lie within "accessible South Australia," and I've had more fun than I'd have believed possible with this tiny little camera. Next week is our "vacation week," Dave booked the time off work months ago. The weather is going to be awful, unfortunately; and even more unfortunately, I've thrown my back out, right on cue. 

I have a full-blown case of lumbago, so how much hiking around I'll be able to do, I don't know. Certainly, the weather won't be conducive to "pitching camp" in the woods all afternoon at Belair; it's going to be cool here, which means cold in the national park; it's going to rain more or less all week, which means dull conditions, not so good for photography; and if you add in the lumbago, right now I don't know what we'll be able to make out of next week! But we'll try. 

The plan had originally been to take off for the Clare Valley for the week, but the uncertainty surrounding the pandemic made us cautious. It would have been a very expensive trip, with accommodation to be booked long in advance, involving a 50% deposit, all of which was forfeit in the event travel restrictions were reimposed. We got burned that way in March and lost a few hundred bucks ... didn't want to run the risk again, so we decided on day trips.

So the next plan was -- orchid hunting at Belair on Monday ... well, not with this spine! Then Cleland on Tuesday ... in the rain?! And so on. And on. We will play it by ear and see what's possible on the day. Right now, I'm nursing a back that feels like it was caught in a car crusher, while the covid-delayed TDF plays out, due to end on Sunday, and I chisel away at the novel to get the length down under one of the major publishers' benchmarks. 

This, and photography, are life at the moment. So -- if I were to turn this blog into a photo blog? Hmm. That's not a bad idea...