The April Report

 It's been so long since I touched down here. If a blog is supposed to be a journal of one's thoughts and deeds, I'm neglecting this badly!. So much has happened ... so much didn't. I could have blogged here and whined the whole time, so it's probably a good thing I gave it a miss, till I can touch base with myself and catch up without, uh, whinging. Too much.

The last couple of months haven't been easy. All we'd planned for the wedding anniversary got cancelled literally at the last minute. It was supposed to be a road trip to the Limestone Coast, and ended up as $4,100's worth of car repairs, and a handful of outings, the most significant of which was a train ride up to the Botanic Gardens, while the car was in dock ...

The train ride was an experience; not something I've ever done, in fifty years of living in this city, this state, this country. Not something I'd want to do all the time, though. The Botanic Gardens were very lovely; I walked so far that day, these poor old feet took almost a week to recover! We drove to Seaford, which is the end of the line, and rode the train right through to the other end of the line -- takes not much under an hour.

In fact, these poor feet were still a big issue when the anniversary itself rolled around. Then ... 7:00am, 20th March, I ploughed up a hardwood floor withy my left kneecap. Uh huh. It's now April 28, over five weeks layer, and it still hurts, though I can walk properly. Dave and I did a drive around part of the Barossa Valley, and had lunch at the Lorch Lyndoch to mark the date. (The food is excellent, though expensive; we've been there before, and enjoyed it both times.)

So, being lame and in a lot of pain, I concentrated on getting Dark is the Valley finished, and getting to grips with artwork -- so much to learn there. Well, Dark... was done on time, and submitted; in fact, it's already racking up the rejections. This is a bugger of a career, one based on countless thousands of hours worked for nothing, then the heartache and disappointment of untold rejections while you wait, hope, and even pray if you know how, to see a contract and a few bucks. We're still hoping, and my next major project is Pet Shop Dragons. I just finished a longer, better version of Exit Strategies, which is out on sub now. You can only try. So -- art...

Yeeees, I kept myself busy with art, and have done a lot of good work. Also spent a lot more than I'd intended to, on new props, costumes, shaders, sets, whatever. But it's my hobby, so -- what the heck. The latest challenge I've handed myself is to get back into Terragen, learn it, use it to generate the atmospherics for DAZ backdrops. The oars are in the water, but it's a steep learning curve --

Like getting back up on my feet again, and getting back to walking. I've done this, but it wasn't easy. I'm back to the point where I can walk four kilometres, and a bunch of it uphill, which is the equivalent of walking more like seven or eight. Being able to walk means I can get out with the cameras again, which is something I love, and have always loved; the last year has been about birding, since I got my hands on the Panasonic Lumix in February 2020 --

...the bad news is that something has happened to the Lumix. It just ain't working properly. The light metering is off by a mile, and it's giving me ludicrous shutter speeds, apertures and ISO numbers, which are making my pictures soft, grainy, noisy. I can't take a landscape to save my life because all detail blurs out into great swatches of colour; if anything moves in the shot, it blurs; and when the light levels fall, the ISO is so high, you're seeing the photo through golf ball sized grain. Grrrr. 

The bottom line is, I need a new camera. It's going to cost $550, and at the same time, my cash flow has quit. Brilliant. So I've pulled the old Fuji HS-10 out of retirement to pick up the slack. It also has 720mm of zoom, though it only has half the megapixels ... it's also slow, and has all its own problems, but at least I get photos.

So at this moment I'm muddling along. Getting photos, doing art, working on this and that writing project -- getting back up on my feet after the altercation with the floor, and generally feeling my age! At which point, it may have become clear why I haven't blogged very much lately. Uh huh. I'm re-editing The Hesperides at the moment, and will write a short piece, Ignis Fatuus, before launching into another novel. Fingers crossed -- because I really do need some cash to start flowing. 

Otherwise, I'm in reasonable health, as are the rest of us. Dave is off to Melrose, South Flinders Ranges, on Friday, to ride a couple of cycle events. Mike is cranking along with writing and selling short fiction. Zolie is fine, and the Indian summer is in the process of winding down into winter. I just need to grab myself by the scruff of the neck and give myself a good shake, get my life together and my mind back into gear. 

On that note, I'll close this post. I could ramble for pages, but there's nothing more to add that wouldn't involve the aforementioned whinging! And I shall try to return to the blog and keep pace with myself more frequently...