In Which Al tricks his Audience.

Well no one guessed what this image was. Some people got part marks for the power-line in the background. But no one guessed a statue! I suspected when I cropped this part of the Digger's leg (wrapped in puttees) that people might guess a palm or coconut palm. It does look something like a palm taken out of context. This statue of a Digger (Oz lingo for an Aussie Soldier) is atop the war memorial in a tiny little town called Bonny Doon.
I guess he is suitable for an Australia Day post for two reasons: First copies of this statue (or a version very alike) are on memorials scattered through almost every small town across Oz (and many suburbs in bigger cities). He is an iconic Oz image. Second I actually posted a piccie featuring this Digger two years ago on Australia day. Which reminds me I showed a memorial of a different kind in that post. A memorial to three policemen murdered by “armed criminals” in 1878. I said I might post about those criminals later, but never did. Well strangely one of those three “armed criminals” has been back in the press again after over 130 years. I guess I should finally get around to keeping my promise and posting about them!

A Near Disater in the Continuity Stakes

I had a worried moment last night as I was working on my WIP.

As I have said I’ve been writing one POV at a time with the plan of assembling the units into a whole later.

I thought I had made a massive continuity error. Those of you who were reading my extracts featuring Valentina may remember Stepan. Stepan is a (possibly former)friend of Valentina’s who has been recruited into the Soviet NKVD. Like Valentina he provides ‘the voice’ for a number of sections of my narrative.

As I was tidying up a section of Stepan’s narrative on my way home on the train I had this sudden dread that I had Stepan at Murmansk in the Arctic and on the Don River in southern Russia at the exactly the same time. The two locations are literally thousands of kilometres apart!

I have a plot device to have him move from one place to the other but that requires months. Teleport devices are not in general use today, let alone in the 1940’s Soviet Union!

I got home late again last night and literally did not have the courage to look at my potential problem until today. With relief I found my panic of last night was exactly that, a panic! I have a time frame of nearly six months to work with. Last night I was thinking with a tired brain and my brain is not good when tired.

Now a few piccies from my night time excursions on the weekend.

My new camera gives me so much more control for night time shots.

A short exposure of mysterious lights.In a long exposure they become a brightly lit crane unloading an enormous container ship at Port of Melbourne.Further away these giant port cranes remind me of the ‘walker’ transport out of Star Wars.On the subject of mistakes. A real doozy was made in Melbourne’s Docklands.

Turning my camera in the general direction of the city you can see the ‘Southern Star’ observation wheel being rebuilt against the night skyline. Rebuilt because the original design was flawed and the whole thing began warping in the heat of an Aussie summer,

‘Psst guys let me tell you a secret. It gets hot in Oz!’

I thought I had made an error with my writing as big as that of the engineers who designed the Southern Star. Luckily my mistake was thinking I had made a mistake. Phew!
Have you ever made a terrible mistake with your writing (or otherwise)?

Two (small) Mysteries Revealed

A quick post tonight because my long days are continuing. I am beginning my new job next Monday, so as you can imagine I have plenty of work to tie up loose ends where I am now.

As I said last post, on Friday night I was in town very late. Well I was asked by a friend for a favour. She was organising a Débutante Ball and needed someone to record the event for her.

Here is a sample of the 1300 (that is right, one thousand three hundred) piccies I took on Friday night.Not the best by any means but I don’t want to use any photos that could identify anyone without their permission.

And another as you can see the young folk were really getting into it (one face blanked out).I also posted this piccie I took on Saturday night and challenged you to guess what it was. Well Rosie C was bang on the money.

Rosie said “It looks like you're capturing a late night city and its lights, but the camera jiggled.”

I was high up on Mount Dandenong on Saturday night. I used a tripod to capture some night shots of southern Melbourne. Shots like these need a long exposure (some as long as 10 seconds) and it got so windy the camera moved several times during the exposure.

One final note, you should check out Rosie’s blog post from Monday, she posted a great review of my book Veiled in Shadows .