Abbotsford

I started my new job yesterday. It all feels very new and truth be told there is a massive learning curve ahead of me.

It was in at the deep end. Half of yesterday was spent in formal induction. Then it was straight into team meetings to meet the team I will be managing and to meet the larger section we are integrated within.

Now for something completely different. On Saturday we had a bright day so Deb and I were out and about. Neither of us had much energy so we went in the direction of the city.

Once again our focus was the Yarra River. I wanted to catch piccies of a cascade known as Dight’s Falls. The falls are right near the heart of the city in the old industrial suburb Abbotsford.

Unfortunately there was a construction site on the river bank there so I couldn’t get close.Then I noticed a look out high up on the other side. I had to go a long way around. Nearly a mile downstream to cross a road bridge. Then it was into a patch of bush that follows the river almost all the way into the city.

I paused to catch these piccies of delicate Eucalyptus tree flowers. Then I had to stop and catch this view of the city. My new office is half way up one of these skyscrapers.

Then I heard something familiar, I turned and scanned the tree tops.

Can you see what I saw?
The noise was the gentle sounds of cockatoos ‘talking’ to each other .

High in the trees – a flock of Yellow-Tailed Black Cockatoos Calyptorhynchus funereusI have never managed to get decent photos of these large (two foot long) parrots before.

So I began to stalk closer. I managed to get a little closer,But I spooked this shy fellow.

She took off with an alarm call which caused all the others to take to the air.
I managed to snap this very out of focus shot before she disappeared through the trees. You can see why they are called ‘yellow-tailed’. There is a related species called ‘red-tailed’.

I went a little further to the look out. It wasn’t a great vantage point after all. But I did manage to get a few nice piccies of boulders in the torrent.

Searching for Love

I start my new job tomorrow.
Nerves and a pleasant sense of anticipation at the same time.

Because of the new job I’m hitting the sack early.
So I’ll just post a few piccies of Lilli.

These are a week old. She had grown a lot by the time these were taken and continues to grow at a rapid rate.

She is an absolute delight, very eager to please and a real character.

The world according to Lilli.

“If I look really mournful will you love me more?”“How about if I just look really cute?”“You like books, what if I pretend to be a book?”“A puppy gets tired out looking for love.”

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 .

A long week

A quick post just so you don't think I have fallen off the world. I haven't posted since Tuesday and I am usually (a little) more regular.

I have been home late every night this week. During the week it was largely during to work. Then last night I was in town late again but for a very different reason (I'll tell you why next post).

Now it is the wee small hours of Sunday so I won't chat any longer (please excuse any typos I'm not going to proof this before hitting the sack)

I will leave you with a piccie I have taken this weekend. It is one that 'failed'.
But I quite like it anyway.

Any guesses as to what is the subject of this piccie?

100,495

My WIP crept over 100,000 words today. A couple of months ago I thought that I would have reached my estimated completion of about 120,000 by now. That is the down side of targets and deadlines; you can miss them.

However I am pretty much content with where I am. Things have been a little slow, because of a number of factors mostly about being tired and not writing as well as I could during my commute. But as I have said recently I’ve been distracted by thinking about some future writing projects.

But in the end my main reason has been the WIP itself. The novel begins in 1940 and finishes in 1952. I am writing it in multiple POV, one perspective at a time.
I ran into two problems. First, as I began to think about the process of patching the story together I began to worry I would end up with a bit of an anti-climax. I have moved away from sections of my original outline and I had this sudden dread that the new plot didn’t quite work. After a lot of thought I think it does, especially with a little tweaking. But in the end that is the sort of feedback I will be seeking from beta readers.

Second I have all but decided to remove one of the POVs. I like the character’s perspective, but all he really does is give a counter view of some scenes. The character will remain in the story, but the sections featuring his narration have fallen from the word count.

So to finish my first draft I have to finish one character’s perspective (probably around another 5,000 words) and write the majority of one of my antagonist’s perspective (I think about 12,000 words). Yes in my novels ‘the bad guys’ get to share their perspective. After all it is worth noting they think they are the ‘good guys’.

So finally a couple of questions.
Have you ever got most of the way through a project and realised part of it didn’t work?
When it comes to books how long is too long?

Now two piccies from Tassie.
Fungi Mount Field National ParkRainforest stream Mount Field National Park

Oh the hard work a Puppy has to do!

A quick post tonight. Most of the family are ill with typical winter colds. It has been cool to cold most days and wet on and off for weeks (months really). I’ve had the bug too and am busy trying to shake it off.

Lilli is growing rapidly. She’s been with us for two weeks tomorrow. Like most Labradors she is very clever and eager to please. She has already started learning the things she will need to know to keep her humans happy.

She has well and truly already got the idea of house training. She leaves a few puddles because she is still only a baby. But already she asks to go outside to do her business. Deb taught her to sit in about 20 seconds the other day and she now knows she has to sit before she gets her meals. Hard work for a puppy!

She has been for her first few walks on a lead. She already thinks going for a ride in the car is exciting and must be going somewhere interesting.

Like all puppies she is chewing everything she can get in her mouth. Io (our middle daughter took some shots the other day).

Lili says ‘I’ll just see if this planter needs a little adjustment.’‘This old garden border looks chewable.’‘Lies all lies, I don’t chew all the time! Would this face ever be naughty?’