A Mixed Week...

The past week started off well with an article written in the local paper. I must say that I thought the article and photo weren't too bad - Belinda & Kris did a great job! :) Deb spent the next couple of days contacting neighbourhood friends to get spare copies of the paper clipping to send to our families. (I now have a packet of about 20 clippings staring up at me from the dining room table!!)

Unfortunately, I haven't gotten around to doing too much writing this week. I've had a nasty dose of the flu', and as a result, have had the attention span of an ant...! After several days sick at home, and all things improving, I should be back on deck at work tomorrow.

I did, however, get around to correcting a few errors that were highlighted to me in my novel. Despite the numerous edits and proofreads, they still managed to sneak through. I suppose it's been good in one way - in that I've added the whole exercise to the *lessons learnt* list, but at the same time, I felt as though I'd let down a few people. Neil at Equilibrium Books has been very helpful and understanding, and the revised edition should be available in a few weeks. Anyway, as I said, it's an experience that will make the next story even better.

I intend to start making good headway into the second book within the next week - I need to flesh some ideas out whilst they are still trapped in my brainspace! Though I probably wont have much time to progress this weekend as my son is playing in his first ever football grand final!

Apart from all that - at some stage, I will need to get a bit more done of my uni studies - again, it's not something that I have the concentration for at the moment.

cheers,

Andrew

Latest News...

Just popping on for a short time, just so that regular readers don't think I've fallen off of the planet...

Apart from work, uni and acting as taxi-driver for my children and their numerous social engagements, I'm finding it difficult to allocate time to do things such as update the website and blog... Any spare time I do find, is allocated to continuing the draft of the second manuscript, of which the working title is *The Wyvern Awakes - Return to Dalriada*. Although I've only completed a rough draft of the first couple of chapters, I do have the whole story (in terms of plot and subplots) framed in my mind, and it is slowly making it's way into "readable" form.

As far as the first novel is concerned, it is now listed with many of the online bookstores. I'll put some of the links on the website (once I find the time to do so). I also saw a review, from a young reader, that was placed on one of the various book review websites. That was fantastic! Being an unknown author with an little known first book, it always gives me great pleasure to see someone take the time to tell others about it! Such reviews not only broaden my potential audience, but give me a great confidence boost to continue writing (and to endeavour to find more time to do so!!).

So... please... if you've read my book, and enjoyed it, take the time to write a little blurb about it and post it on a review website. (And if you didn't like it, send me an e-mail... I'm looking to improve my writing all the time, and constructive feedback and comment will certainly help!)

cheers,

Andrew

Generating Ideas (2) - Talking Animals...

I've always had a love of Australian Native Animals... I've especially had a soft spot for wombats, ringtail possums and bilbies, which is more than likely why they feature so predominantly in the novel.

My fascination for wombats started during my childhood on the farm, where we occasionally saw them in the wild. I found it so hard to believe that such relatively large creatures could live underground, and I recall my dad remarking about how quickly they could burrow.

Also during my "formative" years I first encountered a ringtail possum. We found a very young one not far from our house, who had barely survived an encounter with some other animal. It was severly battered, missing fur and looked quite ill. Mum took it in and nursed it back to health. During this time, I tried everything I could think of to find a way to talk to it - wishing that it could respond in kind: it's no surprise therefore that my first story features talking animals!

I didn't learn about bilbies until I was much older and certainly never saw one in the wild. In fact the first time I viewed this animal, was when I saw a pair of them at Berry Springs Wildlife Park in the Northern Territory. They looked like such unassuming creatures - and so fragile, considering the unknown future of the species. I suppose that's why I picked a bilby to lead the children into the Land of Dalriada, and the very reason why creatures such as those, whose habitats are threatened by man and feral animal, would find themselves in such a mythical, yet protective land, in the first place.

It's these beautiful Australian creatures, along with characters based upon my own children, that form the start of my novel...

Generating ideas...

People who have talked to me about my book always ask how I have been able to create such events, characters, names and places... Quite simply, there's no special formula involved and I believe that anyone (even if they have no desire to) has the capacity to do it: a bit of imagination intermingled with childhood memories; life experiences & the knowledge gained as a result. Most of the themes and ideas expressed in my story, regardless of how fanciful, are simply a conglomerate of those ingredients. With that thought in mind, my next few blogs will explore a few of these ideas.

Rebecca & Christopher - the main characters...

The main human characters in the story, are based on my own children - as I have said, the story was originally written for them.

The behaviours exhibited by the characters in the story are reflective of the nature of the real *Rebecca* and *Christopher*. Rebecca is introverted. Christopher is more outgoing.

I have, however, mingled these character traits with my own experiences to allow the characters to be placed in situations which would generate thoughts, actions and consequences of their own.

I grew up on a farm, well before the introduction of electronic games, DVDs and the busy lifestyle that now attempts to clutter my own children's time: supressing their imaginative play and the desire to explore the world around them. However, my head was always in the clouds - full of magic and secret places - and the open spaces and landscape offered much for an imaginative boy like myself with plenty of spare time on his hands.

The cave the children stumble across in the opening chapter is actually based upon memories and activities from my own childhood, although alas, there was no talking bilby and no portal gate to another world - although I would have loved that.

Instead, my older brothers, with me in tow, would visit the *bat cave* (as it became known) and discuss how maybe it disappeared under Mount Staffords: opening out into a secret valley beyond the range (despite the fact that the *cave* seemed nothing more than a deep, narrow sliver between a couple of huge granite boulders; and we had indeed crossed over the Mount on more than one occasion - there was no hidden valley there!)

With one of these visits to the cave in mind, I asked myself the question of how two young children - my children - would have reacted had they happened to come across such a location. Rebecca would have been hesitant to do anything other than turn around, head home and ask her parents if they knew anything about it. Christopher only slightly less so. He would have persisted in getting Rebecca to go in after him - for a quick look - and she would have reluctantly followed - if only to ensure that he didn't get himself into trouble (as little brothers are want to do).

Thus the idea for the story was kicked into motion... and all I had to do, was start writing it down!

:)

A busy week...

The past week is a bit of a blur and I apologise to regular readers, who probably consider me to be a bit slack in providing updates!

On the home front, we finished birthday celebrations last weekend with a trip to DarkZone (laser tag) for my daughter and a dozen of her friends. A good night was had by all, including Deb and myself, who decided to don the game vest and proceed to run around for 15 minutes getting shot at by all and sundry... for the record, I'm blaming my loss on the fact that my *gun* didn't work correctly...

Our cat, for anyone who knew, is on the mend after a bout of cat flu'. Even though she's been vaccinated against it since Day 1, we think her recent stay at a cattery caused her illness. Very nasty to watch her sneezing, and coughing, but as I say, she is now on the mend!

On Monday, I received news that I was being promoted to a new position... without me asking or applying for it. I don't know how well I'll be able to find time for the additional workload, but we'll just wait and see.

Uni results came out on Thursday night, and to my complete and utter surprise I received HDs. Extremely unexpected given that I was almost positive I'd stuffed up one exam. Gotta love that Bell curve and the old scaling factor, I suppose. :)

And of course, there is my book... it's appeared in the Angus & Robertson database, and I've had a few sales (made by people who know me...) which is a good start. We launched the book with a competition for the local schools, and have recieved some feedback from that front already: more information is on the Kids Page of the website! (www.wyvernstone.com) Additionally, the local paper (Whitehorse Leader) are writing a bit of a story, and sent a photographer (Kris) out midweek to snap some photos of myself with the book. As most people who know me are aware, I hate having my photo taken at the best of times, and by the end of the "posing", I was all over the process. And though I feel sorry for her camera lens (!), I think Kris did a great job of managing to force a smile out of me. :)

Anyway, that's about it for now!

cheers,

Andrew

If animals could talk... or read...

While we over in Adelaide a week or so ago, we couldn't resist heading into the hills and visiting the Gorge Wildlife Park.

Having lived in Adelaide previously, and being a frequent visitor to the park, it was a place I thought about whilst writing the book. Visitors are free to mingle with, and feed, many of the native Australian animals, and I often wondered what they would say if they had the chance to speak to us. I suppose that's part of the catalyst for my story - talking animals, interacting with humans. At least the Swamp Wallabies in the photograph appeared interested in the book... but having said that, they were probably more interested in eating the peanuts and biscuits offered to them! :)

(The Photo was taken by Debra, and is used with the kind permission of the Gorge Wildlife Park.)

Milestones and parties...

Birthday Milestones...

A big weekend was had by my family over the past weekend... I held a birthday party for my wife (who turns 40 on July 4) and it was a great excuse to catch up with family and close friends. A great time was had by all! Whilst the main focus of the night was for my wife Deb, the party included a total of 4 birthday cakes - my daughter turns 16 (also July 4), my father turns 80 (today - July 3) and my mother-in-law turned 63 on June 30....

Cake Specifics: 1x Mars Bar Cake, 1x Black Forest Cake, 1x Tiramisu Cake, 1x Chocolate Sponge/Mousse Cake... yummo!

What do birthdays have to do with my book?

Quite simply, the party also provided a chance for me to finally give copies of my book to my parents and extended family, and show it off to a few people (at Deb's instigation!!!) without turning the party into a book launch!

I suppose the only downsides for me at the moment have been:

(1) requests to provide *Autographed copies* of my book to people who have purchased it. Whilst I suppose that I do understand the reason, I still find it quite hard to think why people would want me to do this (just my personality, I suppose), and then when I actually try to put pen to paper, it's a matter of "what greeting should I use that doesn't sound cliche or plain?" Anyway, I need to start thinking of this as a positive!

(2) feeling like I'm asking my publisher questions that they have probably already given me the answer to! (Sorry, Neil!!) Equilibrium Books have been fantastic in all facets of the Book development process, so I hope they're not getting too annoyed with my repetitive questions... especially since I want them to consider my second book once the manuscript is finished!

Speaking of which, in other news...

I'm well underway with the second book - well I've written a first draft outline of the first two chapters... about 3,000 words so far, and many more to go!

cheers,

Andrew