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...