So we finally have had a break in our extremely hot weather! Simon picked me up from work on Tuesday and we headed home as normal. Well, it was normal until we got to Morley.

Bang! Lightning strikes! All over the place! We even saw 4 or 5 lightning strikes hit the one spot (Yes, we know. We thought the same! The Martians had arrived!)

By the time we got to Noranda, it had started raining. Big, juicy drops that kept coming! By the time we got to the bridge we could barely see the car in front. The only way we knew he was there was because he had his hazards on. Simon says: “Why’s he got his hazards on?”

I looked around, saw the trees were half bent over just as a palm front lands on the road in front of us. We glance at each other and in concert say: “Debris on road!” And Simon turns our hazards on.

For the rest of Benara Rd, well, most of it – and it’s not a short street! – that was how we went – we were lucky to see the front of the bonnet! (If you’re American, that’s the hood!)

Now, we love a big, deep puddle as much as the next person but when Simon attacked one, we lost sight of everything. I looked at him and said: “Don’t do that until the rain stops.” Wisely, he agreed.

So ever since we have had thunderstorms every day! It’s brilliant to get such rain and all the green is coming back! Our ground cover mint is revitalising as is our parsley and basil (summer). We’re hoping the rain is here for more than a week but at the moment, I think it’s hanging around for a week. Finally! It was our turn to get wet!

But, naturally, it means that safest is to turn computers off in a thunderstorm (oh, what’s Australian roulette? Make a phone call during lightning! haha) so therefore writing has been very sporadic. Although I did realise I hadn’t put my Nano writing from November in to Delta Recoveries, so I managed to get that done. My next step is to upload Dark Reign to my tablet and read that at lunchtimes making notes as I do so. Gah! I hate this part of writing. I’d rather just write and write and write. Oh. Hang on. That’s what I’m doing now.

Time to go. Thunder!

Well, it finally hit. Rain! And unexpected to me. They had forecast rain on Wednesday and apparently we got it, but of course I was working. Last night, however, the heavens opened and I woke in the early hours to rain!

And that’s where extreme comes into things. Australia has always been known as the land of the extremes. From Mt Kosciusko and its snowy region to the Great Sandy Desert, to the Great Barrier Reef – all part of the Smallest Continent or the Largest Island, whichever you choose to call our artistic land. I call it an artistic land because so much of it seems to have been created with the painter, the drawer, the sculptor in mind.

But our weather can also be extreme. While we don’t experience anything near the destructive forces of the US’s tornadoes, our weather can go from one extreme to the other in one day. A popular saying for when you’re in Melbourne, Victoria, is – if you don’t like the weather, wait 10 minutes and it’ll change. If you still don’t like it, wait another 10 minutes and it’ll change to something else.

I’ve walked across a rail overpass in Melbourne in February and thought ‘maybe I could come back. Maybe I can live here again’. And then the northerly hit. The temperature felt like it went from about 30 degrees Celsius to 42 degrees Celsius in less than 30 seconds. With high humidity. I retracted my statement. I’d rather have 36 degrees Celsius in a dry heat than humidity.

I could talk about our wildlife, but it just suddenly occurred to me – they can be scary. And so can some of our plants.

And that’s the last thing I want to do – scare people off. The main thing about our plants and wildlife? Treat them with respect and they will leave you alone. In fact, some of the wildlife are downright friendly if you are friendly to them.

So we’d started to cool down but then again, we haven’t. Another stinking day here – at least we’re not in Mordor like a friend is!

But down to business.

Someone asked in a Facebook Group how deep people plan.

I couldn’t answer that question. Because I’m what most people call a plantser. While I’m planning, my fingers are getting itchy and my characters are starting to get antsy – sorta telling me “get on with it! Stop this planning stuff and get that keyboard ready! I wanna talk to you!”

So my planning is basically – start, middle, finish. I know where the story starts and where it’ll end up – it’s what’s in the middle that’s interesting. Because I don’t know most of that.

Take my sequel to Dark Dimensions. A friend read what I had written and gave me feedback and I thought and thought and realised that there was an element that was missing. So I tried to put that in. But my characters kept fighting me about it. So after a week of struggling, I just pulled the scene. There was no way it was going to happen. I even tried it from 3 different characters’ points of view.

But it was an interesting process to go through because the scene was evolving as I was writing it. I really wanted it to go in one direction, but there was no way I could get it there, no matter how hard I tried. I could turn around as I have above and say it was the ‘characters’ faults, but in reality, who are these characters but facets of me and my creativity. So it was my creativity that was blocking the scene.

So that’s what I mean by a plantser. And I don’t plan anything before NaNoWriMo. Or if I dream anything.

Take Delta Recoveries (to be completed). That wasn’t a dream so I planned a lot of the different elements in it. And even though I had planned this particular work, it still led me in a direction I hadn’t expected to go which made me do a helluvalot more planning in the background for the NaNoWriMo experience this year. And that’s what happens when you take 2 completely different creatures, gene splice them, blend the DNA and splice the genes again, then do a huge amount of more genetic manipulation and end up with 2 races that are quite clearly related yet look nothing alike and nothing like the 2 creatures from the beginning. (Oh, the pain of planning that side of Delta!)

So, I did an unusual thing – well, maybe not for others, but definitely for me. I entered a writer’s competition in Queensland. Because it was time to do so. And there’s a movie option up for grabs. I’ve put Dark Dimensions forward because a) it’s finished and b) most of those who have read it have agreed that it would suit itself to a movie.

It was an interesting process. I had to give them 5000 words and the first chapter is 6330. So I left out some of the points in the first chapter. Then I actually had to write a synopsis. I’m not sure about other writers but that’s right up there, along with editing. <shudder> But it’s part of writing so I knew it had to be done. After doing a really looooooooooooong one, I passed it on to Jeanne who tidied it up beautifully (she’s such a great help!).

Then it was a matter of reformatting the manuscript to fit what they wanted, so I spent time on that. Eventually, I got it in on time and am now waiting to hear back.

And waiting. And waiting. *Hate this part of it.* And waiting. And waiting. And so on. But that’s part of a writer’s life – waiting. And that’s why we have other Works-in-progress – so we can get on with what we adore doing the most – new writing!

It’s not every day you get a compliment and especially about your writing.

I think my first compliment from someone who wasn’t familiar with my work was from my dentist. It was two years ago and I was having a crown done. The first week was pulling the old filling from the tooth and while we were waiting for the anaesthetic to take effect, I happened to mention I had published a book. After asking me its name and what the author name was, I was sitting in the chair and I heard his keyboard pecking. I said, “Are you googling it now?”

He said, “Of course I am.” I thought ‘wow! My dentist is reading my book!’

So a week later I go in for the other bit of work and as I walk into the workroom he says “I bought your book. I read all the samples and couldn’t put it down so I bought it.” I was gob-smacked.

Six months later, when we brought out the hard cover, I let him know. Six months after that, I signed that book for him.

A few months after that, a friend I had known for a very long time got a copy. He texted me in tears and told me “you’re not supposed to kill off major characters. And why him?” I was speechless. He told me when he’d finished that the book had him running the full gammutt of every emotion possible. My heart swelled.

Just last week, this friend and I were talking and he told me his daughter hadn’t yet read it and he was disappointed “because yours is so much better than that Twilight stuff.” Again, speechless. Now waiting for movie offers! Just kidding.

My whole point of writing is to entertain people. To take them out of our drudgery world of ‘work, sleep, eat, study, maybe play if there’s time’. If they enjoy the book at the same time, then I have truly done my job. Of course, the fact I enjoy writing has nothing to do with it.

So we’re well into January, now and Perth has now started climbing back up. Well, it did on Wednesday and Thursday, but today is a much cooler day – almost mild at 30-ish.

The fires still go on in NSW and Victoria, however, and my heart goes out to those affected. At work I spoke to someone who’d been allowed back to the their house only to tell me that they’d just had a warning the fire had turned and was heading for them again.

I don’t think, even with the years I spent in the Swan Communications Brigade, I can even imagine how horrific it must be to live through something like those fires. Everything I’ve seen through social media and through Ch 24 (Australia’s ABC) are devastating enough to watch. To experience must be far worse.

I will say I am quite disgusted at those scammers who have created donation platforms to scam people out of money and cause money to be diverted from the Bushfire victims.

I will also say that I am officially astounded at the outpouring of support – including monetary – being sent our way. We are a tinderbox and the world is noticing. I just wish certain people in Australia would put aside greed and realise that something needs to be done. As a meme on social media implies – if we clean everything up and nothing happens, we don’t have egg on our faces, we have a beautiful world to live on. If we don’t clean everything up and climate change is allowed to continue, we – well, we might not be here.

I just hope that our amazingly diverse state does not experience the hell that NSW and Vic have and are still living through.

I noted that a photo that talked about the vegetation regrowth was from a fire in Kulnura. I checked the fire map and found that Kulnura had not been impacted last year. I kept watching this month and noticed the fire keep heading towards Kulnura, then by yesterday it had backed off. I was pleased to see that an area I’d been following was safe.

On a different note, I have again been invited to sit on a panel in GenghisCon. As the panel does not start until 6pm, we’ve decided to stay at the hotel that night and enjoy luxury for a change – in other words, going down early tomorrow to sit by the pool all afternoon, then go to the panel, then tea. Ah. Not sure if I’ll even take the laptop!

So next week, I will do my best to impart the fun I had on the panel! Escapism Teaches us how to Escape. Like I don’t write that?

So we are now a 3rd of the way through January 2020, which, to me, means 2020 has arrived. Along with it, it has brought dry weather in Perth, our first “dangerous” fire for the city but more importantly, it has brought wet weather to Melbourne. I’m not sure about whether rain has hit any of the fires, but at least some of the country has rain. Oh and it’s also brought the first Cyclone for Western Australia.

Cyclone Blake landed and was immediately downgraded. But for a while there, we were totally cut off by road from the rest of Australia. I hear there was panic buying as trucks were stranded on either side of the Nullabor. I’m glad we buy fresh vegies because we were still able to buy them. Apparently some of the supermarkets were running out.

Is 2020 the year of songs? I’m not sure – for the whole week I’ve had Smashmouth’s All Star singing to me, then today a friend shared an article calling the fires of NSW “The Ring of Fire” – need I say more – and apparently the Canberra Times had an article titled “The Heat is On”. I’ll let you all decide if it’s a music year or not!

For writing? Everything is coming together nicely and I’ve even had some ideas for the 4th Clans in Conflict book. Which is a relief ’cause I wasn’t sure what the plot was going to be. But, no spoilers here!

Hello to 2020! Wow! That rolls off the tongue. And to think – 100 years ago it would have been called the start of the flappers!

We’ve got 5 years to go before it’s 100 years since Art Deco got its name. And we’re 6 years behind when Art Nouveau was around. Maybe I should have mentioned that sort of thing? Oh well, this is not going to be a “what happened 100 years ago” post.

No, this post is going to include a shout out to all those emergency service personnel across Australia and the defence force who are dealing with fires and supporting infrastructure. Gods, what I’ve seen makes the eastern states look like a scene from an apocalypse movie. To think – some of those fires have been raging since August 2019 – that’s 4 months roughly. So thank you all for doing what you’re doing. You are our lifeblood and I wish I was in someone else’s place so I could say “Stuff everything else – throw money at the emergency services!”

On a different subject, I am writing an interview between Troy and a journalist. Now some scenes roll off the tongue, so to speak, so easily that they write themselves. Not this. This thing is being pulled out, fighting and screaming and I have to fight the impulse to write something easier. But I have to get this out as this will tie in a lot of things and present important information to you all – my audience/readers.

And finally, on a third subject, Happy New Year and I hope 2020 gets better. I hope that these fires can be extinguished soon so that the year can improve. For everyone I know, I hope your year to shine is this year! Especially the kids! Again, Happy New Year!

Well, it’s a little late but Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

And I’ve done it. I’ve written the bare bones of Consequences 3. It’s taken probably a week or so to get the basics down but I just couldn’t let it go. And the only way it’ll produce another book is probably in the series’ future – roughly 20 years time. In reality? I’m not sure. I must be having fun with the characters and the setting because I tried my darnedest to go back to Delta Recoveries but Albermarle just took over all my thoughts.

It’s probably got a lot of changes to be made – I’m not sure if the main plot line is strong enough, but that’s easily fixed. Because there’s a helluvalot more to write. Currently, it’s not even a novella at less than 20k but there’s so much info missing that there’s no way it’ll be a short story. Not with me, it won’t.

So eventually you will get a 3rd Consequences and hopefully everyone will enjoy it – actually I hope people enjoy the first one, let alone the 3rd one!

Well, Sydney can have their heatwaves, Melbourne can have their 42 degree days with their northerly, but I think a week of 41 degrees in December is something none of us were planning on.

It has been scorching here for the last week or so with a couple of days of relief. We are so grateful that we have not had the catastrophic fires that New South Wales and Queensland have had. I’m not going to even speculate on why that is. After all, we still have the rest of summer to get there.

Just to make it clear, in the 31 years I have been in WA, we have never had days in December this hot. It’s always been January, February or March. This is completely unseasonable weather.

As far as writing goes, I did finish NaNoWriMo, putting lots more words into Delta Recoveries and even writing a background story for that. Yes, I do realise it’s against the rules, but NaNoWriMo rules are meant to be bent – if not broken.

In this heat I have imported Souvenirs of a Serial Killer and Dragons Abound into Scrivener. When I get an opportunity, I will do some more work on those. Dark Reign and the Consequences books come first.

On a brief note, I have been asked once again to sit on a panel in GenghisCon and I have been assured that Dark Dimensions will be available online again before that date. Fingers are crossed and the usual “Watch this space”.

I hope to have the links up again very soon so everyone has access to Dark Dimensions.

Until then – “that’s all, folks”!