I had a wonderful time at the Romance Writers of Australia conference two weeks or so ago, and enjoyed every minute of it. I learned from my experience last year, when I overdid things with two conferences one after the other, packed full, and instead took things easy this time. The Published Author Day on the Thursday was a first for the RWA conference, and had some great sessions. The three I found particularly interesting were psychologist John Barletta, media/PR professional Jennifer St George, and the woman (who’s name I have temporarily forgotten, but if I go searching for my notes I might never finish this blog post!) who co-wrote the scripts for the Underbelly TV series, about organised crime in Australia. I found it fascinating hearing about the decisions they had to take to turn complex, real-life crimes and criminals into a cohesive TV program. There were definitely lessons in there about choosing what to focus on for dramatic cohesion and effect!

My take-it-easy strategy meant that I didn’t register for the workshop on Friday, and I was glad of that decision! Instead, I went into Newtown (an inner Sydney suburb) and met up with my good friend, librarian Vassiliki, for morning tea, in one of Newtown’s many cafés. Then a stroll down King Street, and short visits to an amazing button shop, a bead shop, and A Coffee and a Yarn. I managed to resist the temptation of pretty things, however, and didn’t buy anything.

Friday afternoon was the booksigning, organised by the Australian romance Readers Association in conjunction with RWA. It was great fun! We authors were seated alphabetically – so I was between my good friend, Valerie Parv, and fellow Outback Romances author Fiona Palmer.

After the booksigning came the cocktail party. There’s always a fancy dress theme, although no requirement to dress up. I had originally planned not to wear a costume, but then had an idea that fell in to the Fantasy theme, and was easy to execute. I fast-forwarded to 2012, and wrote up a series of frontpage newspaper articles, announcing major literary prize wins for various romance authors. I stuck them onto two sheets of cardboard, which I wore as a sandwich board. It was a fun bit of fantasy, and gave a few people a good laugh.

Highlights of the rest of the conference included, of course, the awards dinner on Saturday night. It’s always a lovely night, friendly and buzzing with positivity, and this year was no exception. I didn’t win the R*BY award in my category, but huge congrats to my good friend Tracey O’Hara, who did! The winners in the short romance categories were the lovely Sharon Archer, and wonderful Madam Res of RWA, Amy Andrews. The long romance category went to historical author Sophia James, who I haven’t met, but I’m sure she’s fantastic, too!

The workshops on Sunday included a very interesting, if somewhat unsettling one, by a Forensic Pathologist. A lot of very valuable information, sensitively delivered, about investigating the cause of death. After lunch, I attended quite a different workshop, delivered by a martial arts expert who trains the military, police, journalists going abroad, and airline staff, in fighting techniques. Not only did he know his stuff, he was a great performer, too, with expert comic timing. I guess it was less serious because we’re fiction writers, and not frequently confronting potentially dangerous situations in real life ourselves. But I learned heaps, both of relevance to writing fight scenes, and to real life. Hopefully I’ll never have to use any in real life, but at least I have more knowledge than I did!

Another part of my take-it-easy strategy was to stay on in Sydney on Sunday night, instead of racing home Sunday afternoon. I am SO glad I did. It was so much more relaxed, and I enjoyed the winding-down with friends, having a cocktail in the bar with a few others, then going out to dinner with a small crowd.

On Monday, I drove home with the wonderful Kelly Hunter, and we had a great trip. She drove, and I took notes while we brainstormed ideas for her next book series. It was a heap of fun, bouncing ideas and possibilities around, and now I can’t wait for her to write the series!

Since getting home, life has continued on, quietly busy. I’m still waiting on word about my next surgery, but it may be some weeks yet before I know the date. In the meantime, I finished putting together a photo album for Gordon’s mother’s 80th birthday, and posted it off – only a day or two late! (She didn’t seem to mind!)

Yesterday was another pleasant trip ‘down the hill’ to Bellingen, two hours drive away, for a meeting of the north coast 4 Points Author Network group of RWA. It’s a a great group of women, and a lovely drive amongst the peaks and ridges of the Great Dividing Range to the Dorrigo Plateau, and then down the escarpment to Bellingen, nestled into the river valley at the foot of the hills.

I’ll leave you with a couple of views from the road to Dorrigo:

Despite all evidence to the contrary on this blog lately, I am still alive. Life’s just been doing the up and down thing, so my brain has been somewhat distracted.

The major news is that, after months of struggling with it, my publisher, agent and I have decided that the book I was drafting and redrafting and redrafting – the third Dungirri book – just isn’t going to work at this point. Yes, that was a hard decision to make, and I know some readers are going to be disappointed (part of me is, too), but I know that it’s the right decision for now. It took me some days to come to terms with it; it’s very hard to let go of a book and characters that I’ve been working on for a long time! However, my plans now are to power on with a brand new book – new characters, new setting, new story – but at some stage, once that’s finished, I probably will write the third Dungirri book – although how, when and where it will be published I don’t yet know.

Now I’ve got past the disappointment stage, I can confess I’m feeling excited again – I’m no longer struggling to push a story uphill, and I can enjoy the thrill of starting a new idea. While I haven’t actually written a heap of the new book yet, I have the beginning, and the hero and heroine have been taking shape in my mind. I like them They’re not perfect; they each have some flaws or edges that should make them interesting. I think I’ve also worked out the initial crime and the person behind it, and yes, that will keep my protagonists on their toes! No news on publication date, yet, but probably mid-late next year. (I know, it’s a long wait. I’m sorry about that. But since I have major surgery ahead, and we can’t guarantee how much concentration I’ll be able to focus on writing in the next few months, we can’t commit to earlier than that.)

The weekend before last, G and I went for a long drive, partly to visit an area which I wondered about for the setting of the new book. Plus, we like driving through wilderness areas. By the end of the day, I’d decided that the setting wasn’t quite right for this book – I envisage it further west – but we had a lovely day out, anyway.

We drove north and a little west, up to the tiny community of Torrington, where we drove down the main road:

and conversed with some of the residents:

(The road through Torrington is also a common, where the cattle calmly graze.)

We then wound our way through the eastern edge of the Torrington Conservation Area (not quite a National Park, but similar):

which is granite country, rugged and rocky:

Then on through the rolling hills of the tablelands, up to within coo-ee of the Queensland border:

We then travelled west along the Bruxner Highway for a half-hour so, before turning south and coming home via Ashford and Inverell – but the wind was chilly, so I didn’t hop out and take any more photos!

Although the Torrington area is a wonderful place, this new book is telling me that it wants to be set further west. So, I’ll probably have to plan another trip or two soon; perhaps a couple of nights away, to revisit some places I’ve been to numerous times before, but this time with a writer’s eye.

in the meantime, I’ve got two new characters to get to know even better… and I’m thoroughly enjoying that!

One of the things I love about living out in the bush is the wildlife we frequently see. We have 100 acres of mostly regrowth eucalypt forest, and we’re in the midst of much, much larger grazing properties, with the gorge country not far away. Kangaroos, wallabies and wallaroos are around almost all the time; we frequently see echidnas and possums, and the regular birdlife includes choughs, magpies, fairy wrens, tiny firetails, rosellas, kookaburras, wedge-tailed eagles, and tawny frogmouths.

Most of the native wildlife is nocturnal, though, so we often wonder about what we don’t see, or see only rarely – like koalas, dingoes and feather gliders…

Our dogs spend each night in the dog ‘run’ – a large fenced area, about 25 metres by 25 metres (yes, bigger than the average house block!) There are plenty of trees in the run, and it’s surrounded by trees. The dogs often bark at night creatures, and every now and then a possum spends the night up one of ‘their’ trees, having wandered into the run during the evening when the dogs aren’t there. (A few weeks back, we rescued a baby possum, huddled on top of a fence post; we took it to a tree outside the run, which it scampered up quickly!)

On Tuesday morning, when Gordon went to take the dogs for their morning walk, they were interested in the occupant of a tree on the edge of the run. This is one of Gordon’s photos:

No, it’s not a possum (Australian possums are cuter than North American ones). We’ve never seen one of these before, and had to check on the internet… it’s a spotted quoll, a carnivorous marsupial, native to Australia and a threatened species. It scampered off to somewhere safer while Gordon and the dogs were out for their morning run – we don’t know if it lives locally, or if its territory is further away – apparently they can roam about 6 kilometres in a night.

Maybe we should go out spotlighting at night some time, and see what else is living in the bush with us!

Today is ANZAC Day in Australia and New Zealand, our national day of remembrance. Today is the 95th anniversary of the landing of Allied troops, including the ANZACs (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps), on the Gallipoli Peninsula in Turkey during World War 1, an ill-fated attempt by the Allies to secure access to the Black Sea. The invasion quickly became a stalemate, with Allied troops trapped on a narrow stretch of seaside-cliffs, and over the following eight months, heavy casualties were incurred by both Allied and Turkish troops, including the loss of over 10,000 Anzacs, before Allied troops were finally withdrawn.

ANZAC Day was observed in both Australia and New Zealand from 1916 – the year following the landing – and now commemorates those lost in all the wars and military actions in the decades since then.

In honour of the day, I bring you some poems by CJ Dennis, from The Moods of Ginger Mick, a verse novel first published in 1916. Dennis’ highly successful The Sentimental Bloke, published the year before, had introduced Ginger Mick, a rough, larrikin rabbit-seller from the back streets of Melbourne and good mate of The Sentimental Bloke, who narrates both books. The Moods of Ginger Mick was written in the early years of the War, and tells, through the Bloke’s eyes, of Mick’s somewhat reluctant volunteering as a soldier, and his experiences at Gallipoli. I’ve always loved it, and some of the poems still move me to tears every time I read them. Yes, there’s a strong current of patriotism and nationalistic pride throughout, but looking beyond that, there’s also an emotional honesty: Mick may become a hero, but he’s no shining, cultured knight, and The Bloke tells with heart-wrenching rawness of the costs of war on those left behind. One of the things I’ve always loved about CJ Dennis poems is that he is, at heart, a romantic – realistic and definitely male, but the rough, tough Bloke and Mick have feelings and struggle with them, and don’t shy away (much!) from admitting that to themselves.

For those interested, you can read all all of Mick’s story in the fourteen poems of The Moods of Ginger Mick here. They’re very much written in Australian vernacular, but you can check the Glossary for unfamiliar terms.

Below the fold, I’ve included excerpts from two poems.
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It’s been a roller-coaster couple of weeks since Gordon posted about me getting through the procedure fine. Although I was discharged from hospital on the Thursday just before Easter, and had a couple of pleasant days with Gordon and my sister Andrea sampling the cafés and shops of inner Sydney, my leg , where the doctors accessed the arterial system through the femoral artery, was painful, and the bruising kept getting bigger rather than smaller. Gordon flew home on the Sunday as we’d arranged, to collect the dogs from the kennel and get back to the demands of his job, but I’d planned to stay on in Sydney for a few more days, and then have a few days in Canberra.

The best laid plans, as Mr Burns says, are apt to go awry. On the Monday, with my leg still painful, I figured I’d better go to the Emergency department at the hospital, a short walk away, just to have it checked and be sure that the femoral artery wasn’t leaking. After the usual hours of waiting in ED, I was admitted to hospital, but by this time the doctors and I were reasonable confident that the femoral artery was okay, and hoped this would be confirmed by a CT scan the next day. Yes, the scan confirmed that the artery was fine – but it found a blood clot in the vein right next to the spot in the artery where they’d accessed the artery, possibly a result of all the poking and prodding and pressing during the procedure. (Yes, I believe I muttered a rude word or three under my breath!)

So, I spent a week in Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, on a heparin drip and easing on to warfarin for its anti-clotting properties, having frequent blood tests to check clotting levels, but otherwise feeling quite fine. It was a bit hard and lonely being in hospital with Gordon and the rest of my family so far away, but since I wasn’t really ill, it wasn’t worth all the expense of Gordon flying back to Sydney (plus accommodation, plus kennel fees, etc…) My friends in Sydney were wonderful and came and visited several times, and my sister came up from Canberra twice, so I wasn’t short on visitors or neglected! The staff – medical and nursing – were fantastic; caring, dedicated, sympathetic and friendly. I can’t speak highly enough of them. Anyone cynical about human nature should spend some time with neuro-surgery nurses and doctors!

Last Sunday, when it looked like I’d be in hospital for quite some more days until the medication levels were right, I asked one of the doctors whether it would be possible to be transferred back to Armidale, to the hospital here. I didn’t hold out a lot of hope – but on Monday morning, the neuro team swung into action, and by lunch-time they’d found a physician to take over my care at Armidale Hospital (not real easy in a small town), booked a bed, and booked the patient air transport. At 2pm, the patient transport team (registered nurse and driver) arrived, and I was wheeled out of RPA. At Bankstown airport, we pulled up right beside the small plane, and I met the pilot, and transferred to the plane – opting to sit up rather than use the stretcher, so I could enjoy the view.

For a writer, of course, the flight was a great opportunity for some research, and Mike, the RN, was happy to answer my questions. The patient transport service wasn’t a full air-ambulance; while there’s an RN accompanying the patient, they don’t do emergency cases – emergency air ambulance services are contracted separately to other organisations. But it was interesting, nonetheless – and a quick and easy way to get back to my home town! By 4.30pm, I was in Armidale Hospital, in a single room, blissfully quiet, enjoying the view of trees and country town landscape without any skyscrapers, and looking forward to seeing Gordon when he finished work.

I had two nights there, but yesterday was discharged, and oh, how lovely it was to drive out of town and come home! The dogs barked and licked and snuggled up and covered me in fur, and I enjoyed a mug of proper tea, made from tea leaves, and then had an afternoon nap, during which no-one woke me for observations or medications And wonderful, too, to have a proper internet connection again… while the iPhone let me check emails and do some web things while I was away, the small screen and the difficulty in typing quickly meant I only did the essentials. The dogs and I did a gentle afternoon walk as the sun was setting, and I breathed in fresh autumn air, and enjoyed the twittering of the birds and insects and the peace and beauty of the bush around me.

Now that I’m home, and my laptop and I are reunited, I need to get more serious work on book 3, First Light. Hospital is not conducive to writing, or even much thinking about writing, but I have had a few ideas which I’m looking forward to working into the manuscript. So, after I see my doctor, have today’s blood test, and do some grocery shopping, it will be back home to the laptop and, I hope, some productive writing. Oh, and gentle dog-walking in the late afternoon light!