Computers!

I believe that a few days before this latest absence I was muttering about my computer?

Well – the worst happened!

For the last few months it has taken several attempts before it would condescend to start. Oh - and turning everything on in the “correct order”. It was very particular about that.

Under no circumstances was the screen to be turned on before the box was up and humming, or the screen would simply blink owlishly at me and refuse to do anything else. On each blink I’d catch a tantalizing glimpse of the folder-cluttered desktop beyond but there was never enough time for me to click on anything.

Then, about a week ago, even doing everything in the correct order wasn’t working. It took hours to start. A heart-to-heart with the local computer repairman had already indicated that there wasn’t much point in trying to repair it. The old girl was on her way out. (The computer – not me!)

So, hand in hand with my not-very-loved-by-this-point computer, we limped on.

I saved what I could.

And then it happened. One morning she simply refused to even make an attempt. I was tempted to give her a sharp prod – well, it works with unbiddable cows – but I could see she was passed all that.

Even the screen refused to blink at me. Nothing but black glass staring lifelessly back.

I knew I hadn’t saved enough.

So, I have a new computer. We don’t understand each other very well yet, but she has shown me where my email was stored. Well, she has shown me where one email account is; another email account is up and running (except I’ve forgotten where it is!) but everything that was in it has evaporated.

I suspect she’s a bit of a smart aleck. She seems to enjoy showing me how little I really know about driving a snazzy modern computer.

She’s fast. She’s stylish. And one day, I dare say she’ll quit on me too.

I’m gonna save more this time!

I'm a Stumbler

I've just put the Stumble widget on my computer desktop and although I've always been convinced that it was a total waste of time, I have to confess I'm quite enjoying it. I've come across some websites that I never would have discovered on my own.

And who would have thought there were so many cutesy animal pics on the web!

Anyway, I came across this one Forbidden Library and being a book lover I found it most entertaining. I never have been much into naughty books - well other than when I was 14 and discovered Lady C's Lover - so I was staggered to find that I had read so many of these banned books.

They're not banned all over, of course, But each one of them has had a rocky road to public acceptance.

My all-time favourite author, Stephen King, has several on the list. Just shows what idiots some officals are!

But To Kill a Mockingbird and The Grapes of Wrath! I mean we're talking great literature here as well as damn fine stories. (Ever noticed that the two don't always go together.)

Anyway, if you've got an idle five minutes take a peak. I think you'll find it interesting.

I'm Stumbling a few of your sites. Leah's abundance pages, for instance, over at The Goat's Lunch Pail. I'm sure the world would be a better place if everyone had a wise woman reminding them to write out their abundance cheques. And gratitue. You can never have enough of that.

And if I suddenly go missing in action, it won't be that I've Stumbled into a black hole out in cyber space. No - it will be my computer. It's taken to stumbling too!

Tagged again!

Yep, Michael has tagged me this time. You all know Michael but just in case you don't he's over at Avatar Lore. It seems I have to give you five sentences out of page 123 of a book - any book, I understand. So on the strength of that I'll give you five from Kitty by Deborah Challinor. You'll remember that Deb was one of the writers on my book tour. She writes NZ historical romance and you really get a flavor for what life was like in NZ in the 1800's.

"The girl was wearing a shiny dress the acid green of new leaves, the bodice cut very low and her white breasts spilling out, almost but not quite revealing her nipples. The dress was sleeveless and very tight about the hips, and only came down to the girl's calves. On her feet she wore red button boots with sharp little heels. There were fading bruises on her arms as well as dozens of brass bangles, and her long hair was pinned up with an enormous black silk rose with a peacock feather sticking out of it."

Now I have to admit - and I'll say this very quietly - I don't read much NZ fiction. But before the book tour I read some of Deb's stories and I really enjoyed them. She has about 7 or 8 under her belt by now and I can promise you SHE doesn't get her books placed at ankle level!

I don't think she's with Amazon USA but Amazon UK have some of her books.

So, I'm passing the tag on. As usual, I won't name anyone but if you want to pick it up, then give your readers 5 lines of page 123 of the book of your choice.

Happy scurrying through page 123 of all the books on your bookshelf, everyone!

Book Club Queen

That should be the Book Club Queens actually because there are TWO lovely ladies at Book Club Queen. And how come I know all about them is because they're going to review Ripples on the Lake AND interview me next month. Pretty neat, eh!

After the trauma of all those live radio interviews I'm really looking forward to this. I'm going to be able to make myself sound intelligent and artistic and not burble on in my usual fashion!

When I was in Hamilton (a nearby city) a week or two back I looked about a few book stores for Ripples and was disappointed to see that our "moment in the sun" is more or less over. In one shop, she was being displayed at ankle level! I kid you not. Unless you're were crawling along the aisle on your belly you could not see the book. Another shop I went into I was assured they did have Ripples - but they didn't know where!

So - another royalty cheque will come my way this month but I'm not expecting to come visit you all on the strength of it!

Still, I sold a story that will always be dear to me, we spent time in the NZ Bestseller List, I did a book tour and met other writers, I started blogging and met all you guys - if we've been replaced by other, newer, books, I can't begrudge some other writer their moment in the spotlight.

But it's so great to have Ripples being reviewed by the Book Club Queens. They've done reviews on ALL of the Harry Potter books so if you're into that, check them out at Book Club Queens. And if you want advise on how to start a book club, then these two ladies have all the answers.

I'm not sure if the Book Club Queens are paranormal adventure fans or not so I hope they enjoy the story, although personally I don't think of it as "paranormal".

I just wrote the story the way it all happened!

Award winning me!

Today, I've just won an award. Was it the Booker Prize you ask? Not the Nobel Prize for Literature, you gasp.

Nope! Even better. Penelope the cat has awarded me top achievement for - well, I'm not quite sure what it's for, but I'm happy to grab, sorry humbly accept, any award I can.



It is with great pleasure that I accept the "Kudo's from Penelope" Award. I've know Penelope since she was just a youngster and have always been one of her biggest fans. And if you're that one in a million person who doesn't know Penelope then you'll find her link over to your right (if the blog cleaners haven't tossed it out with the empty coke bottles and cup cake wrappers.)

This honour that Her Purrness has bestowed upon my humble self is in recognition of the fact that "I am back". Since the local shop no longer stocks cream filled apple donuts, there is not quite so much "back" as there used to be. But I am back even though the back is lesser. The back that I am is now stronger and more agile after strengthening and toning exercises at the tomato green house. There is nothing quite like pushing a trolley loaded with tomatoes to give the back that I am a new sense of purpose in life.


So - I'm back.

And while I'm here, I'd just like to thank Penelope, my blogging friends, my husband, my parents, my dogs, anyone who bought the book, the people who are GOING to buy the book, the people who bought the book and have since sold it on Trade Me, the people who will buy the book now that they don't have to buy any more Harry Potter books, the people who ...

Funny - my voice is echoing.

Is anyone there?

Penelope?

Anyone?

Oh!

Running the pups

We loaded up all the dogs late this afternoon and took them up the mountain for a run. Hubby had the gun and knife just in case we did actually run into a pig but we were really only trying to exercise the dogs. Hubby is having major back problems at the moment so that proper hunting is not possible.

We took the two pups, Bruiser and Jem, along with us. I'm not really a pig hunter by nature, my sympathy is with the pig, but I do love these early outings with pups. It's such a delight watching them tackle so many new experiences.

There are lots of things for them to learn but most of them are things that you can't really teach. All you can do is give the young dogs the opportunity to learn. Over time, they'll learn to back track so they never get lost, and how to cross streams and how to scent. And they'll learn what they're going up there to find. That's about the time I begin to leave hubby and the dogs to it.

But for now, they're just two young pups having fun.

Berry and Diesel cool themselves by flopping down in any shallow stream we come to but the pups haven't got the hang of that yet. They carefully jump over so as not to wet their feet!

And talking of feet - I'm a great believer that puppies grow into their feet and these two boys both have enormous feet. They're going to be big dogs for sure. Bruiser has thrown very much to Diesel's greyhound side and I think will be very fast. Jem's a one-pace "plodder" like his mum, Berry.

It was a lovely outing - no pigs about - just a grass covered track winding up the mountain through native bush, and hubby and I and the dogs. Well, hubby was driving the ute mostly but me and the dogs loved it! Pigeons flapped noisily overhead and we saw some Californian quail. We went a little far and Bruiser was very tired - he still isn't back to full strength.

Home again just as it was coming dark. Big dinners for the dogs and then into their beds. I'm sure they have wonderful dreams after these runs.

I love these early pigless pig hunts!