Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Amazing cultural differences insight

August 15, 2026 by donnamareehanson

Yesterday, I was bumming around on Instagram, when I caught sight of one of the channels I watch fairly regularly. It’s a big tall English guy, Isaac, married to a Chinese woman with kids and in laws. He has some really interesting posts. This one was about washing shoes in the washing machine, which led to a whole conversation with my daughter-in-law. The Instagram channel is @fisherzhangs_in_china and the post was about their new washing machine, Chinese designed and made, Little Swan Xiao Wu Mei Multi-drum laundry room with dedicated shoe-washing drawer.

So I started commenting on the post and Ferdi, my D-I-L says yes, I was so surprised when I saw you put your runners in your washing machine when I first went to Australia. Now, I have to admit that when Ferdi and my son first came to stay just after they got married and Covid allowed them to travel, I thought Ferdi was germ phobic. You know with Covid and all that, who wouldn’t be.

She was very particular, used disinfectant in the washing machine, cleaned her phone screen with alcohol wipes, every day (maybe more often)-(this habit I have adopted because eeww! phone screens and germs). Also, even with things that go in the fridge. Uncovered things etc. Nope.

But last night, the whole cultural difference was pulled out and explored. Chinese people wash their underwear separately. They also wash socks separately and then the clothes go together. I haven’t asked about towels and stuff but I will. I tend to wash towels together so I’m not completely ick!

She explained how Taamati now sorts the washing like a Chinese person and that they have three baskets for underwear, socks and then clothes. How did I not know this?

Here is me, time poor, generally, just shoving whatever into our large 10kg front loader. I mean separating the whites from the darks is hard enough but, this information has me reconsidering.

There is definitely a logic behind it all.

Ferdi says most people will probably handwash their underwear but they would not put shoes in the washing machine. According to Isaac’s relatives, you send your shoes to a shoe cleaning shop or clean kids shoes with a brush.

Now the Little Swan has a shoe cleaning drawer!

Ferdi and I popped onto Tao Bao to look up the washing machine, which probably costs around $2000 Singaporean. We even called Taamati, who is currently in Shanghai and he’s like -not until we buy a house. It’s a very cool looking machine. I think I can find a link for laundry eye candy. Link here.

Anyway, what a clever thing.

While we were on the call, Taamati showed us the hotel toilet, which the lid opens when you walk in. It’s a Japanese style one with bidet etc. Everything is button controlled and you don’t touch the toilet except with your butt I suppose.

Generally we ended the conversation on how clever the Chinese are.

But for me, it made me understand how little things, like how you wash your clothes (and shoes) can create barriers to understanding and expose cultural differences.

Also, how cool is my daughter-in-law because our family is completely weird and non-traditional compared to Chinese families and culture and she is very open minded, even when I weird her out by washing my runners in the family washing machine. I had been thinking this before we discussed laundering methods, btww.

There is probably a lot more cultural differences to flesh out between us.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

This is a blog post (repost) from ten years ago. That book that I was just starting back then, which was just a rough outline, is The Founders’ Legacy.

August 15, 2026 by donnamareehanson

This post is full of excitement, enthusiasm and wow! It seems so long ago, well ten years, but so much has happened since then. I got the PhD but did not publish a paper.

PhD progress

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »

Mad about maps

August 14, 2026 by donnamareehanson

In a recent post, I talked about losing Russell Kirkpatrick. Yesterday, I dug up the maps he made for my books over the years.

I remember him telling me to draw a map and on one visit to Australia from NZ I showed him my hand drawn map of Argenterra, of which I was very proud. Of course, it was a bit like the expression his family included in their powerpoint about Russell at the memorial. “That’s terrible. I appreciate the effort.”

Although he may have been a bit more scathing. Lol. (I do really suck at this map thing). He was ‘Mad about Maps’ and I think his Twitter handle was ‘Insane Mapboy’ and you can imagine him seeing my pitiful drawing compared the carefully crafted maps he drew for his books. They were real places to him, everything considered carefully, cause and effect, geography, perfectly envisioned. And there’s me with a map, my head in a story and not really able to imagine and draw the place as well as him. However, he was helpful and liked to instruct.

The map helped me navigate the land in the Silverlands series and he sat with me to talk about naming conventions and how languages changed over time. I had a place called Two Rivers Meet and he said that it would be better as Trivers Meet or something similar. He also talked about some place names and from whose perspective they were named from. It was an incredibly helpful discussion and he also helped me flesh out a few things about the geography. He also prompted me to give the place a few more names so it wasn’t just empty in places. I also had the Lake of Reflections drawn way to big!

This is the map of Argenterra he did for me, based on my drawing but with extensive Russell improvements.

The next set of maps we worked on were Dragon Wine maps, three in total. It wasn’t a matter of just handing him a rough drawing. No, I had to sit with him and learn stuff too. Dragon Wine opens in Shatterwing at the prison vineyard and this is how we envisioned it. It was Russell’s idea to have the vineyard broken into types of grapes and we also had fun naming the rivers and things to fit in with what I had mentioned in the book. This map was included in the Pan Macmillian version of the book but somehow slipped out of my self published version. I’ll be fixing that soon.

The other map pertinent to the first and second books, Shatterwing and Skywatcher, is the map of the Sartell region. They also work for Nightwings and Bloodstorm. It also shows where the prison vineyard is, where the observatory is and Vanden town as well as Sartell. Some of these places are explored in the rest of the series.

For the last two books, I needed a map of the whole world of Margra. As it was post-apocalyptic, after a moon fell, there would be significant changes compared to the past, which is unknown. The map needed to be a sort of pieced together map that identifies past continents, swamped shorelines and maybe even conjecture. Russell did a bit of research on this and also drew on past experience of seeing maps where things were guestimated rather than measured and so on.

So for Skyfire and Moonfall, we have a different map. I love the little note at the bottom saying it was compiled by Nils of Barr. Sitting with Russell to do this was not easy because I had to have the names of all the things I referenced and then explain them to Russell. Some are just mentioned in reference to pre-Shatterwing and are not actually travelled during the story. I think Russell wanted to educate me but I can’t replace him with regards to maps. Some people are just good at visualising. Me not so much.

If I do maps in the future, well not sure how that is going to go. I use sketches of houses and things to navigate and describe but not publish them.

Russell thank you for helping me envisage worlds. You taught me so much but I have a lot to learn still.

Posted in A writer's life, am wrinting, Creative passion, Maps | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Deleting the past and reminiscing about change

August 13, 2026 by donnamareehanson

My gmail accounts are too full and I’m running out of space. I can’t just do a global delete on terms like Twitter because random stuff gets pulled in. Someone may have their twitter handle in their email signature etc. So it’s a manual process.

It was funny as I was deleting all these notifications. Why did I have them turned on in the first place? I think after a number of years I did turn them off. But going through that old stuff, from way back in 2012 and maybe earlier, brought back memories. There was a Conflux that Nicole R Murphy and I ran and all the old emails for that. Twitter because I used to love that place and it got me thinking how I left because Elon ‘turned the evil and joined the dark side.’ Those people who I loved connecting with but now don’t at all.

And that got me thinking about Doctorow’s Enshitification theory and then my brain went into a feedback loop. Companies and people making super profits is just way wrong. Consider, I have bought maybe a dozen copies of Microsoft Office over the years. They used to be stand alone one off purchase and then I could never find the disc with the code or I’d buy a new computer and just get it loaded. I had Adobe Creative Cloud stuff and that stopped working and next time it was a monthly rental fee, way more than I ever earn that would pay for it. And now I pay a yearly fee Microsoft Office for something I bought over and over again. Loyally and legally. Microsoft are making huge profits so why am I paying still?

Okay so I’m stupid maybe but why?

Why isn’t it a token amount? They still get a profit but it is not exploitative profit. Same with banks and all of them, really. They just want more profit, more money and it’s accumulating in too few people.

There was an uproar on Threads recently because Canva is moving stuff to a professional level and has also changed the QR codes that were available on the free version. To be honest I hadn’t twigged when I did a recent back of QR coded bookmarks. It had a little c in the centre and I looked but didn’t see if you know what I mean. I suppose this means if I don’t keep up my subscription the QRs won’t work. And I use that subscription maybe once every few months so not really worth the $20 for me. I’m not very arty.

This rent I’m paying for these things and will probably soon pay for everything is crazy. Soon I’ll have to stop having things because I’m retired now and on limited income. Somethings are optional, like streaming. Britbox, for example, put up their fee by 50% this year so I’m going to unsubscribe because at the same time they were offering a cheaper price for new sign ons. I feel I have to watch Britbox because I paid so much for it. However, I don’t have to watch. I’d rather by physical media anyhow. I stick with Netflix because they were forerunners but I am spending too much on them so really need to adjust my plan.

But things like email and stuff like that well aren’t as optional. Iinet, for example, who I have been with since it was Ozemail, decided they didn’t want to do email anymore. They peeled that off to the Messaging Company, who you ended up having to pay for something that you already had included in your price. Then that price doubled the next year with the new mob and I closed my iinet email account. It was a huge job to change it and annoying but I felt it wasn’t fair.

Which reminds me I must quit iinet for my nbn, too. because hey that whole we aren’t doing email anymore thing sucked and I’m angry and no longer loyal. I’ll be looking for better price and better service elsewhere.

Life is not all about money. There used to be such things as social good, community, the greater good, public good and so on. Why does everything seem to be all about money and power? I feel trapped in some future dystopian SF novel but it’s reality.

I’m currently in Singapore. I don’t consider myself poor but I’m definitely not rich. And all the designer stuff I see, I wonder who can afford that stuff and why? It blows my mind, really.

Then there is AI and accusations about people using it, people using it and lying about it and so on. Before I retired, the department wanted people to use AI to write emails, read reports and so on. I don’t think an AI has my life experience to pick up things that I would if I read and analysed a report. And if AI wrote all my emails, where am I in this? I tell it what to write. But then I sound like an AI wrote my email.

As I was going through my emails and deleting old Twitter, Ebay and other notifications I saw all my drafts of books that I’ve sent myself over the years. I’m not deleting them because I might need them one day when someone claims AI wrote my books. AI companies used my books to train their agents btw without any compensation or permission. So at least I have the evidence that I wrote them, some of the attachments have very crappy drafts that don’t reflect my final product but they do have the dates.

For creative arts, like writing, composing, scriptwriting and art and illustration, I firmly believe you don’t need AI to write for you and I think using it for cover art is a kind of theft from the real artists. I also have views about AI translations and audio books. I saw some people on a book group I am in talking about massive profits from AI translations. I wondered why if they made so much money why they couldn’t pay a real person to translate for them. A thought I did not voice. I also saw one that will clone your own voice to read your audio book. I know my reading sucks but I’d rather read my own than artificially appear more articulate than I am. Also, reading your own work has value. You find typos and you learn some of your sentences and word usages are too complicated to read. Lol.

For finding information, for repetitive tasks sure why not? But the energy AI data centres consume and the water? Do we really need that drain on resources? AI is going to take jobs, I know. Technology has been taking jobs for maybe 150 years. I remember the huge stagflation (high inflation and high unemployment) in Australia in the 1970s with the oil shock and the advent of computers. In those days it was punch cards at the stock exchange, for example, that I had direct experience with but eventually years later the trading floor was not full of humans anymore and trading is now done through a computer system.

Right now we are in a oil shock and a technology shift. I don’t think we have had the full impact yet. We have protectionism, tariffs used as weapons, as well. We have crazy international stuff going down. If I was a doomsayer, and believe me I have those tendencies, I would say we are in for a rocky ride.

Stop the ride! I wanna get off now.

PS now back to writing fantasy to escape all this nasty reality.

PSS I bought a book and have been doing some research and this has fueled ideas. I’m happy about that.

Posted in A writer's life, am wrinting | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Procrastaposting!

August 11, 2026 by donnamareehanson

I should be hard at work on Amethyst Way this morning. I’m up to 7,000 words but I realised last night that I need to understand Milly better and spend a bit of time with her before I head off into the action. So I need to write another chapter before I kick off the mystery bit. As much as I love Jemima I want the billing to feature Milly in equal parts. I also want to have fun with the narrative. So while I’m lining up my thoughts, I figured a blog post might help.

I’m in the apartment alone for most of the day. I was, too, yesterday but I wrote quite a bit, read, blogged and napped. I’ve done my pool walk and had breakfast. The headline news this morning is that the fancy robot vac has stopped just after starting. I don’t know what’s wrong with it as it speaks Mandarin and talks like an anime character. I love the sound of it. Last week, I was in my room and the robo vac came in and started talking to me in English, but that was my son using the onboard camera and mic. We had good laugh. Anyway, I tried restarting it a few times and it just stops. It is probably something simple but I’ll wait until Ferdi comes back.

If I get bored today I will go out even if its just for the exercise. A round trip on the metro is about 5000 steps! Mostly in airconditioning mind you, so very, very civilised. I weighed myself this morning and despite my exercise and a change in diet where I think I eat less every day, I have probably only toned up and lost a kilo. This is better than gaining weight, which I normally do while I travel.

Also in the apartment is an automated cat litter. I have one at home but not this fancy. This one bags up the doo doo and the used litter and puts into bags, which are stored in a tower. Every few days you empty the pile of bags and there’s no smell. Very high tech. I wonder if they will have something invented for me when I can’t use the loo when I’m old (cough older). I have no idea of the cost of this contraptions. It’s a Petkit so Chinese invented and made.

Another reason that I’m procrastaposting is that I need to do some research. I borrowed some books but I left them at home. Research is good for accuracy but also for inspiration. Now I’ll probably end up restructuring the beginning of my draft, which is something I normally frown upon because I should just keep going and get the draft down and that works generally. However, I don’t feel pressed for time so I’m going to sort it out before I move forward.

In other general news, I received a rejection from an agent I subbed to in February this year, who had a time frame of 8-10 weeks. I reckon I was the victim of a clean out. Ooh I forgot to reject that one. Six months. At least, they wrote to me. Often these days it is forget after 6 weeks or something. I think agents are good to have for traditional publishing but they are a bastard to get.

The editing/writing assistant has just arrived so it must be time for serious work.

Posted in A writer's life, Creative passion, Querying agents, research, Singapore, Steampunk, Travel | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment »

Singapore Speculative Fiction Event

August 10, 2026 by donnamareehanson

A local author friend alerted me to a Singapore Speculative Fiction Event at the Book Bar, in Outram Park (actually it is close to Maxwell MRT). So I booked a free ticket and headed over on Friday last. The event was called Home, Truly & Beyond and featured Elaine Boey, Megan Chee and Joyce Chng with moderator Meihan Boey (fangirl squee!).

Duxton Road walking down from the Maxwell MRT station was a lovely experience. There are a mass of old ‘shophouses’ which are now fancy restaurants and exclusive bars.

I discovered a bookstore, called Littered with Books. Great name. I was early so went in to check it out. Bought a special book and then headed out. Littered with Books has lots of books, a lot of international SF and fantasy among the usual collection. The Book Bar was something else all together. It was full of South East Asian books and Singapore books and had a little bar, with food at reasonable prices. I did a quick survey of the books and bought my first round It was all set up for the talk too. I grabbed a drink and found a seat.

The view walking up/down Duxton Road.

Meihan talked about why she had organised this talk because while some Singapore writers were known outside Singapore they were sort of overlooked at home. The three writers talked about how they got published, when they started writing, the complexities of being Singaporean and trying to be noticed, particularly with agents and publishers. They talked about crickets when writing to agents. What a great term for the awful experience of querying agents and hearing nothing at all.

The picture of pretalk get together as they waited for the audience.

This picture is one of the panel underway.

They also read from various of their books. Elaine’s Small Bites had me drooling. It’s a body horror collection I believe but the food descriptions were so precise and real. Which is available for preorder. Next on my to do list along with ordering Megan Chee’s Archaeology of Falling Worlds. I bought Wolf Path by Joyce Chng and will do a little review below.

A picture of my book haul.

As for Meihan Boey, I have read her Miss Cassidy Trilogy, having bought them on previous visits. Recommended by my friend Dev J. They are now published internationally and you should definitely read them. So good. A blend of Victorian capitalism and Singapore blend of culture, myths and legends with a splash Scottish faerie.

The Wolf’s Path by Joyce Chng

The Wolf’s Path has made the British Fantasy Awards Shortlist for best collection and I can see why. It is part memoir and part story collection from older stories to newer ones. I find it quite intriguing as many of the fears and concerns Joyce writes about echo in me. Apocalypse, post-apocalyse, war, belonging, gender, aging. I am three quarters of the way through the collection. Joyce has a unique voice and at times uses lyrical prose. One story in particular stood out for me. “A Basketful of Figs”, featuring a fig tree in a courtyard, a symbol of permanence and also food. In the far future, families of Chinese immigrants return to China as ‘returnees’ after generations living in South East Asia. War comes and Joyce’s tale speaks to the impact on her family, her neighbours, distant cousins and even the defenders. I found it a bitter sweet tale. Exquisite even.

Other stories resonate with anger, with questioning, with alien invaders and the sharp strike of talons. Of bravery and difference. Another standout for me was “I found love in an urn full of ashes”–a story flavoured with the essence of myths and legends. I was amused and fascinated by this tale. “Lotus” was poignant, reminding me of the movie Waterworld, but not. It is more reflective on human nature, on greed and the things that make humans fight and I think optimistic after global warming floods most of the world. I loved the detail of the lotus flower, the roots, the seeds. Things I did not know. “Yao Jin” too, spooked me and fascinated me. What is this world that Joyce writes about? Very cool stuff.

Wolf’s Path is published by a US small press and should be available if you order it in or in ebook.

Posted in A writer's life, Creative passion, Singapore | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Ooh this is exciting!

August 7, 2026 by donnamareehanson

Ingram Sparks has finally released its sell direct store for print books. This means you technically buy direct from via my printer. That means if the Zon or other bookstores are charging outrageous prices then you can use my link. There will be postage of course!

So my first trial will be my new release, The Founders’ Legacy. The paperback is $30 AU, 30 GDP and $19.99 US. Purchase link here.

Let me know how you go! I want to try it myself for a UK purchase.

If this works, then maybe I will need to work on special editions.

Posted in Indie Publishing, Print books Direct, Print books direct | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

There is movement at the station…

August 5, 2026 by donnamareehanson

Gentleman Magician is with the editor. Phew! My son and daughter-in-law were away all day Monday until later in the evening so it was my chance to knuckle down and finish writing/revising/reading through the manuscript. I didn’t get the whole thing done until Tuesday morning, but it is done and it is sent at 50,000 words–full of Edward, Fulton and Dr Heaton. Sorry no Jemima!

I had fun with it and it was a challenge. Prequels can be difficult, for sure, because you have to tie into those things you set up on the novels. Also, there is no romance in it…I can’t have Edward being unfaithful to Jemima, even if it is before they get together.

Right now, I’m onto Amethyst Way. Here is the cover! A big thank you to Frauke at Crocodesigns.

It’s early days on the writing front. I have some words down and will get some more in after I have finished blogging. Amethyst Way will feature Milly and Jemima and using some Victorian era cliches– letters to convey information (not the whole book just the set up) and faerie entwined into the story.

Of course, I meant to start this two weeks ago but with The Founders’ Legacy autocorrect debacle, which delayed me finishing Gentleman Magician, I am about two weeks behind on Amethyst Way. And technically I was meant to write another novel about Jemima’s father and mother, which had to be skipped for now.

I’m so excited to be writing this story. My sister-in-law, who is a big fan of the Cry Havoc series, said she’d love a story about Milly and as The Prudential Light was Aunt Prudence’s memoir and Amber Rose was about Fulton, it seemed only fair to focus on Milly. Of course, that suggestion gave me ideas!

I am hoping to have Gentleman Magician in print before Books and Beyond on 27 September in Ourimbah. I think my chances are good. I will definitely have copies for all the October events, Conflux, Once Upon a Fairytale, the Goulburn Steampunk Festival and Books in Sight event in Canberra.

Anyway, I’m so excited.

Tonight we are eating out near Orchard Road I think because we are seeing The Odyssey in one of the Singapore Imax theatres. I haven’t ventured out in recent days, except for the pool, which is downstairs and a few laps of the complex in the evening. This is by choice as I want to write.

I know I’m in Singapore, but apart from a few things I have not done, I’ve seen most touristy things. However, now the busy things are done, I should be able to write in the mornings and explore Singapore in the afternoons, maybe even on my own. I usually go out with my daughter-in-law but you know I am a big girl now. We do have a favourite Japanese grocery store called Don, Don, Donki and will get back there soon.

I am going to a book event at the Book Bar on Friday to see Home, Truly and Beyond: Singapore’s Speculative Fiction Writers. It will feature Joyce Chng, Elaine Boey and Megan Chee with moderator Meihan Boey (I love her books). Me and my phone will find the venue.

My son is going to China and Vietnam for work on Sunday, which is Singapore’s national day. I’m likely to stay at home as we are near one of the major venues and there will be so many people, if the run up events are any indication. My son is away for ten days and that leaves me and my daughter-in-law to hang out by ourselves. My son’s absence couldn’t be helped as work is important. I head back at the end of the month, so I’ll have a final week with my son then. It all seems too quick to me. A day short of five weeks! It sounded like a long time but it’s not really. My daughter-in-law suggests I come for three months next time. Matthew has a permanent invitation, too, but alas the old kitty kat, Gin, does not.

Anyway, that’s it from me at the moment. The Founders’ Legacy is out in the world. The physical book launch will be on Monday 31 August at Smiths in Civic, Canberra. The first book physical book launch in literally years.

Posted in A writer's life, Creative passion, new release, Singapore, Steampunk, Travel, Writing | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Some Singapore Highlights

July 29, 2026 by donnamareehanson

Singapore is full of delights. Culinary, in particular, but also cultural. I had an amazing time last year with the 60th anniversary, with the cultural institutions exhibiting early Singapore artifacts that tied directly to the novel I was writing. This year I had a couple of things on my wish list. But, then, something popped up on my Instagram feed, something right up my alley. The Portals Experience. Link here.

Anyway, my son and daughter-in-law liked the idea too, being geeks like me. Portals is in Scots Road, fairly central. What is Portals? Well SF and Fantasy, a whole spectrum of books, book cover art, figurines, dioramas, games, genre discussion. It was truly amazing and I think I needed a season ticket to get the full effect of it. It opens up the whole world of cover art and books. The early SF. The early art. I’m thinking AI is going to kill the future of cover art and I hate that. These covers were amazing, just like the stories were. Amazing and new at the time. The SF, Fantasy and Horror genres reek with creative imagination of the other worldly and it’s not just books and cover art. There are games, game art, figurines, dioramas–whole scenes of imagined worlds. There are archetypes and there is genre growth and evolution and Portals gives more than a glimpse into this.

I thoroughly recommend this event. I asked one of the staff members if the exhibit will travel elsewhere and she thought not. It took the organizer two years to put together and now they will be looking to store the contents when the exhibition ends September 1, I think. So you have all of August to check it out.

The store was amazing too. You could by first edition SF paper backs, art prints (with half the revenue going to the artists), art postcards (same deal) and other geek stuff.

I will share some photos. It is five stars all round. No loos on site so come prepared.

Image 1. Panels of Fantasy and Science Fiction Magazines. There were several panels of different magazines on display.

Image 2 An example of a panel with book, game and figurine and artwork Warcraft

Image 3 Examples of book displays in the first room

Image 4 Film, artifacts and book Planet of the Apes

Image 4 Examples of early SF books

Image 5 An early book that I had not read

Image 6 Figurines–These were done by themes, exploring different cultural origins

Image 7 Eastern tradition

Image 8 Greek inspired figurines

Image 9

Image 10 Map

A short clip of Atlantis Diorama

And a short clip of one of my favorite parts- The book slider loop thing

Obviously I have way more photos and video but this is just a taste. You should get along to see if if in Singapore and if you are heading to Singapore soon, check it out.

Also, we went to Alice Boulangerie and Restaurant. I had an amazing burger. I couldn’t have the prawn pasta or the lobster pasta because they put fish roe in there. (I needed to google the ingredients). Amazing pastries in the display too. Great service.

Otherwise I have stayed at home and worked on book stuff. Like all day. On the weekend we are booked for the Ginger Lily High Tea at the Hilton in Orchard. Stay tuned.

Posted in A writer's life, Creative passion, fantasy, geekgirl, Geeking out, retro SF, Travel | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Still in Singapore

July 28, 2026 by donnamareehanson

It’s lovely. The weather is warm, of course, but less humid than on my visit last year. Or so my body thinks.

I have been to the pool every morning so far. Yay me. It is so convenient as the pool is downstairs. At home I have to drive for 20 minutes so it’s an event, rather than every day.

We caught some of the birthday fireworks. It’s not Singapore’s birthday yet but these are the lead up. We are right next to the stadium so the fireworks sounded like bombs going off. Very scary. We caught the last one.

Last hoorah of Singapore’s fireworks on the weekend.

I have started working on the revision to Gentleman Magician. I need to get a move on with that. However, it shouldn’t be too long if I knuckle down.

I’ve also been editing audio files for The Founders’ Legacy. And well that takes a lot of time and some of the errors (pickups) I can’t do here. I tried but the sound quality is different and I hate the sound of my voice so much anyway and the way I stumble over words that I feel that I might start over again, again, again. At least I got the whole book down this time, instead of redoing chapter one over and over again. Practice makes perfect.

But again, I winkled some more typos out so I have updated the files, yet again. I’m going to stop typo hunting now so I can move on. I found the issue was really in Vellum, the program I use to format the books. Somehow I had an option on to automatically correct spelling errors. I didn’t even know that option existed. My novel has a whole lot of made up pronouns, strange names and Vellum changed them and created chaos. All that careful proofreading torn up. However, I believe it is sorted now. But if someone mentions typos I may go up in flames.

For Russell Kirkpatrick’s memorial, which I’ll miss in person, is on Friday. Kylie kindly asked me to talk about Russell’s writing and links to the writing community. I have sent that video off but damn that was hard. In the end I just had to run with it, be as natural as I could, even though I hated listening and looking at me and I didn’t want to become emotional.

In other news, The Founders’ Legacy is for free on Kobo for a little bit. Hopefully this universal link will work. Barnes and Noble is inaccessible from Singapore for some reason. Link for The Founders’ Legacy. Here.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

« Newer Posts - Older Posts »