Hi Everyone, Been a bit busy of late. Installing a new wardrobe in the main bedroom, doing volunteer work for the RFS and readying my novel, Where the Street Sleepers Die. Despite it being finished a while ago, I was a surprised at the amount of work required to get it ready for self publication. But it's now up on Amazon and will be available on Smashwords from the 31st. I'll update this blog with the link later.

I've added the cover image, it's the same as the one in the previous blog.

Cheers

Glenn

Where the Street Sleepers Die Cover Art

After some thought, exploration of the web and a Youtube lesson, I'm going with this one for, Where the Street Sleepers Die.

Cheers

Glenn

Final Cover Design for Where The Stree Sleepers Die

Hi Everyone, Been busy as usual. But I need to mention a couple of things. I’ve been working hard on editing and submitting my stories. And frustratingly, getting lots of rejects. Well, that’s the writer’s life. I’ve also been putting together a collection of short and not so short stories. That’s almost complete.

I made a decision a month or so ago, to put my Ross Courtney Murder Mystery novels on Smaswords and Amazon. The first, Where the Street Sleepers Die, is almost ready. I’ve been doing a final edit with some software not available when I first wrote it. Once that’s done up it goes. Today I finished the cover, and I’m very happy with it. Please see below.

On an unexpected front, I was asked about two weeks ago to appear as Tom Baker’s Dr Who in a short video to celebrate fifty years since Tom took on the role. This was to be created by the Sydney Video Makers Club, http://www.sydneyvideomakers.org.au/svmc/home.asp. Well, we had the filming on Friday and, I must say, it was a great experience. Such a professional group of people. Having not acted for something like 5 years and having never acted in a studio setting before, they made it so much easier.

The premier should be around the 8th of December. I’ll update when I find out more.

Cheers

Glenn

Where the Street Sleepers Die Cover Art

Hi Everyone,

I’ve been busy editing but am hoping to post two novels soon. One, The River, a collection of short and not so short stories, and two, Tomorrow’s Not Promised, the first in the Doorway series. Think India Jones, meets Stargate meets I Robot. Except the archaeologist is more comfortable in a library, the Doorway is not based on the Stargate and the I Robot is a synthetic soldier from the future. Well two soldiers, one from the future and one from the far future.

In fact it was the launching of the movie, 'Stargate' that prompted me to get off my backside and finally write about the Doorway. I'd been thinking about it for some thirty years but never put pen to paper. As mentioned, while motivated by Startgate, my Doorway was inspired by a science fiction short story from the Golden Age, about .... A Doorway.

This year is the 50th anniversary of the actor Tom Baker taking over the role of Dr Who. Here in Sydney, Australia, a group of very talented amateur film makers is soon to be filming a short tribute to the wonderful Doctor. Yours truly was invited to play Tom Baker as the Doctor.

I had given up acting. Though I enjoy the experience, I've always hated learning lines and prefer to put my time into my writing, but I couldn't miss the opportunity to work in front of a camera, old ham that I am.

I'll provide updates later.

I mentioned in an earlier blog entry that I was doing things with one of my Raspberry Pis, this are marvellous single board computers. I said I'd say more later, then promptly forgot.

So here's a bit of an update. I have one that runs my database and my local website, this reminds me when bills are due and when story submission dates have passed so I can resubmit my work.

The other I bought to get into home automation, something that has always fascinated me. But after a bit of thought, I decided to abandon that as I'm spreading myself a bit thin. Instead, I'm going to set it up so that I can learn to use a web development framework, either Laravel (PHP) or Django (Python). At the moment I'm sourcing parts so I can mount it on the back of a small computer monitor to save space.

Cheers

Glenn

Hi everyone, I’ve been pretty busy for the last few months. This year I had three writing goals, one, to type in all the new work, two, to edit the new stuff and outstanding stories and novels, and three, submit, submit, submit my short stories to magazines and first chapters to competitions.

I wrote about thirty pages of The Light that Shines the Brightest while in Europe, plus about the same for Keepers of the Light, an unplanned short story, and roughly the same for The Sterile Vessels Club. This is a new novel I’ll write … sometime. I also was moved to put pen to paper and write John Doe, inspired by the 2023 movie, Jules, and The Travelling Spoons. This one was inspired by an anecdote from a friend over lunch one day.

All the typing, while it took its time, has been done. The editing was endless. I have lost count of the number of times I’ve said about a story, this’ll be the lasts read through, then I’ll submit. Well, two or three further updates later …. But that’s the nature of writing.

I’m ‘hoping’ to have a collection of my short stories out on Smashwords and Amazon, real soon now. It’s going to be called The River and contains some of my earliest work as well as more recent stories and short novellas. One of the reasons for the delay, besides life and the fact I keep thinking up new stories and novels (There’s going to be a fifth Ross Courtney Novel when I’d thought I was finished with him) is I’m having trouble with one of the short novellas, Invitation to a Dream. This happens sometimes. It’s just not right. It’ll take some hammering, but I’ll get there.

Writing is a frustrating game. You spend hours, days, weeks creating a story or novel, moulding it, editing and reediting and editing again. Then you submit, wait months, then get rejected or worse, receive no response. I knew all this when I writing as my last and final career move. But yesterday, the sun came out from between a small gap in the heavy clouds. A friend made the effort to ring up and tell me how much they liked Keepers of the Light. And a little later, I received notification that two of my novellas, Everyone Lies and For the Journey is Long and Our Lonely World is Lost, were purchased on Smashwords.

I also got to play with my younger grandson all day. A good day. A very good day.

Hi Everyone, We got back yesterday from a trip to meet with our school friends in country NSW. We've been doing this for a few years now, though usually earlier in the year. The delay this time was due to my hip operation.

Finding a place for the ten of us is a little tricky but we've been lucky so far to have managed it. This year it was at Frank's Breakaway Farmstay, http://franksbreakaway.com.au/.

The house is beautifully rustic, with four bedrooms and two showers/toilets. It run by a lovely couple who made us feel right at home. They let us feed the chooks and even put us in charge for a day.

On our first day well went in search of Split Rock. This meant a fairly steep climb. I was a little worried for my new hip but it worked out fine. We found the rock and climbed through the split.

Later we walked to the camping grounds, much flatter and after lunch played 'Things' for hours. Our evening went with a fair amount of wine.

The next day we drove to the national park, Ganguddy-Dunns Swamp campground. We had a lovely bush walk to the damn and then back again, returning to our house, trivia more snacks and wine. A great few days.

Hi Everyone, Last week was very sad. Both Trish and I have lost our parents now. I know from experience how hard hard that is to get used to.

Hi Everyone, My wife and I are currently in Queensland. Sadly my mother-in-law passed away last week. We'll be returning to Sydney after her funeral tomorrow.

Glenn

Over Covid. Pretty mild this time. So, much so we went to watch the Drones last Saturday night. Yep, the one that got cancelled. But, had a great time with my family, including the two grandies. My daughter's family caught 8 fish over the weekend. Thrilled they were. Below is a picture of vivid 2024. I'll put some of mine up soon. Thanks to Nomadasuarus (https://www.nomadasaurus.com/vivid-sydney-photography/), for the use of the pix.

On other fronts, I've finally caught up with my typing. I completed the last of what I've written to day of The Light that Shines the Brightest. This is the bit I wrote on our overseas trip last year.

I'm going to do some more audio recordings of my work and put them up and continue submitting my work.

Thanks for reading.

Glenn

https://www.nomadasaurus.com/vivid-sydney-photography/

Guess who got Covid! No idea where, but Tuesday, the day before we were due to leave for Queensland, I was feeling off so we did a test and it rocketed up the indicator tab.

I'm on the other side now and never really felt too bad, but now my poor wife is down with it. This delays our trip and collides with other upcoming events.

Oh well, that's life.

I did get to work on The Light That Shines the Brightest. Or should I say, type in. So much typing. That's the life of a writer. Mind you I did do a little VBA programming. The first in a long time. I made a little MS Word tool for myself.

Till next time.

Thanks for reading.

I don’t normally write essays, but I was moved to scribble down a few thoughts after an event last year. I’ll get to that later but first:

Over the decades, I’ve observed and participated in technology as it has changed and evolved. As a boy of less than ten, I saw images from an early space probe on our black-and-white television just as it impacted the moon. In my high school library, I watched Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon’s dusty surface. I’ve programmed computers with punch cards, later basic text editors and right through to modern full-blown integrated development environments (IDEs). On my desk resides two Raspberry Pi Single Board Computers, each with more computing power than the boys and girls at NASA could have dreamt of in the 1960s outside of a mainframe.

I’ve been a fan of Science Fiction all my life. I was brought up on a hearty diet of Dr. Who, Star Trek, and the great SF movies of the 1960s, such as War of the Worlds, The Time Machine, and Forbidden Planet. In my imagination, I’ve swum in the waters of the stories and novels from the legendary authors of the Golden Age of Science Fiction.

And like so many before me, I’ve often wondered what the future and far future would be like. Perhaps as depicted in novels such as Kurt Vonnegut’s Player Piano or movies like The Time Machine or possibly even WALL-E.

Having studied Management, I’ve read up on or studied cases where one technology supplants another: film cameras with digital cameras, labourers by digging machines, horses replaced by cars for transport, and petrol and diesel engines traded for electrical motors. I could go on.

Which brings me to the point of this essay. For most of my life, I’ve ridden the wave of computing, seen technology come and go, climbed on and later scrambled off the technology certification roundabout, learned and then relearned effectively the same thing over and over again. But I’ve always worked with and been a part of the changes. I’ve managed to use it to both develop my career and benefit others. You might say IT and I have been partners. But for the first time in my life, I see myself as the blacksmith fitting a horseshoe on a sunny day and, looking up, watching the future come driving into my yard.

This is what happened. About three weeks ago, I found a publisher of novellas in an email I regularly receive that lists magazines to which I can submit my work. As it happens, I had a short story that grew into a novella that I was wondering what to do with. Perfect opportunity. I did a bit of editing and some formatting and then searched for the email again. Once I found it, I clicked on the link only to discover the submission page had been updated. The magazine was now only taking work from authors previously published in the magazine. Why?

ChatGPT.

It’s often said that such revolutionary technology will destroy the world as we know it. That is if it’s not just a passing fad. There is a lot in the media at the moment about how Artificial Intelligence (AI) will do just that. Early days yet. Think of current AI as the model ‘T’ right now. Which, of course, begs the questions: how does that impact me as a writer, and what do I do now? These are the same questions our blacksmith and many thousands of others have faced over the centuries. Should I embrace the change? Stay stuck in the past? Or straddle the fence? Be left behind or run with the pack?

I’ve already seen Facebook ads for AI systems that can pump out a novel in a few minutes. While there are recognised limitations to the quality of the output generated by ChatGPT, these are still the early days of this technology. It will improve. It’s already hard enough for a writer to turn a buck with so much competition outthere. Using AI to push out stories and novels on a production line would make it just about impossible to compete. A short story takes hours, even days, to create, develop, write, edit and edit again and again. While the creation of a novel can sometimes span years.

In my case, I could use IT to generate a story or novel and then mould it to more of my style. I could use newer versions of the tool to assess my work against, say, a successful writer or writers and determine from that analysis why my work keeps getting rejected, thus using the tool to modify my work. And there are probably many other options that will spring from the fertile minds of the developers of ChatGPT and other such tools that will come online in the very near future. So, what do I do?

To answer that question, I went back to why I write and why I want to be a writer. After all the decades of study, money passed over from my bank, pen running on paper, endless magazine and agent submissions, limitless rejections and so on, why? For the money? Seriously! No. It’s because I love to write. I am fascinated by this act of creation. I love to take an idea and realise it as a story or novel. I love to explore new ideas, wonder strange laneways following a new plot idea or interesting character, or simply challenge myself to write something I’m uncomfortable writing. And I love the way a story will come sometimes into my mind, fully formed and unbidden, as if I was reading someone else’s work that had to have come from some dark cave in my subconscious.

So, for now, the only “Intelligence” I’ll be using is my own. Though, like the blacksmith, I will be forced to use AI in one form or another in the future. Like all authors (and blacksmiths), I already use “Tools” to assist with my writing: A word processor with a spelling checker and an “Expert” system to assist with my grammar, sentence and paragraph structure.

This brings me to what I did with my novella. It’s speculative fiction and is titled Everyone Lies, and it’s on Smashwords and Amazon for only US99c.

Thanks for reading.

Hi Everyone, Just a quick update, I had a meeting with my surgeon last Thursday and now it's all go to resume my life. I can now put my sock and shoe on my left foot. I'm also off the crutches and walking and back to the gym.

I used the time 'off' while recovering to add edit changes to The Sun Rose in the West that Day.' I thought I'd added them but when we came back from Europe last year, I realised I'd only done about 25%. That is done now. The novel still needs some work, mainly things that came out of that last edit. But it's getting there.

I also wrote two short stories, John Doe and The Travelling Spoons, see the 25 February 2024 entry, which are 'Steeping' at the moment, and did an edit of Invitation to a Dream. I've started to enter those changes. And once that's all done, I'm going start at last start typing in what I have written so far for The Light that Shines the Brightest. Somewhere in there I need to start editing my podcast of Thursday's Alice and do some writing study.

On the programming front, I've been standardising my website around Bootstrap 5 and doing the same for my daughters.

Busy Time.

Till next time.

Glenn

Hi Everyone, Things are coming along. I no longer use the crutch around the house, only for longer distances and I'm thinking of using my Nordic walking stick instead. The physio is great. Only three sessions to go. Boy does it go fast!

I'm able to work longer on the computer without getting tired. I decided to move away from using Visual Studio to develop apps, I only use the one these days anyway, and develop my skills with web etc as I manage three websites and there's more value there.

I edited Keepers of the light, adding a new bit to increase reader engagement and add a little more tension, and also some changes to the first section I was never happy with. These have been entered, I'll do a read during the week and if I'm happy will start sending out the 'Norway' bit. The work, in full, is now around 11,000 words. Too long to be published as a short story, so in a few months, depending how the Norway Bit goes, I'll self publish on Amazon and Smashwords.

Cheers

Glenn

Hi Everyone, Wow, so this is the other side? I thought the dinosaurs had all died out? And what’s with the alien spaceships flying around.

Sorry, it’s a weak joke. I’m back from my hip operation. My right hip is cobalt/chrome, and my left is now titanium/stainless steel, poly, or something else. I was trying to think of a cool nickname for myself based on that, but I’ll just go with, ‘Tin Man.’ It works.

I amazed at the difference in outcome from 20 years ago, when my right hip was done. I’m at a much more advanced stage. It’s only two weeks today, and I’m already down to one crutch and the occasional short walk unaided.

I was naïve when I went into hospital, taking two short stories and a novella to work on. As I discovered, the biggest issue was I wasn’t sleeping. That, coupled with the normal recovery, meant I had no energy to edit. I managed to do some work on ‘The Travelling Spoons’, which I entered over the weekend.

On other another front, I received a rejection for my short story, ‘The Keepers of the Light’ late last week. I wrote this one while cruising up the coast of Norway. While it is a rejection, the editors sent me feedback. Fantastic! It gives me direction. I’ve just printed out the story again and will make the suggested changes. One of the things I loved from their feedback was they liked the atmosphere I’d tried to create. When it’s your work, it’s hard to ‘feel’ what you’ve aimed for. And they liked the premise as well.

I’m still recovering; it has only been two weeks, after all, and I find I tire of working on the computer very quickly, so the editing I have planned will go very slowly. But I’m definitely getting there.

Cheers

Glenn

Hi Everyone, I'm going in for my hip upgrade on Monday. I got the call on Tuesday there was a cancellation so it's on! I'll be glad not to wobble like a penguin any more and to be free of the little white M&Ms and the little red lollies.

I should be back on deck late next week, depending on how I handle the op.

So, I'll see you on the other side.

Cheers

Glenn

Hi Everyone, just a quick update. There's a new short story, almost finished, called, 'The Travelling Spoons'. I had lunch with a friend last week and he told me an anecdote from his past that inspired me. I'm just waiting on some feedback and I'll start submitting.

Cheers

Glenn

I had not planned on doing any more writing. I've so much editing to do and web development work I want to do as well. I'd like to develop my skills in that area.

So, see the short story page for 'John Doe.' I was inspired to write it after seeing 'Jules' staring Ben Kingsley.

I've also done the first audio recording of one of my works, after 'Utility'. This is 'Thursday's Alice', which was published by Macquarie Uni's litterary magazine, The Quarry. You can find a link on the short story page.

I'm going to be adding sound effects to make it more real. It will be rough as I need to learn how to use the editing software and haven't acted for a while so my voice won't be at a professional level yet. But it was fun and I plan on doing more.

Cheers

Glenn

Hi Everyone, As mentioned in the previous post, I've been working on improving my website, in this case, adding a counter so I know how many people have visited. This is almost finished, as much as these things every are, but you may see a bug now and then.

I've also been typing in the updates for Red, mentioned previously. I've still a few dozen pages of The Light that Shines the Brightest to type in. I've got to do some RFS work today, so will get on to that later. Also I hear the lawn calling, it wants mowing again.

Cheers

Glenn

Hi Everyone, I've just made some behind the scenes changes to my website. One of the visible changes is the 'Total Website Views' on the landing page. I thought it would be nice to get a handle on the number of visits to my website. The other is an improvement to the way the links page is handled.

There might be a few bugs which I'll have to handle and their will be some more minor changes coming.

During the week I was inspired to update a short story I wrote about 15 or so years ago, Red and the equal, Red Square. Both were published in their original form in Australian Reader (defunct). I've always been curious to know how much my writing has changed. The fact the story has increased in size by about a thousand words, and the pages are covered in red, gives you some idea.

Cheers

Glenn

Hello Everyone, This is to let you know my short story ‘Broken Things’ was published yesterday by Bewildering Stories, see link below.

http://bewilderingstories.com/issue1031/broken_things.html

This is important for me as it is the first of my stories to be published outside Australia.

Broken Things was first published in Macquarie’s student magazine, Grapeshot. But this story has changed a bit based on the feedback from the readers at Bewildering Stories.

One of the objects I had with this was to get the reader, without hammering them, to think about what happens to the character after the end of the story. This was influenced by the actions of the Great Train Robber Ronnie Biggs.

Have a read, I think you’ll enjoy it.

Regards

Glenn

Hi Everyone, I've been busy over the last week or two or three, I'm losing track, typing the writing I did while overseas. I'm almost there, I've around 30 pages of 'The Light that Shines the Brightest' to go.

We took time out to go see the Ramses exhibition at the Australian Museum today. Wonderful.

I've also been doing some work on one of my Raspberry Pi 4s. More on that later. If you don't know what that is, see the image.

Ramses Exhibition 2024

Raspberry Pi 4

Happy New Year and Welcome to 2024.

I sort of hit the ground running with our return from Europe, did a lot of Christmas shopping and a heck of a lot of typing.

I’ve just finished the first edit of, ‘Keepers of the Light.’ This is the work I created in Europe.

I started the short story while cruising up the Norway coast and created ‘Extensions’ on the bus from Prague to Budapest.

The Norway part is a stand-alone short story, and I’m calling it the Norway part. At the moment, it’s ‘steeping’, that is put aside to get some distance. When editing your own work, you need to get a fresh perspective.

What I find frustrating about writing is a story or novel is the greatest, most exciting thing ever written while writing, and absolute leaden crap when you first come to edit it. You go through the highs of creating the work and the lows of realisation you’re, at best, a hack writer. It’s a depressing game this. I have the experience now to know, you just have to work through it. Over time, and with many edits, the work will improve and sometimes, but not often, will move you.

As mentioned, the Norway part is stand-alone, so I plan to start submitting it to SF magazines when it’s ready. When I include the extensions, it becomes a little unbalanced, but I like the ideas in work, so I will publish it as a novella on Amazon and Smashwords and any other channel I can find.

I have two writing goals this year. The first is to finish the stories/novellas and novels I’ve written but not finished editing and to start submitting/self-publishing. The second is to work on improving my skills as a writer.

Going to be a busy year.

Hi Everyone, as mentioned below we've just arrived back home from 6 weeks touring Europe.This was two tours combined, a Hurtigruten trip up the coast of Norway and then down through Finland, and a river cruise starting in Prague and finishing in Paris. This later was the trip we were supposed to take in 2020 for our 40th wedding anniversary, but then, you know, Covid.

In fact the river cruise was supposed to be from Lyon to the Med and back again, but when the doors opened again for overseas travel, we changed it as we’d always wanted to do Europe in winter.

We flew into Oslo and had a few days to explore the city before boarding a train, for the Flåm railway line. We changed trains, boarding the Flåm line for Flåm. This had been on my bucket list. I would have enjoyed it more if I’d not gotten sick!!!! I always do, but usually at the end. It didn’t however spoil the trip, so no worries.

Our next stop was Bergen. I love funicular railways and in Bergen we had a fine example. The view, from the top was fantastic. It was in Bergen that we joined out ship, the Polarlys and headed up the coast. The scenery was fantastic; snow clad mountains everywhere. Fantastic. I even engaged in a local tradition to do with passing the Arctic Circle where you have ice and cold water poured on your head and down your back. One heck of a way to get a free drink.

We stopped at a number of small towns and it was fun exploring them. Though, as the Polarlys was a working boat the stops were sometimes as short as ten minutes.

All to soon the cruise was over and we got off at Kirkenes. The next phase was a bus tour down the centre of Finland to Helsinki. For me the highlights were walking through a snow-covered forest, riding a dog sled and sleeping in the glass igloo.

This tour was based around seeing the Northern Lights. Maybe next time.

The day after arriving in Helsinki we took the very across to Tallinn in Estonia. There we had a bus tour before walking through the old town. A very charming place, with a fascinating history. We had a delicious cake and a very good coffee in a café here. Loved it.

We had a day in Helsinki then we took a tram and train to the airport bound for Prague. Luckily we had a change to explore Prague, as there was a gap of seven days between the ending of one tour and the start of another. Though the first thing we did was find a laundry.

Once we had clean clothes again we set about exploring the city. We did a lot of walking, took the HoHo bus and found the tourist tram. We also managed a river cruise.

All too soon it was time to get on the bus for Budapest and the Scenic Jasper. We’d did the cruise in summer twelve years ago and sort of knew what to expect. However, a few things had changed, and we chose different tours this time. I main goal was to explore the Christmas markets.

The river took us through Hungry, Germany, Austria and the Netherlands, with a high-speed train ride to Paris. The tour was too long to recount here without boring you to death, but I will say this; we keep getting asked what was the highlight of the trip. There were so many; learning that the music piece, In the Hall of the Mountain King, which I’d used in a uni assignment was written by Edvard Grieg, whose house we visited, walking through a snow-covered forest in Finland – so serene, the dog sled, visiting the cities along the river and so on. So many. For me, I thing it was the walk through the forest, Tallinn old town, the people I met on both tours and … Ok so I’m a writer so, the magic of having a short story present itself to me, fully formed while we were cruising along the Norwegian coast (I’m calling this, Keepers of the Light, an sf story), and at four am on the Jasper the idea for a love story which I’m calling, The Sterile Vessels Club.

Actually, the highlight, as it always has been, was travelling with my wife, Trish. Looking forward to my next trip OS.

Cheers

Glenn

Norwar Snow Covered Mountains	Leaving the ship	Crossing the Arctic Circle
Dog sled	Forest Walk

Hi Everyone, I've just returned from an overseas trip, which is one of the reasons for the gap in this blog. Just before I left I updated the website to use a proper CSS framework, Bootstrap 5. However, this was just before we left so I didn't update. I've just done so, but there are still things that need to be fixed.

I'll write a little about the trip and put up some pix later. We had to hit the ground running preparing for Christmas.

I occurred to me that I've mentioned my novels, 'Tomorrows Not Promised' and 'The Light that Shines the Brightest' without giving you any hint as to what they're about. So in a very brief nutshell, think Indiana Jones meets Stargate meets I Robot. If you go to the Novels section of this website, you'll get more of an idea.

Cheers

Glenn

Hi Everyone, Last Monday was my graduation for my BA in Creative Writing. The 5th and last time I'm graduating! No more uni for me!

I enjoyed doing the degree, and had fun at the graduation but it's done and dusted. Time for me to start writing editing and publishing. I've included a couple of pix from the day.

On the writing front, I started work on a short story called, Invitation to a Dream. At around 7,000 words it's too big to be a short story, so now I'll put it on Amazon and Smashwords as a novella. I hope you like it. It should be ready for 2024.

I've also added an early version of the cover art of the novel, The Definition of Me. The is the last of my Doorway Series. I hope to start writing the second, The Light That Shines the Brightest, later this year.

Cheers

Glenn

Graduation - On Stage
Outside after graduation	Graduation - Glad its over	Early cover art for The Defnition of Me

Hi Everyone, You may notice some changes to this website over the coming months, maybe some features might not work. I'm learning more about web development, CSS frameworks and Web UI frameworks in general. This will make website management and development easier and less time consuming. Your patience is appreciated.

Cheers

Glenn

Hi Everyone, We have Solar! After my usual term of procrastination expired, I finally got moving on it. We've had it for just over a week now and like so many are glued to the app!

I'm sorta glad to that we made the move. My last quarter's electricity bill was absurd. It will be interesting to see what next quarter's is like.

Cheers

Glenn

Hi Everyone, Just a short update. After what I was starting to think of as a drought, one of my short stories, Broken Things, has been accepted for publication by Bewildering Stories and should be available on-line in 2024.

Broken things started life as an exercise for one of my units while I was studying Creative Writing at Macquarie University, in 2021, and was subsequently published in the student magazine, Grape Shot.

Initially the story was rejected by the magazine but the rejection included some very useful feedback. After I made quite a few changes it was accepted, with the following feedback from the magazine’s reader:

‘This is a fine story, with good style and composition. I think an attentive reader will have no difficulty discerning what happened.’

I had a realisation last night at an RFS meeting. This is the first of my stories to be published outside of Australia.

I’m chuffed to say the least, and will post a link when it’s available.

Cheers

Glenn

On Thursday, my daughter dropped off my younger grandson. The little man had fallen asleep in the car. I tell you, having him sleeping on my shoulder was magic. Don’t ever let anyone tell you there isn’t a heaven. For me, that time was heaven. Yep, getting older does have its benefits.

Cheers

Glenn

Hi Everyone, Two weeks ago I had the chance to watch one of my grandsons play AFL. It struck me at the time how special this was. Just my grandson learning a sport after school and me watching. But it was one of those lovely early spring afternoons, with just a hint of a cooling breeze and I realised how privileged I was to be able to be part of my grandson’s life, to be able to appreciate moments like these. I was moved to write the piece below:

Halcyon days these. When the bite of deep winter gives way to a friendly coolness that is encroaching spring and its promise of summer’s warmth.

These perfect days of long shadowed afternoons when an hour goes on forever and memories, the wine of the afternoon and twilight people, are laid down.

These days when a grandfather can marvel at the exuberance of his grandson.

Halcyon days these.

There was nothing special about the day, but there was everything special. It made me realise once again, the wonder of grandchildren and how fortunate a man I man.

Cheers

Glenn

Hello Everyone, It’s been a little while since I posted, but that’s not to say I’ve not been busy. Since I finished my BA in Creative Writing at Macquarie University, one of my goals was to move my two novels on Amazon onto Smashwords. Ultimately, I decided to leave them on Amazon as another marketing channel. To find them, it’s better to type my name, Glenn Kershaw, rather than the novel’s title. Otherwise, the novel might appear two or more pages away.

While you may not have heard of Smashwords (www.smashwords.com), it has the advantage that you can obtain a book in numerous e-formats and Smashwords distributes books through a greater number of channels such as Apple Books and Barns and Nobel.

Earlier in the week, I finished the preparation work on my last novel and uploaded it to Smashwords. I was surprised at the amount of effort required. Not just removing any formatting codes but adding hyperlinks, extra Front and End matter and spelling and grammar checking, again! I also tidied up the odd sentence that was no longer serving its function as much as it used to.

One of the reasons this has taken so long, besides life getting in the way, is that I added a newly written novella, and an older novella that needed to find a home. This last one, Everyone Lies, was affected by ChatGPT, but I’ll talk more about that in another post.

The works now available online are:

The Winning of the Woman - https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1421671

The Flower Woman’s Child - https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1359174

Everyone Lies - https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1383829

For the Journey is Long and Our Lonely World is Lost (part of my Alien Encounters collection) - https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1367003

I hope to edit and publish another short novel, The Sun Rose in the West that Day, part of the Alien Encounters collection, by the end of this year or early next year.

On another note, I’ve almost finished editing the third of my Ross Courtney murder mystery series, A Reunion of Strangers, and have almost finished writing the very last of the series, A Fond Remembered Country.

As I wrote the first novel, Where the Street Sleepers Die, around twenty years ago, and have not persuaded either an agent or publisher to take them on, I’m thinking of self-publishing. But that can wait till 2024.

Cheers

Glenn

Hi Everyone, As you can see from the previous post, I’ve been busy on the writing front. We’re heading off to Queensland tomorrow to visit my wife’s mother in aged care. She has pretty tough dementia, so it’s hard on my wife.

On other fronts, I was part of the team from my brigade, Hornsby/Kur-Ing-Gai Support, that travelled to Dubbo, NSW, to the RFS State Training Facility, for the first-ever Support Forum. This was an opportunity for the various Support brigades in NSW to learn from each other and see how they could help each other. It was a great way to network. I learnt a lot from the weekend. Included were Communications and Catering.

I’ll pop up some pix of the site later.

I’ve started editing ‘The Sun Rose in the West that Day’ and hope to have it on Smashwords and Amazon early next year. I’ve printed out the synopsis for ‘The Light that Shines the Brightest’, the sequel to, ‘Tomorrow’s Not Promised.’ This is my novel about a Doorway to another world. Think Stargate, though that is not where the idea came from, and the synthetic human, Jared. I plan to work on this next.

As I mentioned, I’m considering putting my Ross Courtney series on Smashwords and Amazon. I wrote the first in the series, ‘Where the Street Sleepers Die’ over twenty years ago, and despite my best efforts, I can’t find an interested publisher. Rather than have it gather dust, I will do something useful with it.

Keep coming back for updates.

Cheers

Glenn

It is with great sadness I have to report the passing of my father-in-law, Dan Dey, in the early hours of the morning of the 4th of June 2023.

May he rest in peace.

Glenn

Hi Everyone, I've been busy. My wife and I drive up to Queensland regularly to see my wife's parents in aged care. It's a hard time for my wife watching her parents fade away. It happens to all of us and will be my turn one day.

While away I was working on one of my Ross Courtney Novels, A Reunion of Strangers. This is the third edit and hopefully there will only be one more to follow. I'm contemplating putting them on Smashwords and Amazon. If so that won't be till next year.

I've also been working on Everyone Lies, which was mentioned in the last post. I had some issues with hyperlinks not working properly and thus not passing the Smashwords tests program. I hope that's fixed now. I've also put the work on Amazon so you can find it there, though I'd prefer you bought it through Smashwords, as there is more of a range of Electronic formats.

I've put a copy of the cover art for Everyone Lies and Where the Street Sleepers Die, the first of the Ross Courtney series, below. The artwork for 'Sleepers' is a first attempt and may change.

Starting on the 25th, ANZAC day here in Australia, my wife and I 'Walked the Blue Mountains'. This was a self guided tour we had planned to take in the south of France in 2020 but then Covid. We had to until March this year to book something else.

The walking tour was great, tiring! But so much fun. I'll write more about it in the next blog.

Cheers

Glenn

Everyone Lies Cover Art	Where the Street Sleepers Die Cover Art

Hi Everyone, This is just a quick note to let you know I've self published my novella, Everyone Lies on Smashwords, https://smashwords.com. I'll do the conversion work to get it on Amazon soon.

I'll write a little more about it later. Please see the image below.

Cheers

Glenn

Everyone Lies Cover Art

Hi Everyone, had a great few days away last week with some school friends. Didn’t realise till someone mentioned it that we’d know each other fifty years! We stayed at the AussieArk’s Devil’s Retreat about 4 hours drive to the north west of us. The stay included a 2 ½ hour walking tour of the Aussie Ark facility. Not only did we learn a lot about the endangered Tassie Devil’s but we got to watch them feed and to cuddle one of them. This might surprise you but they’re as cute as a button! We also learnt about their conservation program for Quolls. Also, very cute. I’ll put up some pix in due course. If you get to go it is worth the trip for that alone. I’ve added a link to their site, definitely worth a look.

On the writing front, I’ve started to publish some of my work on SMASHWORDS, see the link page. This includes, The Flower Woman’s Child and a new one, For the Journey is Long and Our Lonely World is Lost, the second in my Alien Encounters collection. See my Novels page for details.

I’m also working on an oldie but a goodie. Well, not too old. Around 2015, I wrote a short story, that was renamed a few times but ended up being called, Everyone Lies. This was published by StylusLit in 2018. I’d no plans to take the story further. Anyway, the second is called, All the Wrong Days and the third, Matryoshka, after the Russian nesting dolls. I didn’t try to get the second and third published due to the demands of uni, and was wondering what to do with them. I’ve decided to make it a novella, well it pretty much is anyway, and attempt to get it published. An email list I’m on has a few outlets for novella. I’m just doing a final edit and then I’ll send it out.

On other fronts been busy with the RFS, Rural Fire Service here in Australia. Our brigade is a logistical brigade, we don’t fight fires. Last Thursday we had a delivery of oxygen bottle and a vehicle for one of the senior volunteer ranks. We also manned the local fire tower a few weeks ago. We tend to be pretty busy throughout most of the year.

That’s it for now.

Cheers

Glenn

AussieArk Logo	TassieDevil	Cover Art for The Journey is Long ...

Hi Everyone, I’ve been busy getting ‘The Winning of the Woman’ and ‘For the Journey is Long and Our Lonely World is Lost’ ready to go onto Smashwords (https://www.smashwords.com/). I’ve run them both through Grammarly (https://www.grammarly.com/) my spelling and grammar checker and also updating the cover art for ‘The Winning of the Woman’. The art as I had done, is too low in resolution for Smashwords, so I’ve had to redo it. As I use Gimp (https://www.gimp.org/) infrequently, I’d forgotten how I’d achieved the affect. But this new one I like even more. I’ve got an image below.

I’ve also found an image I like for one of my Ross Courtney series, ‘The Shadow of an Absent Man.’ I’m not sure what to do with these. I’ve tried to get the first one published, to no effect, and as it’s now about twenty years old – doesn’t time fly – I could try updating it, and the other two completed novel, or I could leave then as they are set in the past which would make the last of the series, ‘A Fond Remembered Country’ contemporaneous. Which will cause other problems, but there you go.

Anyway, also below is the image in its raw form, I may use.

Cheers

Glenn

The Winning of the Woman Cover Art	The Shadow of an Absent Man Cover Art

Hi Everyone, Well, I've gone and done it. Below is a screenshot from the entry in Smashwords ( https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1359174 ) of my novel, The Flower Woman's Child, that I've just uploaded to their site. It comes out in about 16 days.

I've been thinking of moving my novels off Amazon, as sites such as Smashwords have greater reach and more publication formats. I'm planning on moving The Winning of the Woman very soon.

The Wining of the Woman Smashword Cover Art

Hi Everyone, Been a busy time since the beginning of the year. Mind you I can’t believe it’s been a year since I started the last two units of my degree. Time, it does fly.

While on the writing front you may not have seen much but I’ve been hard at work. On my trips to Queensland, I’ve been editing my novel, ‘The Sun Rose in the West that Day’. This is one of my alien encounters works about first contact from different perspectives. I’ve also been editing, ‘The Harvest of a Bitter Fruit.’ This was originally, ‘Utility’ but I’ve added a first-person narrative to the beginning and the end, as well as the addition of a scene intended for, ‘There’s Always Another’, that, like ‘Utility’ had to be cut due word length constraints, this scene was not written to till now.

I’ve also printed out, ‘A Reunion of Strangers’, the third in the Ross Courtney murder mystery series, for, what I hope, will be its last edit.

Add to that preparing a novel to be published on Smashwords and I’ve been doing a loot of web programming. Add to that playing with my grandkids and some RFS volunteering, I’ve been pretty busy.

I’m going to put up some pictures from the fire tower that I took last Saturday during my shift to give you an idea of the area I live in.

Update: Below are pictures from the Fire Tower.

Till next time,

Glenn

North view from Fire Tower	South view from the Fire Tower	East view from Fire Tower
West view from Fire Tower

Hello Everyone, Well this is the first post using the new data entry form I created for this, and the other two websites I manage. It’s been a learn as you go exercise, but well worth the time. It’s so much easier to create blogs etc than using the old way.

2022 is almost at its end. Been a big year, I finished my BA in Writing, did a lot of writing and submitting, learnt a thing or two about podcast and radio creation, had my first audio published and did a cruise to Tasmania.

Next year is going to be big too. Towards the end of the year, we’ve a trip to Norway planned, a country I’ve always wanted to go to, followed by a Christmas River cruise. In the meantime, I’m going to build an audio recording booth, a small one, so I can create audio of my own work, get some of my writing on Smashwords, as another marketing avenue, submit more of my work, complete a couple of novels and do a couple of family orientated activities, amongst other things. I’m tired already!

So, I’d like to take the opportunity to wish everyone out there a safe and merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year. May all your dreams come true.

Cheers

Glenn

Hi everyone, the RFS brigade I volunteer with has a regular delivery run on Thursdays. This week it was a big one, with three utes going out. Now as you probably know we’ve just had Halloween and one brigade, Arcadia, thought they might put up a bit of a show. This is me with two of their ‘Volunteers’.

Cheers

Glenn

RFS Arcadia Halloween setup.

Hello again, it’s rare for me to post so often, two days in a row, wow! But I’m testing the blog entry form and also adding a new image. While the novel, ‘The Sun Rose in the West that Day’, isn’t ready to go out, I just had to do some work on the artwork. You can see it below. I wanted something a little fancier, but the text just doesn’t accommodate.

Cheers

Glenn

Cover Art - The Sun Rose in the West that Day

Hi Everyone, Just a quick update. I’m currently still working on updating this website, now working on some “Behind the scenes” stuff.

I’ve been working on three pieces that I’m calling my “Alien Encounters”. They deal with first contact with aliens, each in a different way. I started working on them as I was finishing my last units at Mac U, probably when I should have been working on assignments or studying. My intention at the time was three short stories, I ended up with a short story (Eight Nine: The First), a short novella (For Our Journey is Long and Our Lonely World is Lost) and a short novel (The Sun Rose in the West that Day).

The short story is finished. Or I thought it was, till, as my mind will do, it wondered through the story and found an assumption I’d made, that needed some attention. The short novella was the same. There’s a scene that needed a bit more work.

I’m currently editing the short novel, and hope to have it ready in the next few months, certainly earlyish next year.

Something new to, I’m broadening my market choices and plan to put these two on Smashwords, which has a greater market reach than Amazon. To that end I’m currently learning how it’s done. I’ve started work on the artwork. I use GIMP, a fantastic program, but as I’ve not used it in a long time, I have to relearn. I can now edit these entries, so once that is done, I’ll re-edit this and add the image. Done and done, see cover art sample below. Note; This might change.

That’s it for now.

Take care,

Glenn

Cover Art-For the Journy is Long ....

Hi Everyone, So, what do you think of the new website? Cool, isn’t it! It’s not the final design but an intermediary step. I kept looking at the old one thinking how unfinished and tired it looked. My plans are to move it to a web framework called Laravel but that’s later in the year.

There’s still some work to be done, but we’re getting there. It certainly looks more professional. I finished the design and the coding while I had Covid, a nice Covid project. Mind you that’s not all I’ve been doing. I’ve been pretty busy.

First off, I finally and at last have finished my degree. Yay! Only took six and a half years. One of the reasons for the time was I studied part time as I wanted a life and also took a semester off to travel (Looking at you Covid and 2020. We were supposed to do a river cruise in France for our wedding anniversary so I took the semester off. And guess what!).

But it’s done. Will have to wait till next year before the graduation ceremony but I like the freedom, even with the restrictions of Covid, of not going to classes. I won’t miss the Zoom classes!!!

Like so many volunteers, I was awarded in April with the National Emergency Medal for my participation in the 2019/2020 fires. 2019 was the year I spotted my first bush fire. It could have been a doozy too if it had gotten away from us and into the national park.

I’ve been doing a lot on my writing. A short story, Utility, was published also in April, see the short story page, and I’ve been working on three related works. I’m calling them my ‘Alien Encounters’ stories. When I started writing them, in the dying weeks of last semester, my plan, such as it was, was to write three stories. But they had other plans. What I ended up with are a short story, a short novella and a novel. These are; ‘Eight Nine: The First’, ‘For Our Journey is Long and Our Lonely World is Lost’, and ‘For the Sun Rose in the West that Day.’ All three deal with first contact with aliens. I plan to put the novella and the novel on Amazon, and other sites, once they’re finished. I created a radio play for one of my last units, which I’ve converted to a short story, which is just about finished and I’ll be sending out soon.

I’m also doing some work with creating audio of selected short stories, for example see ‘Utility’ on the Short Stories page. I’m going to build a small recording booth, once I’m Covid free, and it stops raining and I’ve got the garden under control again.

Been going to Queensland to visit my wife’s parents in aged care. That’s where I caught Covid! We’ve been driving up, stopping half way at a hotel by the beach we like.

That’s pretty much it for the moment.

Cheers

Glenn

National Emergency Medal	National Emergency Medal
Tamborine Moutnain, Queensland	Tamborine Moutnain, Queensland	Movie World, Queensland
Flood Migitation, Wismans Ferry, 2022

Hi everyone, in line with me being me and not posting till I have something to say, I’m posting because I have something to say.

I’ve just uploaded my second novel to Amazon, The Winning of the Woman. This is a romance novel based on a short story of the same name I wrote years ago but did nothing with. The short story is available on my website (www.glennkershaw.com) if you’d like to read it.

I wanted to quickly follow up, The Flower Woman’s Child with another novel, which is why I chose that story. You may notice I’d already announced it in February last year. Frustratingly, I underestimated how long it would take to finish the work, which is not uncommon for me and while I’d read the T&C’s for publishing a novel on Amazon, I didn’t read those for pre-releasing one, so I published it before it was ready. However, it’s done, and with the first chapter of the sequel, it’s up on Amazon for your reading pleasure.

One of the things about the writing game is that while it may appear nothing is happening on the writing front, I’ve been beavering away writing and editing short stories and novels in the background. As part of a novel writing unit that’s just finished, I came up with a sequel to The Winning of the Woman, called, A Moment in Heaven. As we all know, 2020 was a bugger of a year. Early on, a long-time friend of mine suddenly passed away. Tasmania was going into lockdown on Friday, and his funeral wasn’t till the following Tuesday. What should I do? The choice was easy. I went

While waiting at the airport for the return flight to Sydney, I started having ideas for a sequel to The Winning of the Woman. What happened after the sunset? What was life like on the other side of the rainbow? So, this was the focus of the novel writing unit, and I plan to finish it sometime in 2021. Except, I’ve decided to stop writing … Dramatic pause!

That is till I’ve edited some of my work and started sending it out. I’m currently editing, Tomorrow’s not Promised, and I was shocked when I realised, I’d started writing it in 2016. Five years ago! Time to get my act together. This one is Science Fiction. I’ll write more about it later. I’ll just add that I’ve plotted the sequel, The Light that Shines the Brightest, and there may be a third novel. The next in line will be two of my Ross Courtney police procedural series, A Reunion of Strangers, followed by a final edit of the second in the series, The Shadow of an Absent Man.

On other fronts, I realised I have many short stories, mostly SF, that have either been previously published or are too long for most magazines. So, I’ve decided to put them all together into an anthology that I’m calling, The River. The title comes from an SF short story I’m polishing at the moment.

And finally, I’ve only four units to go in my Creative Writing degree. I hope to graduate in the second half of 2020.

Wow. That’s a lot of writing for me. As you can see, there’s a lot going on in the background. I hope to have more to report soon.

Thanks for reading,

Glenn

Tomorrows Not Promised cover art	The Winning of the Woman cover art
A Moment in Heaven

Hi Everyone, while 2020 has had its downs, there have been some ups too. My second grandson for one, watching and playing with my first grandson another. I never knew the joy, the thrill of grandkids, till these two lovely young men came along.

On the writing front things have been moving a little. One of my short stories has just been published on Macquarie Universities on-line literary journal, The Quarry. This one is, Thursday’s Alice, (https://thequarryjournal.com/thursdays-alice-glenn-kershaw/) the one I thought was least publishable of the four I submitted. I also heard today that another story, Broken Things will be published in the student’s magazine, Grapeshot. I need to go into campus and secure a copy. Two in one year, a PB for me.

Now that uni has finished for the year, I’ve been editing my romance novel, The Winning of the Woman. While it’s already on Amazon, it wasn’t quite ready, I think when the editing has finished it’ll be much better. I’ve also been writing and doing some much needed typing in of the fourth Ross Courtney novel, A Fond Remembered Country.

Now that things have eased up a bit, I plan to send out the first in the series to agents and publishers again. I was hoping to send the second in the series, The Shadow of an Absent Man to the American market, but after what I thought was the last read through, I realised it still needs a little work. But that is the nature of writing; writing is re-writing.

An unexpected event is that I was elected a deputy captain of the RFS brigade I’m a member of. This was my first attempt and I got in. I’m enjoying the new responsibilities.

Take care

Hi Everyone, Yes, we all know the elephant in the room. I’m a hopeless blogger. There I’ve admitted it now let’s move on.

It’s been a crappy year in many ways but there have been some good things. For one my second grandson, who was born 3 months premature is doing well. The little man is a fighter. We’ve, as yet – touch wood – not been touched by Covid. I’m a member of the Rural Fire Service here in Australia and last month I got elected a Deputy Captain. I didn’t think I would get in but I did. I’ve also been working hard on some of my novels. One, The Shadow of an Absent Man, the second in the Ross Courtney series at draft 9. I’m just going through it correcting spelling etc then I’ll leave it fallow for a while. I hope by draft 10, it’ll be ready to send out. The Winning of the Woman is coming along. Two friends were kind enough to read through it for me, once I have their corrections, I’ll do another edit. With luck that’ll be the last.

Our trip to France was cancelled due to Covid and we’re thinking might leave it to 2022. That means I’ll only have two units left, if I do four next year. Looking forward to the end of the degree and more time to write.

One thing we’ve been doing is some home renovations. Our outside laundry has always needed some decent attention. We tiled the floor, painted the walls, fitted cupboards and benches and now looks simply fantastic. There’s a little more to do around the house but that can wait for the moment.

Till next time,

Glenn

Harry, a long-time friend passed away on the 12th of March 2020. His death was sudden and unexpected. Harry was 62 and had only retired two years before. We met when I went to work as a salesman at a company called Dick Smith Electronics in 1976.

I will miss him.

Hi Everyone, Continuing in the tradition of being hopeless at blogging, which means I'll never be a success I suppose, here's my latest effort.

We had a bit of a rough time over the Christmas/New Year period, especially my poor wife. But things are turning up with the news we are expecting a second grand child.

I managed to do some writing over this period. I wanted to follow ‘The Flower Woman’s Child’ with another novel fairly quickly but nothing I have is quite at the stage of publishing. That is except for my Ross Courtney series but I want to keep them, for the moment, for main stream publishing. What I managed to achieve is to complete the writing of ‘The Winning of the Woman’. A romance novel, around 65,000 words based on a short story of the same name. I wrote the short story several years ago but never did anything with it and, as I liked the story and the characters, I thought I’d go with it. I’d always thought something more could be done with it.

In writing the novel I had two main objectives, besides developing the world the main character, Brad, lives in. The first, was look a bit deeper into the characters themselves. To understand them better, their wants, needs, wounds and flaws. The second was to slow down and tease out Brad’s relationship with the woman he comes to fall in love with, so that when things start to fall apart, as it does, the break down is more realistic and Brad’s final choice more, dare I say, organic to the plot. ‘The Winning of the Woman’ is currently in first draft and I’m optimistically hoping to have it finished by March, 2020. Probably very late March, 2020.

You can see a modified version of the artwork below.

I've also included an early version of the cover artwork for the first of a series of novels, called the ‘Doorway’ series, ‘Tomorrow’s Not Promised.’ This is Science Fiction and is based on an idea I had when my kids were small, some thirty odd years ago. A long gestation period! The story was, in part, inspired by a short story from the golden age of Science Fiction, 1938 to 1946, and, in part, by a piece of children’s Duplo.

Sound intriguing?

I actually wrote it a couple of years ago but got hung up on the ‘Show, don’t tell’ maxim that all writers hear as they learn their craft, and, when I came to edit it, was horrified to find it read like a documentary. I’m working hard to fix that. I’ll write more about it later.

Hopefully the fire season will end with no more loss of homes or, more importantly, life.

Take care,

Glenn

The Winning of the Woman cover art: Comming March 2020

Tomorrows Not Promised cover art

Hi Everyone, Well, I’ve done it. The Flower Woman’s Child is now available on Kindle on Amazon (www.Amazon.com) priced at USD2.99 or about AUD4.37, less than the price of a good cup of coffee. It took me a while to get it up, lots and lots of procrastination, but I’ve gone and done it. I like to think of it as the first step in a grand adventure.

Of course, the next question is, what next? I need a follow up with another work. I’m still working on the plot of the sequel, The Ghost of Gosford Hall, and have one novel which is finished, Where the Street Sleepers Die – the first in the Ross Courtney series, but I plan to keep sending that one out to agents, at least for the moment. I have other works but they’re not quite ready yet. So, I decided to write a new novella, The Winning of the Woman. It’s based on a longish romance short story of the same name that I wrote years ago. I hope to have it written, edited and ready to go by January or toward the end of February at the latest.

The first picture is from the Flower Woman's Child, while the second is the working cover for The Winning of the Woman.

I’ll keep you updated as things progress.

The Flower Womans Child	N/A

Hi Everyone, Just back from Japan. Had a great holiday. I’ve been making some changes to the website as well as restoring the data etc from my development server. Also, working on getting ‘The Flower Woman’s Child’ ready for publication. Going to slow down as uni starts next week.

Cheers,

Glenn.

Hi Everyone, I know that the modern writer, or artist of any type, needs to ‘Blog their way to success,’ but the truth is I’m pretty hopeless as a blogger. This is probably obvious from my lack of updates. This entry is, in part, an attempt to fix that and give everyone an update as to where I am with my writing. Since I turned ‘professional’ last year, meaning I plan to be as poor as a church mouse for the rest of my life, I realised I should always have ‘product’ in the works. Not just stories or novels rushed out on a production line, god forbid, but always something in the works. So, below I go through where things are at.

I may have mentioned that I’ve a novella, The Flower Woman’s Child that I plan to put on Amazon as a kindle edition. I’ve started the process of learning how this is done and setting up a copy that will undergo the conversion. While that’s going on a friend is reading the work. He’s good at analysis so I’m hoping he will pick up any errors in logic.

For those of you who may not have heard about the novella, I’ve some details on my website, glennkershaw.com. It’s a mystery/SF story set in London, England in 1890. The two lead characters are, Countess Claritty Harkwood-Walace and Captain Sir Geoffrey Braxton, ex-Army, and deals with, well, a missing child. I’d never planned a sequel, despite having a reference to one at the end of the work, however, I’ve done some basic plotting for The Ghost of Gosford Hall.

On other writing fronts I have two series I’m working on. One deals with a doorway that takes you to a planet… somewhere! I came up with the idea centuries ago but till 2017 did nothing with it. The first in the series, Tomorrow’s not Promised has been written and is being edited. I’ve done some basic plotting on the second, The Light that Shines the Brightest. As I mentioned, this series deals with a doorway that takes the traveller instantly to another world, while set ‘Today’ it includes a synthetic human soldier from the near future and a human 2.0 soldier from the far future.

The third series of novels is based around a character called Ross Courtney. This is a murder mystery/police procedural series. So far, I’ve written four in the series, Where the Street Sleeper’s Die. This one is complete and I’ve been sending it out to publishers and agents here in Australia, sadly without success. Getting published is a tough gig. I’ll restart sending it out locally when we get back from Japan, then try my luck overseas. The second is The Shadow of an Absent Man. This has been written and edited a few times. I want to give it one last read through before I ask my long-suffering friends to read it. The third, A Reunion of Strangers has been written and I’ve put it aside and am allowing it to ‘steep’ before I start the editing process. It’s always a good idea to get some distance from your work before you edit, that way you see the flaws, and I find in my work there are usually many! The last is A Fond Remembered Country. This has been plotted and I’m four chapters in.

Amongst my other writing are a couple of film scripts I’m working on. These have evolved from units I did at uni. One is The Fire Season and the other, Broken Things, are based on short stories I’ve written. I’m hoping to get them both performed as plays. With these, it’s a case of see how they go.

I’m also sending out my short stories to magazines and competitions. The reality at the moment, though, is that all this has to work around my Uni studies. I’m currently in the second half of second year, I’m doing this part time, with another two years to go. now that the house is almost back together, I should have more time to work on my writing.

I’ll update this entry with more details of The Flower Woman’s Child as time goes by. If you’d like to ask any questions or know more about my work I can be contacted by email:Kershaw.glenn.a@gmail.com.

Cheers,

Glenn.

I've been a bit busy with getting the house fixed up, uni and all, I've not mentioned our trip to Egypt in January.

My wife studied Egyptology as part of her undergraduate and this year was the first time we’ve had a chance to go visit. While, other than a passing interest it’s not my thing, I’ll admit I was blown away. TV and books don’t even begin to do justice to the hieroglyphs, as well as come close to giving the Pyramids, the temples and other works the justice they deserve.

I’m in the process of modifying the php code to display more than one picture. At the moment you’ll see just one, but later that should go up to three. We’ll see what happens after that.

Cheers,

Glenn.

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I've mostly got my website up and running. Been a bit of fun, not helped by my service

provider moving me to a new server and uploading a very old version of the database.

I still have a problem; the width has gone back to the old width for the blog section. I'll keep hammering away.

Our house is mostly restored after the hail damage from last year. I've been living in a hotel for the last week. Good fun.

Since there was little else I could do I started on the fourth Ross Courtney novel, 'A Fond Remembered Country.' We're off to Japan

soon, so I hope to do some writing then.

Cheers

Glenn

I’ve done it again! Just looked at the date for the last entry, oh boy. In my defence…. Yeah, a lot has happened. Our house got hammered in a once in a decade hail storm just before Christmas. The storm caught both of our cars, including our newish RAV 4! It’s now May, the RAV has been fixed but the roof remains with a tarp covering 80% of it.

Another bit thing last years, I made a decision, after much procrastination, which is probably the worst decision I’ve ever made – I decided to make my next career move as a writer. I know it’s one of those things that probably everyone knew, but I’ve changed my major to Creative Writing. I’m no dewy eyed young romantic. I know how hard it is to get published let alone turn a buck. But, but I love to write and unlike I.T., where you have to update your knowledge almost hourly, the skills I acquire or develop in writing will last me the rest of my life.

This semester I’ve been doing two units at uni focused around writing or the Murder and Mystery genre which I’m having trouble staying on top on. For the second unit I have to read a novel a week which is, I’m finding, quite demanding. I get a little frustrated as in the first unit it’s theory at the expense of the craft. I’m hoping things will improve in the second semester.

I’ve been busy also entering competitions and also getting a novella ready to put up on Amazon. It’s called the ‘Flower Woman’s Child’, a 19th century mystery with a little SF.

A few things have been happening on the acting/script writing front, I auditioned for a part in a radio play last week and submitted a filmscript I wrote to a group in a nearby suburb who make short movies. As always, just waiting for the results. That’s life.

We’re in the final weeks of this semester, I can’t wait. For some reason going to China has thrown me out and I’ve had trouble staying on top of the E-Commerce unit. The intro to writing unit is going fine. The main issue has been coming to grips with PHP programming. To help with that you might notice come changes to the web site. The main page is now index.php, and instead of embedding all this news stuff it’s now fed from a mysql server. I’m hoping that will help.

Better hit the books again.

Cheers

Glenn

It's been a while, and a lot has happened since my last entry. My beloved RAV4 (2010 model) was written off. We have a bit of a dodgy corner where live and drivers are forever losing it. Mostly the sign near us warning of a slippery road gets it, but this time it was my car. It was a dark

and stormy night… well, drizzly so the road was wet and slick, the driver was young (What we call a 'Green P' plater here in N.S.W) and inexperienced.

We now have a nice new RAV 4 with all the bells and whistles. I was in China for three weeks in July at the Harbin Institute of Technology in Harbin (see the picture above). This is in the north of China and shares a border with Russia.

I went as part of a unit I'm doing a unit on E-Commerce. We got to study with some local students. A great experience and I'm so glad I went, though, being English I don't do communal showers and I much prefer our toilets. But it opened my eyes having never been to Asia before. Back in Oz, I'm doing a unit in creative writing, in fact I've started the process of changing majors to creative writing. It makes more sense, as I don't really

plan to work in IT anymore, and, as I love to write, I can develop my skills further.

On the writing front, I've been entering competitions and so on between uni study and assignments. One thing I'm planning on my path to fame and fortune, as if, is to put a novella I wrote a few years ago on Amazon, or similar. I've been working on it, getting it polished up. Trouble is I keep finding things that need doing. I 'think' it's close to being ready. I just want to get some friends to read it before I go on to the next stage.

That's it for now, catch you later.

Cheers,

Glenn

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Greetings once more. As you can see I attended the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gra 2018 a few weeks ago. The Rural Fire Service (RFS)

of which I'm a member sent along a contingent. I was surprised how much I enjoyed myself. This was the fortieth anniversary of the Mardi Gra and it

was great to see the SES, Fire and Rescue and the Police there as well.

Not much happening on the writing front. I'm doing three units this semester and they are just chewing up my time. I'm thinking of going back to two.

While it will take longer to complete the degree, I'll have more time, I hope, to write.

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Hi Everyone, Well the bad news is I was not accepted by the agent I contacted, oh well, keep on trucking. But the good news is one of my short stories has been published by the on-line magazine StylusLit www.styluslit.com. The story, Everyone Lies, is speculative fiction and set in a large, provincial and fictional town in inland Queensland. I hope you like it.

Happy Valentine's Day! I hope everyone had a great day. I spent two hours up the fire tower. I'm a member of the Rural Fire Services, RFS, and today called a Total Fire Ban, Toban. My shift was from noon till 1400 hrs. Fortunately, no fires were spotted

As you can see the web site is slowly improving. I've obtained a copy of Coffeecup which is a cool HTML editor, so the site should improve over time. I've rarely needed to use or remember HTML so am very rusty. I know there are probably WYSIWYG editors out there, but as one of my subjects in the upcoming semester is Web Programming, I didn't feel the need to got too crazy. Time enough for that later.

I sent some stuff to a new literary agent yesterday, so keep your fingers crossed for me. Also got knocked back for a job I applied for. I hope it's fate telling me which way to go!

I started work on a piece of Flash fiction as I was driving today. It's to be 300 words and the working title is, 'Daisy, Daisy.' I hope to get it finished and submitted tomorrow.

My gosh, has it been four years! Does time fly. A lot has happened in the last few years. I'm on a new web hosting site, that doesn't render the html pages the way the old site did, but I'm also in the process of looking at redesigning it all. Please have patience.

On the work front the long and the short of it is that I left the company. I couldn't see a future for the new job I was offered. In fact, it was never filled. And I didn't want to do it. I've been in roles that I've hated and know how dispiriting it is. Now, I'm foot lose and fancy free. One up shot of this is that now I'm a uni student again. It was tied in with the way I found out I no longer had a role. After the shock passed, or while it was passing, I decided I'd go back and study something I've been interested in for a long while, psychology. That is four years full time and then, if I do well enough another 2-part time. Not at my age! After a glass of red or two, I transferred to IT and have been doing well. Of course, I should with my background. However, I've been thinking and I'm going to move over to Creative Writing. It's where I belong.

On the writing front what's been going on? Well, a short story called 'Everyone Lies' is to be published in March 2008 by an e-zine, StylusLit, styluslit.com. Another, 'Cactus Mate' was long listed for a writing competition. And I've got a number of short stories in competitions that will close in a few months. I'm trying to get my name out there as much as anything.

On the novel front, 'Where the Street Sleeper's Lie' is now 'Where the Street Sleeper's Die.' I'm trying to get an agent in an attempt at publication. 'The Shadow of an Absent Man' is in 6th draft and I hope to have it finished soon. My wife pays for a week away for my birthday once a year so that I can edit my novels in peace, and I was planning to work on Shadow, but I've changed my mind. More on that in a minute. 'A Reunion of Strangers', is written as far as chapter 12. I hope to have it finished by June. Now the works I'll be editing next week, are what started out as a Sherlock Holmes novella a few years ago, but I've decided to change and have my own characters star in it. It's called, 'The Flower Woman's Child.' I need to spend time restructuring. And I've written an SF novel called 'Tomorrow's Not Promised.' I wrote this after the second Ross Courtney novel cause I was a little sick of Ross. I begin to understand Agatha Christie's hatred of Poirot!

That'll do it for now. I've got to go feed the cat or all heck will break lose. I plan and hope to update the website more often now. Also, I'm thinking of writing a few articles about my approach to writing.

Hi everyone. I'm not going to make the slightest comment about how long it's been since the last update, or any stray promises I may or may not have made about updating this site a little more often. I think we can all agree I'm perfectly hopeless at updating anything and that goes for Facebook and linkedin. Ok people let's move on, nothing to see here.

The changes to the company I work for that I mentioned in the last update have caught up with me and about month ago my role was made redundant and now I'm effectively in what's called the 'Lost Children's Tent'. Mind you I'm still doing my old job and am as busy as ever.

It's not as bad as it sounds, as I believe they want me to take on the new role. This has more work but probably about the same pay. I have to decide if I want it or not. That decision will have to be made in the near future, when the now position has been through our HR department.

I changed the name of my novel. In fact, I've changed the titles of all three. They were to be, Murder Road, Murder Unit and Murder Beach, but I was never happy with them and after some thought they are now, Where the Street Sleeper's Lie, The Shadow of an Absent Man, and A Reunion of Strangers.

The Writers Association I'm a member of has an arrangement where you can meet with a practicing editor to get feedback on the first 15 pages. I took the opportunity and basically, I'm happy with the feedback. My work is pretty good and I'm about midway up the pack. Which is ok.

We're are going to Europe! Next Year. My wife more or less finishes her degrees this year so we are off next year for a cruise around the Mediterranean and a tour of Italy. I cannot wait. Even if I don't have a job.

Well, guys, that's about it for this update, catch you next time.

This seems to be turning into a biannual update. Despite my best intentions. Things at the office have been very hectic. Just made the key dates I mentioned below. But having said that the dust hasn't settled and there's still a lot of work to be done.

The company restructure is progressing, very slowly. There's a chance I may not be there the next time I update this.

Not much luck on the writing front. I've entered Murder Road into a number of competitions and sent it to a few publishers without success. I've got a novella, 'The Flower Woman's Child' with a publisher at the moment, but don't expect any response till march.

The sequel, 'Murder Unit' is going well. I'm up to chapter 7 and around 20,000 words in. Working on this novel reminds me how much I enjoy writing, despite the lack of publishing success.

I've also jotted down a few details for a sequel to The Flower Woman's Child. It takes place six months after Sherlock returns. He's struggling to settle back into Victorian England. When something happens...

On the travel front, we're pretty certain we'll be heading over to the Mediterranean for a long cruise and then to Italy for a tour. We're going to go in or around first semester next year. It means my wife will have to delay finishing her degree, but she'll only have the one subject left, and she's happy to do it in second semester.

In preparation for the trip, and because I've always wanted to learn a second language, I'm studying Italian one night a week at a local community college. A friend in the office who is Italian is helping me learn the language.

That's pretty much it for this update. Stay well.

Once more I find myself uttering those immortal words: Boy doesn't time fly!

Mind you there's been a lot happening on both the work and home fronts. My company is going through one of those stressful changes that comes to us all, I think this is my third... But only that some big-ticket items are coming into fruition with the IT architecture and applications I've built. This is a big year on that front.

On the home front still, a lot happening. My wife and I did an ocean cruise around New Zealand in February. It was so cool going to one of the sites where the Lord of the Rings was filmed.

I've also been doing a lot around of work around the house, all you home owners will know about that. Does it never end.

I've finally and at last finished my novel, 'Murder Road'. It's been with a publisher for more than three months now. I hope that's a good sign. The sequel, Murder Unit, is well on its way with the plotting. I'm hoping to start the actual writing in July or early August. One of the reasons for the delay, besides all the work that brings in the bread and butter, is I'm doing an intro course into Forensic Medicine to help with the factual part of the writing. While I knew it was going to be confronting, to actually see the photos of victims and hear their stories is pretty tough going.

On another front we bought a Windows 8 RT tablet yesterday. One of our cats, Murphy, clearly doesn't like it cause he contrived to drop it off the dining room table. There were no witnesses so we don't know how he did it. Funny I thought he liked windows. Or is it Win8 he hates.

Having said that I like Win8. It's not as flashy as IOS or Android and I think it's not certain if it's a tablet or a PC but it is easy to use, I can see my network, it found one of my printers without any help for me and I can see my network store. I like it.

The trip to LA is not going to happen, due to my workload, I've some key dates later in the year I can't afford to miss, but we are going to take a week off and drive up north.

We do plan a big trip to Egypt and Italy when my wife graduates in 2015, we may do a small cruise next year, but then the kitchen needs to be replaced so....

Anyway, till next time... Take care.

Glenn

My Gosh, doesn't time just fly!! I can't believe it's not only October already but nearly the End!!!

Live has been, as it always is so very busy. The wedding went off beautifully, my daughter, Amber, looked just like an Angle and I was so proud of her as we talked down this tree lined aisle at a place called the Hunter Gardens. It's in wine country a way to the north of us. We stayed up there in a country farmhouse before and after the big day. It was great to have all the family together.

When I was in Tassie, Tasmania, and spending days at a time reading my novel, I realised there were some big holes in internal logic and a few areas that needed to be slowed a little. I'm hoping with the next draft, No. 13, it'll be finished and done! I've already entered it in two competitions, one has rejected it and I'm entering it into another next week.

We bought the net book, two in fact, it's fantastic for my wife who's gone back to uni and also great for my daughter. Her old one was on its last legs so we bought her one as well, to finish off her degree and for when she goes travelling.

Very little I'd planned for this year has come to fruition. I was supposed to start on a biography but that isn't going ahead yet. And I was doing another Masters in Creative Writing. But I came to the conclusion the uni didn't know much about the creative side of writing, a heck of a lot about Literary Theory though. So, we parted company.

I purchased an SSD for my PC which my son is enjoying on his PC. It seems my computer is just a little too old to use it. It would get about 70% of the way through the install and then throw its hands up in the air in despair and go out into the garden and eat worms.

Speaking of worms, we now have a rainwater tank. It's only 3000 litres but it's a start. It'll be installed next week when the guttering gets replaced. Oh, yes, our guttering is getting replaced.

I didn't mention in my last post that we were flying off to Europe last June. My gosh but did we have a wonderfully time! Cruising past towns and rivers on the Rhine and the Danube. Visits during the day, watching it all pass by at night. We started with 3 days in Prague and finished, that part, with 3 days in Paris. Loved it, loved it all!

After that we spent two weeks in England and Ireland. Too good for words. I'm eager to get back. The only problem is with my wife's studies we're a bit limited in when we can go. We've got a cruise booked for 13 days in February around New Zealand and we hope to go to L.A. USA for two weeks in the middle of the year. That depends a bit on my uni, I'm thinking of freshening my skills in IT. They're a wee bit dated.

That's it for now, in fact after I upload this I'm going to try and install a copy of Windows 8 to play with. Take and look after yourselves. No promises on updates.

Well hello again. The European trip came and went as these things do. To say it was a lot of fun was an understatement. And here we are in a new year.

Of course, life is so so busy. But that's ok. We've added a dog, a boxer to our list of pets. This one drags us round the block with great gusto. But she's lovely.

Still working on the novel. I had the opportunity to visit a friend in Tasmania and too the book with me. I've never before spent a whole day working on a piece of creative fiction and boy did I see things I'd missed in the previous 9 drafts. There are some new scenes coming and some minor characters. Oh and I changed the title. Murder By The Beat really only had one reference in the body of the novel, so I've changed it to something a little more punchy, Murder Road. This also fits in better with the sequels.

I'm doing a bit more study which is slowing things down a bit. But out of it has come a new short story that might make it into a novel. It's called In the dark it grows. It's sort of a murder mystery. Sort of.

My daughter's wedding comes up in April. The time has passed so quickly. Tomorrow I'm ordering my suit. I've also got to arrange something for my wedding anniversary.

A few other things on the plate, we're looking at getting a netbook. Something we can use to copy pictures from the camera when we're away and send emails and do a bit of typing that's not too heavy. The main hard disk on this PC has died so I've got to look into getting a new one, and maybe acquire an SSD.

Anyway, must fly. Take care and I'll update this site in a.... err... soon...ish.

It's not that I'm trying to set any kind of record with such rare updates its that life intrudes on the gossamer dream of the writer. Things were crazy at the office when I wrote the last update. Then they got an order of magnitude worse.

Even as I type this Murphy, one of our two kittens, is busy climbing where he shouldn't climb and will soon have all sorts of Brick-a-brack falling down. We found after our girls died that the house was so empty without them, and one day as these things happen, we were driving home from the town near us after shopping and popped into a pet food store where a lady was holding an adopt a cat session. We said if they had a ginger cat we'd get it.

Well would you believe, there he was! The cutest little ginger guy you've ever seen. As I held him in my hands our eyes met and well, you can guess. The lady with the cats took off me, saying he'd already been taken.

But and it's a nice but, we saw a medium haired black, white and brown fella and well, as I held him our eyes met and... and... we took him home. His name's Murphy, it was Eggnog. Later we got his brother, Sam, too.

I mentioned the office has been insane. Added to the pressure was our trip to Europe we'd been planning for two years. That came up in June. So, we had to get ready for that, make sure we had all the paperwork, camera's batteries, chargers and wot not. Also, I had to get maps of England and Ireland for when we hired the car. But as it turned out we had a great holiday. All the hotels and ferries and London show worked out just fine, except the Limo company in Dubai, that misread the booking order and came the day before we arrived.

I took Murder by the Beat with me and did some more work on it. I've added some new scenes that need to be woven in and fine-tuned it a bit. On the way back to oz I started work on a new novel, an adventure story that I'm looking forward to writing.

That's about it for now. I'm going to try and update just a little more often.

Take care and see you later.

Wow! Look at that! It's been 8 months since I updated this website! I can imagine you'd be tired of waiting for an update and would have gone somewhere else! Wouldn't blame you a bit.

OK so what's been happening? Well, I graduated with the MA. So that's 3 Master's degrees I have now. I think that might do! I handed out Murder by the Beat a month or so ago to friends but still waiting on feedback. I don't want to pester them...

But I've not been idle. Plotting is well on the way for 'Murder on the Couch'. I've already written the first chapter and most of the second.

I've entered some competitions and a couple of scholarships but, as usual, no luck. But I'll keep hammering away.

Work has been insane for that last few months. I keep saying the end is in site, but that seems to be a goal post that keeps on moving. However, I took a short break and spent a week on a friend's farm in Tasmania. We met, gee it seems centuries ago when we were salesmen. Then he took one direction in I.T. and I took another. Anyway, it was great to get away and spend some time walking the quiet roads of the country and also writing. That's why I worked on the first couple of chapters on MOTC (and also, I'd left the book with the plot in it at home, even though I'd placed on the bed where I'd see it and wouldn't forget it. Oh well)

Also, been working on the garden again, trying to get it into shape. It got out of control while I did some renovations. I've got a little more to do and then that should all be under control again. There are no more renovations to be done now. Only maintenance....

On a sad note we lost two of our three pets over the last two months. We had two boxers, both very old at 12 and a cat, reasonably young at 12. Sadly, the cat and one of the boxers got cancer and have now gone to their last long sleep.

I'm in the process of moving to Win7, in fact I had a hard disk running and was about to re-install my applications when it died, so I've re-plugged and am back on WinXP. I must say, what I've seen of Win7 I like. Especially the quick booting. Really nice.

That's about it for the moment. I'll try and update a bit more frequently, but it's going to be slow going till I get my apps transferred to the new new hard disk, when I've bought it that is.

Take care and have fun.

I could not believe it when I checked out my website today and realised it was October last year when I last updated. So, what's been going on? Well, finished the MA. I graduate next month. I've put the MA project on hold for the moment, I'm not happy with it, it needs more work in the plot and the timing areas. But I've finished the main writing of 'Only the Mirror Knows', which I've changed the title of to 'Murder by the Beat.' There is a lot of work to do before I get my friends to read it. I printed version two out today, which I'll work on over the next month. It's up to around 55750 words at the moment. I've been entering writing competition without any luck. How, well. I've always known that writing would be a long road. I'll keep on entering competitions. On the non-writing front, I've started African drumming to widen my range of interests and because I've always wanted to drum. I'm enjoying it. We'll see how it pans out. Did Act 2 of the course mentioned below. The veggie garden did wonders. We were drowning in tomatoes and cucumbers and celery. We did a lot of painting in January, the living room and hallway. And.... Not much else. I need to attack the garden again. After that there's more painting to be done. The life of the (one day hopes he will be) famous writer! That's about it for the moment. Catch you all next time. Whenever that is.

Anyway, here goes the update. I've added some stuff to the MA Project page. 'Only the Mirror Knows', is coming along well. This one will run to around 40,000 words, so will be a slim novel. I've also written a short, short story, 500 words. I normally don't do them that short. I have trouble keeping down to 4000, so I set myself the challenge. This was for a short story competition. I've been entering a few since finishing the MA. I'm hoping to get back to the collection, 'The Wining of the Woman.' I've added a couple of short stories. I've actually sent out two of them to a publisher and am waiting for their response. But I want to just review the stories again. I was sending one out to a competition and found it still needed a bit more work, so I'm going to review the whole lot, again.

Amongst other things I got to travel interstate a month or so ago. It was very much a spur of the moment thing. One of the people in our company was to go to this conference but broke an arm on his motor bike the day before. I wistfully said I wouldn't mind going, since the accommodation and entry to the conference were paid for. Next thing I know we're booking flights and I'm calling my wife to pack a bag. All good fun and an interesting conference.

What else has been happening? I was booked in to the second part of the leadership course, but that will have to be postponed new. I've been booked in to do a couple of courses in Microsoft's SharePoint. We have an installation running in my company and I'm looking at deploying it in our branch, mostly for document management. Should be fun.

We're doing some renovations around the house, also my wife has put a veggie garden and it's growing very well. We've also been working on the garden in general. Digging out the weeds that grow so well, and pulling out the plants that have died. It's odd that some plants that did great for a year suddenly up and died, while plants near them thrive. Strange.

So, dear reader, till next time.

I'm not sure if I should simply cut and paste an apology here for being so terribly, terribly slack in updating this web site.

But Life is just so very busy. Tonnes and tonnes of work at work and the last subject of my MA to do. I've a 3k essay to do on an area of Lit Theory, which is taking up simply bucket loads of time. Added to that I've been to a conference in Melbourne on Business Analysis, on a 11-day cruise of the South Pacific with my wife (it her 50th birthday pressie from me), I've been working on my major project and of course what else do you do when you're run ragged? If you're a writer you start a new novel. It's called 'Only the Mirror Knows.'

I've got a couple of courses coming up. These are in leadership, they'll be sleep always and will teach us all there is to know about leading a company in two installments of two days.

Anyway, I plan to finish off the novel, when the MA is complete, I've also started to get feedback on my collection of short stores, 'The Wining of the Woman.' I hope to have this ready to send out to publishers early next year. So that's it for now. I'll try, famous last words these, not to leave it so long next time.

Once again sorry to take so long to update. It's just life and work getting in the way of what I want to do. The company has gone through a restructure, but there's still plenty of work.

On the writing front I passed the last subject and have only one more to go. Been working on the major project, 'Walk the Long Road.' Not going to well. After two meetings with my supervisor I can tell there's going to be lots of writing and even more re-writing. I've written the required 30,000 words, but I'm going to have to dump a few thousands of them. I'm trying not to change the direction too much. Well, we'll see how we go. I'll try and not leave it too long next time.

Sorry for the long time to update. My Hosting site and I have been tussling over a change that needs to be made. Anyway, I seem to be back up and running.

What's happening? Well, I submitted my first assignment for this subject. I've made a good start on the novel, Walk the long road. I've done the first chapter, and made a start on the second. There's still a lot of development work required for the novel, but I think I have an overview.

Started at Macquarie Uni a few weeks ago. Lots of reading and writing to do. One of the assignments is to create some form of creative non-fiction. I've chosen to write the life story of a colleague. I've been meaning to work on this project for a number of years. This is a good time to start. One of the things about changing uni's is that I have less subjects to do to get the masters. One more plus the project in fact. So, I'll have to think about what I'll be doing afterwards. But anyway, what this means is I've had to think about what I'm going to do for the project that much sooner. In fact, last Tuesday, since that's when I met with my supervisor. This is a work of around 30,000 words, and fortunately I've had a couple of novels on the back burner so to speak. The work will be a speculative fiction novel and said 30k words have to be finished by May next year. So, I'm going to be just a bit busy for a while. But I've created a page that will show the journey of that work, from creation to final draft. You're welcome to come with me. Any suggestion for improvement are most welcome. I've been working on the collection but, as you would expect, it's gone onto that back burner while I do all this writing.

Finished with professional editing, which finishes off the certificate. I'm now in the process of moving to another uni to complete the Masters. After that who knows....

While I was doing a course in Java a week or two ago I came up with the idea for another short story, 'No wind on my planet'. This will be added to the collection. I'm editing two sequels to 'Everyone Lies' at the moment. That should just about complete the collection. I'm planning on printing all 27 or so stories out and then re-editing them, then get friends to read through etc etc. I'll let you know how it all goes.

Well, we've had the launch of the UTS Writer's Anthology. Interesting experience. This is the book cover,

I've added the link to the links page, just in case you're interested in purchasing your own copy.

I finished writing/typing in the story mentioned below, the sequels to 'Everyone Lies.'

I'm on a break now. I've finished the certificate at UTS and am resting a bit before starting the Masters at a new uni.

Not a lot else happening right now.

I know it's about time I updated. Gosh slack. Actually, just very very busy... Too much to do and not enough time. Anyway, here's the news...

My short story, 'For a pen to hide the name' is to be published in the University of Technology, Sydney's 2008 Writer's Anthology. But don't rush out right now, the book launch is the 23rd of May.

Also, on the writing front, I've written two sequels for a short story called, 'Everyone Lies.' I'd never intended to add to this story, but there you have it. I plan to included them, at this stage in my collection of short stories, 'The winning of the woman', that I plan to publish this year or early next.

That's about it for now.

Sorry to be so slack in updating. Really, really busy. Anyway, uni has started again. I'm doing Professional editing this term. Also, one of my stories is going to be published in an anthology, sometime in May.

Replaced previous web pages using Web Creator 4, with pages created using Microsoft's Expression Web. As is very obvious I'm only just getting used to the application, things should improve .... soon!