Monday, March 9, 2009

Life is What Happens When You're Busy Making Other Plans

Yeah, I thought to start this one off with a John Lennon quote. It's been three months and I've been so busy with my books, publishers and trying to get grants that life has just passed me by... quite literally. However, whenever I'm working on my books - whether it's editing or writing new stories - I've found that my meals are healthy, but not up to the usual standard that I usually do. The weekends are the worst for me. I start here on the computer in the morning and finish around 4pm and that leaves very little time for planning a meal. My God! If I had a family, they'd starve! So, I've been eating home made vegetarian nachoes and just plain foods to keep myself well. No takeaway foods or junk. I've also taken up my Hattha Yoga again and meditation... it not only helps me sleep, but it also keeps my back from cramping up too.

Otherwise, I've been trying to keep myself out in the garden... well, since the last lot of loud and smelly back neighbours were forcefully made to leave last week by the police, all has been quiet. Fires have caused millions of dollars of damage in Victoria in the last few months and just last week, Melbourne had an earthquake measuring 4.6 on the richtor scale; the largest they've had in 36 years. And now, off the coast of Queensland, there's Cyclone Hamish; which has been dodging itself around 3 - 5 catagories of cyclone strengths. Evacuations have been happening all up and down the mid-Queensland coast.
As I look out my window this Monday afternoon, the day has changed from a warm sunny one with a cool breeze to a cool overcast one with a strong wind. They reckon there's going to be rain and winds for the rest of the week. Well, I'll get a lot of reading done then seeing it may effect the television reception (as it did last night at around 9:30pm).

Over the last few months, I've been finishing off the second book of 'Fry Nelson - Bounty Hunter #2' and editing 'Ravenstine Kingdom and the Three Swords'. Both books are coming along well. However, despite getting a publishing company interested in one of them, I'm having a hard time scratching together the money for the grant. A community grant is out of the question because I have give a lot of the money I make back to the community; which is fair enough. But I read the fine print and found out that the community grants often don't support writers because it's mostly the publishing side that eats up the money and they don't see that as an art (so why include us in the advertising if they're going to take it away from us?). So, I'm going to get into trying out for an Arts Grant from the government... should be interesting.

As I said, my back neighbours have left. They not directly over my fence... they were on the diagonal and backed on the unit complex I live in. However, they were noisy and had two dogs that stunk up the place! Eeew! Anyway, they're gone now. So, I'm saving up some money to get into my garden and fix it up. Sounds great, eh? There's going to be more plants and I'll be also working on my front garden this year too to make it look pretty; not just my backyard, because it's calling out for a make-over. Two small-leaf jades and a rock just aren't the way to go! I'll be getting in heavy pots with hardy plants and other rocks too... but that'll take time. Wish me luck!

Well, this is the end of the blog for now. I'll check in next month and let you know how everything's going with my books, publishing and the garden... it may seem boring to some, but this is life on a disability pension. I don't have a social life, but I have the net at least that's something. :D