It's been very quiet here for a year or so, but that's because my writerly time has been spent drafting, honing, editing and polishing the "first" (really, now it's done, the fifth) draft of my second novel. Not saying this blog will suddenly burst back into life, but I may have a little more time for it now that...
I've sent Gatekeeper out to my small cadre of beta-readers!
One of the things I wish I'd done, looking back on the early days of War of Nutrition, was solicit feedback from a wider cross-section of readers. I've been really fortunate this time round that seven friends and family have volunteered their time to read (slightly more than) 100,000 words and give me some constructive criticism, for no other payback beyond a credit in the acknowledgements section and a beer or two.
So this is kind of a nervous time while I wait for that feedback. I'll be distracting myself assembling a list of agents and publishers to which I'll start submissions next week. After my experiences last time round I'm not expecting that to lead anywhere, but I have to try. Phrases like "you've got to be in it to win it" and "you only need one 'yes' " have been floating round my mind a lot, and despite another friend's recent disappointing experience with "traditional" publishing, on the other side of the coin there's the inspiring (to wannabe writers) story of The Martian currently setting t'Interweb aflame so I figure if it can happen for Andy Weir then why not for me?
Sunday, September 21, 2014
Friday, August 15, 2014
The Dead Pool comes to life
It's been exactly a year since I wrote my sad tale about the frogs we were "losing" in our pond, which I'd started referring to as the Dead Pool.
Since then the rate of loss has decreased, but the reason for the deaths has become graphically clear. It's a bit of a give-away when you look out of your study window to see the heron stood atop the lych-gate with a pair of frog's legs sticking out of its beak.
It was too late for that one, but I did rush out flapping my arms and yelling when I saw the damn bird hoik another out of the pond. This second frog was luckier, as the heron dropped it and flew off in a fright. The dazed frog managed to hop away into the bushes so I like to think it survived. At least for the time being.
The really good news is that the pond is presently full of tadpoles. Not as full as it was - when they first hatched it looked as though there were thousands; the water was black with them. Well, OK, it always looks black, what with having a black pond liner at the bottom, but you know what I mean. But fuller than it might have been had Nikki not come running in to fetch me after one of the local cats had pulled a massive blob of spawn out of the water and was proceeding to munch through it. I tipped it back in. I don't think we lost much.
Having thousands (OK, hundreds) of tadpoles wriggling about in the pond has been a bit of a conundrum. On the one hand we love having them, and waiting for all the little froglets to come hopping out. On the other hand we don't really like having the pond totally submerged under a carpet of pondweed, but we haven't been able to do anything about it because each handful of pondweed removed comes complete with half-a-dozen little wrigglers, all caught up in the tendrils. So we've left it, mostly. Not sure if the lack of light is slowing their development though. Online resources suggest they should start growing legs 6-9 weeks after hatching. This lot hatched at the beginning of May and are only now starting to show signs of legginess. We continue to wait for the first hopper.
At which point I probably won't be able to cut the grass for a couple of weeks O_O.
Since then the rate of loss has decreased, but the reason for the deaths has become graphically clear. It's a bit of a give-away when you look out of your study window to see the heron stood atop the lych-gate with a pair of frog's legs sticking out of its beak.
It was too late for that one, but I did rush out flapping my arms and yelling when I saw the damn bird hoik another out of the pond. This second frog was luckier, as the heron dropped it and flew off in a fright. The dazed frog managed to hop away into the bushes so I like to think it survived. At least for the time being.
The really good news is that the pond is presently full of tadpoles. Not as full as it was - when they first hatched it looked as though there were thousands; the water was black with them. Well, OK, it always looks black, what with having a black pond liner at the bottom, but you know what I mean. But fuller than it might have been had Nikki not come running in to fetch me after one of the local cats had pulled a massive blob of spawn out of the water and was proceeding to munch through it. I tipped it back in. I don't think we lost much.
Having thousands (OK, hundreds) of tadpoles wriggling about in the pond has been a bit of a conundrum. On the one hand we love having them, and waiting for all the little froglets to come hopping out. On the other hand we don't really like having the pond totally submerged under a carpet of pondweed, but we haven't been able to do anything about it because each handful of pondweed removed comes complete with half-a-dozen little wrigglers, all caught up in the tendrils. So we've left it, mostly. Not sure if the lack of light is slowing their development though. Online resources suggest they should start growing legs 6-9 weeks after hatching. This lot hatched at the beginning of May and are only now starting to show signs of legginess. We continue to wait for the first hopper.
At which point I probably won't be able to cut the grass for a couple of weeks O_O.
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