The outdoor setting is still only half put together, and I discovered the joys today, of asking an electrician what needs to be done in a 100 year old house to make the wiring safe.

That's going to cost a lot. Not as much as I secretly feared, but close to the first advance I got, which is a scary thought.

Dace and Secondborn planted flowers in the first vegetable plot today. Apparently the flowers keep the bugs off the veges. Not sure if that's true but they sure do look pretty, so what the hell...

Still waiting for my desk to arrive so I can knuckle down to some serious work.

In the meantime, I am shopping for a chook pen. Can't decide between the one on wheels that allows you to move the chooks (and their poo) around the paddock, or the flash one with the downpipe that catches the rainwater off the roof to water the chickens.

Who'd have thought chicken housing would prove such a decision?

1. I put together half the new outdoor setting
2. I signed and sent off some interview reports I was working on before I left Australia.
3. I answered and sent off the questions from the Dutch translator
4. I anwered some fan mail (although it will take a while to catch it all up)
5. I paid some bills (funny how they never seem to go away)
6. I read some proofs
7. I worked on the MS
8. I walked the dogs
9. I took another suitcase upstairs (unpacking it is an entirely different issue)
10. And I found an electrician by randomly picking a name from the local directory and scored the guy who rewired the house. How's that for lucky?

Yup... I have moved. I swear, this is the first time I've had time to take a deep breath for more than a week.

The house is awesome (although the furniture is still weeks away) and today we went down to the local farmer's market to buy this week's groceries.

And in a completely unexpected turn of events, my daughters we're kidnapped by aliens at some point in the move and replaced by exact replicas who like gardening...

I should be back to regular blogging soon. Right now I have to answer the questions from the Dutch translator.

And I have to start writing for serious or I'm going to be in biiiiiiiiig trouble:)

This place is awesome, btw...

Did I show you a picture of my new home town's main street?

I've been plotting. Plotting so much I've now come up with a completely different path to the ending of the Rift Runners series, than the one I sold to the publisher.

This happens to me all the time. I think I know what's going to happen  when I start writing and then I start thinking... but what if this.. and what if that...???

Seriously, I don't think I've ever sent in an MS that had much in common with the synopsis I sold my publishers other the names of the main characters, the ending, (which never changes) and the title (which is a never carved in stone). 

And I have to say, except for the main characters, the names are still changing with alarming regularity, too..

Sometimes, you get it right and and sometimes it takes time for a character to find their right name...

Kinda like your kids really...