A tribute to a wonderful woman.

I've been meaning to write about my friendship with a woman from across the sea for ages. Work got in my way. Revisions, editing and a book launch all took time. But now, I have a moment. My words will take so much more.

Where should I start this tale? Place: England.

Five years ago, I joined the Internet Writing Workshop with what I thought was a finished novel, Still Rock Water. I'd taken several online classes on writing and wanted to learn more. I didn't even know how much work my writing would need to reach a publishing standard. But I found out with the help of many other writers who all looked at each other's work, chapter by chapter over the weeks, months, years.

One of those other writers: Edith Parzefall with her Strays of Rio, reached out to me from Germany with such sound, gentle assistance that we became good friends. On the internet, it doesn't matter how far apart anyone lives. With a time difference of only and hour, our communication was easy, whereas someone in America might need half a day to reply in cyberspace.

Both of our books are now published after years of work and many rejections.

See Strays of Rio here.

Edith gave her help without counting the cost. She's marvelous with working out a plot and knowing where a scene should be added or when one should be removed because it's boring or not needed. What greater gift can one person give another than their time and patience? Everything else pales by comparison.

Her generosity extended to sharing marketing tips and materials.

You see, we wrote a series of four books together, starting several years ago. I came up with an idea of using my characters, who'd been reincarnated into a future world after the great flood destroyed civilization. I started the first novel with a young couple, who met after a tragic event. Edith Jumped in and introduced other characters. She took over the men--she's good with action.

Then she wove the two stories together until each group met at the end. She entwined the stories with such skill that nobody would know they started as separate stories. That's writing!

Double Dragon Publishing released the first book, Wind Over Troubled Waters, months ago. The other three novels will follow every six months. Look out for Knights in Dark Leather in November.

We've planned a meeting for over a year—after all, we're not too far apart. On each occasion, something got in the way. I feel I know Edith and I'm saving a big hug for when I meet her in the flesh.

Released: My book Still Rock Water.

At last my book has arrived for all to see instead of hiding like a shy babe too afraid to tread the shallows in an itsy, bitsy, teeny, weenie, bikini.

I waited a long time, hiding on the beach with a towel draped around my shoulders. But now I'm exposed and proud. And so is Liliha, my heroine in every sense of the word.

You can read the reviews of Still Rock Water here:  

 http://tinyurl.com/8uutmjb

Solstice Publishing have placed the novel in their paranormal category—and rightly so. It's also a love story. An tale about how a woman conquers her insecurities to find the strength within. How a woman can subjigate herself for the sake of someone she loves. How she can never help that person unless he wants her to. And how positive thinking can influence so much more than we know.

Lost in tasks

I guess I'm lost in all the tasks I've set for myself. So sorry I can't squeeze in any more to each day.

I'm finishing the last edit of Tidal Surge, hoping the book will be better than Still Rock Water, which a sequal needs to be, according to my publisher.

I'm allowing the mechanical voice on the pdf format to read Long Doom Calling to me. At the end of each page, I make changes to the file. Endless things that can be improved. This novel, written between Edith Parzefall and I, is the forth in the Higher Ground series. Great story even if I do say so myself.

At the same time, I'm submitting a chapter a week of Seaweed Ribbons to the novels-l section of the Internet Writing Workshop. I wish I had time to go through it beforehand and check each line.


picture by freepixels 

Big sigh. I'm lucky to be healthy, alive and enjoying my retirement. Full occupation makes the time fly.

The real star moonstone ring.

In the beginning ... I bought the ring from a woman who sold interesting items through my craft shop.

Back in the nineteen seventies, I ran the shop from my home in Robe, a tiny seaside tourist town in South Australia, inhabited off peak by lobster fishermen. The shop already existed at one side of the front door behind a long, deep veranda. I loved that house.

A little bit of history: In the eighteen fifties, Chinese, working for Chinese overlords as slave labor, landed in Robe to avoid tax, and then walked across country to the Victorian goldfields. Their families were kept hostage until they handed over their unearthed gold. The first owners of the house built the shop to sell strips of dried meat, biltong, for the workers long trek.

Anyway, back to the signet-style ring with a cabochon stone set in heavy 24 carat gold. When I first saw it and gazed into the shimmering depths, I fell in love and purchased the ring. A fault, hidden deep within the stone, flashed to reveal a star if tilted a certain way. The finger shaft fascinated me. Okay, this quality of gold is soft. But that didn't explain the two, jagged cuts at one side. Didn't take much to set me wondering who or what made the cuts and why. Obvious, really. Someone, intent on theft, cut the wearer's finger off and removed the ring. This was priceless treasure. Mine.

And so my imagination worked on a story over two centuries. The story expanded to three more and warped into four other novels about the future of the ring.

Ring: rubylan.com

Scene: Robe tourist bureau