I live in the Wollongong area, south coast, New South Wales, Australia so some of my blogs will relate to this. I am also a writer, a birder and a photographer. I went to the USA when I was young and, unfortunately, have not been back. I take it the USA has changed somewhat since the 1970s. I have been to Bali but, again, that was a long time ago. I went to New Zealand and got back just before everything closed down because of the Coronavirus. I hope to visit the UK in the next five years but, because of the virus, that might not be possible.
Today I went for a walk down to Towradgi Beach and came across the pair of Sooty Oystercatchers I have been photographing off and on now for three years. It is always good to see them. If anything can cheer a person up, it is the sight of them zipping along the beach and sticking their beaks into debris washed up by the tide. Sootys are blackish-grey birds with pink legs, red circles around their eyes and long, red oyster openers. They’re a strange sight when you first see them. Actually, they remain strange. Recently, I have discovered they have pied cousins further south.
Today was windy; surf riding high hence there was plenty of tucker in and around the rocks for my Sootys. There were also terns, birds with black top feathers reminiscent of kids with bad Beatles haircuts.
50 Dragons, set in mostly futuristic Wollongong where the dragons are human mutations, is out in paperback as well as e-book. I had the concept for the book twenty years ago when I was doing my MA in Professional Writing. About a year ago, I understood how to make it work and wrote. And yes, within, you will find birds as well as dragons.
Right now I am editing Dragon Queen, a sequel to 50 Dragons, with publisher/editor Barbara Custer helping me over some of the hurdles.
On the news Victoria is looking bad. There social distancing collapsed a while back so it’s not surprising the Coronavirus made a big comeback. Unfortunately, it has filtered into New South Wales from Victoria causing new panic.
As for comic books, nowadays I only collect Golden Age reprints, in other words, comic book material from the 1930s–1950s. I haven’t done that for a while and it is likely to be a while longer before I will be able to afford to do so again.
Right now I am reading through Lyn McConchie’s Sherlock Holmes books and thoroughly enjoying the experience.
CHEERS!