Yes, I know I look awful, but at the moment this photo is taken I’ve been up all night with a nervous, labouring dog. And I have a handful of Adorable, so look at that instead.

OK, now I know I’m supposed to blog Something Meaningful, but I have Puppy Brain after nearly six weeks of assisting my mother’s border collie with her first litter.

I have had about 45 minutes sleep since October.

And so I’m going to post some gratuitous puppy photos instead.

This makes this story a bit of fluff. Literally.

We have sleeping puppy photos, eating puppy photos, even cute-pink-puppy-toe photos!

Actually, maybe we’ll call it a Photo Essay. Does that make it sound more Serious?

Here we go. Get your “Awwwww” ready.

Newborn

I wonder if this is where the saying “wet behind the ears” comes from…

Cute pink puppy toes

Puppies are born with PINK TOES! Who knew?????

Adorable, or what?

Accommodation

Where to put puppies when the weather has suddenly turned cold for this time of year? How about the little downstairs bathroom? And we’ll fold up a cardboard box to make a barrier to keep them in. That should do it!

But for how long?????

How many puppies will fit in a box?

At two days old, we take the puppies to the vet for their check. How do you transport four squirming teeny tiny pups? How about a cardboard box? And, I know, let’s photograph them in the same box every week, just for fun!

Um, yeah. Don’t think we’ll try for a Week 5 photo.

 Job description: Be Adorable

Nap attack!

(Their aunty wishes she could have a few of those…)

“Ooh. Grass!”

“Wanna kiss??”

“How about a cuddle instead?”

 The trials of motherhood

“They’ve ruined my figure. They think I’m just a feeding machine. No one sees me as a person any more. Sigh.”

Team photo

Ok, let’s organise the Waggle Mafia for a team photo.

We need a photo for the ad, and we really do need four puppies in a row. All looking at the camera. How to do it?

Maybe if we put them with their mother… she might organise them.

First attempt at Team Photo

Hmmm. Well, that wasn’t very successful. Let’s try something else.

Second attempt at Team Photo

Another failure. How about the basket. They’ll all sit in that and look at me. Surely.

Third attempt at Team Photo

OK. I give up.

Let’s do it this way.

The Waggle Mafia

So tell me, what do you think of our puppies. Adorable? What is your experience with small dogs, or indeed any other young animals?!

I was “tagged” by Marianne Wheelaghan, a Scottish writer who I met on Twitter, where she is often encouraging other writers. Marianne blogged last week about her new book, FOOD OF GHOSTS, which features a Scottish detective investigating a tragic death on Kiribati, in the Pacific. It’s an intriguing location, and I love an intriguing location! Marianne’s book is just out, and I’m looking forward to reading it. Marianne also runs online writing classes.

I haven’t really talked on this blog about my own recently-completed novel, and I guess it’s about time I did! So here we go.

What is the title of your new book?

POISON BAY

Where did the idea for the book come from?

I did some day hikes while touring the south island of New Zealand some years ago, and was astonished by the Fiordland mountains.

My cardio-vascular system was equally astonished. Man, are those mountains steep. And gorgeous. So gorgeous.

I heard stories from other hikers about summer blizzards obscuring the route with near-death results, having to be airlifted out with broken bones after being blown bodily off the track by the sheer force of the wind, and rain of apocalyptic proportions that could cause “tree avalanches”, stripping a whole section of the mountain right down to the bone.

I’m not sure what you might be thinking in the face of such stories, but at the time I was a former journalist and a developing mystery writer, so this is what I thought: This landscape would make a good murder weapon. (Yes, I know, I know. And you thought I was a nice person. )

I’d recently read Agatha Christie’s And then there were none. In that book, ten people are lured to a remote island where their past errors catch up with them in a very final and messy way.

And so a story started to fester in my mind that involved this beautiful-deadly landscape, and a group of old friends with a shared secret that was going to catch up with them in messy ways once they were thoroughly cut off from the outside world.

Then I saw the location name “Poison Bay” on a remote corner of the Fiordland map, and that settled it. I mean, how could I not write a book after that?

What genre does your book fall under?

People who have read it have called it psychological thriller, literary thriller, and mystery thriller. My genre title for it is “wilderness thriller”. I remain open to further offers.

What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?

Aha. I refuse to answer this one, on grounds that I like my readers to be able to form their own mental picture of the characters, rather than be controlled by the faces I see in my mind.

I will give you a little word picture, however.

Callie Brown is a television journalist, late 20s, very tall, struggles with her weight, has curly red hair that frustrates her, and is prettier than she thinks. She is creative and good with people, but sometimes a bit snarky.

Jack Metcalf is a newspaper journalist, also late 20s, and “not very tall, not very good looking, not very anything”. He is often too blunt for his own good, but has strength of character and compassion for others. He also likes dogs. What’s not to like about a man who loves dogs?

It’s a character driven book, so there’s several others in the cast, but I’ll leave it at the top two for now.

Will your book be self published or do you have an agent/publisher?

POISON BAY was awarded a Varuna Publisher Fellowship for manuscript development, as a result of which it is currently in the hands of a major publisher, but with no guarantees. If they opt not to publish, I have other possibilities to explore.

How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?

When are we counting from?

It was one page long for a decade.

That was because I struggled with the thought that I probably should write something more Worthy, such as some more of the biblical meditations I’ve been writing for the past 14 years. A novel seemed such an indulgence. A waste of time.

But I’ve always wanted to write a novel.

And then a few years back I thought: Hang it, I might as well get it written. I’m a journalist at heart, so I have to do Research. I went back to NZ, and hiked the four day Milford Track to get a proper feel for those mountains, talk to wilderness guides, and take a zillion photos of terrain, vegetation and so on. (My knees are still frightened when they remember the steep descent from Mackinnon Pass.)

This part of the Milford Track is very civilised. Ah, if only it was all like this…

I then spent ten days in Te Anau (population 3000) doing old-fashioned research in the library, plus interviewing Search And Rescue leaders, local police, conservation workers, trawler operators down on Milford Sound (let’s just say I needed to know what might happen to “something” that fell in the ocean…), and eating the most excellent venison pies while trying to tell myself I was not eating Bambi’s mother.

I also flew over Fiordland in a plane smaller than my first car, despite my fear of heights. Such is my dedication to Research.

Thermal updrafts rise from mountains, especially steep mountains. Do you know what thermals do to the wings of planes? They lift them. At odd moments. In odd directions. My hand almost needed to be surgically removed from the handle beside my seat at the conclusion of this ordeal.

Fortunately the camera I had aboard for my research photos can be operated with one hand, even if that hand is shaking like a leaf in a cyclone, and so I had more photos to refer to while I was writing about the landscape.

“This pilot is insane. We are going to be smeared all over that mountainside any minute. Tell my mother I love her.”

Everyone I interviewed or bought coffee from asked if I was a famous author, from which developed the joke that I was “world famous in Te Anau” (er, population 3000). Kiwis enjoy teasing, especially teasing Aussies.

My one-page novel grew to 11,000 words during that time in Te Anau.

And then the day before I was due to fly home, I got a phone call to say that my father had fallen ill. During the hectic months of hospitals and rehab that followed, POISON BAY had to take a back seat. There were times when I wondered if I’d ever finish it, or even want to look at it again.

Then, in 2010, I decided to start entering the manuscript in writing competitions. This motivated me to keep writing, and growing that wordcount. I kept entering. And getting depressed when I didn’t get shortlisted. And picking myself up and trying again.

In early 2011 I learned that POISON BAY had been shortlisted for a Varuna Publisher Fellowship and I jumped all over the room. (In the right light, you can still see the dents in the walls.) (Just kidding.) When I was awarded a fellowship a month or two later, I just about went insane with delight.

The fellowship included a week at the historic Varuna writers’ house at Katoomba in Australia’s Blue Mountains. Think: winter winds whistling in the chimney, fireside chats with other writers, writing writing writing all day long.

My writing desk at Varuna — that bay window was perfect for both winter sunshine and winter mist on different days.

It also included several sessions with a manuscript consultant at different stages of my progress, both during the Katoomba week and later, when I completed the first draft and then when I responded to her suggestions.

And the fellowship included Deadlines. Finally, I had to finish the book; the deadline said so. Ever since my days as a journalist, deadlines have had that power over me!

I also had three volunteer “beta readers” to test drive the manuscript for me, as I went through a huge rewriting and editing phase.

And so, about 17 years after the idea first plopped into my mind, POISON BAY is finished (at least until a publisher asks for Yet More Edits!)

What other books would you compare your book to within the genre?

As a person who works in publishing, I know I should have a quick answer for this. But I don’t. (Don’t tell anyone.)

It’s a mixture. I’ve tried to write the kind of book that I like to read on a long-haul plane flight . I admire the character development achieved by mystery writers like PD James and Elizabeth George, but the challenge is not to let it slow down the plot too much. As a kid, I read my way through a whole collection of old-fashioned thrillers by Alistair MacLean, and I loved the way his heroes faced natural elements and villains with the same determination.

So my book is character driven, with psycho villains and wild weather. It is in the “traditional mystery” category, which means it avoids excessive violence and explicit sex.

Who or what inspired you to write this book?

I seem to have inadvertently answered this already. (Note to self: Read all the questions before commencing.)

What else about the book might pique a reader’s interest?

The cover design you see on this site is just my “working cover design”. It may not ever be published with that cover!

I read a book that said creating a dummy cover might help inspire me to keep writing. And as a true professional *cough* I spent a lot of time on my dummy cover.

I am the Procrastination Queen!

And now… tag, you’re it!

I have three writers to introduce you to today. They will each blog about one of their own books in the next week or two.

Ernest Crocker

Dr Ernest Crocker is an author, speaker, physician and photographer living in Sydney Australia. His first book, NINE MINUTES PAST MIDNIGHT was released in Sep 2011, but still counts as a Next Big Thing because the totally reworked US edition is coming soon! I worked with Ern on the developmental edit of his original book, and it’s a powerful read that comes from his heart. It tells the story of an experience he had as a young doctor that challenged his assumptions about God’s role in the healing process, and then his exploration over many years of the experiences of other medical professionals. Ern is also a photographer, and has been to Antarctica, which I struggle not to ENVY!! (I think I really must set a future novel there…)

Karin Cox

Karin Cox lives in the same city as I do (Brisbane, Australia), and works in publishing like I do, but we met on Twitter! As well as being an excellent editor, Karin is the author of more than 28 books, mostly traditionally published, but she’s branching out into self-publishing for some projects. She is currently working on a paranormal romance (Cruxim), a romance novel (From Memory), a young adult post-apocalyptic novel (Float), and the three-part young adult fantasy series Day of the Danae Shee. Karin is also the founder of the Indie Review Tracker website, a site that helps self-published authors easily find free or affordable promotional opportunities.

Jo Swinney

Jo Swinney is a British writer, speaker, novice gardener, avid reader, ex-traveller, food lover on a long-term diet, asker of probing questions and a strict observer of bedtime. She edits me :-) (and quite a few other people of course!) in the CLOSER series of Bible meditations. Her bookThrough the Dark Woods is a personal account of what it is like being a depressed Christian, and I am reliably informed that it is even humorous! I have my own copy now and am looking forward to reading it. (My reading schedule has “gone to the dogs” since my mother’s pooch had pups, but I’ll tell you more about that next time!) Cheerful Madness deals with love and marriage and what happens to turn one into the other. God Hunting is a down to earth look at spiritual disciplines. Keeping Faith: being family when belief is in question is a book she co-authored with Katharine Hill. You can also find her on Twitter.

What do you think of my crazy writing journey, or anything else we’ve talked about today? Leave a comment and say hi, or check out Ern, Karin and Jo at their websites.

One of these things is not like the other...

Are you a dog person or a cat person? Or maybe you favour horses, canaries or gerbils?

Heck, I like the lot of them.

I have to admit that even snakes can be quite beautiful, when they are not anywhere near me or biting my dog.

But what has this got to do with the expectations we place on people and organisations and things?

Well, sit right down and let me tell you a story…

I was out for a walk when I noticed one of my neighbours had a new puppy rolling around on the grass at her feet. Fat as mud, and cute as cute wishes it could be. It went off for a crazy circuit of the yard like it was being pursued by the Hound of the Baskervilles, before coming back to do a short program of tail chasing at her feet again.

Now such a vision is going to get my attention at any time — who doesn’t love a puppy? But I almost got whiplash from the shock, because I know this person is a dedicated cat lover. Not just in the “my cat did the cutest thing the other day” kind of way, but in the “one of the unspecified number of cats who rule my life did the cutest thing the other day” kind of way.

So what is she doing with a dog?

Me: “You’ve got a puppy!”

Neighbour: “Yes. But I don’t know if I’ll keep it.”

Me: “Oh, why not?”

Neighbour: “It’s so dirty, it doesn’t keep itself clean. And it’s noisy and rowdy and it won’t leave me alone. It follows me around everywhere.”

I have had both dogs and cats in my life, and it strikes me at this point in the conversation that what she is describing is a dog from a cat’s point of view. I am too tactful to say this out loud, but I can’t help a followup question.

Me: “So why did you get a dog?”

Neighbour: “Well I always wanted one of this particular breed, right from when I was a little girl.”

And there we have it. She wanted something imaginary. The thing she wanted looked like this breed of dog, but behaved like a cat, cleaning itself, acting calmly, and respecting her personal space.

It was extremely easy for me to identify this flaw in her thinking, as it so often is when we look at the behaviour of others. But as I continued on my walk it dawned on me that I do exactly the same thing.

I want something imaginary and get frustrated when I don’t get it. Here’s a few of the ones I’m guilty of:

• Expecting a multi-national corporation to act like a small family business and care about my problems
• Believing my knees will cope with that mountain, and pouting when they hurt afterwards
• Wanting the weather in Brisbane to be like Alaska, and getting cranky when it’s hot and humid
• Expecting a risk-averse person to behave like an entrepreneur, and getting frustrated when they can’t see the possibilities.

Do you ever do this sort of thing? Here’s a few more options to give you ideas:

• Expecting a woman to think logic is more important than relationships (cue Rex Harrison singing “Why can’t a woman, be more like a man?”)
• Expecting a man to suppress the urge to offer solutions while listening to a woman’s problems
• Expecting children to have the perception and judgement of an adult when faced with a daily decision.

Ah, so many options for cat-n-dog expectations in human life! But you know what the answer is that I am continuing to discover on a daily basis? Brace yourself, there’s a cliche coming, but it’s actually appropriate this time:

It is what it is.

Ha.

So next time I find myself getting hot under the collar about someone or something that should have behaved differently, I’m going to ask myself: “Belinda, are you expecting a dog to behave like a cat?”

What about you? Do you struggle with expectations that are imaginary? What do you to do to cope with it?

Iconic mountain with un-iconic writer in foreground

Have you ever soldiered on with something because you started it and you were determined to finish it, even though it ended up giving you little pleasure and the final outcome wasn’t really what you wanted? I certainly have. I’m persistent to a fault. But I learned something while hiking up a beautiful mountain, and it might help you too, so here we go.

Cradle Mountain in the island state of Tasmania is one of Australia’s most iconic hiking destinations. And every now and then, a hiker actually gets to see it. I was one of the lucky few– it wasn’t hidden by cloud the days I was there. And although I was intimidated by it (I’m a bit average as a hiker, I’m scared of heights and I have quixotic knees that turn into pumpkins during long descents and for two weeks after) I wanted to tick it off my “bucket list”.

Let’s face it, if I’m honest I wanted to be able to say, “I climbed Cradle Mountain,” somewhat more than I truly wanted to actually climb the thing. But I wasn’t admitting that to my self, no siree.

As I set off at dawn with my hiking buddy, the Pocket Rocket, everything was in our favour. We were prepared and equipped, and the weather was shaping up to be gorgeous. We had great snacks (best part of hiking ) and all the gear we’d need if the weather did one of those sudden mountain changes. It was one of those days when anything was possible.

The sky's the limit!

And then we got to the last stage of the climb, and I had an unpleasant reality check. It’s quite a civilised hike most of the way. You are romping across alpine meadows singing like Julie Andrews, and then suddenly BAM, you’re up against a virtual cliff face. Not a hike but a scramble, very steep and very exposed. (If you’ve done it 17 times blindfolded with one hand tied behind your back, this may not be the most tactful time to mention it. ) I’d been hoping it would look easier when we got up close, as mountains often do, but it just looked harder.

Because the weather was so good and I was feeling determined, I figured I could overcome my fear of heights for the sake of another tick on the Bucket List.

My hiking buddy took this shot near the top after more than an hour of similar "scrambling"!

But what about the knees? What goes up must come down. I was at the beginning of a two-week hiking tour of Tasmania. If I wrecked my knees on this first major hike, what would I be sacrificing? This hike was a Bucket List item, but there were so many beautiful hikes ahead that I might have to forgo.

And so as the Pocket Rocket and I sat and ate snacks at the little hut before the climb, I had one very difficult decision to make. I agonised about it. It was so very hard for me to even consider the slightest possibility that I might have to give up. What would my fearless hiking buddy think of me? What would people think of me when I got home and had to admit I was a failure? More importantly, what would I think of me?! I’m no quitter!

But this is the realisation I was forced to make. Maybe you already know it. But because it’s so important, I’m going to put it in big letters.

The decision to do something is also the decision NOT to do something else.

Now that fact is not so hard to see when we’re deciding between chocolate or vanilla ice cream for dessert. But when the decision is something we’re really passionate about, or emotionally invested in, or have imagined ourselves doing for years, sometimes we get tunnel vision. All we can see is the goal, without weighing up whether it’s worth the cost.

Does this ever happen to you? Think about it:

• If I pursue that promotion, what will I be giving up in terms of flexibility/time with loved ones/fitness goals?
• If I dedicate my time to writing my book/training for a marathon/helping the homeless, what will I effectively decide not to do in those many hours?
• If I study to improve my qualifications, I will potentially gain A and B, but what is the hidden C and D that I might forgo as a result?

The thing we’re pursuing might be a very good thing. We just need to make sure our dedication to it isn’t so blind that we miss out on an even better thing!

And so I didn’t climb that last bit of Cradle Mountain that day. I felt humiliated. And I pouted about it, let me tell ya, sitting there in the cold for a couple of hours waiting for my hiking buddy to return, watching other happy hikers traipse on past on their way to my goal!

But I realised I’d made a good decision in the days that followed when I got to enjoy hiking the Bay of Fires, Wineglass Bay, Maria Island and the Labillardiere Peninsula. I could hike them because I hadn’t destroyed my knees by pursuing a goal that wasn’t a wise choice for me. Maybe one day in the future I’ll go back and do the Cradle Mountain summit, when I don’t need to walk and walk in the days that follow.

I gave up on a good thing, and I got a better thing.

What do you think? Have you ever realised you were about to pursue something good when you could have had something better?

And so the sun sets on my little tale... (I'm almost sure that mountain WINKED at me!)

The problem in a nut(shell)

I write books in several genres. I’ve been published for the past ten years as a writer of meditations drawn from the Bible. I’m currently working on a psychological thriller novel, a humorous memoir about my crazy dog (a dogoir?), a business writing book, and a new book of meditations. I’m also a writer/editor/publishing consultant in my day-and-night job.

Try making a blog salad with that lot! You’re nuts even to try! I hear you say. Ya think?

So I defaulted to what I know best, and wrote mostly about the writing and publishing process, because at least I could put together some useful resources for someone. But the fit wasn’t quite right for this blog, so I lost motivation and “grew puzzled” as Jane Austen would put it, and ground to a halt.

So will I still post writing and publishing tips?

Yes!

But not here.

If you’d like to continue receiving useful writing and publishing stuff, head on over to my writing and publishing website, www.smallbluedog.com. I’ve finally set up a subscription form over there! I like to help people write well and publish successfully, and not everyone I’d like to help can afford to hire a professional, so I’ll be building a growing library of free resources at smallbluedog.

As for the existing writing/publishing posts from this site… if they are timeless and useful articles, I’ll gradually migrate them over to the other site, because they don’t belong here any more. That means I’ll lose the comments, which I’m sad about.

So what will be here?

Real Life on a Beautiful Planet

As you can see, I have a new title for this blog, and am gradually developing a new look for it as well.

This is because I’ve realised there are two things that all my different types of writing have in common (other than ME! ;-D ):

1. A passion to engage with the real issues we all face in Real Life, from the Up moments of joy and humour and celebration, to the Down moments like  stress, anxiety, depression, grief. So I’m going to write stories which I hope will encourage you in your own Real Life, whether sharing the fact that I’ve been hit over the head with a spiritual moment, or just giving you a laugh at my own stupidity (which is regularly on display) .
2. A love of creation, especially wildernesses and animals. My thriller-in-progress POISON BAY is set in Fiordland National Park NZ, one of the most amazing places I have ever been, and the next books in the series go to other gorgeous landscapes. So I’m going to write posts that might also help you have a new experience of some of these wonderful places, whether you like travelling through them, hiking in them, or visiting them from your armchair courtesy of various kinds of media. And if you’re a fellow animal-lover, I’ll tell a few of those stories too.

So, thank you for waiting for me to get my act together. Not that it’s quite together yet, but we’re getting there!

If you’re also a writer who blogs, have you had similar trouble figuring out your topics? And as a reader, what types of stories would you like to see on this blog?

To read the story, click here.

Or perhaps in this case, a book trailer sold me an author.

The book was MACHINE MAN and the author was Max Barry. To find out the way it all happened, click here.

A Kindle now lurks close at hand

A year or two ago I was never going to read a book that wasn’t on paper. Now there is a Kindle in the drawer beside my bed. What happened?

I’ve always been a deliberate Late Adopter of new technologies. I don’t need the kudos of being First with newfangled thingies, and I find that patience is rewarded when they iron out a lot of bugs, and the price comes down too.

But there was a lot more than this behind my reluctance to get an e-reader. I love a book with paper pages. Scoff if you like, but I just do.

But the fear of missing out on great books plus some solid financial incentives finally drove me to take the leap into Kindle-land. To find out the details, click here.

Welcome to a new system I call Outside the Box Blogging. Click here to read more…

As part of my change of topics on this blog, I’ve moved this article to my writing & publishing blog at www.smallbluedog.com. You can still read it here