Calandra's Spring book

Completed two weeks in Puerto Vallarta without one day of swimming in the sea

2013-05-12T15:47:00.001-07:00

Arrrrghhh! How hard we just worked! Tenants are gone. We spent many an exciting day (!) sanding down doors that had been damaged by gel nails (ladies, please be more careful) then painting and felt that the place was looking fine. Then we discovered (niftily camouflaged in that way that renters feel justified in doing) and a comparatively new kitchen cupboard shelf was hidden underneath a tray and was rotted by some acid or something spilled by them or their maid. OK, that was only built in late 2010. So we are somewhat gritting our teeth. We also completely re-planted all the major garden beds and hope they bush up nicely in the wet season.

The place is looking very nice now and will be in the care of Manuel, Margo and Dominique until it is sold or rented.

We will miss its lovely mountain and farmland views (ahhhh bananas!) and the little town next door, not to mention our good friends down there but I am sure they will visit.

Now back to L.A. and back to some serious writing.

Anyone want to rent (or buy) a writer's retreat in paradise?

2013-05-04T07:36:00.003-07:00

We are at present down in Puerto Vallarta cleaning up after tenants (tenants really are from a different planet and never quite 'get' where their hands have left greasy cosmetic marks) and re-planting the garden which has all buy died. Disheartening. However, now we are moving on and have a charming, large house with a lap pool for sale (or rent). The house for rent will come with a cleaner, pool carer and gardener and these costs will be included in the rent. We do not have the wifi account activated so bring your international account and wifi dongle or access your emails from local cafe.

If you are interested, please contact me and I can send you photos.

Basic information is:
3 bedroom
4 bathroom
Lap pool
Solar power

Pretty garden

Close to many attractions - golf courses etc. (even a zoo).

Very safe in a secure neighbourhood with 24 hour security guard.

Email me through the blog!

Something interesting for the summer

2013-04-24T20:49:00.001-07:00

Here's an interesting tour that is about to start all across the USA. If you want to learn about the best way to tell a story visually, perhaps you may like to book in for this:

visualstorytellingtour.com

Alex Buono, cinematographer for SNL, will be featured explaining this concept and teaching the skills needed to make your film or production narrative and beautiful.

Check out the site!

3D TV at home?

2013-04-22T19:51:00.001-07:00

We bought a 3D TV a couple of years back - you know how it is, Black Friday sales, great price and a desire to (for once in our lives) buy technology when it was still sparkling. So travel through the time machine till the present day. At last, this weekend, we co-ordinated the glasses with the home theatre setup, gathered the cushions, got out the instruction books with that 'old person's feeling of dread' and then realised that all we needed to do was put the DVD in the machine. It worked! We watched 'Avatar' and found the whole experience pretty amazing. After all, we both worked in TV when
B & W were all that were offered and thought that was quite grand for the time. Watched colour come in and were even more impressed, then widescreen, HD and now 3D. Oh, if only the programmes were better! Sadly, as the quality of the technology has skyrocketed, the programme quality sank below sea-level. Mind you, 'Mad Men' and 'Breaking Bad' are exceptional.

Instead of staying home last Saturday evening, we went to see the Alvin Ailey Dance Theatre, preceded by the pre-concert talk. The entire experience (at the fabulous Dorothy Chandler Pavilion which is now bounded by the stunning Grand Avenue Park) was exhilarating. We had great seats and the dancing was phenomenal. Brought back memories of when my godmother took me to one of their performances in 1962 and you won't believe it, the show we saw on Saturday evening featured 'Revelations' the Ailey choreographed Spirituals ballet. Moving, wonderful dancing and music. And the audience was also to be commended by the sheer joy they radiated throughout the night.

So now back to work perhaps!

Doug Danielson's latest book looks interesting

2013-04-17T08:25:00.000-07:00

If you are a yachtie,you will love this series of 'Jake Mortensen' adventures.

Read about them here:
http://bethgroundwater.blogspot.com/2013/04/todays-mystery-author-guest-doug.html

Boston Explosions mourned worldwide.

2013-04-15T18:01:00.000-07:00

The tragedy of the Boston explosions and the loss of life, injuries and ghastly feeling of insecurity that has ended what should have been a day of joy are far more frightening than any horror story or film I have recently read. Sadly, we live in the true cliché of 'troubled times'. It is interesting to listen to the newscasts and how quickly the reporters dip into their bag of phrases that paint the scene. There's a sort of shorthand and I remember that my Executive Producer was a master of this. It was simply dreadful to listen to - clunky, bad speech, descriptions as worn as a homeless person's tennis shoes. Words used such as 'redolent' when really, it was just plain inappropriate, linguistically. But perhaps audiences have grown to expect this 'reporter-speak'. Lazy audiences breed lazy writing. This is why the world has willingly allowed itself to be swamped by badly written books!

Just count the clichés over the next few days! (Yes, there are many 'questions unanswered' and only 'time will tell' ....arghhhh!)

Music, food and writing ...

2013-04-15T14:01:00.002-07:00

What have these three got in common? For me, they go hand in hand. When I write, I MUST have music playing in the background. When I procrastinate from the writing, I cook. So it came about that I wrote my little book about ice-cream: Fabulicious! Ice-cream sandwiches home-made.

I hope that people will put this book on their Kindles and have a go at making this pricey dessert at home instead of paying a heap for them in boutiques, trucks and restaurants. They are easy! My book outlines the method. You can use your own recipes, but I have included some of my favourites and also cookie recipes to get you started.

The book is at:
'Fabulicious!' http://tinyurl.com/cqlg4au

Check out my new book!

2013-04-14T18:11:00.002-07:00

http://tinyurl.com/cqlg4au

Don't throw out those fresh radishes!

2013-04-14T18:06:00.003-07:00

I often have a dilemma where radishes are concerned. A bunch is way too much to eat. So I decided to try pickling the leftovers the way they do in Paris. Mmmmmmm. That worked a treat. All I did was this:
a bunch of radishes
1 cup of water (OR olive brine leftover from your olive jar)
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon honey or brown sugar (I actually used coconut sugar)
1 cup mirin - rice vinegar
a few cloves of garlic
All spice/peppercorns/ a few slices of fresh ginger or whatever you like
Sterilised jars and lids. (around 1 1/2 Ball screw top jars, small Fowlers Vacola jars or 4 of the size pictured).

No need to peel. Just slice thinly and trim off the tops and pointy bits and neatly pack into jars.
Boil the other liquid ingredients together, dissolve the sugar and salt in that mixture. Add the rest to the mixture at the end. Pour that over each jar of radishes, put the lid on and when it cools down, put in the fridge for 3 days. The liquid will go pink and pretty. It tastes something like the ginger you get on sushi. Yummm!
Eat with cheese or fish or add to your hors d'oeuvres platter.

Ice-cream sandwich book released at last!

2013-04-10T22:38:00.001-07:00

Want to know how to make this?

Buy: http://tinyurl.com/d85hjqn

It is CHEAP and will tell you my method of churning these wonderful ice-creams out in your own kitchen!
Send me some feedback.

Kindle formatting problem

2013-04-06T08:09:00.000-07:00

So I published my third book and forgot my own rule. Formatting went to pot. So I have taken it down and re-edited it.

Remember folks, save your file as an HTML.

ie. Go to 'File'. Choose 'Save as webpage'. Save to somewhere easy to find such as in your book's component folder. Then go to the kdp page and your bookshelf. Select your book by ticking in the box next to it. Choose edit from the drop down menu. Replace the all-over-the-place file with your nicely formatted book (html you just created). Save and continue. Select the 'yes, I agree to hand over my first born child' on the KDP agreement. Save and there you are!

Hope this is clearer than my first explanation!

New books by Wendy Rawady on amazon.com

2013-04-06T07:52:00.000-07:00

I've been busy over the last year or so. We have moved house and also become grandparents. Hosted numerous friends coming to say hello or staying. Been involved with our local community. Even spent a couple of amazing weeks in Mexico City. But then it was imperative to get back to work. I now have three books on amazon - 'Calandra's Spring', available at
www.amazon.com/dp/B007IX4NI2#reader_B007IX4NI2
'The Other Side of Nowhere' http://tinyurl.com/d7kt9wn

and now - 'Fabulicious! Ice-Cream Sandwiches Home-Made'

which is a complete departure from my novels, being a 'how to'. You can find it at:
http://tinyurl.com/cqlg4au

All are Kindle books as I would like future generations to have some large trees in the world. And a Kindle is a great way to read recipes!

Enjoy!

My favourite swimming gadget

2013-02-05T07:36:00.000-08:00

It's important for writers to get exercise and mine is swimming. I have paddles, flippers and a board and use them all to speed up my exercise. I alternate and then use them altogether swimming a mile or so and the last 10 laps are without the gear. Love it and I can think while I swim!

Free uploads of 'Calandra's Spring'.

2013-01-08T14:21:00.001-08:00

The 'sale' of my book on Kindle for free today continues and is a steady trickle of downloads. This has lifted my amazon.com rating considerably but I wonder how quickly that will drop after I am again charging (a small amount) for my months of work!?

It seems that writers rarely hit the big time or even the middling-small time enough to make a living unless the book is sponsored from the start as some kind of 'corporate' undertaking. Of course, the sacrifice then is that, to some degree, you have to toe the company line and your writing becomes a mouthpiece for some robber baron (at worst). I've been in those shoes for many a long year as I have worked as a writer, technical writer and corporate and enjoyed the discipline of it, but felt it most gut-wrenching when matters I wrote about involved retrenchments and sackings.

However, it paid for my kids to go to school, learn a musical instrument and travel. And I always tried to make the message optimistic with some direction towards a remedy.

Formatting solution for Kindle

2013-01-07T10:25:00.000-08:00

If you have uploaded a book and then been disappointed when you have checked it on your Kindle (or had feedback from readers criticising your format) this may be a solution:

For those of you who asked, this is what I noted.

I have a Macbook Pro (2009) and initially used Microsoft Word to write my books. I thought that saving as a PDF would do it for a Kindle upload, but no, the formatting went out the window but looked OK in the preview. So, what I did was go to my bookshelf, choose the book for reformatting and choose edit from the actions menu. Previously, I had re-saved my beautifully formatted file as an html file. Then I re-uploaded it. This kept the format (with hard page breaks and indents).

Hope this helps you!

FREE book! Today and tomorrow only!

2013-01-07T10:09:00.001-08:00

My book, 'Calandra's Spring' is on FREE promo listing at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007IX4NI2
Please feel very welcome to download and any reviews or feedback are gratefully received!

Incidentally, Kindle reformatted the book so that it was a disaster but I worked long and hard on it and now it is fine. If you bought the old version, re-upload this one as it is formatted correctly.

Enjoy the read! It is an adult book but some older YA readers will enjoy it. There is some racy sex in it but probably nothing that our young adult kids haven't seen in Twilight.

'The Other Side of Nowhere' needs reviewers

2012-10-19T15:49:00.003-07:00

If you are in the mood to read and review this book, please let me know and I will send you a copy. It's always hard to get someone to read, especially with a long work and one that is for Digital publishing only, but I would love some feedback!

The Other Side of Nowhere is on Kindle!

2012-10-02T10:58:00.002-07:00

Check this out!

My latest book!

http://tinyurl.com/9pbe2jl

Releasing ... The Other Side of Nowhere.

2012-09-25T10:55:00.002-07:00

Proudly announcing the release of 'The Other Side of Nowhere' now available on Kindle, at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009G8A66U

This is my second book and is somewhat of an experimental work, being a linked set of narratives which could stand alone and are somewhat episodic.

Try it and send me some feedback!

My second book is available on Kindle.

2012-09-24T18:06:00.000-07:00

This is new, new news! I just uploaded my second novel, 'The Other Side of Nowhere' for Kindle purchase and while the cover is only a temporary one (I have a short video to embed and it won't let me :-( so may need to add that later!) it is ready for reading as soon as amazon says so!

Watch this space and I will post a link direct to amazon as soon as possible.

Very excited to see it happen and will look into the cover possibilities and replace that when I can afford to get a professional design. Not cheap!

New book almost ready for release

2012-08-16T14:24:00.000-07:00

I have been head-down-tail-up for a while editing and proof-reading my soon-to-be-released book. Now starts the fiddly work of having a cover designed, buying the isbn and making decisions about how to structure all the cover materials.

This one will be a bit of a surprise for readers (if all goes well).

Is that cryptic enough?

Back to work and I will keep you posted when it is up and running.

A Writer's Perfect Getaway

2012-06-23T12:23:00.001-07:00

What better to do for inspiration than to tread in the steps, and sit at the desk of a famous writer. No velvet rope saying 'keep out' and the possibility to feel the same vibe as that guy! The one I am talking about is D.H. Lawrence of 'Lady Chatterly's Lover' etc. etc. and the place that you can have the experience of being Lawrence on vacation is QQ Accommodations in Chapala, Jalisco, Mexico. This astoundingly pretty B & B is set in a garden that abounds with birds, trees in fruit (including a massive avocado and a couple of mangoes) turtles who live in a fountain and so much to delight the eye. The building was partly designed and built by famous architect, Luis Barragan.There is an exotic stone tower and the place is completely packed with antiques, artworks and traditional Mexican tiles, pots and bits and pieces. If you want to know more, details are at this website:
http://www.accommodationslakechapala.com/hotel/accommodations.htm

It is short walking distance to the lake, the market and much more, but really, do you want to walk anywhere when the place itself is so appealing? Just sit in the garden or on one of the many terraces and unwind, think and create. Just as Lawrence did!

Calandra and Aaron - the new environmental warriors

2012-06-07T07:46:00.001-07:00

There's an important environmental thread in 'Calandra's Spring' which impacts on the plot and the characters. As I have been travelling around the world, particularly in Mexico, I have noticed that awareness of the issues is growing. However, there is still a shocking disdain for keeping places free of plastic wastes, composting and air and noise quality control. Mexico is the noisiest place in the universe! The Big Bang would have been welcome here as an attention getter for some party or product!! The noises, sights and smells of the place soon become annoying as they are so relentless. Among my acquaintances, there is a high deafness rate and I worry about the next generation as car stereos, boom boxes and iPods permanently set to 'high' are the norm. The smells of cooking, of garbage and still, fermenting water below the roads are inescapable. What is this going to do to the evolution of the human body? Thicker hair growth around the ears and nose perhaps? More bone around the skull to shield the brain from the noise? Could this be a new quest for our heroes?

Ray Bradbury dies at 91. A productive life.

2012-06-06T16:00:00.002-07:00

If I can hang out until I'm 91 and die in my sleep, I wonder if I will have left behind the kind of legacy Mr. Bradbury has? His books are great reads and politically incisive. Not a waste of print. Even had he just written his most famous book, 'Fahrenheit 451' that would have been justification for his life.

Be a traveller ... and make notes along the way

2012-06-06T15:57:00.000-07:00

I have done a goodly amount of travel in my life. Some was for work and other was with family and often I travelled alone, tagging a trip onto the end of an assignment. While the latter is great (you have time to write notes and can travel self-indulgently) it's more fun to have someone to nudge when you see that wacky something or other. Putting it on Facebook just doesn't do it. Lately, my husband and I have been travelling around Mexico quite a bit and there's not a day goes by when one doesn't nudge the other! There is much to gasp at, to laugh at and stare at. There is a level of national obesity here that defies description. Those Walmartian pictures are NOTHING compared with the Mexicano Walmartians who seem to take as much pride in their bulk from an early age as Tonga's famed late Queen Salote, once holding the record as the tallest and fattest queen ever. She was often used as a threat in our family home: 'Don't take that second slice of cake or you'll end up like Queen Salote'. But I digresss. The other day, I was camera-less. Damn! And there before my eyes, a bulky miss leaned over before me to pick the choicest tomatoes from the hillock in the supermarket green section. Alas, the combo of mini-dress and thong failed when combined with the rolls of brown fat that rippled up to her waist in full view of everyone. She was unconcerned. People flash bits of themselves here that would be pixelated in 'Survivor' before you can say "Come on in, guys!'. We notice that in Puerto Vallarta, the gas, water, fruit and fish purveyors put out as much noise as they can to get attention. In Guadalajara, they whistle softly, or ring a little bell, sing their wares quite beautifully (and sometimes I can understand) and still get sales. We do much of our exploring on public buses and yesterday broke all records for bussing to undesirable suburbs by accident. It was interesting to see that in this colonia, which had featured in the international news as the site of a biffo between drug cartels, kids still went to school. washing still hung on lines and life just seemed to go on. There seems to be a higher degree of razor wire in the 'nice' suburbs. I suppose the others just feel they have nothing more to lose. We came out of it OK, spending the rest of the day walking in the Parque Colomos, a forested area criss-crossed with running tracks, a great amount of free to use fitness equipment all over the place. Which made me realise why people in Guadalajara are way thinner than those in Puerto Vallarta. There are few parks in PV. Just the beach. Lots of that but many of those have been closed off by resorts. And few people in the city can swim. For some reason, they just don't get taught, nor do they seem to have the places to do laps and work off the blubber that is drowning their young folk and taking up much shelf space in the Farmacias for diabetic treatments.

If I had stayed in my safe, comfy house in Bulleen, Australia, yes, I would have had my flock of visiting lorikeets and magpies but I wouldn't have seen any of this!