Hello from the Goldfields

Good morning from the Goldfields of Western Australia. How have you all been? It's been a while since I've posted anything on my website or social media platforms. The sunset photo here was taken on 10th of June - just prior to 2 more days of rain.

I guess you could say Winter has finally arrived down under. Over the past 10 days, we've had 6 days of rain and the overnight temperatures have been in the single digits - it got down to 3 degrees (C), so the fire has been going in our house non-stop - daytime temperatures have been chilly (like around 14-16 degrees - C). At times, the rain has been quite heavy. It was bucketing down yesterday morning when I got out of bed.

Not as much as my countrymen and women over in the eastern states, though. They've had snow (yes, it does snow in parts of Australia, just nowhere in the state I live in or in either of the 2 states ours borders - except for the very rare occasion when it gets so cold in Western Australia, snow sometimes dusts the peak of a part of a mountain range called Bluff Knoll - a few hours drive from where we live), and some of Victoria is flooded they've had so much rain, along with storms. My heart goes out to all of those who had to evacuate, and my thoughts and prayers go out to the families and friends of two who lost their lives in the floods.

With it raining so much here, Mr. D and I have been binge-watching a few shows on Netflix. I don't usually watch series that are dubbed in English. I find their mouths moving differently from what is being said, distracting. However, I've found that watching their facial expressions, instead of their mouths, works better for me. Has anyone watched the limited series called "The Innocent"? It's in Spanish but dubbed in English. It was soooo good! For those who like thrillers, I highly recommend this one. It keeps you guessing right to the end and there are so many twists and turns in the story line.

While watching so much television, I've also revamped all of the covers for His Word ~ The Trusted Saga, and formatted all four of the manuscripts for e-book and print. I'm still not sure about the cover for book 4 (Destruction), though. That one may change, but I've got an image that shows them all next to the old covers.

KDP is finally printing in Australia (which is why I decided to format the series). Up to this point, if I wanted to order any of my own books, I had to use someone else (like IngramSpark) because KDP wouldn't send them here, and if they did, the postage is astronomical, so it certainly wasn't a viable option. But I have discovered if the books were uploaded with 'black print on cream paper' - which is what KDP suggests for novels - they can't be printed in Australia. After contacting them to see if they would change it for me (once it's been selected an author can't change it), they emailed saying I have to delete all the books, then re-upload them from scratch to select 'black print on white paper' for them to be printed here - at a higher rate than anywhere else, of course, but you can't look a gift horse in the mouth (I have no idea if any of you have heard that expression before). Once I find the time, I'll do that. For now, I have to concentrate on the one I'm currently writing.

Book 2 in The Shattered Series (His Word ... Detraction) is coming along nicely. In between binge-watching, cover creating and formatting manuscripts, I have also been writing. Some days haven't been very productive, but for the past couple of days the words have been flowing. And, as I haven't posted anything for a while, I might post an excerpt from it later on today. I just have to decide which part to post - maybe something from Angelica or Chase.

I also have a new hobby. I got sick of trying to find earrings that I like, so I decided to make my own. I now have a selection of beads and supplies required (and waiting on more to arrive - some of them have a month or more as a due date), along with all the tools needed. I've made a few easy ones (I've included a photo of the ones I've made so far), but have decided to try making them from scratch using resin. That hasn't arrived yet - due to receive that sometime this week. I can't wait to try that. It does look harder and will take more time - the resin takes around 24 hours or so to cure, apparently, and the mixture of resin and hardener has to be exact. So I'll see how that goes. My daughter and daughter-in-law may be recipients of some of my creations. If they turn out okay. As that progresses, I'll post photos.

That's about it for now. I hope everyone is safe and healthy. I promise to post more regularly from now on.