Okay, not so much a look at a distant past post today, more a look back around the corner post for those fairly new to this blog (basically, I’m going out today and didn’t have time to get inventive, so I’m plucking for a bit of excitement here) – I’m going to point you in the direction of some Wilderness Photos from way back in time when we lived adventurously on a 250 acre tropical block in the Northern Territory, Australia, without a house, without on-line power, without running water and without a sewage system, but with plenty of interesting bed-fellows (yes, they were that close) – Now don’t get nervous, I’m not going to jump you straight to the snake photos.

What has this to do with writing? Well, it was the closest anyone can get to alien landscape pioneering – out there, isolated and off the grid – imagine leaving your city, your town, stepping out into bushland (or forest) and not coming back in for near on five years.

Greg, my husband, hung onto his job in the city and commuted there and back every day, leaving me alone from before dawn until after dark. So, I was the property manager, the one who collected water, washed clothes by hand, generated power to feed into the batteries, put in water pipes and roads (after teaching myself how to drive and operate a backhoe), and kept the bandits out.

It was there that I gained confidence and did some tremendous spiritual growing (although that is not and never will be the subject of this blog, it nevertheless brought profound change and I am today the end result).

My idea for a book turned into a series there on that block, too, one alien planet turning into a multitude of them and various characters came forward – Morragt and the Chiddran, Nyssla and Thain. It was also where Sturn stopped being a psychopath and grew an intellect – who knew?

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