It feels as if it’s been ages since we were at Tarzali – our country home. We’ve both been busy working and I must admit, I do find that I like to get a straight run at a book without the distraction of relocating.
But there have been frustrating reasons for staying in one spot. There’s no power to our house up there. We had to get the power pole shifted from in front of the house to accommodate extensions and that took ages. Then an electrician had to underground the power from the new pole to the house and then Ergon had to reconnect the power. Would you believe, this relatively simple set of tasks has taken months? And, of course, the extensions haven’t started yet.
As I type, Elliot is on the phone to Ergon, yet again, trying to sort this out so that we can head up to the Tablelands for a few days. We don’t fancy taking the risk of having no power in mid-winter. It’s not the lack of light or heating that bothers us – we have a lovely wood fire – but no hot baths is another matter entirely.
On a brighter note, yesterday we had a lovely get-together with Ally Blake, who is visiting from Melbourne. I’m so isolated from other writers up here, it’s always great to have a writerly chat and Ally is so lovely to chat with. But we couldn’t provide the lovely sunny winter Ally was expecting. All week it’s been overcast and cold – a maximum of 14 of Thursday!! Not tropical at all!
Writing wise, I am trying to decide whether this current story needs an epilogue. Elliot didn’t like the first one I wrote, so I’m tackling another. As many of you know, I love epilogues, but does this story really need one? Should I round the last chapter off in a satisfying way and leave it at that?
I dunno.
In the literary world, I’m sure epilogues are very much frowned upon. The reader should be left to imagine the future – the more open the text the better. But fortunately, romance readers say pooh to that.
Will ponder on this some more…
P.S. The picture at the top is one of my favourite images from Tarzali. Those tree ferns are growing at the bottom of our block and I keep that image as my screen saver while I'm in the city.
3 comments:
Hi Mum, glad to hear things are finally moving with the power pole & extentions. I am having a great time still. 14 in the `ville sound chilly. the weather here has been strange, rain all day one day and then sunny the next. will write again soon.
Lots of love,
Andy.
What a nice family blog you run here Barbara!!!! ! would believe your power pole troubles: a friend lives less than 10kn out of town on a farm, and she has no hydro power, she has solar and a generator because she has given up waiting for the Hydro and it will cost a mint!!! No hot bath?? Abysmal!!! Much as I trust Elliot's judgement, I do hanker for an epilogue. Persist a little, for your gentle readers????
PS we call them manferns here, not very PC but very traditional!!!
I'm persisting, 2paw. Thanks for your vote of confidence in my epilogues.
And manferns? How interesting. I'd never associated these ferns with human forms.
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