Louis(e)

I've been working (for a couple of years now) on a new novel, Louis(e). Most of that time has been spent researching what is a very different topic for me. Historical fiction.

While it is fiction it is based closely on her true story. This remarkable French woman masqueraded as a man and travelled on the scientific expedition with D'Entrecasteaux from 1789 - 1793.

The first 8,500 words are available to download as a pdf at this link. It's completely different from Living the Good Life, even further removed from Who Killed Dave?

It takes the unusual perspective of Louise's ghost.

Download available - www.togetherpress.com/louise.html

The Great Benevolent Dictator

I read another interview with a big shot saying, ‘There’s nothing we can do’ about our spectacular slide down the other side of the peak oil curve and all the co-mingling issues of global warming, financial crises, food shortages, species extinctions etc. I’ll call it the Great Decline for ease of handling.

 

But if you’re anything like me, you’re sick of hearing the doomsayers, the naysayers, the hopelessness, so here’s an opportunity for optimism, a bit of pie in the sky as you are newly anointed as benevolent dictators of the world. I’ll go first and take the juiciest pieces of pie…

 

When I am welcomed wholeheartedly as the Great Benevolent Dictator to deal with the Great Decline I will implement a number of key changes …

 

Renewable energy projects and research will be given all the subsidies now given to unsustainable industries such as mining, oil and traditional automotive with a target of 100% conversion to renewable energy worldwide by 2020. (this will include tough energy conservation measures on a domestic and industry level).

 

Organic agriculture will become the norm, with support and incentives provided to farmers in conversion. Farmers will be valued and financial rewards will follow. Food will no longer be the high flyers or long distance travellers,  unless they are light, unperishables like spices, eg, tons of cloves, cinnamon, etc will go a long way and help assist those countries that need the income and without significant strain on the system, but gone are the days where you will expect to eat US oranges out of season in Tasmania.

 

A drastic capping of income for non-productive jobs such as executives and bureaucrats,  and a reduction in the number of people employed in these types of positions. Instead there will be a  return to a system that values those who produce, eg research and development and finding key ways forward, not rewarding sociopathic tendencies and the ability to lay off half the work force in order to increase the profits of stakeholders.

 

Whoa, that was big, take a breath, my pulse, and plough back into the thick of it…

 

Everyone is given a yearly fuel allowance for personal vehicle use, flying etc. Public transport does not count as part of your allowance.  If you don’t use your allowance you can trade it.  People living in developing countries that don’t use their allowance can trade them internationally. But people will be encouraged to use various strategies to reduce their use, eg carpooling, public transport, living close to where you work, working from home etc.

 

Built in obsolescence is considered to mirror the built in obsolescence of our world system and it becomes a thing of the past. This includes the belief that any item can be one use only, from drink bottles to computer systems,  there is no such thing as non-recyclable and everything is produced with the materials reclamation in mind. Companies that produce items such as laptops that will last and for which replaceable parts and upgrades will be available for at least a decade if not longer (yes, the cost of a laptop will be more than a couple of hundred dollars, but it will be cheaper in the long run).

 

OK, if I haven’t already started the war to end all wars and I haven’t had to put my head through the little window or stand blindfolded against a wall, then I will…

 

Give our system of politics a radical overhaul, it is no longer an ad hominem, adversarial screaming match full of bloated egos seeking to undermine change, particularly if it has any hope of actually succeeding, but instead it’s…. Oh, yeah, you’re right, now I’m really dreaming.

 

OK, I took the juiciest, easiest to reach pieces of pie, lots of room for a bit of tweaking. Obviously in 500 words I can't provide enough details to offset the obvious responses such as.. yes, but what about if people abuse and corrupt the system.. you do what you can to offset it, it's an issue in the world we live in too.

 

It’s a big pie, so what, in 500 words or less, is your plan once you're anointed The Great Benevolent World Dictator? Trev’s plan is to feel overwhelmed by the position, instantly resign and ask for a redundancy package.

 

 

 

GIVEAWAY!

I'm often asked how those living overseas can get a copy of Who Killed Dave? and always figured I'd make it available to download, one day.  But no, I finally organised for 10 days!

Feel free to share the offer around!
To keep a track of how many downloads I only ask that people download it from the website rather than share it via email etc. In a fortnights time I'm looking forward to seeing how many downloads and what countries Who Killed Dave? was downloaded from. I'll let you know.

www.togetherpress.com/free.html
www.facebook.com/WhoKilledDave? 

Living the Good Life is also at www.facebook.com/lindasgoodlife

For those of you who haven't already read it, I hope you enjoy the read.

Saving Seed

Lavender, just for how it looks

The house is festooned with bouquets of dried flowers. There are bunches of seeded lettuce in the office, you have to battle past them to get to the loo, there's long strand of rainbow chard seeds hanging beside the umbrella like carrot seed heads, there's Romanesco broccoli and parsley coriander and kale.

Apart from adding a farm house look they're actually there for a practical reason.  They're drying out further till a rainy day when I'll spend time saving their seed.

I've saved seed from our first successful rockmelon variety, Mountain Sweet after a seasons experimentation. Hopefully we can keep adapting a variety to our climate and get bumper crops. The watermelons have not been as successful. It took me way to long to realise the ducklings were slipping through fences and eating the fruits even before they set. So now I have good fruit set about the time we're expecting our first frost.

   Coriander seed

Parsley seed

We should have enough seed to start a market garden next year. We've even been setting a few things up that it might even be a distinct possibility.











Eliot Coleman is the US author of The Winter Harvest Handbook. While we're not has cold as it is in Maine we are going to adopt some of his strategies to try extend our summer/autumn harvest. The images of his immaculate market garden are inspiring. We don't currently have the water for it, but... we may well do very soon.

Do you save your own seed?

Passionfruit and Nashi Pears

I'm showing off fruit of the season again. The Black Norfolk passionfruits, all four of them, have been converted into goat's milk and chook egg passionfruit custard tarts. There are another four waiting on the vine for a similar fate.
The nashi's are eaten raw at regular intervals.

Tomorrow I'm going to have a go at nashi and vanilla bean preserves. After a day of making tomato paste while listening to it rain outside it will be nice to deal with a different product.

Yes, finally it rained! I know that's not a cry of joy elsewhere in the country, but it certainly is in bone dry Tasmania. We came to Tasmania because it rains here. Only it's stopped, and Queensland, where we came from, has barely been without a flood in the past year.

Who Killed Dave?

I'm offering my novel WHO KILLED DAVE? for half price, $12.50, signed and with free postage to Australians* 

WHO KILLED DAVE? is a riotous comedy that most people have reported embarrassing themselves while reading it on public transport or peeving their partners by giggling and snorting late at night while reading it in bed. 

Together Press cheap copies of WHO KILLED DAVE?

As the author of Living the Good Life, about our families attempt to live 6 months without spending a dollar I self-published WHO KILLED DAVE? using recycled paper, vegetable inks and carbon offsets. I have 1000 copies in my shed, they're the only place they're available :-) So make my day and hopefully WHO KILLED DAVE? will reward you with a good giggle. Because, as Charlie Chaplin said, A day without laughter is a day wasted.

Feel free to share this offer with your friends.


*sorry if you're in another location it's going to make it available as an e-book soon.

Autumn Fruit

My determination to raise rockmelon and watermelon in southern Tasmania has sort of been successful.

Mountain Sweet is a rockmelon variety that has passed the cool night test. It's sweet, tender and what I call 'lunchbox sized'. Rockmelons tended to do better than the watermelons overall. But now I've removed the ducklings from the unset fruit eating equation they are now coming along too, but maybe not quick enough to handle the rapidly cooling night time temps.

Sugarbaby is doing best, Black Biamond second (but it cheated, it grew in the greenhouse) and golden midget is roaringly healthy, but has only just set fruit.  Next year they'll be grown under a plastic hoop house ala Eliot Colemann.

The pears first season, these pears are three of only about eight fruit but I love Beurre Bosc pears. Trev says they're gritty. But reading up on them the other day it seems they are when not ripe.  Packhams Pear is also going well and the Nashi is dripping with so-darn-close-to-ripe we're-eating-a-few, fruit.