'Urban Driftwood' Review

Our first real review has come in for Urban Driftwood.

Please take a minute to pop over to Tim Jones' website, Book in the Trees, and read what he has to say about our little book.

If you haven't already, you can get a free PDF copy of Urban Driftwood from my homepage, or you can pick up a paperback from Lulu.com ($9.00US plus freight).

We are currently recording and editing an audio version which will be released as a free podcast as well, so keep your ears open for that. Watch this space for more details.

If you've already read Urban Driftwood and enjoyed it, I'd really love it if you could take a minute to rate it and even write a quick review over at Lulu.com.

And the time has gone... where?

Here we are in December already. Tomorrow's my last day of work for the year, next week is Christmas, then 2008 rolls over into 2009 and we start all over again.

It's time to wrap it up and decide where we've come in the past 12 months.

I have no complaints to mention (barring the political, but this is not the time), and I'm awfully grateful for that. I know that a lot of people have had a much worse year than we have, and we have done our best to support friends and even strangers through these hard times. Financially we've been pretty well insulated from the worst of things, so for that too we're very thankful.

As a family we came a long way. Isaac is now almost 2, and what a year of changes and lessons that has been. It can be characterised primarily by the number of things that have been altered in our house to accommodate him: A fence was built, we replaced one pane of glass with safety glass after a smashing incident, latches have been put on windows and doors, and Daddy now has to be careful to tidy up all the cr@p he used to leave around the yard.

I started a blog, to my own surprise, and to my even greater surprise, the novelty hasn't worn off and I'm even still posting here. This is the first time that I've really appreciated the internet as more than just an online dictionary and encyclopedia. This year I have discovered that out there in Webland there is a community. Hi, y'all.

Writing Freshly Ground has made me more aware of the issues out there surrounding food, and given me a voice to raise my views with more than just the guests of a given evening. It has also allowed me to share all the recipes I've been making up over the years, and what with the photos and all it gives the false impression that I might even be able to cook. But I won't let that get around.

I've also hit a fair few landmarks with my writing work, which only happens in and around work-work and family life, but I try to prioritise it as much as possible. I have completed a third draft of my novel and started the long and arduous process of sounding out an (increasingly less stable) publishing industry to try to get said novel read by an agent. This is more work than it sounds. But once again, I have discovered the online community of writers, agents, editors, and publishers, who are more than willing to share a wealth of information with the rest of the community about what they should or should not be doing. It has been one h~ll of an eye-opening journey. I won't say that it has been discouraging thus far, but it is at the very least massively daunting. One thing is clear: there's no point even starting into it with subpar writing, so lots of revision is underway. It's amazing how much more critical you can be of your own work when you think someone with an opinion that can make or break you might be reading it. Give me that big red pen...

Also, Urban Driftwood was finally completed and made available in print form. I have some plans to release it as a PDF in the new year, so watch this space if you haven't laid your hands on a hard copy yet.

Putting politics aside, I had a great twelve months, and I'm looking forward to more good times to come. The garden is going crazy, and hopefully by next planting season I'll have more of a clue about how to manage the little space we have to get some really sustainable crops ticking over, so that we can rely even more on ourselves and less on the carbon footprint of stores and markets. I keep thinking about building a chicken run, but I really have to clean up the yard before I can even consider that seriously. A big shout out to Obi for slapping up the shelves in the garage this week - that's the first step! Next we need to put some up in the tin shed.

Which brings me to next year. Over the summer we have some jobs to do, like painting the roof and fixing the drive, but what do I see in the next twelve months for me, and for us? Well, I'm already racing along a fairly complex trajectory of paid work, writing work, and stuff around home, so I'm not going to sign myself up for too much more just yet. If 1 going on 2 was hard work, just imagine what 2 going on 3 will be like! And with any luck, sometime soon we might be lucky enough to have another little bundle of joy in the house. Which is of course something that is not really in our hands.

We're also looking forward to at least one wedding in the new year, and a visit from LBS and Uncle Carlo in March. We don't really need to plan on getting busy and racing through another year; it's just going to happen.

Freshly Ground will continue in sporadic bursts over the next two weeks, around Christmas and New Years and maybe a little excursion to the South Island or something, but come January things will be back in full swing.

So take care everyone, have a safe and happy holiday, and either keep warm or wear sunscreen, depending on what part of the world you happen to be in.

Orange-Stuffed Chicken

Here you are, my poor neglected blog!

It seems that between work and family and building playhouses I have had no time at all for keeping this site up-to-date. Considering that the recipe I have here was something I made about 3 weeks ago, that might give you an idea of just how busy I've been. Last weekend DadDad John helped Uncle B and I assemble the frames for the two playhouses, and chopped us up a carload of firewood. I never thought I'd see the day when I was putting my Dad to work for the weekend, instead of the other way round. Such a curious universe.

I also started a Facebook Group called Fans of Urban Driftwood. Inside of a week, this group already has almost 60 members, which is amazing since we've only sold one copy. There are a total of nine copies in existence at time of publishing this post, and since I possess four of those, that's an awful lot of Fans for the remaining five copies. Go Facebook! I'll be registering the newly minted copies with the ISBN to the National Library Archives this week.

We have officially moved Isaac out of his cot and into his big bed. He thinks this is great. I can tell by the way he's banging on the walls in sheer delight. It's going to be a long night.

I rushed around the Hutt River Market today, keenly anticipating swinging by the Lamb Van, only to find that they had sold clean out for the day. Big Ups, Wai-Ora Farm. Stink for us, though. Anyway, since Dessert Chef C had a long night last night and we've got to go out doing family stuff tomorrow for Pretty Penny's birthday, I'd better divulge my top secret Orange-Stuffed Chicken Recipe. It's time like this that I'm glad I make notes!

Orange-Stuffed Chicken (Slow-Cooker Recipe)

Serves 4

In a bowl, mix up the following:
4 sprigs of oregano, leaves washed and roughly chopped;
1/4 kumera, chopped small (into 1/4" cubes);
1/2 onion, finely chopped;
Zest from 1/4 of an orange;
Freshly Ground Salt and Pepper to season;
Olive oil to adjust consistency.

Mix until the ingredients hold together. Stuff the cavity of a whole chicken with the mixture. Truss.
Toss the chicken in Salt and Pepper and the zest from 1/4 of the orange (or more if you want an intense orangey flavour).

In the bottom of your Slow Cooker, pour the juice from the orange, the other half of your onion, chopped, another 1/4 of a chopped kumera, a drizzle of balsamic vinegar and just a light splash of water.

Place the chicken in the slow cooker and turn on High for 5 hours.
Prepare some roast veges to go with the chicken. When the bird is done, remove for carving (this is hardly necessary as the bones will just fall apart anyway). Strain the fat from the liquid in the bottom of the cooker and blend up what's left, adding chicken stock if necessary, to make a sweet and tangy gravy.

Urban Driftwood

As of today, Urban Driftwood is available through Lulu.com.

After nine long years of inception, drafting, redrafting, shelving, redrafting, and finally publishing, I'm very happy to say that our collection of poetry and short stories is available to the world for purchase.

We're using Lulu.com's Publish-On-Demand technology, so copies of the book are printed and shipped as they're ordered. This is good for the trees of the world, and I've been very impressed with the production values of the draft copies that Lulu have sent through to me.

Thanks to Morgue, Jane and Steve for all their patience (it has to be noted here that said patience stretches back to 1999. That's patience!).

And thanks to everyone who buys a copy. You're putting your hands on a piece of Wellington's history.

Urban Driftwood and other Wordy Stuff

Time for another Urban Driftwood update. Read here and here for earlier posts on this most exciting of topics.

The first four copies ever arrived last weekend, and this afternoon I dropped off Steve's copy to him for a look. I'm meeting Jane on Saturday to give her her copy, right after we've been to the market. And while our dinner date with Morgue seems to keep morphing between dates and times I'm sure we will touch base very soon. I'm giving the above-named artists a chance to look over the book and give me any feedback they might feel necessary before we open it up to the public. My deadline is September 30th, which means that on Wednesday October 1st Urban Driftwood will be all go. That's how quick the Internet can be, folks. For a project whose title I conceived in 1994 and which I began developing in 1999, October 1 2008 is a significant date.

Are you as excited as I am?

Anyway, a link will be posted as soon as Urban goes live.

In other writing news, I reached Chapter 38 of 43 in the redraft of my novel today, page 1035 in fact, which means that I must be almost done. I'll be happier when I get to write that I've just completed Chapter 43, and that I'm done, done. That will be a fine day indeed.

I'd also like to plug a VERY FUNNY book, written by a kiwi chap whom I've never met, but is apparently quite famous. His book, The Bible II:Rick the Chosen One, is a hilarious, mildly ribald piece of off-the-wall humour. Clownwings sums it up like this:

If you like Terry Pratchett's Discworld series, you'll love this book. Not really informative, not much of it even makes sense, but very *expletive* funny. If you want to laugh, without knowing why, this book is for you.

RTCO can be found at the Kiwiwriters' Storefront, where Urban Driftwood will be available in two weeks or so.

BTW, at the time of publication the link to "Clownwings" above actually takes you a virtually blank page. This person, whom I also don't know, obviously joined Lulu but has not set up a storefront. We may or may not learn more about this mysterious "Clownwings" in the future. And Clownwings, if you're reading: Who the h#@k are you?

Just cos I'm nosy. ;-)

Finding Jane

Very exciting times.

About 10 years ago, I started a project called Urban Driftwood. It began as a collection of writing, poetry and short stories, and grew into a mix of word and image, comprising photos and paintings that I put together from local (Wellington) artists. We had a great collection, but then the realities of life, work, and trying to get an independent publication funded and distributed put all our plans to rest. Urban Driftwood went on the shelf.

In the intervening years, I lost touch with all but a few of the artists and photographers who had contributed work. I even lost touch with one of the writers, Jane. Now and then the project would re-emerge, but other than a redrafting, nothing much ever happened. I was uncomfortable going ahead with the project if I wasn't in touch with the contributors, so after a review and a polish, Urban got saved under a new file name and put aside again.

Last year I discovered Lulu.com. Suddenly, internet-based Publish-On-Demand services had made a project like Urban viable. It came back off the shelf. The only way I could make a go of it now was by working with only the material I had from the people I still had contact with. So we went back, and we cut, with a very large pair of scissors. All the visuals were discarded, other than the cover image, which had been provided by Steve, one of the writers. It was tough, but I had to cut Jane from the writing ensemble.

We generated a new draft, and new covers, and we were a few formatting tweaks away from uploading Urban to Lulu and doing something with it at long last. I even went out and took photos of driftwood, and put out an email poll on the best colour for the cover. Although we had put together a fairly passable piece of work, I felt that dropping Jane's writing had lost some essential, balancing perspective from the overall concept of Urban Driftwood. This may have been because the other three writers (myself, Morgue, and Steve) are all male, and a female point of view amidst the clamour of angsty young men should never be ignored. Time has a way of moving quickly, though, and its already August. Still we haven't finalised Urban and printed an inaugural run. Was there a reason?

Then by chance I spotted a familiar name on Facebook, and I got excited. I chased that name, and found Jane. The right Jane, no less, and hopefully she's still keen to be a part of the longest surviving project I have on my shelf.

I'm suddenly very excited about Urban Driftwood again!