Published at last

My book’s been published.
This calls for a celebration.
I wish I could write more books. I’d like to specialise in biographies and write extraordinary stories of ordinary people.
Don't even think about it. First I have to finish my thesis.

I’ve just reviewed someone else’s new book: My son the Messiah by R. B. McSwain. It's a touchy subject. I would never attempt something like this. Still, religious fantasy has become a rather popular literary genre.
I knew he was writing but I didn’t know he was so prolific.
Check this publisher:
Blue Crane Press

Good news bad news

The good news
I’m up to data coding. I sent some data analysis work to my supervisor. I had to send it by snail mail because it consisted of my computer generated code book, and definitions as well as a coded version of one of my interview transcripts – 19 pages long, and my interview schedule of 44 questions. I won’t do any more coding til I get some feedback from her.

The bad news
It was getting dark and I hadn’t done my bike ride.

The good news
I grabbed my helmet and took off down the road to the bush where the bike circuit starts.

Bad news
It started raining while I was riding round the bike track. I saw a young dog-walker in the distance trying to fly a great yellow and white fluoro kite just as it started to drizzle. She wasn’t having much luck. The kite must be wet and heavy. The rain made dots on my glasses and blurred my vision.

Good news
The rain made me pedal harder. I was getting a really good workout.

Bad news
The wind turned into a blizzard as I rode up across the highest ridge of the narrow track. It was like riding along the blade of sword. The sky turned black. The rain pelted me. My black and yellow fluoro top flapped in the wind and I rode like crazy.

Good news
I was on the home stretch. As I turned off the bike track into the suburban traffic I glanced back for a split moment. The kite was high up in the sky. She did it. She persevered and it paid off. Above the kite, making a huge arch over the entire park and bike circuit, against the black sky was the most perfect rainbow I have ever seen.

Good news and bad news
The rained stopped by the time I got back home. My bike was surprisingly dry.
I still have to re-write my literature review.

I'm back.

To my blog: Where have you been? No space in my life for a few lines. I can’t believe how much time has passed since my last entry.

My progress: I completed more work for my thesis in the last six months than I did in the whole preceding 18 months.

New skills: I learnt to master the text-based data analysis software that I need to code my interviews.

Historical breakthrough: I recovered 40 transcripts out of 49 that I had saved on disks over 8 years ago. It seemed more like divine intervention than luck considering how dusty they were. You can’t even buy those disks at computer swap meets any more. Revisiting the past was an unnerving experience. I transcribed a few more tapes at surprising speed. Only 3 left to go. The elderly couple laughed and chatted through my earphones from beyond the grave. They are now listed, along with 12 others, in a column headed 'deceased' in my summary table of interview participants. Thank goodness I did those interviews. It’s valuable data. Surreal. I have truly retrieved irretrievable data.

My current task: Rewrite my literature review. You have some good themes but it’s too long, was my supervisor’s feedback. I have to reduce 80 pages to 20 pages. Shorten your sentences, she said. Use broad brush strokes. At least she recognised it as a work of art. Actually she’s doing me a favour because it will be more readable in the long run, if anyone survives long enough to read it. I noticed that a thesis can be much shorter and simpler these days. A good thing too.

Physical breakthrough: I went on a bike ride, the first one in over two years. I dusted off my bike, pumped up the tyres and installed my new gel seat that was still in the packet I bought from K-mart 18 months ago. I rode a circuit of the bike track near my house. The sun was so low in the sky it almost blinded me. I had the presence of mind to wear my sunnies. The paddocks were brilliant green, dotted with grey-green clumps of bush. In the evening glow the silver-grey construction against the horizon looked more like a space station than a suburban shopping centre. The wind froze my face, my legs hadn’t forgotten how to pump up hill in low gear but my lungs heaved like an old pack horse despite sucking in a double dose of Ventolin. It was exhilarating. I’ll do that again soon.