I Aten't Dead Yet

That title is for the people who know who Granny Weatherwax is, who know that STP is not necessarily Standard Temperature and Pressure.  If you aren't one of that elect band, just treat it literally.

I have been somewhat distracted by the need to get some product out the door:

The first is Going Micro: Foundation to Stage 5, which is free gratis and for nothing. The constant reader will have been aware that this has been taking up my time since January.

These are teaching ideas that can also be used by hobbyists, but once I have drawn breath, I plan to convert them into a straight-out guide for hobbyists and naturalists.

If you scroll back a few entries, you can find out what all of this is about in the Microscopist's Mate series. If you didn't come in through the front door of the blog, use this link to see #7, with links to the previous six. Or go back and find the front door...

The main point to take on board: Go Micro is FREE! Just grab it.

Next, one of my less successful publishing deals was with Five Mile Press, who published two of my books in a slip case: these were Not Your Usual Bushrangers and Not Your Usual Gold Stories.

e-book cover

paperback cover

They released Bushrangers as a single title, but having failed to release Gold, I was getting ready to treat them roughly and seize back the rights to the work on the legitimate ground that they had failed to publish the work, when they told me they were folding, going under, turning into dead parrots, and the rights were mine.

So in the past week, I have prepared and published Not Your Usual Gold Stories as both an ebook and a Print on Demand paperback through Amazon.

Here is the link for the paperback version, US$12 plus postage, rather less than Five Mile charged: https://www.amazon.com/dp/198309207X

And here is the link for the ebook version, US$5, no postage, and with 236 hot links to the key sources: https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B07DK4MZVZ

Draft cover, A Shore
Companion

In between, I have reverted to another of the jobs that has been on the drawing board for a while.

Originally called A Shore Thing or Shore Things, as you can see, I have changed the name, but it may well change again. Specifically for Australian readers, this is a book to dabble in while you are around rocky shores, sandy shores and any other wet-and-dry places: estuaries, mangroves and all that stuff.

Cover, Australian Backyard
Earth Scientist

It covers biology, geology, hydrology and all their interactions. There will be some familial overlap with the book on the right, one of two books that are with the publisher.

Australian Backyard Earth Scientist is now fully edited, designed and indexed, and a professional proof reader will be let loose on it: it will show up on the bookshelves in January next. Targeting ages 8 to 14, it is suitable for ages 8 to 94: most of my kids' books go down well with grandparents, possibly because I am one of them myself.

After that, there's only one title I have to do before I cark it. As things panned out, that work was half-written several years ago, so I have the structure and all of the illustrations sorted.

I put it on hold and drew on a few bits of it for Australian Backyard Earth Scientist. Just bits, mark you: Not Your Usual Rocks is for adults, and it looks at weird rocks all over the world, in a rather more technical way.

Note to file, January 2020: Not Your Usual Rocks is now Mistaken for Granite, and fast approaching completion