I’ve been battering my way through this house build for years now. First bureaucrats, then the actual job – as prescribed by people who plainly have never done what they insist I do. Frankly, I very much doubt they’d be capable – but that’s another matter. Anyway, I am getting there, but it’s been a long, slow expensive haul. So: rather like writing a book (yes, that can be expensive too). You just keep pushing, victories are small, and often Pyrrhic. Nil carborundum illigitimi.

I should be used to it by now. I’m good at enduring and pushing on in the direction I want to go – obstinate as a balky mule. But you do get worn down. It’s winter in Tasmania – a bit of SAD time, which doesn’t help. And the cloud and rain (not much rain, lots of cloud) have set in. We have had 4 low-light days, which doesn’t just make me sad, it makes the batteries sadder. We’re off-grid. Not so much idealism and saving the world as pragmatism. It was substantially cheaper – and writer’s incomes are not predictable or reliable. We have a very old stand-by generator to charge the batteries – because solar panels can only do so much (as I wish people would figure out). We used to do about three days, with the old lead-acids, now, with our new fancy-dancy no maintenance batteries… we do 4.

Given that this is not England, or, worse, Campbell Island, with 325 days of rain a year and less than hour’s sunshine on 215 of them, such periods are not frequent. The wind blows the weather around a lot, here. On average, 2 or 3 time a year I had to run the gennie for about 3 hours. Occasionally — every couple of years, 2 days in a row. This gives you a machine that, while essential, doesn’t run very many hours, very often.

Last year, spring, it broke down, but the next day was forecast bright and we were expecting to get the new batteries. We coped, I tried to fix it, failed, the batteries arrived, and so did the sun. In fashion of people with lots of other worries on their minds, I let it get away from me. We haven’t needed it until this last week, with 4 bleak days, and another 6 forecast. I began to understand those deserted villages, towns and cities archeologists keep finding. Some essential thing goes wrong and the people… left. For us, electricity is freezers, lights and most importantly water. We can cope, cut back, to a point, but then it gets really hard. And right now, the exchequer is pretty well empty. Building is expensive, writing pays badly, and my production is down with the time and energy spent building. So: replacing the generator is a non-starter. That left me with ‘repair’. I’m quite good with wood, cope with metal and have a hate-hate relationship with repairing vehicles or small machines. I’ve done a lot, and even succeeded occasionally.

There was not a lot of optimism about this. But needs must, so I stripped the entire thing down and largely rebuilt it (having, mostly no idea what I was doing – very like writing a book).

It… worked.

A long story but the point was having felt bent over to point of breaking, and really battling to write and go on doing semi-impossible tasks, I came in whistling and eager to get back to writing. And I found some kind reader had made a wonderful comment about my books. Suddenly, the load is lighter and there’s an end in sight. So: here’s my appeal. A few kind words to fellow writer, especially if you do enjoy their work makes the long haul to finishing the next book seem easier. It doesn’t cost you anything. Oh… and please, if you can’t be complimentary, don’t damn someone with faint praise.

So: A question, because I have never done this before: The current ‘Heinlein Juvie’ style book having been intended as short 40-50K is showing every sign of turning into 120K-ish. It makes some sense to split it. Have any of you done this, and just how do you decide where? My books are not modular or episodic. They ‘run through’. I just can’t think how to do this.