Update - Success, 30 years, and stormwater management
Aug 04, 2024 9:30 am
Hi
Hello to all my readers, and a warm welcome to any new subscribers. I hope this email finds you well.
It’s been a busy month. The release of When the Light Still Shone was my most successful release so far, so a HUGE thank you to all the people who preordered, bought, reviewed or rated the book somewhere. I’m so grateful for all your support and interest – it really does mean the world!
I haven’t been able to do much writing these last few weeks. The day job is currently taking up a lot of my energy – I went to my first conference in Canberra (Australia’s capital city) last week, which was mostly quite interesting. As part of a big government organisation, the majority of my colleagues work elsewhere in the country, so it was a fantastic opportunity to put faces to names, and actually chat to people face to face. As is often the case with these events – the most interesting and productive conversations came during the morning tea and lunch breaks!
On the home front, we have finally booked in the last stage of our stormwater management engineering works, to be undertaken in October. It’s taken almost 2 years, and multiple stormwater engineering consultations to put together a plan that Council will be happy with. We didn’t know when we bought the place and built our house, that this would be so complex – the surveyor didn’t warn us, and Council have apparently been particularly strict. It's been a very long and somewhat costly endeavour, so fingers crossed it will all be done and certified by the end of the year.
Also last month, Mr G. and I celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary, which is pretty cool. Ours was an absolute whirlwind romance – we got married after only 5 months of knowing each other – and we’re still hopelessly and happily in love! Sometimes, you just know.
In those early days together, we dreamed of having a place in the mountains somewhere, so our little place in Katoomba in the Blue Mountains, even with all its stormwater issues, is the home we always dreamed of. We can’t wait to be able to leave off working in the city, and move up there full time.
Our dream house, complete with unpruned viburnum.
In the meantime …
What I’m reading: Dune by Frank Herbert. My son has been nagging me to read this book for several years, and I’m now finally about half way through it. It is every bit as good as its reputation suggests. I’m not generally a science fiction reader, but this book is absolutely enthralling.
What I’m watching: Ford vs. Ferrari. I’ve watched a few good films recently, but this weekend we watched this excellent movie about Ford’s first foray into racing. I don’t actually like car racing, but the film is about the people, rather than the cars, and I can’t recommend it highly enough. First rate drama.
Please do drop me a line if you have any comments or feedback - I'd love to hear from you.
Here are the links to my books. Have you read them all?
See you next time – until then, happy reading!
Kind regards
Samantha
https://www.samgrosserbooks.com
