8th July. The cold of winter

July 8th.
The cold of winter.

After the warmest June in recorded history, nature's decided "Right, now we'll give those Kiwis the wettest winter in recorded history."
The Winds! The Rain! The Shivers!
And there is this young guy called Scott Donaldson afloat miles out of New Plymouth in his kayak. There obviously isn't enough stress in his life as he'd decided a few months back to kayak solo from Australia to New Zealand -- and the Tasman is one of the wildest seas in the world. His poor wife. I can't understand why people endanger themselves this way. Can you? He'll probably get a medal next Queen's Birthday.
To matters of the literary word; am now on 45,000 into the last book of the trilogy on the Chinese Diaspora. The Kwangtung Army of Japan has been in Shanghai for a while now and are rampaging across China. They've set up comfort stations in their conquered territories. The war is about to come to Singapore but not for another couple of years.
Meanwhile, I've just had a wonderful review for the first book in the trilogy from ELocal magazine.

Memories in the Bone: He who pursues revenge digs two graves.

Reviewed in ELocal Magazine by Julie Halligan July 14^th Edition
‘Memories in the Bone’ By Mee-mee Phipps. Publisher: Seriously Red Books, Auckland. ISBN; 9780473222659 Available; www.meemeephipps.com Rating; ***** There is a new star in the firmament of New Zealand fiction writers and her name is Mee-mee Phipps. Until one read this book one had no idea just how ignorant one was in regard to the presence and history of the Chinese in early colonial New Zealand. This is the wonderfully entertaining story of Zhou Yu, a young Chinese rebel who has to flee the terrible retribution of a despotic emperor leaving his home and family to seek refuge and a new life in the goldfields of New South Wales. Zhou Yu finds the fortune he was seeking. However, due to a series of unfortunate events he flees to the Otago goldfields of New Zealand where he falls in love with a Maori slave girl. This is Mee-mee Phipps’ first foray into fiction writing and one must give her credit where credit is due, she is a masterful story teller as this book is a compelling read from start to finish. It is with relief to discover that this title is part of a trilogy as one did not want this story to come to a close. The narrative flows with ease as Ms Phipps leads the story back and forth between Zhou Yu and his father Zhou Fengyi, a man stunted and haunted by having witnessed his own father’s fall from grace and execution as a young boy. This book should really be optioned for either a television series or a film, it has everything and more and this reviewer is looking forward to the next two instalments with relish and anticipation. Congratulations Ms Phipps, very well done, very well done indeed.

You can obtain this book from Fishpond or Amazon. Enjoy and please post a review. Apparently a writer needs 40 reviews on Amazon before she/he gets noticed.
Meanwhile, keep well. May the force be with you! Aha! This is because I am now into Starwars speak. My orchestra is now rehearsing a concert with the entire theme from Starwars.