Author and illustrator, Barbara McCondra, worked in the oilfields of Prudhoe Bay Alaska before heading Down Under to buy a black opal. Twenty five years later she still hunkers down around campfires with miners fevered of eye and wild of heart who share their secrets, dream their dreams, and laugh at frustration. The food she cooked in outback makeshift kitchens gave her energy to labor seventy feet below ground with jack hammer and shovel. The companionship shared in those dirt floor kitchens gave her heart to continue living the opal life. The people of the outback, the energy of the bush, the thrill of the hunt for opal and her ability to bring it alive to the reader is found within the pages of this cookbook. She has already published the book Fire in a Plain Brown Wrapper and numerous articles for Rock and Gem Magazine in the USA and Metal Stone and Glass Magazine in Australia.The cookbook is in the mail to the printers. It will retail for 20.00 USD but is being offered for sale at a prepublication price of 10.00USD plus 2.00USD postage. within USA. The printers promise a four week turnaround. Send purchase price plus postage to Paypal account mccondra@parchedearthopals.com 8.5 x 11 inches and 70 pages in black and white with characatures and cartoons of the locals and the life and times of mining in Lightning Ridge.
