run with the wind ... ... flow with the tide
Before reaching the stage when it feels the time is right to publish one's work, a writer needs to embark upon quite a journey. There will be times when loss of confidence will destroy the creative spark, sometimes for months or years at a time. There will also be times when a competition win, a positive critique from another writer or publication in an anthology of good writing is all that is needed to goad the flagging writer into action again.
Belief in your own ability is paramount to success as a writer.
And above all ... enjoy the journey.
Life as a Writer ...
I am currently working as an editor, proofreader and typesetter in the indie publishing industry as well as producing books pro bono for community groups and other writers. Yet somehow, in all this flurry of keyboard activity, I have found some time to write for myself.
My recent books include:
• Coastlines
Coastlines comprises a series of five books focusing on the 16th to 19th centuries, an era of European exploration and discovery in the southern oceans and an important period in Australia’s maritime history.
What you will find in Coastlines are the stories, places, events and images that have drawn my attention, held my interest and stirred my imagination as I have travelled around our extraordinary coastline over the past ten years.
• Dangerous Legacy - an adult mystery thriller
Dangerous Legacy is a work of fiction, but its theme explores a very real danger – morbillivirus, now known as Hendra virus, is killing horses, and humans, in Australia right now.
Set against the background of the horse racing industry in England and Australia, Dangerous Legacy provides a startling and relevant insight into the threat to the modern world from biological aberrations of viruses and from knowledge translated into power placed in the wrong hands.
• On Reflection - A Journey told in Verse
From a childhood growing up on a cane farm near Bundaberg to living in the same South Burnett country town for forty years before moving to the Sunshine Coast hinterland, these poems reflect my thoughts on life and the world about me from four different viewpoints:
On Living on the Land
On Hinterland and Coast
On Other Places
On Reflection
• The Littlest Bandit - a children's book for the 3 - 5 years age group, illustrated by Richard Marman.
I am currently working on the sequel to Dangerous Legacy.
I am currently working as an editor, proofreader and typesetter in the indie publishing industry as well as producing books pro bono for community groups and other writers. Yet somehow, in all this flurry of keyboard activity, I have found some time to write for myself.
My recent books include:
• Coastlines
Coastlines comprises a series of five books focusing on the 16th to 19th centuries, an era of European exploration and discovery in the southern oceans and an important period in Australia’s maritime history.
What you will find in Coastlines are the stories, places, events and images that have drawn my attention, held my interest and stirred my imagination as I have travelled around our extraordinary coastline over the past ten years.
• Dangerous Legacy - an adult mystery thriller
Dangerous Legacy is a work of fiction, but its theme explores a very real danger – morbillivirus, now known as Hendra virus, is killing horses, and humans, in Australia right now.
Set against the background of the horse racing industry in England and Australia, Dangerous Legacy provides a startling and relevant insight into the threat to the modern world from biological aberrations of viruses and from knowledge translated into power placed in the wrong hands.
• On Reflection - A Journey told in Verse
From a childhood growing up on a cane farm near Bundaberg to living in the same South Burnett country town for forty years before moving to the Sunshine Coast hinterland, these poems reflect my thoughts on life and the world about me from four different viewpoints:
On Living on the Land
On Hinterland and Coast
On Other Places
On Reflection
• The Littlest Bandit - a children's book for the 3 - 5 years age group, illustrated by Richard Marman.
I am currently working on the sequel to Dangerous Legacy.
Looking back ...
I began writing around ten years of age, scribbling poems and stories in a school exercise book. I haven't stopped writing since.
As an adult my early writing was shared between my work as an educator and community pro bono work, in roughly equivalent measures.
Educational publications:
Keyboard Skills - computer program and textbook (co-authored with W Bandidt) published by McGraw-Hill
Typing Tutor - computer program, textbook and teachers' guide (co-authored with H Richards and D Carey) published by the Queensland Education Department
The Road to Empowerment - A Guide to using the Word Processor as a Writing Tool
P - 7 Keyboarding Sourcebook - teachers' resource book
Not Only But Also - thinking skills strategies for the classroom
Community Books (histories and fundraising cookbooks):
Neverending Stories - (history of Goomeri and district) for the Goomeri Chamber of Commerce
A Companion to Neverending Stories - sequel to the above community history
The Palmwoods RDA Story - History of Palmwoods Riding for the Disabled Association
The First Eighty Years - HIstory of Football in the Mundubbera district (co-authored with Ron Baker)
The Pumpkin Festival Recipe Book - for the Goomeri Chamber of Commerce
Riding Develops Appetites - for the Riding for the Disabled Association
108 Moves for Morning, Noon and Night - for the Taoist Tai Chi Association
Poetry anthologies for the Sunshine Coast Pente Poets:
Fridays at Flaxton
Some Other Landscape
