Object lessons for the starter-outer

        There's something a bit special about reading the PROOF COPY of your work, this one being the second edition print, WITH my own cover design, and have to say much better than the original, it being back when I was green. I was never happy with the old cover (right, back in 1993) but didn't feel competent enough to say so at the time.

        I soon found that the resellers didn't know quite where to put it on their shelves, I saw "Australiana", "Memoir", and "New Fiction" and somehow it didn't look quite comfortable in any of them. First lesson, don't be afraid of "The System", stand up for yourself.

        I had quite a set of reactions from this re-reading after so many years, made me realise how much of a beginner I was back then, but especially how I (wisely I see now) used a whole bunch of my own life experiences to get going. Another lesson, use what you know to start with, experiment later if you want. I remember a good friend ringing me when they read it on release, saying - "I didn't realise just how Australian you are!" Neither did I till they said that. Still, I'm fifth generation Aus in all directions, most of them pioneer farmers, all of them battlers, and every one of them contributed to what I write.

        My own version of "The Ghost" didn't actually come alive until the mid-late 1970s (I was in my '30s), I explored  steadily through to the mid 1980s, started writing with focus and intent about 1988, found a great agent, had poetry published. He wanted more, sent him a short story (one of many I had by then), published that, what else y' got? So I sent a whole bunch more short stuff, luckily all of a homogenous nature, and of time and place settings. Because that's what I knew best. One look at it all and he said "This is a novel! - just needs front and back ends...", which I did, and "Melrose St" was published in 1993.

        So my friend, if you're just starting out, doesn't matter how young or old you are, practice by exploring stuff close to you, get it down, massage it into a whole, see where it goes. Worked for me.

        Cheers...

                T.R.E.

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Take two ...

         The short story that I way too hastily put up a few weeks back, has been seriously re-visited and turned into something that I'm happy to put my name to.

        We can all take some lessons from this. Never too old to get better at your craft.

        One of the serious faults of the first effort was that it was too long, and I knew it, but I went ahead anyway, because I was impatient and a boofhead. NEVER put out there something you haven't put aside for a week or two AFTER you reckon it's finished, so you can have a good think about it. Mull it around in your head and ponder what it's supposedly about. Marvellous what can pop into your mind to make it much better.

        Anyway, as it turns out, I didn't cut it down, but turned it into a four-parter. Something I've not tried before, and I'm happy with the result. Along with some serious editing.

        The LAST part is now up on The Workshop. See what you reckon....

EVOLUTION [ 4 ]

        Cheers...

                T.R.E.

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Currently re-discovering...

"NORTH AND WEST OF MELROSE STREET"
        - T. R. Edmonds (Aus 1993/2019)

        I have a sure-fire way of telling if a book has totally sucked me in - my right foot goes to sleep. Yep, ridgey-didge, pins and needles so bad I have to hop for a while afterwards.

        I do most of my reading in the "Library" for about 15-20 minutes each morning, but if I read too long my right foot drops off (or Jess in passing wants to know "You haven't died in there have you!?").

        This week I've had a dead foot five mornings in a row.

        It's been about 30 years since I read this book, and that was for the final edit of the proof copy of the original edition, as I didn't bother with that for this second edition, as I just had to okay the cover, the back blurb, and the technical bits for the front pages. But having finished "Bob" I cast about for what was next, fixed on this, got totally hooked. And no, not because it's mine (my first), but because it's simply a great read. And because of it's been so long, it's like reading someone else's work, every word and character and event fresh and new.

        What can I say? - plenty of copies around, in paperback (Abe Books), and e-book (Amazon and Kobo). And if you're in Aus, there's lending copies in each State's One Library network. Do yourself a favour...

        Cheers....

                Trev

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Spreading a little joy...

 "A STREET CAT NAMED BOB" - James Bowen (UK 2012)

        After a long-ish string of reading fiction, I took a break with some biography and some extremely deep and taxing Peanuts Gang with good old Charlie Brown and Snoopy (geez I love it when Snoopy flies his Sopwith Camel chasing after the Red Baron!). Then with many short story collections waiting I went back to them, but the first one was just too inyaface so I dished it, then couldn't get into a fiction mood at all. Bob saved me!

        We've seen the movie of this twice, and loved it, so when I saw Bowen's book on the Salvo shelf I thought yep, that's for me! This'll be a keeper. If you haven't seen the movie, telling you about it won't spoil it, trust me. And like all movies of books, they had to cut out enough to make it fit, so the book gives an even wider pleasure.

        A completely true story, of a young ex heroin addict who had a pretty dysfunctional childhood/teenage, living on support mechanisms and busking on the London streets to get by, crosses paths with a 6-8 month old ginger tom looking the worse for wear. But this cat has attitude and personality so Bowen's (and Bob's) memoir is all about how they go busking together and save each other through some difficult times.

        Get a copy, or see the movie, or both. You'll want to send me flowers of gratitude!

        Cheers...

                Trev

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Oops....

        Sometimes you get it wrong!

         I had another read of the last short story, realised it's not good enough, have pulled it out until I can re-visit it and do a re-think. Sometimes you simply dive in too soon, tell yourself it's finished when it's not. Lesson for all of us.

        Cheers...

                Trev

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One more...

         I've written four eulogies in my time, twenty-eight years ago for our son, ten years ago for my Mum, two years ago for my younger brother, and three weeks ago for my elder brother. Each one a unique agony of words. No wonder then I suppose that I accepted, after this last one, that I've become soul-weary, while grieving for those you love tends to lessen as the years go by and life goes on, the sadness is accumulative. I guess it's the price we pay for out-living our loved others, a price that some days feels just a little too high.    

    I expected that his own family would speak at his service of the the father and the grandfather they knew, but I realised that I was the only person left in the world who shared my brother's first 15-16 years, so I wrote about that, about the boy becoming a young man.

        I wish I could've shared this one last piece with him, as I did with so much of what I've written over the years, he being such a well-travelled and well-read and well-lived guy, who packed enough living into his 90 years for two lifetimes of anyone else, so he was always keen to see what came next, from my keyboard and from life in general.

        More than once I said he should write his own story, but he accepted that he just didn't have the stickability, so he fed me a string of odd chunks, a couple of which I've blogged here in the past, but now I pray that I'll have the time to polish up some more of them, and put them out there in the world where they belong.

        I know that we were closer as old men - wiser old men - than we ever were as kids Mick, but it was still a privilege to have shared this great journey with you.

        Trev

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Just finished....

"C. J. DENNIS - His Remarkable Career" - Alec Chisholm (Aust 1946) 

        I love history, I love Australian history, I love literary history. Which is why I've been looking for a biography of poet C J Dennis (1876-1938) for a while, fell over this one in an Op Shop, and it appealed because it was done in 1946, just 8 years after his death, which meant Chisholm got to talk to people who actually knew Dennis, even a couple that went to school with him.

        Don't get me wrong, even though I have his two most well-known collections, and have read them, Dennis's poetry is now terribly dated, being of the back streets of Melbourne around WWI, reading today like a send-up of London East End Cockney more that anything much recognisable as Australian "slanguage". You have to read behind the idiom nowadays to enjoy the stories of The Sentimental Bloke and Doreen and Ginger Mick. But worth it if you persevere.

        Anyway, this is his biography, which paints such an insightful picture of the writer and his times, and surprising to find just how totally unlike his characters Dennis was. And a bit sad to see that in later life how he couldn't change, couldn't move on in his literary material, was stuck in a mould, a victim to some degree of his own phenomenal success (J K Rowling springs to mind?). 

        And another thing, this bloke's story is an object lesson for writers today, as Dennis had to work hard at it, pretty much with dedication, and success didn't come overnight. But he grafted and worked the angles, and grabbed at luck when it happened. Worth a read just for that.

        Cheers....

                T.R.E.

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Just finished enjoying

"SELECTED SONNETS" - Jeff Guess (Aust 1991) 

        I like Jeff Guess's writings, a local poet who really knows his way around a phrase, and can capture an image or a feeling brilliantly with a refreshingly short handful of words, not always an easy thing to do.

        This is a slim collection of his poetry, and well worth the read if you can find a copy. But I had one problem with so many of the pieces in it - it's the way he chooses to format them.

        They read like they're a great opening paragraph to a short story or a piece of microlit - and they are! It's just that he then chops them up into "poetry" format. One pulled out at random below, first re-jigged (by me) into prose, and as it appears in the book. What's your slant on it? Am I just getting old and pedantic??

< >

        Waist high above odd sticks of wheat he stands at the centre of a difficult universe. Rain is a bad dream that clouds old eyes.
        Years ago he might have prayed for it to either start or stop - hold off for harvest. Time has ordered the once high-handed psalm of praise into a sad doxology of certainties, that number mice and means, rust and reliance, and all that lets him down. Darned woollen arms folded over and around, wrapping the sparse frame of an old farmer rigged out as if for fancy dress he no longer wants to go to, a scarecrow with little stuffing left - to keep even the birds away.

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                  The Farmer

    Waist high above odd sticks of wheat he
    stands at the centre of a difficult universe.

    Rain is a bad dream that clouds old eyes.
    Years ago he might have prayed for it to

    either start or stop - hold off for harvest.
    Time has ordered the once high-handed

    psalm of praise into a sad doxology
    of certainties, that number mice and means,

    rust and reliance and all that lets him down.
    Darned woollen arms folded over and around

    wrapping the sparse frame of an old farmer
    rigged out as if for fancy dress he no

    longer wants to go to. A scarecrow with little
    stuffing left - to keep even the birds away.

                         (C) Jeff Guess 1991

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What do we look for?

        What do we want from a book?

        I always get a buzz when I pick up a book I've never seen before. Always. Okay, not the ones about Embroidery or Politics or The Life Cycle Of A Squid, but ones that you normally seek out, and for me that's a biggish range, in both fact and fiction. But why? What are we hoping for?

        I'm steadily wading through my large assortment of Xmas presents, all happening to be Aus-lit, but they're not scoring well this year, which is why I'm doing this small soul-searching. Most of them are out of my bunch of Op Shop specials, a truly mixed bag, which I love to get, as my annual box is full of potential, a mish-mash of fact and fiction, and from all over. Diving into it is like panning for gold, but with a whole lot of over-the-sides so far, I must ask the question - What am I looking for? So, first, a Summary of the Rejects....

A 1995 Aus one-author collection of poetry -
     In strict meter and rhyme, and content like it wants to emulate Aus stuff popular in the 1880s, it's way too "Bards of the Bush" for me.

A 1992 Aus two-author collection of poetry -
    Same comment as above.

A 1984 Aus one-author collection of poetry -
    In a sort of loose verse, I'm sure the author knows what they're trying to say, but geez it misses the mark most times. I need poetry to paint a picture I can see on the page, and some are wayyyyyy too long to the point of sheer self-indulgence.

A 1984 Aus one-author collection of poetry -
    Just had another look and put this one aside, may pick out a few pieces one day soon, and see what you reckon. No, looked again, not much of it is interesting.

A 1941 Aus travel book -
    Promised much at a glance, published by Angus & Robertson, a 1912 young English emigrant does a 1936 round Australia, back when it was still pretty wild out there, but sponsored by a car and a petrol company on the strength of a couple of other similar publications. It was really stuffy. And a bit boring.

A 1978 Aus collection of anecdotes of a (presumably) well-known journalist of the day -
    It's just that, anecdotes of a working Sydney journo in the 70s, about people I either never knew or have forgotten. My elder brother tells a better story.

A 1984 Aus one-author collection of short stories -
    It's like writing for writing's sake, typing away because it makes the person feel good to see all that stuff go down on the page, goes on and on but leaves you mostly wondering what the point of the story is. If it has one.

A 1989 Aus one-author collection of short stories -
    A tad too much misery for me, tends to wallow in it. And the story structuring got on my quince.

        So, picky picky picky, but what do I want? I want a book to suck me in, get me involved, entertain, enlighten, educate, stimulate. None of the above did that. Do I ask for too much? Hell NO.

        Cheers....

                T.R.E.

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The stuff is everywhere !

        One of the hardest gigs is mentoring a 16-year-old who desperately wants to write fiction. It was clear she was gagging to write (and yes, to BE an Author, not necessarily the same thing) and mainly wanted tips on finding material, what to write about. Easy enough for an 80+ but hell for a 16 yo, who hasn't yet seen much life.

        So I pointed her at short stories, said to hone her skills on them for a few years, before tackling anything bigger. Ten years from now she'll have some life experiences to explore. And besides, I'm a great believer that you have the innate drive or you don't. It's a compulsion or it isn't. If you have the compulsion you'll find the subject matter. It's all around us.

        Anyway, got me thinking about it, and so analysed the 40 short stories I currently have up on The Workshop, to see if that tells me anything useful. I found (for what it's worth) that of those...

        30% only are totally fabricated, while
        70% are taken mainly from actual events (both first hand and second hand)

    Also, of that 40...
        40% could be from any Time (not tied to an era as part of the story)
        9% are from a childhood (but only a third of those are from my own)
        8% are "philosophical" (exploring inner thoughts and all that)
        6% are "looking back" stories (the adult past being an essential element of the story)
....and the rest a bit of a mish-mash.

        I guess the point I'm grappling with is - story material is everywhere. You don't have to live a hugely adventurous and colourful life to generate subject matter. Possibly helps but not essential. So read as much as you can, and anything you especially like, work out why. Then get stuck in, write an opening paragraph, then follow it. See where it goes. I always say that the two most important paragraphs in a short story are the first one and the last one, the first to grab the eye (and the mood), and the last to encapsulate the whole point of it.

        Okay, that's it. Hope this helps.

        My own current project is up to first full draft, clearly too big - I got too involved! - so now to the fun part of culling and exploring and finding great words to replace the mundane words. Geez I love this bit! More on that soon.

        Cheers....

                T.R.E.

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