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.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>