The Rotary Talk

26/03/2012

The Rotary Club of Kyneton

I have been a member of this club since 1993.( 4 years break -2005-2009) Great club, grand people, wonderful causes. Service above Self. They asked e to give a talk about my book. I took the approach of telling them more about its writing , and its setting then the book itself. Here is a precis of the talk.

Kiss of the King Brown-Rotary talk.

Most of you know me as a radiographer, but I have been many things: Sheetmetal worker, welder, lay missionary, soldier-medic, nurse, radiographer, small businessman.
I was born in Echuca on the Murray but grew up in Kangaroo Flat near Bendigo, I have four daughters and seven grandchildren.
In 2004 Maureen and I sold our last radiography practice and we were planning new things. Around this time an idea came to me which wouldn't let go. An idea about a boy, the riverina, aboriginal connections, my father (who had died when I was seven) the idea was set in the nineteen fifties.
I had always been a good writer, but things just got in the way. I started writing, words poured out of me like golden syrup out of a can, thousands of them.
But it was no good, the words were there but not right. I needed to do research, to immerse myself in the period. I stopped writing and began researching and making notes. That took about a year, then I started again.
In 2006 Maureen and I followed our dream and hit the road. Travelling and working all over Australia for four years, the book comes along. Sean, Joseph, Johnny and all the rest...
In 2010 we come home. the book is about two hundred thousand words long, way to long. It needs a haircut.  Tightening up and tidying up. I try a few options including family and friends it does not work. I need a professional. through the local bookshop Aesop's Attic I learn of a local professional editor.; Cathy Edmond's. She agrees to take it on over the next tree to four months she edits and I wait.
It finally comes back polished and restructured, we discuss it and I continue on editing after her, following some of her ideas and inserting others which she has inspired. She was terrific.
One of her suggestions was a name change. the book had been called many things over the years: Book, Bloody Book, Bloody Mongrel Book, Tamba Tamba, Sacred Ibis , Murray River Dreaming and so on. Kiss of the King Brown was a chapter heading but there is a theme that follows through the book that makes that title appropriate. I like it.
By this time I dream this book, this time , these people I cannot get away from them they are with me everywhere, I meet some one I compare them to someone in the book. Some situations remind me of the book. It is there in me around me all the time.
I finish the manuscript in early 2011 time to send off to publishers and Literary editors. I send off about sixty copies to various places and people. the rejection slips and knock backs start coming back. They only except one in two thousand. So I am not surprised. Two actually read my manuscript which is a real fill up.
Since I started writing this book a revolution has been happening in publishing: The digital age has really arrived-E Books, Internet, Kindle, amazon, The Book Depository, Ipads, Kobi...Has change the industry.
I decide to Self Publish. Through research I find a small publisher in Canberra called Odyssey Publishing- Michelle Lovi. (There are a lot of rip off agents out there) Michell guides me through the process. And dies a great job on proof editing. She contracts Paul Somerville to do a wonderful job on the cover. We go backwards and forwards for six months, she was very patient and super competent.
Michel makes some suggestions for printing and I do some research. At this stage I think the Americans do it the best, and at a reasonable price. I go with Create Space and get the book printed there. They do a great job. Print on demand is amazing now days.(POD)
I then gave a desciption of the books background:
1955-Menzies-Labor in disarray-Snow River Scheme-Jedda-Jack Braham-Greg Norman-Alan Border-Aboriginals cannot vote-Rock Around the Clock-population nine million-Baby Boomers-change.
Then a description of the main characters and a little about the plot;
Sean, Joseph, Lachlan Campbell....
Its a fight..
Its about friendship,mate ship. Kindred Spirits, a time long gone, its about us, its about Australia.
It's a good  read.
Enjoy!