Last year came upon me quickly,

like a rainshower

out of a clear blue sky.

It scrambled

over me

like a monkey over a car bonnet

Then was gone.

Whenever someone asks me if I’m working on a book at the moment, I tell them, ‘I’m always writing something.’ And it’s true. It may not be a book (but I do usually have a long-term project on the go), however my laptop and I continue to be close friends.

Highlights for 2022 included the launch of my 7^th non-fiction book, A Great and Restless Spirit, and launch of the Oxley Men’s Shed Writers Group second anthology, Offcuts 2: Sketches and Stories from the Shed, which I edited.

In between I was involved in a whole raft of interesting and sometimes challenging writing, publishing and mentoring activities.

Feb – May: Mentoring non-fiction writer through Queensland Writers Centre (QWC)

10 March: Talk to The Gap Uniting Church Men’s Group: ‘Putting a life into words’

25 March: Launch of A Great and Restless Spirit: The incredible true story of Australian Harry Hawker at Avid Reader Bookshop, West End, Brisbane by Assoc Prof Tim Mavin.

29 May: Chalkies video presentation, State Library of Queensland, Anzac Square Memorial Galleries

18 June: Community talk, Anglican Church, Sherwood: ‘Two restless spirits: Bert Hinkler & Harry Hawker’

July: Article published online by Military Heritage & History Victoria: ‘The Chalkies: 1966-73’

August: Publisher Hachette Australia advised me they are doing a new print run of 1500 copies of my 2013 book, Hustling Hinkler.

September: Mentoring non-fiction writer through QWC

September: Invited article, ‘Writing and learning; Learning and writing’, Australian Council for Adult Literacy Newsletter

17 September: QWC workshop: ‘Kickstart Your memoir Writing’

8 October: Corinda Library talk: ‘Two restless spirits: Bert Hinkler & Harry Hawker’

15 October: Gold Coast Writers Association workshop, Burleigh: ‘Writing non-fiction from surveys and interviews’

19 October: Mt Gravatt Library talk: ‘Two restless spirits: Bert Hinkler & Harry Hawker’

28 October: Talk to Aviation Historical Society of Australia (Qld) ‘Two restless spirits: Bert Hinkler & Harry Hawker’

29 October: Launch of Offcuts 2: Sketches and stories from the Shed @ Oxley Men’s Shed by Councillor Nicole Johnston

Co-authored research publications, Griffith University, 2022

Le, A. H., Billett, S., Choy, S., & Dymock, D. (2022). Supporting worklife learning at work to sustain employability. International Journal of Training and Development, pp. 1– 21.

Billett, S., Dymock, D., Hodge, S., Choy, S., & Le, A. H. (2022).: Shaping Young People’s Decision-Making About Post-School Pathways: Institutional and Personal Factors (book chapter). In The Standing of Vocational Education and the Occupations It Serves (pp. 103-136). Springer, Cham.

Billett, S., Dymock, D., Choy, S., Hodge, S., & Le, A. H. (2022). Informing and Advising the Zones of Influence Shaping Young People’s Decision-Making About Post-School Pathways (Phase 3) (book chapter). In The Standing of Vocational Education and the Occupations It Serves (pp. 373-395). Springer, Cham.

Dymock, D. & Tyler, M. (2022) Issues in developing professional learning for the VET sector in Victoria, Commissioned paper, Vocational Development Centre and Australian Council for Educational Research.

No matter how much I write and for what purpose, Mark Twain’s advice always rings true:

‘The time to begin writing an article is when you have finished it to your satisfaction. By that time you begin to clearly and logically perceive what it is you really want to say.‘

Write on!

Until next time

Darryl Dymock

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Title image: Brateevsky, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0&gt;, via Wikimedia Commons

Mark Twain image: Napoleon Sarony, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons