Category Archives: Non-fiction writing

Book Launch: Ryders Ridge – Charlotte Nash

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It was great to go to another book launch of another friend this week. Ryders Ridge, by Charlotte Nash, has just hit the bookstores (although Big W released it a couple of weeks earlier). It’s a rural romance set in north-west Queensland. Not my usual sort of reading, but hey, sometimes you have to push your own boundaries.

From the back cover blurb: ‘Shaken after a tragic incident in the city hospital where she worked, Daniella figures that the small north-west Queensland cattle town of Ryders Ridge is just the place to hide. Caring and dedicated, she quickly wins the trust of her patients, and the attention of handsome station heir, Mark Walker. As their relationship grows, Daniella begins to think she could make a new life for herself in Ryders. But country towns have their own problems.’

I first met Charlotte in 2010 when she and I were two of eight writers chosen for that year’s Manuscript Development Workshop sponsored by the Queensland Writers Centre and Hachette Australia. Ryders Ridge* draws on Charlotte’s medical expertise (she has a degree in medicine) as well as her experience of living for a short time in rural Queensland. Write from what you know…

The prolific author, university lecturer and workshop tutor, Kim Wilkins, launched Ryder’s Ridge with aplomb at Avid Reader bookshop in Brisbane’s West End. Kim’s also a friend of Charlotte, so we heard some inside stories about the development of the book, which was

Kim Wilkins launching 'Ryders Ridge'

Kim Wilkins launching ‘Ryders Ridge’

apparently written over a short period, but followed by a longer editing process. There was a big turnout for the launch, which augurs well for the book’s future. And of course, it’s published by Hachette Australia, who also recently published Fractured, the debut novel of another participant in the 2010 Manuscript Development workshop, Dawn Barker (see my earlier blogs re Fractured). Poppy Gee’s novel, Bay of Fires (another earlier blog topic), is from the same stable.

* I wanted to put an apostrophe in Ryders – must ask Charlotte about that sometime.

 

Red hot e-seller? Who knows?

I’m frequently asked how my ebook, Extending your use-by date, is selling, especially after the spate of radio and TV interviews I’ve done in the past few weeks. My answer is: I have no idea. If you publish a print book, there’s a worldwide commercial system called Bookscan that collates sales results weekly; if you publish an ebook, paradoxically there appears to be no centralised collecting agency that records sales. I must be missing something here, but you’d think an ebookseller would be able to register every electronic sale immediately and update the total sales at the same time. Apparently not. So the ability to report on ebook sales lags behind the reporting of print book sales. My publisher, www.xoum.com.au, will be able to give me updates on sales through their site, but it seems I will have to wait for  Amazon.com,  iBookstore and Kobo.

Extending your use-by date – on national Today show.

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On Tuesday, 26 March, I was interviewed on the Australian national breakfast television program, the Today show, by one of the co-presenters, Lisa Wilkinson, about my e-book, Extending your use-by date: Why retirement age is only a number.  This was a great chance to share the book’s theme with a national TV audience on Channel 9: that we sometimes head unthinkingly into retirement at a time when people are generally living longer and when we have built up a formidable array of skills and knowledge.

Lisa asked a number of well-focused questions, and I was able to get across the main points of the book. The dozen or so radio interviews I’d done in the previous week prepared me well for the sorts of questions that came up. I didn’t have time to be (too) nervous.

I was pleased that Lisa didn’t ask me how old I am. Only a couple of interviewers have, so far. Just as I think retirement age is only a number, so I think there is too much focus on precisely how old a person is, when it’s mostly irrelevant. I’m happy to acknowledge that I’m working into older age, and that I have no plans to retire, but my specific age should not define me. Fortunately, only a few selected occupations in some Australian states are now subject to a compulsory retirement age, such as judges and police officers, and even in those vocations the Australian Law Reform Commission  favours assessment of an individual’s capability, rather than compulsory retirement on the basis of age.

I wasn’t the main feature on that morning’s Today show, of course. Ellen DeGeneres was in Australia at the time to record a show and make some appearances, and for some reason she got more air time than I did…

I still have more interviews coming up, including one with Radio New Zealand.

WHERE TO BUY IT

Extending your use-by date is available as a digital ePub eBook file and can be downloaded for AU$9.99 from the publisher: www.xoum.com.au, and from Amazon.com, iBookstore and Kobo.

If you’ve never downloaded an e-book to a computer or laptop before, the process is straightforward: you first need to download a free e-book reader, such as Adobe Digital Editions, Aldiko, or Calibre, then download the book from one of the above sites. If you use a Mac, iBookstore is your best source, and if you have a Kindle e-reader, Amazon is the linked bookstore.

How do you launch an e-book? ‘Extending your use-by date’

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As the release date approached for my e-book, Extending Your Use-By Date: Why retirement age is only a number, I wondered what would be an appropriate way to launch it. After all, it’s not in hard copy, so there’s not much point in having a ‘traditional’ launch, often held in a bookshop, with the author signing copies of the newly purchased book. With an e-book, there’s nothing to sign.

Then it came to me: a launch via Skype – using technology in line with the e-book concept. And Dr Karen E. Watkins, Professor in Adult Education and Human Resource and Organizational Development in the College of Education at the University of Georgia. Athens, USA, generously agreed to say the appropriate words – online.

Professor Watkins is the author or co-author of six books and over 100 journal articles and book chapters, was inducted into the International Adult and Continuing Education Hall of Fame in 2003. She’s been to Australia several times, most recently as a consultant on organisational learning.

So, on Sunday 24 March, a small crowd gathered in Brisbane, Karen Watkins SkypeQueensland, to hear Karen talk from Athens, Georgia, USA, about her own personal experiences as an ‘older worker’ with no intention of retiring, and to send the book on its way. The only limitation with a Skype launch was that we couldn’t invite her to join us for champagne to celebrate the occasion 🙂

In the past week I have done twelve radio interviews about Extending your use-by date, with more to come. Many of the interviewers were intrigued by the notion that more than 1 million Australians aren’t sure Darryl ABCwhen they’ll retire and more than 650,000 say they’ll never retire, but all of the interviewers were supportive of the idea behind the book. You can  listen to or download an interview here with Natasha Mitchell on Life Matters, ABC (Australia) Radio National, which went to air on Thursday 21 March.

Extending Your Use-By Date is available as a download for AU$9.99 from the publisher, www.xoum.com.au, as well as at Amazon.com, Kobo, and the Apple iBookstore. If you want to download onto a desktop computer or laptop, you first need to download a free e-book reader, such as Adobe Digital Editions. If you have a tablet or other mobile device, it should have e-reader software already installed.

‘Extending your use-by date’ now online

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This is an exciting time for me. My e-book, Extending your use-by date: Why retirement age is only a number, is now online.* It’s available through the publisher, www.xoum.com.au, as well as at Amazon.com, Kobo, and the Apple iBookstore.

The starting point for Extending Your Use-By Date is that we sometimes head unthinkingly into retirement at a time when we are living longer than ever and when we have developed skills and abilities we can keep on using. The book also argues that continuing to work can maintain our wellbeing as well as contribute to our bank balance.

Extending Your Use-By Date draws on the real-life experiences of people who have worked or are working into older life in lots of different ways. They tell us how they’ve made the most of their knowledge, skills and talents as they’ve grown older, and why they decided to pick up and move that milestone known as ‘retirement age’. We also learn what we can expect of our minds and bodies as we get older, and about the current phenomenon of ageing populations and the greying of the workforce, and how these developments could mean new opportunities for older workers.

While the book uses Australian examples, the lessons from the personal stories and latest research are universal.

In the forthcoming week, I am doing radio interviews across Australia about the book. Most of these interviews are on Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC:  www.abc.net.au) stations, and you can listen direct, online or via podcasts, wherever you live in the world. Two of the interviews will be broadcast nationally: on Tony Delroy’s Nightlife at 10.10pm Monday 18 March, and on Life Matters, with Natasha Mitchell at 9.20am on Thursday 21 March (times are Australian).

*For the uninitiated, the following information comes from LexisNexis (http://www.lexisnexis.com.au/ebooks/downloads/faq_ebooks_guide_a4_online.pdf)

What is an eBook?
Also known as electronic books, eBooks are digital versions of books that can be read on personal computers, mobile handheld devices such as iPads or eReader devices such as the Sony eReader.

What is an eBook reader?
An eBook reader is the software you use to read your eBook. You may need to download eBook reader software to your device or computer, to read your eBook. Most mobile devices already contain software that allows you to read eBooks.

[I am still learning about e-readers and e-books, but I downloaded Adobe Digital Editions software on my laptop (easy), and Aldiko Book Reader software on my android tablet (harder), before I downloaded the book, but there are various e-readers available. I understand you need a Kindle device or program to download books from the Amazon.com site, and other software (such as I used) before you can download files with an ePUB ending from other bookstores.

I know that some readers will be using e-readers for the first time with Extending your use-by date, so if anyone knows of a site with straightforward information for newcomers about downloading ePUBs to any device, I’d love to hear from you via ‘Comments’. DRD]

Fractured – Dawn Barker

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It’s fantastic to see good writing rewarded, and at last Dawn Barker’s novel, Fractured, is in the bookshops. I first met Dawn at the 2010 Hachette/Queensland Writers Centre Development Workshop, and Hachette Australia have now published the book she developed through that process.

I said in my last blog that I was fortunate to be in Launceston, Tasmania, when another Hachette novelist, Poppy Gee, was in town to talk about her book, Bay of Fires. I was still there when Fractured was due out, Tuesday 26 February, and inquired at a local bookshop (all bookshops are independent in Launceston) a few days ahead whether they were expecting any copies. No, but they could order one for me. (They’ll be sorry they don’t have a good supply on hand.) I had only another week in Tasmania, so checked with another bookshop, Fullers, and yes, they had five copies on order. They promised to let me know when it arrived.

I was leaving on the Saturday, and it wasn’t until Friday that my phone whistled to let me know the book had arrived. After keeping in touch with Dawn throughout the publication process, I was delighted to finally be able to buy Fractured across the counter. I started reading it on the plane on the way home to Brisbane, and am finding it very compelling, as well as a little chilling. As you can see from the image on this page, it has a fantastic cover too.

As a result of this publication, Dawn, who is a psychiatrist by profession, is a local celebrity in Perth, Western Australia, where she lives with her husband and three young children – she was an invited speaker at the Perth Writers Festival and will be at the Margaret River Writers Festival in May, and has media interviews completed and lined up. In the release week, a Perth bookshop devoted its whole window display to Fractured. Go Dawn!

Bay of Fires – Poppy Gee

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One of the exciting aspects of being a writer is meeting other writers and hearing about their experiences. I was

Poppy Gee at Fullers Bookshop, Launceston, Tasmania

Poppy Gee at Fullers Bookshop, Launceston, Tasmania

fortunate to be in Launceston, Tasmania, when Poppy Gee gave a talk last Friday evening about her new crime novel, Bay of Fires. I met Poppy a few weeks back at the Hachette bowls night in Brisbane (see my blog, ‘A question of bias’). Poppy is originally from Launceston and she attracted a good-size, appreciative audience to her talk at Fullers Bookshop. The book is set in Tasmania – Bay of Fires is a world-renowned natural recreational area.

As a writer, I was particularly interested to hear how Bay of Fires had developed and how it came to be published. While, as she said on the night, Poppy has friends 20130222_185504who are good writers but can’t get their novels published, her own success shows that it is not impossible. Her book is currently available in bookshops in Australia, and very soon will be published in the US and the UK. I have started reading my (signed) copy and am enjoying getting to know the characters and the build up of ‘who done it?’

Bay of Fires

A question of bias

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This blog is about two different sorts of bias. The first was in the bowls I was using at the barefoot lawn bowls night organised in Brisbane last week by Hachette Australia, who are publishing my narrative non-fiction biography in August this year. No matter how carefully I aimed my bowls towards the little white ball at the other end of the grassy green sward, they invariably took off on a path of their own. On the one occasion I did roll my bowl so expertly that it ended up nestled lovingly against the white ball, it turned out to have strayed into the game on the next rink.

Lawnbowls

The only consolation was that no one else seemed much good at the game either, including Hachette’s Publishing Director, Fiona Hazard, and the new Sales and Marketing Director, Justin Ratcliffe. The informal occasion was a fun way to meet local booksellers and some of the other important Hachette people, including the reps. I was also glad to catch up with my former workshop tutor and prolific author, Kim Wilkins, and with Charlotte Nash, fellow-writer from the 2010 Queensland Writers Centre/Hachette Development workshop, whose book, Ryders Ridge, will be launched in Brisbane on 9 April.

The other case of bias is more serious. It is the discrimination shown by employers towards mature-age workers. Among older people seeking work in Australia, over a third of men and more than a quarter of women say they are considered too old by employers. The Human Rights Commission quotes research that found older people in advertisements are often portrayed as ‘bumbling, crotchety or senile’. In the workplace, generalising and stereotyping on the basis of age can see young people preferred because they are perceived to be more efficient (and possibly more compliant) than older people, who are regarded as less productive and high risk, even though more experienced. ‘The overriding message for older workers,’ says the Human Rights Commission, ‘is a one-way ticket to certain decline.’ ageism

Age discrimination is one of the topics in my E-book, Extending Your Use-By Date: Why Retirement Age is Only a Number, to be published in March by Xoum Publications.

One of the potential outcomes of such discrimination is that mature-age workers may begin to believe the myths, which therefore become self-fulfilling. Those who feel marginalised or unable to obtain a job because of their age may also suffer from stress, cognitive decline, depression, social isolation and sometimes a reluctance to get out and do things. Loss of self-esteem is a powerful demotivator.

We need to resist someone else telling us when we’ve reached our use-by date. As the Hachette bowling night demonstrated, ability mostly has nothing to do with age.

The Next Big Thing

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As part of a writers’ fun networking exercise, I was tagged by author Dawn Barker to take part in The Next Big Thing, a ‘chain blog’ for writers. Anxious to avoid any repercussions for breaking the chain (shiver), I’m using the template below to answer some questions about my book. You’ll see at the end that I’ve tagged another writer I’ve met along the way who will do the same next week.

1. What is the working title of your next book?

My first e-book, Extending your use-by date: Why retirement age is only a number, will be published in March 2013.

2. Where did the idea come from for the book?

400,000 Australians aged 45 or more don’t know when they’ll retire and 650,000 say they’ll never retire.  Those are figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics I stumbled upon when doing research in my part-time role at Griffith University. As one of those who is currently part of the 650k, I was fascinated that so many were planning to continue working past ‘traditional’ retirement age.  That didn’t seem to be the conventional wisdom.

What’s more, many of them said they weren’t doing it for the money – or at least not only for the money. At the same time, I noticed there are lots of books in the bookshops about planning for retirement, but hardly a word on planning not to retire. Hence this book.

3. What genre does your book fall under?

Non-fiction, because it’s based on research. I’ve talked to dozens of people in their 60s and 70s who are still in paid work or serious volunteering, and collected other examples from across the world. I’ve also drawn on predictions about ageing populations and emerging job needs, as well as on scientific research that separates myth from reality about physiological and cognitive ageing.

But it’s by no means an ‘academic’ book. It’s meant for a general audience aged from their mid 40s upwards, and I’ve used all my recent experience in developing narrative non-fiction to make sure it’s a book people will enjoy reading. Not to mention the cartoons …

4. What actors would you choose to play the parts of your characters in a movie rendition?

Extending your use-by date would make a great doco. In Australia, oldies like Jack Thompson, Quentin Bryce, Malcolm Fraser, Bob Hawke, Maggie Tabberer, and Lindsay Fox could play themselves. There’s no shortage of stars and extras for a ‘reality’ show.

However, you could also develop a terrific screenplay around the book’s theme (see next question).  A movie you’d come out of feeling good about. Judi Dench, Sean Connery, Michael Caine, Helen Mirren, Morgan Freeman, Jack Nicholson, Jane Fonda, George Clooney…

5. What is the one sentence synopsis of your book?

We sometimes head unthinkingly into retirement at a time when we’re living longer than ever and we have developed skills and abilities we can keep on using. Also, continuing to work can maintain our wellbeing as well as contribute to our bank balance.

6. Will your book be self published or represented by an agency?

Extending your use-by date will be published in March 2013 by an emerging Australian e-publisher, Xoum Publications. I am represented by the very experienced Sophie Hamley from Cameron Cresswell Agency.

7. How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?

It took about a year to do the initial research and begin structuring the book, and another twelve months to finish writing the first draft.

8. What other books would you compare this story to in your genre?

I regard it as filling a gap, so there’s nothing to compare it directly to. But it should inspire working people looking for direction in the later part of their lives.

9. Who or what inspired you to write this book?

In addition to the insight I’ve described in response to Question 2, the inspiration came from my own experience as an ‘older worker’ and a belief that we can continue to learn, grow and contribute to the society in which we live for longer than many people think.

10. What else about the book might pique the readers’ interest?

Because this book is a collection of people’s personal stories and tips about working into older age, it has a very human element I know readers will relate to. And some people already want to read the summary of research about what we should expect in the way of physiological and cognitive decline as we get older. Not to forget the cartoons …

Thanks for the tag, Dawn. To make sure the chain isn’t broken, I’m tagging Heather Garside to answer these ten questions for next time. Heather has some exciting news to share.

e-book contract signed for Extending your use-by date

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Grab your Kindle and get ready to download. I’ve just signed a contract to have a non-fiction manuscript published, this time as an e-book.

In March 2013 you can check the electronic bookstores for Extending your use-by date: Why retirement age is only a number. It will be published by Rod Morrison and the team at an emerging Australian e-publisher, Xoum Publishing, www.xoum.com.au

Signing the Xoum contract

My agent, Sophie Hamley, sent them the manuscript, they liked it, and now we’re working together to prepare it for publication and promote it to potential readers.

Xoum is a Sydney-based independent multi-media publishing company, founded by publishing and design professionals, David Henley, Jon MacDonald and Rod Morrison. They say they use the most up-to-date production technologies combined with traditional editorial, sales and marketing nous. Xoum titles are distributed globally via Amazon, the iBookstore, Kobo, Overdrive and Google Play.

The starting point for Extending your use-by date is that we sometimes head unthinkingly into retirement at a time when many of us have developed skills and abilities we can keep on using and when people are generally living longer. It also argues that continuing to work can maintain our well-being as well as contribute to our bank balance. But only if we want to.

So, I’ll have two books out in 2013: Extending your use-by date as an e-publication in March (Xoum* Publishing), and the biography of aviation pioneer and global adventurer Bert Hinkler in hard copy in August (Hachette Australia).

* pronounced ‘zoom’ of course

Stiff lessons, the Order of the Hedgehog, and a different point of view

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Experienced young adult author, James Moloney, says that when he visits schools, students ask him how to be a writer, and sometimes their faces fall when he tells them they should do lots of reading.* I know what he means. The more I write, and read, the more I become aware of writers’ styles, strategies and structures, and the more they influence my own writing, or at least, the more I become aware of my own writing.

For example, I recently re-read an Australian classic, Stiff, by Shane Maloney (no relation to James – different spelling) and enjoyed the wry commentary of the book’s ‘hero’, Murray Whelan, on the events chaotically enveloping his life. Soon afterwards, I was writing a short story and found myself adding a touch of what I regard as wry commentary to the protagonist’s views. The further the story went, the more I felt I had found his voice – and mine. That story, ‘Walking the line’, was the Queensland winner in the national Adult Learners’ Week competition in September this year. Thanks heaps, Shane Maloney.

More recently I’ve read two quite different books: The secret pilgrim by John Le Carré, and In a strange room by Damon Galgut.

John Le Carre and his character George Smiley are well known to readers of spy thrillers, although Smiley is more a device in The secret pilgrim for Le Carré to string together a series of short stories. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the book, and noticed some delightful observations from the author along the way, including:

‘She was a tall woman and must once have been beautiful, but preferred to wear the signs of her neglect.’

‘And much time was spent among these exiled bodies [European émigrés]arguing our niceties about who would be Master of the Royal Horse when the monarchy was restored; and who would be awarded the Order of St Peter and the Hedgehog; or succeed to the Grand Duke’s summer palace once the Communist chickens had been removed from its drawing rooms…’

‘He had recently grown himself a moustache for greater integrity.’

Thriller writers may not be nominated for the Man Booker Prize, but Le Carré’s prose is very engaging in a busy genre.

Damon Galgut, on the other hand, was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, in 2010, for The Good Doctor, a book I enjoyed. I picked up the later book, In a strange room, at a book remainders sale, and two features jumped at me as I began to read. For a start, it doesn’t use quotation marks for direct speech. I have come across other examples of this, and must confess I’m not a fan of the style. Perhaps I just did too many punctuation exercises when I was at school.

The other feature of Galgut’s book is that he uses first and third person when talking about the same person, occasionally in the same paragraph. Talk about point of view! Take this example:

‘He turns. Reiner is walking towards him. If he offers one word of apology, if he concedes even the smallest humility, then I will relent.’

The ‘He’ in the first sentence and the ‘him’ in the second are the ‘I’ in the third sentence. It’s not as confusing as I thought it might be, but it is a little disconcerting after Le Carré. And perhaps that’s what Galgut intended.

*In the last blog I mentioned my visit to Riverbend bookshop in Brisbane to listen to James Moloney talk about his new adult novel, The tower mill.

[D R Dymock’s biography of pioneer pilot and global adventurer Bert Hinkler will be published by Hachette Australia in 2013. He also has a non-fiction e-book close to publication – details soon.]