Category Archives: Well Being

‘Hustling Hinkler’ and other productive stories

Posted on by
Reply

Being productive 1

Things are starting to hot up as the launch of Hustling Hinkler: the short tumultuous life of a trail-blazing Australian aviator, draws near. Hachette Australia will publish this narrative non-fiction book on 30 July, so it will be in the bookshops and online from that date onwards. The book is currently with the printer, and I’m looking forward to finally having a copy in my hands.

The publicist I’ve been working with at Hachette, Alice Wood, has been setting up author events with libraries and bookshops, and it will be great to be able to talk about Hustling Hinkler on those occasions, and meet with prospective readers. If you’re in southern Queensland, watch for details here and in the press; if you’re not, watch for the book in your bookshop and online.

Being productive 2

On 10 July, the Brisbane Courier Mail published a feature article by Fran Metcalf about the Queensland Writers Centre/Hachette Australia Manuscript Development Program, based on interviews with fellow Hachette author, Charlotte Nash and myself. Charlotte and I took part in the 2010 development program, and Fran Metcalf did a good job weaving our stories together.

Being productive 3

In regard to my other book published this year, Extending your use-by date, I recently submitted a related article, ‘Have you got a use-by date?’ to a new e-magazine, Starts at sixty, which was published on 26 June. I hope to contribute more articles to this publication, which, as its name suggests, is aimed at people of older age.

Being productive 4

Marc Freedman, founder and CEO in the US of Encore.org, a nonprofit organization working to promote encore careers – ‘second acts for the greater good’ – was in Australia recently. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to hear him speak, but I understand there are moves afoot to establish ‘Encore Fellowships’, pioneered by Freedman and his organisation in Australia, through local not-for-profit activist, Doug Jacquier. While Extending your use-by date is about more than working with non-profit organisations in later life, it shares similar themes to those espoused by Freedman.

Being productive 5

And speaking of being productive into older age, I promised a former Army colleague, Bob Whittaker, that I’d mention his book, Jellybeans in the jungle, in my blog. Bob and I did our Australian Army recruit training together when we were both conscripted as National Servicemen (Nashos) in our 20s, but our subsequent postings were very different. Jellybeans in the jungle is described as ‘one man’s attempt to make sense of his experience as a conscripted soldier during Australia’s war in Vietnam.’ You can find the book by clicking on the highlighted link.

Hustling Hinkler: Learning to be a writer

Posted on by
Reply

I often wander around bookshops, entranced by the range of titles, but at the same time overwhelmed by the number of authors there are. So to think that soon my book, my name, will be on those shelves alongside (well, close to) some of the world’s best-known authors is mind-boggling. And I have mainly the 2010 Queensland Writers Centre/Hachette Development Workshop to thank for it. Applications are currently being called for the 2013 workshop, and the deadline has been extended to 12 July.

The author in his Hustling Hinkler T-shirt

The author in his Hustling Hinkler T-shirt

When I turned up for the first session of that 2010 workshop, I discovered I was the only one there who was a) writing non-fiction, and b) of the masculine gender. The other seven were wrestling with the manuscripts of novels in a range of genres, including crime, reality-based fiction, various sorts of romance and relationships, and speculative fiction (whatever that was). That was a very supportive time, and I’m still in touch with most of my fellow writers, several of whom have since been published.

The funny thing is, that my narrative non-fiction book started life in a different genre – as a young adult novel. I had the rather limited idea that if there was already an existing biography, it wasn’t worth writing another one. So when I re-discovered this intriguing pioneer aviator called Bert Hinkler, I did a lot of research

Author Kim Wilkins

Author Kim Wilkins

about him, and decided to aim a fiction book at a young adult audience. Keen to develop my craft, I registered for the QWC workshop series with Kim Wilkins, Year-of-the Novel, then the follow-up, Year-of-the Edit. And I learned lots, not only about writing, but about publishing in general.

In that second year, I saw an advertisement for the Writefest event in Bundaberg and, thanks to the ever-obliging Sandy Curtis, had an opportunity to send a portion of a manuscript for consideration by a real, live literary agent, the sort of person who can tell you whether your book is any good or not, and if it is, might find a publisher for it. The agent turned out to be Sophie Hamley, a senior agent with the Sydney literary agency, Cameron Creswell, and the deal was that she’d give each of the budding authors selected, 15 minutes each. The scenario with me went something like this:

Sandy Curtis, author and key figure at Bundaberg Writefest

Sandy Curtis, author and key figure at Bundaberg Writefest

‘I’ve read the 30 pages of your YA novel,’ Sophie said, ‘and I think it’s got legs, as they say in publishing.  I’d like to see the rest of it. Can you please send me the full manuscript.’

When I finished opening and closing my mouth like a goldfish, I managed to say, ‘I’ve been doing a lot of research on Bert Hinkler, and his life story is pretty interesting in itself. I reckon there’s an adult novel in there too.’

She looked straight at me. ‘Why don’t you write his life story?’

‘But there’s already a biography,’ I said.

My dynamic agent, Sophie Hamley

My dynamic agent, Sophie Hamley

‘When was that published?’

‘1962, with a slight update in 1979.’

‘Might be time for another one,’ she said. ‘Non-fiction outsells fiction three to one in Australia.’

‘Does it?’ I said, eyes wide.

[I know this sounds like bad dialogue from a cheap novel, but that’s how I recall it.]

‘You could write it as narrative non-fiction,’ she said.

Up to this point, I thought there was fiction, non-fiction, and there was politics. What the hell was narrative non-fiction?

Now I do know something about the English language, and my lighting fast brain reminded me: ‘narrative – that means a story’. So I cleverly said, ‘You mean tell a story using non-fiction.’

She nodded, and I nodded in return. ‘Uh huh.’

Sophie must have realised I was scrambling a bit, because she gave me the titles of a couple of big-selling narrative non-fiction books. I carefully wrote the titles down, told her I’d get hold of them, and would immediately begin writing a new biography of Bert Hinkler. And after some pleasantries during which time I tried to show her what a well-read, fascinating writer I am, my 15 minutes was up.

That was five years ago. Since then, the (rewritten) young adult novel has been highly commended in a publisher’s competition, but is so far unpublished. However, I’ve had two short stories published after being selected in competitions I’ve entered, and, thanks to my agent, Sophie Hamley (see above) I signed a contract with an emerging Sydney e-publisher, Xoum Publications, for publication of a non-fiction e-book in March this year, Extending Your Use-By Date, which attracted heaps of media attention (www.xoum.com.au/shop/extending-your-use-by-date/). I’m continually working on other writing, including another non-fiction book.

And the biography? It was the one selected for the 2010 Development Workshop, and in August this year Hachette Australia will publish Hustling Hinkler: the short tumultuous life of a trail-blazing Australian aviator. In my next blog post, I’ll tell you about that book and what I learnt on the rocky road to publication.

[re-blogged from Queensland Writers Centre http://www.qwc.asn.au/connect/blog/]

Hustling Hinkler and the cyclone: a wet and windy tale of bad timing

Posted on by
1

I’d revised the manuscript for the umpteenth time, in response to the editor’s numerous suggestions, and had negotiated further changes with the always cheerful Vanessa Radnidge and Kate Ballard at Hachette Australia. My narrative non-fiction book, Hustling Hinkler: the short tumultuous life of a trail-blazing Australian aviator, was looking good for publication. Now it was time to add the photos.

The subject of my biography, Bert Hinkler, was born in Bundaberg, Queensland,  and late last year, I had contacted the Hinkler Hall of Aviation in that city about obtaining a selection of images of the pioneer aviator from their extensive collection. All I had to do was finalise the arrangements. Then Oswald intervened.

Cyclone Oswald had swept in over the Gulf of Carpentaria in January 2013 and, although soon downgraded to a tropical low, dumped masses of rain on communities in Tropical North Queensland before heading south. On its way down the coast, it continued to suck in moist tropical air and spread its largesse on the areas below. When Oswald reached Bundaberg at the end of January, it whipped up several typhoons as an initial demonstration of its power, then lashed the area with torrential rain. The Burnett River, where Bert Hinkler once famously flew under two of the bridges, reached record heights, and much of Bundaberg was inundated. Some 7500 residents were evacuated and there was widespread damage, particularly in  North Bundaberg (where Hinkler grew up and went to school).

Flooded Bundaberg North January 2013

Flooded Bundaberg North January 2013

The Hinkler Hall of Aviation is located in the botanic gardens in North Bundaberg, and 30 centimetres of water washed through the building, depositing clinging mud across the displays and in the foyer. Significantly for my particular interest, the floodwaters also found their way into the collection store and research rooms. Needless to say, the staff had enough to worry about in restoring the exhibits, cleaning up the place and saving the records (with help from Queensland Museum experts). Lex Rowland, long-time Hinkler enthusiast and one of the Hall of Aviation trustees, rang me to apologise that they wouldn’t be able to help me out with photos on this occasion. In fact, this key tourist attraction has remained closed to the public since that time, although when I was still missing a couple of key photos recently, Lex was able to supply them from the Hinkler House Museum and Research Association database.

Fortunately, many of the Hinkler photos held by the Hall of Aviation are also held by State and national libraries in Australia, and the national archives. Each library holds only a few, however, so it was quite an exercise to go through the full catalogue (which is held on the central Trove database), select the required images, then submit requests to each library individually, complete with payment.

State Library of Queensland

State Library of Queensland

 

Most of this was done through completing order forms, printing them off, scanning them, and emailing them back. In most cases, the requested photos were sent (in TIFF format) very promptly online, but the denseness of the images meant relatively slow download times on my laptop (up to 30 minutes each time). Each library also indicated how it wants the source of the images acknowledged in the book, and none of the requirements are exactly the same. It was about this time that writing a fiction novel seemed particularly appealing – no photos, no fact checking.

There will be eight pages of black and white photographs in Hustling Hinkler. This will be the first time many of the images have been published in a book, including some I have sourced from elsewhere. What’s more, there is at least one image in the book which has never been published anywhere before, that I think will be a surprise to readers.

Missing out on a few photos hardly compares with coping with the inundation the people of Bundaberg suffered in the floods of January 2013, and I was also fortunate there were alternative sources for the images. The city is still recovering, but I hope the Hall of Aviation might be open again by the time Hustling Hinkler is published in August this year.

P.S. The Queensland Writers Centre earlier this year organised a fund-raising venture called ‘Writers on Rafts’, to help communities affected by Cyclone Oswald.

 

 

 

 

Preview: Bert Hinkler biography to be published August

Posted on by
1

I’m delighted to tell you that my book, Hustling Hinkler: The short tumultuous life of an Australian aviator, will be in the bookshops and online in August. The publisher, Hachette Australia, have now posted details on their website. I’ve been working on this book for several years, and it’s based on research I’ve done on three continents. I hope readers will be as satisfied with the outcome as I am.

Hustling Hinkler tells the remarkable story of Bert Hinkler, who rose from humble beginnings in the sugar town of Bundaberg in coastal Queensland, Australia, to become a world-famous long-distance pilot. On the ground, however, things weren’t always quite so smooth …

Click here for a preview of the cover and a brief synopsis of the story of Hustling Hinkler.

Meanwhile, I did another newspaper interview this week about my e-book, published in March, Extending your use-by date:Why retirement age is only a number, and have been invited to speak about it at a library event at the Gold Coast.  Extending your use-by date  is available through the publisher, www.xoum.com.au, and  Amazon.com,  iBookstore and Kobo.

Are you less ‘thought-rich’ as you grow older?

Posted on by
Reply

In a recent interview, British author, Ian McEwan (Atonement, On Chesil Beach, Sweet Tooth) said that, for him, writing the perfect novel is a race against time because as we grow older we become less ‘thought-rich’. Speaking to the host of the Australian ABC television program, ‘Jennifer Byrne presents’, he referred to ‘slow neural depopulation’ in writers in their 60s. For me, this is too pessimistic a view. Neurons are the brain’s message-carrying cells, and it was once thought that we were born with a lifetime’s consignment. However, according to the US National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, while some cells certainly die, there is an emerging (but still controversial) view among neuroscientists that neurogenesis (the scientific word for the birth of neurons) is a lifelong process.

From my own experience, although occasionally a word I am looking for takes a moment to come to me, I don’t yet feel that I’m less ‘thought-rich’. In fact, I think my writing is getting better as I grow older. That could be an indulgent misconception, of course, but at least I’m being published. McEwan said he was at his peak as a writer at around 45, whereas I was doing something else at that age (including finishing my PhD while working full-time), so I can’t make the same comparison. Until there’s evidence to the contrary, however, or someone gives me a nudge, I’ll continue to believe I have lots of good writing left in me yet.

Managing the ageing workforce

I recently met up with a former colleague I hadn’t seen for almost 20 years, Geoff Pearman, a New Zealander currently living near Brisbane. In the past few years, Geoff and I have independently developed similar interests – in the ageing workforce. I have written about it in Extending your use-by date, as well as in my academic research, and Geoff has founded a company, Partners in Change, to help organisations manage their ageing workforces. His initiative was stimulated by a conference session he attended in Vancouver in 2007 where he heard Marc Freedman, author and founder of encore.com, discuss the continuing issue of baby boomers retiring from work. Geoff says there was no shortage of reports on ageing populations, but he realised that there were no strategies for companies to utilise older workers to meet ongoing skills shortages. It’s an issue that’s not going to go away soon, and already Geoff is working with a number of organisations.

700,000 listeners can’t be wrong (?)

According to the media monitoring service of Griffith University in Brisbane, Australia (where I work part-time), the string of radio interviews and the TV interview I did for Extending your use-by date officially reached almost 700,000 people across Australia (and across the Tasman via Radio NZ). I don’t know how those numbers are arrived at, but the university’s Director of Communications assured me they are ‘official figures’. It seems an enormous number, and a bit overwhelming to think that even a fraction of those might have heard me talk about the book.

QUESTION: For older people: do you think you are becoming less ‘thought-rich’ as you head into your later years; For those not yet old: at what age do you think you will reach your working or other peak (or have you passed it)?   To reply, please leave a comment (below).

Extending your use-by date: why retirement age is only a number by Dr Darryl Dymock, is available through the publisher, www.xoum.com.au, and  Amazon.com,  iBookstore and Kobo.

10 tips for thinking about your use-by date – Tip #1

Posted on by
Reply

If you are in the workforce, you have five options as you head towards what’s generally known as ‘retirement age’: continue full-time in your current job for as long as you can or want; make a change in your current job (go part-time, work from home); try a different job or start a new business (an encore career); retire, but later go back to work in some form or become a volunteer; or simply retire.

If you want to consider not retiring – for a while, or ever, I’ve extracted ten lessons from the experience of a whole bunch of workers who have stayed in the workforce into older age. Here’s the first of those tips:

Tip #1: Prepare in advance Sometimes we become so immersed in what we’re doing, perhaps even become complacent in a job we do day in, day out, that we’re into our late 50s or early 60s before we know it, and haven’t thought about whether we want to retire or not. Isobel hadn’t done much planning for her retirement, but thought she’d retire from her full-time receptionist job when she turned 60. When that magic age came, however, she changed her mind. ‘I felt there were still things that I needed to do, that I still had quite a bit to offer in the workforce, even though I’d passed “retirement age”,’ she says. But she did think she would scale back from full-time. If it’s within your control, consider in advance what your options are if you continue to work,  and prepare for the one you prefer.  As you grow older, continually revise your plan (which may only be in your head) to suit your changing circumstances and any change in your thinking.

If you decide not to retire, or don’t know if you want to retire, what do you need to consider, apart from financial arrangements?

  • Your reasons for continuing to work – money, social contact, self-esteem, sense of purpose, other? Will these be enough to sustain you if you work into older age?
  • Your health and your physical and cognitive capabilities – how well equipped are you physically and mentally to continue working?
  • Your strengths and weaknesses as a worker – what skills, knowledge and talents have you built up that can help you work into the future?
  • The sort of work you want to do – same or different? If different, what are the options, what preparation or training do you need, what contacts do you have, what pathways will get you there; if the same, are you up-to-date, or do you need to upskill? Can you negotiate with your employer?
  • Whether you want to work full-time or part-time, and whether for an employer or for yourself. What are the options and what are the pros and cons of each? If you move into your own business or a consultancy, how will you support yourself in the transition phase?
  • Your partner’s intentions – if both have been working, and one wants to retire, and the other wants to continue working, you need to agree in advance how that will work, the implications for your relationship, and perhaps decide how long the arrangement might continue.
  • If money is not a major consideration, will volunteering meet your needs if you stop paid work, or even help you transition to different sort of work? What volunteering options are there that will make use of your knowledge, skills and talents?

Adapted from Extending your use-by date: why retirement age is only a number by Dr Darryl Dymock, available through the publisher, www.xoum.com.au, and  Amazon.com,  iBookstore and Kobo.

Question: Around what age do you think we should start thinking about when or whether to retire from paid work?

Please click on ‘Leave a comment’ (below) to reply.