May

07

A Conversation with Terry Spring

Posted by: Di MorriscloseAuthor: Di Morris Name: Di Morris
Email: comp@goldcoastwriters.org.au
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1. What are your interests besides writing? 

I have always loved to travel. When I worked in England my jobs always entailed travel. I have visited USA, most countries in Europe and of course, I lived in Asia for a year when working for American Express.  

I seem to have a particular penchant for islands (not sure why) – I lived in Jersey, Channel Isles and visited Malta, Gibraltar, Seychelles and Hawaii. 

I have a passion for history so I visit the past by reading historical novels. I enjoy checking out old stately homes and palaces, so these are always on my list when I travel. This way I can enjoy the research of the novelist into the style of life of the day, then by walking through these places I can immerse myself in their history. It’s so amazing to see how the other half lived, as my own forebears were certainly not part of that social class. 

Because I am curious about my background, I have become an expert in my family genealogy and have a family tree with nearly 3000 people on it. (Well, there was no TV back then!) Recently I helped a friend find her adopted family in England. My children and grandchildren are not much interested in their genealogy at the moment but that will come with time. 

2. How do you manage to combine your interests and writing? 

I use the past times and knowledge of how my characters were raised to find their motivation and thinking; for example, someone raised in country Australia has a different perspective to a person brought up in an American city. Basic human emotions are the same, but how we react is so much tied to our upbringing. My book Transported was based on a real person and needed much research into the early convicts and settlers. This gave me a healthy respect for their tenacity and their ability to accept hardship and get things done. I see myself not so much an author as a teller of stories.. 

3. Where were you born, and what do you remember about your early years before coming to Australia? 

I was 35 when I migrated here. I was the youngest of five and born as an after-thought! My parents lived in London which was under siege in the ‘Blitz’ when I came into the world in London Hospital – which makes me a cockney by birth.

We moved north, out of the firing line, but the London boroughs soon became targets also. I can remember our house being bombed and even some of the conversations about broken glass and my puppy. I recall sleeping on bunks in the London Tube stations to avoid the nightly bombing raids.

On the evening of VE Day, I sat on my father’s shoulders as we waited in the huge celebrating crowds to see the King and Queen emerge on the Buckingham Palace balcony and the search lights making ‘V’s in the sky. The war was over but it didn’t mean anything to me except that, some years later, my mother was able to buy me my first doll –  I was six.

During the war years, food and clothing were the only things to buy in the shops, provided we had the money and stamps. Everything was rationed and that didn’t stop until I left school. I grew up in a leafy London suburb but there were bombed buildings even there. My family used to go to the pictures in the West End at weekends and I saw most of the musicals of the time. My brother was a pianist and I grew up around music. 

I enjoyed primary school and loved music, art and writing even then. I passed my 11 Plus for a local Grammar School which is now a Muslim girls’ school run by Cat Stevens.

I have fond memories of my childhood which were mostly carefree and I still see my school friends when I’m in England. When I left school it was ‘Rock and The Clock’ time but I had a stint at Pitman’s School of Shorthand and Typing. I spent all my spare hours in the West End jazz clubs and coffee bars, since working in a city solicitor’s office felt very mundane.

Eventually I found my way into something more exciting as I was soon working for Unilever as a market researcher. (This was before their phone calls interrupted your dinnertime and of course there was no internet). We travelled in groups, all over England, knocking on doors and doing face-to-face interviews. During this time I met and married a musician and started writing pieces on pop-stars and music in the Melody Maker, The New Musical Express and even the London Evening Standard. They’re now all extinct but I don’t think it was my fault!! 

4. What do you think constitutes ‘a good read’?  

For me, I need to be carried away into a story. I love to read about people’s lives, real people in particular. I want strong characters, with interesting settings and I want to enjoy where the story takes me. I adore history books of course; Phillippa Gregory is a favourite of mine as so much of her work is set in Tudor times and I have an A Level in Tudor History. I’ve never come across something in her books that I feel couldn’t have happened back then.

Of course Colleen McCullough’s books are a good read and I loved her Men of Rome series, although I read them in hardback and they were such large and heavy volumes, they gave me back-ache! I was thoroughly schooled in the classics during my education but they just don’t ‘grab me’ these days although I acknowledge their great story lines. When I took part in a six week creative writing course in summer school at Oxford University, we were expected to read 42 books beforehand on a set subject, including many classics. It was interesting to see the change of writing styles over the years. 

5. Your book Transported has been well received. How did you come by the idea? 

I was actually introduced to a man who wanted a book for his family, about his forebear, George Smith…a convict made good in Dubbo, NSW. I was given some documents and we put together the outline of the book….a dateline of what happened and when. I thought it such an up-lifting tale about rags to riches that we agreed I should try to turn it into a novel.

I spent months researching the historical background in Australia and finally decided to self-publish the book. I have sold 608 to date – not an enormous amount by some standards but I haven’t spent a penny on advertising. The book sells in the Longreach Hall of Fame, Dubbo and it is also in many libraries. I sell a few books on my website every week and I often wonder how they came to find me. My book has been used as an exercise in marketing at Griffith University and I’ve had enquiries about a TV series and overseas copyright. 

6. Have you any advice for others wishing to self-publish?  

Well, a lot depends on what you want to do with a manuscript. Presumably you will have had it edited and it will be ready to go. If it’s solely for your friends and family then go ahead. For others who have tried and failed to get a publisher to accept it (it’s a cut-throat business out there unless you’re a celebrity of course!) I advise following common sense rules.

The cost is in the set-up. Don’t expect to make a fortune and be prepared to not even get a return on your money. Go for a company that’s nearby – I first went for one in WA and it would have cost me a fortune in cartage to receive the books here. Go for a company with a good reputation by asking around. Don’t get greedy and print a thousand because it’s cheaper than buying fifty. Think of the enormous amount of time it takes to sell that many and how depressing it could be, looking at the pile for the next two or more years!

Have a website so that you can sell from there, and also set up Red Hen or Pay Pal to take payments. Think about turning it into an ebook as this is the way of the future for many. If you do this you will need to become a little internet savvy – it’s a whole new exciting world out there. Be prepared to call up radio stations and newspapers. Stand up and speak at lunches and libraries to sell your book by putting it in the public eye.

Believe in your book/story and others will too. 

Apr

01

Featured Member – Andy McDermott

Posted by: Di MorriscloseAuthor: Di Morris Name: Di Morris
Email: comp@goldcoastwriters.org.au
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Interview with Andy McDermott   

This started out as a normal Member of the Month interview. However, Andy proved to be a mine of information and very entertaining so here it is in his own voice for everyone’s pleasure.

Di Morris

Andy McDermott

Q. Where were you born?

A. I was born in Nottingham in the UK. Nottingham as I’m sure you already know is famous for the legend of Robin Hood. It’s a beautiful city, lots of history: Nottingham Castle, Sherwood Forest, the Trip To Jerusalem (the oldest pub in Britain, est. 1189), the home of Lord Byron and of course the birthplace of one of the greatest writers…no not me…DH Lawrence. 

Q. How did you go at school?

A. ‘When I was at school they didn’t have ADHD, thick was the term they used for me!’ Robbie Williams.

I look back on school with mixed emotions. I enjoyed art and English, and most sports, but I can’t say I was particularly good at any of them.  I do remember going through a stage when I was writing poetry, and even got one published in the school magazine.

Q. What about writing – when did you start getting into it?

A. I’d always had ideas and stories in my head but never did anything with them. I   played in a band in the eighties and somewhere still have a book of about 100 songs that I wrote. Later for a living I wrote Computer Aided Design programmes for a furniture company. In those days (gosh that makes me sound old) we used to write the code in long hand then have to type it into a CNC machine.

I also used to read to my kids every night at bedtime and when we didn’t have a book I used to make up stories for them. This practice soon became more popular than The Famous Five, and my daughter, now 27, still remembers many of the stories.

In 1999 the protagonist of The Tiger Chase appeared from nowhere and pestered me to write the book. I finally gave in, sat down and wrote 150,000 words in six months. 

The story began its life with a single character who for some reason hated cats. Perhaps it was payback for him hassling me, but there was a need to make this guy pay, big time. The story evolved into him having to travel 2000 miles across America in a station wagon with a fully-grown tiger in the back. Grrr!

Q. What were the highs and lows of ‘Tiger Chase’?

A. Highs: finishing it, getting a publisher, doing the American book tour, inspecting an animal sanctuary in Pasadena, finishing the book tour in Las Vegas.

Lows: working with an editor for the first time and realising just how hard this writing gig is: self-publishing a revised edition and not having it edited professionally was Bad! Bad! Bad! (Something that I have since rectified and will never let happen again!)

Q. What was your mission whilst GCWA president? 

A.  I was president of the GCWA for two years from 2005 – 2007. I took over when, I feel, the club was at a low point. It needed a new direction. My philosophy was simple, give the club back to the members and see what happens. I was fortunate to attract a like-minded committee made up of writers who shared the motivation and belief that we could create a great place for writers.

Some of the things we did during those two years were:

• Taking control of the GCWA website for the first time. We did a complete overhaul of the site and arranged for hosting by a Bond Uni professor at no cost.
• Introducing the eWriteabout with the idea of gradually phasing out the old print version that was very expensive to produce.
• We overhauled and updated the club rules for the first time in thirteen years and created new positions on the sub-committee to ease the burden on the committee and encourage member involvement.
• We introduced ‘Members Time’ at the monthly meetings: members were invited to tell us about their projects and gain the experience of speaking in front of a group.
• Quality speakers were sourced from QWC as well as elsewhere. We successfully applied for government grants, which allowed us to stage regular full day workshops with well-known authors such as Simon Higgins and Louise Cusack etc. All at a subsidised price of $25.00 to members.
• We also used council grants to purchase a new computer, a projector; a photocopier, and software.
• Paint and Prose: we teamed up with the Australian Royal Arts Society and paired off members of each club to create joint works of writing and art, culminating in a gala evening at the Broadbeach gallery with prizes and a celebrity speaker.
• We ran the children’s writing competition in conjunction with Austar, who donated prizes and $2000 for the winning entires two years running. Judges were sourced from Griffith Uni, Bond and local high schools.
• The Editing scheme: we formed a manuscript submission group and invited members to send in their manuscripts. Each month the group would select an ms, which would then be professionally edited free of charge.
• We ran bus trips to Byron Bay Writers’ Festival first year and the Brisbane Writers’ Festival the second year: we hired a bus and supplied members with free transport and subsidised tickets to the festivals.
• We implemented The Annual Achievement award and lifetime members shield.
• We introduced the Suggestions Box.
•  We filled the room to capacity every month and increased membership, which increased the coffers and allowed us to offer all the above.

Q. How did you start your company Publicious, and why?

A. During my time as the GCWA president I realised that there were many writers with great stories who would probably never get published because they’d either been rejected by agents or publishers in the past, or would have liked to self-publish but didn’t know where to start. As a self-published author myself, I’m well aware of all the pitfalls out there that many self-published authors can fall into. And it saddens me to hear some of the horror stories about authors being ripped-off. 

I’ve learned my trade the hard way and perfected it so that I’m now in a position where I can help my fellow writers to achieve their dreams of publishing a good quality book. I’m proud to say that the quality of the books we produce are way better than any of the other publishing providers out there, are more affordable, and all our services come with that good old-fashioned service.

We also distribute books worldwide and have clients in the USA, Brazil, UK and New Zealand as well as all over Australia.

Mar

01

Featured Member – Kate Russell

Posted by: Di MorriscloseAuthor: Di Morris Name: Di Morris
Email: comp@goldcoastwriters.org.au
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1) Where do your ideas come from for writing?

My ideas come from all sorts of places. Funny little articles in a newspaper or magazine (the idea for my heroine for my adult novel came from a magazine article on a woman that cleaned trauma and crime scenes for a living), things my kids say, an interesting photograph, a human interest story on television…or sometimes they just pop into my head in a completely random way. I’m influenced by my favourite writers too – I’ll read something and think – “Wow. I’d love to write something like that…”

2) What genres are you writing in?

I love fantasy and mystery, so that’s what I write. At the moment I have two novels on the go – a comic murder mystery for adults (along the lines of Janet Evanovich hopefully!), and a young adult novel involving a teenage witch, a bushranger, and magic! Most of the things I write end up with humour in them, even when I try to be deadly serious. My hope is that other people find my writing as amusing as I do! Otherwise I will have a lonely readership of – one.

I’m a proud member of the GCWA writing group, The Ten Penners. We are a group of adults who write for children and young adults. I really enjoy my monthly “fix” with my fellow Penners! This year I’ve promised Marion Martineer (our esteemed leader) that I WILL do my homework every month! We generally have a writing exercise during the meeting which we have to expand on for homework. My track record has not been good…but 2012 is a new year!

I also have a collection of letters, photos and notes which I’ve kept for nearly 17 years now (because that’s how old my daughter is!) detailing my experience of having a premature baby. Both my daughters were premature, but by the time I’d got to the second one I was a bit better at it and she was only five weeks early, so it was not such a drama. My older daughter, however, was born at 27 weeks and weighed less than a kilogram. It was an overwhelming experience and something that deeply affected me and my family. I hope to one day put all that information together, either in a book form or maybe a blog, so that it might help other parents going through the same sort of thing. Maybe I can work on that before another 17 years go by!! Besides, I think my daughters might like to read it.

3) Do you think your childhood influenced your love of writing, and if so in what way?

Oh definitely. Growing up I was surrounded by books. My mother is a huge reader and her house is stuffed full of all sorts of books – novels and biographies, and all the classics. I’ve always loved books and reading too, and my bookshelves are overflowing with books I’ve read and books I’ve yet to read! The best present you can give me is a book, and I love discovering new authors. I think to really understand how to write and communicate with readers you have to be a reader yourself, and read widely. Hopefully I’ve learned something by now…

I had a pretty good imagination as a kid – just ask Big Judy and Little Judy, my imaginary friends. Little Judy was good, and Big Judy was bad. Very bad. She used to get me into LOTS of trouble!

I always liked making up stories in English at school, but my writing really started when I left school and went to the TAFE in Grafton, where I did secretarial studies. This is where I learned to type, and suddenly I wanted to type stories. My mother had a couple of old manual typewriters, and my best friend and I would spend our afternoons after TAFE trying to outdo each other writing the most terrible romances. My heroes bore a strong resemblance to Tom Selleck when he was “Magnum PI”. I had the worst crush on that man. Maybe it was the moustache! I’m not sure what that says about me!

Anyway, our stories were so bad they were good. I’ve still got them and sometimes I dig them out just to have a laugh and see how far I’ve come!

4) Tell us one of the best things you’ve done in your life as a writer.

In May 2009, The Ten Penners self published a collection of fantasy stories for children, “Fan-tas-tic-al Tales”. I contributed one (longish) story, a fairytale and a poem. I learned a lot from the experience, and it was a real thrill to hold a “real” book, with my actual work in it, in my hot little hands! (Copies are still available by the way!) One day when I was in the Burleigh Waters library I saw a copy of our book on the shelves, next to other books by other real author type people, and I had to stop myself from jumping up and down with excitement and shouting “That’s OUR book! Look! That’s a picture of me there! I wrote that!”- because people would have looked at me funny…

5) Tell us about your reading

I love to read. My bookshelves hold everything from fantasy to mystery to romantic suspense to science fiction.

I read a lot of young adult fiction – because the quality of the writing is superb. I love Philip Reeve (my absolute favourite – I could bang on and on about his “Mortal Engines” series), Philip Pullman, Eoin Colfer, JK Rowling, Cornelia Funke and many, many more.

Some of my favourite authors for adults are Janet Evanovich, Sue Grafton, Charlaine Harris, Neil Gaiman, Jasper Fforde, Kate Morton, Gregory Maguire and Reay Tannahill. Less modern authors I enjoy are Agatha Christie, Daphne Du Maurier, and you can’t beat Jane Austen and the Bronte sisters!

6) What relaxes you?

Reading tops the list (no surprises there). I like going to the movies, and can also easily get addicted to good quality television shows, of which there are quite a few at the moment! It’s also fun sometimes to just do girly stuff with my daughters, like shopping! This is much more relaxing when you have money to spend, though…

Recently I’ve dusted off my “Zumba” exercise game for the Wii (which greatly surprised my husband as I’m sure he thought it would never see the light of day!) and I find I actually enjoy it. This is a minor miracle, as exercise is really not my thing. However, even though the muscles I never knew I had are crying out in agony, I actually feel better for it. I am Zumba Queen, Queen of Zumba! Perhaps I should use that as my nom de plume!