Gail Tagarro, Author at editors4you

The Profiled Author

28th February 2020 by Gail Tagarro Leave a Comment

The Profiled Author is part of ‘Let’s Talk with the Authors’, a series of interviews with authors who have worked with editors4you or WriteDesign Publications. The promotional opportunity is also open to other authors (contact us for details).

The Profiled Author: Greg Kater

Promoting Your Books

Around Christmas 2019, I offered my authors a simple way to promote their books through an author interview.

As we writers know, it’s one thing to write a book. It’s quite another to promote it. Writers tend to shy away from promotion, but it’s vital to kick the shyness habit and get our books out there in the big wide world.

In this third interview in the series, the profiled author is Greg Kater, a prolific author who has so far published four novels: The Warramunga’s War, The Warramunga’s Aftermath of War, Skills of the Warramunga and Conflict on the Yangtze. And he hasn’t finished writing yet!

Today, we chat with Greg about his four books. Meet Greg on his website.

Tell us how you started writing

I am an 80-year-old Australian living on the Gold Coast of Queensland. I retired as a geological and geophysical consultant to the resources industries five years ago. During my professional life, I was always busy and never had time for writing anything but thousands of technical reports.

On my retirement, I had time on my hands and decided that I would like to write fiction using my knowledge of different lands and peoples. I had worked with many weird and wonderful people and thought it would be fun to include them (under different names) in my novels.

That’s an interesting point, because your characters are vividly painted, likeable (the goodies!) and realistic. Did you tell these people they were going to appear in your books? How did they react?

No, I didn’t tell anyone in advance that I might base my characters on them. At first, I didn’t know which characters I was likely to develop as the story progressed, but each situation brought forth a new memory. Most of the characters I remembered are diverse and spread out all over the place. Some may not now be alive. Contemporaries of mine who have recognised themselves in my novels have been most amused (and, I hope, pleased).

I was fascinated and completely drawn in by the descriptions of countries, locations, buildings and customs in your novels. How were you able to make them so vibrant?

I travelled extensively and worked in all parts of the world and in all sorts of environments, from Australian desert and remote bush country to parts of the USA, Central America, South East Asia, Russian Siberia, the Middle East and most provinces of China. The countries and locations in my books are all personally familiar to me.

Tell us about your books.

The profiled author’s first book

My first book, The Warramunga’s War, was initially based on my father’s war diaries and his involvement in the Syrian campaign and the desert war in the Middle East and North Africa during World War II. My principal characters were based on people I had worked with at Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory, including some of the local aboriginal people, the Warramungas, during the 1960s. All the localities in the book are places where I have been and know well.

cover for the profiled author — The Profiled Author: Greg Kater, The Warramunga’s War

Greg’s second book

My second book, The Warramunga’s Aftermath of War, which takes place in early 1946, deals with the trafficking of children from the war-torn Philippines. I lived in the Philippines for 11 years from 1969 as VP with one of the major mining companies there. I learned a great deal about the havoc and suffering during the Japanese occupation, as well as some of the terrible things that happened later as criminals took advantage of the chaos in the aftermath of war. I felt a need to write about this.

book cover greg kater — The Profiled Author: Greg Kater, The Warramunga’s Aftermath of War

The third book in the Warramunga trilogy

My third book, Skills of the Warramunga, takes place in Malaya, where I have also worked throughout the country. In the aftermath of World War II, many different groups, including communists, bandits, Nazis and others, were trying to gain control of all or part of the Malayan Peninsular from the British. The novel deals with the period when the British created the Malayan Union in April 1946. It showcases the extraordinary tracking skills of the Warramunga aborigines, which I witnessed first-hand during my time at Tennant Creek.

photo of book cover for the profiled author — The Profiled Author: Greg Kater, Skills of the Warramunga

The fourth book – Greg couldn’t let his characters go!

I had originally set out to write a trilogy using the same principal characters, but after the third novel I just couldn’t let them fade away! So, I wrote Conflict on the Yangtze. I have been to China more than a hundred times and am very familiar with the landscape and the people. In 1946, although Japanese occupation had ended, there was still a good deal of fighting throughout China between the government (the Kuomintang), the communists, warlords and various criminal groups, all trying to establish centres of power. Most of the leading families mentioned in the novel are real and there certainly was some opium smuggling going on at that time.

book cover for the profiled author — Greg Kater’s Conflict on the Yangtze

Your books clearly required a huge amount of painstaking research. How did you go about this?

In spite of my intimate knowledge of the localities and their histories, I had to undertake a great deal of research to confirm the accuracy of the historical events my fictional characters were involved in. I researched material from libraries, diaries and known histories as well as talking to people who had been around during the war in the different countries. As mentioned before, I was also able to use my father’s war experiences in my first novel.

Did you enjoy doing the research? Why?

Historical research is very fulfilling. I have always been interested in history and the research enabled me to learn much more about past events than I previously knew. That gathering of knowledge, in no small way, increased my enthusiasm for ensuring the accuracy of historical events.

What are the main themes in these four books?

Apart from a good amount of action, adventure and history, I have tried to include the themes of friendship, trust, humour and skills, mixed in with a certain amount of love and romance.

Who do you consider is your main audience?

I think my main audience comprises all ages, from 15 years up. With my style of historical fiction, I don’t believe it necessary to spice up the narrative with lurid descriptions of steamy sexual affairs or extreme violence. In wartime and its aftermath, violence does occur. When it does, I have generally moderated the descriptions as far as possible to appeal to a wider audience.

Many authors struggle with promotion. How have you gone about promoting your book, and what success have you met with?

Yes. As with all other authors, I struggle with promotion. I have been fortunate to have the support of the Online Book Club and other such organisations which have produced hundreds of maximum star reviews for my books and supported me in other ways. I have also been fortunate to have received several book awards from various international groups that run competitions. If any of that translates into book sales, we’ll have to see…

Greg, I believe you’re currently writing your next book. Can you give us a sneak peak, without giving too much away?

I am about 70% through another historical fiction novel which is set in a completely different period to that of my first four books. The working title is Scent of a Foreign Land. It follows the adventures of a family in the 1830s-40s who sail to Australia from England and carve out a life for themselves producing cattle and sheep in the vast wild country over the mountains west of Sydney.

The story is based on the detailed diaries and letters of my great-great-grandmother, as well as letters and histories of other ancestors. Writing this novel has been slow, as I am in possession of almost too much research material. However, it is a wondrous thing to be able to get into the minds of my forebears. They were a hardy lot. It is quite a series of adventures.

You can read reviews of and purchase Greg’s books by:

Going to Greg’s website and purchasing from one of the suppliers listed there, including from his publisher, Zeus Publications The Warramunga’s War, The Warramunga’s Aftermath of War, Skills of the Warramunga, Conflict on the Yangtze.

In our next ‘Let’s Talk with the Authors’ series, we chat with another Gold Coast author who wrote a moving account of losing her son in the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami.

If you would like to be interviewed for this series as a featured author, please contact us.

Featured Authors

14th February 2020 by Gail Tagarro Leave a Comment

Featured Authors is part of the series of interviews ‘Let’s Talk with the Authors’. Featured authors have worked with editors4you or WriteDesign Publications. The promotional opportunity for featured authors is also open to other authors (contact us for details).

Featured Authors: M.B. Wynter

Promoting Your Books

As we writers know, it’s one thing to write a book. It’s quite another to promote it. Writers tend to shy away from promotion, but it’s vital to kick the shyness habit so that we can get our books out there in the big wide world.

In our second interview of featured authors, we chat with M.B. Wynter, an Australian author from Sydney. The Fetal Position is her first YA fiction novel.

featured authors photo of M.B. Wynter the fetal position — Featured Authors: M.B. Wynter, *The Fetal Position*

Can you give us an elevator pitch of your story?

The Fetal Position follows the lives of my two protagonists, Dwaine Hauser and Paige Wyander, a young couple from Sydney and Melbourne respectively who are at a crossroads. Personally, they are in distress, and their relationship has come to a standstill. Paige suffers from a disability that greatly affects her relationships and her ability to manage a seemingly easy life, while Dwaine is trying to graduate high school despite his father’s recent incarceration. The novel has both lovely as well as cringingly awkward moments, which to me is a young adult’s life in a nutshell.

The Fetal Position is YA fiction. Have you found that people other than young adults also purchase your book? What feedback have you had from such readers?

Surprisingly, yes, and the feedback is mostly the same. In both online reviews and in person, many say that the book is a little too graphic for their liking in terms of sexual content. My response to that has been, ‘This is what young people do.’ I didn’t write an erotic fiction novel, but I wrote one that doesn’t shy away from what happens behind doors in a young person’s life. Particularly when the book is centred around a couple who are very much in love.

Some other responses I’ve received have been nostalgic. I reference a lot of 70’s, 80’s and 90’s music, and I realise that most young adults wouldn’t be familiar with half of it, but it worked with readers over 25. I’m relieved because yes, The Fetal Position is YA fiction, but what writer wouldn’t want their work to appeal to everybody?

I believe it took you a number of years to finish your book. You began at the age of 13 and published your book in 2018. What were some of the challenges you faced in writing and completing your book?

No one on earth will ever know the agony I went through to write and complete this book. I was 13 years old; I was in year 8, I was a top student living a healthy lifestyle and I was very happy. I initially wrote about 25,000 words of The Fetal Position (which didn’t have a title until a few weeks before I published it) but then life began to change for me on a personal level. I won’t delve into it but the next 10 years were a severe struggle and it affected every aspect of my life, including my writing.

I was stuck. I didn’t have writer’s block (I knew exactly where my characters were going) but I was a kid, I knew nothing about writing a novel and I knew no one who had written one. I’d read a hundred books and all I knew was that The Fetal Position had its place on paper.

Stephen King says there are really only two things you need to do in order to be a writer; you need to read a lot and you need to write a lot. I read that quote when I was a teenager in the midst of my struggles, and it made perfect sense to me. There are no excuses or shortcuts. I struggled in my youth, yes, but I never stopped doing those two things. The writing took up most of my high school education and a few years after, but by 2018 I’d finished the first draft and needed professional assistance.

You redrafted your novel many times, but your book has an intriguingly mature perspective and contains many mature insights. Did you feel particularly ‘mature’ when you began writing your book?

The funny thing is that as I grew up, so did the story. Paige is 21 and Dwaine is 18. I (the person who made them up in my head and gave them names and scars and secrets) was 13. I felt mature when I started writing it, and in many ways I was, but it didn’t take me long to realise I was coming up short in some areas. I would map out a crucial scene, but when it came to writing it, I couldn’t inject emotion into it because I hadn’t felt those emotions myself.

That’s why I had to redraft parts of The Fetal Position multiple times. By the time I published it at 23 years old, I felt everything I needed to feel in order to do my characters justice and not sell them to the world ‘half done’.

Young adults are sometimes faced with adult issues. You told me these shouldn’t be treated lightly. Can you give a couple of examples from your book?

Many children are faced with situations where they’re forced to grow up very quickly. I knew when I started writing it that the mature themes were going to cause some controversy. My mother hasn’t finished reading it because in the first chapter there’s a moment when Paige and Dwaine witness her mother having sex in the living room. I understand my mum’s reservations as well as everyone else’s, but society needs to remember that this scene is not far-fetched for some people. Some kids have to be the ones to look after their parents, just as Paige does with her drug-addicted mother. I wanted to be as authentic as possible when writing this story, I didn’t sugar-coat anything.

Paige suffers from an illness where she must be medicated, and medication has side-effects. In recent times, the world is learning that adolescents struggle with many ‘adult’ problems, including mental illness, and it was important to me to factor this in when writing scenes that to some would be controversial. In reality, there are millions of Paiges out there.

Your book is set in 1994. Has anyone who’s read it asked, ‘Why isn’t this book set in the 21^st century’? Why did you set in the mid-1990s?

The 90s were a simpler time for communication due to the lack of technology. I fell in love with and respected my characters to the point where I was afraid to ‘write’ them for fear I would fail them. Crazy, I know, but my way of making them great was to have them speak face to face rather than on Facebook Messenger. They deserved a love that was typically 20th century. I love writing scenes that don’t include a text message. I love writing intimate moments that don’t necessarily include nudity. People don’t speak to each other anymore. It’s ironic coming from me, but typing out words isn’t speaking. Using your ‘voice’ is the most daring thing of all, I think.

Many people have asked me why the book is set between 1990 and 1994, and I tell them the same thing: Even though I was a teenager in the 21^st century, I liked it better back then. And the happier I am, the better I write.

I’m sure you can imagine their confused expressions at that one.

Did you have an initial inspiration for the book, or did it just ‘happen’?

I fell in love with writing when I was nine, and when I was 13 I said to myself, ‘I want to write a book for teenagers. I don’t know what it’s going to be about but I want to write something real. I want to write something that I would read a million times over.’

The next day, I saw an image in my head of Dwaine with his long hair and the day after, Paige looked at me with a sad face, and I just went from there.

Paige is 21 and Dwaine is 18, and they meet when Dwaine is still in high school. Despite the three-year age difference, in many ways, Dwaine is a lot more mature than Paige. Was this intentional? If so, why is it important to your story?

I deliberately made the characters and their personalities this way to avoid gender stereotypes and ageism. Dwaine is, in fact, more mature than Paige. He’s more emotional, he’s shy and he has a lighter presence. Paige, however, has a quicker mind, she’s more logical and she’s generally complicated. Typically, in the arts, the roles are reversed. I have a male friend who after he read the book said to me, ‘This dude is so many of us but he’s not what women want and it shows because Paige rages it at him.’ I replied, ‘Whether or not that’s true, you just said he’s so many of you and that’s all I wanted to write about.’ Something true, something people can relate to and something that both men and women can take away. That’s important to me. An artist can’t achieve much if they don’t understand people. People can’t be truly stimulated unless they feel understood.

When you began writing the book, you yourself were still at high school. What aspects of school life in the book are taken from your own high school experiences (if any)?

To be honest, so much of my high school experience isn’t reflected in the book for various reasons including the fact that I don’t remember a lot of my high school life (I mentioned my youth was a bit rocky). However, the only place I ever felt truly safe and understood was the library. If you read the book, that’ll make sense.

What do you believe is the main message of your story?

The entire foundation of Paige and Dwaine’s romance is based on the fear of the unknown. The way Paige sees herself in a negative way stems from her fear of not understanding why she suffers from a ‘curse’ of a disease. There’s a chapter I titled ‘Homophobia’, which represents the fear of something that people don’t understand. The 90s was a homophobic time. I don’t know if fear is the message I want to convey, but I certainly do want to show others that fear gets you nowhere at all, and sometimes it even gets you into trouble.

My English teacher in high school once said to me, ‘Once an author releases their work, it no longer belongs to them.’ I didn’t understand what she meant until she said, ‘People are going to dissect the shit out of your work and make it whatever they want it to be. You can tell them it’s not true, but why do that? People want to be entertained.’

I was angry. I knew people would think I had written a love story when I hadn’t. She said to me, ‘You want to be a novelist, right? That’s something you need to come to terms with.’ That’s what I did, so there isn’t a direct message. My readers will take care of that.

Ok, so here comes the question that all novelists either dread or smirk at! Is any part of your book autobiographical?

I wasn’t expecting this question but now I’m dreading answering it! I’m adamant that this book isn’t based on my life whatsoever, but I threw two pieces of me in there. The first was the music I loved and the second was my obsession with everything 90s. I also wanted to pay tribute to Nirvana and document Cobain’s death. Like Dwaine, they were my favourite band as a teenager.

So no, The Fetal Position isn’t autobiographical. Did I feel the way my characters feel when I was a teenager? Hell yes.

Are you planning to write further novels?

Of course! I’ve mapped out a new manuscript. It’s also YA fiction, but it’s not a sequel to The Fetal Position. However, given the long and difficult 10 years I spent writing my first novel, I decided to put it aside and let it gain its strength while I wrote something a little less complicated, some poetry, which I’ve just finished.

The poetry is autobiographical, so those who found my vague comments on my adolescence interesting will have a chance to be nosy. And I welcome it! All updates will be through my social media. I can’t wait to share my next piece of work with you all.

How is your experience of writing your first novel affecting how you write your second?

I made a billion mistakes getting started and writing The Fetal Position, which I like to refer to as ‘writer growing pains’. I spent too many years striving for perfection when it didn’t exist. I spent too little time believing in my words and more time trying to comfort the characters in my head who I loved so much but who literally couldn’t love me back. When I started working with my writing coach and editor, she taught me so many things, from simple grammatical tips to massive ways to structure a novel. Editing a book is just as important as writing it, and with all this knowledge I know it won’t take 10 years to write the next one. I don’t recommend that to anybody. Time was my enemy for a long time, but it’s my friend now.

Featured Authors cover The Fetal Position — Featured Authors: M.B. Wynter, The Fetal Position

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Next time in featured authors, we’ll be interviewing a prolific Gold Coast-based author about his books.

Contact us to find out about being interviewed for featured authors.

Writing Festivals 2020

7th February 2020 by Gail Tagarro Leave a Comment

My Writers Connect! Newsletter, generally produced fortnightly, is now combining with some of my blog posts, as in this one, Writing Festivals 2020. Here, we highlight some upcoming writing festivals in NZ and Australia.

In today’s blog, we finish up with a word of the day, a fun fact about a famous writer, and a brief tip to keep you inspired.

notebook coffee pencil sunglasses in cafe for blog writing festivals 2020 — (Photo by Toa Heftiba on Unsplash)

Writing Festivals 2020 – NZ

Wellington, New Zealand

2020 New Zealand Festival of the Arts

This festival is an absolute smorgasbord of events in the arts, with dance, theatre, music, visual arts, opera and of course writing. We focus on the writing program below. Some events are free. It’s well worth a visit to beautiful New Zealand.

Writers’ Program

22 February – 14 March 2020 (Note: full festival runs 21 Feb – 15 March)

Entry: Individual session $NZ19. ‘Take Five Pass’ 5 sessions $NZ76

Details of writers’ events here:

https://www.festival.nz/events/writers/

Details of all festival events here:

https://www.festival.nz/events/all/

Writing Festivals 2020 – Australia

Below is a selection of Australian writing festivals coming up within the next four months.

Perth Festival – 2020 Literature & Ideas

21 – 23 February

Set in the grounds of the beautiful University of Western Australia, the 2020 festival is all about discussing the most pressing issues of our time: land, money, power, sex. There are plenty of free events.

Download the program here:

https://www.perthfestival.com.au/media/qpejkjfl/lit-ideas-brochure_245x345_2020.pdf

Writers’ Week – Adelaide Festival

29 February – 5 March 2020

This is truly an inclusive event. All sessions at the Pioneer Women’s Memorial Garden are FREE. The Opening Event is ticketed. Selected sessions will be live streamed toschools, libraries and retirement villages from Mon 2 Mar to Thu 5 Mar.

Download the program here:

https://www.adelaidefestival.com.au/media/5186/aww20_guide_all-pages_low-res.pdf

Download the live streaming events here:

https://www.adelaidefestival.com.au/media/5441/aww20-live-stream-schedule.pdf

Tickets for opening event here:

https://www.adelaidefestival.com.au/events/2020-writers-week/the-only-constant/

Sydney Writers’ Festival

27 April – 3 May 2020

You can look forward to around 300 events during the week-long festival across the city.

The festival is a not-for-profit organisation and their aim is to be accessible to a wide range of audiences.

The full program will be announced mid-March 2020. Meantime, you can subscribe to their e-newsletter to receive updates. See link below.

Sign up to e-newletter for festival updates:

https://tickets.swf.org.au/account/create/brief?tnewq=00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000&tnewp=7e49d929-999b-4d6f-9966-f9915a9ae1f0&tnewts=1486944578&tnewc=swforg&tnewe=swf2016&tnewrt=AfterEvent&tnewh=a8090119f46e5dbde9eeac794c714cef

About the festival here:

https://www.swf.org.au/about-us/

Margaret River Readers & Writers Festival, WA

15 – 17 May 2020

This is the largest regional literary event in Western Australia. It attracts novelists, journalists, academics and established and emerging storytellers from WA, interstate and overseas.

The program will be announced during February. Not long to wait!

Stay tuned for festival updates:

https://mrrwfestival.us14.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=80cd9ddb1d9a87e3b96e5327d&id=0e8660bdcf

About the festival

Word of the Day

bae

Meaning ‘a boyfriend or girlfriend; a romantic or sexual partner’, bae is mainly used as a term of endearment. It is now officially listed (as of June 2019) in the Oxford English Dictionary, so go ahead and use it in your YA fiction without fear!

Fun Facts – Enid Blyton

One of the most successful children’s storytellers of the 20th century – with more than 600 million copies of her books sold worldwide, Enid Blyton (1897 – 1968) wrote 762 books. Her mother thought her writing was a waste of time! Enid generally wrote 6,000–10,000 words daily. Her writing routine involved beginning after breakfast and writing until 5 pm, with a short break for lunch, her portable typewriter on her knee and her favourite red Moroccan shawl nearby. Red was a ‘mental stimulus’ for her.

What’s your writing routine, and do you have any quirky writing habits?

Get Inspired – George Orwell

‘A scrupulous writer, in every sentence that he writes, will ask himself at least four questions, thus: 1. What am I trying to say? 2. What words will express it? 3. What image or idiom will make it clearer? 4. Is this image fresh enough to have an effect? And he will probably ask himself two more: 1. Could I put it more shortly? 2. Have I said anything that is avoidably ugly?’—George Orwell, Politics and the English Language.

Writing festivals 2020 is…

… a regular update about competitions, festivals and other writing events. Festivals and writing events are a great way to meet other writers and keep up with what’s happening in the world of writing!

Need help writing your business book?

One of the best ways to build credibility in your business is to write and publish a book. It creates trust in you and in your business.

You can sell your book, and promote it as a giveaway at keynote speaking events, seminars and training sessions.

Where do you start?

That’s where WriteDesign Publications comes in.

Affiliated with editors4you (established 2006), which provides professional editorial services including book editing, manuscript appraisal and writer coaching, WDP and editors4you together offer an end-to-end service to writers and business owners.

Drop us an email at [email protected] or give us a call on 0405 695 534 Ask for our cheat sheet where we show you how to plan your book in 30 minutes.

Let’s Talk with the Authors

31st January 2020 by Gail Tagarro Leave a Comment

‘Let’s Talk with the Authors’ is a series of interviews with authors who have worked with editors4you or WriteDesign Publications. The promotional opportunity is also open to other authors (contact us for details).

Featured Author: Deborah Peden

Promoting Your Books

Just before Christmas 2019, I had the idea to suggest to my authors a simple way to promote their books by offering an author interview.

As we writers know, it’s one thing to write a book. It’s quite another to promote it. Writers often tend to shy away from promotion, but it’s vital to kick the shyness habit so that we can get our books out there in the big wide world.

Today, we kick off the Let’s Talk with the Authors Featured Author Interviews and chat with author Deborah Peden from Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, about her book 100 Ways to a Healthy 100.

photo of deb peden author for post let's talk with the authors — Let’s Talk with the Authors: Deb Peden, author of *100 Ways to a Healthy 100*

Let’s Talk with the Authors: About Deb

Deb has a degree in English and History, and a BEd. She’s a Life Coach and Trained Demartini Method© Facilitator.

I think you can tell from her photo that Deb is a living example of health and wellbeing. In fact, for over a decade she’s been researching health and wellness, and supports others through workshops, seminars and face-to-face consultations.

Her book 100 Ways to a Healthy 100 is a combination of her passions: balanced wellness, educating and writing, and distilling ancient and contemporary wisdom into a readable and relatable format.

Let’s Get Cracking and Chat With Deb

Is 100 Ways to a Healthy 100 your first book?

Yes, this is my first published non-fiction book. I’ve written a number of creative pieces and have had magazine articles and short stories published over the years.

Where did your health journey start? Because you’re not exactly 100!

In 2008, I had a health crisis, triggered by years of sugar addiction. I read David Gillespie’s Sweet Poison around that time. His easy-to-read text with its science-made-simple approach helped me turn my health around, and the wake-up call ignited a desire to discover other ways to stay healthy and live a long life. I uncovered the secrets of the supercentenarians – those wonderful folk who’ve made it past 100 years, hale and hearty! In my book I share their wisdom to help my readers meet that milestone. I’m 62 years of age now, so I’ve got 38 years to reach full credibility!

(62, really?! You look at least 10 years younger!)

You told me you experienced some challenges while researching and writing this book. What kept you going?

Writer’s block inevitably reared its ugly head from time to time. Whenever I hit a wall with my research, I reminded myself of the chilling health statistics associated with lifestyle choices; choices that I had been making most of my life. For example, there are 422 million people worldwide (1 million of those Australians) living with type-2 diabetes. This figure doubled from 1980 to 2014! I knew I had an important message to get out there, and I persisted because I cared about my own health and the health of millions of others.

Then there were the fascinating facts I dug up that helped keep me going. For instance, the relationship between the health of the gut and the health of the brain/emotions – known as the gut-brain axis.

Does your book address the healthy mindset aspect?

100 Ways to a Healthy 100 addresses all seven areas of life: Mental, Vocational, Physical, Spiritual, Familial, Financial and Social. Community and connection, the social aspects of life, are proven to be one of the main reasons for those living healthy lives to 100 and beyond.

I understand the book was 4½ years in the writing. Did you expect to finish writing your book?
Yes and No! I had the title for my book very early on, although I considered it just a working title and thought a more condensed one would reveal itself as the book unfolded. What I didn’t expect was that I would modify my lengthy title by increasing the number! It swelled from 30 Ways … to 50 Ways … to 75 Ways … before finally becoming 100 Ways to a Healthy 100.

I had a message to share with others. I got over my self-doubts, sat down and did the work, trusted my own abilities. I ended up having a greater fear of keeping the ‘music’ locked up inside of me, than of sharing my message with the world.

What would you say is a key message for your readers?

We need to take control of our own health, not just buy into what food manufacturers say is ‘healthy’. I did my homework, trusted my gut and went back to the basics.

I follow the ancient wisdom of Hippocrates, the Father of Medicine, who said, ‘Let food be thy medicine, and medicine thy food.’

If Hippocrates lived today, he’d qualify that by saying he means real food, not the processed stuff on supermarket shelves!

How would you condense your message for your readers?

I would summarise by offering four key points:

Eat as low down the food chain as possible
Move/exercise: it doesn’t need to be overly vigorous for longevity
Connect with others: community connection is said to be the most powerful strategy for long life
Find out what your purpose is in life and go for it. Serve others. Purpose is said to be more indicative of longevity than race, gender and educational levels.

Has there been a key influence in writing this book?

Aside from recognising my own poor health choices and health challenges, a major influence in writing my book was Dr John Demartini, a specialist in human behaviour who wrote the Foreword for my book. One of his key messages that continues to resonate with me is: ‘When the voice and the vision on the inside is more profound, and more clear and loud than all opinions on the outside, you’ve begun to master your life.’

You’ve incorporated humour and anecdotes in your book. Can you tell us about that? And about the illustrations?

I’ve taken a relatively serious topic – health – and injected a little humour. My creative writing in the past has always been about entertaining people, so it was natural to thread it through the pages.

My illustrator, Sean Leahy, is a well-known cartoonist: humour, irony and satire are part of his stock-in-trade. I gave Sean free rein to choose the topics for illustration. He modelled the two comical figures on the cover and throughout the pages on my husband and me. I love the way he was able to create humour in the otherwise-ordinary, and it helps to engage my readers.

Do you plan to write further books, on health topics or any other? If so, would you like to share?

I don’t have another book in mind at this stage, but I have been gathering important updates and new knowledge for an updated edition of 100 Ways to a Healthy 100. As balanced good health is my most important value, I’m constantly researching, looking out for and learning from others about ways to help us all live a long and healthy life.

front cover of book for let's talk with the authors — Get your health in shape. Click on Deb’s cover above to purchase her book

In the next ‘Let’s Talk with the Authors’ series, we’ll be chatting with a young Sydney author about her YA fiction novel.

Contact us to find out about being interviewed for your book.

Writing Competitions Jan and Feb 2020

24th January 2020 by Gail Tagarro Leave a Comment

My Lonely Writer Newsletter, produced weekly or fortnightly, is now combining with some of my blog posts, as in this one, Writing Competitions Jan and Feb 2020.

In today’s blog, we finish up with a word of the day, a fun fact about a famous writer, and a brief tip to keep you inspired.

notebook coffee pencil sunglasses in cafe writing competitions jan and feb 2020 — (Photo by Toa Heftiba on Unsplash)

Put Your Writing to the Test

Writing competitions are a great way to open your writing up to an audience of professionals, without having to go through the – sometimes – discouraging process of submissions to publishers and agents.

With some competitions, you can even pay a little more on top of the entry fee to receive feedback. This can be so valuable!

Australian and International Writing Competitions

Below is a selection of writing competitions in Australia and internationally that you can submit various types of writing to this January and February.

Australian Writing Competitions

AWC Furious Fiction

About: Short story up to 500 words. First Friday of every month. Next starts 5 pm Friday 7 February.

Open to:Writers 17 years plus anywhere in the world

Theme: Follow the story prompts revealed when the competition opens

Closes: Midnight Sunday 9 February

Entry fee: Free

Prize: First: $500

Details here: https://www.writerscentre.com.au/furious-fiction/

The Writing Quarter Competition

About: Monthly short story competition up to 3,000 words

Open to: Writers 18 years plus, any nationality, any country of residence

Theme: Open

Closes: Next competition closes 29 February

Entry fee: Free

Prize: First: $30

Details here: https://writingquarter.com.au/competition/

Boyup Brook Bush Poetry Competition

About: Bush verse

Open to: All

Theme: Original Australian verse

Closes: 31 January 2020

Entry Fee: $10

Prizes: First: $100. Emerging Poet: $100

Details: Please email entries to [email protected]

International Writing Competitions

The Masters Review Winter Short Story Award

About: Short story, up to 6,000 words

Open to: Emerging Writers internationally

Theme: Open

Closes: 31 January 2020

Entry Fee: $US20

Prizes: First: $US3,000 + publication online. Second: $US300. Third: $US200

Details here: https://mastersreview.com/short-story-award-for-new-writers/

Flash 500 Short Story Competition

About: Short story, 1,000—3,000 words

Open to: International

Theme: Open

Closes: 29 February 2020

Entry Fee: One entry £7. Two entries £12. Three entries £16. Four entries £20

Prizes: First: £500. Second: £200. Third: £100

Details here: http://www.flash500.com/index_files/ss.html Rules here: http://www.flash500.com/index_files/ssr.html

Michael Terence Publishing Winter Short Story Competition

About: Up to 3,000 words

Open to: International

Theme: Most genres accepted

Closes: 29 February 2020

Entry Fee: £5 for each story entered

Prizes: First Prize: £400 + publication in MTP Anthology + Anthology title based on title of winning entry. Second: £300 + publication in MTP Anthology. Third: £200 + publication in MTP Anthology.

Details here: https://www.mtp.agency/copy-of-competition

Word of the Day

Albertopolis

Until today, I had not heard this word. It is a nickname referring to the area of museums and other cultural institutions on Exhibition Road, South Kensington, London. It was named after Prince Albert, Queen Victoria’s husband, to both celebrate and satirise his role in Victorian life.

Fun Fact – Agatha Christie, surfer

The British crime novelist may have been one of the first British surfers. She and her husband learned to surf during an international trip. At the time, she was in her early thirties. According to some sources, the couple was among the first British people to stand up on a surfboard.

Get Inspired

If you’ve been writing bits and pieces for years, dedicate a rainy day to digging them out and rereading them. Pick out the most promising piece you’ve written, and develop it into a short story or novel.

Writing competitions in Jan and Feb 2020 is…

Just the beginning of a regular update about competitions you can enter. They’re a great way to test out your writing in a non-threatening environment. Go to it!

Writing your Business Book

One of the best ways to build credibility in your business is to write and publish a book. It creates trust in you and in your business.

You can sell your book, and promote it as a giveaway at keynote speaking events, seminars and training sessions.

Where do you Start?

That’s where WriteDesign Publications comes in.

Drop us an email at [email protected] or give us a call on 0405 695 534 Ask for our cheat sheet where we show you how to plan your book in 30 minutes.

Australian Writing Workshops in Jan, Feb and Mar 2020

20th January 2020 by Gail Tagarro Leave a Comment

vintage books pen and photos on table — (Photo by Joanna Kosinska on Unsplash)

In last week’s blog post, Writing Resolutions for 2020, we touched on honing our craft as writers with ongoing training through writing workshops. This post, Australian Writing Workshops in Jan, Feb and Mar 2020, continues from there. We travel around Australia and pick out one writing workshop from each of the writers’ centres in the six states.

I’ve chosen these workshops randomly. So to be fair to the myriad of other workshops and presenters, as well as a link to the workshop selected for inclusion here, I’ve included a general link to all the other workshops currently available in that state.

Writers Victoria

‘Unreliable Narrators and Other Innovative Points of View’

24 January 2020 10 am – 4 pm. Cost $135–$215

This workshop centres on point of view. It sounds intriguing. Point of view ‘can establish your narrative, tie it to one character, and help develop the emotional resonance of your characters. It can also be a fantastic tool for laying the foundation for twists, red herrings and big reveals.’

The workshop is run by Robert Gott, the author of 97 fiction and nonfiction books. Of his seven crime novels, two of have been shortlisted for the Ned Kelly Award.

Details here: https://writersvictoria.org.au/civicrm/event/info?reset=1&id=742

More events at Writers Victoria here: https://writersvictoria.org.au/calendars/events

Writers SA

‘Preparing for the Publicity Trail’

1 February 2020 1.30 – 4.30 pm. Cost $115

Designed for authors ready to hit the publicity trail with their book, this workshop will teach you how to promote your book, how to give a great book launch speech to drive sales, how to overcome nerves (including learning what not to say), even how to pose for promotional photos!

The presenter, Victoria Purman, is a multi-published, award-nominated, Amazon Kindle bestselling author. She has been involved in the Adelaide media for nearly thirty years in various capacities.

Details here: https://writerssa.org.au/event-registration/?ee=751

More events at Writers SA here: https://writerssa.org.au/program/workshops/

Writers WA

‘Perth Writers Salon‘

26 January 9.30 am – 12.30 pm. Cost $30–$150

‘Participants will learn how to generate ideas, create conflicts, take heroes on journeys, overcome writer’s block and much more in five constructive, inspiring and fun sessions.’ You can attend just one session, or join them all.

The workshop is facilitated by Campbell Jeffreys, an award-winning WA writer of nine books. He has also written for newspapers and magazines around the world.

Details here: https://writingwa.org/event/perth-writers-salon/2020-01-26/

More events at Writers WA here: https://www.writingwa.org/events/

pens and pencil tied with string on brown notebook — (Photo by Hello I’m Nik 🇬🇧 on Unsplash)

Queensland Writers’ Centre

‘The Hero & Heroine’s Journey: Blueprints for Writers’

25 January 2020 10.30 am – 4.30 pm. Cost $100–$190

As the workshop description states, ‘In both fiction and non-fiction, characters are the pillars of a good story. Fiction and memoir writers can look forward to exploring ‘where literature and psychology converge.’ You will improve your writing skills with practical exercises and group discussions, understand the hero and heroine’s journeys, ‘integrating the power of character flaws into authentic characterisation, creating engaging and entertaining characters, understanding how story and character arcs work together to serve the narrative.’

The presenter, Lauren Elise Daniels, has published globally.

Learn more here: https://queenslandwriters.org.au/events/the-hero-amp-heroines-journey-blueprints-for-writers

More events at QWC: https://queenslandwriters.org.au/events?view=calendar&month=01-2020

Australian Writers’ Centre (NSW)

‘Travel Writing’

10 February 2020 (any time during the week). 5 weeks (allow 3 – 4 hours per week). Cost $450

Here’s an online writing course for you. The course is ideal for writers wanting to combine a love of travel with a love of writing – and, according to the course description, ‘get paid for it!’ In the course, you’ll explore how the travel writing industry works, learn how to write travel stories readers will love, get tips on planning, photography and ‘getting free stuff’ and perhaps start earning an income as a travel writer.

The presenter, Sue White, is a freelance features and travel writer whose stories have featured in a wide range of newspapers and other publications, in Australia and overseas.

Learn more here: https://www.writerscentre.com.au/courses/travel-writing/#online

More events at Australian Writers’ Centre (NSW) here: https://writerscentre.com.au/a-z listing/?utm_source=ubermenu&utm_campaign=a-zlisting

Tasmanian Writers’ Centre

‘Writing Action with Dr Rosie Dubb’

15 March 2020 10 am – 1 pm. Cost $60–75

In both fiction and narrative non-fiction, action is an important element of story, ‘moving the plot forward, creating pace and revealing character.’ Action plays an important role even in more static scenes like moments of contemplation or conversation, and it’s important to make these engaging for the reader. You’ll explore, through discussions, readings and writing exercises, how to write compelling scenes by ‘showing’ rather than ‘telling’, and how to build tension and work with pace, character and setting.

The presenter, Rosie Dubb, is the author of two novels, one of which is currently being developed as a feature film. She has also published short stories, essays and life writing in anthologies, magazines, newspapers and literary journals.

Learn more here: https://taswriters.org/events/writing-action-with-dr-rosie-dub/

For more events at Tasmanian Writers’ Centre: https://www.taswriters.org/events/

I hope you’ve found this post, Australian Writing Workshops in Jan, Feb and Mar 2020, useful. Get in touch if you’d like to see any other workshops featured.

Keep writing!

Check Out My Books

Novel

Winter in Mallorca, Turmoil to Triumph explores the relationship between Chopin and Sand during the winter of 1838 in an abandoned monastery high in the mountain village of Valldemosa.

One reader’s feedback: ‘The Prelude is strong, nice hook to get you reading, and then it just gets better. I would find period writing extraordinarily difficult, but you make it seem pretty easy. The psychological observations are spot on. Great historical asides, great landscape descriptions, lots of luscious colour to keep you ‘in’. I don’t usually get through books in one day!’
John W., Writer.

How-to Writing eBook

cover of ten ways to supercharge your writing skills by gail tagarro

This entertaining how-to writing book contains 10 chapters of simply explained writing techniques and tips that will help you super-charge your writing! Other chapters include how to handle writing techniques like pacing, head-hopping and narrative arc.

Only $11.95. Start super-charging your writing now!

Writing Resolutions for 2020

15th January 2020 by Gail Tagarro Leave a Comment

Have you made any writing resolutions for 2020?

notebook and pencil with pencil sharpener and shavings for writing resolutions for 2020 — Sharpen Your Pencil and Make Your Writing Resolutions for 2020 (Photo by Angelina Litvin on Unsplash)

Any goal, including a new year’s resolution, needs committed action, discipline and planning.

Below, I give you a couple of my own writing resolutions for 2020. These may help you formulate some of your own and keep you on track with your writing.

Commit to Taking Writing Courses

Just like any job, career or profession, regular learning through writing courses will help hone your craft as a writer.

My #1 Writing Resolution for 2020

Having published my first novel in November 2019, I really wanted to keep up my writing momentum. So before 2019 ended, I registered for the Queensland Writers’ Centre ‘Year of the Novel’ workshops. It’s a multi-part workshop held across five Sundays throughout the year. At the end of it, we will have drafted a full-length novel. Curiously, as we’re on the subject of writing resolutions for 2020, the course description states, ‘Year of the Novel returns in 2020 so you can follow through with your New Year’s resolution to get that book out of your head and onto the page.’

As it happens, I don’t yet have a ‘book in my head’, However, I’m working on it so that I’ll have a clear(er) idea before the first workshop.

Commit to Entering Writing Competitions

Competitions are a worthwhile way of testing your book out on the market. It’s best to approach competitions with the mindset of first putting on your big girl or big boy pants, being prepared for possibly not getting placed. The more competitions you enter, however, the more likely you are to achieve a placing eventually. Make sure you have your manuscript professionally edited before submission, and that it meets all the requirements of the competition.

My #2 Writing Resolution for 2020

Each time I’m researching competitions for my fortnightly newsletter, The Lonely Writer, I find a competition or two that captures my attention. The thought, ‘I’d like to have a go at that’ comes to me often. And, well, until now, that’s as far as I’ve got: just thinking about it.

All that’s behind me now since my zest for writing resolutions for 2020!

If you’d like to subscribe to The Lonely Writer, you can do so here.

Writing Competition for Published Writers!

…and for unpublished and independently published writers.

Over the Christmas break, I had lunch with an old writing friend of mine. He congratulated me on publishing my first novel, and said I should enter it in a competition. All the competitions I’ve researched so far for The Lonely Writer have been for previously unpublished works.

So I was very excited to discover a competition for published writers also. The condition is that you must be a self-published or independently published writer. You are also eligible to enter a previously unpublished manuscript.

The competition that has me so excited is an international one, from the UK. It’s the Bath Novel Award 2020. You can read all about it here.

I encourage you to set a couple of achievable writing resolutions for 2020, more if you can realistically accomplish them, and then take committed action towards achieving them.

Happy and productive writing 2020!

The Editor Becomes a Published Author

27th November 2019 by Gail Tagarro 2 Comments

You might accuse me of indulging in shameless self-promotion in this blog, ‘The Editor Becomes a Published Author’, promoting my novel released just last week at the Queensland Writers Centre GenreCon2019 literary festival.

the editor becomes a published author photo — Launching Winter in Mallorca, Turmoil to Triumph, at GenreCon 2019

But I make no apologies. What?! Well, many authors struggle with self-promotion. Many of us are introverts and we suck at promoting our own work. My hope is that this post serves to help other authors take the leap into the great ocean of promotion.

What is the Difference Between a Writer and an Author?

It may seem like nitpicking to some, but it’s generally accepted that an author has published one or more written works, while a writer has not yet published any of their work.

How I Became an Author

I’ve been writing stories ever since I can remember. As a teenager, it was those awful self-indulgent journal entries full of angst and woe-is-me. I’ve kept most of what I’ve written throughout my life, but those journals hit the incinerator many years ago. Nevertheless, even they served a purpose, purging the frustrations and doubts of adolescent overload.

Over the years, a lot of my writings have been published, but much of it has been business writing under the auspices of corporations.

This year, finally, the editor becomes a published author with two of my own books, a nonfiction book on several aspects of the craft of writing, Ten Ways to Supercharge Your Writing (released March), and my historical fiction novel Winter in Mallorca, Turmoil to Triumph (released November).

How Does it Feel to be a Published Author?

As any of you who are already published authors know, it feels bloody wonderful! Similar maybe to the sense of accomplishment a climber experiences on reaching the summit of a challenging mountain – simply without the heavy breathing!

Why is that? Because writing and publishing is a mission.

There is much involved.

The Seed

First, you need that seed of an idea, the kernel of inspiration. Then that seed needs to germinate. If it’s a dud seed, it simply won’t. So it’s back to the drawing board.

The Writing

If it’s a productive seed, then the writing begins in earnest. Yet I won’t go into how the writing is done, because it can be so very different for each writer. And please don’t look to me as a role model: from seed to published book took me 24 years! Yes, you read right! I won’t go into the ‘why’ of such a long time frame, but I’m confessing it because again, perhaps it’ll serve to give a boost to other writers whose manuscripts have been languishing for years in the proverbial bottom drawer.

There is hope for you yet!

At the other end of the spectrum, I was recently working with a writer whose first 95,000-word novel took him around 13 months to write, including research overseas. He began writing the book in his spare time while running a business, then he sold his business and dedicated himself to writing, treating it like a job and working from 9 am to 4 pm each day. This is a short time to complete a novel of this length, especially with research involved, but in this case the writing was accomplished and the research thorough.

You might think 13 months sounds a long time. Well, in the writing world, it’s not.

Once the writing is done and you have a finished manuscript…well…what can I say? It’s not finished yet. You might even say it’s only just begun.

Revising

Now is the time for revising, revising, revising. In Stephen King’s words in his book, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft (2000), it’s time to ‘… kill your darlings, kill your darlings, even when it breaks your egocentric little scribbler’s heart, kill your darlings’. What does this mean? It means being utterly ruthless with your own writing, recognising that it isn’t perfect, that you need to cull and prune (there’s that gardening metaphor again), and that it may be time for external input.

Show and Tell

On that, it’s very confronting to show your writing to others. Believe me, I know.

I attended the writers’ retreat in Spain in June this year (2019) to finish my novel (and another nonfiction book), and one of the activities was group critiquing. (You can read about the retreat here.) Until then, not another living soul had ever read my manuscript, not even my family. Yes, I’m an editor and a writing coach and I know all the things I should do, but what can I say? Guilty as charged!

Getting feedback on my writing from other serious writers was a hugely valuable experience. I was able to make some fairly minor changes for big improvements.

Some writers engage beta readers (not your family, please) to give them feedback before they finish their manuscript.

All the above is before editing, by the way.

Enter the Dragon

Aka editor.

Once you’ve redrafted your manuscript multiple times and got it in the best possible shape, it’s time to give it to a qualified editor for professional editing.

After the edit, you’ll review your manuscript and then probably need a final edit and proofread. You’ll then be ready to move to the next step.

Yes, there’s still much to do.

Publishing

You may choose to self-publish, submit your manuscript to traditional publishers, or investigate subsidy publishing. (You can read about the choices here.)

You Have a Book! What Now?

You have your book, your baby, hot off the press, in your hand, ready to show the world.

How do you get it out there?

The Great Ocean of Promotion

Book promotion is a whole area on its own, and I have to admit to still being a novice at it. I expect I’ll be learning a lot, very quickly. Despite being a novice, I have some ideas to share with you. I’m working on making a download available on my website. Meantime, get in touch and I’ll be happy to send you some tips.

Thank you for indulging my shameless self-promotion. I hope the post ‘The Editor Becomes a Published Author’ has also given you some insight into the process of writing and publishing.

References

King, Stephen, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, 2012, Hodder & Stoughton, London.

Books by the Editor

If you love historical fiction, or you’re a musician with a penchant for Chopin, or you like a romance with a twist, or you’re looking for a gift for someone like this, ask me about Winter in Mallorca: Turmoil to Triumph. There’s a $20 special until 25 December when it reverts to $24.95 (postage applies beyond Gold Coast).

the editor becomes a published author. cover of Winter in Mallorca, Turmoil to Triumph

Want to improve your writing skills? Look no further than this entertaining, easy-to-read eBook Ten Ways to Supercharge Your Writing Skills: With bonus chapter on self-publishing. It’s just $11.95.

the editor becomes a published author. cover of ten ways to supercharge your writing skills

Help With Your Book from Go to Whoa (and anywhere in between)

Want help from go to whoa with your writing project? Never written a book before? Need to write a book to position yourself as an expert in your field? Check out WriteDesign Publications’ self-publishing packages.

It’s Just for One Summer

12th November 2019 by Gail Tagarro Leave a Comment

When you go on holiday, most often it’s just for one summer. Will that be the case for the family in David Baldacci’s novel One Summer?

A Book Review

From Crime to Tragi-Romance

David Baldacci is best known for his thrillers and crime fiction novels. When I was looking for a light read, it therefore came as a surprise to discover a tragi-romance (a made-up genre, but you’ll know what I mean!) by this prolific writer of crime.

Have a Good Cry

They say that literature has a cathartic effect: it helps release strong emotions and provides relief. Basically, you have a good cry and feel better afterwards! Well, I cried buckets. And I felt good afterwards. Because in the end, like all good tragi-romances, things turn out okay.

War Vet

Jack Armstrong is a thirty-four-year-old veteran of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. He’s married to and deeply in love with his wife Lizzie, and father to three children, two sons, two-year-old Jackie and twelve-year-old Cory, and rebellious teen daughter Mikki. Sammy is part of their family too. He’s a sixty-something Vietnam war vet, single, Jack’s best friend and business partner in their building contracting business in Cleveland.

But wait. Jack is dying.

Not of war wounds, but of a cruel fatal illness that robs him of breath and strength. Unable now to climb the stairs to their bedroom, he is confined to a hospital bed downstairs in the den. He’s attached to an oxygen line, an access line for pain meds and an IV drip to take care of his food and hydration needs. Not even able to share the bed with his beloved wife, his life is ‘being dismantled, brick by brick’.

The Beach House

In one of their last conversations, Lizzy tells Jack she’s been thinking about taking the children to her family’s beach house in Channing, South Carolina after Jack is gone. It’s just for one summer, she tells him. It’s a place that holds both good and unbearably sad memories for Lizzie, and she has not visited there in many years. Jack, pleased that Lizzie is ready to face her past and that she is thinking of the future, encourages her to go. The beach house property includes a lighthouse where Lizzie spent many hours as a child, searching the heavens for something that was lost to her.

Tragedy

But wait. On Christmas Eve, when Jack is writing his seventh and last letter to Lizzie, in the hope it will comfort her after he dies, tragedy unbelievably strikes their family another blow. Lizzie is killed in a car accident.

Jack is forced to watch on helplessly as his mother-in-law Bonnie takes over the running of his family. She moves the children away from Cleveland and their father, and places each of them with three different family members. Jack is moved to a hospice where he will die alone.

Miracle

Against the odds, Jack begins dragging himself from the brink of death after realising his oxygen line has come loose and he has been breathing on his own. At first, he hardly dares believe it is possible. He mentions it to no one, building up to being able to breathe without the machine and taking walks around the ward at night when he is alone. Initially cautious about being too hopeful and afraid his gradual and seemingly miraculous recovery might be temporary, he begins building up his strength and feels that he is no longer going to die. Some weeks later, to the disbelief of the medical staff, Jack is discharged and begins to reassemble his life, including getting his children back.

Life in the novel, as with life in reality, does not always go smoothly. Jack becomes a temporary hero after a newspaper picks up his story, then just as quickly turns anti-hero when other papers print lies about his being responsible for Lizzie’s death. Mikki his daughter, left with the responsibility of housekeeping and caring for her younger siblings while her dad returns to work, is snappy and irritable most of the time, and critical of his imperfect parenting skills. His grieving mother-in-law Bonnie is distant, reproachful and obstructive.

Better fortune seems to come their way when Lizzie’s grandmother Cecilia, who always had a soft spot for Jack, dies and leaves him the rambling old beach house. Uncertain about whether to take it on, Jack nevertheless decides to visits it with the family and Sammy after Cecilia’s funeral, amid grumbles from Mikki that it’s a ‘dump’ and he better not be thinking of moving there because she doesn’t want to leave her friends behind.

It’s just for one summer …

… he tells her.

Surprisingly, the whole family including Mikki settle into life in Channing over the summer. But just as things are turning around for the family, a perilous storm threatens to snatch Mikki from them, and Jack with her as he tries to save her. Lizzie’s lighthouse plays an important role in the drama.

it's just for one summer pic of young father holding young boy — Baldacci, David, One Summer, 2011. Pan Books, London.

But I’ve told you enough and I don’t want to ruin the story for you. I’ll leave you to read the book and see how life turns out for the family. Will it be just one summer at the beach house?

We have recently launched an exciting new end-to-end service for self-publishing authors who are business owners. Three packages with various inclusions are offered: ‘The Whole Enchilada’, ‘Edit and Publish’ and ‘Assess ’n Edit’. Check out the details here: WriteDesign Publications services to self-publishing authors. Or call us on 0405 695 534.

Writing and Editing Internships

25th October 2019 by Gail Tagarro 2 Comments

Writing and editing internships inhabit the blurred line between education and employment, allowing students to gain experience in the workplace while still studying.

writing and editing internships student wearing blue shirt holidng books — Photo by Element5 Digital on Unsplash

Writing and Editing Internships and Industry Experience

I am Brienna Cottam, and this semester as part of my bachelor’s requirements I have undertaken an external industry placement, otherwise known as an internship, work experience or even practical placement. So, for the last 10 weeks I have been interning under Gail Tagarro at editors4you/WriteDesign Publications, learning more than I had thought possible and expanding my knowledge of the industry.

Writing and editing internships are invaluable for several reasons, whether it’s a university requirement, high school assessment or even just to get a head start in your chosen field. However, finding a suitable position and business to host your internship is not always easy.

It took me a few weeks to both find and organise an internship suitable for my course, however some of my peers took months and others never managed to find one at all in the allotted time. The availability and chances of gaining an internship can depend heavily on the time of year, your chosen industry role or career and the requirements you need to meet. Finding a position that was solely focused on the editorial aspect of the industry was quite difficult as I couldn’t find many editing-specific businesses. Publishers, magazines and news outlets seemed to be the most popular among my peers, and my research throughout the initial stages reinforced this.

So Why are Writing and Editing Internships Important?

Firstly, you are able to take your academic knowledge and all the research you have completed and apply it in the real world, allowing yourself to experience firsthand exactly what you’ve been learning about. This in turn gives you the opportunity to decide on your future career path and see where you can go within the industry. You experience the different roles and skills that can be achieved and are able to decide whether you want to continue in the industry now that you have personally experienced it. Depending on where and who you intern under, you may also find invaluable industry contacts that can be useful when it comes time to start your career.

The life experience and knowledge garnered from undertaking a writing and editing internship aren’t just another thing to throw on your resume and forget about. An internship can greatly enhance your employment chances. For most, work experience is simply something that looks good on their resume, and that they must complete throughout their schooling. Very rarely do people expand on their experience and use it to their advantage.

Who Can Undertake Writing and Editing Internships?

Internships are not always just about trying to get a good grade point average, or meeting course requirements. They can also be immensely helpful for those looking at a possible career change, or wanting to experience different roles within their current industry. This can benefit the internee in many ways, from widening their knowledge to advancing their chances of a promotion. That said, most internships are unpaid, which can affect the hours and availability of many who choose to undertake them.

Balancing Work, Study and Writing and Editing Internships

Trying to balance university or school with a job is hard enough. However, throw an internship into the mix and you better have some decent time management skills and a passion for what you’re doing. Having a set schedule for work is extremely helpful in situations like this, however like me, many students have casual work and struggle to manage work, an internship and study.

I found the first few weeks of both the semester and my internship quite stressful, as I started a new casual job at the same time as my internship and it was also the beginning of my final semester of university. Many institutions specify the time per week they expect students to spend on course content and assessment, the average being approximately 10 hours per class. This all made it quite hard to organise my weeks in advance, however I benefited vastly from my job’s 24/7 operating hours and their system that allowed me to roster off certain times and reserve it for study or internships. Many may not be as lucky but with careful planning and full awareness of your obligations, it can be done.

Looking for Writing and Editing Internships

It is often challenging to find an internship in your preferred field at the time you need it, especially one as specific as a writing and editing internship. I was incredibly lucky that I found mine in time. It is always helpful to know the requirements and type of internship you would like or need to undertake long before it comes time to look for one. This gives you the opportunity to look, research and decide on the internship that is best for you. It may take many weeks or even months to find an internship that works for you in a business that is willing to take you on.

Within my cohort, many only managed to find placement with newspapers or magazines, rather than with a business that they were more likely to enter after graduating, or that they preferred to work in. That being said, approximately half of my cohort never managed to find a placement at all, and as such had to complete an on-campus internship. This may not always be an option; it depends entirely on the way your learning institution has structured the course and what their requirements are. Many may assist with the process of finding external placement. However some, such as mine, require the student to source their own.

Internships with a self-employed freelance editor are quite rare and I was incredibly lucky to land one with Gail Tagarro at editors4you. It provided me with much more one-on-one learning and involvement and I have been able to observe how an editorial business is managed.

Some people may look into writing and editing internships for the sole purpose of getting their own manuscript to another level. This is a valid reason, however they would benefit more from writer coaching than an internship. (See here for more about writer coaching: https://editors4you.com.au/book-writing-coach/).

Tips for Approaching a Business

The prospect of approaching a business can be quite daunting, especially for a student or young adult. Even the simple thought of sending an email can be nerve-racking for some. Researching the company beforehand is a vital part of the process, and if you are looking into the publishing industry, research what type of publisher they are. (See the following links for more information: https://editors4you.com.au/how-can-i-publish-my-book-what-are-my-options/ and https://editors4you.com.au/how-to-get-your-book-published/).

It is important to understand the business you are approaching and how they prefer to receive enquiries. Some may prefer email contact while others may prefer calls or meeting in person. It is also useful to know what they are looking for in an intern and details of the role they can offer. Here are some tips when it comes to that dreaded initial contact.

Always be professional and courteous.
Research the business and understand what they do.
Use your applications and email correspondence as an example of your character and your work. Showcase your ability to be professional, your excellent grammar and punctuation and of course your attitude towards the industry and internship.
Always be punctual with replies and follow up on any queries you may have. This demonstrates your eagerness in and understanding of the role.

Summary

Rarely will an internship follow the clichéd portrayal as seen on television or in the movies, media and books. Many of these show them as mindless minions running errands and fetching coffee. This should not be the case. My writing and editing internship taught me far more than sitting in a classroom ever could. It opened my eyes to the complexity and fulfilling roles I can achieve within the industry. I was introduced to more than I ever thought was involved in editing, and this reinforced my decision surrounding my future career path. There have been ups and downs and roundabouts, juggling the internship, study and work, and I am still learning and figuring out my way through the wide world of publishing and editing. However now, I have a clearer direction than I had before my internship.

Gail Tagarro, IPEd Accredited Editor (AE)

Ask about our WRITING and SELF-PUBLISHING PACKAGES. From go to whoa if you like, and anything in between, our packages can be tailored to include Book Coaching, Writer Coaching, Editing, Book Layout and Design, and Book Printing.

WriteDesign Publications (WDP) is a writing and self-publishing consultancy. It is affiliated with editors4you (established 2006), which provides professional editorial services such as book editing and proofreading. Together, WDP and editors4you provide an end-to-end service to writers and business owners.