The new book is pending global distribution, but should be available on Lulu soon. I changed the cover after the proofread, and I think it looks great now.
Here it is:
I’ll post a link soon.
This book and the Slightly Twisted collection of short stories will be available for sale in person at a few local events coming up over the next couple of months. I’ll post more about these later.
I will soon have a poetry/haibun book available. It’s finished, and I’ve sent for proof copies for myself and friends to look at before final publication. Stay tuned…
I’m learning piano and have been looking for a music journal to record my practice notes. There are some great journals out there already but none that suited me perfectly, so I decided to create my own rather than order another one from someone else. Of course I could just use a plain notebook, but I like having a structured approach. Writing down my goals also helps me to focus.
The book is available from Lulu.com now (click on the image below). It will soon be available at other bookshops, but as with the short story book, I still have to wait for final review and approval before that happens.
My piano journey
I started playing piano when I was well into my 50s and had a teacher and did exams. I reached AMEB grade 6 Piano for Leisure, and passed the exam some years ago. I then stopped playing for several years for various reasons, especially as I found I couldn’t play anything. I couldn’t play the grade 7 yet, and was spending so much time on them I could no longer play anything I’d learned earlier. My teacher was pressuring me into practicing more than three hours a day and doing the classical exams as if I was aiming for the conservatorium, which of course I was not. I loved her to bits and it was hard to give up the lessons because I liked her so much and in many ways she was a wonderful teacher, but eventually I did, and then didn’t play at all.
I’m now teaching myself, but following a more Danish approach than going for more exams. I bought a new piano too, as my old one was over 110 years old and could no longer be tuned. I much prefer an acoustic piano to the digital pianos.
My version of the Danish approach
The Danish approach, as I understand it and have adapted it, is to play whatever I like, no matter what level, genre or anything else; to learn each piece and master any technical challenges it presents, and then move on to the next piece, but often playing the earlier pieces so they remain in an active repertoire list. To that end I’m re-learning all the old pieces I really loved, and when I master (and usually memorise) each one, I put a copy in a repertoire folder. I go through all the pieces in the folder at least once a week. I also spend time improvising and playing by ear, neither of which I’d ever done before.
Best of all, I’m really having fun with the piano again, and loving every minute.
I’m also playing ukulele in an ensemble, so perhaps I’ll buy a journal for that instrument as well!
My short story book, Slightly Twisted, is finally finished after several rounds of reviews, editing, and proofreading. Its now going through the final stages of being approved for global distribution as a paperback and e-book. The paperback and e-book are available now at Lulu.com. (Click on the image to go to the paperback book page. Click here to go to the e-book page.)
I’m not sure how long it will take for the global distribution review to take.
I created the new cover by combining two photos I found at Unsplash.com, and they are free to use without attribution, but I acknowledged the photographers on the copyright info page anyway.
I decided to complete the entire process with Lulu rather than IngramSpark as I’m more familiar with them and the book ends up being available at all the same places anyway. The distribution is done by IngramSpark and Amazon, and since I’m on the steep slope of the learning curve with them I decided to stick with the one I know for now as I’ve published several anthologies and books for myself and others there.
I tried to make the e-book accessible, and downloaded a program that’s supposed to convert word documents to accessible e-pubs, but the conversion failed. I’ll look into all that again some time in the future.
I’ve just received the proof copies of my book of short stories called Slightly Twisted. I had these copies produced by Lulu, and intend the final to be produced by IngramSpark, and I’ll therefore be able to compare them for speed of publication, cost, convenience, and so on. I learned about IngramSpark from the crime writers, as they seem to use either Ingram or Smashwords, which is another option. I just used AI to produce a cover image, but will replace it for the final copy. I’ve given one copy to a friend from the critique group, and will proof the other myself before handing it to someone else.
Update June 2025: The book is now finished and available as an ebook. It will soon be available globally as a print-on-demand paperback as well.
I’ve done nothing on the novel or the screenplay as things at home have been too difficult for the last several months. Dad deteriorated and was in and out of hospitals, and we couldn’t get a nursing home place for him, so he came to live with me. Then he wanted to go home, so I went to live with him. His final trip to hospital ended with his death on 13th September. Since then, two friends of mine have also died. So I have not been in a good headspace for serious editing of the novel. I did nothing at all until this month, but decided to put my efforts into selecting some of my existing short stories and making a book of them, even if it ends up only being for me, friends and family. Most of the stories have been published already in online magazines or anthologies. Receiving the proof copies of the book this morning has given me a well-needed lift.
I’ve decided against even trying to get a traditional publisher for the short story book this time, but I’m assured by my crime writer friends and others that having a book self-published won’t prevent me from getting a traditional publisher later. I know some agents won’t look at your work if you’ve had anything self-published, but I’m cooling on the idea of looking for an agent yet anyway, and I already have a self-published book, so one more makes no difference. I just need to get more words down and on the page, and when I have a decent backlist, publishers and agents may be more interested. Anyway, that’s the plan at the moment.
I’ve also joined Jericho Writers to try to get back in the groove, do some of their video courses, and perhaps do some networking, but I’ve done very little with it yet. I’m getting there.
During the last few months while I’ve been dealing with my dying father, a friend and one of my cousins have been having great success and publishing novels.
Elsie King (aka Lynne Wong), has had her second historical romance novel published this year: A Suitable Bride. Her first novel, A Suitable Heir, was published in July last year. Both are great reads and capture the Regency period brilliantly. They are both extremely well written, and even though I’m not a great fan of romance novels, they both held my attention throughout, and I loved the characters and settings. A third book is well on the way too and will be published in 2025.
My cousin Alison (who is much younger than me because her father — my uncle — is only 18 months older than me) has lived in the UK and the Netherlands for quite a few years now, and returned to Australia last month for a book tour for her novel: Two Daughters. She is now back in Amsterdam, where she lives with her husband and two children.
Alison knows both the south coast of NSW and Cambridge very well, having grown up in one and been educated in the other. I read the novel quickly, but with so much going on in my life at the time, I couldn’t give it the attention it deserved, so I’m now reading it again. I’ll give it a proper review later, but for now let’s just say I enjoyed it, and thought it was a very clever and well-written novel.
The critique group Create-Write that I’m a founder member of is going well. We have a number of members who are writing novels or short story collections and are either published, submitting for publication, or getting close to that point. Our numbers are capped to allow us to give detailed and worthwhile critiques.
I printed five copies of my draft mystery novel some time ago via Lulu.com, and distributed them to Create-Write members. I found it easier for everyone (and slightly cheaper) to print and distribute the book as a paperback proof copy than to give everyone half a ream of printed A4 sheets. It was also good for me to see it as a book, albeit a draft still in need of plenty of work. Since then I’ve received editing comments, reviews and suggestions from everyone, and have incorporated those into the novel to produce another draft. The next step is to go through this draft (the umpteenth), see if it’s as good as I can get it, and then start submitting to an agent or a publisher, or perhaps self-publish.
I also went to the crime writers group in the city last weekend, to meet up with other writers. It was a small group, but it was good to meet them, and I will go again. Most are self-published, and I will consider going that way too, because even with an agent or publisher, authors still need to do all the marketing and get far less in royalties. At the moment, I’m still hoping for traditional publication, but we’ll see. The first and most important step is to continue polishing to make the book as good as I can get it. I’m itching to get on with the next Ben Lovely mystery novel, and also to return to the black comedy screenplay I’ve finished, which is waiting for me to get back to it.
On a personal note, I’ve been dealing with my 96-year-old father, who has been living independently until now, but who is nearing the end of that independence. He’s done well to live alone for so long and so successfully but he’s ready and even eager to go into a nursing home, and we’re currently going through the endless loops required to get him there. Everything seems so difficult, and it leaves little energy for the other things. But, that’s life.
I’ve given up on the Macquarie MA in creative writing and won’t bother with it again. I’ll do courses on Coursera, EdX and Masterclass instead. So here are my reasons for dropping out once and for all:
This was an MA done through Open Universities, and all online. It might be different if it was on campus.
I started it because I want to improve, but also because I saw it as a way to get out of the ‘slush pile’. I came to the conclusion that editors and publishers will soon work out these online creative writing MAs are rubbish. That doesn’t mean there aren’t good and even great writers who do the courses, but they’re good or great to start with. The writers who are hopeless when they go in are just as hopeless when they come out, in my experience.
Anyway, that’s my opinion. I enjoyed the literature courses I did for the BA and graduate certificate, and learned a lot from them, but I think Ray Bradbury was right all along about creative writing courses.
Last year I was a founder member of a new group of writers meeting at the Reynella Community Centre. This is a small group of writers who want to learn more about the craft and to support each other and provide lots of meaningful feedback. We cheer each other on and have a lot of fun in the process. The group is called Create-Write, and now has its own website.
I had a flash fiction (sci-fi/fantasy) story Into the Caves at Last published the other day at the website 365tomorrows.com. Their response was the fastest I’ve ever had for anything, and it was good to see something published online again — it’s been a while. A nice comment has gone up too, and that’s a gratifying thing to see that someone read it and took the time to give encouragement. I think I’ll write them another one.
Lin Edwards 