‘Mad March’ is a common expression in Adelaide because of festivals and car races and various events across the city, but March was also ‘mad’ for us because of our own events that included a book launch, hamstring recovery, involvement in the State election as an early voter electoral officer, rehearsal for a play, radio interviews, a funeral, mentoring writers, preparing a workshop for April, a short holiday to Singapore and a 71st birthday.
 
On the writing front, Richard Miles’ historical account of the South Australia Police Mounted Cadre, Mounted, which we published under Millswood Books in November last year, was launched by the State Governor at the Gepps Cross Police Operations Centre on March 11. That sees the culmination of several years’ research and writing to bring the book into being and the event was a great success. Congratulations to Richard for the outstanding work.
 
I’m currently running a final edit across a new Science Fiction novel, Mika, which we plan to release in May. A draft front cover is included in this post. I’m also concurrently continuing to develop a new fantasy trilogy. Two books are written and I’m halfway through the third.
 
Coming up in a week on April 11th at the Estonian House, 200 Jeffcott St, North Adelaide from 11am-4pm is the Indie Verse Author event. The event showcases more than thirty of Adelaide’s independently-publishing authors including Portia Stanton-Noble, Trent Moullae, M H Salter, Jordan Hawkey, Dr Samantha Baddams, Serena Knights, Lilly Barrett and Neil Mackenzie to name a handful. I am running a 90 minute workshop in the afternoon focussing on how to self-publish as part of the activities.
 
And to scratch a personal itch, I will be back on stage in the beginning of May at the Hopgood Theatre playing an oncology professor in the play, Wit, directed by Harry Dewar. More of that in the April blog.

​Happy Easter.

​The month ends with another war in the Middle East. No surprise. Regimes of dictators and autocrats posture and bluster as they revel in their power and greed and commit crimes against humanity simply because they can with impunity. While the scope and degree of killing and destruction is on a different scale, fundamentally the nature and actions of human ‘leadership’ has remained unchanged over millennia – rich, entitled, selfish, egotistical, hateful, vengeful, unenlightened – and nearly always male, although significant individuals here in Australia with those detestable traits are in the limelight in recent times. Sometimes I feel that real life is far more horrific than anything I can create.

However, February was an amazing month for me because of the Aurealis Awards. The Awards were established in 1995 and have become the premier Australian awards for recognising creativity in the speculative fiction fields – science fiction, fantasy, horror. In the inaugural year of the Awards, The Last Wizard was shortlisted for Best Fantasy Novel of 1995. Blood (the first book in the Ashuak Chronicles) was shortlisted for Best Fantasy Novel of 2002. As you might imagine, I was excited to be nominated on both occasions, although The Last Wizard lost out to Garth Nix’s Sabriel and Blood was pipped by Sean William’s The Storm Weaver and the Sand.

​In 2025, I entered a speculative novel, All We Have, in the Best Science Fiction Novel category and was overwhelmed with joy to learn that it was shortlisted for the award because I was honestly beginning to feel like my writing was second-rate and maybe it was time to let it go for good. The nomination rekindled self-belief.
 
As for All We Have, I first started drafting the work back in 2016 as a series of novellas based on a young person’s recorded diaries as they survived an apocalypse brought on by a combination of a pandemic and terrorist movements.
 
The spread of post-colonial terrorism across the globe and the rise of jihadist and similar groups throughout South-East Asia became a focal point for how and why Australia might be invaded by an army of some kind. Existing geopolitical relationships to some degree negate the likelihood of a war with a sovereign nation, but the possibility of radicalised groups combining and seizing an opportunity to take over nations if a pandemic or similar event weakened national defences seems more plausible to me. There are already significant radicalised groups in Africa, the Middle East, South-East Asia and within nations everywhere. I began to create a story with that threat in place, but I needed an event that would leave the existing global defence agreements and systems in disarray.
 
For the pandemic component of the story, I spent a lot of time researching and learning about how viruses like the influenza variations adapt and mutate – and learn – prompted by the bird flu epidemics in the 2000s and by my own near death from the Hong Kong flu in 1971. I then investigated the history of Ebola from its emergence in 1976 until recently and how, like many other viruses, it is adapting and mutating. I explored means of transmission, why Ebola has been contained so far, why recent ‘cures’ are now failing, and what the Ebola virus could do if it continues to adapt and mutate.
 
I shared the project with potential publishers but failed to garner interest. I wasn’t surprised – the novellas were in many ways unfinished and, let’s face it, the pandemic concept has been done many times in fiction and film.
 
In 2019, I combined the three novella pieces into a single novel, but I was considering it had significant flaws, especially around how the world would respond to a genuine pandemic, one larger and deadlier than anything we’ve seen in recent history.
 
And then came COVID.
 
Suddenly, I had research material right before my eyes as the world went into a state of fear, panic and lockdown. I mean toilet paper hoarding – seriously?  People died. The virus spread rapidly. Borders closed. Vaccines. Magic cures. Millions died officially. Many more millions died unofficially. Systems broke down or were disrupted. Misinformation went wild. The very chaos I was envisaging in fiction was fact.
 
I went to work on my draft. And I speculated. What if the virus was Ebola-like and far more deadly than COVID? What if survival rate/resistance was infinitesimally small – like one in a million? What if terrorist groups seized the collapse of systems and the lockdowns and chaos and fear as an opportunity to attack? What if the virus adapted and mutated rapidly? What if the virus was determined to survive this time and not just kill its host? What if it learned to control its host?
 
I brought into the setting the places I know well – Adelaide, the Tailem Bend/Meningie region, the Coorong, Robe, Waikerie, the Brisbane region, Brunei, Singapore, Huon Valley – and one that I can only speculate on through studying images and reading articles describing Chinese military bases on the islands in the South China Sea.
 
By the end of 2024, I had what I believed to be a gripping story so I shared it with beta readers and asked them to be vicious in feedback. They were vicious. But the feedback convinced me to polish and submit the draft to publishers. I did to three publishers. All said no.
 
In 2025, I established a tiny niche publishing company called Millswood Books to publish books for myself and for people who had a good book but can’t get an agent or a publisher to accept their work. I decided All We Have would be published by Millswood Books.
 
Formal editing was shared between two friends and myself. I designed the layout. I also did the cover design which is a conglomeration of multiple images and text reworked in Photoshop. The paperback is printed through Amazon. I submitted the book to the 2025 Aurealis Awards.
 
Meg and I flew to Brisbane to attend the Aurealis Awards and it was a rewarding feeling to sit in the audience of nominated writers. It was especially awesome to see Millswood Books up on the big screen. In the end, All We Have lost out to deserving winner Samira Lloyd’s debut novel Wastelands, but I was just happy to be on the shortlist and to enjoy being in the audience with so many peers. It’s nice to be recognised again.

​The image below is linked to the Australian Amazon site from where you can purchase an ebook or paperback copy.

​Bondi. Gaza. Venezuela. Greenland. Hate speech. Left wing. Right wing. ICE. Murdoch press. Writers Week…
 
The efforts being made in Australia by lobby groups to divide us mirror what is happening worldwide as the purveyors of hate and greed seek to wrestle power from the citizens of democratic nations and ensconce autocrats in leadership roles. That’s not a conspiracy theory, folks. It’s a clear and resounding lesson from history repeated over and over and over, and writers and artists constantly remind and warn us that these forces exist and work hard to achieve their goals. What are their goals? Supreme power and authority to pursue whatever they fancy and to suck the wealth out of everything and everybody for themselves. The rich oligarchs who run this shitshow play to the lowest common denominator in our world – almost always angry, frustrated and sometimes minimally educated men – people who despise the arts and intellectual pursuits and revere toxic masculinity, violence and brutish power in its multiple forms. And the rich and their audience agree on one thing: control through brute force and hatred of anyone other than themselves. The wannabe autocrats offer the angry and frustrated followers opportunities to take their anger out on whoever they choose to hate and so the kingdom or nation or country or state become autocratic fascist or communist dictatorships. In any case, the rich get richer and the poor get the shit kicked out of them. If you want to find true evil, this is where you will find it.
 
The collapse of Writers Week was inevitable in the existing climate. Politically-motivated lobbies filled with hatred and ambition have been and are white-anting our institutions – politicians, boards, sponsors, media outlets – to influence who may be publicly heard and who may not, ultimately to ensure that the only voices being heard are their own and those who echo their beliefs. An event like Writers Week, where writers whose views are not necessarily mainstream, polite or palatable even, is an anathema to the lobbyists because it showcases freedom of speech, debate and disagreement – the very principles on which a democratic society is founded.
 
Attempts to ban writers from Writers Week have been made for years over topics ranging through politics, social views, sexuality, and even genre. Some succeeded quietly, even silently in many cases. Most failed because Writers Week can and should be a forum for open discussion of controversial, thought-provoking and hot current topics just as much as a place where non-controversial writers with their pleasant tales can be heard and appreciated by their readers. The beauty of artistic expression is that it holds a mirror up to life so that we can see ourselves and others and how we interact in ways we might never see if we don’t read and reflect and talk.

​The emails and feedback I received after its release created a clear split between the adults who hated the narrator and teenagers who understood or related to the narrator and loved the novel. I poured my experience as a teacher, a counsellor and coach who worked directly with teenagers into my creation of the core characters and their emotions and language and sometimes sufferings when families break up. I wanted to challenge that absurd notion in breakups that ‘the kids will be alright.’ If they’re teenagers caught in that situation, they are rarely alright. They are victims of perceived and sometimes actual adult selfishness. At the point in their lives when they are trying to come to terms with their changing psyches and bodies and the expectations placed on them, the place that should be their stable base shatters and leaves them horribly adrift. It leaves them angry and rebellious and terribly sad and lonely.
 
Despite opposition from specific quarters, I ended up at Writers Week and was able to speak publicly about the issues and themes and messages in Joy Ride. I am proud to have written the novel despite it having limited sales and restricted promotion.
 
As a footnote, when I was appointed to Concordia College in 2000 as Head of English, a parent asked the school to reconsider the appointment on the basis of my being the author of Joy Ride and a copy of the novel with passages highlighted was sent directly to the Chair of the College Board along with the request to have me removed. The Chair contacted me and said that he read the novel and enjoyed it. Matter closed.
 
As writers we put our souls and beliefs and our fears and experiences and our knowledge and suppositions into the public arena because we encourage readers to engage, consider, and accept or reject what we share. We deliberately prick consciences, challenge idioms and institutions and beliefs, condemn injustice and pry open eyes and hearts to what has been, what is and what might be. Ban us and the world becomes Fahrenheit 451 and Nineteen Eighty-Four and The Handmaid’s Tale and We. Ban us and you will only read Murdoch press, watch Fox media, believe whatever social media tells you to believe and never really have to vote again. And then if you’re strong and angry and frustrated enough you’ll be able to kick the shit out of anyone you choose to hate. At least that’s something, eh?

I’m also releasing the fourth book in The Last Wizard series, Harmi. The novel is a continuation of the tale that began with Tamesan (formerly The Last Wizard) with the following blurb:
“Descended from a long line of dragons and wizards and carrying the collected memory of generations, from the moment of hatching Harmi is bonded to the young woman, Tamesan, and their fates are intertwined to the point where one cannot live without the other.
 
But when the Kermakk Empire rulers who have sworn to rid the world of dragons and wizards learn that Tamesan and Harmi exist, they set a trap to catch them both. Tamesan and Jaysin are imprisoned and Chasse is lost, but Harmi escapes and must choose whether to remain faithful to her bond with Tamesan or find another way to survive.
 
In her quest to rescue her human family, Harmi discovers her true dragon identity and the extent of her dragon powers and the real reason why she is being hunted by the Kermakk sorceress, the Karudarteta.”
 
I inadvertently released the ebook version early when I was setting up, but as from this week the paperback and hardback editions will be up and available to order.

​It’s very exciting to complete the four book series and make it available to readers. Copies of the hardback and paperback editions can be ordered directly from me (email tshillitoe@gmail.com and books are $25 each plus postage) or from Amazon, including the ebook version.
 
I am also in the process of making my books available to order through Books.by – watch this space 
 
Now onto the next projects for 2026…

So much happens in short succession.
 
To begin with, we have finally published Richard Mile’s historical work, Mounted: Personal Reflections on the Mounted Cadre of the South Australia Police 1951-1999. This project started back in 2020 as a series of interviews with former members of the Mounted Cadre and developed into an engaging and interesting record of member’s accounts of the South Australian Police and their grey horses in historical events. The blurb to the book reads:
 
“For more than 185 years, the streets of Adelaide have rung with the hoofbeat of police horses. The Mounted Cadre of the South Australia Police, with its iconic troop of grey horses stabled at the Thebarton Police Barracks, provided diligent service from 1951 until 1999.
 
Showcasing first-hand accounts of royal escorts, violent protests, drug seizures, hilarity, thrills and spills, and much more, MOUNTED celebrates personal stories of the service of Cadre members and their silent partners, the police greys.”
 
Hardback copies can already be purchased on the US Amazon site – MOUNTED – as can ebook versions – MOUNTED – but for Australians copies will also be available from the South Australian Police Historical Society in the new year or can be ordered through us by emailing millswoodbookspublishing@gmail.com and we can organise and post hardback copies along with invoices. Price is being sorted at the moment. Richard is planning to officially launch the book at some point, so it’s worth keeping an eye on the Mounted Facebook page:
 
This month also sees the exciting release of the third book in The Last Wizard series – Jaysin. As the blurb explains:
 
“Always considered different because he has no interest in becoming a warrior like his older brother, Jaysin's fascination with learning and magic draws him into a quest to rescue his sister, her dragon, and his brother.
 
Shifting circumstances lead Jaysin to the capital of the mighty Kermakk Empire to find his brother, Chasse, but there the Karudarteta, a sorceress and advisor to the Empire's ruler, the Karudar Marfek, offers him access to ultimate arcane mastery, if he is willing to serve her.
 
Faced with the opportunity to show his siblings that he is as worthy of admiration as they are, Jaysin must decide whether to embrace the power of magic by serving the Kermakk Empire, whose leader is determined to kill his sister and her dragon, or to sacrifice his personal ambitions to save his family.”
 
Jaysin will be available on Amazon, but, as with Tamesan and Chasse, if you are in Australia and would like to buy a paperback or hardback version of the books pop me an email at tshillitoe@gmail.com and I’ll organise for you. Kindle copies are currently free to download.
 
Christmas is bearing down and we have lots to do before the last blog of 2025.

​October was an interesting mixed bag of experiences, ranging from editing and preparing Chasse: The Last Wizard Saga Song 2 for its debut now, November 2025, through completing a tax assessment, possibly for the last time given my writing income has been well below any taxable threshold, to competing in 60+ indoor volleyball at the Australian Masters Games in Canberra (and bringing home a gold medal - yay!).
 
Chasse is the first sequel to the original The Last Wizard and it follows on immediately from where the first book ends but seeing the unfolding events through Chasse’s eyes. As the blurb outlines:
 
“Haunted by the horrors of his summer initiation and caught up in the changes precipitated by the presence of a baby dragon on the mountain above his home, Chasse must do what he can to protect the people he loves while he comes to terms with an emerging relationship and his new role in the village.
 
Under his father's tutelage, Chasse continues his dragonwarrior training, but the return of an old foe to Harbin and the emergence of a new threat mean that Chasse must choose between the future of the village or the safety of his siblings and the treasure they are protecting.
 
Forced to abandon his home to protect his sister, Tam, his brother, Jaysin, and the young dragon, Chasse encounters a stranger in the mountains who shows him a different path towards overcoming his self-doubt and fears to become the warrior he is destined to be.”
 
Like Tamesan, Chasse is a coming-of-age tale, this time for the boy warrior who has witnessed the brutal truth of what being a warrior entails. While his sister, Tamesan, has already found her path in life through bonding with the baby dragon and wielding magic, Chasse has to accept the destiny unfolding for him, one that involves battling personal demons while learning skills and new attitudes.
 
Chasse is available on Amazon US, but, as with Tamesan, if you are in Australia and would like to buy a paperback or hardback version of the books pop me an email at tshillitoe@gmail.com and I’ll organise for you.
 
The third book, Jaysin: The Last Wizard Saga Song 3, is planned for release in December, and book four, Harmi: The Last Wizard Saga Song 4, a story from the dragon’s point of view, is likely to be available in February 2026 at this stage.

Finally, I've been working on a web site makeover shifting the focus from purely me to our tiny niche publishing company, Millswood Books. Take a look around if you get a chance: www.tonyshillitoe.com.au 
 
So, that was October. Christmas is barely two months away…

​So, Tamesan: The Last Wizard Saga Song 1 is released as a paperback, hardback and ebook on Amazon US. The new cover, featuring artwork by Kirsi Salonen, is displayed with this blog. This is the reboot of the original The Last Wizard (1995). As advertised last month, I will follow Tamesan with Chasse, Jaysin and Harmi, the three sequels to The Last Wizard, between November through to March 2026. Tamesan is available on the US Amazon site (link), so if you’re in Australia and want a paperback or hardback copy and can’t purchase through the US site pop me an email at tshillitoe@gmail.com and I’ll sort out an order for you ($30 + postage).
 
Editing is a core process in the writing game and yesterday I was reflecting on a point I reached in my teaching career where I could no longer face the marking grind of senior student essays. In fact, I genuinely sometimes broke into a cold sweat when I collected and began marking a pile of essays because I knew I was going to be dredging through work I’d already seen in draft formats and I would be highlighting and identifying (not necessarily correcting) the same errors over and over and over, year after year, for more than thirty-five years.
 
As a writer, the editing process has a similar impact as marking, the only rewarding factor being that it is a creative and hopefully original piece and in most cases the work is mine. I’ve been asked many times how many edits go into a novel. The answer is not genuinely quantifiable because I automatically edit as I write. However, breaking down the process into its mechanical form means that I:

• Edit each line and paragraph as I write
• Edit each chapter as I complete it
• Edit the manuscript three times after first draft completion which involves – a read for fluency/sense edit, a read for typos/missed words, and a read for better expression
• Edit again after I receive feedback from beta readers
• Edit the full manuscript again when I believe it is close to completion ie the above edits have been done
• Often edit one final time after I’m convinced I’ve finished

 
As a teacher I used to have my Middle School students carry out a writing accuracy exercise twice each year – at the beginning of the year and at the end of the third term. The exercise is quite simplistic. The students were told about the exercise in advance so that they arrived ready. They were asked to maintain continuous writing for a 30 minute period. They could write on any topic of choice and they could change topic in the 30 minute period if they ran out of motivation on their starting topic. They were asked at the end of the 30 minute session to spend 5 minutes reading through and making corrections. I would then collect their responses, determine the word count for each student and circle each error I found in their responses. I would then determine an accuracy percentage based on the number of errors against the word count. For example, a student who wrote 300 words and made 8 errors (of any kind – spelling, grammar, punctuation) would receive an accuracy percentage of (300-8 = 292: 292/300 x 100) = 97.3%. Over time, I observed that students who were earning above 95% in the activity were usually competent students, say B grade or 6 in IB scores as a measure. However, students who were scoring 90% and lower were definitely struggling with language skills. Let that sink in. In most subjects, scoring 90% would be in the highest level achievements, but in using English it is a poor result and represents a student who needs significant intervention to support and boost their language skills. This, for example, is a student who produces a 300 word response with 30 errors.
 
I recently co-edited a friend’s manuscript of around 60,000 words and we went over it several times each until we thought it was done. We passed it to a colleague for a final read and she found 14 errors (including two missed words). We were both horrified and grateful and made the corrections. We think it is now error-free… If I’d run the manuscript through my English exercise, the manuscript with its errors in place would rate a 99.97% accuracy – but if we published it without fixing those 0.03% errors, it would be considered a poor piece of work because of the errors!
 
I’ve encountered readers on occasions who lament that they found a typo, or a couple of errors in a book and it coloured their experience. I get it – but, seriously, the act of writing and editing a novel is a mammoth task in so far as wrestling the English language and then human editing the work into 100% accuracy. We want perfection.
 
Why this discussion? Because I am editing multiple books this past month as I prepare to release The Last Wizard series and I want to make sure the general language conventions are 100% accurate in all four books. It’s a salient reminder for me that the writing process is both an act of artistic creativity and a crafting discipline – a ying and yang process. In fact, draft writing is by far the best part because it is an act of creative exploration, but it must be tempered by persistence, patience and critical self-appraisal and careful crafting to become palatable for readers. In basic language conventions, it must be perfect.
 
I feel a cold sweat coming on as I try to ensure there are no language errors or typos across a total of more than 380,000 words.

August was fun and busy so far as writing is concerned. I’m currently completing edits and reader feedback on three manuscripts, both targeted for release next year; one the speculative sci fi novel, Mika, that I mentioned in the last blog, the second a semi-literary, contemporary novella about a day in the life of a down-and-out older man living in share house which is titled A Day in His Life, and a re-edit and preparation of Tamesan: The Last Wizard Saga Book 1 for hopeful release at the end of September in readiness for the second book, Chasse: The Last Wizard Saga Book 2 to be released in November. The ongoing plan is to then release Jaysin: The Last Wizard Saga Book 3 in January 2026 and Harmi: The Last Wizard Saga Book 4 in February/March period 2026. The cover designs shown here are concepts for now and may not be the same when the works are finally released.
 
I also redesigned and re-edited my collection of Australian speculative and various stories, and added two more to the original collection, and republished the story anthology of The Red Heart in hardback copy. Some of the stories, like ‘Hope,’ ’Beach Cricket,’ and ’Jammin’ were originally published in other anthologies. The republishing is a vanity personal project, but if you are a short story reader or want to add this one to your collection of my writing you can order copies directly from me and I’ll organise them for you. An outline of the book’s contents is available on my web site at
 
I headed up the final Writers SA Think Tank session for 2025 where we focussed on making a scene or setting come alive as a character in a story or memoir. Works like Ellis’ American Psycho, Harper’s The Dry and Simmond’s The Terror make the setting come alive in sinister and harrowing and interesting ways and readers recognise that the human characters are themselves pitted against and within the confines of a larger ‘antagonist’ being the places the characters live within.
 
I worked with my five Spectrum Writing ‘acolytes’, developing their respective projects, holding a total of eight mentoring sessions across August. As a glimpse into what each project is covering, one is a pop culture satirical spoof with Asian philosophical overtones as an online webnovel, one is a superhero coming-of-age novel, one is a self-reflecting autobiography, one a speculative exploration of how right-wing turmoil gains traction and one is an historical fiction set in the times of Roman occupation of the British Isles. The thinking keeps me switched on. The Spectrum Writing business has been sold by its co-founder, Jason Fischer, to Kiran Vuppuluri who is keen to maintain and grow the business further as an NDIS initiative for its members, so hopefully the projects will reach positive conclusions for the participants.
 
Finally, we received the proofs of Richard Miles’book, Mounted, and we are going through them to ensure the final print versions are as accurate as we can make them. Hopefully, this book will be in print by the end of October.
 
On the personal side of life, like so many people I know, I’ve battled a significant cold/flu-type bug that’s left a lingering but slowly receding cough, and also I have had to stop exercise/sport for the past month because of a slipped disc in the lower back area, which is also on the mend. I’m still coming to terms with turning 70 this year – it’s weird to be officially ín my seventies ’already. But I’m here and I have projects to complete, so it’s all good.
 
Thanks for reading 😊

several attacks on Adelaide and also discovers that he is one of the very rare people with immunity to the rampaging virus. His bid for survival takes him on an extended journey from Adelaide to the Coorong and beyond, fighting the enemy and marauding gangs and virus-fuelled zombies, before he is captured and shipped to Brisbane to be studied. Escaping from Brisbane to North Stradbroke Island through the aid of an enigmatic ally, our protagonist finds himself on a Chinese destroyer that transports him because of changing situations via Brunei to the Spratley Islands where scientists are trying to create a vaccine to save humanity from the zombie horde.

I shopped the manuscript around to several agents and publishers unsuccessfully, so I chose to self-publish it through Amazon KDP. You can order a copy from Amazon, or better still directly from me for $30 plus postage. Just email me at tshillitoe@gmail.com with your details and I’ll post a novel and invoice.
 
Planning to write is a key topic because it is more than the title might imply. The first step in planning to write is to PLAN to write.

1. Make a time for writing in your day/week
2. Create a space for writing.

As you would for any activity – work, sport, hobbies – you should establish times in a week that you are devoting to writing. Write those times in your diary and block them out. If you need to remind more than yourself, put a weekly chart on the fridge or somewhere easily visible that highlights your times to write. Make your writing a priority. Some writers who work and raise families have to fir writing in as an early morning activity, or a timeslot blocked out on certain days. Some writers – I was one – have to lock down writing time late in the evenings.
 
Set up a writing space – a desk, a room if you’re lucky, a garden shed – somewhere that you can say comfortably to anyone, ‘This is where I work on my writing.’ I know of at least one writer who has to write in her kitchen at the table, but she makes it clear that when she is in her writing times that space on the table is hers and hers alone. Another colleague has to go to the local library to write, but he does to ensure that he meets his writing commitment and has a space in which to write.
 
To write, you have to write. Obvious.
 
Once you establish a place and times, you must commit. I’m sure I read somewhere that Roald Dahl would adhere to his writing schedule by going to his writing space and sitting there for the full committed time, regardless of whether he actually successfully wrote anything he wanted to keep. Self-discipline. The truth is, once you start a writing habit, you will discover that writing will happen. Sometimes, you might stare at a blank screen/page. Sometimes, ideas will pour from your mind and flow through your hands or mouth and you will write copiously. But if you don’t make the time to write…
 
The second step in planning to write is more recommendation than requirement. Plan your writing project. Make notes. Build word or visual pictures of the characters, the places for your story. Determine how your story will (or might) end. List the order of key actions that have to occur to reach the story end point. Make more notes. Draw a plot (or plots) chart. Use Post-it notes or cards to outline each scene and order them. Research essential facts. Travel to places to be used or look at pictures or talk to people or go on Google Earth. Discuss your planning/ideas with friends or colleagues. Hold a think tank for ideas to enhance or grow your story. Create a chapter-by-chapter outline, a synopsis. Make more notes. Plan.
 
Some writers claim that they like to sit down and simply write and see where the writing leads. I’ve tried it. I’ve even done it with some degree of success. It can be fun. But if the ideas dry up it can also be frustrating. If you plan your writing project, at the very least you will have a journey mapped to a destination, details ready to hand, and a structure to follow.
 
Whatever you plan, once you begin writing it’s highly likely the planning will have to be reviewed, altered, even substantially changed to make the overall story even better. That’s perfectly normal. It is a creative activity.

Writers, me included, are frequently asked at conventions and workshops: ‘Where do you get your ideas?’ Although the question in itself is mere curiosity, it carries a kind of reverence or belief that writers experience and imagine a different world than mere mortals, but that’s not strictly true.
 
Most of us live seemingly ordinary lives and while we might hope to be involved in something grand or inspiring, something that makes us famous and rich, most of us never have that happen. And yet, every aspect of our seemingly ordinary lives is potentially extraordinary and the stuff of which stories are made. We think we are born, grow up in our families and go on with our lives in ordinary ways. But reflect on that. Even before you were born, there were people who shaped how and where you were born, even why you were born, and that makes you both familiar to readers and potentially unique. Your parents might be farmers struggling to eke a living out of a barren land, people who escaped a troubled land and tyranny to establish a new life elsewhere, creators of extraordinary things that brought wealth into being, humble people committed to a quiet and uneventful life, survivors of a great catastrophe. And all of the above might not be true of your parents, but of your grandparents or even earlier ancestors, and all that has a bearing on who you might be when you enter the world.
 
And then there is you. Maybe you were born with a challenge. Maybe you were exceptionally bright at school, or the kid who was bullied, or a sports star, or all of those. Maybe you had friends who did amazing things, who took risks, or disobeyed the rules. No one is singularly perfectly normal and uninteresting. But even if you find nothing in yourself you believe worthy of writing about, you will now and meet and observe many other people who might provide that spark of inspiration.
 
Like all creative people, writers live, listen, observe, read, view and think. When I’m asked, ‘Where do I get my ideas for writing?” I answer, “From everywhere, everything and everyone.” And that’s the truth.
 
I observe people – family, friends, colleagues, strangers, even myself. I listen to their voices and their expressions. I analyse their features, their dress style, their mannerisms, how they walk and laugh, what they eat and how they eat. I note what excites them, what makes them annoyed or angry, what saddens them, what they wish they had and what they are grateful for having, and how they express and react to emotions and events. I look for quirks, obsessions, behaviours that seem specific to individuals.
 
I soak in the colours and sounds and smells and sensations of places, the rich complexity and uncomplicated simplicity of textures and structures and light and atmosphere and composition and position. I look at the subtle integration of architecturally beautiful buildings and the stark vulgarity of aggressive designs. Whether I am walking along a gentle curved sandstone cobbled alley in Medina, shadows crouching against the cream and brown huddled buildings to avoid the sharp blue glare of summer, or pushing through the morass of shoppers beneath criss-crossing strings of multicoloured bulbs in a Mumbai market, my senses wrapped in the jarring fragrances of spices and human sweat and the plaintive cries of stall hawkers, or running on a ragged concrete path, bordered by green lawn beside the brown and silted waters of the River Torrens, my sneakers padding out a painful rhythm in sync with my frantic breath, while brown and black ducks quack annoyance at my passing, I am aware and taking note of what surrounds me and in what I am immersed, because at some point, for a story or poem or article, these things will become writing.
 
So, specific examples of where ideas germinate?

When I had my fifteen minutes of fame in the 1990s-2000s and had novels published by Pan Macmillan and HarperCollins, I was frequently interviewed and asked many questions associated with writing, but one question that was rarely broached is this one: Why do you write? It’s a key question to ask all writers – and if you want to be a writer it is an essential question to answer for yourself.
 
Anyway, why do I write?
 
Firstly, it is an obsession, an addiction, a passion that was ignited in Grade Three Primary School when our teacher introduced us to poetry. She coaxed and encouraged us to write our own poems and I was lucky to have my piece of Australian-themed doggerel published in the annual school magazine. I fell in love with creative written language and the idea that what I write could be read by many other people. I fell in love with seeing my ideas and words in print.

From that point on, I wrote hundreds of poems, short stories, articles, cartoons for school magazines and stories and jokes to share with my friends on the school bus trips to and from home. I guess I was writing then also to connect with people and to make friends.

Writing translated into essays and more poems in high school and university, and song lyrics at one point, and then it morphed into creative lesson plans and resources for students when I became a teacher. In fact, my second favourite part of teaching – the first being seeing students engage and grow in understanding – was creating resources. I didn’t show students examples of writing and ask them to write, I wrote the tasks with them to show how poetry and prose and scripts could be developed. I wrote them because it fulfilled the first of my needs: I write because I HAVE to write. In fact, if I don’t do a burst of creative writing on a regular basis, I become unsettled, grumpy even, as an addict does.
 
Another reason I write is to express my thoughts, ideas, understandings, interpretations and questions about life and people and politics and society and religion and all the things. My earliest poems, even as a child, embraced issues of survival and suffering and injustice and observations and love. I have poems from my teenage years that reference the El Salvador and Vietnam wars and cruelty, corporate and banking abuse of ordinary people, and quiet individual moments of suffering in an uncaring, disconnected world.

When I eventually found the courage and capacity to write novels, I explored a variety of themes, for example: the impact of marriage breakup and adult unreliability on early teens (Joy Ride); the crisis of identity and conflict between traditional role expectations and passion to learn for young women (The Last Wizard); racism, sexism and political domination and struggle for freedom (The Ashuak Chronicles); the struggles between wanting a simple life against shouldering the responsibilities of the ‘bigger picture’ (The Amber Legacy); protecting family versus embracing social law (The Need); personal identity and the courage to face challenges that can potentially change who you think yourself to be (In My Father’s Shadow). Those examples are only part of each novel and each one has more to it than a single theme, but that is why I write – to explore, question, challenge the small and big questions of life.
 
I write to give voice to the people represented by the characters in my work, to enable their experiences and views to be expressed. An example I’m extremely proud of is the novel Joy Ride in which a 16 year old juvenile is relating what happened to him and a friend when they were 13/14 and why. Caught in broken homes, and angry and frustrated by the failure of the adults they thought they should/could trust, the boys lash out and go on a drunken, drug-fuelled binge that ends up with them stealing a public transport bus and attempting to make a run for Melbourne. Based on an actual incident, the novel gives voice to disaffected youth. The reader reaction was almost priceless and the feedback and mail/email I received reflected the novel’s impact because the readers over 25 were angry and did not like the characters or their story and the readers under 25 were full of praise and engaged in the characters and story.

I could argue that Girlie came into being because I wanted my mother’s younger life and voice to be recorded and shared.

In a current project, yet to be published, I am endeavouring to give voice to people in our community who are meant to remain invisible. I feel a responsibility as a writer not to simply serve up fantasy or impossible characters, but to also challenge readers to know and understand why some members of our community are angry or isolated or hated or viewed with disgust, and why they are who they are, and how they feel as a consequence.
 
As I wrote earlier, I want to make connections and begin conversations with the people who read what I write. I like to think that I engage with readers in multiple and useful ways – to entertain, to challenge to think, to reassure and also to make uncomfortable over certain matters, to enlighten and maybe, with some issues, to embolden them to act. It is incredibly good to receive emails and messages from readers, obviously especially the complimentary ones and the ones that want to know more or pursue specific topics raised in the novel they read.
 
Do I write to make money? Well, I don’t make much money at all, although I do hope that a work I create will attract enough attention to generate a handsome profit. If it was for money, I would have stopped writing a long time ago, maybe not even write at all. Money is about luck: luck to be writing the right material at the right time in the right place to attract the right attention by the right people to your writing; luck that someone is willing to back your writing with money to kickstart it; luck that you make sales or it gets taken up as a movie or similar production. Some writers have ‘made’ their luck happen because of their connections in the industry. Some writers have been lucky that people in the industry like their writing and can market it successfully. I’d certainly like to strike it lucky, seriously I’d love that to happen, but that is not WHY I write.
 
Like all artists I know, I write because I love to create stories for others to enjoy. Everything beyond that is a bonus.

At the end of March, I levelled up in the game of life to 70. 70. Like, seriously, when did that happen? It’s not so long since I was standing outside my parents’ farmhouse, staring at the night patina of crystal stars and the distant glow of the Adelaide lights over the Lofty Ranges, the deep silence broken by an occasional bleating sheep and a solitary car whooshing along the Princes Highway, wondering where my life would lead and how it would unfold. And now, here I am, 70, looking back at the highs and lows, the wins and losses, the joys and sadness, the successes and failures, wondering how far into the immediate future this life will extend.
The end of March and the beginning of April melded into celebratory madness with dinners and small parties and too much food and maybe a little wine and whiskey, and writing evaporated in the mayhem, becoming what it was before I left the education sphere – brief grabs between events. Hence this blog entry is three weeks late and I almost decided to hold it off, but here it is.

I ran another editing eye across the four The Last Wizard manuscripts and submitted a query for the series to an agent. Now, it’s wait and see.

I completed a 3,500 word historical article for the Friends of the State Library Bibliophile journal on the groundbreaking entry and participation of policewomen in the Mounted division. Thank you to Hettie Tinsley for the invitation and to Richard Miles for support and information. I now only have to organise 4-5 photos to accompany the article. It won’t see publication until late in the year.

I coordinated the second SA Writers Think Tank session, focussing on the ideas of knowing ‘where your story will end before you commit too deeply to a writing project.’ I am a firm believer in knowing the intended destination of a journey, even if, eventually, the destination changes because of events in the journey. I apply this to writing. We also discussed the issues around copyright and plagiarism, but that will return in a later Think Tank for an even deeper dive.

I held conversations with three writers via Spectrum Writing around their projects and challenged them with relevant tasks associated with their projects. The mentoring is proving exhilarating, even if only for me. I love the conversations.

​And, so, 70. I’ve long considered that to be the turning point where I am officially old. The Government sent a letter asking my GP to confirm that I am still capable as a driver. I have issues with my knees and feet. I have had a swathe of blood tests concerning my health and the results will be confirmed next month (May). I have a Seniors card, but I still can’t get a pension while my wife works. Frustratingly, I’ve battled with myGov for three years to prove my identity to link various services, Centrelink being one. Several of my best friends have passed on. My parents, their siblings and their generation are almost all gone as well. People I admired as music and film and television celebrities are dead. And yet, I still sometimes feel like I am that young person standing outside in the night, staring at the stars, wondering at my future, curious to see what transpires next.

In a blink, we are at the close of February in a world that is changing faster than tech. I am astounded that the new world order is letting so much slime climb from beneath dark and dank rocks under which they mutter their conspiracies and spew their hatred at everyone who isn’t as hateful and bigoted as themselves. I am even more amazed at how individuals with openly unethical characters can rise to power with the blind if not self-interested support of so many idiots. History, of course, is littered with these people and the destruction and tragedy they wrought upon humanity and the earth, but in what ought to be an enlightened age they still thrive among us, buoyed by their insane wealth and the greedy self-serving sycophants who cling to their coattails.
 
Can you imagine anyone writing a novel or play, or creating a film with such unbelievable characters as we are currently witnessing on the daily news? Oh wait. Writers do. So many writers have created works portraying the horror we currently face on a world scale.
 
Anyway, I’ll do the only thing I can and write about the rise and prevalence of evil and the never-ending if often futile effort of people with good hearts to thwart evil’s plans. Yay for fantasy and scifi.
 
Wow! I must be really angry to forego blog space for a petty political rant. Believe me. I have barely started on what I dislike and I would change if, by some cataclysmic miracle, I could assert political power. But there is no cataclysmic miracle looming for me and I have absolutely no power at all. Can’t even win the lottery.
 
However, if you want some not-so-light reading on what we face around the world in current politics and potential and actual outcomes, here’s some books you could/should read:

because his interest lies in future investments and mine lies in SciFi writing and how AI will evolve. I’ve accepted a new writing mentee with Spectrum Writing. Writers SA have offered me the opportunity to lead once-a-month think tank sessions for writers to discuss concepts, progress and any other writing matters, and I’m excited by this. More details later.

I continued to develop the third book in a fantasy series which has grown to a healthy 50,000 words with a 120,000 word target to finish. Yesterday I fed a minor character I named Dutton to a dragon. Satisfying. I will make that writing project my key focus while I convalesce. In all honesty, watching the rise of right-wing politics with the billionaire oligarchs in the USA and the wanna-be oligarchs in Australia gives me awesome characters and motives to write into my stories. The two greatest sins in all religious and atheist worlds are greed and tribalism. Greed accounts for all the other sins combined because it is all about ‘what I want’ and hate is the root of all ‘us not them’ creeds and actions. If we can ever educate those two selfish ideologies out of humans we might just create a peaceful, harmonised and productive world, but so long as we encourage/allow individuals to acquire ludicrous amounts of money and applaud them for it, and demonise anyone who isn’t exactly like us, we are doomed to violence and endlessly repeating the history loop. Sermon over.
 
I completed a second edit of my friend Richard’s project based on stories from the South Australian Police Mounted Cadre Unit and it’s ready to be offered to publishers. Richard is organising approaches to prospective publishers. We also will go through the selection process for relevant pictures to add to each chapter. Richard’s book is a fascinating read and a worthy historical project.
 
I sketched the plot key points for a new teenage novel based on a girls’ volleyball team which I’ve been meaning to write for a very long time.
 
The other plans for 2025 listed in my previous blog remain in place, just shifted back in time while I wrestle with the skin matters. The mice are currently preoccupied.

And so the year plunges into its crazy conclusion. All dietary restrictions, sleep patterns and pledges to live a clean and healthy lifestyle evaporate momentarily in the haze of celebrations and family and friend gatherings, and all the joy and love that the season of Christmas/New Year brings. I hope your past weeks have been good to you.
 
For me, as a writer, the close of 2024 is also the close of a two-year project to ensure my past publications are out of the shadow of the ignominious label ‘out-of-print’. All sixteen books originally published between 1992-2016 can now be ordered in paper copy through me or via Amazon. I am preparing digital versions in the early part of 2025.
 
It was also enjoyable to bring into existence a new historical romance/semi biographical novel, Girlie, and a poetry anthology, Rearview Mirror.
 
And, so, to the writing resolutions for 2025.
 

1. The blog
   I am moving from a monthly to weekly commitment beginning mid-January 2025, each blog to be created as written and audio/visual content for sharing via social media platforms and each blog to focus on a specific creative writing topic. For example, the first topic will be the writing obsession, the second focussing on forming writing ideas, and so on.
   
   
2. Self-promotion
   I’ve never been much of a salesperson, but I am committing 2025 to a year of self-promotion wherever I can legitimately do so, although mainly via social media. The blog mentioned above is one step, but I’m exploring a variety of avenues. I’ve learned, bitterly, that I am currently a completely unknown writer, except by some family and friends, and I need to change that status.
   
   
3. An agent
   I need an agent to promote my new works to publishers. The industry has changed, and AI makes sorting through original writing by people versus artificial work generated by computers, increasingly difficult to compete against. I will make concerted approaches to potential agents throughout 2025 with the aim of securing publishing deals.
   
   
4. New novels
   While I used 2023-2024 to mainly consolidate my old work, I also drafted an additional twelve new novels now sitting in first draft manuscript format. Seven novels represent two new fantasy series, two novels are science fiction, two are contemporary literary novels, and one is another historical semi-biography. These are the works I need an agent to represent to publishers, and part of my energy in 2025 will be to polish these novels.
   
   
5. A publishing and writing services company
   There are plenty of writers seeking guidance and help through writing services, including various forms of feedback and editing, and I intend to build a small business designed to support these writers. In addition, I’d like to be involved in helping local writers reach publication. I do not believe I am in a position to act as a literary agent, but I can help writers self-publish and I am discussing the exciting notion with a colleague of starting a small publishing company designed to help niche writers and local writers with manuscripts that are good but being rejected in the current industry. Lots for me to learn here.
   
   
6. Self-publishing
   If I can’t attract the interest of an agent or publisher for my new works, I will continue to offer my work through self-publishing avenues.
   
   

It’s a long and demanding list of resolutions, but if I want to have some level of success in this chosen profession I have to commit.
 
Anyway, I hope you have a good new year and that 2025 is prosperous and healthy, and, at the very least, kind to you and your family and friends.
 
Tony Shillitoe

First, yes, I did NaNoWriMo again, aiming to crunch out a novel, or at least 50,000 words across the month of November. Outcome for me? Yeah. Never made it this time, for many reasons, but I did complete just over 40,000 words of a manuscript, or approximately half of what the novel might eventually be. For now, that project will be shelved. It was fun and important to make a significant start on the project as it is a concept I’ve wrestled with for more than a decade. I will nibble at it for a while.

October was a productive month in that I can honestly say that I have finally converted all my out-of-print fantasy series – Andrakis, Ashuak Chronicles, Dreaming in Amber – into digital print-on-demand on Amazon. Basically, if you want copies of any of the books – Guardians, Kingmaker, Dragonlords, Blood, Pasion, Freedom, The Amber Legacy, A Solitary Journey, Prisoner of Fate or The Demon Horsemen – I can provide them. Just so that you know 
 
This entry, I thought you might be interested in a hypothetical – How much does it cost to write a book? There is no real comparison with salaried or waged employment, but here’s a breakdown based on my experiences. Careful, it’s lengthy.
 
Conceptualising a novel is not easy to quantify. While I can tell you that a recent project was developed from an idea to a draft within two months, another novel that I am drafting for NaNoWriMo in November is a concept now more than twenty years old. However, as a good friend and I recently did, a concept could technically be the product of a day’s think-tank workshop, bouncing various ideas around and teasing out potential plots and characters and scenarios, so we will use this as the basis for costing the writing of a novel. Let’s say I am paid a casual rate at $80/hr, which is a current approximation for a mid-range copywriter (source), and we spend an eight hour day on conceptualising the novel, making the initial cost or investment $640.
 
Most of my novels are around the 100,000 word mark, some up to 140,000 words. A current unpublished manuscript of mine is 120,000 words, so I will use that manuscript for this hypothetical. While I can generally type at about 90 words per minute, I’ve timed and know that it generally takes me around 30 minutes to create a page of a fiction piece (300 words). This is because the creative writing process is a complex mixture of thinking, typing, reading, revising, editing and altering, and not a simple copy or fast typing exercise. On average, I complete maybe ten words a minute in draft format. A novel draft of 120,000 words, based on that rate of production, requires at least 200 hours of constant typing. On the copywriter’s wage, the draft has cost $16,000 to produce, representing almost five weeks of fulltime working. As a reference, a novel I did complete and have published, of similar length, took close to three months to complete in first full draft when I took long service leave, so pumping out a novel in five weeks, while doable, is not close to the time generally required.
 
Once the draft is created, it requires editing, and editing is not a simple or one-off process. Editors refer to at least four phases that I can attest to as a writer/editor:
 

1. Structural editing – checking that the story has an arc, appropriate scene and event transitions, pace and timing and so on.
2. Line editing – checking sentence lengths, tonality, consistencies and so on.
3. Copyediting – checking spelling, grammar, punctuation and so on.
4. Proofreading – checking the work is presented best for a reader, usually done when the work is ready for submission/publishing

 
While much of the above also occurs during the creative writing process, when the draft is completed all of the above have to be done at least once each before a manuscript is considered ready for submission to anyone. Good editors currently charge around $60-$120 per 1000 words, so I’ll suggest the rate for this hypothetical will be $60 per 1000 words. For the hypothetical project, the time involved will be around 120 hours so the cost of editing the draft into a suitable manuscript will be $7,200. Note: when I showed this to a few people they were shocked at what it can cost to have a book edited, and a couple of writers said they could never complete their project if that was a cost they were facing.
 
Creating the novel from concept to manuscript nominally costs $23,840 as a paid exercise, assuming there are no interruptions or major rewrites involved in the process.
 
We can factor in a variety of additional costs, like home office equipment (depreciation), utility services and so on. It is likely the full cost of writing a manuscript is around $25,000 of equivalent wages through time and equipment.
 
After that, the writer has to attract interest from an agent, and the agent has to interest a publisher. Those already connected in the industry can go directly to people and businesses that will, if they like the work, publish and market their novel. The costs involved in establishing contacts can range from $0 through email and voice contact through to attending conventions and fairs which involve registration, travel and accommodation costs. For this exercise, let’s say I attend a convention in Adelaide and one in Canberra where I endeavour to make myself known to prospective agents and publishers. The Adelaide event costs only time, say 3 days at 5 hours a day, which is 15 hours at my lower wage rate of $60 or $900. Canberra, however, involves similar time, plus air flights, taxi or public transport, meals and accommodation. I’ll fly in on the opening morning and leave the final evening, I won’t attend social events, even though I know they are great places to meet people in the industry, and I will eat sparingly. The last time I ever did such an event, it required an outlay of $300 flights, $300 accommodation and about $150 food and drinks. Altogether, the Canberra event, plus wage time, requires $1650 of time and money.
 
So, I’ve power-written my novel over a five-week period, power-edited it over another two weeks, and by some miracle coincided attendance at two conventions in the same month. I’ve needed, between time and actual costs, an income of around $30,000 in that month to sustain the entire project from start to publisher acceptance. Of course, let’s be realistic and use my personal example of the process for The Last Wizard taking three months from start to ready manuscript, so that comes back to a mere $10,000 a month income required to sustain the project.
 
And another miracle happens. A publisher buys the rights and pays an advance of maybe $10,000 with a deal of 10% on future sales of the book. The book hits the Australian market and over a two year period sells, say, 10,000 copies – a very minor success. The price is set at $25, so the book generates $250,000 revenue and the writer receives $25,000 less the $10,000 advance, that is, $15,000 over the two years. The publisher might invest in sending the writer to some public events and interviews to build profile, and the writer might also pick up workshop gigs to bolster income from the book. And they might not.
 
The other miracle is the instant blockbuster where the writer reaps a significant fortune from a series. Think Harry Potter and big crime series. This is the equivalent of a lottery win in the industry with probably less odds.
 
There are instances in the industry where people have achieved this otherwise almost impossible task of pumping out a novel in a month and being immediately traditionally published, but these individuals are generally professional writers with significantly successful track records who write entirely for their living, or, more recently, people who employ a combination of ghost writers, editors and even AI to write the book. For the vast majority of writers, however, the hypothetical could actually represent many years of time and effort, not a single month (or three months in my case).
 
As this is a hypothetical, let’s say I fail to attract publisher attention. I turn to self-publishing. More costs accrue. I’ll need to choose a self-publishing platform. Some charge for the process. I pick Amazon because it is initially free to publish. They provide templates for interior and cover design. I prepare a manuscript layout. It’s relatively easy, although I do have to carefully check page and chapter breaks and also adjust/edit text to avoid leaving a single or a few words on a whole page at the end of chapters. This process might take between 1-10 hours, depending on the state of my manuscript. This will also include checking the font size and type, and line spacing, for readability and ensuring the styles are consistent throughout. On average, this takes me 5 hours, so we add more editing cost, approximately $400.
 
Then there’s cover design. During COVID, I paid a $1000 for original artwork for a front cover piece. It is possible to have a cover design done via external providers for as cheap as $40. If you have the skills to create art, design and lettering, and use a template layout, you could design a book cover for free. You can implement AI programs. For the hypothetical, I’ll suggest a combination of purchasing cheap art and doing the full design by myself, which can take a day to work out layout. The cover in this hypothetical is valued at around $1000 of layout design and purchasing cheap art.
 
The hypothetical book is now valued in labour and purchases around $26,000-$27,000 from concept to uploading on Amazon (or an equivalent).
 
All the easy part of a book creation is completed. The hard part starts once the book is ready/ available. The writer who self-publishes also must budget for marketing, stock and mailing. I receive offers to market my existing books through social media and across reader forums for as low as $80 from certain companies. I had an individual offer to do a similar task for $30. I decide to market this way and invest the $80. I might also create a blog on my web site, record a podcast, and create a promotional video and upload it to a variety of social media sites. These tasks take me, say, an hour for the blog, an hour to record and edit a podcast, and similar time for my video. This assumes I already have the software and equipment available to do these things (which I have). That’s another $250-$300 time investment. To assist my buyers who want to buy direct, I stock, say, 20 copies of my book that I buy from the publisher at author price (for the hypothetical, it’s $10 a copy), so I invest another $200.
 
To break even on a single, simple novel project, I have to recoup a minimum of $25,000-$30,000. Through traditional publishing, I’d need the publisher to sell at least 10,000 copies to break even. Self-publishing, where the profit margin for me is significantly greater, I’d have to sell at least 3000 copies of the book. It’s lucky I don’t do this as a paid wage to myself. I could not afford to be a writer.
 
There are plenty of flaws in the hypothetical above, but its point is to demonstrate that the ‘art’ of writing is neither cheap, nor simple, and is rarely financially rewarding for the majority of us. Yes, we write because we love to write and we desperately want to share our ideas and stories with readers, but that doesn’t justify people demeaning our work in relation to paid salaries and wages. There are reasons why writers in the past needed wealthy benefactors, or wealthy partners, or were/are good friends with people in publishing, or own their publishing companies.

And if you think my observations are scary, read this article on Linkedin (if you have an account, sorry): https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-much-does-cost-write-book-what-do-you-have-lose-chandler-bolt-xmxdc/
 
Something to think about.

Wow! September already over.
 
I began this two-year journey with the aims of writing new work and also ensuring my old works were available online or on request through print-on-demand.

The former aim has currently led to one published novel, Girlie, an anthology of my early life poetry titled Rearview Mirror, and ten unpublished novel manuscripts awaiting further editing and publication. I’m very happy with that outcome over a twenty-two month period.
 
The second aim resulted in republication of the Andrakis trilogy (30th year edition), the Ashuak Chronicles trilogy (20th year edition), and finally, as of this coming week, all four books in the Dreaming in Amber series. Phew!
 
Republishing the Dreaming in Amber books was an interesting process, primarily because I no longer have possession of the last edited manuscript copies that HarperCollins used for publication. I spent significant time across September editing the manuscripts I do have, and they needed important adjustments that included:

• ensuring character names and personalities were consistent across all four books
• inserting final adjustments that were made originally via email conversations way back in 2006-8
• finding and replacing or deleting ‘noisy’ words, like quickly, suddenly, smiled etc
• correcting a major issue around the name Dylan being used for Andra, an issue that made it all the way through to the original HC copies (long story, not for this blog)
• ensuring consistency with ‘amber’ from the Genesis Stone being the source of magic across the stories
• paragraph breaks being relevant
• text layout consistency
• minor typos

I was surprised how much needed correction. To be honest, I’m sure more can be fixed, but my headset is also that these books are in the past of my writing life and represent where I was back then.
 
My readers do know that all of my fantasy books are set in the same physical world, in different regions of that world, and they share the same background history regarding the Genesis Stones, amber, dragons, Elvenaar/Aelendyell and Dragonlord cultures. However, they represent different times in the world’s history, across at least two thousand years from the falling meteors that are the Genesis Stones through to the release of the Demon Horsemen in the Dreaming in Amber books. Across that time, human culture developed from basic medieval in the Andrakis books to emerging industrial era technology in Dreaming in Amber.
 
Two fantasy series remain in unpublished format that are additions to the world above. The first, working series title Dragon Kin Chronicles, deals with the dragons who were portalled away from Ashua by Alwyn and the Alfyn, far to the west of Andrakis and Ranu Ka Shehaala. Their story is set around a similar time to the Dreaming in Amber series (ie three hundred years after the Ashuak events) and the Domovinan human culture affected by the dragons is an emerging industrial technology in line with similar developments in Ranu Ka Shehaala (there are trade and espionage exchanges between the nations influencing human technological growth). Ultimately, the story explores how and why humans and dragons eventually co-exist, which sets the scene for the second unpublished fantasy series, The Last Wizard Saga, originally heralded by my 1995 novel, The Last Wizard. Set a further five centuries ahead in time, humans having undergone a medieval Dark Ages period post-destruction of emerging human technologies by the Demon Horsemen and Dragon Kin, the novels look at a world in which dragons and wizards are outlawed (the outcome of the Dragon Kin Chronicles having proven problematic), but one of each survives, and a new world order commences.
 
Basically, I linked the tales across seventeen books, and core elements are echoed, with the amber/Genesis Stone magic source underpinning them all. It’s been and continues to be a fun journey for me, and hopefully readers.

In conversations with my daughters, we also redesigned the cover for Girlie, the historical biographical novel. The original cover was to publish the story mainly for family, using a photo of my Mum and a background of the tapestry she wove while recuperating from TB, but the new design incorporates her favourite peacock green colour, and art deco design and lettering more akin to the era in which the story is set. Consider the pictorial comparison in the changes. The third image is a hardback edition with the black background.

So, September has been busy. What I planned to spread across three months, I condensed into one. I’m about to edit two works by friends early October as a break from my own creativity, and then I’ll return to working on the existing unpublished work. As I flagged in the last post, November is booked out again for a NaNoWriMo project. 2024 is racing along. The AFL Grand Final is done, Bathurst is looming, bursts of Spring sunshine cause house renovation and repair jobs to blossom, and writing is never ending.

So many people recall variations on this piece of doggerel, and I think I first heard it recited by American comedian Jimmy Durante when I was a child watching old black and white movies on a 32 inch TV, but attributions claiming its origins arise from disparate sources. Since August ends winter here in Australia and heralds spring, this crazy piece is inevitably recited in our family.
 
August brought a range of exciting writing events and projects to the fore, culminating in a writing workshop for Writers SA titled The Story Arc, during which I guided fourteen keen and engaged participants through a six-hour intensive focussing on building the story arc in their current projects. Participant feedback was very positive, and I enjoyed the energy and connection with writers.

​ 
I always offer a ‘burning questions’ option where participants can pop specific questions on Post-it notes to be addressed during the workshop and the question that resonated was ‘Why do writers always suffer imposter syndrome?’ If the term is not familiar, it simply means that writers feel they cannot be considered themselves as writers and what they are really doing is being imposters. We discussed this as a group and an agreed definition, verified by similar online forums, is that a writer is an artist who creates through using words, and an author is a writer who publishes work for public consumption. Then there is the whole conversation as to what constitutes an author: novelists, poets, scriptwriters, journalists, copywriters, traditional publishing, self-publishing, ‘vanity’ publishing and so on. However, what sat at the base of the discussion is that so many writers feel like imposters because of a combination of self-perception and perceptions of observers. As participants expressed, the value of being a writer seems to be equated with questions like: ‘Oh, you’re a writer? How many books have you published?’ or ‘How much do you earn through writing, then?’ or ‘A writer? Literature or genre stuff?’ and a crowd favourite: ‘Really? Yeah, I’ve always wanted to write a book, too.’ The questions, in themselves, are not unreasonable, but for writers who are diligently developing a project, who cannot seem to attract an agent or a publisher’s interest, who fully intend to self-publish because their work is never intended to be a best-selling blockbuster, who are passionate about creating with words, the questions cause self-doubt and being unable to produce a published work or a manuscript to prove that writing is taking place then leads to guilt that what we are doing is simply wasting time. No economic value equals no value in what we are doing. Anyway, we rallied from the question and agreed that, like so many artists, we are all writers because we are passionate about our art, we commit ourselves to creating and crafting, we have intention to complete our projects irrespective of whether the ultimate goal is to be published or not, and we enjoy what we are doing. We all not only have stories to tell, but we are actively involved in writing them. We ARE writers.
 
For myself and my projects, progress continues, and some changes are in place.
 
The initial bad news – both Science Fiction novels were rejected by their first publisher offers (positive feedback, but not what the publisher would normally publish). No big deal and not unexpected. They will now go to the next possibilities.
 
The Dragon Kin fantasy book three is moving very slowly. The core aim of book three is to move towards resolution for the Dragon Queen, Shadrael, her Alfyn nemeses, and the humans caught in the conflict. I know how the story will end (roughly), but the plotting leading to it still challenges me regarding detail. I will chip away at this project.
 
Several readers contacted me in recent weeks asking how they can obtain the now out-of-print Dreaming in Amber novels and that has prompted me to begin editing the existing manuscripts, design covers and prepare them for release through Amazon (and other sources). This was to begin in 2025, but I have decided to start the process this month and work through one book at a time, releasing one a month, hopefully from October-December/January. Once they are done, my 1992-2008 backlist will be available from me and from Amazon.
 
Thank you to the readers who bought Girlie and have since given me very positive feedback. I have started drafting the companion novel, Bill, which will be a project in 2025, and in a similar vein it will tell the story of my father’s youth, leading up to marrying Eileen. With scant details, it will require as much research as Girlie did, and most likely a lot more speculative content. I’m looking forward to it.
 
The four The Last Wizard fantasy novels will begin to be offered to overseas agents this month.
 
For NanoWriMo, the project will be to totally focus on the men’s novel, now with the working title Comes the Moment. I’m hoping to punch out most of that novel in the four weeks of November.
 
Into September we dive, full of energy and creativity and joy. Spring has sprung indeed!

Posting a little late, because of a number of life events throughout July and into August – birthdays, trips, house movings, sport finals, illnesses – the stuff of life. I was going to appraise the current fantasy project, but that has slowed over July and the third book is only at 10,000 words so far. More agent and publisher approaches have been made, but no responses so far.
 
So, I’ll take a moment to reflect on my writing business since quitting education at the end of 2022.
 
In the early 1990s, I was lucky to break into publishing and had minor success with the Andrakis fantasy series, enough to consider taking on a writing career full time, but I was well aware of the risks because we had a young family and substantial mortgage, so the change was never financially viable. When I embarked on full time writing, I told family and friends it was likely to be a costly and no-to-low income proposition for at least three years and, being an artistic pursuit, even possibly never any real income. I’ve watched writing colleagues over many years take the same leap, some from full time work and some for whom writing was a large enough income stream to make it their core work. Some have been successful in maintaining a good annual income, either through consistent contracts with publishers, very capable marketing and grafting skills, or a hybrid writing and teaching writing business. A very tiny few are making more income than the average good job. Most, however, are not making much at all. The latest Australian Society of Authors through Macquarie University survey (2022) shows that, on average, Australian authors earn just over $18,000 per annum. Poets earn the lowest average: education authors the highest average.

​Like any small business, you need starting finance and a solid business plan, a potential market for your product and a marketing plan. I began with $10,000 in the kitty at the end of 2022, a total of twelve writing projects to complete, plans to approach agents and publishers, a small fan base, an existing global book market, and an intention to learn how to effectively market my work.
 
By the end of July 2024, the kitty is empty. The expenditure was spread across buying cover illustrations for five books, repairing the computer, buying author book copies to on-sell and use for promotion, website and domain costs, attending workshops in person and online, paying for promotional ads on social media, various stationary and printing goods and a new printer, and a bottle of good whiskey. Okay, maybe the whiskey can be considered unnecessary. Maybe.
 
Of the planned writing projects, one novel was completed and published, one poetry anthology completed and published, two manuscripts are currently on offer to publishers, seven manuscripts are completed and awaiting cleaning up and submissions, eight previously self-published books have been re-edited, rebadged and re-published, and three project manuscripts are partially written. I’ve also retrieved the rights to all my work and will most likely self-publish the Dreaming in Amber quatrology early in 2025, if I can sort out cover art issues. For the statisticians among you, the original twelve projects rapidly became twenty-six projects. I get restless.
 
Agent and publisher approaches so far have been unsuccessful, but that’s a mere drop in the ocean as far as how many I have yet to pursue – and I can always fall back to self-publishing. The industry has dramatically changed since I was last involved way back in 2009 – self-publishing has boomed astronomically, bookshop chains have collapsed, publishers seem less interested in small publishing runs for lesser-known authors, the number of people publishing world-wide is phenomenal, the artificial and bogus and plagiarism industry is rife, social media and entrepreneurial marketing is everywhere and is almost everything: it is a different environment. But it has many opportunities too.
 
A friend suggested it’s time to pause the writing and really get on with the marketing and I think they’re right, except that marketing means spending money. I’m happy to share that the writing business so far generated just over $2,000 in the same period as I spent $10,000. So that’s only a $8,000 loss so far. I know businesses that have lost considerably more – umm, maybe that’s not comforting. Nevertheless, now I have to learn to be an entrepreneur and a salesperson. New skills.
 
Moving forward, I have two more writing projects to complete before the close of 2024, and I will begin the marketing training to put the aggressive part of my new business into operation from the beginning of 2025. I’m sincerely glad that I jumped into this part of my life. I will not leave the questions unanswered. I won’t have regrets that I didn’t have a crack at doing what I love. That makes me very happy. I have a roof over my head, food on the table, family and friends, and I live in a peaceful place. And I’m writing. Nice. Very nice indeed.

​An amazing month – lots happening. here's a quick summary...
 
June began with me completing the first full draft of the manuscript with the working title A Day in His Life. At 38,000 words, it is a novella. I will return to it in a month or so to explore expansion, but where it sits at the moment is certainly enough for the story being told. I can add more back story and perhaps one or two more incidents during the character’s day, but I don’t want to artificially inflate what is meant to represent a single day. For now, that project must simmer.

​The second is titled First Drafts which is delivered in eight fortnightly sessions, each ninety minutes, consisting of, say, thirty minutes of me front-loading on specific topics like story and chapter openings, character and setting creation and so on, and then a workshop atmosphere for the remainder of each session during which the participants can discuss and share and begin exploring those specific elements in their own projects.
​​ 

​ Two new manuscripts have been offered to publishers, so I await responses on their first outings in the big world.
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And, towards the close of June, I’ve embarked on creating the third manuscript in the Dragon Kin series. The Dragon Kin fantasy novels have been a slow work in progress since I drafted the first book, Storm, in 2021, and the second, War, last year. All titles are working titles only, and the new book is titled Revenge, for now. I’ll appraise you of the general content of that series next blog.
 
July will be busy with other matters, but let’s see where it takes us.

​May has been productive and busy.
 
The month opened with a decision to gather a host of poems I wrote many years ago, some as early as the 1970s and university years.
 
I wrote poems prolifically from around age eight, most of them Australian bush-themed and some naively political. A handful were published in school magazines. They were modelled heavily on the rhythmic and rhyming patterns of Australian bush ballads.
 
At university I was introduced to the Liverpool Poets and US Beat poetry, and I modified my style accordingly. And then later came Bruce Dawe and similar poets whose subject matter was contemporary politics and suburban life. There was a point in my life when I dreamt that I would be a poet and Keats-like I would live a brief but inspirational life, and die tragically, leaving wise words behind for the ages. I was nineteen.

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I am also developing a new novel, currently 40,000 words, based on the concept of a day in a character’s life – think Solzhenitsyn’s One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich as the model. The character and his nature are requiring significant background research, but the project is taking solid shape. What will be difficult to market and may not be palatable to most readers are the type of character and some of the necessary language in the tale. So be it. I need to tell the story. The same need drove me to write Joy Ride back in the 1990s, a story of a teenager who rebels against norms and doesn’t apologise for doing so.
 
Still struggling to find an agent, so I’m going to try direct approaches to publishers.

On the writing front, Girlie has sold a handful of copies to family and friends – exactly what the book was intended to do, so I’m satisfied. On reflection, I forgot that the book was a twelve year project, started back in 2012 when I began formally interviewing Mum. People often ask, ‘How long does it take to write a book?’, and my answer used to be ‘About twelve to eighteen months’, but now it is always ‘As long as it takes’ as I learned is the case with several projects in the past twelve months.
 
While I keep querying agents in the hope of selling my fantasy and science fiction projects, I embarked on a different tale which feels like it has the potential to be a novella rather than a full length novel and I may adapt to a stage play. Working title A Day in His Life, it focuses on one day in the life of an older man whose world is confined to a boarding house, prison experiences and pension income, a situation created by many childhood and young adult traumas. I can’t divulge much more except that it is gritty, realistic writing and unlikely to attract a huge reading audience because the central character is not necessarily appealing, but it’s a story I want to tell that is in the vein of Solzhenitsyn’s One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (only shorter, contemporary Australian and unforgiving). Anyway, I’m 25,000 words in and committed to finishing it.
 
The other project based around eight men on a houseboat is in idle phase at the moment, but I will renew attention to it soon.
 
So, a fragmented blog entry – more a catch-up than anything. Hope everyone is well.

February began with the joy of touching base with readers of the Andrakis series who have supported me by buying copies of the 30th anniversary edition available either by directly contacting me or via Amazon at Tony Shillitoe Guardians.
 
We are self-publishing Girlie and the book will be launched on Mum’s birthday on Amazon – March 24th. The book blurb is:

The cover design is a photograph of Mum when she was recuperating in the tuberculosis ward at Daw Park Repatriation Hospital. The background is the tapestry she wove while recuperating.
 
If you are in Australia and want a copy, you can pre-order directly with me. Send me an email at tshillitoe@gmail.com with your name and post address and I will organise a copy and invoice with payment details. The book price, with postage included, will be $30. Of course, if you’re in Adelaide and want to pick up a copy directly from me, it’s $25 and a coffee or beer or whiskey at a place of your choosing. Email me to organise collection. It normally takes about two weeks for me to order and receive copies to on-sell.
 
In other news, I have been working directly with a very good friend on a book project that encompasses stories shared by retired members of an organisation (all hush-hush for now). Still legal hoops and writing necessities to go through and it is most likely a self-publish work when finished, but it is an interesting historical document.
 
I have edited the two science fiction novels and now I will start seeking an agent who can represent me to publishers with these projects. I’ve been approaching agents for the fantasy projects – so far, no success. Early days, though – I will always persist. Apparently, in the existing market, it’s not uncommon to have to make several hundred such approaches!
 
Finally, I’m working on the next project – a novel about eight men who spend a long weekend on a houseboat. I’ll let you ponder that one.

​Before we know it, 2024 is in full swing and the first month is done! I hope you had a break over the Christmas/New Year period, or at least an opportunity to refresh. For me, January has been a month of cover design and republication.
 
I’ve just published a new edition – the 30th anniversary edition – of the original Andrakis trilogy on Amazon, replete with the original titles – Guardians, Kingmaker, Dragonlords – and a unified series of covers! Thirty years ago – actually more, because the new edition was a little late - Guardians and Kingmaker hit the shelves in 1992 and Dragonlords in 1993, and I am always indebted to the Pan Macmillan Australia team for the chance to become a published writer.
 
The creation of this new edition is the last time I will revisit the Andrakis series. A cover design debacle with the original Dragonlords meant that, while Guardians and Kingmaker sold well, Dragonlords sales lagged, and for many years I had letters and, later, emails from readers asking me when I was releasing the third book or telling me that they could not get hold of book three. It was a very important lesson in publishing – that covers of series need to be identifiably linked.
 
Robert Stephenson at Altair did a reprint edition of the series in 2006 with the books renamed under their original draft titles – The Waking Dragon, Maker of Kings, Dragonlord War – and this series was replicated on Amazon in 2015 with cover art provided from Kirsi Salonen designed to unify the series more effectively. That sorta worked – but there were a range of issues with that set of publications, too.
 
So, this 30th anniversary edition finally has, I believe, a unified set of covers to identify the books as a single series. It’s been a strange, at times frustrating, journey.
 
I enjoy learning how to do cover designs. My early attempts were embarrassing, clumsy, and unprofessional. My latest efforts are improving (I think). The Andrakis trilogy covers represent a compromise and a conglomeration. I wanted to pay homage to the original Guardians cover art by Mike Worral that I’ve always loved for its blend of dragon fire and lightning, and so I created a stormy lightning background using Gencraft AI and this is designed to unify the book covers. I then encapsulated Kirsi’s original art in common border frames on the front covers to draw the originals into the Altair versions. The titles and author text were the most difficult, mainly because I did not want the art obscured by the lettering. I could have (maybe should have) made the titles much more prominent, but in the end I chose the smaller text to give the art the respect it deserves.
 
And so, into February. My focus this month is on editing and preparing two scifi novels for marketing. I’m chasing agents because I would like my new work to go through conventional publishing, so if you know someone who would be keen to take on my work definitely let me know. I am settling into this new life of full time writing and enjoying the freedom to be creative.

​So, the final blog for 2023, and it will be a summary/observation of a first year of full time writing. Fair warning so you can choose to read on or bail.
 
The Numbers
 
Let’s get the dry info out of the way – the year’s statistics.

• Number of completed manuscripts: 9
• Fantasy novels: 5
• Sci Fi novels: 2
• Historical Romance: 1
• Education Guide: 1
• Projects started for development in 2024: 4
• Total word count across projects: 621,276
• Number of submissions: 3
• Number of rejections: 3
• Expenditure: $12,350
• Income: $0

 
The Projects
 
The Last Wizard series – Tamesan, Chasse, Jaysin, Harmi – Fantasy novels
The original The Last Wizard was published by Pan Macmillan way back in 1995. It was successful and made its way into schools, and was a finalist in the inaugural Aurealis Awards, losing out to Garth Nix’s Sabriel. While it was written as a stand-alone at the time, I had pencilled ideas for a series. That never saw light of day for many personal reasons at the time. This year, however, I completed three novels – Chasse, Jaysin, Harmi - each one focussed on a sibling in the family, the last one told from the dragon’s point of view, each draft of around 90,000 words taking just over a month each to complete. The series is now ready for 2024 submissions.
 
The Dragonkin series – Storm, War, Revenge – Fantasy novels
Dragonkin was started way back in 2007 as a follow on from the Dreaming in Amber and Ashuak Chronicles published by HarperCollins, but was never developed beyond half a first book draft. Conceived as a development on the fate of the dragons that were tricked into following the Alfyn through a portal in the Amber books, this year I finished drafts of book one – Storm – and book two – War. Book three – Revenge – is yet to be drafted and so this series is a 2024 project.
 
Girlie – Historical Romance novel
Girlie has gone through four years of development, and one submission and rejection, but the manuscript is ready for 2024 submissions.
 
Bill – Historical novel
A second historical novel focussed on a young male in the 1930s and 1940s is underway. It’s in fledgling form. It follows the experiences of a boy growing up on a remote farm whose mother dies when he is 11 through to his joining the RAAF in 1944. Lots to do.
 
All We Have – Science Fiction novel
Pre-Covid and post-ISIS, in 2017-18 I drafted a novel in diary entry form titles All We Have of a young man who finds himself in world torn apart by a pandemic and the rising up of ‘terrorist’ organisations during the pandemic. Apart from the apocalyptic elements described, the twist is the pandemic virus adapts rapidly to control its hosts – zombie apocalypse. While the first draft is finished, I think it needs significant editing in light of the world’s recent/current experiences and maybe with regard to characters. To be edited in 2024.
 
Rebound – Science Fiction novel
I undertook NaNoWriMo last month and completed a 56,000 word draft based on corporate control of the world and the attempt to introduce cyborg players into international basketball. The organisation, Independent Freedom, uses assassins to disrupt corporate efforts to monopolise business and push the citizens deeper into poverty. The corporates use assassins to take out IF operatives. Caught in the mix is a basketball club targeted as an experimental ground for the cyborg athletes. I’m hoping to finish final edit of Rebound and get it ready for 2024 submissions.
 
We Need to Talk about Teaching – Education guide
I’ve wanted to publish a guide to the daily aspects of teaching no one talks about until you’re on the job – yard duties, reliefs, parent relationships, PD etc – and I wanted to tell it interspersed with hundreds of teacher comments I’ve collected over a long time. This work is now in first rough draft, but it needs a significant edit., even though I thought I could get it done this year. Now it’s in the 2024 list of ‘To be continued…’
 
Self-discipline
 
Those closest to me know that until this year, writing was slotted in around everything else – education work, family, sport. A fantasy novel commonly took a year to draft into reasonable shape. Between 1990 and 2008, I managed to have 11 fantasy novels and 2 teenage novels published with Pan MacMillan and HarperCollins, and several short stories, articles and scripts. Contracts from publishers certainly helped with self-discipline over that eighteen-year publishing period.
 
This year, unencumbered by full time work, it has been incredibly liberating to re-evaluate life and writing, and the victor and victim simultaneously has been self-discipline. I have had to establish a writing and reading and editing routine during what would normally be the working week. Simultaneously, I have also been challenged to ‘relax’, slow down’, enjoy retirement’. Balancing those two forces is a challenge. It’s nice to have the challenge. Some days I manage to do one or the other, some days both. Occasionally, neither.

Nibbles – okay, let’s leave that topic. Loneliness does inspire nibbling. I have to be very conscious of getting up and moving about because there are days when I am so focussed on what I’m writing that several hours can pass before I realise I better move.
 
Another thing I’ve done is set myself a daily word count of around 3000 words – basically, if I hit it, I can make choices to do other things that day (or keep writing), It’s not strict – I cheat. But it gives the writing ‘job’ parameters against which I can measure productivity. Did I just write that?
 
The last comment on self-discipline concerns money. I’ve made none from writing this year. At times, I’ve defaulted to looking on Seek for possible jobs that will bring in money. I’ve contemplated at least doing relief teaching, anything to justify my existence. And that’s when my responsible brain kicks in and says, ‘You have chosen to be a writer. You didn’t choose to make money. You chose to create. Creativity is never a guarantee of income. Lots of famous writers died penniless (and lots more unknowns). Why should you expect anything different from your art? Be an artist. Stop being tied to monetisation.’ So, yes, the hardest discipline is to accept that I am no longer a part of capitalist productivity. At best, I’m a creative, relying on someone else to house, clothe and feed me. I have nightmares…
 
Goals
 
Has this year been productively successful in writing? Mostly, yes. I’m pleased with the output. It’s good to have completed drafts of seven projects that have been languishing on the computer in notes for up to twenty years. It’s also good to have two fresh projects drafted. The focus this year was always going to be purely on writing, not on seeking agents or publishers. To that end, it has been successful.
 
But now, the truly difficult and scary part of my choice to leave safe employment and be a fulltime writer begins for 2024 – securing a literary agent and publishing the books. Those are part of the 2024 goals, along with developing and completing several more projects that have languished for lack of time in the past.
 
If you’ve followed my ramblings this year, thank you. Have a safe holiday period (if you have one) and see you in 2024!

Over 300,000 people currently work as teachers in Australia, about a half/half split between Primary and Secondary schooling levels, with over 70% being female. When I began the career way back in 1978, I quickly realised that very little of what I thought I knew about teaching and what was shared with me at university was correct or useful. Educational theories and history and pedagogical practices and curriculum maps and technologies certainly provided a little of the necessary knowledge and skills teachers need, but the reality gap between academia and day-to-day workplaces was – and still is – huge.
 
By my fifth year of teaching, I was mapping a potential guide for people who were contemplating teaching as a career or were in the early years wondering what just happened. I began collecting comments and observations made by colleagues and storing them – conversations on yard duties, behaviour management, administrative paperwork, reliefs, union membership, and so on. The comments I collected are like:
​
“I was born branded as a teacher. Mum is a Principal. Dad teaches Tech. My grandmothers on both sides were teachers, and my father’s father worked as an accountant for an education company. I’ve never known a world outside teaching. We’re a bit like professional military families – actually, a lot like them.” (AK, Economics Teacher, 12th year in profession)

“Every morning, I coach myself to be positive when I walk into the school grounds. I smile, I greet people, I exude positivity because I know the impact it has on everyone else.” (JN, Year 5 teacher, 4th year in profession)

“If I have to do one more session on Mandatory Notification I will scream. I get it. I know what to do after four sessions. Really. Stop wasting my time. The sessions are so boring.” (CB, Food Technologies teacher, 22nd year in profession)
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“I learned a lot of tech stuff during uni, but I was surprised at how many of my colleagues still struggle with tech at work. It’s embarrassing. I’m helping people with basic stuff and the kids know it.” (FS, Middle School teacher, 7th year in profession)

Writers are readers. I firmly believe it’s essential for people to read and read widely (I know, persistent prejudice of a former English teacher), because writers open the world and in places where most of us never choose or have to journey. Writers take us to real worlds, fantasy worlds, potential worlds. They immerse us in love, war, creation, despair, hope, joy, fear, abomination, spirituality, aspirations, grief, loss. They allow us to see life through many different eyes and from vastly different perspectives.
 
I was asked last week what I read, especially as I write in specific genres. It’s expected I read fantasy since I write fantasy, but I rarely do nowadays, and for two reasons. I don’t want to copy other fantasy writers, and I don’t want my stories to be influenced by what others are writing while I’m writing my stories. When I read fantasy it’s always between projects and never during.

So, here’s the thing. I bet you and I can ‘people watch’ on the street and we would identify a host of stereotypes in everyday life, based on common fashion choices, hairstyles, movement and poise, interactions with others, family origins, gender. When we sit with family and friends and chat, more stereotypes emerge: common topics of interest, points of view, reactions to other people, voice tone and accent, gestures and so on. At work, we witness colleagues’ shared attitudes to the workplace and people, actions and reactions under pressure, drudgery and creativity, planning and chaos, success and failure. In all of the above people watching, we see common traits, shared personalities, physical similarities, and these shape stereotypes in our world views. And this is before we enter the less pleasant environments of gossip and media and prejudices where the stereotypes become vilifications.
 
Stereotypes have been aligned with profiling (consider the definitions) and negative connotations attached to the term. The accusations ‘He looks like that so he must act like this’, ‘She dresses like that so she must be this kind of personality’, ‘They come from there so they will believe these things’ are examples of stereotyping as profiling. At the heart of this conversation, then, is the politicisation of stereotyping. Where vilification and profiling are evident, stereotyping characters should be questioned, examined and determined as acceptable or not acceptable. Not only should the writer’s work be examined but also the motivation behind the critic’s criticism. Politicisation is a two-(or more)-sided action where all parties’ views need to be examined.
 
There are now more than eight billion humans on the planet, so it’s possible that you share similar physical appearance with quite a lot of other people. Note, though, the emphasis is on similarity, not exact duplication. There are so many people on this planet that you do have a small but possible chance of meeting your exact doppleganger, something like a one in one-hundred-and-thirty-five chance, but that’s like the conundrum of anticipating a monkey could write Shakespeare’s plays if left in front of a keyboard long enough. Basically, it has a probability, but it’s so huge it’s likely to never actually happen.
 
For every group of ten thousand people, there’s a chance eleven of them will share similar facial features with people in that group. The chance that you will meet someone with very similar facial features is apparently more like .0011%. A very tiny number? Absolutely. But distil that across eight billion humans and there could be as many as eighty to ninety thousand people who have similar looks to you.

​https://petapixel.com/2022/09/01/doppelgangers-dont-just-look-alike-they-act-alike-and-share-dna/ 

Editing. Again. Creating and manipulating a four-book series at the same time is not something I have tackled before. The fantasy series published with HarperCollins in 2002-3 – the Ashuak Chronicles – and again in 2008-10 – Dreaming in Amber – were one-at-a-time book developments, admittedly framed into six-month deadline frameworks for each book. Somehow, they seemed easier.
 
In this final editing-before-submission phase, I’ve found the most difficult aspect is remembering which book I’m in as far as whether I have already mentioned the places or people or events. At least twice, now, I’ve started editing a paragraph or fact only to realise it isn’t being repeated – it actually is the first time I’ve mentioned the information!
 
I’m learning much about my writing style working across four books. I have an obsession with the setting at the start of chapters and sections. I like to establish the weather, the light, the scenery surrounding the characters. Too much. I’m focussing on editing at least some aspects of that obsession in this final process. I particularly discovered an obsession with fishing boats and seagulls. I am reducing the number of times they are referenced.
 
I love dialogue. That leads to how many times do I have to use the word ‘said.’ Then there are the -being-too-clever risks with synonyms for said. And the risky ‘don’t use said at all’ in some lines. The reader is clever. This is challenging across a total of 400,000 words in four books.
 
Telepathic communication between the dragon and the three siblings is a significant aspect of the third and fourth books and deciding how to represent it is ‘interesting.’ In the end I’m going with the dialogue convention and keeping ‘mindspeak’ as traditional dialogue by using the words ‘projected’, ‘mindspeak,’ ‘telepathy’ to alert readers that telepathic communication is happening. Only personal thoughts and dreams appear in italics.
 
Tamesan’s Song: Book One and Chasse’s Song: Book Two are done. Jaysin’s Song: Book Three is this week’s project and Harmi’s Song: Book Four will complete the March project line. Back into the editing I dive.

The "GPT" in ChatGPT stands for "Generative Pre-trained Transformer." The "generative" part refers to the model's ability to create new text based on what it has learned from its training data. The "pre-trained" part refers to the fact that the model has already been trained on massive amounts of text data, making it more accurate and efficient than other language models.”
 
There are risks, as with anything:
 
“As an AI language model, ChatGPT can provide valuable information and assist with various tasks. However, there are some risks associated with using ChatGPT, including:
 
1. Bias: ChatGPT's responses are based on the data it was trained on, which can include biases that were present in the original dataset. This means that ChatGPT's responses can sometimes reflect and perpetuate biases, stereotypes, and prejudices.

2. Misinformation: ChatGPT's responses are generated based on statistical patterns in the data it was trained on. While it can provide helpful information, it can also generate responses that are inaccurate, incomplete, or misleading.

3. Lack of empathy: As an AI language model, ChatGPT does not have emotions or empathy. This means that it may not understand or be able to respond appropriately to emotional or sensitive topics.

4. Privacy and security: ChatGPT's interactions with users may involve personal information that needs to be protected. There is also the risk that bad actors could use ChatGPT to generate harmful content, such as fake news or hate speech.

5. Dependence: Depending too heavily on ChatGPT for decision-making or information-gathering could lead to a loss of critical thinking skills and independent thought.
 
Overall, while ChatGPT can be a useful tool, it's important to recognize its limitations and be aware of the potential risks associated with its use. It's important to use ChatGPT with caution, and to verify the information it provides through other sources whenever possible.”
 
Of course, I didn’t write any of the above. ChatGPT did from my prompt. I figure I won’t need to ‘create’ blogs hereon in. I can have ChatGPT generate them for me. For example, it is Writers’ Week in the city and for the first time ever I can attend any of the sessions on any of the days because I am no longer tied to an 8-6+ job. To celebrate Writers’ Week, here’s a quick poem:
 
“In Adelaide's Writers' Week,
The city's streets come alive
With words that dance and words that speak
And tales that make us thrive.
 
Authors, poets, and wordsmiths too
Gather here from far and near
To share their stories, both old and new
And bring their passions clear.
 
We listen to their voices rise
Like music in the air
As they paint worlds before our eyes
With words that we can share.
 
From memoirs to fiction, they inspire
And captivate our hearts
In Adelaide's Writers' Week, we conspire
To make art that never departs.
 
So let us gather in this space
And revel in the magic of the pen,
For in Adelaide's Writers' Week, we embrace
The power of words once again.”
 
Yes. ChatGPT again. Doggerel. Needs a serious edit and I’d hope to write something much more interesting, but then…
 
Maybe I can write fantasy novels – or more to the point, ChatGPT can write them for me. I asked it to write a fantasy story in the style of Tony Shillitoe (it doesn’t know who I am, by the way – I’m unknown to it). Here’s what it generated:
 
“Once upon a time, in a land far beyond the reach of mortal men, there lived a powerful sorcerer named Zephyr. Zephyr was known throughout the land for his mastery of the arcane arts, and his ability to summon forth creatures from other dimensions to do his bidding.
 
One day, Zephyr decided to undertake a journey to the far-off kingdom of Arvandor, where he had heard rumors of a powerful artifact that could grant its wielder unimaginable power. Setting out from his tower in the mountains, Zephyr travelled for many weeks, battling fierce monsters and crossing treacherous terrain until he finally arrived at the gates of Arvandor.
 
As he made his way through the city, Zephyr sensed a powerful magical presence emanating from the castle at its center. Without hesitation, he made his way to the castle gates and demanded an audience with the king.
 
To his surprise, the king agreed to see him, and Zephyr found himself standing before the throne, face to face with the ruler of Arvandor.
"What brings you to my kingdom, sorcerer?" the king asked.
"I have come seeking the artifact of power that is said to be hidden within your castle," Zephyr replied.
The king eyed him warily. "And what makes you think I would just give it to you?"
 
Meh. Although I do like the final line as a threat.
 
This is a very selective set of examples of what ChatGPT and other AI systems can already do and this is merely the beginning of a whole new age. I don’t believe creative writers are at risk yet – unique styles are difficult to replicate in original work (but not impossible). However, the “writing is on the web” for workplace writing and simpler creative tasks. Resumes, reports, Hallmark poems are all simply and effectively generated. For example, here’s what I got when I asked for a night-fill resume for a supermarket job:
 
“Name: [Your Name]
Contact Information: [Your Phone Number] | [Your Email Address]
 
Objective: To obtain the position of Night Fill at [Supermarket Name], bringing strong physical stamina, attention to detail, and excellent time-management skills to ensure timely and accurate stocking of merchandise.
 
Education:

• [High School Diploma or equivalent], [Year of Graduation], [High School Name]

 
Experience: Night Fill, [Supermarket Name], [City, State], [Year-Present]

• Unload delivery trucks and stock shelves with merchandise according to store procedures and standards
• Ensure product rotation and freshness by following proper rotation procedures
• Monitor inventory levels and inform the manager of low stock items
• Keep the work area clean and organized, following safety and sanitation guidelines
• Collaborate with other team members to complete tasks within designated time frames
• Provide excellent customer service when asked for assistance with finding items

 
Skills:

• Strong physical stamina and ability to lift heavy boxes and containers
• Attention to detail to ensure accurate placement of merchandise and adherence to store standards
• Excellent time-management skills to complete tasks within designated time frames
• Customer service-oriented mindset to assist customers with finding items
• Ability to work well in a team-oriented environment

 
References: Available upon request.”

ChatGPT offers a great first draft option for writing. Our world is on the cusp of another digital revolution, especially paired with deep fake technology and the ability to use multiple platforms to spread (mis)information quickly, widely and efficiently. Is it possible the next generation of storytellers will be as constructed as their stories?
 
“Words wake on the web,
Tomorrow’s tales yet untold:
AI defines us.”
 
(a collaborative ChatGPT and human haiku)

Censorship of a piece of writing in our ‘democratic’ communities is not as simple as someone in a position of authority deciding what can and can’t be read. It is far more complex. It may well begin with a nation or state setting laws about what is morally acceptable for publishing/reading and what is not, but after that there are many players who make choices and decisions:
 
1.     First, the writer will choose what they want to write about – the language, the characters, the moral content, the actions. One colleague told me she is happy to write dark content for her teenage readers but she will NEVER kill a cat in her stories.
2.     Sometimes, the writer’s beta readers – family, friends, trusted colleagues – will influence the content before the final manuscript is completed.
3.     If the manuscript arrives at a publishing house, trusted readers employed by the publisher will have their input as to what should or should not be published.
4.     The publisher’s editor (or editors) will choose what will be published and what might need to be edited/changed/removed from the original.
5.     Then the publishers booksellers sometimes have influence, especially of dealing with a bookshop owner who can only stock some but not all the books being offered by the publisher.
6.     The bookshop owner and staff then introduce their level of preference for which books will get shelf exposure and recommendations and which will be silently stowed on the shelf. This extends to the amount of shelf life a book receives before it is removed and replaced.
7.     Then the buyer makes choices based on personal interests, moralities, and what is available and recommended.
 
If the book is sold into schools, another raft of people are involved in the book’s ‘censorship:’
 
8.     The school is likely to have a book selection policy determining what is acceptable and what is not.
9.     The school librarian and possibly the key leader of the English department will choose what books will be purchased for specific class study
10.  The school librarian can choose to promote, display obviously, or ignore general books in the library
11.  Parents will weigh into book selection based on their values and beliefs
12.  Finally, students will make choices on non-class texts when they browse the library.
 
I began a PhD in 2002 based on censorship of teenage fiction in Australia and proved through research with writers, publishers and bookshop owners (right down to not being able to complete my PhD) that censorship in Australian publishing is ‘silent’ but powerful, and based on the steps and processes listed above.
 
Roald Dahl’s writing exists. He wrote the right material at the right time within the cultural and historical context of his time, in the same way as Shakespeare and thousands of other writers wrote tales that reflect the attitudes and issues of their times. Efforts to update, sanitise, change the original work may have good intentions – I don’t doubt that – to keep good stories alive across generations and cultural changes, but it is censorship, and it is an attempt to rewrite history to suit our own needs, and we have to be blatantly honest about doing that if we feel there is a genuine need for it.
 
Then the cynic in me is wary of the people who want to sanitise Dahl’s works for selfish reasons:
 

• It enables the books to keep earning money for the people invested in them
• It allows people who loved the books as children to share them with their children but without having to address the culturally inappropriate bits
• It satisfies current cultural priorities

 
To the point: if Dahl’s books are not to your taste, seriously, choose to read another writer. Thousands of new and fascinating stories for children are published every year, most within the current cultural context and written specifically to fit the contemporary ethical and cultural trends/tastes/changes we want to embrace. Maybe the truth is that Roald Dahl’s time has come and gone, much like Enid Blyton’s, Edith Nesbitt’s, J M Barrie’s, Erich Kastner’s popularity came and went within their times. Time and tastes might invalidate the sales popularity of a writer, but it should not invalidate the writer’s works, only highlight their cultural contexts and readers’ choices.
 
We have multiple levels of censorship in place and thousands of current and amazing writers seeking to be read: there is no need to sanitise the past to satisfy the present.

​As a teenager, Josie enjoyed dancing and her brothers would take her out to swing and then rock and roll dances. When her older sister, Eileen, began dating and then married a man from the Meningie area, she travelled back and forth to country dances held in the Ashville hall, and there she met John Webb. The two eventually married, settled in Meningie and had two sons.
 
My memories of Josie firstly revolve around Friday nights, and Saturdays and Sundays in the 1960s, when my parents would periodically visit John and Josie in Meningie to play cards and chat in the kitchen while I spent the evening or afternoons lost in the miracle of television in the lounge room (we didn’t have electricity or television on the farm until I was 12). These were the times of ‘The Flintstones’, ‘Wagon Train’, ‘Have Gun Will Travel’, ‘Maverick’, ‘Davy Crockett’, ‘World Championship Wrestling’ and ‘Roller Derby’ TV shows. Then there were Saturday nights spent spotlighting for rabbits on the farm. And lastly, in my early teens, there were football days, whenever the club I played for, Border Downs, played Meningie.
 
Josie excelled in playing local golf, and in later years she was a good lawn bowler. There were many good years for her in Meningie after a tough childhood, but life always deals mixed cards, and she struggled when her younger son died in a tragic boating accident in Lake Albert/Coorong, and again when her husband John died. At 82, battling health complications, Josie passed. This Friday, family and friends will say farewell in a ceremony at the Meningie Bowling Club.
 
So, novel editing this week is tinged with sadness, emphasising how important it is to savour relationships, stay in touch with family, and record life. The last time I sat with Josie, she shared her story during the time the novel covers. Much of it happened outside the scope of my mother’s life, but it’s important to know what was happening while Eileen was away from her siblings in Victoria and Tasmania, and then recuperating from TB, because it shapes her world and relationships ever so subtly.

What a massive difference the use of time becomes when writing is a full time option. In the space of two weeks I completed edits of three novels, a task that would normally take at least a month for each one when I was working in school!
 
Apart from all the common corrections re typos, grammar, spelling and so on, my editing process last week addressed, for example, issues like:

1. Disappearing characters

Four major background characters had ‘disappeared’ ie their fates were unresolved in Book Four. I have addressed two and the other two will be dealt with today. Once the plot of Book Four stopped dealing with these characters they literally slipped off the radar of the tale. They need to reappear appropriately, even if they remain ‘off stage’ in events.

1. Time

While I was conscious of the story arc spanning several years, I had not meticulously mapped the exact time in the drafts. I was able to work through and find that the whole story across four books covers a period of seven years in our characters’ lives. The three human protagonists ‘come of age’ in their respective books – the dragon ‘matures’ and certainly grows in physical size.

1. Currency

Originally, I named the currency coins ‘keys’ (ie money opens doors) but the clash with that word for actual keys across the story was just annoying, so the realm coins are ‘bits’.

1. Repetitive/overused phrases and words

So many actions are repeated in telling a story that some words and phrases need to be altered with synonyms or eliminated as unnecessary. For example, in my case, I have (and will again today) work through the stories to deal with excessively repeated use of ‘turned to’, ‘looked at’, ‘said’, ‘met X’s gaze’, ‘approached’ and a host of others.

1. Said

I use substantial dialogue in storytelling because I believe it shows rather than tells what is happening with characters, but while there are many synonyms to describe speaking it becomes highly repetitive to use said (and sometimes forced when I replace a simple ‘said’ with ‘replied casually’. I don’t think I can ever complete or get this task balanced enough.

1. Scenery description

I like opening chapters and sections in chapters with a snippet of the place to set the scene. Unfortunately, across four books at 30 chapters per book and possibly anywhere up to 300 sections overall, scene snippets also become repetitive eg ‘gulls circling fishing boats’, ‘sun sinking’, ‘birds heading to roost’, and so on. The challenge is to find enough variation while retaining reader reference to the setting/place.

1. Connection to past series

The Andrakis trilogy way back in 1992/3 established a fantasy world, magic sources and dragon culture which I subsequently used and embellished in the 2002/3 Ashuak Chronicles and 2006/8 Dreaming in Amber series. These are now weaved into The Last Wizard sagas. Chronologically, The Last Wizard comes after the other three series, but in another part of the greater world, much further east. There is a partially completed loosely titled Dragon Queen series I started in 2011 that sits between Dreaming in Amber and The Last Wizard that is also somewhere on the drawing board for completion. All five series are connected now.

1. Endings

The Last Wizard sagas are coming of age tales, so each book is designed to end with the main character having some understanding of who they are becoming and their possible purpose. The fourth book also summarises the outcomes for all four characters. The editing challenge is to make that ending satisfactory and complete for the readers who have come on the long journey. While the ending completes the overall tale/adventure, I do deliberately leave open the possibility for a whole new adventure to begin for our ‘matured’ characters. I can’t help it.
 
Those are samples of what I put into a ‘third’ edit process when writing. This week, when the last issues mentioned above are resolved, I will do a full read of the saga to check for any glaring issues I somehow missed. Then it’s time for beta readers.

One week into full time writing and the writing job is already very different. There is much to do in the coming weeks:

• Establish a weekly routine
• Reconnect writing relationships
• Edit five draft projects in readiness for making publisher approaches
• Plan new projects
• Reconstruct my web site
• Research potential writing markets
• Research, learn and apply marketing and promotion skills

 
This first week I busied myself with two key tasks:

• Editing two novels – Chasse’s Song and Jaysin’s Song in The Last Wizard series
• Attending a six-day Kindle online publishing program

 
The online program, run by Ty Cohen and the Writers Life team, was a basic and free overview of how to approach writing for Amazon Kindle. It was highly informative, and I have several take-aways from it that I will pursue later in the year as I amass material. While it focused on several essential matters, including:

• Self-belief
• Self-discipline
• Know the markets
• Make connections
• Focus on one project first
• Learn to market

 
I also learned surprising aspects of the Amazon writing industry:
​

• Hundreds of ghost writers are available on sites like Upworks.com for very cheap rates to write text for you: the ‘session musicians’ of the publishing industry
• AI (artificial intelligence) programs are being embraced and widely employed to write
• so-called ‘writers’ are cobbling together books using the ghost writers and AI (artificial intelligence) and making significant sales

 
The online program has given me a great deal of food for thought as I move forward.

First, an indulgence. Today is the first day in my life as a full time writer. No more squeezing desperate and sometimes frustrating moments out of the working/family/friends week to fervently create in patches of 10-45 minutes. Today I sit before my screen knowing that every working day hereafter the first priority and responsibility is to my craft. Honestly, I feel so elated, so freed, so weird!
 
The greatest challenge, now, will be self-discipline. No more school bells making me salivate and flinch, and move to the next class or task or activity or day. No more fretting over planning and marking in the evenings and on weekends to meet assessment deadlines or satisfy the needs of colleagues or students or parents. Instead, I am my task master. I decide what I will work on and when and how. And that becomes a very different form of self-discipline – like committing to regular gym or yoga or a diet to improve health.
 
Roald Dahl and many other writers have told us how important it is to establish routines as would be the case in any job. I am choosing to operate a working week from 9am-5pm. I have a sense of the working week daytime tasks that I must meet:

• Planning
• Thinking
• Writing
• Home duties (washing, tidying, eating, lawns etc)
• Editing
• Reading
• Research
• Learning
• Marketing
• Lunch
• Blogging

and after work activities:

• Family
• Exercise (volleyball, gym, yoga, walks)
• Socialising
• Entertainment (films, plays)

 
And for the first time in so many years I can keep the former set from consuming the latter. Add to that mix once-off events like workshops, conferences and conventions to reconnect and stay in contact with writing peers and associations. Oh, and nanna naps – reflection time in the afternoons 

• Remaining typos and errors
• Plot arc
• Character consistencies, especially emotional traits
• Social/community details
• Travel, time anomalies
• Connections with previous and following books

 
and a host of other things. Third edit is when I prepare a manuscript for beta reading.
 
Enough. I’m also setting a time limit for writing each weekly blog. Time’s up. Time to edit.

​Thursday, I finished the first rough draft of Harmi's Song - The Last Wizard Book 4. The editing process begins this coming week.

Creating a fantasy story entails creating a rich world in which the characters can play out their lives. The original The Last Wizard (1995) was based in a pseudo-Nordic coastal environment in a village called Harbin nestled beneath Dragon Mountain. All the village culture and history aside, I created a map of Harbin to visually position events (maps below).

I labelled the significant places in the final version, and in the print edition the colours were transformed to a black and white rendition. Harbin became a place.
 
For fantasy writers, geography and an understanding of how geographical formations and features co-exist and affect each other to create a specific ecosystem of plants, birds, animals, becomes an essential tool bag of knowledge and skills when designing a place or a world.

The expansion of The Last Wizard into four distinct books where the central characters are drawn by necessity and circumstance into a much larger world than their original village has necessitated more map building. The value of maps for me include:

• understanding and utilising geographical spaces and names in the story
• ensuring travel distances and time are logical and consistent
• flagging cultural norms and changes for the readers as well as the characters
• providing physical challenges and refuges for characters
• adding 'reality' through 'suspension of disbelief' for readers

It's been a long haul between the last post and this one - not just three months. Reflecting on 2022 made me realise just how nasty the year was on personal levels, although there were plenty of good things too. BUt one change is in place - I begin 2023 as a full time writer!

For the record, my lack of recent posts is due to several matters:

• ending a long career
• setting up workplace resources for my successors and colleagues for 2023
• having an emergency gall bladder operation

So, 2022 - glad you are done.

The current project - Harmi's Song: Book 4 of The Last Wizard series - is one chapter from draft completion and currently sitting at 89,000 words. I planned to have this one done before Christmas, but see the list above as to why it took longer.

Having built toward the final confrontation between our heroes and the antagonist, I'm currently crafting how that confrontation unfolds amid an epic but fundamentally one-sided battle. Overwhelming outnumbered in a battle that doesn't make much sense to my protagonist - a dragon caught in human warfare - the antagonist is determined to 'rule the world' and ignore the rights of others - think Putin and the like - and while our dragon is keen to protect her immediate human family she struggles with the human need for power at whatever cost to other humans. I can't say more - spoiler otherwise.

The Last Wizard series across four books will represent around 360,000 words of creativity when finished. The next steps are to:

• complete the final chapter draft or denouement for our characters
• work through drafts of book two, three and four to check for consistency/continuity
• edit book four in the usual first draft manner
• decide whether to add a language guide at the end of the books where appropriate
• improve/update maps

I'm estimating as a full time writer I can go through these steps and be ready to approach publishers by March/April with the proposals. Guess I'm about to find out the efficiency difference between cramming writing tasks between full time employment and other life matters, as I've always done, and the 'employment' actually being writing.

One target is to increase the frequency of blog posts as personal discipline for each week of writing. There. It's in black and white. You guys can hold me to it. I will make Sunday evening the time for writing reflection each week.

​Happy new year. Let 2023 be a healthy, productive and satisfying year for you all. We're underway!

So many individual and personal accounts of encounters with Queen Elizabeth II are emerging, so I thought I might start this blog with mine. I have been in the Queen's presence twice. Or so I always thought. But I was wrong.
 
For my entire life, I believed the Queen made an impromptu visit to Coomandook Area School in 1963. I vividly remember our class being lined up on the bitumen bus driveway to greet the Royals who dropped in on their journey from Adelaide to Melbourne. But that never happened. Apart from absolutely no physical record of the event – and the 1963 Royal Visit schedule showing they flew from Melbourne to Adelaide, never ventured anywhere beyond Elizabeth, and sailed from Adelaide to their next port – no one else has the memory anyway. Somehow, for whatever reason, my nine-year-old self created a memory of an event that never took place. Truly strange.
 
The second interaction with the Queen, however, was absolutely real. In 1986, Elizabeth toured Aberfoyle Park High School and we were treated to the full experience, roof snipers included. My nine-year-old self was gratified.

Another long break between blog entries – health has been challenging this year between Covid and now the flu. Nevertheless, Harmi’s Song has grown to 28,000 words, meaning it’s probably close to a third of the way in.
 
The more exciting news is that I submitted my official resignation letter a fortnight ago, nominating December 23 as my last official workday at Concordia College. Slightly more than three years ago, I was preparing to leave, but several issues prevented that happening, but this time there’s no going back. That will conclude twenty-three years at the one school – something I thought I would never do – and forty-five years as an educator. It doesn’t seem so long ago that I was standing in front of my first class at Stuart High School in 1978. Time.
 
Writing from the dragon’s perspective continues to be challenging, insomuch as she is a character in her right rationalising her relationships with humans. The presence of her antagonist adds to her dilemma as to how she should or could act and why she would do what she is doing.
 
Dragons have featured in my overall worldview across the previous three fantasy series and also in an as yet unfinished series that is waiting for me to return to.
 
Introduced in the Andrakis Trilogy, dragons were represented as chaotic magical beasts either controlled by Dragonlords or reduced to predatory and dangerous creatures. However, sitting behind the view was emerging lore that dragons were originally large flightless forest lizards who were magically and genetically manipulated by the Dragonlords, using the latent magic from the amber Genesis Stone. By the end of the Andrakis series, the dragons are released on the world.
 
In the Ashuak Chronicles, set a millennium after the Andrakis tale, the dragons have achieved self-actualisation through the power of the amber stones and are plotting to establish their rule, using the Ashuak priests as their pawns (the humans think they control the dragons), but their plans are thwarted when they are portalled away from the Andrakis/Ashuak regions.
 
Hence, in the Dreaming in Amber books, dragons do not appear as that tale is set in the regions from which dragons were banished. Meg and A Ahmud Ki face the remnants of a far more ancient power – the Demon Horsemen; ghosts of the Dragonlords.
 
For The Last Wizard series, set in time between Ashuak and Amber periods, the fate of some dragons that survived the Andrakis era is revealed in that they form bonds with wizards, much as the Ashuak priests tried to initiate in a different part of the world. But the wizards and dragons’ united power is feared by humans who ruthlessly hunt them down and kill them, leaving, it seemed, only Eric and Claryssa as the sole surviving dragon and wizard pair. Tam, however, inherits Eric and Claryssa’s dragon egg and ultimately their power and the series grows from there.
 
The missing link is the unfinished series – loosely labelled as the Dragon Queen series for now: it will need a different title – where the fate of the dragons portalled out of Ashua is revealed as they seek revenge.
 
Back to the writing –

Covid. Seven days isolation, last week of school. I did what I could to stay in contact with my Year 12s, but otherwise it was sleep, cough, sleep, eat lightly. Meg copped her infection from me three days in. House locked down. Friends and family delivering food. On day nine, I stepped back into the world, cautiously and masked, because I still had a cough and mucky throat. And then the next round – mouth and throat ulcers – an old enemy. Back inside, sleep, wake, no eating. Anything in the mouth or throat, apart from water, like razor blades. Seven more days pass until now. I’ve lost another month. Hello blog. I’ve missed you.
 
All of the above slowed, but didn’t stop, writing. In the past five days, the new project, Harmi’s Song, has grown to 8,000 words – not a lot, but at least a little progress. The main parts of the opening three chapters, possibly four, are sketched and some parts coloured in. I thought I would have more to share and discuss, but not so – just a little.
 
Ajin will become an integral character in his tale. I’ve drafted his first encounter with Harmi, Tam and Jaysin, where he hints that Jaysin’s reputation/existence has been eradicated from Kermakk lore and that there is a sizable bounty for anyone who can locate the wizard (TAM) and dragon (Harmi). Now working out where the encounter leads.
 
Not much. Sorry. Back to sleep for a while. Later, today, I hope to pick up on the tale. Take care, people.

And still the new world order morphs faster than I can write! Floods devastate the Australian east coast forcing thousands into homelessness and debt, Russians invade Ukraine forcing millions into homelessness, the cost of living escalates as quickly as the price of petrol and the greed of real estate people, forcing people on low incomes closer to the poverty line, two elections loom – one at State, the other Federal, and both will determine the directions of economics, climate change and how protected the rich remain, a new strain of Covid emerges in the communities and my school starts struggling under the impact of absent teachers and students forced into recovery isolation, and this week I’m a daily RAT test participant to show up for work.
 
On the flipside, the Adelaide Feast, Fringe, Festival and WOMAD events have run their courses, we helped a good friend celebrate marriage to his beautiful partner, my daughters on the east coast are at least safe from the floods (although one was directly affected), and my Year 12 English students have finished their second assessment task. My stepdaughter is reading The Last Wizard for the first time and says she can’t put it down. That kind of compliment always feels good.
 
I started one new young adult project last week and wrote 1500 words in three sittings, but I put it on ‘pause’ to think through where it will go and my central character’s ‘fate’. The piece has an early twist in the opening chapter that I’m trying to carefully craft. I’ll reveal more on that project’s crafting as it emerges.
 
I also returned to the fourth book in The Last Wizard series, Harmi’s Song, and that has reached 2000 words. The aim today is to finish the opening chapter and start the second, giving the project impetus.
 
The challenge with Harmi’s Song is in developing a character who has immense power but whose head is filled with the voices of multiple past generations of dragons, each generation with conflicting views about the place of dragons in the world and their relationship with humans. The story will evolve around Harmi’s loyalty to the three humans who protected her and her legacy, especially Tam with whom she shares an immutable and direct bond, and darker forces driving her to exact revenge on the purveyors of a cruel past.
 
All four The Last Wizard novels open from the perspective of a character who is not the story’s protagonist. Tamesan’s Song opens with the Harbin dragonwarrior sentry Chasse’s Song with Chasse’s father, and Jaysin’s Song with the Machutzkan watchtower sentry. For the sake of interest, here’s the opening to Harmi’s Song (as yet unedited and without indents):
 
“Immersed in the tang of ocean, salt and fish, Ajin alighted from the skiff onto the rickety jetty, and surveyed the village bearing the name Apakin Sha. Bemused by the ramshackle collection of wood, stone and thatch buildings, he wondered if his decision to sail so far north into the icy reaches was necessary or wise.
‘Your bag and caruta,’ a rustic sea voice growled beside him. A bow-shouldered, red bearded man with a thick dark grey tunic and brown leggings held a red leather bag and a stringed instrument.
‘Thank you,’ Ajin replied, taking the bag and caruta from the sailor. The man raised his hand, palm expectant. Ajin lowered his bag and fished inside his baggy pants to extract a silver coin, which he placed in the grubby palm, but the sailor’s expression remained unsatisfied as he closed his fist and turned to climb into the skiff. ‘You’re welcome,’ Ajin muttered to the sailor’s back, and he bent to collect his bag.
The ship’s captain assured him before the journey that if he wanted to disappear from the world there was no better place to do so than Apakin Sha. ‘Arsehole of the world,’ the captain told him. ‘Sealers, whalers, prospectors, people like you, and a bunch of old people with nowhere to go and no means to get there.’
‘Why do you sail there?’ Ajin asked, eyebrow raised.
‘Sealers and whalers and prospectors got to ship out their skins and ore and ship in their supplies,’ the captain explained with a broad grin. ‘Profitable for them, very profitable for me.’
‘And you’re sure the Empire doesn’t reach that far north?’ Ajin asked.
‘I doubt the Karudar Marfek has even heard of Apakin Sha,’ the captain replied. ‘Traders along the west coast take in the skins and ore I ship south and make their profits and pay their taxes, and I’m certain they also take the credit for the supply. Apakin Sha doesn’t exist.’
Ajin traversed the jetty, cautiously testing planks that looked suspiciously loose or rotten, and stepped onto the pebbly beach. Several fishermen were repairing nets and boats, and a trader hefted furs onto a trolley from his wagon, but nobody greeted Ajin as he strode up the street, although he noticed surreptitious glances in his direction from men and women when he passed, and two children ran inside a hut as he approached. Spotting the sign for the inn, he veered toward it and stopped outside to look back along the street to the bay. Two ships lay at anchor, the three-masted Ice Maiden on which he arrived, and a smaller two-masted vessel, probably a whaling ship. Grey clouds veiled the sky. He gazed up at the cloud enshrouded mountains towering above the village and an icy breeze touched his cheeks and nose. This will be an interesting place, he mused. A shadow moved through the clouds, vanishing as he witnessed the anomaly, and he squinted, blinked and stared, disbelieving what he thought he saw.
‘Can I help?’ a woman asked.
Ajin lowered his gaze. Plump-faced, hair wrapped in a dark blue shawl, features weathered by life, gap-toothed, with a plain, unwelcoming expression, the woman stared, awaiting his answer. ‘Need a room,’ he said.
‘For how long?’ the woman asked.
‘I don’t know,’ Ajin replied. ‘I can pay. I can also provide entertainment.’ He lifted his caruta.
‘You’ll need food as well, I gather,’ the woman said. Ajin nodded. ‘Follow me,’ she ordered.
As he entered the low-ceilinged inn, Ajin shook his head, his thoughts troubled by the fleeting vision in the clouds. He could play and sing all the popular ballads, but he also knew many of the old ones, and he knew what a dragon was.”
 
So, that’s a taste of the new project. Next entry, I’ll have more to discuss.

Over a month flies by in an instant! The COVID staggered back-to-school strategy certainly altered the workplace landscape dramatically for the areas I manage – ICT and Libraries – creating almost a duplicate start to school separated by a less than a fortnight, along with keeping an entire community of students ELC-12, teachers and parents connected online and in the classrooms. But my teams met the challenge and, providing there’s no dramatic shift in COVID matters, we’re all back on site and slowly easing restrictions. Of course, we can’t complain at all, in comparison to what has been the impact of the pandemic interstate and overseas. And now we have the Russian idiocy exploding into Ukraine and threatening everyone with nuclear devastation if anyone interferes.
 
While writing has retreated into the background for the past weeks, apart from some editing, this morning allowed time to reflect on what has happened since I started this blog way back in December 2018. Originally intending to record the process for drafting a historical semi-fictional biography of my mother’s life from 13-21, the blog has continued to encompass subsequent projects. In the three years I have managed to draft to readiness three novels – the historical fiction, Girlie, and two teenage fantasy pieces, extensions of original The Last Wizard. They join three existing novel drafts – one apocalyptic zombie novel, All We Have, a fantasy novel, Rising Storm, (and a half of the second in what is currently labelled The Dragon Queen series), and a young adult novel, Shadows – that I’m hoping to finish working on in the next eighteen months. So, despite work and COVID, a lot of writing is done – but nothing published yet. Life plans were to quit work at the beginning of 2019 to pursue all of the above. That has become 2023. This time it is set in concrete. I’ve made it widely and publicly known at work. I’ll be 67. The mortgage is paid. It’s time.
 
As for the writing, also this morning I penned the plots and notes to three new teenage/young adult projects and I’m excited by the stories they will tell. I’ll write the openings to two of them after this blog entry. Two weeks ago, I wrote the opening chapter to the fourth book in The Last Wizard series – Harmi’s Song – continuing the tale, this time, from the dragon’s perspective. Yes, that means I will have five project drafts on the go. I will settle into one next week as the key focus, but I can’t wait for 2023 and the opportunity to be a fulltime, broke but keen writer. I had a break from education way back in 1993 and wrote the original The Last Wizard and Joy Ride in that period – two novels from concept to full draft in six months – so I know what is possible.
 
I have ten months remaining of what will be a forty-four-year education career. Already I’m ticking boxes, saying quietly, ‘I never have to do that again.’ I have love education – I really do. I only wish I made an impact on the bigger picture for the benefit of teachers and students, but I was never able to take the right pathways to fight the ignorant politicians and people who insist the education experience can only be the same as it was for them – exams, industrial labelling, grading and leveling practices, cruelty to children, distaste and disrespect for teachers – to consign those people to history. The next generation will have to win that war.
 
Now for a coffee and then the openings to the new projects.

2022. Wow. Here it is. This year we enjoy Soylent Green as a food option. Christmas 2021 is done. New Year 2022 is done. Covid, social media fake news, the conspiracists, right and left wing extremists and inept government continue to disrupt the average life (whatever that is). The draft apocalyptic novel sitting on my device from 2018 looks less and less like a novel and more like a documentary. I will get back to it later this year, especially as life has provided better research than I previously completed for the novel.
 
The past three weeks were laborious from a writer’s perspective: editing, editing, editing. Back in the October 2021 post I mentioned some of the editing matters I continue to address – especially overused words. I also worked through the degree of adjectival and adverbial description, replacing or eliminating unnecessary ‘ly’ words. In a simple example it means taking a statement like ‘moves quietly’ and replacing it with ‘crept.’ Another simple example is changing ‘passionately cried’ to ‘howled’ or similar, choosing single words that as equally or even better describe the action. It’s not a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach – variety in writing is essential, but it makes me focus on possibilities with expression.
 
Another editorial matter is ensuring a sense of time and place – season, weather, physical world – is evident throughout the story. This involves exploring where smell, touch/texture, temperature and so on can be effectively included. Jaysin’s travelling aboard ships opens the maritime experience – salty and fish smells, the creaking of wooden planks and spars, the pungent stench of tar and sweat. The visceral effect of snow and rain and heat and dust can be included to enhance the reader’s experience. Marketplace sounds – rattling tins, shuffling feet, ox dung, spices – can be added to bring places alive. This is the current process for the drafts of The Last Wizard series.

Life in South Australia is topsy-turvy since the border opening and the vaccination and testing regime ramped up. In a world of lockdowns and closures, I am fortunate to have a job that was uninterrupted by the events – and a job that escalated in pressure each time schools moved to online learning. The school year rushed to a frantic conclusion and today I start a holiday break long sought since the 2020 outbreak.
 
So, to the writing.
 
The Girlie manuscript is with a publisher awaiting a decision. I have my fingers well and truly crossed.
 
I am currently editing the two new drafts for The Last Wizard series – Chasses’ Song and Jaysin’s Song – with the aim of making a first approach for the project to a publisher late January. This will require transferring the physical manuscript edits onto the digital copies hopefully by New Year, and then writing three detailed synopses and a cover letter in early January, a task alone that will consume significant hours.
 
Now I am churning through ideas for the fourth The Last Wizard book, Harmi’s Song, which is the dragon’s story as Tam, Chasse, Jaysin and Harmi are called to face the threat of the Kermakk Empire that is determined to hunt and kill the last dragon and wizard. I am unsure as to when I will start this project – although it is already nudging me to begin.
 
I have also completed a draft edit and update of the novel In My Father’s Shadow, written a synopsis for it, pulled it from the Amazon store (it was never promoted and sold maybe five copies to family), will retitle it (the first title is an echo of far too many other works), write a cover letter and see if a publisher will consider publishing it. Recent beta readers have told me it is one of my better works with the exploration of a young man’s coming of age as he unravels a family secret and his father’s terminal illness covering currently important topics around sexuality, faith, identity and love, so I really don’t want it to languish as an unknown and basically inaccessible novel. Like The Last Wizard project, I will make the first approach to a prospective publisher with this novel late January.
 
And I am trying to work out how to reconnect with the writing world in general. I am planning on submitting different short stories to various magazines in 2022. I have about twenty existing short stories to draw on. While Robert Stephenson published five for me in different issues of his Altair magazine, and Paul Collins published two others in anthologies, I have many more that have never been shared, so a new challenge for me is to start submitting stories.
 
That’s the update. I promise to make the next entry in January more informative about techniques and approaches and thinking. I’m pretty excited about where the work over the past four years has gone. This entry is just to say I’m working on stuff. Merry Christmas to anyone who reads this. I hope you are all safe and can spend time with family and loved ones.

You may not have heard of Russell Ebert. He was a South Australian football star and icon, and an integral part of my teen years when I was learning to play the game. As a centre player, I wanted to emulate his style, his ability to read the play and break the lines, his sportsmanship and general demeanour. He died this week, aged 72. Lots of my teenage icons have died in recent years, as have friends and colleagues. I am 67 next year. Mortality walks close beside me and I’m increasingly aware of its presence.
 
Family history is an imperfect jigsaw puzzle of oral anecdotes, photographs, documents and experiences, full of facts and interpretations, inaccuracies and aphorisms, realities and dreams. I was inspired to write Girlie because of the snippets and tales my mother shared about growing up in the war years with hints of romances and scandals of broken hearts and adventures. When the inspiration became a serious intent on my part, very conscious that if I didn’t capture the stories my mother’s mortality would intervene, I interviewed her over the course of a year, sitting with her in the War Memorial Home on Wednesday afternoons (weekends were for shopping and lunches), asking questions and typing notes, gathering a sense of the identity of the girl and woman who morphed into my mother. Of course, she shied away from intimacies and secrets as she unfolded certain aspects of her teenage years, blushing and giggling sometimes at her admissions, which showed me the sixteen-year-old girl was still running around inside the eighty-year-old woman, so I was left, when I started plotting the novel, with gaps to fill, and deductions to make. Some of the unexpressed secrets became very obvious as the pieces were laid out of the jigsaw. For example, she left Adelaide to go to Melbourne – in itself, not overly unusual – although when you know the side stories (family pressures, a cheating lover – especially the cheating lover, her reasons for leaving become clearer. She would cheekily chastise me for being nosey when I asked her for the truth behind some of her choices and decisions, and then she would laugh when I told her I’d have to ‘make up’ the gaps when I wrote the story, almost taunting me to do so. We had some good times.
 
The novel is now finished because I ‘found’ the missing pieces – although they were not difficult in every case to find when the puzzle, as a whole picture, lay on the table. Whether I’ve been successful in laying out the overall picture will be the readers’ judgement. I have to modestly say I like what I see. I see the young woman who was my mother, and she is truly a beautiful, naïve human of her time.

With The Last Wizard project now at three completed manuscripts, and editing and beta reading underway, I returned to visualising the region in the expanding world for Tam, Chasse, Jaysin and Harmi. The original Harbin maps will come from the first novel, but Chasse’s Song draws the party into the mountains beyond Harbin and Dragon Mountain, and Jaysin’s Song widens into the expanse of the Kermakk Empire. I’ve sketched the regions and will insert names and details later this week, but thought I’d share the initial raw maps.

Everything seems to be revolving around fortnights of late. The past fortnight has been very productive, however, partly with the school holiday break being on offer.
 
Editing. Like, seriously, who would want to do it as a fulltime job? Oh. Wait. I spent 40 years as an English teacher. I’ll park that comment for another time.
 
I spent the past few days editing and also reorganising the three books now completed in the Last Wizard series into basic manuscript layout – font style and size (Calibri 11, double-space, 5cm margins etc – which turned into a bigger chore than I imagined when I realised that I’d been drafting using a template that corrupted the tab spaces. So, I manually replaced all the tab returns throughout 700 pages!!! Grrr.
 
Anyway, the editing process is underway. First raw edit is completed. For the record, much of it has been dealing with the following personal foibles: reducing the frequency of overused words, for example ‘said’, ‘turned’, ‘saw/looked’, approached, and reducing unnecessary verbosity/description. I’ve also read through all three texts to ensure any foreshadowing, personal traumas, promised actions are either followed up or at least explained away by characters.
 
Another challenge is working through to eliminate passive writing eg ‘She had done’ becomes ‘She did’. It’s mainly finding past tense words like ‘had’ and ‘haven’t’ and testing their validity in the sentences.
 
The editing process is really just starting, despite my observation in the previous blog. I’m envisaging the process will consume my writing time for the next month before I suspect I’ll be sitting here writing I’m starting to look for a publisher.
 
But it is very nice to have three manuscripts lying on my table awaiting the next round of editing. It feels real.

Done. Gestation period, nine months. I wrote the final sentence to the first full draft of Jaysin’s Song today: 108,000 words. That’s the easy part finished. Now I begin the first full edit.
 
The last month of this project, representing probably around 10,000 words of writing, has proven difficult, moreso because it demanded time to read back over parts of the growing manuscript and reference further back to the previous two books leading to this one. I mentioned that part of the editing process about to commence will be ensuring consistency of all aspects of the story across all three books now. Reaching a conclusion in the third book forced me to do more work on the consistency and linking process than I planned to do, but I should have expected it because this will be the fourth fantasy series I’ve written, and every series demands the care in ensuring characters and places and languages retain accuracy across the series.
 
But, for now, the first draft exists, and I’m satisfied.
 
The editing begins almost immediately – well, maybe in a couple of days. Apart from factual consistency and spelling and grammar, what will I be looking for? The far from exhaustive list includes:

• The story arc – will the reader have a story that takes them through an emotional and intellectual experience that initially interests them, then challenges them and finally satisfies them in terms of the outcome?
• Plot structure – will the reader find fluency in the plot or be annoyed by plot holes and incongruencies? I need to make sure the plot, even with magic and fantasy, retains logic and makes sense.
• Character empathy/sympathy – will the reader find Jaysin worth spending time with to learn about him? I need to check that Jaysin is actually interesting.
• Character growth – does Jaysin grow, change, and will the reader follow this and accept and enjoy the character’s growth?
• Unnecessary repetitions – do I overuse the same words, images, descriptions? I need to ensure there is sufficient creative diversity in the writing and vocabulary.
• Descriptive imagery – apart from above, do I evoke sense of place, atmosphere, emotion, tension effectively throughout the story? Will readers be able to see, feel, imagine places and events and characters from how I describe them?
• Tropes, stereotypes – have I used/overused the common features of fantasy stories in ways that will annoy or bore readers? Is there sufficient originality and creativity in the story to set it apart from other fantasy tales?
• Cadence, pace – do the story events move at a speed that will keep the reader engaged? Is the story too slow in unfolding what is happening, or too fast?
• Highs and lows – do I give the reader moments of exhilaration or concern, and do I balance those moments with time to reflect and recover emotions? Like cadence above, do I pace the highs and lows effectively?
• Foreshadowing – do I give the reader sufficient preparation for a change or unexpected event or decision, or do I give too many unnecessary clues?
• Show or tell – related to the above, do I tell the reader too much, or am I showing the reader and thereby allowing the reader to unpack the story?

And there are many additional things I will review, including:

• The new languages and cultures
• Political and social and religious structures and rituals
• Seasons, weather, geography
• Source and logic of magic used

 
I’m laughing, reading the above, because it makes me want to walk away and not do the hard work ahead, but that’s the key part of moving writing from a creative escape exercise into a crafting process, taking the detailed palette sketch and refining it to move it toward a full painting – 10% inspiration, 90% perspiration.
 
Once the first raw edit is done, it will be on to some trusted beta readers who will let me know what extra editing and work is required.
 
Okay. I have work today.

Last night I woke from an incredibly sad dream, about loss and loneliness. I’ll spare you the depressive details, but the impact of dreams in our lives for me has to translate into the lives and experiences of characters whose stories I tell. In fact, I insert dreams in stories to give readers greater insight into the subconscious matters affecting and influencing characters for deeper understanding of those characters.
 
In the current project, Jaysin is challenged on several matters as the story draws to a conclusion. He wants power and identity. He wants to become his ‘best self’, to stand apart and be recognised for who he can be. He feels his siblings overshadow him and hold him back, while his new mentor offers him opportunities to grow. But there is a double cost involved.
 
First, there are ethical dilemmas for Jaysin in serving the Empire – the determined will of the rulers to subjugate those who do not want to be ruled. The parallels with protest marchers over COVID restrictions is a prime current example of how the ruling class have to use ‘force’ to keep the population safe against a population that believes it is being oppressed by the ruling class. Who is morally right? Is there any ‘right’ in the clash? In order to stay with his mentor and grow in his magical prowess, Jaysin must be willing to become involved in politics and social order imposed by the Imperial laws and leaders, and that means dealing harshly with ordinary people who fight for their version of freedom. In almost every scenario in life, choosing to follow a mentor means changing your perspective of the world and human behaviours. When I was mentored to become a better teacher, I had to alter my perspective of the classroom, my practices, and my understanding of the nature of what teachers and students are in that environment. When my volleyball mentor set a goal for our team to enter National competitions, I had to change my perspective of what playing a game meant and my practices to be a better contributor in a team role. To become something different, you cannot remain the same.
 
Second, to accept his mentor and the law of the Empire, Jaysin must become increasingly estranged from his family. This is partly a physical separation – Tam and Chasse are hiding in the western mountains, Jaysin is in the Imperial capital. It is partly a political separation – Jaysin must choose between serving the Empire or rebelling against it, and his family are outlaws by default. It is also partly an emotional separation because they are family and the siblings struggled together to survive the collapse of their home village and loss of its culture. Jaysin was nurtured into beginning his journey into magic by Tamesan, and he admires his brother’s physical prowess even though he, personally, was never destined to become a Harbin dragonwarrior.
 
To draw Jaysin away from his family, his mentor offers growth in magical knowledge and power. She offers comfort and status. She offers a broader understanding of the wider world – at least from her point of view. Every day, worldwide, people leave families behind to pursue careers and passions – children leaving parents, spouses leaving partners and families. We must acknowledge and remember and reflect upon the fact that some of the most revered and successful individuals in human history only achieved success by severing ties with family or abandoning family to chase their dreams.
 
And so to dreams. The complex psychology that makes us dream of the things deeply concerning us – sense of loss, abandonment, injustice, confusion, loneliness, fear, frustration and anger – is a valuable vehicle in opening and explaining characters in stories. In itself, a creative story is a form of dreaming because it allows readers to journey with characters and share their experiences and wake from the end perhaps wiser or more confused, but awake nevertheless. Revealing character’s dreams reveals the character’s deepest struggles that cannot be easily revealed in waking action and interaction.
 
Jaysin’s Song is at 90,000 words – just over – with approximately four chapters to write. Today, having finished this blog, I enter one of Jaysin’s dreams to start a new chapter.

Jaysin’s Song is at 80,000 words – roughly with nine chapters remaining to write. I can see the end – it’s just within my grasp, though I’m not entirely sure what it will look like when I reach it. So, let’s talk a little about magic.
 
I have, from the outset, way back in 1990 when Guardians was barely ten chapters in draft and a concept proposal on its way to Roxarne Burns at Pan MacMillan, wrestled with the ‘science’ of the magic that would permeate my fantasy novels. I was caught between magic emerging from certain beings understanding and manipulating the auras and energies at the core of all things, and an alien intervention – a source of magic that falls from the stars. In the end I combined both, allowing a character I named A Ahmud Ki to explore and become adept at what were called the five Kis – each school of magic understood, and misunderstood, by some but not by others. The oldest form of magic was born from the Elvenaar and the Aelendyell who learned how to manipulate the energies residual in all matter. To warm a rock, the secret was to learn the phrases that would cause the rock to resonate, its energy being released as warmth. To that, they added the ability to affect and control the mind, allowing illusion and similar magic to be applied. But then I introduced to the world history of my works a cataclysmic event – a meteor shower that brought with it the alien magic of amber – not amber as we know it, but a material that could amplify the energies and illusions of the older magic and make it many times more powerful. In the Andrakis trilogy, the power of amber is mentioned, but not truly understood by all. However, in the Ashuak Chronicles, amber is recognised as the conduit for and source of powerful magic, and by the Dreaming in Amber quatrology it is understood for what it is.
 
The Last Wizard novels slowly embrace the amber and energy magics because they are set in a separate part of the same world as Andrakis, Ashua and Amber, though at a different time. The Herbal Man and his dragon companion, Claryssa, from the first book, were survivors of a past age when wizards and dragons made their powerful but flawed pact and infused their beings with the amber in the same way as dragons were infused with it millennia before by the Elvenaar. Tam inherits this ancient legacy through her union with the dragon, Harmi. I will unfold the dragon evolution in another blog because it is the background of the fourth (unwritten) book in The Last Wizard series.
 
The Last Wizard novels are ‘coming of age’ tales for the four characters – Tamesan, Chasse, Jaysin and Harmi the dragon – and the Harbin community from which they originate had little understanding of the wider world beyond the mountains and the ocean surrounding it. Each book takes our characters further and deeper into a world where politics and social fabrics are increasingly more complex and fraught. So it is with the magic that they discover, especially Jaysin. The section I’m writing now in Jaysin’s Song has Jaysin stumbling upon the oldest forms of magic from the Elvenaar and Aelendyell, the ones who eventually transformed large forest lizards into dragons using the alien amber and became the Dragonlords. I write in circles along a background and history planned thirty years ago. It’s fun.

Starting a new chapter today reminded me of the constant challenge of beginnings. In a universe far, far away, when I taught classes at TAFE, WEA and SA Writers, I would work with writers on beginnings, using examples of famous novel openings like the following:
 
“It was a wrong number that started it, the telephone ringing three times in the dead of night, and the voice on the other end asking for someone he was not.” – Paul Auster, City of Glass
 
“Call me Ishmael.” – Herman Melville, Moby-Dick
 
“Once upon a time, there was a woman who discovered she had turned into the wrong person.” – Anne Tyler, Back When We Were Grownups 
 
“You better not never tell nobody but God.” – Alice Walker, The Color Purple
 
“It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.” – George Orwell, 1984
 
“Mother died today.” – Albert Camus, The Stranger 
 
“At night I would lie in bed and watch the show, how bees squeezed through the cracks of my bedroom wall and flew circles around the room, making that propeller sound, a high-pitched zzzzzz that hummed along my skin.” – Sue Monk Kidd, The Secret Life Of Bees
 
“All this happened, more or less.” – Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five 

“Someone was looking at me, a disturbing sensation if you’re dead.” – Laura Whitcomb, A Certain Slant of Light
 
So, openings to novels and chapters, for me, must have something for the reader, something enticing, informative, mood creative. Out of curiosity, today I went back over the three manuscripts in this series and grabbed the existing opening lines to compare:
 
“Marc rubbed his thick stubble, his fingers tracing the long white scar running from his left eye to his collarbone.” – Tamesan’s Song
 
“Kevan limped onto the jetty, scars pulling against his skin, reminding him the past was close.” – Chasse’s Song
 
“Masha saw the shape appear against the white peak of Jenjaka Mountain and rose from his chair, his knees complaining at being made to move.” – Jaysin’s Song
 
The openings are deliberately designed to link the writing style and mirror similar content. All three men are watching, anticipating arrivals or changes. There are references to scars and arthritic or damaged knees, perhaps to suggest worlds with a history or trouble or war. All three characters are not central characters (Marc and Masha are very minor players in the stories). Each suggests a world in motion, one where the characters are living before the reader arrives. The sentences/paragraph that follow each opening line establish time, place and mood.
 
I also thought it would be interesting to grab the unedited opening lines to the last four chapters I’ve written in the current project to see what I’m doing:
 
“‘We are foreigners and women,’ Laseen reminded Jaysin.”
 
“Jaysin trailed in the wake of the black garbed Karudarteta along a wide corridor that penetrated deeper into the Imperial Palace.”
 
“He focused, whispering the phrase Tam taught him.”
 
“Two black robed servants and eight Kermakk soldiers marched across the dock toward the barge in the dawn light and crisp air.”
 
Each opening line leads the reader into the events taking place. In the first, as Jaysin prepares to use a disguise to reach the leader of the Kermakk Empire he is reminded of the oppression of women and strangers. In the second, he is being led into a sacred unknown. The third is a reminder of his magical skill and capacity to learn. The fourth sets a situation that is to unfold in the chapter. Yes, all four will be edited and change by the time the project is done.
 
Although not strictly true for every opening I create, I like to take the reader directly into action, an event, a conversation so the reader is immersed and wants to know what is happening or will happen as a result. Where appropriate or useful, the chapter opening will offer connections with events in the previous chapter, as does each example from Jaysin’s Song.
 
Story openings and chapters are reader hooks and connectors. If effective, they keep the reader engaged and/or remind them of what has happened so far and hint at what might happen next. They can establish action, plot, character, mood and setting succinctly.
 
The project is now at 73,000 words – almost three-quarters done. I was aiming at 10,000 words of writing or more this week, and made 8,000, but it’s a fortnight filled with family birthdays, so maybe I was being overly ambitious. Either way, it’s been a good week.

Today is always my Dad’s birthday. It feels strange to remember it is now thirty-one years since he passed. The older I get, the more I wish I was able to have the chats an adult me could have had with Dad. In all honesty, I never knew him enough to know how he felt about growing up, or the changes in himself and in the world he lived through. That saddens me.
 
Jaysin’s Song hit 65,000 words this past week and I’m facing a week off work which might allow me to add more words than usual.
 
Over the last fortnight, I’ve wrestled with plot and character. Jaysin has offered himself in exchange for his brother Chasse’s freedom. Of course, he intends to escape as soon as he knows his brother is safe, but the story demands he remains in the Kermakk Empire where he grows in stature and ability as a sorcerer, so it has been an interesting exercise to determine how to ‘lure’ him to stay. In response, I’ve created a mentor, a person who can show him how to become more powerful and able than he currently is, someone a lot like himself.
 
Determining character sexuality is, in itself, always a fascinating process in writing. Although I have mapped Jaysin’s sexuality, along with his siblings and other characters, it becomes interesting when sexuality forms a part of understanding characters and their relationships and motivations.
 
Tam, in Tamesan’s Song, is portrayed as heterosexual, given the interest the male characters have in her, and her own responses to events. However, as we learn by the story’s end, and definitely into the second book, Tam’s life is intertwined with Harmi the dragon, and she has no portrayed desire to seek a human partner, leaving her sexuality either subsumed entirely by her commitment to Harmi, or dormant, or asexual. Her story begins with her aged fifteen, on the cusp of being chosen as a wife in the Harbin community. By Book Three, she is twenty, but in a very different relationship with Harmi and Book Four (not yet started), Harmi’s Song, will reveal more of this aspect of her character.
 
Chasse is developed as a sixteen-year-old heterosexual male in book one and during Book Two – Chasse’s Song – he establishes an unrequited romantic relationship with Banni, a widowed village woman. In Jaysin’s Song, at age twenty-one, he is betrothed to a fellow and female warrior, but since his enslavement as a prisoner that relationship is yet to be developed further.
 
And then we have Jaysin. As described in previous entries, Jaysin is the odd child out, a loner, and circumstances and his passion for learning magic have isolated him from potentially romantic relationships. He is, after all, just fifteen by the opening of Book Three – naïve and inexperienced in matters of love and sexuality. What Jaysin hasn’t faced yet, but what is true about him, is that his sexual fascination is with males. In Jaysin’s birthplace, Harbin, no one even considered sexuality being non-heterosexual because the society was based entirely on a heterosexual tradition. The place all four escape to, Machutzka, sexual orientation is not questioned. People partner as they choose, and when they have chosen a life-mate the relationship is formalised and celebrated. To a degree, this is also true of the Kermakk Empire where Chasse and Jaysin are imprisoned (at this point). The Kermakk ruler, the Karudar Marfek, is a female with a female partner, and Jaysin is only about to learn the extent of this relationship, which will spark his exploration of his own ‘need’ for a lover and understanding of his sexuality.
 
The subject of sexuality is a very minor sub-theme across this series, neither included to titillate, challenge or shock (I leave that to my darker fantasy novels), nor to make statements. It exists to flesh out the characters as being multi-faceted within the context of their world and their social groups. It’s fascinating to determine a character’s sexuality, however, in line with how it affects the way they respond to other characters and to situations. It cannot be ignored, any more than how they eat, dress, speak and see the world.

The heart of stories are the characters. Growing characters is a fun, complex, sometimes confusing, sometimes exhilarating, always challenging process.
 
Jaysin in The Last Wizard Saga is a fascinating character. He first appears in Tamesan’s Song as Tam’s little brother, a child a few years younger than the older son, Chasse, and at least five years behind Tam.
 
In a family, a gap between siblings can exist for many reasons – a lost pregnancy between, an unplanned addition, family upheavals or displacements, and so on. The age gap presents a range of challenges for the family and the child at the end of the gap. So, too, does birth order. In the ‘real’ world, third child syndrome is a legitimate study. The third child becomes the ‘distant’ child, the one everyone knows what will happen to him/her, the one that finds parents don’t panic when awkward things happen to them or celebrate their first steps or growth moments. Light internet reading, if you’re truly bored, reveals the following views on third child syndrome:
 
https://www.psychologytoday.com/au/blog/how-raise-happy-cooperative-child/201805/birth-order-and-the-third-child
 
http://www.homeoint.org/morrell/misc/thirdchild.htm
 
https://www.everymum.ie/my-family/home-life/the-realities-of-third-child-syndrome/
 
Jaysin is introduced into the first book as a misfit, an unusual child. He doesn’t display the typical male characteristics expected in his world – playfulness, vigour, interested in wrestling and tussling for alpha dominance. Instead, he withdraws from the other children, partly because he has little interest in their games and partly because the other children recognise his difference and ostracise him. Jaysin’s disinterest in ‘manly’ pursuits aggravates his father and the relationship deteriorates as Kevan expresses his disappointment in his son. Ironically, when Kevan faces Trask in a fight for leadership, Jaysin leaps to his father’s defence, futile as such an act would be for a nine-year-old. In having him do this, I sow the seed that, despite his estrangement from his father, he loves him.
 
Jaysin does show interest in the natural world, much like his sister, and he explores the mountain and studies the animals. He is very much a loner. Later in the story, Eric the Herbal Man tells Tam that Jaysin will become someone special, because of his curiosity and innate intelligence. So, in Tamesan’s Song, I foreshadow that Jaysin will come into his own. That first book, published in 1995, was always meant to be a stand-alone novel, but now that it is growing into a four-book saga the seeds I planted for Jaysin are flourishing.
 
I add more foreshadowing to Jaysin’s prophesied future in the second book, Chasse’s Song. While the second book is Chasse’s coming of age story as he comes to terms with his purpose in the scheme of the world, Jaysin’s growth continues as a side plot. Here, I ensure Jaysin becomes an avid reader and a natural acquirer and generator of magic, exactly as Eric foretold in the first book. The quiet, studious and distant child reveals his affinity for animals, especially wolves, and demonstrates that he not only wants to learn spells but wants to modify, synthesise and expand them.
 
By the time we reach the current project, Jaysin’s Song, at fifteen, Jaysin is developing into a fledgling sorcerer, capable of manipulating the latent energy in all matter to create light and heat, heal, move through materials, translocate and fool the minds of others through illusion.
 
Being the third child, Jaysin is both in awe of his sibling’s abilities – Chasse the warrior, Tam the wizard and dragon partner – and intensely jealous of them. His jealousy drives him to want to become as powerful as they are, even more so, because, in their ways they have received the attention and the accolades of others while he has sat in their shadows as the ‘odd’ child, the little brother. He does love them – will willingly risk his life for them – but, in the end, he wants to rise above them and be known for his talent.
 
Thus, writing book three involves creating Jaysin consistently and believably as the third child, the youngest brother who wants recognition and love and to be appreciated in exactly the same way as his siblings. As he did for his father, he will go out of his way to save his brother and sister. As Eric predicted, he will pursue magic and become unique. As foreshadowed from the outset, his curiosity will drive him to search for knowledge and magic beyond the basics. While he is forced to interact with others, even enlist their assistance, he is ultimately a loner still, an individual who believes he can only become who wants to become by his efforts and risks and commitment.
 
Character development drives my writing. I used to tell writing workshop participants that, while I made notes and plans for characters, I only come to know my characters as their story unfolds and they often surprise me by revealing an aspect of their personality I hadn’t planned or considered. This experience is endured and loved by writers all over the world. It’s true. We learn as we write.

Passing 50,000 words is the halfway mark in the current writing project, a milestone that gives me the imperative to get cracking.
 
Worldbuilding sits behind fantasy writing – creating credible, logical environments for the characters’ journeys. Jaysin has come from the Harbin dragonwarrior world, lived for three years in the Machutzkan city, and now ventures into the Kermakkian Empire. The three societies have different languages, culture, beliefs, practices. I have made the Machutzkan and Kermakkian languages similarly aligned in that Machutzka is a city of refugees from the Kermakkian Empire whose language has become a working dialect over time.
 
As a once-avid D&D player, the language barriers broken by the implementation of a Common language in the game sometimes irritated me, although in DM roles I made certain language barriers were commonplace. Where a common language does transfer across cultures – as in the case of English in this world – it is almost always by necessity for commerce/trade. For the world I am creating in The Last Wizard saga, I am also creating potentially up to six languages (if I include dragon) and that means not only generating sound combinations and words but also grammar – “Not easy it is” (said in Yoda-ese) – as we know is true for the differences between Romance languages and Germanic languages and so on. Jaysin, adept and intelligent, can learn languages with reasonable ease, but he learns also that language has dialects and nuances that a mere memorisation of words and phrases and grammar does not capture in everyday communication, and that can lead to misunderstandings.
 
A long time ago, when I first read Feist’s Magician, before I ever read Tolkien’s books, the cultural gaps created between two worlds revealed to me that I need to be aware of the same gaps when I write.
 
Yesterday and today, for example, I had to work back through the manuscript to establish a religious practice in the Kermakkian Empire that Jaysin slowly comes to recognise as he searched for his brother. The Kermakkian population, totally misogynistic in religious practices, are Men of the Faith, following One True God – He Who Cannot be Named – and they perform a prayer ritual twice a day at sunrise and sunset. Once a ‘week’, the men spend a day in prayer, called Shebaal, and that is the only day women and children can be on the streets and in the markets. That’s a quick example of building culture in a society for the story. There’s a lot more going on.
 
To keep track of the cultural build, I keep notes. Some notes are developed before writing, but many are built as the story demands. Political structures I often build before I begin because they dictate possibilities. Trade and commercial infrastructure, travel and transport all have to be noted and accounted for as the tale builds.
 
The snapshots with this blog are quick examples of notes and sketches I complete as I build the world and the story. Sadly, much of the information seldom makes it into the final novel, or is created to ensure a paragraph or character comment is not contradicted at another point. But it is essential, nevertheless.
 
So, the above is a little ramble about what goes on in the background of writing a fantasy story.

A quick update this week…
 
Bridging chapters – it’s a term I use for chapters that connect one set of important events to the next. For example, a character may have been captured and imprisoned in a chapter on the way to completing an important mission. In order to connect the imprisonment with a return to the mission, a bridging chapter – the escape – is necessary.
 
This past week has been devoted to completing a bridging chapter in Jaysin’s Song. In trying to reach his brother, Chasse, who it seems has been captured by the Kermakkians, Jaysin is also caught and sold into slavery. In order to find his brother, first he has to escape.
 
Bridging chapters often introduce new minor characters who provide ‘help’ to the main character. These characters can have once-off appearances in the story, or may later reappear because of the relationship they briefly establish with the main character. Bridging chapters also provide opportunities to have the central character reflect on why he/she is doing what he/she is doing. The trap with bridging chapters is they can become mundane if they keep the reader too far from the main plot or the main character is too ‘trapped’ in their situation.
 
This particular chapter presented several challenges. The first was how to enable Jaysin to free his hands in order to escape. The second was how to enable Jaysin to escape a town overrun by the enemy. The third was how to deal with certain injuries Jaysin receives in trying to escape. Creating the moments in such a way as to allow logic to be present is always satisfying when they come together believably (within a fantasy context at least). I think I’ve managed that.
 
Completing this bridging chapter brings the project to 45,000 words, and moves events back onto the main plotline.
 
On a different note, this week provided two inspiring moments for me. One was finding four of my novels sitting at the front of a second-hand book shop – nice promotion. The second were two emails; a complimentary one from a country student who has just finished reading Caught in the Headlights – the second from a reader of the Amber Quatrology who wanted to share how much she enjoyed the series. In recent years, I’ve seen myself as a ‘forgotten writer’ because it’s been so long since I published in mainstream, so the occasional fan mail reminds me that what I’ve written has entertained or touched people. That is the nicest feeling. It’s been a good week.

Slow. When my daytime job becomes intense, writing steps back. Jaysin’s Song has only grown by 5,000 words in a fortnight, and only by pinch-hitting paragraphs at a time.
 
I’ve been asked over the years how I manage to sustain writing against the background of everything else, especially in the early 2000s when I was teaching and working part-time for the IBO, undertaking a PhD, coaching and playing volleyball and completing projects for HarperCollins. Long nights, very little sleep, and not many of the simple pleasures people do to fill their leisure time. It was ultimately unsustainable. I dropped the PhD when HarperCollins offered the Amber Legacy contract, and eventually dropped the IBO work. Nevertheless, anyone who has worked in education knows education roles in themselves, done well, are 60+ hours a week employment commitment and mentally exhausting, so sustaining writing in that environment is challenging enough. How do I manage it?
 
First, I do plan a novel’s structure and story arc. In the early years, learning the craft, I would meticulously plan the sequence of chapters from start to finish so that I had a journey map to follow. This meant that whenever other matters intruded or required more time, I could step out of writing and step back in knowing where I was at in a project. In recent times, I map with less detail, but I do retain an overview of key moments to make the story work – a rough plot guide basically. For example, in the current project, although I haven’t reached these points yet, I know Jaysin does have to be challenged in prison, he does have to reach the Empress, he does have to establish his own identity, he does have to make a choice between family or the Empire and power etc etc (without giving away too much here). I also know, as written in previous blogs, that I have to manage this within thirty chapters or around 100,000 words.
 
Second, if I am writing and I need to break for sleep, work, functions and events, travel, visitors and so on, I stop the writing either at the start, or in the middle, of a significant story event. This might be a confrontation, a fight or battle (action of any kind), a conversation, and sometimes a chapter opening. The reasoning is simple. For me, it’s much easier to slip back into the mood and intent of a piece if it has an established dynamic. There is also less for me to re-read to re-ignite the writing moment. Instead of trawling back through perhaps an entire chapter to remember what I was doing, or wading through notes, I can get straight into writing and the bonus is the interrupted scene is completed and I get some immediate personal satisfaction.
 
Third, reflection. Just as many people have worries and concerns and hopes and challenges swirling in their heads during every day – as I do – I also have writing doing the same in my head. It’s like having a music track playing in the background as you do something else. My music background is writing. It churns away, formulating, considering possibilities, even as I go about daily work and other activities. The only time it intrudes without invitation is if I walk into a bookshop. Then it explodes and all I want to do is get home and get on with my projects. Basically, I rarely stop thinking about the project I’m working on.
 
Fourth – and the hardest – is being ruthless with everyone else about writing moments. For example, as I’m writing this blog, my partner, her mum and a neighbour are sitting in the garden, in the sun, drinking coffee, eating cake, laughing and enjoying the moment. And I’m here, writing. I have to discipline myself to be at the keyboard, and – as weird or wrong as it might sound – I have to discipline those around me to let me do this. Writing does mean choosing when to write and when to play, because it is much easier to have the coffee, read the book, watch the tv show, go for a drive and so on. Weekends, I demand an equivalent of a day to write. If we socialise throughout Saturday, then Sunday for me is for writing. If we split socialisation across both days, then the morning of one and maybe the afternoon of the other is for writing. During the week, the evenings are divided accordingly. Life is full of changes and inconstancies, and so I can’t have inflexible writing times (as much as I would like to), but I do have to be demanding about having writing time some time in the week.
 
Way back in 1993, I took three months off work and wrote The Last Wizard. The same length sequel last year in Chasse’s Song took most of seven months to complete the first draft. This year, Jaysin’s Song, has taken three months to reach a third of its planned length, so the process has slowed significantly because of interrupted time. Hopefully, the strategies I’ve employed over the years will enable me to have this draft done by October in readiness to begin the fourth book.
 
Blog done. I have writing to do!

The central character in the current project, Jaysin, exhausted in his search for his brother, camps in the early pre-dawn hours in a small glade. Certain events and circumstances surround his situation. He found an abandoned wolf pup and is attempting to care for it. Kermakkian soldiers – the enemy – were seen on the road. Because the soldiers are on the move, there is a chance his brother, Chasse, is in serious trouble. Unable to stay awake, Jaysin falls asleep. When he wakes, he sees a figure moving through the trees, and then another, and realises he is surrounded by soldiers. The wolf pup, frightened by the humans, creeps toward Jaysin. A Kermakkian soldier takes crossbow aim on the pup.
 
So, here’s the dilemma – for the writer. How will Jaysin react? What will be the consequences of his reaction? He has arcane ability, but he’s no warrior. What will be the best choice for moving the story forward?
 
Plot-wise, ultimately, I must have Jaysin reach the capital city. Although this incident in the story is long before the endpoint, Jaysin’s identity and reputation among the Kermakkians might be influenced by what happens.
 
I see these options laid out in the situation:

1. Jaysin is too frightened to act. The pup is shot. He is taken prisoner.
2. Jaysin’s love for animals overrides his fear. He kills the Kermakkian soldier with a spell before he can shoot the pup. A fight ensues. Jaysin is taken prisoner with the blood of a soldier on his hands. Unlikely, given Kermakkian views about wolves (they hate them), the pup is taken along – or killed anyway.
3. Jaysin kills the crossbowman and the remaining six soldiers, using his arcane skills. He travels on with the pup.
4. Jaysin throws himself over the pup and is struck by the crossbow. Grievously wounded, he is taken prisoner. He doesn’t know what happens to the pup.
5. Jaysin kills one or two soldiers with his spells and the rest escape and run away in fear.
6. Jaysin teleports the pup to safety, but is taken prisoner.

There are many other combinations and possibilities I’ve wrestled with. I have chosen an outcome – I wrote it yesterday - but of course I’m not adding a spoiler here by telling you what I chose to write.
 
The writing process is a constant interplay of possibilities and myriad outcomes from every moment and action and interaction that is created. I need Jaysin to be ‘true to character’ in the situation above and yet it also presents a moment for character growth – an opportunity for the character self-realisation – and an event where the reader might see something in the character they had not previously been privy to.

Jaysin's Song passed the 25,000 word mark this morning, a quarter of the draft novel completed.

Word length is an interesting challenge when writing. From the outset, way back in 1990, I was advised a fantasy novel should be around 150,000 words. Why? I honestly don't know. I remember, at the time, being told multiple reasons: traditional practices (whatever that meant), reader expectation, print binding issues. As time proves, none of those reasons are valid. Probably the only validity for why a novel is a certain length is the story being written.

Research and industry practice identifies the following divisions when determining the form of a creative prose fiction piece:

• 1-1,000 words - flash fiction
• 1,000-7,500 words - short story
• 7,500-19,000 words - novellette
• 19,000-40,000 words - novella
• 40,000+ words - novel

Depending on your source, the above divisions fluctuate, but the 'sense' of the word length of each determines the divisions. Publishers define what they are looking for, so writers looking to submit a piece should be careful to read the publisher's definitions of what they mean by a short story or a novel etc. Many popular fantasy novels well exceed the arbitrary 150,000 word length I was recommended to use back in 1990.

For The Last Wizard series, the word length of each novel is determined predominantly by the story being written, and partly for consistency. The original novel, now first in the series, was 98,000 words, so I've set a similar target for the subsequent novels. In unedited draft, for example, Chasse's Song is currently 93,000 words, which gives me space to add and embellish aspects when I do the next edit of the draft.

A word length target also provides a level of discipline to the writing process. For this project, the chapter lengths are set loosely at 3,000 words. This compels me to ensure each chapter is focused on a specific aspect of the story eg a day, an event, a key moment, even a sequence of fast-paced events that make a whole event. The discipline enables me to progress the story/plot in 'logical' chunks (the word 'logical' isn't exactly accurate to describe the aggregate parts of the story), and sets me progressive challenges to meet when I write. In the same way, at a macro level, an overall word length creates a project target and challenge to meet, and forces me to focus my thinking of the story as a whole.

Given that I work fulltime (and more), and the precious nature of time to write, word targets serve a powerful goal and sustainer in the writing process for me. They can be as arbitrary as challenging myself to write 10,000 words in a week (almost unachievable in my circumstances), 3,000 words at a sitting (ie a chapter or a couple of sittings -  a common approach for me), and they allow me to predict a timeframe for completing a draft. In the case of this current project, this past week saw an additional 5,000 words added. At that pace, Jaysin's Song is a 20 week drafting project. The Last Wizard four book project then would represent 80 weeks for draft completion at that pace. Then there is re-reading and editing and editing again. Writing fulltime, as I did for the original novel back in 1993 on leave fom teaching, the 98,000 word project took 10 weeks to draft.

Out of curiosity, since starting this blog project, the blog posts from Dec 2018 represent 24,000 words of writing.

​Kirsi Salonen has completed two of four book covers for The Last Wizard series project. This post explores a little of the process we undertook together for creating the covers. It’s a lengthy post. Grab a beverage for the read and relax.

The decision to resurrect a twenty-five-year-old novel isn’t made lightly. The Last Wizard’s publication in 1995 led to it being short-listed for Best Fantasy Novel in the inaugural Aurealis Awards, eventually being rightly beaten by Garth Nix’s awesome Sabriel. The original was always planned and written as a stand-alone coming-of-age tale, although the end also deliberately set the stage for a sequel. Unfortunately, that coincided with a tsunami of events in the ensuing five years – Pan MacMillan’s decision to cut its experimental stable of Australian fantasy writers, winning a job in Brunei, a divorce, and HarperCollins taking on the rights to the Ashuak Chronicles – all meaning The Last Wizard slipped into history. With one exceptional moment – in 1999, Robert Stephenson snagged Time Warner interest in a movie deal for The Last Wizard, and for six months it appeared the novel was going to grow wings and fly. Sadly, in early 2001, we learned the option was dropped. And I moved on.
 
Fast forward to the digital book revolution and my rather sad and messy experimentation in 2015-17 with publishing via CreateSpace and then Amazon Kindle. I really was wandering in the wilderness, looking to bring life back to the original Andrakis series and also to publish a couple of teenage novels that I’d allow to languish. The whole publishing process was fun – even the silly errors I made – but neither lucrative nor easy to complete because of the time and money factors. But what did ensue were conversations with readers about any chance of a sequel to The Last Wizard.

​At first, I did not want to go there. The challenge of picking up characters and a fantasy world long buried in the past was terrifying and I knew there would be a lot of time and work involved in doing so. Besides, I have still way too much to learn about marketing in the digital world, and so little time to manage my work. And what would the sequel be? Tam’s continuing story? That made perfect sense, of course. But she had come of age. Her older brother was struggling with his identity. The younger brother was an offstage enigma. And there was the dragon egg. Which parts of the story should be told next? Whose story?
 
I know it will sound awkward, or foolish, or pandering, but I decided to not pursue Tam as a character, partly because I had written what I wanted to write about her as a model for my daughters at the time the novel was written – a girl finding her own voice and not being driven by social norms to conform to what men, and women, expected. Tam had emerged. Sure, there is plenty more she can and will learn as the saga unfolds, but as a writer I was no longer following her arc.
 
More importantly, I realised that a sequel – and a potential series – could focus one book at a time on the emergence of each character. The earliest iteration of The Last Wizard was titled ‘Tamesan’s Song’ because it was her story, her ballad. As the story unfolded, the working title that went to Pan Macmillan was ‘The Last Dragon’. We knew there’d been a martial arts film in the 1980s with the same name, but figured the associative reading audience wouldn’t be affected by that link, but then the editors decided the title was already too evident in popular culture, so the title was altered to ‘The Last Wizard’: ironic, because that in itself is a well-overused title.
 
Last year, I began toying with sequels, landing on the original title concept as the lever for the series – Tamesan’s Song, Chasse’s Song, Jaysin’s Song, Harmi’s Song. Each book would focus on the ‘coming of age’ of each character, dragon included. The titles are distinctive, original in names at least.
 
So, with Tamesan’s Song: The Last Wizard Book One, and Chasse’s Song: The Last Wizard Book Two fully drafted, and 12,000 words into Jaysin’s Song: The Last Wizard Book Three, the project has grown from a concept into a major work, and I’m confident the wider tale is taking great shape. But…where will it go?
 
My greatest fear is that because the first book was published so long ago in mainstream publishing that I won’t find a publisher willing to take the series on board. I do believe there will be a much greater and fresher audience for the books, because there is a generational change in the target audience and The Last Wizard never made it out of the very tiny Australian publishing arena back in 1995 (publishers were highly parochial about regions back then – that has changed, I believe). I have been out of touch with the writing arena for a decade or more as well, which means I am starting from scratch as far as working out who to send the project to. In the past, I would approach a publisher with the first book, seal the deal and write the rest after that. This time, I’d like to be able to offer the completed project. Ambitious? I don’t know. I still have to do the research to find out who would even want to look at it.
 
There is, of course, self-publication. Personally, I want to find a traditional publisher, but if the work doesn’t attract a publisher I’m learning enough through my experimentation and online guides to make a fist of publishing the project alone. That dilemma is still a year away on my estimations. I have two more books to complete first.
 
Next blog, I want to focus on the cover design process. In preparation for publication of the books, as I’ve said before, a friend and great artist, Kirsi Salonen http://www.kirsisalonen.com/ is creating cover art for the books. I’ll unpack how we arrived at the cover design for Chasse’s Song.
 
For my Christian friends, happy Easter! For my non-Christian friends, enjoy the long weekend break, if that is given to you, and stay safe.

​This past week Jaysin’s Song grew to 7000 words with drafting of the first two chapters. Like the previous two books, the average chapter length is set between 300-4000 words for consistency of story reading. What I’ve learned over the thirty years since first writing a fantasy novel is the chapter word limit is not constraining but a form of self-discipline and a reward.
 
The discipline comes in making certain that each chapter is a self-contained moment (or collection of moments) that advance a section of the story as a whole. This makes me focus on keeping a tight plot and related subplots as I draft. Sometimes ideas flow freely, and I end up drafting way over 4000 words in a chapter. I discipline myself to then rework the writing until it fits within the word limit. Sometimes, not often, a chapter falls short of 3000 words in first draft. Again, I review the chapter and work on it until it meets the limits. This is not about padding out a story, but about adding richer detail and sometimes even pursuing a character or plot development that otherwise might be cut or altogether ignored.
 
The reward comes in seeing the structure of the novel grow as each chapter draft is completed, knowing the story must fit within an overall word limit. The reward is simply a set of tangible targets.
 
I like to open a novel creating a hook; an event or information that I hope will stir the reader’s interest and encourage them to know what will happen. Jaysin’s Song opens with the dragon, Harmi, flying into Machutzka with a warning that a war is raging to the east and the Empress is sending troops to pressgang young people from outlying towns and villages into her Great Army. This sets an immediate tension, threat and dilemma for our central characters.
 
For Jaysin in particular, now fifteen and an aspiring sorcerer, additional dilemmas and challenges arise in the opening chapters. First, he is keen to have recognition for his ability, but everyone reveres the dragon, his sister, Tamesan who is a wizard, and his warrior brother, leaving him without a clear identity. Second, he learns that important books of magic are locked behind a metal door in a building in Machutzka – locked there forty or more years earlier by Eric who was the Harbin Herbal Man, and wizard and companion of the dragon, Claryssa. The key is lost. But Jaysin is learning an ancient spell that might enable him to access the entombed texts.
 
Already, despite notes and planning ideas for the book, it has taken its own direction. For example, the concept of Machutzka having a library and a librarian was not in my original planning, but now Shika the Librarian has entered the tale. I wanted Jaysin to become increasingly more powerful, but was unsure of exactly how to give him access to arcane knowledge. He could, of course, learn it from Harmi, but the dragon is quite ethical, and she would be tempted to control what she allowed Jaysin to learn. After all, sorcerers don’t exist – Jaysin is an oddity. The world of magic belongs to dragons and their lifelong wizard companions.
 
Thus, the story has begun. Let’s see where Jaysin’s fortunes lie.

Last week I started working on drafting the third book in The Last Wizard series – Jaysin’s Song. Book One – Tamesan’s Song – the original The Last Wizard – focusses on Tam coming of age in a small pre-medieval society where male warriors dominated the community and girls were expected to grow up to be women who served the men. Tam doesn’t fit the norm. Underlying the community is a legend justifying the men spending summers away from home, apparently on dragon hunts. Tam and her brother expose the lies at the heart of their community. Book Two – Chasse’s Song – follows a different coming of age for Tam’s older brother, Chasse, who has to learn to be a warrior, one whose duty is based on truth and honour. He helps his sister, his younger brother and a baby dragon escape the danger pursuing them, and learns who he must become. And, so, to Book Three.
 
Jaysin was a misfit in his village because he loves studying things and understanding how the world works. He showed no care in relationships with other children and certainly no interest in their games. But we learn in the second book that he has an amazing propensity for learning, for communicating with animals and for learning magic. Because his sister is paired with a dragon and can use dragon magic, and because his brother is an emerging great warrior, Jaysin feels he must create his own identity to step out of the shadow of his siblings. Rather than being suppressed by his station and treatment by his peers, he is determined to be better than anyone else in his ways. Book Three begins with Jaysin in his fifteenth summer, now having spent five years researching and learning and experimenting with sources of magic. He is keen to show others what he can do and thereby earn his status in the new city.
 
I have been writing plot notes for the novel, exploring how it can reflect Jaysin’s coming of age as an ambitious sorcerer in a much larger and even more dangerous world than he left behind when he escaped with his siblings from Harbin. Jaysin is different to his siblings for many reasons, and it will be fun developing a character who has an ‘edge’ to him – an interest in testing what is truth, what is good and bad, what is convenient, what brings recognition. He will test his siblings’ patience and their sense of what is right. And it will be challenging to keep growing Tam and Chasse and the dragon in the background to Jaysin’s story, giving them scope to adapt and learn and change through success, failure and suffering.
 
Today, the opening of this novel reached 4000 words, almost the first chapter done. It’s too early to explain Jaysin further. I have been developing a much larger world in readiness for his entry. I’ll write more about Jaysin, his challenges and the wider world in future blogs.

​As outlined last post, I’ve spent several sessions working through the historical fiction, Girlie, since the new year, adjusting sentences, checking and adding (and sometimes deleting) details around colour, smell, texture, sound and so on. Working through the manuscript, searching for excessive adjectival and adverbial use – and deciding when to keep them – reconstructing sentences (splitting longer ones into shorter expression, introducing conjunctions and punctuation to extend others), eliminating word repetition where appropriate, correcting expressions, probing and testing character dialogue to see if the story progresses or characters are better understood because of it, speaking dialogue aloud to hear if it scans in the conversations, inserting sections of Girlie’s reflections on moments to add depth, removing patches of dead description and expanding other pieces to paint clearer pictures, is a slow, methodical process that soaks up an amazing degree of time. And, honestly, I’m still not satisfied with sections.
 
Interviews with Eileen’s (Girlie’s) brothers and sisters in 2020 added important information, but also posed a conundrum on what to add in and what to leave out. Because this novel was always ultimately to be a work of fiction, I’ve been willing to compress, alter or skip factual information of Girlie’s real life in order to develop a character and plot, but I definitely wanted to capture the historical events – larger and personal – that Girlie passed through as she grew toward self-actualisation to position the work in a period of South Australian time. The interviews revealed to my interviewees and myself elements of the family’s experiences that Girlie neither witnessed nor participated in – for example, the periods of homelessness and time the younger siblings spent in the Fullarton Girls and Kent Town Boys Homes. Neither, as another example, were her siblings aware of the extent of Girlie’s ‘adventures’ in Melbourne and Tasmania. Editing and adjusting, and sometimes leaving out family facts proved very challenging. As with the language, I’ve tried to include what helps to build Girlie’s character and move the story, and exclude what might be accurate family history but only leads to side plots or information alone. I am incredibly grateful for what Girlie’s brothers and sisters shared.
 
Reflecting on a process in my notes that was seeded as a concept in 2009, became an active research project in 2010 when I started ‘formal’ interviews with Mum on Wednesday afternoons (there may have been cups of tea and Scrabble involved), before finally morphing into a writing project in 2015, the journey has taken me back through time in a variety of ways – through conversations, online research in the libraries, readings of newspapers and magazines via Trove, collections of family and library photographs (Mum proved selfies were ‘a thing’ way back in the 1940s and 50s). The first full draft of Girlie came in at 118,205 words early 2019. This ‘final’ draft, ready for sending out to publishers, sits at 122,091 words. Although there is a 4000 word difference between first and final draft (with four draft versions between), and an increase at that, I’ve estimated almost 3000 words were cut from the first draft, but an additional 7000 words of story/detail was gradually included.
 
Unlike this time last year, where I hastily sent a draft to a competition in the somewhat overly hopeful chance it might be considered, this time the story is ready. Covering Girlie’s growth from 13-22, across the years 1944-1953, each year a chapter, each chapter headed with a quote from a movie of the time that also speaks into Girlie’s life at the time, I’m done. Girlie now needs a publishing benefactor to read it and think it’s worth sharing with other people. Here we go.

Before you know it, a month storms by and we are racing into the Christmas period. And I haven't posted.

This week I completed a hard copy first edit of Chasse's Song. The process of working through the current 93,000 words was spread over a three week period. I begin by saying it is an exciting and scary experience to read a novel draft in its entirety for the first time.

Among the aspects I scrutinized were:

• story continuity
• character consistency
• character growth
• fact consistency
• time and seasonal logic
• travel logic
• geographical logic and continuity

and to see if there really is an enjoyable story in place (I'm pleased to say I think there is!).

The editing process in Chasse's Song sent me several times back to Tamesan's Song (Book One) to check consistencies in culture and characters. While it is tempting to take licence and adjust aspects of the original story, I've disciplined myself to make sure the second book follows the original in matters, for example, such as the ages of Chasse, Tamesan and Jaysin.

Facts and consistency aside, the edit also involved checking for effective descriptive passages and images. Where appropriate, I added colour, names, details, weather, light, sound, odours and texture to immerse the reader deeper into moments and character experiences.

I also checked, edited and added opportunities for Chasse to be reflective and thoughtful - in other words not just an action and dialogue character. Because he is a young warrior startled by the violence of his role in the Harbin community, Chasse faces the effects of trauma - basically PTSD - in the form of nightmares and personal uncertainty. I have been working through to make this side of his character, and his learning/growth, believable.

Establishing dragon and wizard culture in a side story to Chasse's main story also influenced sections of editing to ensure the 'lore' established in book one is visualised and developed in book two.

Reading silently and aloud is a crucial action in the editing process. I use it to test expression, fluency and dialogue feasibility and consequently rewrote a significant number of sentences and phrases to improve the reader's experience. Searching for clumsy expression, awkward expression, archaic expression, stumbling expression is probably the most challenging and in some ways neverending editing task. This also touches on sentence openings - juxtaposition of phrases to add variance to the rhythm of the writing.

Reading dialogue aloud is a crucial part of the editing process to ensure the characters' interchanges are character-consistent but also flow as in natural dialogue. Where the dialogue sounds/felt stilted, I've made changes.

The edit also explores the storytelling flow - how actions and events integrate and how and where to 'break' them in order to arrive at the next part of the story. This is particularly important in constructing the chapters. My aim is always to make a chapter a 'little story' in itself that is connected by character and the larger tale to preceding and subsequent chapters. This also involves looking for how and where seeds/connectors/hooks can be inserted to keep the reader wanting to know what happens next.

And there is the obvious editing for typos, spelling mistakes, grammatical errors - the mechanical, secretarial editing that ensures the reader's attention isn't derailed by an obvious language blunder. Sadly, as careful as I try to be from the outset, there are always quite a few to fix.

With the hard edit finished, from tomorrow I begin to transfer those into the original digital manuscript. This process becomes the second edit because it involves the second full reading of the manuscript. Experience tells me that I will make additional changes as I work the first edit fixes into the text.

On a different note, today I started the third book, Jaysin's Song - okay just the first two hundred words, but I have the concept emerging so the next few weeks will be an interesting challenge with Christmas bearing down. I am hoping to get at least one more blog entry done before Dec 25th. Let's see.

Time to sketch some new spaces and places for the development of Chasse's Song. The second instalment of The Last Wizard is close to 65,000 words this week, but the action moves away from Harbin and into a much larger world. Tam, Chasse, Jaysin and the fledgling dragon, Harmi, have escaped the clutches of Marron and the new Dragon Head Mikane, and must forge a new path into a world where wizards and dragons are far from welcome.

I began by enlarging the original Harbin map beyond Dragon Mountain, exploring how the greater mountain range might look, where rivers would run, where people are likely to have settled and where the wilds were still 'untouched' by civilisation. The new land also has a couple of stark reminders of the past - a large forest where dragons were once meant to have lived and a vast scar across a forest/plain where dragon fire burned everything and where nothing grows.

Choosing a map 'style' to represent mapping by the greater civilisation beyond Harbin is a challenge. Whether to represent mountains as peaks or as semi-cartographical pictures, and to what degree to include detail that will eventually be lost in a small picture in a paperback all are questions to explore. Also generating a sense of the city to which the characters are heading eventually is a task I've started. My first drafts are included in this blog to show the thinking behind creating a physical fantasy world. Coupled with this will be the development of the wider world's social, political and economic cultures.

The writing process is fascinating, even when it is something you feel confident and motivated with. Chasse's Song has progressed to 62,000 words - slow by my personal standards, but not indicative of the ideas: more about available time.

Not a lot to write this week as far as process goes. I'm still drafting maps for the location, and Kirsi has shared a second draft of the first cover illustration that effectively captures a sense of character, place and colour, so aspects are happening. Events are shifting the main characters out of the village into a world beyond the mountain, and that is where the story goes forward from today.

On a different tangent, I can no longer order author copies of my books on Amazon - an issue that other writers have warned me of - so I will spend a little time in the coming fortnight learning how to prepare and publish print-on-demand copies of my work on IngramSpark. This will enable me to order copies that I can on-sell to people. While Amazon proved easy and convenient to make my out-of-print work available as ebooks, it has backfired as far as accessing paper versions. I will correct that.

​This time - not much else to say...

Back at work means less time for the good things, so I've left this entry for a fortnight.

The first exciting news was seeing a working draft of Kirsi's illustration for the first book. We're working on the ambient colour being similar to the original novel ie colours around Tamesan's name meaning the Dawn's Light while capturing a sense of character and place. I'm loving what I've seen and we are discussing important features to add connection between the art and the writing.

Readers often ask if the writer has input into cover illustrations. My experience generally has been yes, and is certainly the case now when self-publishing, but also some of my earlier books emerged with covers approved by the publisher and not entirely by me. I think a lot depends on the marketing editors and what they guess will work as attractive covers.

Chasse's Song is now entering Chapter 18, and just over 55,000 words. The last two chapters brought interesting challenges where I am trying to capture Chasse's struggle with what constitutes being a man - traditionally in his village and what people expect of him. The antagonists have been reintroduced to ramp up the pressure on Chasse as they threaten the people he loves. Chasse is an emerging warrior, but his inexperience and lack of confidence arising from his inexperience combine to frustrate him when he wants to act as he believes he should act.

Because of the central character focus, it's also interesting working out how to show growth continuing offstage for Tam and Jaysin who are coming to grips with learning magic and living with a growing dragon. The trope/feature of magic in The Last Wizard books is partly the immutable and ubiquitous connection between dragons and wizards, with dragons being an inter-generational source of magical lore and ability, and also the presumption of the capacity for magic to enhance and work on the natural energy in all matter. Tam's growing capacity for magic is tied directly to her baby and growing dragon. Jaysin, however, is an anomaly; a person who can weave magic from the very matter of things, something not seen in this particular fantasy world before.
​
Speaking of fantasy worlds, as each of my works emerged I placed them geographically on the same planet/world. The Andrakis trilogy with its lands of Andrakis, Ranu Ka Shehaala, Targa and Uz Erhaag expanded eastward in the Ashuak Chronicles to include Ashua, Shekisu and Sekesu and Ukesu, and in the Dreaming in Amber series the world not only encompassed all of these lands but introduced Western Shess. Map examples below...

​With 45,000 words in draft, technically I'm at the halfway point of Chasse's Song. Of course, 'halfway' is a concept when creating a story, a marker, a reminder of keeping the story within agreed bounds. This is partly determined by text binding limitations with publication, partly audience expectation of reading lengths, partly 'tradition' for a genre - but mostly so I can give myself a solid target to constrain the tale.

Writing comes with more research. This week, the Harbin Dragon Fang are embarking on building a new dragon ship, regardless of whether the ones who fled when the dragon appeared in the village are coming back with the village's only ship. This sent me back into researching how the Vikings and other seafarers built their clinker longships. So much information is available, particularly given the projects that have been undertaken to replicate the building of those ships - everything from the kind of tree needed, how to shape and cut the keel, the strakes, the bow and so on. Additional research was needed to determine how a sail could be constructed from goat hide (the Vikings apparently sometimes used wool). Materials, techniques, time - all are important to help me add 'authenticity' to the story.

https://regia.org/research/ships/Ships1.htm

This led to revising how to fell trees effectively. Again, personal life way back in my teens gave me experience in this, but memory and research need to combine. There are some fascinating pages online. I was especially amused by the link following:

https://gearpatrol.com/2009/06/13/be-a-better-man-in-30-days-day-13-know-how-to-chop-down-or-fell-a-tree/#:~:text=Chopping%20With%20An%20Axe%3A%20If,the%20way%20through%20the%20tree.

Then the fun research turned to killing and butchering goats. Yes, from my childhood I remember the process for killing, hanging, gutting and butchering a sheep, but fifty years separate me from that time. So, into the research. There is literally nothing you can't learn online nowadays. Why this? A spoiler - how else do you feed a baby dragon?

https://www.farmdrop.com/blog/the-ultimate-goat-cuts-guide-how-to-choose-and-cook-your-cuts/

With the story's changing seasons from deep blizzard winter to emerging spring, I then researched a range of topics including seagull breeding seasons, bears emerging from hibernation, wolves hunting in snow and so on.

https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/advice/gardening-for-wildlife/animal-deterrents/gulls/gull-breeding-habitats-and-nest-sites/

Finally, before this post, I was researching the impact and healing processes involved in treating broken ribs and a 'mildly' punctured lung - the fate of a character hangs on this material.

https://www.healthline.com/health/broken-rib

The links in this post are quick samples of where I've been as I've been developing the story. Each piece of research needed correlation from multiple sources to ensure I was finding accurate (or relatively accurate) information. A long time ago, I naively thought writing a story was a case of 'making it up' and relying on my personal knowledge and experiences. While that is equally still true, especially in a fantasy tale where the world and magic are in the hands of the writer, the degree of research involved is often hidden from readers, especially if it flows in the tale as it should - part of the world, the characters and the events.

One more week of being a 'full time' writer lies ahead before the working world kicks back in. Fourteen chapters have taken shape. I'm enjoying the project, but it is only a partial form chipped roughly in marble - a long way from the statue I want it to be.

First, all quiet on the publisher front - not how I like it, but part of a writer's fate.

I'm making good progress into the first draft of the second book in The Last Wizard trilogy, Chasse's Song and I'm enjoying where the story is going. Having spent considerable time reacquainting myself with Harbin and Tam's world and where her brother Chasse fitted, I finally feel I've moved into Chasse's space comfortably and we've passed 25,000 words this weekend.

Whereas the original book - now Tamesan's Song: The Last Wizard Book One in preparation for re-release - focussed on Tam's coming of age, Chasse's Song: The Last Wizard Book Two, focusses on his coming of age as explained in previous posts. This will mean a number of interesting and challenging issues emerge. Now that he is a dragon warrior and he was present when the Dragon Fang were ambushed while they were raiding a southern town, he has to resolve his role in Harbin as a young man, a warrior, a protector, and a son and brother, and potentially a husband. His father, Dragon Head Kevan, takes responsibility for leading Chasse through the Trial of the Second Winter, a time when the new dragon warriors of Harbin 'come-of-age' through testing and facing the truth of what they are required to do and be. This new stage brings increasing security and also dilemmas for Chasse who can see how his sister's choices place her at odds with village traditions and where this will potentially create a schism between her and him. And he is still dealing with PTSD from his first experience as a dragon warrior. And there is a growing love interest that will also challenge him. Tam is on the mountain, with the dragon's egg, the Herbal Man's library and goods, and little brother Jaysin, although her life is now momentarily offstage. Oh, and eventually the ones who abandoned Harbin when Claryssa the dragon emerged will return to search for the dragon treasure. But that's not written yet...

Kirsi has agreed to work on the cover illustrations and we've now signed a contract so that part is underway and I'm excited that she is involved.

I'm dedicating an hour or so each day to writing currently, and trying to nail several hours each weekend. When I started writing seriously way back in 1988, even before I won my first contract, I bought time by replacing my involvement with basketball. Back then, training and playing with Noarlunga City Tigers consumed close to 15 hours a  week, spread across 6 days of commitments, so when I retired from the club and the game entirely I converted the basketball slabs of time to writing time. I coupled that with sometimes smashing multiple hours two-three times a week in exchange for sleep, working until 2 or 3am and sleeping briefly before heading to work, and that's pretty much how the Andrakis trilogy came to life from 1988-1993, but it wasn't a sustainable way to live. In contrast, the original The Last Wizard was fully drafted in three months in 1993 when I took a term's leave from teaching.

Okay, so Chasse wants me to take him further into the Trial of the Second Winter because he wants to become a man. A blizzard is brewing in the background and his father is about to engage him in trial by combat. A wolf pack is circling higher up the slope. I have to go...

Tomorrow is back to work after four days and two weekends away from the chaos. In fairness to Meg, I did spend three days working on school web sites for teachers, parents and students during the so-called break, but the last four days I devoted to being a writer.

After a wee bit of excitement back in 2015 when I tried to kick start a flagging writing business, I neglected much of what needs to be fostered. As my previous blogs detail, I have returned to writing in earnest and the momentum is good. What I neglect is everything AFTER a book is written, and that I must change.

This week I revamped my tired old writing website at www.tonyshillitoe.com.au Drop by for an updated view - still a page to fix around how and where to buy my books, but essentially it's almost done. From now on I will also store these blogs on that site.

I also spent time this week revamping the Amazon covers for the Ashuak and Andrakis series, learning new techniques and applying them to the covers to make them less amateurish. This led to updating the interior content as well, again to improve the appearance. It takes a full day to design a cover, and another whole day to check the layout of the content, and that's the tip of the iceberg. Examples of the updated covers, one from each series, are included below (drafts - finals are too large a file for here).

Moving forward, I am about to embark on book two of the new fantasy series later this week and I'll add updates of that in the next entry. For the record, yesterday I was distracted for three hours and wrote an intro to yet another new series. I need to focus!

Well, no recent posts because of our common enemy Covid-19 who has consumed my life within our school; building an online learning strategy, environment and resources for parents, students and teachers, supporting teacher resilience and competence in that strange new environment for ELC-12 using Teams, Managebac and Showbie and a vast array of web resources and tools, and basically caring for the learning and emotional wellbeing of a community. I'm currently building web sites to support teachers, parents and students with digital skills. As John Lennon aptly sang, 'strange days indeed.'

Writing took a back seat, but some events chugged along. I submitted Girlie to a publication contest, but lucked out on that one, so now I'll prepare the manuscript for the usual submission processes. A re-read yesterday revealed a couple of glaring editing errors - no matter how ruthlessly you work through 115,000 words, even with vigilant friends checking, you miss details. When I hear someone complain that they found a spelling error on page 27 of a novel, or a missed word, I know how and why those errors happen - and no, I'm not talking about lots of errors in a text. Anyway, Girlie will be packaged and sent to the first publisher target to see if they will take her on. If not, we move to the next one.

The pandemic zombie-fest novel, working title All We Have, was sent to its first publisher a fortnight ago, so we will see where that ends up. Either my timing is terrible or great in this current world event. While it was never aimed at imitating a Corona style pandemic, maybe there is enough in it to make it a worthwhile read. Anyway, the waiting game has begun for that novel.

I also reshaped and finished Book One in the new fantasy series, currently titled (insert title here). Creating a title is really challenging because so many books and films have been published and already bear the very titles the next writer/creator want to use. So one target in the next few days is to generate a list of options, test them against the titles already published and come up with an appropriately interesting/catchy title for this work. I'm hoping to head into Book Two during the coming week, given I'm taking four days off work post-Easter (happy dance).
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I hope everyone out there is safe, socially-distancing and looking out for family, friends and neighbours. We are living in one of our films or novels right now. I might say that for a full-time writer this might seem 'normal', as it would for gamers, introverts and only children (I qualify in some of those categories). Use the time we've been given wisely. Happy Easter!