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 A current unpublished manuscript of mine is 120,000 words, so I will use that manuscript for this hypothetical.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.
​
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.

​ 
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 [email protected] 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)
​
“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/