Publications and ponderings...

February, 2024

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:

​“Sometimes heroes are ordinary people doing the best they can in confusing times.

Against the backdrop of the Second World War coming to an end, and a time of change into the early 1950s, teenager and young woman, Eileen Bonney, wrestles with webs of love, deceit and secrets as she tries to define herself amid the expectations, demands, friendships and lies of others.

Leaving school at age 13 to care for a distraught and ill mother and five siblings, abandoned but overseen by a philandering father, pursued by a deceitful older lover, fighting a battle with tuberculosis, Eileen survives as best she can in the hope that, one day, her world will be better.

But life isn’t about becoming - it’s about being.

This is a collage of an ordinary young woman’s coming of age in the 1940s and early 1950s, a time when Australian social mores and expectations were very different, and the impact and aftermath of a World War and austerity threw many ordinary Australian lives into disarray. Not all heroes achieve greatness and thrive in challenging times. Some simply survive.”

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.