The doubt put to rest for a little while

On one of the author Facebook pages I follow, someone wrote that it didn't matter if 100 of her family and friends and readers told her they enjoyed her book, that it was a great read, and they wanted more, she took more notice of the one bad review.

That's what it's like sadly for writers, and I imagine anyone else who puts a part of themselves: painters, photographers into the public arena.

So when an unbiased judge took me aside Friday night 25th October at the City of Melton Libraries Short Story Competition, and told me she couldn't put my short story down, and that she wanted to read more, I finally felt "real".

When I told my Alpha Reader, Denise Wood that I'd won the prize, she said "Of course you did. Why don't you believe me when I say you work is great?"
I don't know.

When I told my cousin Debra Hammer that the first three books in the saga were being published by an international Rapid Versatile Publisher, she said "Why wouldn't they be?"
I don't know.

The little "you're not good enough" gremlin that sits on my shoulder has been relegated to behind the desk for a day or so. :)

 The Saga concludes:

Works in Progress

Photo from Trove (www.trove.nla.gov.au)

My first non-fiction effort is underway; looks like I’ll have to change my spiel 😊

I’m writing about my great uncle, (Sir) William George McBeath. For those of you who have read “Time Tells All” you’ve met him already. The contributions he made to Australian, and Victorian society are staggering. He deserves more than a couple of paragraphs in the Australian Dictionary of Biography.

Photo from State Library of Victoria 

 

 

Next are the stories of the Scots and English who left their respective countries in search of a fortune on the Victorian Goldfields in 1852 is the next saga underway. In these families (from my maternal grandmother), we have a Victorian Premier (1924-1927), local government councillors, a magistrate, war heroes and great contributors to the developing colony of Victoria.

I’m playing with titles, and will ask for assistance when I’ve moved along a bit more.

And, I’m 20,000 words into my memoir. Not sure if this is going to be for public consumption, we’ll see. I’m writing it in third person, and have changed ALL the names, including mine. So technically, it’s not a “memoir” because they are written in first person, but it is still my story 😊

The new "baby" leaves the nest

Writing my fourth book was more of a struggle than the first three. It’s not that I really spent that much more time thinking about the content, or researching, but I procrastinated to the point of neglect. Still, it is done, and I’m happy to see it go out into the world.

Did I struggle because the story is about the love between my 5x great grandparents? I think so. Even though the first book included the blossoming romance and then marriage of my 4x great grandparents, Catherine and James, I found it harder to write my 5x great grandparents as characters in a book. 

He was in his fifties when he fell in love with Elizabeth, she in her early twenties. I tiptoed around their relationship and in the end decided I would leave what went on between the sheets to the imagination of the reader.