FIXWRITE - FOR WRITERS AND POETS

Featuring the work of:

Loretta McCarthy   
Jilli Richardson
Joanne Calman
Marilyn Quirk
Naomi Hills
Merlene Fawdry
Jacqueline Lonsdale Cuerton

Self-publishers do not have the resources of publishing houses, large or small, nor do they have the contacts and entrée into the literary world that agents enjoy. What they do have, however, is an innate resourcefulness, the goodwill of family and friends, and the willingness of booksellers, usually locally based, who might be willing to take a chance on an unknown, largely unpromoted new author.

I have read many books that have the potential to be large volume sellers but, for want of a mainstream publisher, they can only travel the distance the author is able to drive them - and inner fuel is often in short supply.

Marilyn Quirk

Published May 2006 – Bokprint Tasmania
Second print
GENRE: Biographical; historical.
178 pages
Many photographs

    ISBN 0 646 45711 X

    RRP $35.00 including postage

   Ordering information:
   Phone: 0364 354446
   e-mail: tandm.quirk@bigpond.com
   Marilyn Quirk
   27 Linton Avenue
   HEYBRIDGE TAS 7316

This book is named on ‘Infostream,’ which is an Education Department (Tas) circulation list for teachers of available texts. (History curriculum.)
The Braille Library of Tasmania is translating these individual Tasmanian stories for the sight-impaired.

Copies of Echoes on the Mountain are held at:
The Polish Library – Perth WA
The Polish Library – Launceston Tas
The Lithuanian Museum of Culture – Chicago US
State libraries
Hydro Tasmania - Hobart
Historical Society – Burnie Tas

Between the pages are ten gripping tales of the migrant workers who brought the Tasmanian highlands to life in all its post-war uniqueness. They came from the ashes of Europe, some had fought side by side with the Australians at Tobruk, some had endured forced labour camps under the Germans and then the Soviets, all had suffered the horrors of war. They came from Poland, Italy, the Czech Republic, Lithuania, Germany and England.

With hope in their hearts they set out for far away Tasmania to work on the hydroelectric schemes. They Hydro needed workers, particularly pick and shovel men, to transform the inhospitable landscape and build the dams and pipelines that would industrialise the island state.

"It was a mini United Nations where the villages reverberated to the tunes of many languages. It was a peaceful and yet lively time when the men tried to nurture a social life for themselves. We wanted to prove we could be good citizens and good Australians." Milan Vyhnalek.

On the dark side there were suicides and depression but most of the men worked and lived hard, survived to move on to other Tasmanian towns. They are living proof that humans can endure atrocity, build a new life, and keep giving to their communities.

New and old Australians converged on the Central Highlands of Tasmania during the post-war years to work for the Hydro Electric Commission. Workers were desperately needed for the mighty construction schemes in the highlands and elsewhere in the state. Workers were sought from the pool of available men in Europe in need of a new country and a new home. Later, contract workers were also sought for their skills. It was due to these migrants that Tasmania’s greatest feat was achieved. The villages are now gone but the power schemes a testament to their industry.

It was as these New Australians were arriving that the family of Marilyn Quirk moved to Tarraleah from Western Australia. "Who lives in the little wooden huts?" the children asked. It was a question repeated many times by the family after they moved to the North West coast. They also wondered where these people moved after their two years with the HEC. In retirement Marilyn decided to find out. The result was her new book Echoes on the Mountain that records ten stories of men and women who came from their home countries in Europe to settle in Tasmania. The book has sold to well ex-Hydro people in Tasmania, overseas readers and other Tasmanians interested in their history. From the many telephone, e-mail and fax contacts to the author, it transpires that there are many more ‘Hydro’ stories out there.

Marilyn worked for TAFE for many years in Burnie and Devonport and achieved a Batchelor of Adult and Vocational Education from UTAS. She has four children and grandchildren and lives on the North West coast of Tasmania.

Despite blinding headaches, severe epileptic seizures and difficulty reading and writing, mother of three, Joanne Calman, has just published her own book. She is on a mission to tell others about her extraordinary near death experience.

More than fifteen years ago, Joanne and her husband Ross had bought their first house, were expecting a third child and Ross, a council worker, had landed a promising sales job. After years of struggle, they were riding high. But it all came crashing down when something went terribly wrong in the birth of their third baby. Joanne nearly died three times and was left with shocking chronic disabilities.
For more than fifteen years, Joanne has endured headaches that morphine barely touches, epilepsy, visual and balance disturbances and incomplete paraplegia. But the nature of her near death experience was so powerful she felt compelled to write it down. Her book The Causeway- the bridge from here to there, a near death experience records the fascinating journey which has given her a unique insight into the purpose and meaning of life.
What makes her story exceptional though is that in her near death experience Joanne met people who she was told would help and guide her when she returned to earth. In the years that followed she went looking for them and found them – people like the artist who has illustrated her book.

Two books by Loretta McCarthy

 

Charles Broden, Australian journalist, is on the assignment of his career. He has been granted interviews with two elderly protagonists, the Prime Minister of Israel and Yassar Arafat, both highly influential in shaping their people's future. Whilst sight seeing in the Old City, a horrified Charles discovers a dismembered baby's ear, which becomes the catalyst to the way he views the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.

 

All enquiries to the author: lorettamcc@gmail.com

RRP $20.00

---

- led me to question the sting

A memoir
by
Jilli Richardson

An amazing story written by a remarkable woman as she recounts the history of her family; founders of a well known Launceston business, and the first eighty-six years of her life.

"In Grasping the Nettle, Jilli Richardson chronicles the journey through her eighty-six years of life, love and self-discovery. Richly threaded with family history, which begins in 1880 England, this story takes the reader from the harshness of 19^th century outback Queensland, to the unforgettable beauty of coastal Tasmania. Along the way Jilli experiences great love from her immediate and extended family, her husband and four children, before three separate tragedies blight the brilliance of her landscape. The last of these, the untimely death of her husband, cannons her into an emotional void, from which she embarks on a forty year journey that becomes a search for self-understanding and enlightenment. She ultimately finds her inner truth mirrored in the guise of a severely autistic child and the doors of her self-imposed prison slowly open, to let her spirit merge and blend with those who waited in love for her to return; her children."

Merlene Fawdry - Editor 2007

“Her writings encompass her husband’s brave venture into Freycinet in the 1930s to establish the first holiday retreat in what was to become Tasmania’s first national park. The historical aspects of Ann’s writing provide the background to a journey of self-discovery, which she reveals with brave and rare honesty. The ebb and flow of her life becomes a tidal wave, as tragedy and triumph march side by side and her idyllic world shatters. Jilli is a modern woman, multi-talented as she embraces many and varied new skills with all the verve of someone much younger, a mischievous sense of fun and always searching for the wisdom which lies behind all she encounters…This is a work of depth and joy with moments of heart-rending sadness inter-spiced with humour as the writer finds her true identity and enriches all who come into contact with her.”  Kay Poetschka  2006

Spanning over a century, this book includes over 60 photographs of  people and places, taking the reader from the Solomon Islands to wartime Australia and beyond, into contemporary society we know today. Along the way we meet outback pioneers, an Aboriginal hero, and women of courage who have handed down a legacy of hard work, humour and love of adventure; a legacy firmly embraced by Jilli in her quest for self-truth.

Individual chapters feature:

• 1880 England and the Scilly Isles
• 19^th century outback Queensland
• World Wars I and II
• East coast of Tasmania
• Tasmania’s Central highlands rivers and lakes
• Meeting with Krishnamurti
• Autism and self discovery

All enquiries to:

Jilli Richardson
PO Box 127
Longford
Tasmania 7301

The In-Between Man © Jacqueline Lonsdale Cuerton 2007

Fiction

ISBN: 978-0-9803852-0-5

Publisher Witzend Publishing

Distributed by author

RRP: $32.95

About the author.

Jacqueline Lonsdale Cuerton was born in England during the Second World War. She has always scribbled, reads a lot and loves to travel. As her grandfather was born in Burma, she was introduced to people of other race at a very early age and her imagination has been fuelled by travel – at age nine she sailed on a migrant ship from England to Australia, meeting and making friends with some of the Maltese men and boys taken on board. As a teenager, Jacqueline was involved with Aboriginal rights, then marriage to a handsome Indian and several visits to India further enriched her life. Working as a social worker deepened her insight into migrant families and the difficulties experienced in accepting different cultural practices, especially on behalf of their children and it is the sum of these experiences that enhances her authority to write this novel.

About the novel.

Since receiving the birthday card, Ramesh has been unsettled. He has had no real contact with his mother for almost eight years but the action explodes with the impending announcement of his engagement to a girl he hardly knows and has no desire to know better. Ramesh’s refusal marks the first step of a journey that changes or affects in some way, the lives of others, not least his own in ways he would not have dreamed of...  The In-Between Man tells, in humorous vein, some reactions to black/white, brown/white couples as well as singles not of the mainstream race in Australia. The reader is given a brief Indian philosophy and tour of the country, a Greek girl’s suicide, a fatal heart attack and a couple of interesting weddings. Lastly, there is a young man who finds where he fits – inside his own skin.

If you are a self-published writer and like to see your book promoted on these pages contact:

Contact Merlene Fawdry mfawdry@bigpond.net.au