May 1, 2024

Inching forward

Here we are on 1st May and here I am, still going on the book. So much for goals and targets. There are excuses of course, and perfectly valid ones. Life does have a habit of chucking a few curved balls at you and the first quarter of this year certainly decided it was my turn.


So between a state election called 12 months early, due to our Tasmanian premier’s stubborn determination to push ahead with a massively unpopular stadium project that he could so easily have rejected when he took over the reins; having my arm twisted to stand as a support candidate for the Greens in the election; my terminally ill brother choosing his moment to depart this Earth, and then succumbing to COVID for the first time, it’s perhaps not so surprising progress on the book stalled a bit.


They say all these challenges serve to make one stronger. Well, possibly but to be honest after 12 years campaigning to stop the pulp mill, I’m completely over challenges and I remain unconvinced they do actually make one stronger. They certainly make you exhausted. But on the plus side – now all those challenges have been navigated – the Greens did extremely well in the election and my 600+ votes helped tip Cecily Rosol over the line to ensure Bass has a Greens MP once again. Excellent. And even better is that she’s one of five Greens MPs who will be sitting in Parliament House on 14th May.


On the other side of the world my brother left the planet as a result of the dreaded cancer. If anything is now a pandemic I’d suggest it would have to be cancer. In the developed world it’s presence is insidious and there can hardly be a family who hasn’t been touched by it. No, I didn’t go back to the UK for the funeral. It was always the plan to see him when he was still alive and relatively OK, and I did that last year.


So. COVID. Not a nice experience and I still don’t really know where I got it, but if my theory is right it was while helping out at our local market still to raise funds for Windermere Church. Since I was outside on what was a truly beautiful day then it rather explodes the myth about being safe in the open air. Someone breathed on me sideways - but quite probably they didn’t know they harboured germs either so I don’t blame them.


The virus certainly leaves you flattened though but whether it was due to the five vaccinations I had in total, or whether the virus has weakened a bit as it’s mutated, I certainly wasn’t laid low for as long as some people. Thank goodness. Not an illness I’m anxious to have again but in a way it’s a relief to have had it. Hopefully it’s given me some immunity for the next round of infections.



But all these things didn’t help progress on the book. Reckon I’m now about three quarters finished so the next goal is to have the final draft completed by end of May. Better get cracking.

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Attracting the interest of a publisher for this story of a community’s campaign to stop what would have been ‘the world’s fourth largest pulp mill’ being built was never going to be easy, but hoping the first of two 3-minute Literary Speed Dating pitch sessions will prompt at least one of the two publishers to request the full MSS. And preferably both of them. These twice-yearly Perfect Pitch sessions are offered to members of the Australian Society of Authors, and this is the first time I’ve taken advantage of them – mainly because of the need to have a completed MSS before doing so. Three minutes isn’t long to excite the interest of a publisher who is after stories in very specific genres, and who therefore needs to believe your MSS is worth investing the time needed to read it in full. I’m pretty certain I’ve excited the necessary interest, but given Jane will hear the pitches of many more optimistic and talented writers after my morning session today, there are no guarantees. That initial interest might well wane as the day goes on if other writers have written stories that sound far more intriguing – and marketable. One can never forget that aspect of publishing these days: will the book sell. I believe my story will – certainly in Tasmania it definitely will – but a wider Australian readership? That’s an unknown even if my mentor is convinced of the story’s universal appeal.  I’d certainly like to think I’ve caught the zeitgeist wave given the current widespread community unrest over AI data centres, that’s already prompting similar serious opposition, and for many of the same reasons the Tamar Valley’s community opposed the pulp mill. Environmental degradation, threats to public health, water usage – and water shortages in an era of escalating climate extremes – and the constant, relentless noise factor that’s associated with data centres, and AI data centres in particular. I’m crossing my fingers that the second pitch session will be equally positive, and that I could strike it lucky with both publishers requesting to see the full MSS. But I won’t get ahead of myself. I’ll just be keeping all fingers and toes firmly crossed for the next seven days.

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