The role of faith, personal stories and imagination play as starting points in writing puzzles, mysteries and journeys. This was the topic that started a fascinating discussion involving myself and fellow self-published author Karen Nelson during the inaugural About the Book festival in Merimbula.
Experienced facilitator and regional news storyteller Ian Campbell and people in the audience asked lots of great questions. Although Karen and I write very different novels, we are similar in our passion for telling important stories through fiction.
I never miss an opportunity to speak publicly about my love for writing and how I shift between writing fact by day as a media company owner , and fiction by night, as a crime fiction author .
I also never missing an opportunity to talk about missing persons , how more than 38,000 people go missing in Australia every year, which is more than 100 a day. How my books are another way of trying to connect with the broader community to take notice and help foster more understanding and support for missing people, their families and their friends.
I’m always happy to share my tips on self-publishing and how I navigate through the quickly changing book publishing arena. I even managed to get on the microphone during a self-publishing session during the festival, and shared some of my experience and insights in how to get your book ready for publishing.
About the Book Merimbula
About the Book is a festival celebrating all aspects of the book. It embraces all books, old and new, in whatever form they take.
About the Book is about:
– those who author, design and publish them
– those who sell, deal, and distribute them
– those who read, collect and repurpose them
They embrace any style and form of the book: graphic, comic, picture, text, fold out, grimoires or whatever manifestation the book happens to take, in both traditional and new media, embracing and celebrating what has happened in the past, while anticipating the future.
I look forward to seeing this event grow and become a permanent fixture on the Australian book festival tour – watch this space!
- To find out more visit About the Book’s website HERE .