These days, Christmas always seems to arrive well before I expect it! I can’t work out if its the busy nature of life causing days to zoom past and suddenly December is here, or if it’s just a factor of growing older: the concept of time seeming to pass nore quickly with age. I sense it’s probably a combination of both of those, and perhaps many other things too. But I still remember as a child that from one Christmas day to the next became my definition of ‘eternity’. Now, the terminology which fits best for me is ‘Christmas Day: the day before yesterday’.

All of that to one side, I trust your Christmas and new year are precious times with family and friends, my thanks for your on-going support over this year, and hope 2018 is fruitful and enjoyable for you and all those you care about.

2017/18 News

It’s been a good year in terms of promoting the published novels and their sales as paperbacks, audio-books and e books, promotions of the short stories and writing the next epistle.

Promotion and sales of the published novels have gone well over the year. We have undertaken many presentations to various organisations and clubs and are preparing an agenda for 2018 as I write. We have appreciated the welcome received in everywhere, the interest in the novels and our thanks for both of those.

All three published novels are now completed as audio-books and we have appreciated the efforts and support of the staff and volunteers at VisAbility WA, in particular Dinesh and Susie. If anyone would like to order any of the versions, including e-books, go to www.aussieyarns.com for directions or contact us on dave@aussieyarns.com and we will respond post haste. Current prices for paperbacks and audio-books are $25.00 for a one copy, $45.00 for two and $60.00 for three. If e-books are of interest, they can be purchased on Amazon.

In terms of new work, I am reaching a final first draft of ‘Life Sentence’. I will have that story reviewed over the next few weeks and from the feedback, decide if it’s ready to publish or whether changes are needed to make it more enticing and appealing. There have been several issues in developing the novel, which for me arise from presenting the content as a mix of historical fact and pure fiction. I will talk about those issues more in Life Sentence 5 after Christmas (on the website under the heading Novels.)

Capital Radio 101.7 continues to present my short stories once a month, and I think Tony and the crew for their on-going interest and support. It has been a worthwhile process according to the feedback as some themes about relationships between cultures seem to have had an effect.

In terms of the future, I am currently negotiating with Vision Australia radio to present the short stories and, possibly, a serialised version of one or more of the audio-books. The one most likely to be aired is “Hiding Place”. It is also possible that the negotiations could lead to chance of national airplay which would be very powerful. We will see what happens.

Again, all the best for Christmas and the new year from Karen, Andrew, Paul and myself and look forward to catching up again 2018.