Hi and letting you know that the reading of the Aussie Yarns story on 101.7 Capital Radio will be this Saturday, 17th December. Tony and Dale have combined the reading by Paul Goddard with interviews Will Yeoman (Literary Editor of ‘The West’) and a separate one with Sarah McNeill (Arts & Features Editor of “The Post Newspapers”). The ‘story’ on this time is about me and the background to Turn on a Light: where it came from, how it evolved and why. If you’d like a literary morning, tune in.

All the best for the Festive Season, thanks for the support, and stay well and happy.

Hi and trust all is well with everyone. We have a short story appearing next Saturday (3rd December) on Capital Radio 101.7 around 11.00 am on the Capital Events Show with Tony Howes and Dale James.

We’re also offering special prices leading up to Christmas on my three novels, particularly if all three are purchased. As those who’ve read them know, they offer a different view on race relations, reconciliation and shared responsibility in Australia . Apart from enlightening some Australian to some of our history, feedback from those from other nations is that they find them entertaining and instructive. Feel free to let other people know about this offer.

Purchase prices until December 24th are as follows (provided orders are placed as instructed below):

1. Purchase of any novel: $25.00 (15% off RRP)
2. Purchase of any two novels: $45.00 (25% off RRP)
3. Purchase of all three novels: $60.00 (33% off RRP)

(NB: A postage fee of $8.00 for one novel or $14.00 for two or three novels will apply unless other arrangements are made.)

If you prefer a copy of “The WILUNA Solution” as an audio-book rather than as a hard copy, just request when ordering.

To order, follow the instructions below:

1. Email dave@aussieyarns.com with your desired order and titles
2. State if the preferred copy of The WILUNA Solution is an Audio-Book
3. Give your address for postage or state if you wish to collect. If it’s the latter, between us, we’ll arrange a date and time.
4. We’ll forward an invoice for tax purposes and payment methods, and on receipt of payment, will confirm forwarding arrangements.

And finally, the first draft of novel number four, “Life Sentence” is nearing completion. It excites me as a story, particularly following Elaine fry’s lovely review of “Turn on a Light” in the West Australian. The new novel, more than any of the others, embodies her comment about my novels each being “an extension of reality”. It’s starting point in 1900 on Rottnest, an escape to the mainland in wild weather, an overland journey to the Pilbara, and the search for evidence to overturn the wrongful continued internment of an old Aboriginal man. Each of areas is based on historical detail and reality and has involved a lot of research. This includes the modes of arrest and sentencing of Aboriginal people in the last four decades of the 19th Century, their internment processes, the politics of government and the penal system, and the development of towns and the pastoral industry in the north of Western Australia in the same era.  I am now at the point of finalising the draft and getting ready to do the first sharing and revamp of the document. I hope to have it ready during 2017 for publication.

All the best for Christmas to you and your loved ones, thanks for your interest and support over the last three years in terms of my efforts in writing fiction, and all the best for 2017.

Hi and just to let you know where things are up to.

AUDIO BOOKS

One item for this month has been the release of my second novel, “The WILUNA Solution” as an Audio Book. It’s available through me on the website or, if you to, contact me using Facebook or else using dave@aussieyarns.com to ask about it. I also understand that a version of “Hiding Place” is close to being produced as well.

SELF-PUBLISHING

I’ve completed the sections I wanted to put up about Self-Publishing. I don’t pretend to be an expert but maybe I’ll say something that will help people if they want to go down the self-publishing line.

At the start of each section, I use this introduction:

I’ve put up a second update on how this novel is progressing. It’s under the heading of NOVELS on the website and I am enjoying the process immensely. I say why in the update,

In addition, several more stories are up for reading under SHORT STORIES, and 101.7 presents another reading by Paul this coming Saturday, 29th October.

Trust you are all well.

Just putting up a copy of the review from the West Australian last week so it’s on-line.

Thanks to Elaine Fry and Will Yeoman from the paper for their interest in local authors and self-publishing.

Much appreciated.

I’ve decided to post my section of the review that Elaine Fry did on Turn on a Light. There were seven other authors and books mentioned so if you want to check the whole review out, go to the West Australian for Tuesday 11th October.

I am particularly interested in the comment at the end of this section of the review which states that my fiction “embodies the possibility of being an ‘extension of reality'”. My research to date hasn’t led me to categories or types of writing that fit that definition. If you have any ideas, feel free to let me know via the website or else at dave@aussieyarns.com

Hi and two things

For those who missed it in The West Australian, below is a review of “Turn on a Light”. Elaine Fry commented on eight Western Australian novels, including the work of Linda Moore whom I know well and whose work and support I appreciate. Have a look at all eight by going to  today’s edition: Tuesday 11th October 2016, THE WEST AUSTRALIAN today 10

I offered the review Elaine did for me in full below. I thank her for the summary and also acknowledge the support of Will Yeoman of The West.

Authenticity a local highlight

Elaine Fry

Writing about places that are well known to the author produces novels that feel authentic. The following titles from Western Australian writers attest to their genuine connection to their stories.

Dave Goddard’s third and latest novel, Turn on a Light, (Piccadilly, ebook $11.00) is set in a small Aboriginal community outside Kalgoorlie, where children are inexplicably dying. Seeking to find the reasons why embroils a teacher, newly posted there, in a murky political storm.

A gifted writer with a conscience, Goddard’s writings reflect his experience working in the outback and his genuine appreciation of Aboriginal culture. His fiction embodies the possibility of being “an extension of reality”.

We also collected copies of The WILUNA Solution yesterday in audio book form. It’s in DAISY MP3 format, and we are now waiting for a few CD versions to be forwarded. It’s fascinating to sit and hear the interpretation of someone reading it: the different nuances and emphases placed on different lines and characters. A wonderful experience.

Our thanks to Dinesh Burah and Susie Punch of VisAbility for all their work, Elwyn Edwards as the reader of the story and Jane Gibbs for her support of Elwyn. We are delighted with it as a product, and understand that Hiding Place is now in production.

We will let you know the prices of the different formats of the novel shortly.

More accurately, it’s a busy end to September.

First, there’s a new short story being presented on 101.7 this Saturday (24th September). The show, Capital Events, runs from 10.00 am to noon. The story is called “That Schooling Thing” and anybody who’s interested in getting Aboriginal kids to attend school more regularly, (or wants to know some reasons why they don’t attend), may find it interesting. It doesn’t present traditional western ideas of what would improve attendance. The rationale is very different, so tune in if you have time. And as an added bonus, one of Paul’s tunes, composed and played by him, with Suzanne Barton’s wonderful voice accompanying him, will be played half-way through the story. For those who miss hearing the radio version, the audio version is on my website www.aussieyarns.com

Next week, we’ll be in the North and Central Midlands. Our schedule is as follows:

• Tuesday, 27th Sept: Mingenew CRC, 10.30 am to noon
• Tuesday, 27th Sept: Morowa CRC, 2.00 pm to 3.30 pm
• Wednesday, 28th Sept: Dongara Library, 2.00 to 3.30 pm
• Thursday, 29th Sept: Coroow: Everlasting Room, Town Hall, 1.30 pm to 3.00 pm
• Thursday, 29th Sept: Moora CRC, 6.30 pm to 8.00 pm
• Friday, 30th Sept: Gingin CRC, 10.30 am to noon

If you know people in those towns whom you think might be interested, tell them to check the library or the local CRC for more details. Either morning or afternoon tea or wine and cheese for the evening show will be provided. Alternatively, tell them details are on www.aussieyarns.com on the latest blog.

And this is let you know I have now put up the first three item in the self-publishing agenda:

• Introduction
• Concept
• Form

If it’s of interest, feel free to ask questions using the website contact or emailing me at dave@aussieyarns.com when you get a chance.

Hi. This is just let interested people know that I have put up the first item in the self-publishing agenda. I hope it is of use. Feel free to ask questions using the website or emailing me as dave@aussieyarns.com.

Hi and I’m carrying out a promise to put up some of my ideas about self-publishing.

There are eight topics that I think may be of interest. I’ll try and put up on a fortnightly basis.

I chose not to put them up a blogs because I want to keep them together. The first one can be found at www.aussieyarns.com under the heading NOVELS, then down to SELF-PUBLISHING and finally across to SELF-PUBLISHING 1: INTRODUCTION

I hope they’re of interests and assist anyone who wants to go down the self-publishing road.

Like everyone in Western Australia, I saw the news of riots in Kalgoorlie following the death of the young Aboriginal boy. Any loss of life is sad: both the act and the intended and unintended consequences for all families and friends involved. But today, also, I had  several contacts regarding my 2013 novel, Hiding Place. Set in Alice Spring in the year 2017, the novel depicts a race riot in the town and the imposition of martial law, which has never happened in Federated Australia. Each of the contacts were interested in knowing what made me create the situation in Alice Springs: what insight made me predict the likelihood of conflict between races causing the imposition of martial law.

My answer to them was that it lay in work I’ve been doing for nearly three decades, and more so, in work I did from 2005 in the Northern Territory, in the Pilbara, the Western Australian Goldfields and the South-West of WA and in Queensland. In that work, I felt a growing undercurrent of frustration and anger between Aboriginal people, who felt a strong sense of dislocation, disadvantage, dependence, dysfunction and premature death, and non-Aboriginal people who feel a strong sense of being blamed for the past and being the victims of continual criminal acts such as breaking and entering and stealing property.

I’m not going into who is most at fault or why. I only know that unless things are dealt with in ways that do not involve violence and conflict, we WILL face the imposition of martial law. That’s why I’m troubled: because we need to find another way to resolve what’s happening.

And let me conclude with a quote from Margo St Quintin, who reviewed Hiding Place for an on-line organisation.

Compassion and clear insight, without sugar coating, is what makes this such a relevant story and a welcome change from the norm. Even as tensions build towards a violent climax, the book doesn’t offer any easy answers or convenient scapegoats: there are no ‘goodies’ or ‘baddies’ here.