Monday, June 28, 2010

Author! Author!

I'm always nervous before an appearance. Will anyone come? How will it go? Yesterday's event at Petrarch's Book Shop in Launceston went very well indeed. Peter and his staff had set the shop up beautifully, and friends travelled long distances from all over the state to be there with us.

As usual at these events I heard sad and remarkable stories. One man bought a copy for the widow of his heart donor as her mother has Alzheimer's. Someone brought along a well- thumbed copy for a friend who couldn't get away as she was caring for her mother who has Alzheimer's. And my blogging friend kittykatmandoo's mother came along on her behalf.


With my Launceston book signing behind me, my next appearance will be in Cooroy, Queensland at the Reality Bites Festival.

Here is what the organisers have to say about the festival:

Discover your reality in the words of some of Australia’s sharpest minds and gifted storytellers. Experience the diversity of issues and ideas currently shaping our world. Enjoy a feast of food for thought during two consecutive weekends of literary events; book readings, panel discussions, in-conversation interviews and workshops, presented by a range of authors, journalists and film-makers.

I'm really excited for this one. I will be on two panels, both taking place during the festival's first weekend. The first one will be:

SATURDAY 24 JULY

2:00pm – 3:00 pm PANEL: Grief, Loss and Recovery

Speakers: Dr Paul Valent, Vivienne Ulman Chair: Annette Hughes Venue: Butter Factory Arts Centre


Paul Valent is a psychiatrist who has specialised in treating victims of trauma. His book, In Two Minds, draws on his almost four decades of working with patients, as well as his own experience as a child survivor of the Holocaust. It's a remarkable book, easy to read and full of fascinating stories, but also thought provoking. What impressed me most about it was the author's humility, and his preparedness to expose his uncertainties and his personal trauma, as well as his undoubted successes. I'm thrilled to be sharing the stage with Dr Valent. I think this should be a fascinating discussion.



My second panel will be:

SUNDAY 25 JULY

10:30 am – 11:30 am

In Conversation: Absent Parents

Speakers: Vivienne Ulman with David Carlin. Chair: Steven Lang

Venue: Butter Factory Arts Centre


I've never read anything quite like David Carlin's Our Father Who Wasn't There. The book, which follows the author's search for details of the father who killed himself when David was a baby, is memoir, detective story, family history and fantasy, all woven together in a beautifully written package. I shared a session with David at the Sydney Writers' Festival and enjoyed it immensely, as did the audience. This is a session that I know will be moving, stimulating and entertaining.

I'll only be in Queensland for a little over 24 hours but I'm so looking forward to being part of this festival and also to the brief respite from the cold.

Sunday, June 27, 2010

Ice in the Birdbath

Pretty cold here overnight and early this morning. The temperature plummeted to a low of -4.3 degrees.


We still managed to eat breakfast out on the kitchen deck. One of the joys of a north facing house.

Not so sure about the birds though.

Thursday, June 24, 2010

Book Signing

Next Sunday afternoon I will be at Petrarch's Bookshop in Launceston from 2pm for a book signing and discussion event. If you're in the neighbourhood come along. I'd love to meet you and answer any questions you may have. I love discussing my book and issues that arise from it with readers. It makes all those lonely hours at my keyboard worthwhile.


To sweeten the event I will be bringing along a batch of my famous home-baked Launch Cookies.

INVITATION

PETRARCH’S BOOKSHOP

ON BEHALF OF

VIVIENNE ULMAN

INVITES YOU TO JOIN HER

WHEN SHE WILL BE SIGNING AND

DISCUSSING HER NEW BOOK...

“ALZHEIMER’S: A LOVE STORY”

IN THIS INSPIRING STORY VIVIENNE RECORDS

HER MOTHERS ALZEIMERS, HER OWN GRIEF AND

THE WAY HER PARENTS’ ENDURING LOVE SUSTAINED THEM.

OUTSTANDING IS HER PORTRAIT OF HER FATHER. THE STORY OF THIS WONDROUSLY GOOD MAN WILL INSPIRE AND HUMBLE READERS” – RAIMOND GAITA

WE LOOK FORWARD TO YOU JOINING US AT PETRARCH’S AT

2:00p.m. SUNDAY 27th JUNE.






Phone: (03) 6331 8088 Fax: (03) 6331 5163

89 Brisbane StreetLaunceston Tasmania 7250


Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Winter Solstice


Today's the shortest day of the year, which is cause for celebration at Onemilebridge. Now the days will gradually grow longer, and the longer the day the more chance we have of absorbing enough solar energy to run our house. We've run the generator a few times already.

I haven't posted on my blog for ages because I've been writing. That's right, I've been too busy writing to write. I've moved back into the novel I completed before I started my memoir. This is actually the third draft and it's definitely improved in this version I think. In the last draft I dispensed with the first five or so chapters and started later in the action. This time around I've kept that structure. It's meant feeding in a lot of earlier events as flashbacks, and that calls for a delicate touch. I have to take care not to overload the story and not to introduce the flashbacks in a clunky fashion. It's hard work and takes a lot of concentration.

As well as that, in this draft I'm telling the story from the first person point of view. I thought I'd try it and then if it didn't work I'd revert back to third person, but in the meantime I'd have learned a lot about my character. As soon as I made the change the novel sprang to life, as though Charlotte, my heroine, had been patiently waiting for me to come and rescue her.

I'm not sure how far I'll get and even if this is the final draft, but I'm obsessed with it for now and that's a lovely feeling. I love it when my writing takes over my life - demanding time and brain room.

Nevertheless life goes on around the farm and there is always work to do there too. One of the first lessons I learned when I moved to the country was that when a tree falls it will always fall across the nearest fence.


After the recent wild weather we went searching for trees that had come down. Fortunately the driveway was clear but we found a tree had landed on the fence between a patch of bush on our land and the holding paddock. Farmdoc has taken his chainsaw in to be sharpened before he begins the repair job.



And this week we begin daily feeding out of hay to the stock. In one paddock we're experimenting with round bales that we buy from our neighbour. Each round bale is the equivalent of 15 square bales and if it works this approach will mean less hay carting in summer and less feeding out in winter.



The trouble is that goats are greedy, and rough feeders too, and so far it looks like they can eat their way through a round bale in ten days, leaving a lot of wasted hay, trampled and excreted on, in their wake. Looks like the easy way out might not work. Pity.