I’ve been thinking about the style and genre of popular movie’s and books that are out these days.

Not being one really all that interested in statistics, though I think the statistics on this issue would be really interesting, I’ve not even looked into that side of this topic.

The statistics aside, have you noticed Reader that in a time when, particularly here in Australia, we have no real threat to our existence, we love to read books or watch movie’s that fantasise and sensationalise war, hunger, deprivation? Or take us deep into an alternative reality. I know there are individuals who live in dire circumstances, who’s day to day life is a struggle, but generally, in Australia, we have a pretty easy life. Even the homeless man who has been wandering around Maitland for the last twenty or so years is well nourished, he’s pretty dirty and smells, but he’s not starving.

I once saw a segment on a tv show stating that women of a certain age, I think they meant middle aged, in the mid 1900’s liked to read romance.

and women of the same age bracket, now like to read crime stories.

I’ve been chatting to some young friends, ranging in age from mid teens to mid twenties, and I’ve noticed a real draw to fantasy in the girls, romance of course, cue “Twilight”  and even “The Hunger Games”. As for boys, well boys still love blow ’em up and smash ’em down. But the games they play on play stations and Xbox and whatever other game consoles are out there, are so graphic and violent it amazes me.

We seem to crave a view into a life that’s different from our own, a fantasy world one way or another, an escape from the boring hum drum of our own reality. When I think about it reader, even the book I’m writing is a fictionalised and romanticised telling of life in the new colony of New South Wales. Writing it is an escape from my world of bookkeeping and trucks.

We all like to read stories and watch films about an alternative life or circumstance to how we live and what we know. So I wonder, what does this say about our social and economic situations? Do our reading and viewing choices reflect the contrast with our reality?

Just saying . . .

Hello again, it’s hard to believe we are halfway through April and on the slippery slope into May. Reader the speedily approaching month of May means mayhem for us in the Beavan household. We are going to be flying out for our first overseas jaunt on the 1st and as is always the case around here, it means the MOTT ( Man of the Truck) will most likely slide out of the Freightliner at about midnight of the 30th of April.

Our plane leaves at 7am on the 1st of May, so we need to be driving to Sydney at around 2am. I so love planning things around our transport business. It’s always guaranteed to be close to the wire.

As for my writing, well reader, I’ve done a small amount of editing, but even more exciting, I have come up with a starter for a plot for a second book. How’s that, I’ve barely begun editing the first and my head is running away on a new adventure for Maddy and Daniel.

This came about on Saturday when I went for a short drive, about 2 hours,  with Dave in one of our trucks. We headed out towards Denman via the Golden Highway. We were testing the truck up some steep hills as it had been having a few fuel consumption issues. Dave told me we would go up a particularly long steep hill called “Ogilvies”  as is was a long pull for the truck. Apparently this is a good way to see how the motor was performing? Depending on which gear you use to travel at a particular speed. . .  I guess he knows what he’s talking about! But the point of this is that the name Ogilvie rang a bell. Somewhere in my research I remembered reading the name. Then I remembered, I’d read it in George Wyndham’s journal.

This a portrait of George Wyndham, Hunter River settler and founder of the famous Wyndham Estate Winery, originally called Dalwood Estate and a prominent setting in my novel, “On the River Bank” (working title).

Then I saw a sign reading “Dalswinton” then another “Merton” and these too set my memory bells ringing.

William Ogilvie (above) was an early settler in the Valley and founder of the township of Merton. This gave me an idea for a new adventure that could take Maddy and Daniel further up the Valley, visiting the settler’s and the village of Merton, now called Denman.

I might just have to throw in a bit of mystery and I’m salivating with plots and plans for my newly-weds.

I’ve not done a lot of writing this last week reader, I’ve had all sorts of things happening that just have sucked away my writing energy.

It’s ok though, because I have managed to do a lot of reading and Internet browsing. I’ve been searching for examples of fashion and dress for the good folk of 1832. Can you believe it, everything I’ve read shows lovely pictures of Jane Austin’s Regency period, 1795 – 1830, then there is the Victorian Era, 1837 – 1901.

So reader where does this leave my Maddy in 1832, is she stuck on the river bank with nothing in particular to wear? How can we have a girl dressing herself in a bark hut when the whale bone stays were just on the way back in??

Why does it matter? It matters reader because if Maddy has to dress herself, how does she get herself into her clothes like this without a maid?

And these beauties couldn’t have done this alone.

It seems that the fashion history books kind of just mumble over the exact period that I’ve chosen to use as my story setting.

Above are some of the few pictures I’ve found, and my research has promoted the necessity to rewrite some of my girl’s back story, because I’m pretty sure some assistance would have been required.

And I haven’t even began with the men’s fashion yet . . .

There have been conversations flying about on a Facebook writer’s group “Wordcount Warriors” about Donald Maass, and his thought provoking questions.

1. Why are you writing this novel?

These questions, to a new and unpublished writer are not only thought provoking, but to be entirely truthful reader, they are terrifying.

Who cares about my story? I do, and I know a few wonderful friends who have read my first draft,they care. But in the big wide world, why does this story matter?

Does it really need to be written?

Well reader, I’ll try to give you honest answers to these questions. Answers that will establish my motivation for keeping this story alive.

As I’ve said before, I decided to write a short story set in my local area to kick start my writing again as I had stalled on a YA adventure novel. My research led me on a merry dance and I was soon discovering so much interesting information about the importance of the Hunter River (or Coal River as it was initially called) to the success of the colony. This led to reading about the individuals and the interesting antics that went on. The attitudes of the new colony were a far cry from the social hierarchy they were familiar with and this brought about a new social dynamic.

Imagine being raised with servants and lower classes that barely were worth your consideration, only to move to a land where the same people now were to be considered your equal?   What if you moved to a land where everything was incredibly different to your previous experience, the very land and the weather every bit as much your enemy as the bush-rangers and hostile natives who had been uprooted from their own lands. I began to imagine it, and a story grew from my imaginings.

This is a story that should be told, simply because it’s one that hasn’t ( to my knowledge) been written about in a novel. There are so many accounts of bravery, comedy, heartache and overcoming scattered about.The floods, fires and gunfights with bush-rangers.  I want to bring them all together in a fictionalised story that shares the page with real events and real people.