Anzac Day and Anzac research

 Such a long time between posts but I have been super busy, writing wise.

A long held desire to write an Anzac story- a verse novel- has been achieved in its draft form.  The absolute thrill was to follow along my own grandfather's Anzac journey.  a grandfather I never knew.

The research was exhaustive until I found an out of print edition of 'My Corps Calvary' A history of the 13th Australian Light Horse regiment 1915-1918.'  And so began an eight month journey through Trove many text books, personal letters until I began a way into my novel.

And here is my grandfather H.W Chambers 141 MM

It was exhausting reacting to photographs, accounts, letters, understanding the world war and also its consequences down to me, a grand daughter.

But I pay homage to the men who willingly enlisted for mother country, to see the world, to show their mettle, to develop mate ship and I also pay homage to the families left behind and who latter dealt with death and the damaged men who came home.  I now have a much better understanding of the war, but there is so much more to be explored.  But for now,  I begin the edits and have acknowledged all my sources and where facts could not be found I put myself into my characters' shoes, in this case Irene a 12 year old and put her on a 1914 farm in central Victoria.   The verse novels uses three voices- that was a juggling act to keep each voice distinct- but enabled me to cover a depth of the war through home, overseas and community views.  

Writing Residency- May Gibbs Literature Trust

The month has come and gone.  Writing flourished.  Several projects were completed to first draft.
Others, a new peek at a long awaited fragment- was it interesting enough to push on into a picture book text or a novel?

New poems were written.  And last week I began submitting some of the finished work.  What a great feeling after a year of treatment where I could hardly handwrite let alone hold a book to read.

(Foyer interior or Hotel Rothsbury on Ann street- the location of my residency.)

It was a wonderful healthy feeling to know that I STILL wanted to write and STILL had the passion to write.

Now awaiting fruits of that labour and also trying to plot out a schedule to get bigger novels finished.  I have a much keener affinity with time and jobs to complete.

So it's a 'Finish' word for this year...

I've seen a few blog posts at the start of the New Year all about focusing on one word and for me when I reviewed where I am with my writing and other creative passions, I realised that my word is to 'Finish'.  To actually cross that finishing line and say I completed that story, that sewing project, pushed that idea to its final conclusion...

So the tally so far is an historical novel completed and yesterday submitted to my publisher, working on a fantasy novel I started um... three or four years ago, but this is a hard slog.  As a poet my work is mainly short and succinct, so turning to a work that requires 30,000 and 40,000 words is a major test.
Wish me well.

As well my first Aussie Nibble has been translated into Chinese and I am beginning the publicity for my new book.

Here is a link to a post I wrote about the back story to 'Celebrating Australia, a year in poetry.'
Always good to reflect on the journey and know that through many twists, turns, roadworks and detours a finish line is acheivable.