On the road once again, and this time we're in Melbourne for a series of functions, the first of them a reunion lunch for about a dozen old friends from my Matric (Year 12) 1955 school class. Worth celebrating, because this is our sixtieth anniversary, and that's quite a span of time.
For those interested, Flowers & Forebears is now in print again, and available from the online order page on this web site. So too is the latest book, a slim volume in the Picaro Poets series now being published by Ginninderra Press. It's called Indochina Days and is the 'poem a day' record of our recent travels in Vietnam and Cambodia, new territory for both of us. We travelled from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh city, then spent a week meandering by boat up the Mekong to Siem Riep, where the past glories of Angkor Wat were something I have always wanted to see. And not disappointed! This was, of course, the year we were definitely not travelling overseas ... somehow that wasn't kept to.
It's always interesting to be a guest speaker - so many diverse groups from different organisations. But one of the pleasantest audiences I've had lately was last Saturday at the South Australian branch of ACLA (Australian Church Librarians Association) - a lovely group who were really interested in books and writing.
As always, the two basic questions were a) Where do you get your ideas from? and b) how long did it take you to write the book?
So I focused on the first question, and explored the origins of each of my six books, and tried to identify the sources that fed into each of these. A bit of a trip down memory lane, in fact, but also a useful reminder to me just what had been the background material that had generated each of these very different books. It was interesting, also, to realise the importance of travel in my writing, especially as my seventh book is due for release sometime in the next weeks. It's a small Picaro Press chapbook, one in a series which is now being produced by Ginninderra Press, and it will be in a similar format to my fifth book, Flowers & Forebears, which is currently out of print but should be available again very shortly.
The new book, Indochina Days, is a collection of poems, all of them written during our August/September tour of Vietnam and Cambodia. There I followed my usual practice of writing a poem each day, a wonderful way of fixing travel experiences in one's mind. It's all very well to keep a detailed journal, as I do, but the focus provided by writing the 'poem a day' is even more valuable, and a great memory-trigger. So it's these poems that will be published as Indochina Days, and it will be available, like all my other books, for purchase through the final (order) page of this web site. I've checked the draft copy, so it shouldn't be too long before it's available. After that, what next? Who knows? I don't ... yet.
And more months have slipped away ... No wonder! It's been so busy. Right now I'm in Brisbane, staying at my son Nick's home, and the weather is the typical Queensland "Beautiful today, perfect ..." - you all know the rest. But it's true.
I've been here not only for family catch-up, but mainly as a delegate to the three-yearly Synod of the Lutheran Church - an intense week of meetings, dialogues, debates which were strenuous, perturbing, disappointing, but ultimately hopeful for the future. Bis issue, of course, the ordination of women. So close a vote: about 64% in favour, but not quite the mandatory two-thirds. Just another 13 votes need from a group of 423 delegates!! Next time round, surely!
But another big part of this trip for me was a Queensland launch of Bystanders during Synod, which was a lovely experience. Almost 150 people came to the launch, with its great wines (donated by a most generous group of Barossa Valley winemakers, a group that does a lot of combined things under their title of 'Lutheran Winemakers - and, believe me, I'm grateful to them.) We'd carried the wines on the four day drive from Adelaide to Brisbane without any misadventure, as well as books, etc etc. A long slow but very pleasant trip. Stephen Rudolph, National Director of Lutheran Education Australia launched the book again at this event with lovely commendations, and sales have been good throughout the week.
Also on the Bystanders front, I was delighted by the wonderful review by Peter Pierce that appeared first in the Sydney Morning Herald, then the Canberra Times. I've been told it was also in the Melbourne Age, so am zealously hunting it there.
But, almost pack-up time here, and tomorrow we start the trek south again. However, it's OK - I hear the weather there is just as good!