To hire my services as a speaker/trainer, contact: 02 4782 1620.
Private lessons can also be arranged.
To hire me as a writer, contact (
). I work for an upfront payment
plus – where appropriate – a (small) percentage. Never for just
a percentage.
I am a freelance writer, a hired gun. Apart from seven years of employment
in publishing houses and four years as a school teacher, it is how I have spent
most of my working life – since quitting teaching in 1978.
Commercially speaking, the South Side Story book is the highlight of 2008.But it isn’t the only highlight. I have enjoyed myself writing lots of short episodes about my life and experiences which I will hopefully feed onto this website.
The idea came after seeing Robert Wolfgramm’s site (see www.robertwolfgramm.com) combined with the enjoyment of writing the Bookplate stories in the present continuous tense.
I feel I have lots to be grateful about, in my chosen career of writing.
Grateful, because I get to work on fantastic projects – like Mythbusters, South Side Story, Tom O’Toole’s books and I get to meet really interesting people, including Tiny Tim’s cousin Hal, – which is a helluva lot of fun!
However I still feeldisappointed that my best material, about Tiny Tim and Martin Sharp,remainsunpublished, and despite quite a lot of interest, I simply can’t clinch a deal. Yet I have been working on both these subjects since 1982, and I am happy enough just to be writing about them that maybe that is the reward, Maybe I’ll just put the material on my website, and maybe that will be the outcome.
To borrow an expression from Tom (O’Toole) an ‘attitude of gratitude’ is best, so I look back on my life with wonder – astonished that I have lived a good life as a writer with time enough to pursue my personal interests (Tiny/Martin/my own stories) while avoiding the rat-race, keeping-up-with-the-Joneses, and all that crap.
So apart from world politics, it’s been a good life.
Please borrow my books from your local library – I recommend The Method and The Business Method, if you are interested in becoming a writer yourself. My favourite is ‘1967’ – and of course, It’s go, go, go with Mythbusters and Souths which have been an excellent – fun – jobs for me!
My best sellers are two ghostwritten titles, one sold 45,000 and the other 25,000 and still selling. Another top seller has been my ‘Letters’ book, which has been in print since 1989. And Taylor’s Troubles, which was on the NSW Recommended Reading List for school students and is currently being read by student teachers.
The Australian Handbook of Busines Letters, has never been out
of print since it was first published in 1989. With five different covers,
it will soon have its sixth.
Breadwinner II is the book I co-authored with Tom
O’Toole.
In the same league as Tom is Joe Sammon’s book My Dad Thinks
I Rob Banks.
I must add that I immensely enjoyed writing Guilty
To Driza-Bone, the story of Frank and Pat Fisher, ‘Mr & Mrs
Driza-Bone’
These are perennials, because – apart from everything else, like friendship,
etc – it’s always good to play a part in a successful book.
As writing is not only my job, but also my hobby, I have had a parallel creative
life, which sometimes became idiosyncratic, as it was never answerable to economic
considerations. The ‘business writing’ papered over these excursions
into my other interests.
I have always had an interest in music.
Though it is probably difficult to identify what I ‘did’ other
than pen the words, I have had a deep musical relationship with Robert
Wolfgramm and Allan Broadhurst, and also Mick Reid and Carrl Myriad.
I am also proud to have witnessed the Wolfgramm Sisters, Jason Whalley and Dave Jensen, at the start of their musical careers.
I have ghost-written some 55 books and co-authored 10. Most people don’t
understand the difference between the two terms, and I don’t know their
Dictionary meaning either. But as I live with them, I have my own definitions.
First of all, when I co-author a book, I have my name on the cover, which
means - for whatever reason – I am proud of the book.
However, there a two reasons for the guise of ghost-writing:
1. To make the other person a star – because this person conducts public
talks, etc, and has a profile, and,
2. Because the book is so horrible that I can’t bear
to admit I played my part it. It’s got a title like How To Dodge Tax
or How To Make $Zillions Trading Future Commodities. I have written heaps of
these, including articles
on religious views I didn’t believe in, business ethics that I despised,
cheat papers for university students. Hey, a ghost-writer on the open
market gets to hear lots of stories – investment advisers snorting cocaine
before opening the door to an elderly couple looking to invest their lifetime
funds, a franchisor wanting to gun down – yes, shoot – his franchisees,
etc.
Meanwhile, and because I was meeting such interesting people. I decided to ‘record’ whatever
was going on at the time. All it meant was switching on a tape recorder. I
never checked ‘sound levels’, I never tried to be professional:
I tried to be historical.
As for my intentions, I suppose I am trying to make a living as a writer,
primarily. I certainly have no ambition to write a Miles Franklin Award winning
novel, though I would like to write a definitive biography – about? I
don’t know whom.
As far as Tiny Tim and Martin Sharp are concerned, I am only interested in
writing their hagiography.
When I told them that I was going to create a website, my friends were keen
to offer advice. Even those – like Tom O’Toole - who withheld opinionating
on major sociological, political and theological issues, had something to say
about my Internet site. And I have followed their advice.
Robert Wolfgramm (robert.wolfgramm@gmail.com) said that I should put everything
up. ‘That’s what the Internet is for!’ And, he said, that
I should deal with every issue no matter how disparate or oddball it may seem.
Allan Broadhurst (albroad@westnet.com.au) insisted that – apart from
The Wilts - under no circumstances should I tell anyone that I have recorded
my singing, as well as songs to which I wrote the music.
Although Carrl Myriad (http://members.ozemail.com.au/~carrlmyriad)
approved of my meticulous listing of all my interviews (including those with
him and
fellow Ragged Band member, Tony Jones), he has reserved comment
on my recordings of him, other than to suggest that I cease using the cassette
player – which
records at uneven speed - and use the mini-disk player instead.
However, after this huge and comprehensive experience, of putting all my stuff
on the Web, my only whimsical regret is that most people don’t like that
same stuff as I do. But that’s okay. I’m happy for you to find
whatever is for you in this Website. Take what you need and leave the rest.
Personally speaking, the whole exercise has been an extraordinary experience,
given that I have had to face all my ‘babies’, all at the one time,
and having denied so many of them in the past when it did not suit the company
I was keeping.
But the experience mostly did me good – having to relive all those past
lives and make sense of them is something I might not have done without the
Net.
