A New Experience

It's never too late to try new things, and this morning was the first time I have ever been into a radio studio and interviewed.  Ross Davies and I were on Steve Austin's Morning show on 612 ABC in Brisbane to talk about the book 'Three Brilliant Careers'. 
An interesting experience! 
You can listen to the interview Here

The Book is Out!

 

Wow, it's finally happened after all those years of research on my part and writing on my husband Ross Davies part, that his new book Three Brilliant Careers. Nell Malone, Miles Franklin, Kath Ussher has been published by Boolarong Press in Brisbane and is now available.

I share the same name with my great aunt Nell, we are both Helen Frances Malone, and what a role model she would have been when I was young.  Unfortunately I discovered her story only about five years ago, and why my father gave me her name.  What an inspiring and great story it is.


The blurb on the back of the book says

Three Brilliant Careers reveals the previously untold story of celebrated author Miles Franklin and two lifelong Australian friends, Nell Malone and Kath Ussher, who met in Chicago in 1914 and reunited a year later in war torn London.
Despite facing enormous risks, the women subsequently travelled to the Balkans with the Scottish Women's Hospitals and served in frontline medical units attached to the French and Serbian Armies.

After the war, Miles settled in London, Kath in Hollywood and Nell in Paris, but maintained their friendship through regular correspondence.  All three achieved distinction in their chosen fields, although not without encountering significant obstacles in their path.
Bridging four decades across several continents, Three Brilliant Careers follows the remarkable lives of the friends, and explores their crossed destinies to tell an inspirational story of Australia's early feminists.


My son Tristan Davies has made a video book trailer which has been uploaded
to You Tube.



A Book Trailer

A few weeks ago my younger son, Tristan Davies, made a video for Ross's book Middle-Aged Men in Lycra.  Tristan does this for a living.

All involved enjoyed participating and making the video and I got to drive the car from which Tristan filmed the men in action.

A great Christmas present if you've got a cyclist in the family, and Ross has had much positive feedback from women readers who have loved the unfolding story of the men's past and present lives, and the quality of his writing.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jVVpc_NWWw

A First Novel

Middle-Aged Men in Lycra is the first novel written by my husband, Ross Davies.  It has just been published by Boolarong Press here in Queensland.

The blurb on the back of the book says :

“In 1969 the streets of Brisbane are rocked by a violent street demonstration against the Vietnam War. Two teenagers, Griff and Mia, take centre stage in the incident. In the following months, they find themselves positioned on opposite sides of a love triangle that is about to be torn apart following the tragic death of a young soldier in Vietnam.

Fast forward thirty five years and Griff’s life is in crisis after the death of his wife and the subsequent loss of his job. Alienated from everything that once defined his world, he meets up with a disparate group of cycling mates every morning at a cafe in the Southbank Parklands. The antics of the other riders provide a perfect diversion as they try to convince him to join them on a night out to find a new partner. However, he soon discovers that one of his friends, John Kelly, also holds the key to what happened in Vietnam and this ultimately sets Griff off on a quest to find Mia again.

The book reveals an up-close and intimate view of Brisbane’s cafe culture and a cycling fraternity dominated by middle-aged men in lycra. Shifting time frames allow the reader to peer through a window into a turbulent period of our recent past.”

Ross did his first book signing at Dymocks at Carindale in Brisbane last Saturday.

For anyone wanting a signed copy or to have a chat with the author he will also be signing books at the following bookstores.:
Angus and Robertson, Post Office Square, Brisbane City, Friday 5 September, 2014
New Farm Editions, Merthyr Village, New Farm, Saturday 20 September, 2014
Angus and Robertson, Brookside Shopping Centre, Mitchelton, Saturday 18 October, 2014

Copies of Middle-Aged Men in Lycra are also available online from Boolarong Press or on Amazon.

Writing books

Writing books is a very different activity from making artists books, one of the biggest differences being the amount of time it takes to produce the work!  I know this first hand as my husband, Ross Davies, has just finished the first draft of his historical non-fiiction book The Governess, The Writer and The Wren - an untold story about Miles Franklin and two Australian lifelong friends who met in Chicago in 1914 and subsequently joined the Scottish Women's Hospitals in London and served in the Balkans during World War I.  The story follows their lives over the following four decades as they struggled to create their own brilliant careers.

Ross has just started a new blog where he will talk about writing, researching and other relevant topics as well as his other interest, cycling. You can find his first post about an interesting research experience in Paris at http://rossdavieswriteandride.wordpress.com