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Writing Serendipity?

28/2/2016

Above: Mail by camel transport - Charleville & district. Source: NAA, Item: 3296500. Below: Early mail coach PMG possibly Charleville. Source: NAA Item: 1650785. Bottom: Earliest known motor mail in Queensland, Isisford to Ilfracombe, 1910. Source: NAA Item: 3025042.

Ever written something which later you found out was absolutely spot on, but you didn't know it at the time?
I've had this happen a couple of times when writing my historical stories.
The first occurrence happened when I wrote All Quiet on the Western Plains - about a place I had never visited - although I had read extensively about western Queensland and poured over historical photographs.
A month after the novella was published, I travelled to western Queensland for the first time, visiting Blackall, Barcaldine, Aramac, Isisford, Longreach and places in between.
The country was as amazing as I thought it would be and my description of it had been accurate. What a fluke, I thought.
When I came to write the sequel, Journey's End on the Western Plains, also set in 1924, I started the story with the hero,hitching a ride in the mailman's truck.
At the end of the story he applies for the mail run contract and gets the job.
As a writer, I thought it was the perfect solution for my characters and story. Mail contractor was the perfect job for the hero as it allowed him to live in the mythical town of "Idavale" and regularly visit his family's property at the other end of the mail run.
At the time I thought, oh yeah, he'll have the same chance as anyone else. He's a good bush mechanic, he'll be able to fix any breakdowns.
Recently I attended a talk about early mail services in Queensland in the 19th and 20th centuries, held by the National Archives of Australia in Brisbane.
The NAA have over 1000 photographs relating to Cobb & Co mail coaches, mail men, their horses and trucks and post offices in the collection, plus numerous written records.
What astonished me was the discovery that, after World War I, the Australian Government awarded mail contracts on a preferential basis to returned servicemen - like my hero.
I was gobsmacked by this discovery.
I had got his ideal job so right.
Here was proof that my character would have been awarded that contract - as long as no other returned serviceman had applied at the same time!
As far as I'm concerned, serendipity* in research and writing is a real phenomenon.
Have you had similar experiences?

To search the National Archives of Australia site for records see: http://www.naa.gov.au/collection/search/
*Serendipity: a happy chance, a happy accident.

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Suffragette - the movie

20/2/2016

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Suffragette is the movie every woman in the world should see and that every school should include in its curriculum.
Suffragette shines a light on not only women's struggle for the vote, but also their working and social conditions; and the oppression women endured not just in the early twentieth century, but in every century before that.
For me, the most confronting frames, in a film with many disturbing scenes, were the last roll-through list showing the years in which women gained the vote in countries around the world. Read the list and weep - for all those women who waited, and those who still wait - to be considered as human beings deserving the right to vote and help determine their future.

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Happy Valentine’s Day in 1888

15/2/2016

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Today, Valentine’s Day is a popular and highly commercialised celebration.

However, in 1888, Valentine’s Day in Australia was regarded by one colonial journalist as declining in popularity, although he provided no explanation as to why.

“This day is by no means so generally observed as it used to be. Even the custom of sending those highly sentimental missives called valentines appears in a great measure to be falling into disuse.

A few years ago the 14th of February occupied a much more prominent position in the calendar than it does as present.

The manufacturers of this description of stationery began their preparation for the next festival soon after the last was past. Hundreds of women and girls found occupation in the construction of these dainty trifles, their fingers being found specially skilful in putting together the different parts of which they are composed. A heart from this box, a cupid from that, a wreath, some lace-edge paper and a scrap of tulle – this last to soften the effect and perhaps suggest wedding veils – a few paper springs to make the
figures or flowers stand out, and then a daub of gum here and there, and with a few deft touches the valentine is competed, lightness of touch and rapidity of construction being essential to produce a fresh appearance.

For weeks before the day itself the shop windows are crowded with them, valentines of every sort, size or description, pretty ones, ugly ones, expensive ones, cheap ones, valentines for the upper ten, valentines for the million, valentines for everyone to choose from as they will.

And choose they did; the shop counters were besieged with eager buyers some wanting one kind, some another….

And when the eventful day arrived what an important man the postman became, how he was watched for …”*

The death knell was rung too soon and I'm not sorry he was wrong. I love to receive Valentine’s cards and gifts. I hope your day is happy and brings you all the tokens love that you desire!

Source: *South Australian Register, 14 Feb 1888, p. 6.

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99c - All Quiet on the Western Plains

5/2/2016

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Part 1 of my Western Plains series is now 99c US.

All Quiet on the Western Plains tells the story of Jack Edgarson overcoming his wartime trauma and finding love with heart-sore British nurse Fleur Armitage, after his return to western Queensland from World War I.

The story continues in its sequel, Journey's End on the Western Plains , which is also set in outback Idavale.
In All Quiet, you met Jack's army mate, Bill Carter, who hasn't been able to settle down to any job or return to his family home since he came home from the war. Then he meets Matron Marion Henderson and his life starts to change.

All Quiet on the Western Plains buy links:
Amazon Oz: http://bit.ly/1OkElha
Amazon UK: http://amzn.to/1kgyb5b
iBooks: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/id1061997574
Kobo: https://store.kobobooks.com/en-us/ebook/all-quiet-on-the-western-plains-1

Journey's End on the Western Plains buy links:
Amazon, Oz: http://bit.ly/1OkDYDx
Amazon UK: http://amzn.to/1HjJvrm
iBooks: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/id1061997251
Kobo: https://store.kobobooks.com/en-us/ebook/journey-s-end-on-the-western-plains

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Writing Serendipity?

Suffragette - the movie

Happy Valentine’s Day in 1888

99c - All Quiet on the Western Plains

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