Botanic to Bridge fun run

The Botanic to Bridge fun run is an annual event in Gladstone, this year attracting a field of around 4,000 entrants. I decided to use the opportunity to clean up the streets a little along the 8 kilometre course.

Capricorn Writer's Festival

The Capricorn Writer's Festival held on the cusp of May/June 2019 was a great opportunity to meet other authors and writers and get a few hints to improve my writing technique. The event kicked off  with an enjoyable cocktail party on Friday night followed over the next 2 days by workshops given by a group of successful authors and others in the publishing industry, and wound up with a breakfast session where a panel of workshop presenters fielded questions to top off an enjoyable and informative weekend. Author Jenn McCleod (pictured with me at the breakfast panel) presented a great workshop, full of possibilities for my further endeavours.

Covering Hitler's Zeitmaschine

During the process of writing Hitler's Zeitmaschine I set about exploring what I wanted to feature on the book cover. In my mind I had an idea of what I imagined Karl Hartmann might look like. He had to be good looking (to immediately attract the attention of Linde) and of suitably high rank (to be allowed access to Hitler). I searched through the internet sites offering free images and came across this wartime portrait of Helmuth Schreiber. I could hardly believe it! This was the very person I had pictured in my imagination - the face and uniform were a perfect match. I followed up with a little research and gleaned the following short bio of the man.

Helmuth Schreiber was born in Giessen 25 March 1917. He joined the Waffen SS and saw action in the Anschluss of Austria  and the occupation of the Sudetenland in 1938. He was awarded the Iron Cross 1st and 2nd class in December 1941 and served as the Company commander of the SS Panzer Grenadier Regiment  He was also awarded the Knight's Cross in July 1943, and was promoted to Sturmbannführer, assuming command of the Deutschland Regiment where he was awarded the Close Combat Clasp in Gold, in May 1944. Schreiber survived the War and died 6 December 2008.

Of course, one can't go pasting images of real life people on book covers without their (or their family's) permission. So, after a vain attempt to contact the family I abandoned the idea of using this real image but nevertheless sent it to the book cover designer, Wordzworth. They were able to utilise the uniform and modify facial features to yield the character of Hartmann which presently graces the cover.

The background was another adventure. Browsing through free pictures available on the web I was immediately drawn to the image of the 'time angel'. This picture hinted at the inclusion of Linde Engel ('Angel' in German) and of course the receding clock spiral was a perfect depiction of the time-travelling construct in the novel. However, I was not convinced that use of image would be entirely 'free' if used for commercial purposes and so decided to approach the originator for permission. After poking around a bit, I discovered the author was a photographer in Germany (coincidence!) by the name of Stephan Keller. I visited his web site, and with some difficulty, found an email address. However, after a confusing exchange of emails, he advised the image I had chosen was not of his creation. You wouldn't believe - after further research I discovered there was another Stephan Keller (this one without a web page and coincidentally also in Germany) who had indeed produced the sought after image. After a few emails explaining my quest he graciously gave permission to use the time angel on my book cover and I subsequently sent him a copy of the work after publication to show my appreciation.

Helpful tips for debut novelists

At the recent Books bubbles and Brie event at Gladstone Library I was approached by several writers embarking on their first book seeking my advice.Now I'm no expert, Hitler's Zeitmaschine being my first and only novel to date out there in readerland, but I have come across quite a few tips that have improved the quality of my writing along the way. I would like to share some of these with any writers who, like me, wanted their narrative to be more 'professional'.

Here are a few URLs to visit on the internet:

https://dianaurban.com/words-you-should-cut-from-your-writing-immediately

http://annerallen.com/2017/06/filter-words-and-phrases-to-avoid-in-writing/

(I suggest you don't click on any links found within URLs I post in my blog as I don't open them myself, and therefore am unable to advise whether they are safe for you to open).

Also here's another article I found very informative:

5 Tips for Instantly Improving Your Novel 

The following article was written by Bill Henderson:

BEFORE WE GET TO THE 5 TIPS...a testament of sorts:

Somewhere along the road of life, I joined The Church of 80/20, where we believe routine matters should require only 20% of your time so you can devote a full 80% to the big ones. If you're going to take on a difficult task, and goodness knows, writing fiction – especially the novel – is right up there with the toughest, don't obsess over the 20-percenters. They can be accomplished quickly and with relative ease. Get them out of the way, as you go, in routine fashion. Save your 80% for character and plot development, the make-or-break core tasks that should rightfully get the lion's share of your time and effort.

THESE 5 TIPS fall into the 20-percenters group, but may require you to bring some new thinking to your process. 

1. Replace words that tell with words that show
We all use "tell" words when we're churning out rough drafts. We write, "Bill saw that the premises were uninhabited," and keep on churning. Job 1, on looking back, is to identify those places where, as her, you TOLD-i.e. "informed," as in a police report-the reader. Now make the reader see, feel, and grasp the importance of the moment. "Bill looked inside, through the shattered bay window. The living room was empty of furniture. Stains and gashes of the kind normally hidden under rug screamed out of the tired linoleum. A child's tricycle lay on its side. Bill sat heavily on a square of bricks, once part of someone's hopeful garden. No one lived here. No one. She was gone." Yes, it added word length. Seven words became 35. But if it's an important moment, the extra baggage is worth it. Many times, you'll judge you don't have the luxury-to linger would slow the pace-so you'll want to use summary. Even so, go for some show: "Bill saw the refrigerator door hanging open off one hinge. If she had been there, she was gone now." Remember: as a fiction writer, your purpose is not to inform but to dramatize.

2. Remove interpretation- let action speak for itself
We all do this, too. "Mother came into the room looking as close to angry as I'd ever seen her. Poor woman, what she must have been going through: her tidy little home invaded by two sets of supposedly grown children with their uncouth spouses and impossible kids-her own grandchildren. She must have wanted to disown them right then and there." What's wrong with it? The narrator has interceded to speculate about what Mother must be feeling at this moment. As a reader, I come to fiction not for interpretation, but for drama. I want to see it, hear it, and, on the basis of what the author has chosen to SHOW me, understand it in my gut.

3. Replace passive verb constructions with active.
What is passive voice: it's a way of conveying information that an action was performed without saying who performed it. "The table was set. The temporary measure was made permanent. The boy was given a lecture." Who actually did these things? We don't know because passive voice has put a cloud of vagueness around the action, effectively screening us off from its full impact. Does this sound like a promising way to write vivid action? Go back, spot the passive, make it active: If you see: "We were at the dinner table by noon, and a great meal was served. Jane never forgot how liberally the wine was poured," recast it with active verbs (which, by nature, will create missing images). "We were at the dinner table by noon, feasting on the endless piles of turkey, stuffing, yams Mother produced almost casually."

4. Identify, then remove or "translate" cliches
Again, we all use them when we're on a roll. Why? Because they're so handy. Every clichés was once brilliantly original; the problem is, because it was SO good, it was used again and again and again until it came to stand not for brilliant originality, but for author laziness: "Why should I bother to imagine THIS sunset, in THIS story, carrying THIS special meaning when there are so many off-the-shelf sunset clichés that will do?" Why should you bother? Because they don't work anymore. They are like cold eggs on a plate. No matter how nicely they were once served, no one wants to eat them now. This is an eternal challenge for all writers. It's made more complicated by the fact that certain genres-most notably romance, action, and "blockbuster"-seem oblivious, even encouraging, toward the use of clichés. (If you want proof, check out The Romance Writers' Phrase Book.)

5. Get specific. Replace general, "informational" language with rich narrative summary full of specific (and meaningful) images.
If I want to know what happened, I go to the newspaper or a news site on the internet. If I want to experience what happened-to FEEL what it MEANT-I go to fiction. "Scientists at the Mayo Clinic announced at an unruly press conference that they have cloned a full family of human beings." That's informational language, and it's quite sufficient to satisfy my need to know. "Dr. Borsov, the gray eminence of the Mayo, stood, dazed and trembling before the crowd of young, angry protesters. "Ladies and gentlemen," he began, and faltered. A tomato flew past his head. Another one splattered on his cheek. My god, what have we done, he thought in a panic." That's fiction.

Again, nothing here is rocket science. But it's amazing how many novelists, even experienced novelists, have either forgotten, or never really internalized, these 5 simple steps that, taken together, will blow away 80% of the "problems" your work may be encountering.

Books, bubbles and brie at Gladstone Library

Books, bubbles and brie at Gladstone Library - A great opportunity to discuss my novel with visitors to the Library and also talk to other authors from the Gladstone region. Had a few laughs, a few nibbles and wine and was able to pass on some hints that have helped me in getting published to a few writers intent on doing likewise.

Zum Turken hotel

The Zum Turken Hotel (pictured) featured largely in my novel, "Hitler's Zeitmaschine". As a courtesy I sent the hotel's management a copy of the book and received this reply:

"Dear Mr. Brian Farber, Thank you so much for the kind package with the History-Book. I am sure it will be very interesting and when I will have time I will start reading it. I will get in touch with you again then and we can talk about it. Thank you again, have a nice day and all the Best. 

Mrs. Scharfenberg, Hotel "Zum Türken" – Obersalzberg, Berchtesgaden."

How nice is that?