D.M. Cameron's Blog

TRUTH HURTS

Before The Rewilding came out, a part of me feared no one would want to read a book about climate change, no matter how appealing and hopeful I tried to make it, so I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the amount of interest the book continues to garner.

The one regret I have is that I didn’t explain in the author notes how everything that occurs within The Rewilding is inspired by, and or based on true events, and, according to the climatologists, if it hasn’t happened yet, it could easily and bel...

TRUSTING THE SIGNS

Pictured is a piece of graffiti defacing a cliff in the national park near where I live, probably drawn by a passing tourist or a bored teenager. It is nothing remarkable – just a name evoking an old rock star, scratched on with a piece of chalky sandstone gleaned from the edge of the walking trail.

The morning I came across this insignificant scrawl is a morning I will remember always – a little piece of ‘big magic,’ as Elizabeth Gilbert would say.

I don’t recall now what had triggered the fear...

What Second Book Syndrome?

The words were pouring out of me like bats from a cave – dark and mysterious. I was pulsing with the thrill of it. The first draft was completed on a seven-day solo retreat in which I entered a dreamlike state, sleeping and waking when the urge overtook, existing in complete silence with no human contact. My character’s world became my world. I became my characters.

After, the rewrites began and continued and continued and continued (you get the idea). Almost two years later I finally felt the m...

Running Towards a Tsunami Offering Fistfuls of Dollars.

To write a novel with resonance, a novelist needs to hold the big picture in their head at all times, to examine the micro within the resounding context of the macro. It appears to me, as a species, we also need to start doing this if we are to survive – it is imperative we grasp what is really unfolding here. Emerging from lockdown presents us with a remarkable opportunity to restructure, to make radical changes to ensure our continued existence, but instead, the media, the politicians, so many...

The Possibility of Magic

I have been hesitant about sharing this, in case you think I’m ‘bonkers’ but I feel we could all do with a bit of magic in our lives at the moment.

The following is a true story.

The morning Beneath the Mother Tree went to print, I was beyond tired. I had been up all night proof-reading over last-minute changes. A walk into that soft early morning light when the world is full of new possibilities was all I could do with a heart that was pumping fast with the terrifying truth that all was...

Gooluwatu

I would be on my own, trapped without a car – so no possibility of a fast get away – for seven days in a small town at what looked like the end of the world on the map, the end of Australia at least. This is how I started to think after the exhilaration of learning I had been chosen as one of the 2019 Gooluwatu Writing Retreat recipients had worn off. The little black dot on the map which represented Goolwa in South Australia (where the residency would take place) began to take on sinister qu...

Walking on Cut Glass

The week my debut novel was published, something terrifying occurred – I was invited by ABC Radio National to ‘continue the conversation’ for the up-coming Q and A program on ABC TV. I would be unscripted, answering caller’s questions live on national radio and live-streamed on Facebook.

My gut reaction was to scream – ‘no thanks’ – and run away to hide in a hole, but the publicity it would mean for the book was too valuable, so two weeks later I found myself feeling like I was going to vomit...

Success and self-doubt.

As I look back on this remarkable year, I realise how often my goal posts for success shifted and how this was determined by the demon of self-doubt who continually rose up to undermine my confidence. I always thought being able to hold my book in my hand, to see my words in print would be the pinnacle of success…and at the time, it was. My heart burst with joy at the sight of her when I pulled her out of the box – opening pages at random, stroking her cover, sniffing her like a pervert. This...

The Authorial Hat.

Now my first ever author talk, meet and greet, book signing circuit is over, I have had a chance to reflect on the whole nerve-wracking experience, and I realised that I quickly developed some coping mechanisms – one of which was wearing a hat! So when I recently heard author, Alison Tait, on the ‘So You Want to be a Writer’ podcast mention the authorial jacket she likes to wear when doing author talks, I knew exactly what she was talking about. My hat wearing happened accidentally, but it ha...

Death Spots

‘Country lives too, it arrives and yearns and changes. And maybe it remembers, for the past is never over. Not even for stones and water.’ Tim Winton. Island Home – a memoir.

When I read these words by the insightful Mr Winton, I remembered the first time I sensed memory in the landscape. I was camping at Red Rock on the New South Wales coastline. I had walked out of the campground to the end of a dirt road and discovered a sheltered beach. To the right of this beach was a headland made from...