Justin Sheedy's Blog - Posts Tagged "remembrance-day"
Remembrance Day Weekend In-store Book-Signing Event! “Nor the Years Condemn” by Justin Sheedy at Dymocks George St Sydney
The symbol of Remembrance Day is the Red Poppy. It is also the symbol of Justin Sheedy’s latest book, “Nor the Years Condemn”. This Remembrance Day weekend, Sheedy will be signing copies of “Nor the Years Condemn” at Dymocks George Street Sydney, flagship store of the great Dymocks Books chain of stores, a surviving icon and national treasure of Australian literary and popular culture. The timing is perfect as Sheedy’s latest book is a ripping historical novel based on the true and till now untold ‘Remembrance’ story of the young Australians who flew Spitfires against Nazi Germany in World War II.http://crackernight.com/2012/10/14/re...
NOR THE YEARS CONDEMN…
At the beginning of World War II, Britain was in the deepest trouble imaginable. 5 minutes flying time away crouched a monster. Alone against it, Britain called out to her Empire. For pilots. From all corners of that Empire, they volunteered. Only the best & brightest were chosen. Australian Daniel Quinn was one of these young men who came to fly against the monster. They had a 1-in-3 chance of survival.
“Nor the Years Condemn” is based on the true story of the young Australians who flew Spitfires against the all-conquering might of Nazi Germany. In their late teens and early-20s, for the job at hand they had to be the ‘shining ones’, rendering the death of so many of them doubly heart-rending for the reader. Daniel Quinn, flanked by the often hilarious young men of his elite ilk, leaves his peacetime life behind to fight tyranny in this portrait of doomed, brilliant youth.
With in-the-cockpit flying sequences that readers have described as ‘cinematic’, “Nor the Years Condemn” is also a story of the mothers cursed to relinquish their wonderful sons to war, of first love, of strategic deception and betrayal, of brotherhood and once-in-a-lifetime friendship on a knife’s edge. It is a story of shining young men destined never to become old, and of those who do: the survivors ‘condemned by the years’, and to their memory of friends who remain forever young.
If Australians think that their nation had its baptism of fire at Gallipoli or in the hell of the trenches of the Western Front, in “Nor the Years Condemn” they will discover a key and formative chapter of their history as yet untold. It is a story that will make them even prouder to be Australians. This Remembrance Day weekend, think Red Poppies. Think “Nor the Years Condemn” by Justin Sheedy. Come and meet the author for your signed copy at Dymocks George St Sydney.“Nor the Years Condemn” has just been accepted by the Australian War Memorial for stocking on their bookstores shelves and has received the most amazing reader reviews & press reviews since publication in early 2012. REVIEWS HERE: http://crackernight.com/2012/01/17/gr...
Event Date: Saturday 10 November, 2012
Time: 9am – 5pm or while stocks last
Venue: Dymocks George St, 424 – 430 George St, Sydney
Cost: Free!
Bookings/Enquiries: 9230 9013 or adminassistant@dymocks.com.au
Author Justin Sheedy Guest on The John Laws Show 10am Friday 9 November re his latest book, “Nor the Years Condemn”
For author Justin Sheedy it is a delight and a privilege that he will be the studio guest of the iconic John Laws on Laws’s radio show on 2SM Friday 9 November from 10am. Sheedy will be talking with Laws re his latest book “Nor the Years Condemn” on the eve of his Remembrance Day weekend in-store book-signing event for it at Dymocks George Street Sydney from 9am Saturday 10 November. The show streams live online – CLICK THE FOLLOWING LINK TO LISTEN – and is also broadcast on 45 RADIO STATIONS nationally.
http://www.2sm.com.au/laws.html
For full details of Sheedy’s book and in-store event, CLICK THE FOLLOWING LINK.
http://crackernight.com/2012/11/04/au...
The symbol of Remembrance Day is the Red Poppy. It is also the symbol of Justin Sheedy’s latest book, “Nor the Years Condemn” . This Remembrance Day weekend, Sheedy will be signing copies of “Nor the Years Condemn” at Dymocks George Street Sydney, flagship store of the great Dymocks Books chain of stores, a surviving icon and national treasure of Australian literary and popular culture. The timing is perfect as Sheedy’s latest book is a ripping historical novel based on the true and till now untold ‘Remembrance’ story of the young Australians who flew Spitfires against Nazi Germany in World War II.
If Australians think that their nation had its baptism of fire at Gallipoli or in the hell of the trenches of the Western Front, in “Nor the Years Condemn” they will discover a key and formative chapter of their history as yet untold. It is a story that will make them even prouder to be Australians. This Remembrance Day weekend, think Red Poppies. Think “Nor the Years Condemn” by Justin Sheedy. Come and meet the author for your signed copy at Dymocks George St Sydney.
“Nor the Years Condemn” has just been accepted by The Australian War Memorial for stocking on their bookstores shelves and has received the most amazing reader reviews & press reviews since publication in early 2012.
Event Date: Saturday 10 November, 2012
Time: 9am – 5pm or while stocks last
Venue: Dymocks George St, 424 – 430 George St, Sydney
Cost: Free!
Bookings/Enquiries: 9230 9013 or adminassistant@dymocks.com.au
Dymocks Book-Signing a SELL-OUT! “Nor the Years Condemn” by Justin Sheedy, Sat 10 Nov 2012
On Saturday 10th of November 2012 author Justin Sheedy was honoured to have been invited by the flagship store of the great Dymocks Books chain to sign copies of his latest book, Nor the Years Condemn, at Dymocks George Street Sydney. Sheedy was delighted that the day proved a Sell-Out Success, literally, with all copies of his book sold out.
On Remembrance Day weekend, the timing for this in-store event was perfect as the symbol of Remembrance Day, the Red Poppy, is also the symbol of Sheedy’s book (pictured above), which has just been accepted by The Australian War Memorial. In this spirit, Sheedy presented an authentic Australian War Memorial red poppy to each Dymocks store customer whose copy of the book he signed, sharing with them his passion for the great Australian true story on which Nor the Years Condemn is based: the stunning saga of the young Australians who crossed the planet to fly Spitfires against Nazi Germany in World War II.
The wonderful atmosphere of the day was only enhanced by live performances of ‘The Last Post’ by TrumPeter, bringing a lump-in-the-throat and tear to the eye of more than one Dymocks store customer. George Street also rang out to the stirring bagpipe strains of Scottish Andrew in full Scots regalia, his haunting sounds drawing many Sydney shoppers right up George Street and into the store.
Crowds for the day were certainly swelled by Sheedy’s interview on the John Laws Show the day previous, with many Dymocks store customers enthusing to Sheedy how impressed they had been by what they had heard. Indeed, copies of Nor the Years Condemn flew out of the store as so many Dymocks store customers were engaged by the prospect of reading a story of ‘Gallipoli’ magnitude yet, until now, unknown by most Australians: At Gallipoli in 1915 Australia discovered its ‘national identity’ – a breed of young people looking after each other in the midst of the worst situation imaginable, a heroic defeat. Nor the Years Condemn tells a story in this very same ANZAC nation-defining tradition yet, by contrast to the Gallipoli story, not one of heroic defeat but of stunning victory, albeit at tragic cost, of how the best & brightest of an Australian generation ironically chose one of the fastest ways to die of World War II – and won it.The product of 10 years’ research and WWII aircrew veteran interviews by Sheedy, his inspiration to write Nor the Years Condemn was to bring alive an untold chapter of Australian war history through the descriptive powers of historical fiction. A truly ‘ripping yarn’ of (very) young men flying Spitfires into air combat, Nor the Years Condemn is also ‘a mothers’ story’, as for every shining young man who flew a Spitfire, there was also a mother cursed to relinquish her wonderful young son to war, just one factor that renders Sheedy’s story such a heart-rending read.
Sheedy would like to express his sincere thanks to all at Dymocks George Street for making this event possible, especially to Dymocks book-buyer Ben Garland who, on first holding Nor the Years Condemn in early 2012, pronounced: “I’ve got a really good feeling about this…”
Sheedy’s next in-store events for Nor the Years Condemn will be at Dymocks Macquarie Centre on Saturday 8 December and a return visit to Dymocks North Sydney on Friday 21 December, the final shopping day before Christmas.
Nor the Years Condemn is currently available at Dymocks George Street Sydney, Dymocks Macquarie Centre, also Chatswood, North Sydney, Rouse Hill and Camberwell (VIC) stores, through Dymocks Online, also as a print-on-demand paperback at AMAZON, as an e-book at SMASHWORDS and at all major e-book websites, and at The Australian War Memorial. Sheedy would especially like to thank rising photography star Emmy Etié for her photo shoot and lovely presence on the day – all photos below.http://crackernight.com/2012/11/17/dy...
“Nor the Years Condemn” Author Justin Sheedy Dymocks Books December In-Store Events!
Fresh from his Remembrance Day weekend SELL-OUT book-signing event at Dymocks George Street Sydney – FULL STORY & PHOTO-SHOOT AT THE LINK BELOW, author Justin Sheedy will now be signing copies of his latest book
Nor the Years Condemn
at Dymocks Macquarie Centre on Saturday 8 December and at Dymocks North Sydney (a triumphant return visit!) on Friday 21 December – the final full shopping day before Christmas.http://crackernight.com/2012/11/17/dy...
On Remembrance Day weekend, the timing was perfect for Sheedy’s in-store event at Dymocks George Street as the symbol of Remembrance Day, the Red Poppy, is also the symbol of Sheedy’s book (pictured), which has just been accepted by The Australian War Memorial. Sheedy now looks forward to sharing with Dymocks Macquarie & North Sydney customers his passion for the great Australian true story on which
Nor the Years Condemn
is based: the stunning saga of the young Australians who crossed the planet to fly Spitfires against Nazi Germany in World War II.
Sales of the book certainly seem to have been swelled by Sheedy’s recent interview on the John Laws Show, with so many book-lovers engaged by the prospect of reading an Australian story of ‘Gallipoli’ magnitude yet, until now, unknown by most Australians… At Gallipoli in 1915 Australia discovered its ‘national identity’ – a breed of young people looking after each other in the midst of the worst situation imaginable, a heroic defeat.
Nor the Years Condemn
tells a story in this very same ANZAC nation-defining tradition yet, by contrast to the Gallipoli story, not one of heroic defeat but of stunning victory, albeit at tragic cost, of how the best & brightest of an Australian generation ironically chose one of the fastest ways to die of World War II – and won it.A truly ‘ripping yarn’ of (very) young men flying Spitfires into air combat, Nor the Years Condemn is also ‘a mothers’ story’, as for every shining young man who flew a Spitfire, there was also a mother cursed to relinquish her wonderful young son to war, just one factor that renders Sheedy’s story such a heart-rending read.
To Sheedy’s avowed relief, this, his second book, has received since publication in early 2012 the kind of reviews he long dreamed of yet never expected. To read them, CLICK THE LINK.http://crackernight.com/2012/01/17/gr...
Sheedy is very much looking forward to signing copies of
Nor the Years Condemn
for customers of Dymocks Macquarie Centre on Saturday 8 December as well as at Dymocks North Sydney on Friday 21 December. See DYMOCKS EVENTS for further details or CLICK THE LINK:http://crackernight.com/2012/11/18/no...
Nor the Years Condemn is currently available at Dymocks George Street Sydney, Dymocks Macquarie Centre, Dymocks North Sydney, also Chatswood, Rouse Hill and Camberwell (VIC) stores, through Dymocks Online, also as a print-on-demand paperback at AMAZON, as an e-book at SMASHWORDS and at all major e-book websites, and at The Australian War Memorial. For reading excerpts of the book, CLICK THE LINK.
http://crackernight.com/2010/02/10/ju...
“Nor the Years Condemn” Author Justin Sheedy at Dymocks Macquarie Centre Sat 8 December!
Fresh from his Remembrance Day weekend SELL-OUT book-signing event at Dymocks George Street Sydney – FULL STORY & PHOTO-SHOOT AT THE LINK, author Justin Sheedy will now be signing copies of his latest book Nor the Years Condemn at Dymocks Macquarie Centre on Saturday 8 December from 10am.
http://crackernight.com/2012/11/17/dy...
Particularly as he grew up in the local area, Sheedy very much looks forward to sharing with Dymocks Macquarie customers his passion for the great Australian true story on which Nor the Years Condemn is based: the stunning saga of the young Australians who crossed the planet to fly Spitfires against Nazi Germany in World War II. Sheedy is honoured that the book has just been accepted by The Australian War Memorial.
Sales of the book certainly seem to have been swelled by Sheedy’s recent interview on the John Laws Show, with so many book-lovers engaged by the prospect of reading an Australian story of ‘Gallipoli’ magnitude yet, until now, unknown by most Australians… At Gallipoli in 1915 Australia discovered its ‘national identity’ – a breed of young people looking after each other in the midst of the worst situation imaginable, a heroic defeat. Nor the Years Condemn tells a story in this very same ANZAC nation-defining tradition yet, by contrast to the Gallipoli story, not one of heroic defeat but of stunning victory, albeit at tragic cost, of how the best & brightest of an Australian generation ironically chose one of the fastest ways to die of World War II – and won it.
The product of 10 years’ research and WWII aircrew veteran interviews by Sheedy, his inspiration to write
Nor the Years Condemn
was to bring alive an untold chapter of Australian war history through the descriptive powers of historical fiction. A truly ‘ripping yarn’ of (very) young men flying Spitfires into air combat,
Nor the Years Condemn
is also ‘a mothers’ story’, as for every shining young man who flew a Spitfire, there was also a mother cursed to relinquish her wonderful young son to war, just one factor that renders Sheedy’s story such a heart-rending read.To Sheedy’s avowed relief, this, his second book, has received since publication in early 2012 the kind of reviews he long dreamed of yet never expected. To read them, CLICK THE LINK.
http://crackernight.com/2012/01/17/gr...
Sheedy is very much looking forward to signing copies of Nor the Years Condemn for customers of Dymocks Macquarie Centre on Saturday 8 December and NOW at Dymocks North Sydney on Friday 21 December. See DYMOCKS EVENTS online for further details.
http://www.dymocks.com.au/LiteraryEve...
Nor the Years Condemn is currently available at Dymocks George Street Sydney, Dymocks Macquarie Centre, Dymocks North Sydney, also Chatswood, Rouse Hill and Camberwell (VIC) stores, through Dymocks Online, also as a print-on-demand paperback at AMAZON, as an e-book at SMASHWORDS and at all major e-book websites, and at The Australian War Memorial. For reading excerpts of the book, CLICK THE LINK.
http://crackernight.com/2010/02/10/ju...
http://crackernight.com/2012/11/25/no...
Rising Author Justin Sheedy Interviewed by an Acclaimed one
My E-Chat With… Justin Sheedy - Author Justin Sheedy Interviewed by Kristen Alexander, 1 May 2013 – Originally Published at KristenAlexander.com.au
Author Kristen Alexander
The book world is changing. Print books are challenged by ebooks; traditional publishing houses are threatened by self publishers and niche publishers. Even the way readers think about books is changing: is a book something to treasure; is it disposable; is it something to read on a smart phone, ipad, ereader, or something to listen to on the ithingy. Writers, of course, face the greatest challenge, that of finding a readership when traditional publishers are becoming more choosy about what they print, and ebook lists are flooded by thousands of new titles every day. And, assuming they have found a readership, writers can’t just close the attic door and get on with their writing. They have to market themselves continuously. They have to be available for interviews and signings—or book tours if they have cracked the big time—constantly twitter, blog and facebook. How on earth do they succeed in a rapidly changing world where social media is king?
As I anxiously await the results of my agent’s attempts to pitch my next opus to a traditional publishing house, I watch, fascinated, as one writer successfully navigates through this strange new world. Justin Sheedy started his self publishing career with Goodbye Crackernight, a memoir of growing up in 1970s Australia. He followed this with Nor the Years Condemn, a fictional tribute to the boys of the Empire Air Training Scheme who flew Spitfires and Typhoons against the Luftwaffe. He is currently poised to release hosts of the Empire, which focuses on one of the characters from Nor the Years Condemn. I wondered, how does Justin do it? I thought, it wouldn’t hurt to ask, would it? And so I did. In the week he prepared for an in-store appearance at Dymocks Chatswood and an interview on a local radio station, Justin kindly answered a whole raft of questions about his life and writing experience.
Author Justin Sheedy
First off, I asked Justin how he overcomes the challenges of self publishing, the limited distribution networks, the miniscule publicity budgets. The secret of his growing success, Justin told me, is ‘employing the three Golden Rules of Writing and Publishing. 1. Persistence. 2. Persistence. 3. Persistence.’ And Justin works hard at being persistent. He almost daily posts on his facebook pages, he puts in personal appearances at bookshops, chats with radio interviewers, produces a blog to publicise his books, and attended the 2010 Byron Bay Writers Festival. All this, even as he holds down a day job and works on his next book.
I am always intrigued about the person behind the book. Cover blurbs hardly ever tell you much about the author, so being happily married myself and a potty pet lover, I like to know that others are in a similar state. And if they are, how they manage to balance their home and writing lives. (OK, I’ll admit it, I’m just trumping up the fact that I am a sticky beak, but I bet you’re interested too!) Justin currently has no conflicts between ties at writing. ‘I am bound to meet my significant other any day now. I see her all the time. But I have yet to meet her.’
Still stickybeaking, I then asked for a potted version of Justin’s life and passions. ‘I grew up in the suburbs of 1970s Australia, back when a child’s proudest possession was not a PlayStation but a second-hand bike’, he reminisced, and my mind instantly turned to my own childhood of the 60s and 70s when I was desperate for a bike so I could range around the neighbourhood (not that we used that term then. Somehow, that was too American). How well I remember those wonderful, carefree days. But hang on. This is not about me. It’s about Justin, who ‘wrote all about this amazing childhood in my first book, Goodbye Crackernight’.
Childhood behind him, what does Justin do to earn a crust? ‘My first job out of school was as a go-go dancer in a 60s psychedelic night-club, I studied Fine Arts at Sydney Uni (qualifying myself to drive a cab), sang in bands, and worked in the Australian Public Service for a time though made a full recovery.’ I am glad to see that the service (or ‘the circus’ as we fellow escapees not so fondly refer to it) did not knock out Justin’s creativity and sense of humour. They (you know, the ubiquitous ‘they’) always tell you to make the most of your life experiences, and Justin certainly did. He worked for the Department of Veterans’ Affairs, ‘where I was privileged to speak to many WWII aircrew veterans, brilliant research for my latest book, Nor the Years Condemn’. Now, Justin works for ‘a not-for-profit organisation who are really supportive of my writing and writing commitments such as radio interviews to promote my in-store events, writers’ festivals etc.’
As part of my research for this first Echat With…, I listened in on one of his interviews thanks to the wonders of internet streaming. It was held at 11.30 on a work day, and as well as promoting the aforementioned Nor the Years Condemn, it heralded the Dymocks signing session. Justin has obviously had lots of radio experience. He deftly fielded the announcer’s questions and told just enough about his book to whet appetites and have the local listeners bounding into the bookshop that weekend. His enthusiasm for his subject shone through; his passion was clear. And on the subject of passions, writing, of course, is one of Justin’s but only one. ‘My passions are women, military history, cooking, women, mountains, fogs and snow, also skiing so am counting on becoming a best-selling author so I can earn enough cash to keep doing it. Please help.’ Love that sense of humour!
Just for a laugh (and to see if our tastes coincided in any way) I said to Justin: You have a gift voucher for the world’s biggest DVD shop. It stocks every film, TV series, doco, one off special ever made. What five all time greats would you spend your voucher on. With barely a blink, Justin proved something I have long believed, that maths is not a strong point of the creative types: ‘First Light, the story of Geoff Wellum, youngest allied pilot of the Battle of Britain, and possibly the best docu-drama I have ever seen, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Spy Who Came In From the Cold, the House of Cards series, the Sherlock Holmes series with Jeremy Brett, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Oh, and The Italian Job with Michael Caine. Sorry, that’s six, no, seven. Doh!’ Interestingly, all bar the classic caper film are based on books. Just proves that Justin is a reader from way back, and so, naturally, I asked who or what was the greatest influence on his reading life. ‘Many’, he told me, ‘but a key three would be Tolkien, for his mastery of the “journey story”. Michael Herr (Dispatches), for his capture of the perverse “sensuality” of war, and Bill Bryson for his hilarious, warm and wonderful humanity’.
Influence aside, Justin has any number of favourite books, too many really to designate just one as his ultimate, all time favourite ‘but in the context of my latest work, Going Solo by Roald Dahl for the way he portrays the adult world (in WWII) with the involuntary unrestrained perfection of a child’s eye. In the context of my first book, Unreliable Memoirs by Clive James which a senior English teacher friend of mine recently maintained as “one of the funniest books ever written”’. Going Solo was a must read for me when researching Clive Caldwell’s experiences in the desert. I have not read any Clive James yet but with such a good (double) recommendation, I will have to add Unreliable Memoirs to the pile next to my bed. And with that, we turned from the personal to the creative, and Justin’s personal book philosophy.
Justin believes ‘that a book must make me read it. It should never be a struggle but a constant reward. In precisely this spirit, I try to make anything I write constantly reward the reader for buying my book. One of the nicest things I’ve been told by readers about my latest book Nor the Years Condemn is that they feel IN the history I’m writing about, that the characters become “friends” to them, even that they “become” the characters. And to my blessed relief and delight I’ve been told this a few times now’.
I always wonder how writers start off. Was there a spark that made them pick up the pen, or was their desire to write as innate as breathing. For Justin, it was ‘When I met an Australian Korean War RAAF veteran who flew Mustangs there in low ground attack. Despite all the death and destruction he meted out and narrowly survived, including the loss of dear mates, he looked at me square in the eye and said, “Justin, it was the best time of my life.” And I knew that I had to write and hopefully capture that monumental human irony.’
There is usually a long journey from spark to first published piece, and many hours hunched over a desk writing or typing, scrawling notes on scrubby bits of paper or in a writer’s journal if you are really organised, or even wandering around, just thinking. Given I try to write in a cluttered office where my creative life is constantly in conflict with the demands of my ‘real’ life, what, I wondered, is Justin’s special writing place: ‘The floor of my flat in Glebe’ but he would forsake that spot in a flash: ‘If I won the lottery I would move it to on the water at Kirribilli’.
That floor in Glebe has seen the creation of two works now, and another that is still in the works. Goodbye Crackernight, the first, was Justin’s ‘personal portrait of growing up in 1970s Australia (when it was still the 1950s!). The story is full of laughter, tears, simplicity, in a way a “shared” memoir for a few generations of Australians, a “mirror” to them. It traces the demise of Crackernight in parallel with the passing of our youth, showing how, just as we were growing up, so was Australia, and turning from a “white-bread” world into the multi-cultural Oz we know and love today’.
Justin was inspired to write his latest release, Nor the Years Condemn ‘to bring to life a truly great Australian story which is so exciting, so heroic and tragic, in a word so dramatic as to seem the stuff of science fiction and yet it is true: The story of the young Australians who flew Spitfires and Typhoons as part of the Empire Air Training Scheme, WWII. The true facts on which my story is intensively based really are the stuff of Star Wars, the attack on the Death Star. I wanted to bring this largely untold chapter of our history alive for Australians and in doing so make them even prouder of who we are. I wanted to tell the story of how the best and brightest of an Australian generation ironically picked one of the fastest ways to die of WWII and yet did so much to win it. The loss of any young person in war is a tragedy, yet these young Aussies were the shining stars of their era, which (given the true history on which it’s based) can’t help but render my story a heart-rending read, and the anti-war portrait that it is intended to be.’
As you would expect, Justin put in the hard research yards. It took ten years to research Nor the Years Condemn. His ‘main research resource' was the internet, 'and the access it gave me to the amazing range of WWII historical experts and institutions who so selflessly aided me. (It’s a massive list, included at the end of Nor the Years Condemn.)’
Justin’s trawling of the sources has paid off. He has a feel for the cut and thrust of battle and an affinity with military aviation. Why then, did he decide to write a fictional account of young airmen’s lives, rather than history? For Justin, fiction was the best way ‘to bring alive the stunning true history on which my book is based by engaging readers in a way that only the descriptive powers of Fiction can allow, and thereby have readers feel the loss of such young Australians as vividly as it deserves to be felt. Also, it’s only via Fiction that a reader can be put ‘in the cockpit’, not just reading “about” the history, but entering “into” it.’
One thing I have discovered is that other writers are usually all too happy to help others. I have enjoyed assistance from seasoned writers as well as on-going chats with new authors, all the while gaining much from their different experiences. Justin was recently asked to be a mentor to a budding writer and I asked him about the sort of advice he would pass on. (I will confess to a lot of self interest here, over and above the sheer altruism of sharing Justin’s words of wisdom). ‘Find a subject you are passionate about’, advised Justin. ‘Readers will want to buy your book because of your passion’. Next, he encourages, ‘write the book. Then re-write it ten times, after which your book may just turn out to be the book it should be. Then when it is, LOVE talking about it to people in radio interviews and at your in-store book-signing events. I do.’ Such sound advice. Justin also willingly shares the most important advice he has ever received: ‘No askie, no gettie.’
Once they have enjoyed one book (or two!), readers want to know what else the author is working on. I am no different. Happily, Justin is currently in the latter stages of a sequel to Nor the Years Condemn, entitled Ghosts of the Empire. Its ‘hopeful’ due date is at the end of June 2013. Just over two months away, so not much time left to wait now! ‘This is the ‘parallel journey-story of one character from NTYC who flies the awesome “Wooden Wonder”, the de Havilland Mosquito against Nazi tyranny. One key theme of Ghosts of the Empire is, if all those young aircrew who flew Lancasters had been flying Mosquitos instead, they’d have most likely died of old age.’
Like any author worth his salt, Justin is already thinking about what will come next. There is a sequel to Goodbye Crackernight in the pipeline with the working title Memoirs of a Go-Go Dancer.
Well, I think that is enough of picking Justin’s brains. For more details of his writing life and practice, hop onto his blog at Crackernight.com. You can befriend him at his Facebook Page, ‘like’ his “Nor the Years Condemn” Facebook page and “Goodbye Crackernight” Facebook page, or follow him on Twitter. Yup, Justin certainly has social media all wrapped up!
For those who haven’t already read Nor the Years Condemn, Sydneysiders can obtain it at Dymocks Sydney, Chatswood, Macquarie Centre, Broadway, Bondi Junction, Rouse Hill and North Sydney; at the iconic Gleebooks; and at Berkelouw Paddington. It is also available at Dymocks Camberwell and the Australian War Memorial. You can order a print on demand paperback at Amazon, download the ebook from Smashwords or take a sneak at Amazon LOOK INSIDE.
Happy Reading! – Kristen Alexander
I am delighted Justin Sheedy agreed to be the subject of my first Echat With… Stay tuned for next month’s where Charles Page, former commercial pilot and author of Vengeance of the Outback. A Wartime Air Mystery of Western Australia and Wings of Destiny. Charles Learmonth DFC and the Air War in New Guinea, reveals the secrets of his life and writing success, including the influence of his very special co-pilot.
http://crackernight.com/2013/05/04/ri...
Author Kristen Alexander
The book world is changing. Print books are challenged by ebooks; traditional publishing houses are threatened by self publishers and niche publishers. Even the way readers think about books is changing: is a book something to treasure; is it disposable; is it something to read on a smart phone, ipad, ereader, or something to listen to on the ithingy. Writers, of course, face the greatest challenge, that of finding a readership when traditional publishers are becoming more choosy about what they print, and ebook lists are flooded by thousands of new titles every day. And, assuming they have found a readership, writers can’t just close the attic door and get on with their writing. They have to market themselves continuously. They have to be available for interviews and signings—or book tours if they have cracked the big time—constantly twitter, blog and facebook. How on earth do they succeed in a rapidly changing world where social media is king?
As I anxiously await the results of my agent’s attempts to pitch my next opus to a traditional publishing house, I watch, fascinated, as one writer successfully navigates through this strange new world. Justin Sheedy started his self publishing career with Goodbye Crackernight, a memoir of growing up in 1970s Australia. He followed this with Nor the Years Condemn, a fictional tribute to the boys of the Empire Air Training Scheme who flew Spitfires and Typhoons against the Luftwaffe. He is currently poised to release hosts of the Empire, which focuses on one of the characters from Nor the Years Condemn. I wondered, how does Justin do it? I thought, it wouldn’t hurt to ask, would it? And so I did. In the week he prepared for an in-store appearance at Dymocks Chatswood and an interview on a local radio station, Justin kindly answered a whole raft of questions about his life and writing experience.
Author Justin Sheedy
First off, I asked Justin how he overcomes the challenges of self publishing, the limited distribution networks, the miniscule publicity budgets. The secret of his growing success, Justin told me, is ‘employing the three Golden Rules of Writing and Publishing. 1. Persistence. 2. Persistence. 3. Persistence.’ And Justin works hard at being persistent. He almost daily posts on his facebook pages, he puts in personal appearances at bookshops, chats with radio interviewers, produces a blog to publicise his books, and attended the 2010 Byron Bay Writers Festival. All this, even as he holds down a day job and works on his next book.
I am always intrigued about the person behind the book. Cover blurbs hardly ever tell you much about the author, so being happily married myself and a potty pet lover, I like to know that others are in a similar state. And if they are, how they manage to balance their home and writing lives. (OK, I’ll admit it, I’m just trumping up the fact that I am a sticky beak, but I bet you’re interested too!) Justin currently has no conflicts between ties at writing. ‘I am bound to meet my significant other any day now. I see her all the time. But I have yet to meet her.’
Still stickybeaking, I then asked for a potted version of Justin’s life and passions. ‘I grew up in the suburbs of 1970s Australia, back when a child’s proudest possession was not a PlayStation but a second-hand bike’, he reminisced, and my mind instantly turned to my own childhood of the 60s and 70s when I was desperate for a bike so I could range around the neighbourhood (not that we used that term then. Somehow, that was too American). How well I remember those wonderful, carefree days. But hang on. This is not about me. It’s about Justin, who ‘wrote all about this amazing childhood in my first book, Goodbye Crackernight’.
Childhood behind him, what does Justin do to earn a crust? ‘My first job out of school was as a go-go dancer in a 60s psychedelic night-club, I studied Fine Arts at Sydney Uni (qualifying myself to drive a cab), sang in bands, and worked in the Australian Public Service for a time though made a full recovery.’ I am glad to see that the service (or ‘the circus’ as we fellow escapees not so fondly refer to it) did not knock out Justin’s creativity and sense of humour. They (you know, the ubiquitous ‘they’) always tell you to make the most of your life experiences, and Justin certainly did. He worked for the Department of Veterans’ Affairs, ‘where I was privileged to speak to many WWII aircrew veterans, brilliant research for my latest book, Nor the Years Condemn’. Now, Justin works for ‘a not-for-profit organisation who are really supportive of my writing and writing commitments such as radio interviews to promote my in-store events, writers’ festivals etc.’
As part of my research for this first Echat With…, I listened in on one of his interviews thanks to the wonders of internet streaming. It was held at 11.30 on a work day, and as well as promoting the aforementioned Nor the Years Condemn, it heralded the Dymocks signing session. Justin has obviously had lots of radio experience. He deftly fielded the announcer’s questions and told just enough about his book to whet appetites and have the local listeners bounding into the bookshop that weekend. His enthusiasm for his subject shone through; his passion was clear. And on the subject of passions, writing, of course, is one of Justin’s but only one. ‘My passions are women, military history, cooking, women, mountains, fogs and snow, also skiing so am counting on becoming a best-selling author so I can earn enough cash to keep doing it. Please help.’ Love that sense of humour!
Just for a laugh (and to see if our tastes coincided in any way) I said to Justin: You have a gift voucher for the world’s biggest DVD shop. It stocks every film, TV series, doco, one off special ever made. What five all time greats would you spend your voucher on. With barely a blink, Justin proved something I have long believed, that maths is not a strong point of the creative types: ‘First Light, the story of Geoff Wellum, youngest allied pilot of the Battle of Britain, and possibly the best docu-drama I have ever seen, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Spy Who Came In From the Cold, the House of Cards series, the Sherlock Holmes series with Jeremy Brett, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Oh, and The Italian Job with Michael Caine. Sorry, that’s six, no, seven. Doh!’ Interestingly, all bar the classic caper film are based on books. Just proves that Justin is a reader from way back, and so, naturally, I asked who or what was the greatest influence on his reading life. ‘Many’, he told me, ‘but a key three would be Tolkien, for his mastery of the “journey story”. Michael Herr (Dispatches), for his capture of the perverse “sensuality” of war, and Bill Bryson for his hilarious, warm and wonderful humanity’.
Influence aside, Justin has any number of favourite books, too many really to designate just one as his ultimate, all time favourite ‘but in the context of my latest work, Going Solo by Roald Dahl for the way he portrays the adult world (in WWII) with the involuntary unrestrained perfection of a child’s eye. In the context of my first book, Unreliable Memoirs by Clive James which a senior English teacher friend of mine recently maintained as “one of the funniest books ever written”’. Going Solo was a must read for me when researching Clive Caldwell’s experiences in the desert. I have not read any Clive James yet but with such a good (double) recommendation, I will have to add Unreliable Memoirs to the pile next to my bed. And with that, we turned from the personal to the creative, and Justin’s personal book philosophy.
Justin believes ‘that a book must make me read it. It should never be a struggle but a constant reward. In precisely this spirit, I try to make anything I write constantly reward the reader for buying my book. One of the nicest things I’ve been told by readers about my latest book Nor the Years Condemn is that they feel IN the history I’m writing about, that the characters become “friends” to them, even that they “become” the characters. And to my blessed relief and delight I’ve been told this a few times now’.
I always wonder how writers start off. Was there a spark that made them pick up the pen, or was their desire to write as innate as breathing. For Justin, it was ‘When I met an Australian Korean War RAAF veteran who flew Mustangs there in low ground attack. Despite all the death and destruction he meted out and narrowly survived, including the loss of dear mates, he looked at me square in the eye and said, “Justin, it was the best time of my life.” And I knew that I had to write and hopefully capture that monumental human irony.’
There is usually a long journey from spark to first published piece, and many hours hunched over a desk writing or typing, scrawling notes on scrubby bits of paper or in a writer’s journal if you are really organised, or even wandering around, just thinking. Given I try to write in a cluttered office where my creative life is constantly in conflict with the demands of my ‘real’ life, what, I wondered, is Justin’s special writing place: ‘The floor of my flat in Glebe’ but he would forsake that spot in a flash: ‘If I won the lottery I would move it to on the water at Kirribilli’.
That floor in Glebe has seen the creation of two works now, and another that is still in the works. Goodbye Crackernight, the first, was Justin’s ‘personal portrait of growing up in 1970s Australia (when it was still the 1950s!). The story is full of laughter, tears, simplicity, in a way a “shared” memoir for a few generations of Australians, a “mirror” to them. It traces the demise of Crackernight in parallel with the passing of our youth, showing how, just as we were growing up, so was Australia, and turning from a “white-bread” world into the multi-cultural Oz we know and love today’.
Justin was inspired to write his latest release, Nor the Years Condemn ‘to bring to life a truly great Australian story which is so exciting, so heroic and tragic, in a word so dramatic as to seem the stuff of science fiction and yet it is true: The story of the young Australians who flew Spitfires and Typhoons as part of the Empire Air Training Scheme, WWII. The true facts on which my story is intensively based really are the stuff of Star Wars, the attack on the Death Star. I wanted to bring this largely untold chapter of our history alive for Australians and in doing so make them even prouder of who we are. I wanted to tell the story of how the best and brightest of an Australian generation ironically picked one of the fastest ways to die of WWII and yet did so much to win it. The loss of any young person in war is a tragedy, yet these young Aussies were the shining stars of their era, which (given the true history on which it’s based) can’t help but render my story a heart-rending read, and the anti-war portrait that it is intended to be.’
As you would expect, Justin put in the hard research yards. It took ten years to research Nor the Years Condemn. His ‘main research resource' was the internet, 'and the access it gave me to the amazing range of WWII historical experts and institutions who so selflessly aided me. (It’s a massive list, included at the end of Nor the Years Condemn.)’
Justin’s trawling of the sources has paid off. He has a feel for the cut and thrust of battle and an affinity with military aviation. Why then, did he decide to write a fictional account of young airmen’s lives, rather than history? For Justin, fiction was the best way ‘to bring alive the stunning true history on which my book is based by engaging readers in a way that only the descriptive powers of Fiction can allow, and thereby have readers feel the loss of such young Australians as vividly as it deserves to be felt. Also, it’s only via Fiction that a reader can be put ‘in the cockpit’, not just reading “about” the history, but entering “into” it.’
One thing I have discovered is that other writers are usually all too happy to help others. I have enjoyed assistance from seasoned writers as well as on-going chats with new authors, all the while gaining much from their different experiences. Justin was recently asked to be a mentor to a budding writer and I asked him about the sort of advice he would pass on. (I will confess to a lot of self interest here, over and above the sheer altruism of sharing Justin’s words of wisdom). ‘Find a subject you are passionate about’, advised Justin. ‘Readers will want to buy your book because of your passion’. Next, he encourages, ‘write the book. Then re-write it ten times, after which your book may just turn out to be the book it should be. Then when it is, LOVE talking about it to people in radio interviews and at your in-store book-signing events. I do.’ Such sound advice. Justin also willingly shares the most important advice he has ever received: ‘No askie, no gettie.’
Once they have enjoyed one book (or two!), readers want to know what else the author is working on. I am no different. Happily, Justin is currently in the latter stages of a sequel to Nor the Years Condemn, entitled Ghosts of the Empire. Its ‘hopeful’ due date is at the end of June 2013. Just over two months away, so not much time left to wait now! ‘This is the ‘parallel journey-story of one character from NTYC who flies the awesome “Wooden Wonder”, the de Havilland Mosquito against Nazi tyranny. One key theme of Ghosts of the Empire is, if all those young aircrew who flew Lancasters had been flying Mosquitos instead, they’d have most likely died of old age.’
Like any author worth his salt, Justin is already thinking about what will come next. There is a sequel to Goodbye Crackernight in the pipeline with the working title Memoirs of a Go-Go Dancer.
Well, I think that is enough of picking Justin’s brains. For more details of his writing life and practice, hop onto his blog at Crackernight.com. You can befriend him at his Facebook Page, ‘like’ his “Nor the Years Condemn” Facebook page and “Goodbye Crackernight” Facebook page, or follow him on Twitter. Yup, Justin certainly has social media all wrapped up!
For those who haven’t already read Nor the Years Condemn, Sydneysiders can obtain it at Dymocks Sydney, Chatswood, Macquarie Centre, Broadway, Bondi Junction, Rouse Hill and North Sydney; at the iconic Gleebooks; and at Berkelouw Paddington. It is also available at Dymocks Camberwell and the Australian War Memorial. You can order a print on demand paperback at Amazon, download the ebook from Smashwords or take a sneak at Amazon LOOK INSIDE.
Happy Reading! – Kristen Alexander
I am delighted Justin Sheedy agreed to be the subject of my first Echat With… Stay tuned for next month’s where Charles Page, former commercial pilot and author of Vengeance of the Outback. A Wartime Air Mystery of Western Australia and Wings of Destiny. Charles Learmonth DFC and the Air War in New Guinea, reveals the secrets of his life and writing success, including the influence of his very special co-pilot.
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