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Lord Mud of Glenferrie said:
Don't sell yourself short TH. I want to buy your book but I have so many on the go at the moment and for personal reasons am having trouble concentrating.

Currently 2/3s of the way through 'The Road Back' by Erich Maria Remarque. His sequel to All Quiet On The Western Front. A brilliant writer. He has that rare knack of putting together sentences of simple words that soar like an angel.

His method of using flashbacks is stark and brutal and never romantic yet are compellingly beautiful.

I have always considered James Jones 'Whistle' to be the ultimate story about soldiers returning home. The Road Back rival's it and you could not get two completely different books about that subject.
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Thanks Lord Mud. I am working feverishly at the moment to get three submissions ready for January 5th. It's so hard for an Indie author to get anything read by an agent, let alone a publisher. Especially if your just an unknown from Hawthorn with no claim to fame. However, a small window has opened for me with two publishers in Australia, and an agency in New York, so I'm going to give it my best shot.
Lord Mud of Glenferrie said:
Don't sell yourself short TH. I want to buy your book but I have so many on the go at the moment and for personal reasons am having trouble concentrating.

Currently 2/3s of the way through 'The Road Back' by Erich Maria Remarque. His sequel to All Quiet On The Western Front. A brilliant writer. He has that rare knack of putting together sentences of simple words that soar like an angel.

His method of using flashbacks is stark and brutal and never romantic yet are compellingly beautiful.

I have always considered James Jones 'Whistle' to be the ultimate story about soldiers returning home. The Road Back rival's it and you could not get two completely different books about that subject.
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Thanks Lord Mud. I would like to think it will be available in Bookshops in Melbourne, but that is just clasping at straws at this time.

Getting an agent or publisher to read your work is as difficult as winning three flags in three years. I am hoping for both in 2015. However, being a nobody from Hawthorn, with lo claim to fame makes it very difficult. However, a few windows have just opened, and for en extremely short period of time. I have three submissions to prepare and email on Monday, Jan. 5th. Unfortunately, they all have different requirements, so you can't send the same to each. It's a good challenge, and it keeps my brain active, which is good at my age.
 
Just above I said I was 2/3rds of the away through The Road Back. Have now finished and this book should be a must on the reading list for every school. The last third of the book is where Remarque really starts to push his point of the failure of those who did not serve at the Front to even begin to understand what those soldiers really thought.

He highlights all those cringe worthy testimonials,uttered by a populace who have no understanding, show a complete lack of empathy towards those soldiers and instead are a bunch of words that do nothing but make the speaker/writer/singer feel good within themselves.

I have been to many ceremonies where the testimonials are nothing more than an indulgence in self importance and even become a competition in who utters the fanciest buzz words.

I am on a mailing list of a military association and often receive videos or stories that are supposedly a dedication to those who served.

This morning I received this U Tube clip that was supposed to make me 'Remember Them'

https://www.youtube.com/embed/1JzYnmYQFtA

The heading of the mail was "The Poms know how to do this'

After reading the Road Back and then watching this clip I felt sick.
 
Lord Mud of Glenferrie said:
Just above I said I was 2/3rds of the away through The Road Back. Have now finished and this book should be a must on the reading list for every school. The last third of the book is where Remarque really starts to push his point of the failure of those who did not serve at the Front to even begin to understand what those soldiers really thought.

He highlights all those cringe worthy testimonials,uttered by a populace who have no understanding, show a complete lack of empathy towards those soldiers and instead are a bunch of words that do nothing but make the speaker/writer/singer feel good within themselves.

I have been to many ceremonies where the testimonials are nothing more than an indulgence in self importance and even become a competition in who utters the fanciest buzz words.

I am on a mailing list of a military association and often receive videos or stories that are supposedly a dedication to those who served.

This morning I received this U Tube clip that was supposed to make me 'Remember Them'

https://www.youtube.com/embed/1JzYnmYQFtA

The heading of the mail was "The Poms know how to do this'

After reading the Road Back and then watching this clip I felt sick.
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Just watched the clip LM and it certainly is very moving. I guess unless you lose someone close, or are close to war, you don't understand how horrific it is, and just how far its tentacles reach. Having been born during WW2 I understand how being involved can affect the way we live, but I was lucky enough not to lose anyone very close. A couple of second cousins, and friends of my father lost their lives but I had never met them so their deaths really didn't really bother me. However in the 80s, I came to Thailand for the first time and visited Kanchanaburi. That was an experience I remember vividly to this day. It was there that the movie Bridge on the River Kwai was filmed, and you could ride on the Burma Railway. What an experience! Rows and rows of headstones of so many Australian very young soldiers laid out in front of you. So emotional, you can't hold back the tears.

I have never liked war movies, especially when they're only made to glamorize an individual, and miss out on the reality of war, and how it leaves so many devistated, and without loveones.
 

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I'm enjoying the Divergent series and want to move on to the Percy Jackson & The Olypmians books.
 
grumbleguts said:
I will get on it Thai Hawk, but will not get it for free if that's OK, I'd rather some funds went to the creator. I'll look at the previous link you posted. but first I have to move house and I have three library books out. The one I'm about to start on is Terry Pratchett's "Raising Steam."
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So what did you think of "Raising Steam"? I read it over Christmas & thought it was a nice, comfy read but not a patch on "Feet of Clay" or "The Fifth Elephant" or even "Going Postal".
 
Yeah, it as always was a pleasure, but felt forced, in that he tried to wrap everything discworld around the concept of mass powered transport.

Some of his most clever pieces have been around massive real-world advances applied to the discworld. But with his condition, he is trying to squeeze as much out in the time he has left.
 
If anyone is interested, I write a little. A sort of humourous column on life.

One of my articles can be read on page 38 of the following publication:

http://issuu.com/pakmagazine/docs/pakmag_-_september_2009

It is titled "A labour of laughs"

Hopefully there's a few lols there.
If not I will give you your money back.
 
grumbleguts said:
Yeah, it as always was a pleasure, but felt forced, in that he tried to wrap everything discworld around the concept of mass powered transport.

Some of his most clever pieces have been around massive real-world advances applied to the discworld. But with his condition, he is trying to squeeze as much out in the time he has left.
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This is true, but also very, very sad. A bastard of a condition.
 
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Just finished "Twisting My Melon" by Shaun Ryder. I'm not a Happy Mondays fan, but it's an entertaining read & he comes across as a likable rogue. He certainly has lived hard & taken stuff in Hunter S Thompson proportions.

Had a chuckle when he decided that Perth was the place to finally get clean because it was "a nice, quiet town". Probably a good thing that he didn't meet any of the West Coast boys.
 

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