New Life in Other Hands — The Launch

Starting at the End

Publishing my first novel, The Publican’s Daughter, was the culmination of an extended process of writing, editing, learning and organising to fulfil my childhood dream to be a novelist. Its launch on 2 April 2022 was a humbling and vulnerable experience that gave me the chance to give my story new life by entrusting it to other hands and minds. Today, I thank the many people who contributed to making that launch an exceptional occasion.

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Jude Aquilina launched The Publican’s Daughter with vivacity, humour and style. I owe Jude special thanks not only for giving the best launch anyone could wish for but also for writing a brilliant Foreword for the book. She encouraged me first with poetry and then this novel in its early draft form. Jude is a poet, teacher, workshop convenor and mentor with the unique and magical gift of making people believe in themselves.

The inimitable and always entertaining Nigel Ford was our MC. Nigel is a poet and past Convenor of Friendly Street Poets in Adelaide, and he has given a lot to the poetry community of our city and its regions.

Ivan Rehorek is the poet, artist and musician whose gentle jazz flowed through our hearts on the day, bringing us joyfully together.

And finally, from behind his camera (where he said he prefers to stay), Martin Christmas, poet, theatre director and teacher, recorded the many smiles you see on this page.

Hidden Helpers

I can’t tell you how talented many of my helpers are, including artist and poet Veronica Cookson and poet husband David Cookson who worked on the book table with my daughter, Vanessa, a designer.

Writer and poet Inez Marrasso managed the lucky door prize, won by creative marriage celebrant Dorrie McNider. Another poet and writer, Helen Hutton, helped with the distribution of gifts after the formalities of speeches and readings.

The Venue

The launch was first scheduled for 12 February but postponed because of COVID. While a few people couldn’t come for the same reason in April, over 50 people attended.

Our host for the day, Rade, owns and manages Elatte Cafe and Restaurant on Jetty Road, Glenelg, our venue. I left the catering and setup to him. Rade himself unpacked book boxes for me and laid my books out on the table, and the table layout in the cafe was perfect. You can’t get a better welcome than that.

With Rade at the helm, Elatte has the friendliest atmosphere and staff at the Bay. The coffee is unsurpassed. Delicious food, too. Rade’s chef prepared a delectable selection of Greek finger food, dolmades, zucchini fritters, and various homemade dips that had people’s mouths watering.

I posted my thankyou to Rade and his charming staff with this photo on Instagram.

Promotions

The postponement from February to April was productive. Scholar, artist and poet Dr Kathryn Pentecost generously offered to write a review of The Publican’s Daughter, and Yankalilla Times published her interview with me in April. I include it here because it indicates what the book is about and my reasons for writing it.

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Through Christine Kennedy, Holdfast Bay Libraries kindly promoted my book by purchasing copies for their catalogue and made the title available from the South Australian online lending service known as OverDrive or, more recently, Libby.

And I am booked to do an Author Talk in the Kingston Room at Brighton Library on 2 June. Bookings will open closer to the day when Holdfast Bay libraries will promote the event.

In the meantime, on 10 May, I will be chatting about The Publican’s Daughter with Peter Goers on ABC Radio Adelaide’s talk show, Evenings.

The book is available online from Amazon, The Book Depository, Barnes & Noble, Booktopia, and Fishpond. Glenelg’s Dymocks has a few copies, and the ebook is on Kindle.

Getting Here

The Publican’s Daughter started life under the title, On Gidgee Plains. As you may know, the gidgee tree (Acacia cambagei) pictured on the cover is colloquially known as the stinking wattle, a hint that all was not good in the story’s fictional outback town of Wonnalinga.

When I decided to self-publish, Wattletales Publishing was born, and I changed the title, hoping to attract more readers online. But, the tree on the cover reminds readers that things in Wonnalinga are crook (as they used to say of Tallarook, a little town in Victoria) which is why both Jude Aquilina and Kathryn Pentecost liken it to the Australian classic, Wake in Fright (1961) by Kenneth Cook. Cook’s story was brought to life as a movie in 1971 and then as a mini-series in 2017.

The Publican’s Daughter is similarly about the dark side of the bush but from a young girls’ point of view.

Origins

Set in the early 1960s, The Publican’s Daughter is about a girl who is thwarted in multiple ways as she tries to find a husband. It has its tender moments, but the story emerged from rage, rage at the sexual predation and violence that trapped or harmed young women in my day, including me. I am in awe of the courage shown by today’s young women who speak out about these issues.

I am also in awe of the courage of First Nations people who have survived so much. When I first started to write, I realised that I could not tell a story set in the outback without incorporating aspects of that history into the whole. To do so would indeed be white-washing frontier history, and I am thankful that the book was approved as a story that had to be told.

Every Guest Brings a Gift

Every guest, every reader, brings the gift of renewal to your story, which is the secret of a book launch. I have so many people to thank that I can’t name everyone, but I want to mention a few guests who, like Jude, Nigel, Avalanche, and Martin (see links above), have shared their writing stories with Wattletales.

Veronica Cookson, David Cookson and Inez Marrasso also contributed, as did my Interviewer, Kathryn Pentecost, who, unfortunately, could not attend.

It was a delight to see Rose Boswell and Luisa Redford at the launch after a long time. Their literary journeys are also on Wattletales. I first met Rose and Luisa in Aldinga Beach when I ran regular life writing workshops and Buddhist meditation gatherings in my studio.

Other launch guests, variously from Ochre Coast Poets, TramsEnd Poets, Friendly Street Poets and Sand Writers of Goolwa, have shared their stories on Wattletales. While not an exhaustive list, Steve Evans, Craig Harris, Steve Bell, Andrew Ballard, Geoff Aitken and Mike Riddle are all Wattletales’ guests. Shaine Melrose not only contributed her story to Wattletales but also wrote a wonderful blurb for the book as follows —

Warrell creates a superb cinematic drama set on Australia’s wide purple gibber plains. It is portrayed with raw honesty through a direct line into young Katherine’s mind as the city girl’s life becomes entwined in the conflicts of people and land. The Publican’s Daughter is a stark coming of wisdom story of love, loss, heartbreak, and joy. Shaine Melrose

I thank every single person who attended the launch for giving my first novel such a big fat welcome. It was such a memorable day; I feel blessed.

The Lesson

We are never too old to meet our destiny. I wanted to become a novelist as a child and dreamed of it most of my life, but the world got in the way, or so I thought. However, as my little poem below attests, nothing we experience is ever wasted.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

All photos except where otherwise indicated are by Martin Christmas.

Happy Writing

Wattletales