Saturday, September 7, 2024

 


Such a pleasure reading my poetry to the Sisters of St. John of God who once worked in the hospital in various roles as nurses. After weeks of delay due to Covid, the coast was clear on 4th September to read a selection of my nature poetry. We shared pictures of the little creatures that I photograph on my walk. The little Quenda was a hit with the ladies which I revealed that he kept chewing away in the long grass oblivious to me taking a photograph of him. One of the sisters had a photo of an Ibis (bin chicken). They liked the following poem as Willy-Wagtails visit their gardens.

Wagtails

i.
In the mornings, I'm curious as to whether
or not I see one wagtail or two. The last time
I looked the bird motored up my driveway
at 5.30 am.

ii.
At 7.30 on my usual walk
in Swanley Park, another wagtail darts
amid trees and rooftop antennae, talkative
as a bumble bee on hive duty.
It's spring and she's swishing her tail
in all directions. It's her song, repetitious,
and full of warning.
iii.

In the yard, I wonder what causes this bird
to shift from place to place, to rise
for no apparent reason from freshly
cut grass, to hop along the wall on
latticed vines, her nose in the grapes.
iv.

The sun rises its hot ball into the apex
of the morning, and the bird (or birds)
stop their rollicking over lawn
and terracotta. I know that wagtails
or a wagtail will be back tomorrow
under the Melaleuca, on the hedge,
or will tune in with the hum of bees
in the rows of dark trees,
her "tich-tich" moving towards
every bird within reach. ©








Sunday, September 1, 2024


I was totally gobsmacked when I came across Lisa Hill's review of my debut novel, The Last Asbestos Town. It's amazing what you find! 

Although my novel (1st Edition) was published in 2020, I have only recently found Lisa Hill’s review on her website
 ANZ LitLovers. Written on 18th February, 2024, it is a fortuitous find for any author. At the time she also kindly reviewed The Ozone Cafe and said she purchased the Asbestos e-book. Thank you, Lisa!

From Lisa Hill @ ANZ Litlovers

Right on cue, I was part-way through reading a novel about asbestos removal when an asbestos panic erupted in New South Wales.  Helen Hagemann’s novel is set in WA, but it’s in Sydney that playgrounds, parks and schools in Sydney have been closed, a Mardi Gras party has been cancelled, and hundreds of sites have to be inspected.  The culprit appears to be contaminated mulch, which is used widely in all sorts of places, causing widespread alarm because there is no safe level of exposure to asbestos

Synchronicity, eh? 

This is the blurb from Hagemann’s debut novel, The Last Asbestos Town which I bought after I had read and enjoyed The Ozone Cafe, (2021, see my review).

An Australian National law has been passed and a group known as the Asbestos Task Force (A.T.F.) is formed by the government to systematically remove all known asbestos from towns, cities and suburbs. The city of Perth, Western Australia and surrounds have undergone this removal, and gradually the task force spreads further afield into the South West. Their target has reached Farmbridge, an old pioneer town with numerous asbestos houses and buildings. Newly married, May and Isaac who plan to renovate their home, an old Girl Guide Hall, experience the imminent threat of losing their home after receiving their fateful letter. Believing their home is not made from asbestos, the couple set out on a relentless quest to save the hall from demolition.

Upfront, I’ll say that I would not have continued reading this novel if it had been promoting some sort of conspiracy theory nonsense that denied the dangers of asbestos. But no, The Last Asbestos Town is more about the kind of bureaucratic heavy-handedness over which governments sometimes preside.  Sometimes this happens because it’s cheaper and easier to deliver a one-size-fits-all solution and there’s not enough staff to fix the problems that don’t fit into the program, and sometimes it’s because in the haste to do something and be seen to be doing it, a program is put into place without the proper checks and balances .  Whatever, sometimes it’s just too bad for some unlucky people who are either drafted into somewhere they don’t belong, or, conversely, who are excluded from something that they really need.  Whatever side of politics we’re on, we can all think of examples that exemplify an unresponsive bureaucracy that’s not getting it right for everyone.  

(And, to be fair, we can also think of government programs that are very good indeed, and that help the people they’re supposed to help.  Truth be told, that happens because there’s an effective, competent bureaucracy.)

Set in a recognisable future in a town that features a street with a notorious name in the history of asbestos in Australia, The Last Asbestos Town features a young couple who are convinced that the property they’ve bought is built with a product that looks asbestos, but isn’t.  The thing is, asbestos can’t be identified just by looking at it.  A sample has to be analysed.  

And in the meantime, the task force is on its way and might well slap a demolition order on the property before their sample comes back from the laboratory. 

Read the rest of the review HERE – Book Cover is 1st Edition



Friday, May 17, 2024

 

Pleased to announce my new collection Bounty: Prose Poetry will be launched at the Moon Cafe, Northbridge in Perth on Saturday 25th May at 2pm.


Bounty: Prose Poetry is a two decade long exploration of the form that has allowed me to explore a multi-layer of styles and preoccupations within the genre. A small selection of the prose poems has been previously published in Southerly, Westerly, Cordite, Eureka Street Journal and online. Available to read as a paperback, on all devices from Amazon & all online bookstores!


Monday, April 1, 2024



Ancient_Greeks

Love Poem:  the Ancient Greeks

 i
A continent full of snakes and spiders greeted
Paris on his march into Troy. He thought of Helen
while inside the Trojan horse, marking his love
for her on wooden beams with his sword.

When he dreamed of her, the seas whooshed him
back and forth to a bedchamber of camel hair
and wind-chimes.

ii
When Psyche brought home Cupid his dazzling 
red hair was not her parents' concern, but more 
his two wings that echoed a mellifluous lip music.


They were not impressed with the non-human
aspect of his sailing around the room,
fluttering and lifting her high above.

iii
Pygmalion's love for Galatea was not carnal, sexual
or Greek-style. They did not mention war, or a parent's
non-approval. They stood stiffly around in the blue toga

of the day. He polished her eyes in a mirror image 
of his. She gazed back, without end; a woman 
he could never domesticate, covet or ruin. 

Sunday, February 11, 2024


 

 

Market

  

A market shows a difference of colour and the possibility of taste especially when an assortment of nylon and lace are mounted. It could be that sizes are too small too young and not tolerable for the older wearer if the decoration is suggestive, but a younger buyer might determine the daintiness of the objects swinging, and there is a spectacle swinging in the breeze which makes for a sniggering and in any case these showy garments once bought will later be undercover or rolled away nicely, nicely in a top drawer with perfumed liners. The amusing side might bring back pleasure each time the buyer slips these panties on, possibly remembering those colourful cartwheels of fitted pink and lime lace and the lengths to which the market stall proudly boasted skimpy, skimpy.


COPYRIGHT MATERIAL (c) 2024


 

Saturday, January 6, 2024

The Ozone Café is about three separate owners of the café and its demise through political corruption. 
Hagemann delivers a vision of 1960s and ’70s life in a small NSW Central Coast town. The novel is a homage to a café of the same name and of a distinctive P&O design in her hometown of Ettalong, New South Wales. It is also about the struggle of past and present cafe owners to save the cafe from demolition. Here are my cafe owners: -

Vincenzo Polamo, a Calabrian, builds the Ozone Café with his builder-brother in 1957 in fictional Satara Bay. He meets three children, Winifred, Casey, and Nicolas, creating a seascape mural on a café wall that includes them. The café changes from Italian to Australian cuisine. However, due to long hours of hard work and Vincenzo’s wife unwilling to migrate to Australia, Vincenzo sells the café.

Joe Pendlebury suffers setbacks with too few customers, poor health and problems due to a violent storm causing structural damage close to the mural.  In major scenes, Pendlebury goes missing, and Nicolas dies from muscular dystrophy, heightening Winifred’s concerns to keep the mural sacred.

Con & Dion Lasaridis experience problems with the damage. Unable to convince the Heytesbury Shire the café is sound after a rebuild, they lose ownership in a court battle; the Shire evoking a Demolition Order, 1946. The Lasaridis believe this is due to an undercurrent of well-known council corruption; Mayor Tyrone being a principal player in corrupt land and property dealings. Vincenzo (et al) removes the mural reinstating it at his home. The mural becomes a lasting memorial to Nicolas Battersby, as well as the sole surviving piece of The Ozone Café.


 At the time of commencing the novel, I had very little to go on. Then half-way through I discovered a pic of the Ozone posted on Gosford's Historical Library page on FLICKR.  I therefore acknowledge the library Gostalgia, and that I have been given permission to use the picture on the cover of my 2nd Edition of The Ozone Cafe. I am also grateful for the research carried out by actor Felix Willliamson (son of playwright John Williamson) in his search and playing the role of Phil (the Jew) Jeffs in Underbelly Razor - a TV mini series.

Gostalgia: local history from Gosford Library

Phil Jeff's house, with cafe beneath, Ettalong.

The above photograph was taken by Press photographer Sam Hood. It is believed to date from around November 1945, when Phil "the Jew" Jeffs died in St. Vincent's hospital in Sydney. He is buried in the Jewish section of Rookwood Cemetery, under the name "Phillip Davis". The building is of a style known as "P & O" an interwar style that reflected the architecture of a ship's bridge. Unfortunately this building has since been demolished. Aerial photographs from 1957 reveal that Phil Jeff's former house was on the corner of Beach Street and The Esplanade, Ettalong Beach, near Memorial Avenue. The house faced due south, looking straight out to Broken Bay and Lion Island.This was THE prime spot for views in the area, and the site is now the location of Mantra, Ettalong Beach. Nothing remains of Phil Jeffs house in 2011. A brief report of Phil Jeffs death can be read at:nla.gov.au/nla.news-article56436952 Another former Razor war criminal, Kate Leigh, was embroiled in an assault case at Woy Woy in 1931.Read about this case on the Trove newspaper website:trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL (c) 2024

Friday, September 15, 2023

 









BOUNTY is set for release as an ebook & print book around mid-October (after the school holidays) I intend to launch the collection at the Moon Cafe, Perth WA.  However, it may be the end of the year or early 2024. The print book will be available at all good online bookstores. Stay tuned for a SUPER DEAL on Amazon! 

Here's a sample poem.

COPYRIGHT (c) 2023

BOUNTY Synopsis

This collection Bounty is a two decade long exploration of prose poetry. The form has allowed me to explore a multi-layer of styles and preoccupations within the genre. The collection as three separate sections and progressions range from the everyday life of the familiar as in Section 1 – Bounty that explores some common place objects such as rugs, cushions, cups, vases, clothes, cars, churches and houses.  Section 2 – Cultural highlights the experience of travelling utilizing various mechanisms of language. Section 3 – Avant.

is inspired by my university studies of Gertrude Stein especially her subversion of the conventional use of language. While Stein’s unconventional work was ‘language as cubism in a distorted framework’ where the reader makes meaning, my poetry encompasses some experience, meaning or message.

Three poems in the first section Bounty have been inspired by paintings from disabled artists during my participation in the 2009 Creative Connections program.

A small selection of the prose poems has been previously published, work-shopped, reviewed and critiqued in a 2021 Frontier Prose Poetry Project. I received a favourable response from Prose Poetry Editor Jose Hernandez Diaz who ostensibly praised four poems: Bridge, Church, Hotel and Market. He has since provided me with a quote for the book.

The voice lingers playfully in reverie, as many speakers in good prose poems do. There is a lot of experimentation with the force of language and sound. Bravo! - Jose Hernandez Diaz, author of Bad Mexican, Bad American and The Parachutist.

I also wish to pay tribute to ARTerra Portugal and to the administrator, Mickey for a wonderful time at the Lobäo da Beira Residency and our excursions. The front cover is a snapshot of one of the unique streets in the town. I wrote several prose poems about my time in Portugal, with a memorable highlight attending a Fado concert in Coimbra – the University City.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL (c) 2023



         

 


Tuesday, June 27, 2023

                



I am now in control of publishing future work, ie. poetry, how-to books and novels through an imprint titled Oz.one Publishing. When I completed my Masters in Writing in 2006, technology as far as self-publishing goes was not as far advanced as it is today. We have online publishing companies such as KDP,  Ingram Spark, Draft2Digital, Lulu Publishing, Smashwords, and many more. I have been lucky enough to use Canva Free to publish my covers, (great guys! -thank you) and so an author can have a professional looking book, both as an ebook and paperback.

THE FIVE LIVES OF MS BENNETT

Being connected to a group of US authors on a Facebook Page, several discussions revolved around self-publishing under your own imprint. So after some serious work on my MA Novel The Five Lives of Ms Bennett self-publishing the work on Amazon KDP as a Kindle book, and also as a paperback (Print-on-Demand) has been a breeze and a joy.  Released in February 2023, I'm endeavouring to promote the book on all my social media channels and through online advertising. There is something really magical about being in control of your work this way, and also having your own Imprint. The idea is mainly that not only does your logo look good, but through Ingram Spark you can gain more distribution access to worldwide bookstores, libraries and online sellers.  It’s a kind of – kudos – currently as the stigma of being self-published has been removed and replaced with you being an Indi author.

THE LAST ASBESTOS TOWN

My debut novel, The Last Asbestos Town is now published as a 2nd Edition. There has been a few changes in the text and also I have designed a new cover. I prefer this one to the first. There is something quite satisfying about spending heaps of time: designing a new cover, re-working or improving the text, uploading all the parameters of trim size, margins, table of contents, headers & footers, and when finally your effort goes through and is approved, well, there it is – a new book with a new look that you have designed yourself.

It still begs the question: Will these books sell as self-published and as a 2nd Edition? Of course, there is much more work to be done. I haven’t reinvented the wheel, but I have new products to sell and also obtain as many reviews as possible.

Check out all my books, including poetry on Amazon here

 


Sunday, May 7, 2023

In this modern day, a writer not only writes novels, non-fiction or poetry, but to be relevant, one needs to adverttise and promote the level of the work.  Amongst about three million authors, you cannot just sit back and hope that readers will flock to you. 


If you're an unknown the idea is to step up, think outside the box, try fellowships, residencies, book awards, and online promotion, etc. It requires a constant effort and it takes up an enormous amount of time, puting yourself out there, being prepared for anything, trying anything personally or publically. 


The graphics included in this post are a recent promotion on Amazon, advertising my latest novel, The Five Lives of Ms Bennett. At the moment, they appear on amazon.co.uk [Amazon United Kingdom], under the book listed as a Kindle copy and also as a paperback. This is a free promotion to all authors and it also includes uploading the same graphics to the US, Australian, Canadian & other allowed Amazon sites. It is commonly known as A+ Content. In the past this was only availavle to mainstream publishers, but by the grace of their good nature it is available to Indi authors. Mind you, it's all about sales and the company is making heaps, considering the amountof self-published books. 

According to the experts “images” instead of “text” help readers when it comes to their buying decisions online. Amazon KDP now allows authors to upload advertising content to enhance their book information and to increase sales. You can upload pictures, text and videos into “Modules”.

I have uploaded three modules.  The first is a banner that shows a picture of me as an author together with my author central contact where buyers can read my bio. Three separate pics & a third includes all  my books. All my books are available at Amazon.

Commercial sellers have the option to have the Premium A+ Content, but for authors the idea is to feature more information about your latest book & bio as the “Look Inside” feature no longer exists on the Kindle copy.


Here’s a quote from SellerApp: “The idea behind using enriched multimedia content is to enhance the user experience which drives high conversions and huge traffic to the listings. In short, it is going a step beyond the usual content that sellers usually create, just to ensure that a potential buyer understands the product features more effectively and gets a sophisticated online shopping experience.”

Saturday, April 15, 2023


 

A GRIPPING STORY OF ENDURANCE


This heart-warming and intriguing novel
will have you cheering for Ms Bennett as she navigates away from an unhappy marriage towards a new love!
The Five Lives of Ms Bennett is a historical, coming-of-age, family saga. It’s about the struggle of a young Australian girl, fed up with her hometown life, only to find that the big city doesn’t exactly hold the dreams she wishes for.

Themes

  • Love doesn’t always find a way.
  • Marrying outside of one’s culture elicits problems.
  • Nationality differences exhibit cultural bias and prejudice on both sides.
  • Five Lives: Five Decades

  • Includes early Australian history, references to colonial heritage, Australia in the fifties, sixties and seventies.
  • The domestic roles of women.
  • Post war lifestyle and conditions.
  • Women’s cottage industries.

  • In the extension of Ms Bennett’s contemporary lives there are issues such as family loyalty and trust, the vagaries of money and wealth, family jealousy and fraud, domestic violence, alcoholism, rights to education, equality and freedom for women.

    My novel can be found on Amazon

    Friday, February 17, 2023


    The Five Lives of Ms Bennett is a novel that I wrote for my Masters in Writing, way back in 2006. Under a different title the manuscript has remained as they say "in the bottom drawer". In 2022, I spent time in a Fellowship at the Katharine Susannah Prichard Writers Centre (Greenmount WA) changing all the mixed tenses to all 'present' tense.  I have submitted the novel to various publishers (one rejection received), also applied to a 2023 Westerly Mid-Career Fellowship, sending part of the narrative on the 1st life of Alice Bennett, however I doubt my chances as there are so many better writers out there than me. Anyway, here is an excerpt from the novel & the one I sent to Westerly.

    Grandma’s Chocolate Tin

    Story 1:           Stories from the olden days 

    Gran shuffles the old photos in her chocolate tin. When she draws a cracked photo from underneath the pile, the old woman withdraws into other corridors. Three men in full uniform, double-breasted velvet jackets and high boots, have their heads bowed. Particleboard lies beneath their feet. Steps lead to battered doors; in a side annex, minor scorching. One man is smoking a rollie. The rest look pitiful, shoulders and mouths drooped. Her granddaughter thinks the burnt building resembles the black-stick house near the beach.

    Alice waits for Gran to call her nickname; twirls her three bangles, watching for signs that Gran’s eyelids have lifted. She has come to know this scene, the charcoal in the grate sparking a new flame with just a little prod. She counts her grandmother’s stitches, the number of times the right forefinger loops the wool, clicking her heels and tapping her leather shoes on the concrete path. In this place together, they are apart. Alice bumps her grandmother, making her drop stitches. In the silence, she plucks blades of buffalo grass, crisscrosses them like a paddle-pop raft. An old straw hat balances on the geraniums. She thinks Grandpa might soon jump back into the picture. 

    ‘Is this where you had the pump?’ asks Alice, pointing to the old tank-stand. More clacking, the scrunching sound of wool escaping as Edith unwinds the ball from her knitting bag. ‘I used to play under there, Gran. Look here, Gran.’ Alice taps the tank stand with a long piece of doweling. ‘With matchsticks. I lit one.’

    ‘You didn’t want to start a fire, did you?’ Edith raises her eyes over the rims of her glasses.

    ‘Nah. Not really.’ Alice sprawls close to her grandmother and snips clover with the scissors. ‘Did you ever see a really big fire with Grandpa in that fire engine?’

    ‘No, women weren’t allowed.’

    ‘Oh.’

    ‘It was bad luck in those days.’

    ‘Why?’

    ‘There was always bad luck.’

    ‘I like firing matches. Whoosh!’ she giggles, imitating the strike.

    ‘Don’t you dare, Alice, or I’ll tell your father.’

    Alice twirls her pink hoop until it catches on her cardigan. She leans back on the top step, placing herself inside the plastic toy.

    ‘I made ‘em plenty of cups of tea in my day,’ says Edith, resting her skeins. ‘They was always awake because of me.’

    ‘Was this your house, Gran?’ says Alice, holding the photo.

    ‘Yep. See those roses out the front, every colour of the rainbow. I loved that old house and garden. Trouble was it was too far from the beach.’ Edith wrestles an aching foot and straightens. ‘Fire Station used to be an old barn till they renovated it. Your grandfather spent long hours in there, checking and re-checking the equipment, tuning the pumps and making the truck ready, just in case.  It was one problem after the other.’

    ‘Did he burn his fingers?’

    ‘He got his whiskers singed plenty of times. I remember the big one. It was a miserable job. Half the Spit Junction was burning. Like a wood-yard, your grandfather said, full of timber ready to go.’

    Alice imagines a bush fire like the logs that tumble and fall in the lounge-room grate. She likes the sound of snapping wood that sends sparks up the chimney. She is glad, too, that Gran is still making scones and cups of tea for her, that everything is much the same; except they don’t have a fire engine to climb on, or a garden of roses.

    ‘I don’t know why, but he kept these journals.’ Edith lifts the book from the bottom of the suitcase, dog-eared pages falling from stitches. ‘Here’s a good story,’ she says, balancing the large book across both their knees. ‘It’ll help you understand your grandfather.’

     

    Warringah: Griffin Road, 1934. Minor property damage.

    When we got there the hill along Griffin Road was yellow and smoky. Left Laurie and Bill in charge of the hose checked out the back of the sheds. The fire was already frisky in the button grass. Luckily the lantana and eucalypts further in hadn’t gone up yet. A lad from the factory rolled up with his truck to help the owner remove some crates from a big stores shed. A few fences needed to be soaked. I got the volunteers onto that one. A strong nor-westerly blowing didn’t help things much. The stacked drums, full of petrol, kerosene and turpentine was our biggest worry. We could hear the petrol simmering inside, the drums swelling with the heated pressure. All the boys and I could do was try and keep the drums cool. We were under control as the other men outside and further up in the long grass begun to get onto the fire and we won the fight.

    ‘Oh, goody, they won.’

    ‘Yep. They won that day, but the next week there was all hell to play. The storekeeper, old Snowy, came skidding up on his motorbike in front of the house while I was in the yard. Well, he rang the bell and woke the men. The fire started down at the Surf Club where they kept all the surfboats and boards. There was a fish and chip shop, a tackle shop. The whole lot might have gone up.’

    Alice waits, as Gran wipes the ridges of her eyes. 

    ‘There were people everywhere, sirens wailing, women, old fellas, boys outside the double doors. Of course, they weren’t allowed in. They just ran with the fire truck all the way up Evans Street, dogs yapping at the tyres. I noticed your grandfather was having trouble with his pants and belt, but didn’t take any notice. The men soon found he wasn’t well. He was slumped over his office chair; coat half off, ledger books all over the floor. In the panic of it all, they took him to the doctor’s first. Had to wake him up. Doc kept shaking their hands. The boys said he was pleased it wasn’t his place going up.’

     


     

    Bounty

    Bounty
    Prose Poetry

    The Five Lives of Ms Bennett

    The Five Lives of Ms Bennett
    A Family Saga

    The Ozone Cafe

    The Ozone Cafe
    White Collar Crime

    The Last Asbestos Town

    The Last Asbestos Town
    Available from Amazon

    Evangelyne

    Evangelyne
    Published by Australian Poetry Centre, Melbourne

    of Arc & Shadow

    of Arc & Shadow
    Published by Sunline Press, WA

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    MBA (Wrtg) ECowan

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    Perth, Western Australia, Australia
    Helen Hagemann holds an MA in Writing from Edith Cowan University, has three poetry books: Evangelyne & Other Poems published by Australian Poetry, Melbourne (2009) and of Arc & Shadow published by Sunline Press, Perth (2013). Bounty: prose poetry is published by Oz.one Publishing in 2024. She has three novels published The Last Asbestos Town (2020), The Ozone Café (2021) and The Five Lives of Ms Bennett a result of her Masters degree at ECU (2006), is published by Oz.one Publishing (2023).

    Helen Hagemann MBA (Wrtg): ECowan

    Helen Hagemann MBA (Wrtg): ECowan
    Author & Poet

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