2020 ~ Helen Hagemann

Saturday, November 7, 2020

The Last Asbestos Town & Book Clubs

One of the events that I am connecting with since having a novel published is Book Clubs. I have recently supplied 8 books to a Cottesloe Book Club and I will be their guest on 24th August. Hopefully, the group will like the novel. I know that a lot of readers do not like the Speculative genre and many book buyers have said to me ‘it’s not something they usually read’, but once they got into the story they liked it. That’s all an author needs. A reader who likes the book. Some interesting comments have been, ‘part love story, part mystery & part thriller.’ ‘quirky, loved the Gothic included, ‘storyline most unusual but grabbed me in.’ ‘I found it very interesting in a subject I was not knowledgeable in’ and mostly (which I love) ‘I couldn’t put it down!’ I am offering a good supply of books to any Perth Book Club at a discount of 20%. My offer of books includes personal delivery, background notes, plus author visit to the meetup group. I can be contacted @ hagemann.helen@gmail.com or SMS to +61404666156 – Please mention “books” in the text. The Last Asbestos Town is published by Adelaide Books, LLC New York, USA – You can buy on Kindle @ amazon.com.au or directly from the publisher!

Review of The Last Asbestos Town in Have-a-go News, Sept.

Have a Go and win a copy of THE LAST ASBESTOS TOWN by Helen Hagemann.

Read more 👉 https://bit.ly/3hSPWF5

#adelaidebooks #adelaidebooksny #adelaidebookslx #adelaideliterarymagazine

OOTA Writers to Launch "The Last Asbestos Town"

Setting of the Novel. This largely takes place inside a Girl Guide Hall.

I drew on several visits to the South West, in particular Collie. The Girl Guide Hall is real, having stayed there, is owned by a friend, and that has since been renovated. Also In 2009, I read a novel by Honey Brown titled Red Queen about a futuristic killer virus, so this author inspired me to speculate a future on asbestos and to write the premise of “what if?”

OOTA Writers to launch The Last Asbestos Town in October

Setting: The photograph to the left is named Coal River in my novel. I used an actual setting of a South West country town and this is a way of writing about what you know. I also had a dream that was so crisp and clear that I thought it would make a good novel. (I wrote the dream into the novel). It was around the time when Prime Minister Tony Abbott had brought in Australia’s Border Force to keep out Asylum Seekers. Mulling over ideas for the novel, I wondered what if fascism (or totalitarianism) took over in our country. How horrible life would be. So I mixed the dream with the idea of an Asbestos Task Force enforcing the removal of all known asbestos.

FREE EBOOK - The Last Asbestos Town

I'm offering a "FREE" Smashwords ebook to any reader or reviewer! Please note: This novel is not about the medical dangers of asbestos. It does however (on the subliminal level state that this menace should be totally eradicated from our lives. The Last Asbestos Town is a speculative novel on what might happen in a totalitarian society where there is no choice and power to effect programs are total. It is only when the powerless stand up for their rights that shows that my characters who believe differently to the status quo do stand up for their rights.

I'm offering a free EBook as a giveaway to anyone doing it tough during Covid-19. You can contact me @ hagemann.helen@gmail.com and I will provide a link to Smashwords with a code that will allow you to purchase a Kindle copy, an ePub or an eReader copy at $ 0.00 There are so many people in Melbourne doing it tough and my offer for you during "Lockdown" is I will supply up to 4-5 book links to those individuals. My publishers, Adelaide Books LLC New York, offered the free ebook for family & friends, however I haven't had to use it yet, so I can still supply this link to worthy people. The main thing is you have to open a Smashwords account, so people savvy with opening online accounts it should be easy. Any author wants their book read and I am like thousands who would love to know from readers what they think - good or bad!

Just a note: My novel will delight, entertain, intrigue and have you smiling!

The Last Asbestos Town - a debut novel

THE LAST ASBESTOS TOWN

My debut novel is soon to hit the bookstores (online) end of April/early May as the publication is by Adelaide Books LLC an American publisher situated in 5th Avenue, New York USA. A long way to go to promote the book, or even to meet the Editor-in-Chief, Stevan Nikolic. Nevertheless, I have been amazed how professional Adelaide Books are and that they have gone ahead with the book in these dire times. I'm due to receive 45 books but this will take a long time, since they have informed me that their usual international postage/delivery has been disrupted. So too, a planned book launch! But I have waited over a year for this book and another 6-12 months won't matter. BECAUSE the story is too great to suppress.

WHAT IS THE BOOK ABOUT?

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.

EXCITING TIMES

The following is the latest email and I have viewed the PROOF copy. The font on the opening chapters of the split narrative of Isaac & May is terrific! I love the cover and it's a pic of the Girl Guide Hall, the main catalyst of the novel.

Hi Helen,

Here you will find attached the PDF of the formatted interior of your book and the jpeg of the front cover, for you to proofread and approve for release.

If any corrections needed, please enter them directly into PDF by using "sticky notes with comment boxes" or, if your computer doesn't have that option, you can list corrections in the separate word document in the following manner:

Page No...........line no........ written..........change to........

After we receive your corrections back, we will update the master file and go into printing.

Stay safe and healthy.

Editor-in-Chief

Adelaide Books / Adelaide Literary Magazine
244 Fifth Avenue, Suite D27
New York, NY, 10001
office: (917) 477 8984 (Mon. - Fri. 9 AM - 5 PM)
cell: (646) 574 9902

editor@adelaidebooks.org
http://adelaidebooks.org
http://adelaidemagazine.org

Prose Poem: Bus Shelter

Bus Shelter

A wide structure that lets you in and is never trimmed, a space for prams parents and packages. In between it is so clean a place of space and a large awning that is a roof and this shows judgement and outlines are only changes in outer shade where a whole shade within remains cool yet darkness is the least thing for lightness lets the light in and this is surely conducive to the waiting as a shelter is for the waiting watching circling standing a bolster measure for the leaning on brown boards and within a gracious proximity are benches for the elderly for the sitting, the clock tick tick ticking as time strings along like a feather fall and there’s a pointing to several minutes on the list of arrivals within the hour or possibly the half-hour the route traced under finger and there is no reason to say that the timetable could be better or the bus might be on holiday for a courteous occasion is sometimes to slow the senses to a back pedalling of the bike pedal which shows patience as the real reason for a bus shelter is that it is a perfectly unprecedented arrangement, a holding bay between time and space a place for old ladies children babies and there’s even more expectation when a compressed sound of a engine slows and a line gathers in the momentum.

Prose poem: Ticket Box

Ticket Box

A box that is an open window but only open if not closed. Certainly there is service a greeting friendliness chit-chat from within and much the same on the other side when a ticket is purchased. A small wooden house not quite a home as its purpose is not to house but to act and every act should be personable as out of the box comes a piece of paper. A tin soldier is not a box but very well could be a ticket box a sentry with open arms mechanical shutters, a door, there has to be a door for the one person inside possibly two if enough room to work in a room for the people inside work. Tea milk coffee biscuits to wile away the time should sales be slow and this is more likely on a Monday for a Monday is a day past Sunday and possibly the tourist train is getting a wash. Sunday could be crowds queues questions and sighs within and only when sunset arrives does the Sunday sign turn to CLOSED.