2021 ~ Helen Hagemann

Saturday, December 25, 2021

Insights into The Ozone Café - my 2nd novel

The Personal Story behind the Ozone CaféThe old black & white photographs might reveal a little of the setting of my 2nd novel The Ozone Café. The literary world often states for writers, “write what you know”. I have used my hometown in the setting of the novel, however the names have been changed to protect…yes no novelist wants to be sued...

The Ozone Cafe: Out now!

The Ozone Café, a historical novel with three separate owners, is about the café’s demise through council corruption. 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...

My Experience with KIRKUS REVIEWS - did not have a pleasant experience!

This post is mainly to alert Australian authors about my UNPLEASANT experience using the services of Kirkus Reviews to attract a national, US or international readership.You may have seen the Australian eBay advertisement on TV called eBay Tuesday where customers who do not use eBay are denigrated. The actor’s spiel is a mantra called, RIPPED OFF, ROZ. Let me tell...

Writing Residencies Await in NSW & WA

I am pleased to announce that in October 2022 I will be spending time as a KSP Fellowship recipient for rwo weeks working on my next novel *The Tattooed City* /Tattoo City (a working title).I was not expecting to receive my acceptance email as the Katharine Sussanah Pritchard Writers Centre is highly competitive and prestigious. The centre has announced all the successful...

A TOXIC ENVIRONMENT FOR WOMEN

While I'm on the other side of the country (I wish I could march), I am very supportive of women who have come forward with reports of sexual assault, violence, rape, and harassment in the workplace. It appears that we all need to band together FOR MUTUAL SUPPORT. I am a writer and will continue to speak my piece here on this blog. It may go unnoticed, but at least...

BRITTANY HIGGINS per se DOROTHY HEWETT AWARD in Literature

The Dorothy Hewett Award - Name remains by UWA In our current #METOO generation, for the life of me, I cannot understand why the University of UWA hasn't changed the title of their manuscript award. I wrote a letter back in 2018 insisting that they change the name of the award, only to be fobbed off. It smells like corruption! It seems to me, and it's only speculation,...

The Ozone Café - 2nd Novel due October by Adelaide Books

Synopsis – The Ozone Café The Ozone Café is about three separate owners of the café and its demise through political corruption. ‘I never thought of this place as a ship,’ said Winifred. ‘Rennie and I, we had a few drinks the other night when we organised the wall. He told me a few things I didn’t know. When the café was first built, I just said to Rennie...