Helen Hagemann

Saturday, August 29, 2020

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.

Review of The Children's House by Alice Nelson

The Children’s House by Alice Nelson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I enjoyed reading The Children's House . A little slow at first, but as one reviewer has stated the text is often meandering and meditative. Once the story got going about the nurturing aspect of "the children's house" on an Israeli kibbutz, themes of love, comfort and Marina's childlessness and her motivation emerged. The association of Marina with the little refugee boy Gabriel, esp. her love for him was heartfelt and appeared to evoke a personal aspect / history. I was drawn into interesting characters such as Constance and wanted to know more about a possible trauma [although imagined], the elderly nun Vera, her part in the chapters with Constance and Gabriel esp. her perspective on what mattered at the convent. I found Jacob to be that typical CIS white male who acts accordingly, exhibiting a dominant post-colonial fear and also unable to place himself in the shoes of his barren wife. While this book was more character driven, the shifting timeline was interesting and certain historical events not well-known personally such as the scarring of Holocaust survivors, the genocide in Rwanda, its aftermath and the effect on families. As Peter Carey once stated, 'No one writes a novel to dramatically illustrate what everybody knows!'
Alice Nelson's prose is florid and poetic, her descriptions in the early part of the novel are worth repeating here.
Page 17: 'The world was offering her the figure of a mother at a time when she thought she had stopped looking behind her for what had been lost.'
Page 25: 'How can they survive this white time with no leaf on any tree, and the cold so strong that even one small square of bare skin can send it deep into you?'

View all my reviews

Prose poem: Mangoes

Mangoes

Lovely yellow golden slippery juicy dribbling from the tongue and the joy of sectioning each section small tasty single bites exaggerating the buds and the slip slip through the teeth a party in the mouth a season of smell touch peel cook with garlic spring-onions mushrooms coconut stock and tender chicken if free range with choices to be made of skinless or on the bone and supposing there is a bone a good meal comes in the order of sound a corkage of wine the clatter of dishes single or large and possibly there is a crockpot of steamed rice with side colours of red and green and an aromatic suspense should arrive along with bated silence as the cooked spices yellow curry and the tender chicken and golden mangoes slip onto the plate.

Prose Poem: Beer

Beer

The region is tropical sweltering sun sea dazzle humidity warmth and there is every reason to stay and simpler to be in a room but everywhere life is courage to be there for the light and shadow and shade and coconuts cashews and cocktails by the pool waiter in earnest topping up kindness drink to eyes to the bright of overtaking and that is a turning of sobriety to sway and swagger not fall definitely not as the symmetry of liquid amber is lost drunk but certainly not too drunk to toast another taste difference scull another bottle a golden brew icy lick lips lick lips it is not a birthday to send everything away and there is no use at all denying thirst for respect for thirstiness in any country is mutual.

Prose Poem: Sunset

Sunset
The late sky is a gate which opens is open at the hour of closing. Summer says it is so. In the middle of a tiny spot a white light is in bright and comes before the blackening. A. an orange balloon and B. not dangerous and never bursting only an explosion of beautiful, beautiful. Go amber, go gold, a football, a goal landed in the sky. Suppose a good seat is mango juice, a front seat with toes dipped, beach in rubbed purr, ooh ooh ooh leather soles gone and a whole time of ladies simple pleasure smiles toes heels calves sales ladies little sales big ladies little feet satin smooth not saddles of mutton. The day again in a bolster, a blessing, warm not hot and another show of sunset shutting in twenty-four hours.

Prose Poem: Breakfast

Breakfast:
A square table of a period, French provincial and a joyful array of the region with croissants and slender butter and placed with a little difference is a small white bull. Not a real bull. It shows perhaps a borrowing. Spanish, but not, certainly not, as it holds milk for the tea. The tea is weak but nevertheless the decoration is blue, a kind colour around the room in a choice of chairs, not too small for the back and the leaning yesterday and it is likely that today is a holiday with eggs and coffee. Delicious eating without explaining an accent as food is a language, yes, and no need to explain a carafe of juice with an arrangement of seasonal fruit and a side serving of baker’s crusty snaps. Waiting is lengthening for the bacon and mushrooms if that order is really necessary but if in the eating there is a needed respite, a platter of cheese is there for the tasting, and a declared respect for the cook when the door swings open and a tray of pumpkin soup is strong and mushy with early morning warmth which is a kind of astonishment for tears and fullness and a certain bursting when there is further talk of salmon with a dash of pepper, kind cuts of ham, sausages thick and thin, a breakfast different and pleasanter and certainly there is no surprise waving the chicken away.

Prose poem: Balcony

Balcony

The view is wholesome, somewhere a mountain looking back and the town not far off under weary feet. A balcony is a place of shade an open entrance that shows one way in one way out. A balcony for lovers in a play showing we are all much smaller up there if there is ivy and joy and a caller below. A railing is essential strong and not tardy, it should be solid with a table the colour of dishes an open page with spectacles and even when the room is open a book and spectacles will show that the balcony is not empty. The book rests in its own place and there is victory in the borrowing if the author is not cranky. Changing the table might alter the view to a better side if hot and that could make things better and bigger and if it does not make things bigger, then the outlook is not hindered from not being. Should the view grow smaller near the mountain there could be currency in binoculars a movie in the making or a yodeller imitating the lips of sweet sweet sweet Susie Asado. This is so very charming and harmonious for those sharing if there is pleasure under an awning wine and song. Essential too that the slider remains open to the main room inside and if a corridor leads the way every other room will be headway to the balcony and this shows nearly enough choice at midnight or dawn.

Bedroom

A suitable room for sleeping, well housed, a kind of delightfulness without any complaining if the measurement is right. A window is a wide veil and that means a spectacle of shadows and very likely a verdant view below. An arrangement might be two bedrooms of different colours particularly a purple room with a wise chair for thinking. It is so necessary to sit without custody or betrayal when the mind has no vacancies. In a green room there is nothing wasted on waking only suitable bedding is never white and that means changing with special attention if there is no spring or stream to clean, for cleaning is a tradition of gallons given away. Too much devotion to water means reduction and is not lessening in an age of lessening. The main action is washing wearing renewing and certainly a bedroom is not for eating. It is a soft place for reverie if the mood is right, a right place for dreaming and a good place to order titbits of secrets in repose.

My Novel The Last Asbestos Town ...to be published!

I am listing the steps that have happened towards the publication of my novel The Last Asbestos Town!

Dear Helen,

I read your query and would like to see the complete manuscript for consideration.
You can send it as an attachment in reply to this email.
Kind regards,

Stevan

Stevan V. Nikolic
Editor
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: (917) 727 8907editor@adelaidebooks.org
http://adelaidebooks.org
http://adelaidemagazine.org

Dear Helen,

I read your manuscript and would like to publish "The Last Asbestos Town" if you agree with our publishing contract terms. I believe that your book would make a nice addition to Adelaide Books list. Actually, we are in the process of finalizing our publishing calendar for the second quarter of 2020 and if we do a contract now, your book may be scheduled for release somewhere between the beginning of April and the end of June 2020.

We would like to offer you a standard publishing contract where the copyright stays with the author, we cover all costs of book production and marketing and it comes with 20% royalties for the author. You can find more about our contract terms here:

http://adelaidebooks.org/terms_conditions.html

If you agree to these terms, please reply to this email promptly and I will send you a publishing contract to sign and schedule your book release.

Looking forward to hearing back from you.

With Kind Regards,
Stevan V. Nikolic
Editor

Prose poem: Glassware

Glassware

Blue blue blue as bulbs blown and a size that is not sad while hanging. Silver is every bit blue and as beautiful as gold and the green of giving. Suppose there was a game, a fancier present, or a clean mixture of white and not a coal colour, never a coal colour together but a separation of the sight of blue and green and silver and gold for that reason. Sameness is a negative answer and the sight of colours in glassware in a similar arrangement is sounder. There must be astonishment and an allusion to the illustration. The shape and design is the concentration and the notion of a simpler answer is on the way forward. The sight of a blue jug with a rounder figure will show the shape nicely, the handles delicate and pleasing and not cheap, no not cheap, but there is intention there for the wishing of miniature and to spread certainly something upright on a matching border, if there is a border.

Prose Poem: Hotel

Hotel

On occasion it is a splendid address. A kind of green and the spark is brighter and the patio indicates wine and winsome should the flowers flow freely over. The game for guests is food and should there be coffee a certain time selected for that is assured, suppose it is even necessary to dress formerly and suppose it was actual in August with music more melodious in spring for spring is the incident of green and everything is breaking loose a little at a time. Nothing quite like a tray that is square and quite flat and young waiters trembling with the weight of serving cuisine and plates more round nothing breaking and the losing of no little piece.

Prose poem: Black Pottery

Black Pottery

Pottery is charm a shape nicely a vase, an urn, a holdall for ash and plant. Earthenware may not be strange in colour if cooked in dirt and fire, there need not be distress if the clay cools to black; black pottery not painted, not strange if change is taking place in the kiln. Colour is cunning in nature. So then, the order is round, pear-shaped or statue; life-size is something suggesting honour, a founder of factory and home. It is not disappointing to visit, it is not, it is so rudimentary to analyse and see fine art lovingly lovingly held in masterly hands, it is, it is earnest and stuttering to be art, to remain art, to remain not as loss but worthy of its cause and sign. The perfect way to preserve is to buy its shape and post the solid vase in a corner window or under an arbor of roses where a rose is a rose and black pottery is back and black is back.

Hut

A hut suggests nothing except it is old and a measure of length and height and made of stone. It appears lost and alone sitting beside a field on a gravelly road, yet the right reason is utility and certainly it is not negative which means it has a purpose. There’s a strong panting when the wheelbarrow is offloaded and a winter’s fuel is stacked delicately, delicately so as not to fall. Certainly the wood is placed upright wall to wall, never looking out. It’s not necessary for timber to have a view, timber has a purpose to return again to the wheelbarrow and be trundled out of the hut and possibly there is an aching and sweat dripping to the hearth. It’s quite fitting then to have a hut beside a road in a farmer’s field close to the woods with no window, the dry succouring a colour change within.

Great News! Dorothy Hewett Poetry Award name dropped!

VARUNA RESIDENTIAL FELLOWSHIPS

Flagship Fellowships are offered to writers whose work shows a striking and original voice in fiction, short stories, narrative non-fiction, environmental writing and/or poetry.

The Flagship Fellowships are:

Eleanor Dark Fellowship - Fiction: Established in memory of Blue Mountains writer Eleanor Dark, this writing fellowship will be awarded to a fiction application of outstanding quality.
Eric Dark Fellowship - Non-fiction: Established in memory of Blue Mountains writer and social activist Eric Dark, this writing fellowship will be awarded for a non-fiction application of outstanding quality in social, historical or political writing.
The Varuna Poetry Fellowship: This fellowship will be awarded for a poetry application of outstanding quality.
The Mick Dark Fellowship: Established in memory of Mick Dark, who bequeathed Varuna House to the writers of Australia, this writing fellowship will be awarded to outstanding Environmental Writing.
The Henry Handel Richardson Fellowship - Short Story Writing: Offered in partnership with the Henry Handel Richardson Society, this award promotes the life and legacy of Henry Handel Richardson as a significant Australian author and encourages excellence in Australian short story writing. This award is offered every second year and will be offered in the 2019 program.

OOTA Spilt Ink Competition 2018

OOTA's (Out of the Asylum) Spilt Ink Competition 2018 is open to all financial members of writing organisations affiliated with Writers United WA.

Entry Fees

Poetry - $10 for one poem; $15 for two or $20 for three

Short Fiction - $10 for one short fiction; $18 for two or $25 for three

Prizes

First Prize - $200 plus Bookshop Voucher ($50)

Second Prize - $100 Third Prize - $50

Winners will be announced at the OOTA AGM in October and winning entries listed on the OOTA website. https://www.ootawriters.com/new-page-3/

TWO VERY BRAVE WOMEN

I have to add, that after watching The Project on Sunday night and Lisa Wilkinson's interview with Kate and Rozanne Lilley, I think these women are truly amazing and I admire them immensely. They simply told their story of a disfunctional upbringing by their mother, Dorothy Hewett. Kate Lilley read a poem which was very heartfelt and poignant about her underage sexual abuse. Her new book of poetry is called Tilt by Vagabond Press.