No. 001 – May 2025
Quote for the month: (For information about the authors go to Google)
On creativity:
· "Creativity is connecting seemingly unrelated things." - Albert Einstein
· “Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it we go nowhere.” – Carl Sagan
As this is my first Monthly Newsletter it is worth providing some background details.
I started writing seriously at 15 at the end of 1960. Mum and my step father, Lee, kindly gave me a portable typewriter for my birthday in November. I was quite diligent, would come home from school, have dinner, do my homework, then write from about 10:00 until 1 – 2:00 am and be up again at 6:30 am to go to school. I had visions / goals of being self-sufficient from my writing by 21. By then I had written three novels, the longest one being 125,000 words (425 pages in print), over 100 short stories, 200 poems and a 3 Act play, none of which had been published – correction, an article and a poem were published in a local magazine, but I was not paid for those. I had also done two writing courses and read numerous books on the craft of writing. The best of these was and remains Lajos Egri’s classic THE ART OF DRAMATIC WRITING. As at 2025 this number has increased to well over a hundred with William Bernhardt’s Red Sneaker Series up there with Egri. Bill was a lawyer and has also written an excellent series of legal thrillers featuring Ben Kincaid. Interestingly, Bill was also my first “Friend on Facebook”.
In 1970, after roughly a 10 year apprenticeship, I sold my first short story, OVERTHROW, to K G Murray for Adam. At that time Murrays were the only “male oriented” magazine publishers in Australia. That turned the corner and I sold dozens and dozens of short stories in Australia and Norway, plus a radio feature on John Steinbeck and a biographical article on him to the Mark Twain Journal in America, but never made enough to live on. Many of the stories were broadcast on Sydney Radio.
The Imperial typewriter had been replaced by an Olivetti, and, with 2 – 3,000,000 words typed both served me well.
It is most gratifying now to see the 6 volumes, plus the short story published as Ebooks. These 31 stories span over 50 years and reflect my eclectic taste, ranging through adventure, mystery, crime, romance, general, political, sci-fi / fantasy and black comedy. Whatever your tastes you are likely to find something of interest.
I am an analytical, well organized and focused. Ever since I was 15 I have recorded and rated every book I have read and movie I have seen. I am also a sponge and recall thousands of details from the “significant” books among the 6,000 plus books I have read and thousands of movies seen. For example, I first read Ayn Rand’s ATLAS SHRUGGED, Irwin Shaw’s THE YOUNG LIONS and John Steinbeck’s THE GRAPES OF WRATH in the 1960s. Respectively: ATLAS - 1084 page Signet edition, major characters, John Galt, Dagny Taggart, Hank Reardon. John Galt’s speech to the nation – 57 pages. LIONS – Noah Ackerman, Michael Whiteacre, Christian Diestl, filmed in 1958 with Montgomery Clift, Dean Martin and Marlon Brando in those roles, directed by Edward Dmytryk. THE GRAPES (incidentally, my favourite novel) – Tom Joad, Ma, Jim Casy, filmed in 1940 with Henry Fonda and Jane Darwell, directed by John Ford, who won one of his 4 Oscars. The only director ever to win four Academy Awards as Best Director - (THE GRAPES, THE INFORMER, HOW GREEN WAS MY VALLEY and THE QUIET MAN). No need for Google or Wikipedia, just the “little grey cells working”.
I am now a Goodreads Author. This is a good site for readers which you can join free. I have done 50 plus reviews there, many of which may steer you towards your next book.
There are basically two types of writers, Outliners and Pantsers. The Outliner creates a detailed outline of the novel with a breakdown of the scenes divided into the three acts, the mid-point, the climax and denouement. This could easily be 5 – 10,000 words, before they write the first page. The Pantsers, on the other hand, “fly by the seat of their pants” with no pre-determined structure. They just write. Neither is right nor wrong and many major successful writers fall into both camps. Not surprisingly I am definitely an Outliner. You don’t build a 5 storey building or a 50 storey skyscraper without a blueprint. The blueprint gives you tangible reference points to shape the evolution of your novel. When I was writing my novel, THE PRICE TO PAY, which will be published later this year, if I added together the outline of the scenes, the three acts, the climax and denouement, plus the details of the fictional country of Amity and the profiles of the major characters it probably would be over 20,000 words. Even for a short story, say 4 – 10,000 words, I do a half to one page outline, then mark the left margin: opening scene, background – locale – conflict, climax and denouement. I also do a profile of the major characters: the lead (protagonist), the antagonist (villain), female (possibly also the antagonist). That way I can refer to this as I write, which keeps me on track and provides cohesion to the story.
Origin of THE DRY LAND, or how it came about. In Volume 1.
I originally wrote THE DRY LAND in 1968, when I was 22, as 2 chapters that formed a flashback in a novel I was working on, which I abandoned after 120 pages. This gave the motivation for Jake Ellis to pursue his career as an engineer. A couple of years later, when I started to sell stories, I extracted the 2 chapters, wrote a few paragraphs to set the scene, and sold it later as THE DRY LAND, the story of a 16 year-old half-caste Aboriginal boy searching for his Aboriginal mother on the edge of the Simpson Desert. It was then sold in Norway and broadcast on Sydney Radio in the early 2000s. I wrote THE DRY LAND - 2018 in 2018, a new world. The first takes place over a few days, the second over a century and several generations.
Movies – We have a library of over 600 movies on DVD, and a hundred plus TV series. When that is supplemented by an excellent library Norma and I are never at a loss for the evening’s entertainment.
Movies we have seen recently that are worth putting on you “to watch list”: FREQUENCY – with Dennis Quaid, Jim Caviezel, and Shawn Doyle and LABOR DAY – with Kate Winslet, Josh Brolin and Gattlin Griffin. Ones you may have missed and worth seeing.
Norma and I went on a cruise up the east coast of Australia to Port Douglas in North Queensland on the Royal Princess in the first half of April. It was interesting, but the ship was too big, 125,000 tonnes, too many passengers, 4000, and seating was always at a premium. The best thing about it was La Boheme, a Ukrainian duo. Olesia played the violin and he played the cello, usually two sessions each day. We went every time, if necessary rearranging dinner or passing.
I hope you found this first Newsletter interesting. As you are on my Mailing List you will have received THE FORK IN THE ROAD (FIR) – Bonus Volume free, which I hope you enjoyed. FIR Volumes 1 to 5 (each volume has 5 stories – 25 in total) are available at $3.49 USD each – a cup of coffee. I would love you to do a review and click “Follow”.
For any comments or questions please go to: eric@ericjdrysdaleauthor.com
May you enjoy good health, fulfilling days, and, rewarding reading.
Eric.