Christine Grayden

Writing in Bass Coast

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Welcome to my website!


Here you will find information on writers and writing in Bass Coast, Victoria, Australia, along with information about me as a writer and my books and essays. You can also click on the blog to read my essays on a wide variety of subjects on the online journal Bass Coast Post. Enjoy having a browse! If you are writer yourself, or would like to be, please feel free to contact the two community writing groups within Bass Coast Shire, and take advantage of the free writing-related sessions available through the library service, Myli.


See below for more information on all of these - including my brief review of a really important online author talk which was held on Monday evening 26.8.24.




My Books Available at Turn the Page Bookshop, Cowes, Phillip Island Millowl.

Some of the many reviews of my books from happy customers:

“Lane loves your book. We are learning to read it. Thanks so much for writing it.” Wendy O.

"Thank you for the beautiful book you sent – The Lost Blanket. It’s lovely – such a light touch, and a gentle story that has all the ‘almost, but’ features of those picture books I, and my children, loved as a child. The pictures are perfect, with the color pencil working well. They add a lot to the feel of the story.
Thank you – and on  Artie’s behalf too, for you. It's a book I'm glad to have." Catherine B.

“I am thrilled with the books you sent me, they arrived today. My Japanese friend’s grandchildren  were also thrilled with your books, as you can see!” Irene E.

Gail says: "Hi Christine, after getting your Lost Blanket book for myself and a couple of other members of Cowes CWA, we decided to use it in one of our display tables, with numerous props representing animals in the book, including the blanket, for the annual Country Women’s Association Art and Craft display.”

“Wonderful to have a new book in stock by local writer, environmentalist and historian, Christine Grayden. "Minibeasts of Phillip Island Millowl" is now available at Turn the Page.” Brendan, Turn the Page Bookshop, Cowes, Phillip Island Millowl.

Minibeasts of Phillip Island Millowl - Land insects, spiders, molluscs and crustaceans

Children's non-fiction book

Writer, environmentalist and historian Christine Grayden draws on over 40 years of volunteering in conservation activities and education on Phillip Island Millowl to guide young minds through some of the features and behavior of a variety of minibeasts that go about much of their busy lives above the soil on this often busy island.


With 30 pages of engaging text illustrated by over 100 wonderful colour photographs taken on the island by many local photographers, this book aims to encourage children to dive into the fascinating realm of the minibeasts. Includes map of the best free places to explore for minibeasts on Phillip Island Millowl.

$19.99 AUD (+ postage if applicable)

https://turnthepagebookshop.com.au/p/minibeasts-of-phillip-island-millowl?barcode=9780646890982




The Lost Blanket - children's story

Late at night, tired from the long drive home from their holiday, the family discovers they have left their favourite picnic blanket behind.

Now it’s dark, and the park is too far away to go back. What will happen to their lovely blue check blanket? How long will the lost blanket stay lost?
Through story and colour pencil drawings with added clock faces and digital clock screens, we discover just how many adventures a lost blanket can have over two days! The book includes four bonus pages of animal sketches and story-writing space for young artists to create their own picture story, plus a beetle to find on each page - children can make up their own little story about the green beetle!

$19.99 AUD (+postage if applicable)

https://turnthepagebookshop.com.au/p/the-lost-blanket?barcode=978046880419





An unexpected book collaboration for me

About a month ago when my husband John Eddy asked me to edit his speech to present to a gathering of the Phillip Island Conservation Society, I asked "How long do you have to deliver this?" When he replied "Forty five minutes," to which I said "Cut out three quarters of it," - well, a book draft was born!

John and I have co-written various reports and brochures, and also have our book "A Celebration of Scenic Estate Conservation Reserve" on simmer. There's also the joint writing of annual catch-up letters to friends and family at Christmas time. Plus a few songs we've written together.

But working together on John's memoir titled "My Conservation Journey", which commemorates 40 years of environmental activism, is a very different undertaking. John despairs that there's too much to put even in a book, while I'm saying "You need more anecdotes in here!" It's a work in progress, but it definitely has promise, and also has an extremely important story to tell and messages to convey. Here's the draft cover, which shows the butterfly sculpture created by the late and much-loved DAK, David Alexander Kopelman, located at the car park in Scenic Estate Conservation Reserve. There's a story to that too, but you'll have to wait for the book!




Inaugural local author panel event at Wonthaggi Library

Saturday 5 October 2024, 11 am - 12 noon.

A free event, hosted by Myli at Wonthaggi Library. One of the authors on the panel, new Phillip Island Milliowl resident and crime writer Sandi Wallace tells us:

Wonthaggi Library will be hosting its inaugural local author panel on Saturday 5 October at 11 a.m. Sandi and nine other writers are looking forward to chatting about their writing journey and answering burning questions from the audience. There will be morning tea and book signings after the talk. It's a free event and people can book by phoning the library on 5672 1875 or online at

https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/local-author-panel-morning-tea-at-wonthaggi-library-tickets-1007324222867?aff=odcleoeventsincollection

This is an event for adults, so if you have children, please make sure they can be supervised in the library

Sandi's author biography:

"Sandi Wallace began to dream of being a crime writer at around the age of six. She now lives that dream with her husband on Phillip Island. Among Sandi's publications are four novels and two collections of short stories, and she has won a host of prizes for her long and short crime fiction including the Davitt Award Readers' Choice for her debut rural crime thriller TELL ME WHY. Sandi is at work on her latest novel, and you can find out more about her work at www.sandiwallace.com "





The Memoir Experience - A Free Writers' Workshop hosted by the Bass Coast Writers

Join us for an exciting and inspiring writers' workshop at Inverloch Community House on Thu October 24th, 2024. This in-person event will kick off at 1:30pm and will run to 3:30pm. Back by popular demand, this workshop is perfect for seniors who have stories to share but might not know how to get started. Explore your memories and connect with like-minded individuals.

This interactive workshop includes sessions on:

·       The Why, Who and How of Memoirs,

·       Writing from the Heart, and

·       The Hidden Truth.

Get the ideas flowing with our quick-start writing exercise and get the first page of your memoir drafted in our 'Give It A Go' session. Each participant will receive a randomly selected memoir as a gift from the Bass Coast Writers.

Location: Inverloch Community House Inc., The House in the Hub, 16A A’Beckett Street, Inverloch.

Date: Thu Oct 29, 2024

Time: 1:30pm to 3:30pm (Australian Eastern Daylight Time)

Afternoon Tea: Provided

Admission: Free, but bookings are essential.

Bookings: https://tinyurl.com/memoirexperience  or ring Gayle Marien on 0414 627 155.

Spaces are limited, so be sure to secure your spot by registering in advance.

The Bass Coast Writers was founded in Inverloch in 2003 to support local writers, foster literary creativity, and to promote learning through friendly discussion and ad hoc writing exercises during the weekly meetings.

Presenters:

The Memoir Experience is an interactive workshop presented by the Bass Coast Writers members Gayle Marien, Penny Walder and Gill Ryan.

Gayle, (left) the current president of the Bass Coast Writers is MC and will lead the session ‘The Why, Who and How.’ Participants will examine why they are writing their memoirs, who they are writing them for and will briefly look at mentorship and publication methods. Gayle is a past winner of the Boroondara Literary Awards. Her work has appeared in Award Winning Australian Writing, The Umbrella’s Shade, Vegemite Whiskers and Mosaic.

Penny, (centre) a Bass Coast Writers member since 2010, will lead ‘Writing from the Heart.’ Penny will discuss writing intuitively and dealing with emotional stories. Penny lives in Venus Bay, a place in the world that feeds her soul. Penny says storytelling is a driving force of her creativity and stories come through her, demanding to be told and so they are.

Gill Ryan, (right) a prolific writer of short memoir, joined the Bass Coast Writers in 2021 and will lead ‘The Hidden Truth’, where participants will be encouraged to confront any disbelief in their own abilities. Gill has written her memoirs but has forbidden the full reading of them before she goes to the great library in the sky. Gill has a knack for seeing the humour in life and incorporates this into her writing.



A free Myli event to held at Inverloch Library, 16 A Beckett Street Inverloch, VIC 3996

Event Details - Join Inverloch Library in hosting the wonderful Tim Forcey to discuss his novel on energy efficiency, "My Efficient Eletric Home Handbook".

Ticket Details - Registration is required for this session. If you need to cancel your booking, please log into your Eventbrite account or contact your library branch. We have limited spaces available at some of our events. If you are no longer able to attend an event you have booked a ticket for, please let us know so that others don’t miss out.

Contact Us - If you require more information, please phone the Inverloch branch on (03) 5674 1169

To register, go here: https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/tim-forcey-author-talk-inverloch-library-tickets-1024543686747?aff=odcleoeventsincollection



An exciting author event coming to Phillip Island Winery
Friday 25th October 2024

Readers of The Age newspaper can read a review of Jock Serong's new book Cherrywood on p12 of The Spectrum edition 21 Sep 2024. Reviewer Adam Rivett summarises the book as "...a fiction about cities both stable and shifting, filled with figures drownig in love and overwhelmed with sorrow, moving to and fro across the 20th century", and concludes: "In the novel's own words: "That year as one of the few remaining when a great deal was known of the world but not yet so much that the world had become over-known." This what the novel summons, and where it skillfully leaves us - between the familiar and the magical, the surveyed and the still to be discovered." Sounds exactly like the sort of book to be filled with "I wish I'd written that" content!

Note this is a paid event. To book, go here: https://www.trybooking.com/events/landing/1284872




If you're like me and interested in writing history, I can recommend Kate Carpenter's "Drafting the Past" podcast...

Kate Carpenter lives in the US, and while she may be a busy mum working on her PhD dissertation, she also produces a great podcast where she interviews a non-fiction history writer - or as in a recent case, three writers who worked on the one history book! You can hear all her podcasts on her website here:

https://draftingthepast.com/

She has standard questions she asks them: when and where they like to write; what source material they use; what computer programs or other systems they use to organize their source material; what was easiest/most difficult for the process of the their history book; how they came to choose the type of history they would write - academic or popular; the best piece of writing advice they have been given and by whom. Great questions for any history writer. Kate's website page has the best tagline:

Hop on and have a browse - you're bound to find inspiration galore for your next Bass Coast history essay or book among Kate's podcasts!




The latest edition of Bass Coast Post is out..

You can read all the essays from this edition's home page here:

https://www.basscoastpost.com/

Some of the essays included in this edition are:

  • Greg Johnson, the president of the Phillip Island Conservation Society writes a detailed essay regarding the latest policy on rural land in the shire, accepted by the council recently. This is one very controversial and complex policy for the farmers, and Greg manages to clearly explains why.

  • Kate Anderson describes two gardens which will soon be open as part of the Open Gardens Scheme. Her description is enough to send any gardener out to visit, whatever the weather.

  • Bass Coast Post's editor, Catherine Watson, has a lovely essay about a group of dedicated naturalists who have been researching and volunteering in the local environment for decades. Even though the obstacles are undeniable, so are the achievements. And the benefits are not just for habitat and individual species. Catherine concludes her article referring to the benefits to human participants:

"I’ve seen it myself on our woodland walks and working bees. When ego, misgivings, shyness melt away and we are truly in the moment – the great quest of so much modern self-help psychiatry. Just for a couple of hours people forget about the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, the cost of living, climate change, their family and health problems. In a world of woe, nature is a refuge, a stillness, a meditation, a place of sanity and joy. "

  • Etsuko Yasanaga describes her 10 week camping holiday, but focuses on the sight of a woman sitting in an Aboriginal cemetery, to where they were drawn to return the following day. Etsuko uses bird calls, the water plants in the river near one campsite and rocks placed partially as a border around a new grave within the Aboriginal cemetery to reflect on the passing of time and life. Another pensive essay from Etsuko, who always has me thinking differently about the big and small issues of life.

  • Carolyn Landon writes about the extraordinary feat of manual labor - building the railway line from Nyora to Wonthaggi in 10 weeks back in 1910, and reflects on how much better it would be if we still had that line running today. As usual, Carolyn's essay is based on thorough research, so that she can capture all the detail of what conditions were like for the workers. She writes:

"Some 500 men with bullock teams, ploughs scoops, horse drays but mostly pick and shovel laid the line. The working and living conditions for the men, many with families brought into this final section of the line, were appalling. They were camped cheek-by-jowl all along the line from Andersons Corner to Bourne Creek with little or no logistic support. The men working in the summer heat suffered from lack of potable water. Drinking water was taken from any dam at the nearest farm and dysentery was rife. On top of that, bushfires all along the line threatened constantly."

There are several other great reads in this Bass Coast Post edition. I always learn so much from each edition, and think how fortunate we all are that Catherine Watson decided to commence the BCP in response to a local political situation, and then continue and expand its horizons for us.

Photo from the extensive and remarkable collection of the Wonthaggi & District Historical Society, shows men at work (and a horse at rest) during the building of railway line back in 1910. Not too many machines to help them visible in this photo!




Exciting book launch coming up for a San Remo writer who loves a challenge!

Congratulations to Jacqui Swallow, who was raised in San Remo, which she still calls home. Jacqui has written a book - The Bipolar Runner - about her own journey with a mental health disorder and the health challenges that resulted from her diagnosis and treatment. She did not just curl up though - Jacqui took up running, which she clearly loves, as you can see in the photo. She would love San Remo and Phillip Island residents to join her at her book launch on Friday 11 October, 6 - 8 pm at the Sandown Park Hotel. Just scan the QR code to get into the RSVP page. Meanwhile, you can read article in the Advertiser, online (subscription) or in print.


Author in Residence at Bass Coast College - What a fantastic idea!

Also in the 11.9.2024 edition of the Phillip Island and San Remo Advertiser, and article about New York Times and internationally best selling author Amie Kaufman, who spent August working with 300 students across the Bass Coast College's three campuses. Amie is well known for her Adult Young Science Fiction and Fantasy books, so a perfect fit for the secondary students. Here's the photo from the Advertiser. You can read the article about Amie's work with the students on page 11, under the article about Jacqui Swallow's new book.



Previous author talks on Myli

Myli has an archive of author talks, which you can access here: https://www.myli.org.au/videos-category/author-showcase/




Next session: Monday 7 October 2024, from 1 p.m.

Come along to Wonthaggi Library, Murray Street Wonthaggi (opposite Woolworths), and join other writers for support in whatever writing journey you are on. Myli says: "A space for writers to meet and share writing passions. Each session also has designated quiet time for working on your own projects. Each week on Mondays at Wonthaggi Library from 1pm-3pm we welcome everyone to work on their writing projects."

For further information and to register for notification of any change of arrangements, go here:

https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/writers-circle-at-wonthaggi-library-tickets-927057492917?aff=odcleoeventsincollection



AND...designed to get your to really focus in on your writing project - twice per month and free at Phillip Island library, Berninneit, Cowes:

Phillip Island Library has allocated a regular time and space each month for writers to get
energy from each other in a quiet space, while working on their writing projects!

This regular silent practice may just be the impetus you need to really get stuck into writing your novel, or poetry anthology,
blog posts, or even your dissertation.

Next session: Wednesday 9 October 2024, 10 a.m. - 12 midday

Every second Wednesday, 10 a.m. until 12 midday. Inside Berninneit (cultural centre) 91-97 Thompson Avenue Cowes, VIC 3922

Myli says: "Come along to Phillip Island Library to join the The Island Silent Writers - a group dedicated to providing a space for all writers to be encouraged in your writing discipline. This will run every month on the second Wednesday at 10am -12pm

This is a space perfect for writers of any project or any stage of the writing journey. Bring your laptop, notebook or writing device and immerse yourself in a silent writing session surrounded by fellow writers.

There will be opportunity to connect with like-minded individuals for the first 15 minutes and then the next one hour and forty five minutes is for you to dedicate yourself to your writing practice, each writer working independently in company.

There is no need to book for this event but if you would like an email reminder please register for a ticket".

https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/the-island-silent-writers-phillip-island-library-tickets-927611620327?aff=odcleoeventsincollection





Local Community Writers Groups

Phone them if you would like to go along and participate:

Ibis Writers meet at the Education Room at the National Vietnam Veterans Museum, Newhaven Phillip Island Millowl.

Phone Jane: 0498 064 248.

See Bass Coast Writers poster for
contact info.

Next Meeting: Next meeting is scheduled to be on Tuesday 5 November BUT may be changed due to Melbourne Cup Day - at the Education Room of the National Vietnam Veterans Museum, Newhaven.

© Christine Grayden 2023