Hello, everyone.
Thank you all for
Joining us today.
Now for those of you who don't know,
my name is Felicia and I work at the wonderful
Gympie Regional
libraries. Before we start today, I would,
of course,
like to acknowledge the traditional.
Owners and custodians of the land on which
we are hosting this event
today.
And pay my respects to elders both past, present
and emerging.
So today as part of the Write Fest program,
which is a core sponsored by the Bendigo bank
of Gympie, we have the.
We have the amazing Tony part here with us.
Now for those who are not as familiar with
Tony's work,
he is the author of 18 novels set in Africa
and six nonfiction
biographies. And I hear there is a rumor that
he also.
P wrote one novel, which was not said in Africa,
but it is yet to be published.
So he can, might be able to confirm or deny
that later on.
Tony has also worked as a reporter, a press
secretary.
A PR consultant and a freelance writer.
He also served for 33 years in the Australian
army reserve.
I believe it was.
Including a six months.
Tour of Afghanistan.
2002, is that correct?
And I believe that.
Prior to Carville.
Tony and his wife divided their time between
Sydney and
Southern Africa, where they have a property
On the border of a beautiful national park.
So the reason why we're all here today, of
course,
is Tony's 18th novel last survivor,
which I have a copy here that Tony has lovingly
sent us.
Was released in Australia earlier this year.
And of course it got released in the rest
of the world in September.
And it has already reached number one in adult
fiction in
South Africa. So great job, Tony. So of course,
thank you for joining us.
Thanks very much. It's, it's great to be here
as well, too. So,
and I'm really pleased. I wish I was in Gympie
in person,
but thanks to the wonders of the internet.
I get to talk to you all now and thanks everyone
for coming along.
And I know I had looked through,
who's already signed on and hi to a few of
my friends that are around
here.
I think there's at least one of my neighbours
from South Africa is
tuned in.
And also some of my great supporters from
around new South Wales and
interstate. And of course,
if you're from Gympie and supporting your
fantastic libraries and ride
Fest, and thank you very much for coming along,
I would normally speak for, for quite a while.
But Felicia has.
kindly offered to,
to ask me a number of questions that have
been sent in by members of
the public. And normally when we asked for
questions to come in,
we get a few, you know,
when I've been doing this or talks about Felicia
has about 20
fantastic and very interesting questions that
have come in from
members of the public.
So I I'm sure that you would like to hear
me talk about what you want
me to talk about rather than what I want to
talk about,
but I'll just start off with very quick introduction
to me.
My name is Tony Park. If you haven't guessed
already.
I am not from South Africa or Zimbabwe.
Are any of the countries that I write about
I'm actually from
Australia am I grew up in a place called Campbell
town in
Southwestern Sydney, which is probably about
as far distance wise.
And everybody,
every other indicator you could possibly think
of culturally and
socioeconomically your way from a life of
traveling to and from Africa
as you can possibly get. But as I think we're
going to cover it,
maybe in some of the questions.
The one thing I always wanted to do was write
a book.
So this is my novel mass survivor.
Like my previous 17 books, if you're not familiar
with them,
it is a thriller set in Africa. I liked the
previous 17 books.
It deals with conservation issues has become
something that will
become very passionate about.
So in the past writing books, I said in Africa,
I have covered topics.
Such as the illegal trade in wildlife, such
as poaching.
And I'm sure many,
many of you will be aware that there's a problem
with rhinos,
rhinoceros being killed in Africa for their
horns, for trading.
Markets in other parts of the world and elephants
for their ivory and
even pangolin, which have been linked to our
current pandemic.
And there tends to be quite rightly quite
a bit of focus on the
threats to mammal species.
In Africa and certainly close to home, just
in the news. You know,
this week we've had lots of talks, certainly
here in new South Wales,
rye I'm about koalas and apply to some of
our native wildlife.
And the terrible devastation that was wrought
by the Bush fires at
the end of last year.
Early this year. So we were kind of attuned
to that.
But in this book it's different than others,
because then this one I've focused on plants.
This book is about the trade in endangered
and highly valuable cycads
psych ed. If you're not aware,
cause I had no idea what a psycho was until
I started researching and
writing this book. We were talking about research
later on.
Is a, is a weird looking,
played that dates back to the time of the
dinosaurs.
And the dressing here.
It looks a little bit like a Palm. It has
large spiky leaves.
That you can maybe I'll say on this page.
On the cover.
But it's not a Palm it's closest living relative
is a conifer and
life. Conifers are pine trees. They have cones
rather large,
and sometimes garishly colored cones and this
makes them particularly
attractive to a particular bunch of collectors.
And so as well as there being a thriving,
legal trade in psych EDS,
which are native to Southern Africa and parts
of Australia and parts
of Asia,
and there were collectors and all those parts
of the world and America
there is, as I learned in the course of researching
this book,
I thriving a very lucrative, underground,
illegal trade in endangered plants, many different
types of planes,
but specifically cycads.
And I was quite amazed to learn the scale
of this. It's it's,
it's estimated to be a multimillion dollar
tried and it's fueled
solely by keen gardeners.
If you are like me,
someone who's interested in Africa and maybe
that's why you've tuned
in you probably follow social media like I
do.
And there's no shortage of,
of stories about threats to wildlife and threats
to wild places.
And it can be very easy when you look at issues
related to the
environment,
particularly in Africa to point the finger
at certain peoples and
certain countries and certain ratio regions
around around the world.
Net is sometimes completely justified based
on the evidence.
But the interesting thing about the trade
in cycads is the person who
is responsible.
For the removal,
ultimately responsible for the removal of
highly endangered plants
from the wild to be sold illegally and shipped
and smuggled illegally
around the world could very well be.
Literally your next door neighbour in Gympie or Brisbane or Sydney or
Los Angeles.
Or Kuala Lumpur or Dubai. This is a trade
that goes around the world.
It's perpetuated by well-meaning gardens,
but it's no less.
Heinous.
Or wrong the most endangered living organisms on the planet today.
And not mammals and they're not wild. They're not.
Well members of whales, but they're not memos.
They don't.
They're not animals. They're not close. They're
not rhinos.
They're not elephants, their plants. And within
the plague world,
which many species have gone extinct or becoming
extinct the
encephalitis family of South Africa, right?
As amongst the most endangered living organisms
on the planet,
in some cases,
There.
Many of these planes and they're extinct in
the wall and that's
happened in our lifetimes. All of us watching
here now.
And in some cases they're down to a handful,
sometimes 50 or 60 remaining planes in the
wild.
Often the people behind this trade,
the King collectors and gardeners who loved
these plates.
Literally loving them to death in the wild.
I put this to a friend of mine. Who's a botanist
in South Africa.
And I said to her,
Look, the, the deal is the smugglers,
the middlemen and women in this industry will
tell you that the plates
are probably safer in their backyard than
they are in the wilds.
In the Bush, in South Africa, where they're
being removed, though,
these are the people that are doing the removing.
And she said that is a,
that is a fallacy because she said to me that
if he removed a 0.1,
one plant from the Bush,
whether it's in Australia or South Africa
from an ecosystem it's like
taking a tiny little cog.
Out out of a watch.
Pick it up. You won't notice a difference,
but the watch will either not work or it will
very quickly
disintegrated and stop working because everything
in nature is linked.
And everything has a purpose.
The place in the wild.
And so this has given me kind of a new appreciation
for the
environment and threats to the natural environment
in Africa and
around the world. And it's something that
really opened my eyes.
So it is a book about what happens if the
most endangered plant in the
world or something, a plant that was thought
to be extinct.
This case and in syphilis.
Okay.
Is rediscovered,
what would it be worth and what would people
to do to get their hands
on it? Well,
The EDS and those questions are, what would
it be worse?
It's almost it's priceless.
It's almost unimaginable because by the nature
of this trade and the
rarity of these plants,
the people that are after the money is no
object,
literally in many cases.
And what would someone do to get hold of one
of these things?
Pretty well, just about anything.
And that's pretty well.
What happens in the books?
I won't go into too much later.
I will give you a fantastic deal at the end
of the talk about how and
where you can buy it. But Felicia,
I think probably that's enough for me and
we should launch into these
fantastic questions. That'll tease out some
more about the book and.
And I'll get to talk.
My life, I guess, as well.
Excellent. Yes, that sounds like a good plan.
So,
as Tony mentioned earlier,
we have a number of amazing questions that
were sent.
Anna by members of our local community here.
In the Gympie region and we're going to go
through all of these
questions are going to try and get it through
as many as you possibly
can.
And then depending on time constraints,
we will try and open it up to the members
of the community that I hear
this evening. And see if you have any other
questions before.
Amazing.
Guest today.
We'll get started. Now, the first question
that we have on our list,
of course.
Is how, and when did you know that you wanted
to be a writer?
Hmm, good question. And a, and.
Easy question from the time I could read.
My mum got me reading it at a very, very early
age.
And I don't have kids, my wife and I don't
have kids of our own,
but I am of the belief that it's the best
gift that a parent or a
grandparent can give to a kid is a love of
reading.
My mum was a voracious reader.
And still is. And she got me reading at a
very early age.
You gotta be reading Biggles books.
Hopefully you don't have those in your library
anymore.
Cause they're terribly unpolitical.
But they were great books for little kids
like me to read about a
fighter pilot slash detective from the first
and second world Wars.
I have spoken to school principals who have
my books in the schools.
These are what I consider to be grown up books,
but they say.
Anything that will get kids reading is a good
book.
So it doesn't matter what.
Whether they're rating Stephenie Meyer, vampire
books,
or my books or Harry Potter books or, or whatever
they want to read,
because I know myself as a little kid growing
up in an area where.
We, we didn't have a lot, you know, it was,
it was a nice area where I grew up,
but we certainly weren't particularly well
reading wisdom means not
only of opening up.
My life to new worlds,
but also teaching me in supplementing the
good education that I was
getting at the same time. And from the moment
I could read, I thought,
wouldn't it be good?
If that could be your job to write.
Oh,
Whenever anyone asks me, he's a little kid.
What do you want to do when you rub the time
I write a book,
I would write my little books, make my little
books.
Exercise books is certain nerdy, little kids
like me.
And,
and the grownups at that point would sort
of Pat me on the head and
say, that's very good,
but why don't you think about getting a real
job?
You know, like being a plumber mechanic. And
sometimes I wish I had.
Yeah, but no, this is the one thing in life.
I always wanted to do, and it took quite a
while to get there.
My first novel,
far horizon was published the year I turned
40 in 2004,
and it was quite a long journey to get there
with.
A few stops and starts.
And in a book that never saw the light of
the day, as you mentioned,
Felicia.
Which I'm quite happy to talk about, but so
it's not easy.
If, if you know, within your heart that there
is something you really,
really want to do. And for me,
that was writing and specifically writing
fiction.
Then you should do whatever you can in your
power to do that.
And sometimes that takes other people. My
wife,
who is watching from the lounge room.
Was I.
I said to her when I first started riding
that I,
after working in journalism, as you mentioned
for a number of years,
working with the written word,
cause I couldn't really do anything else.
I I realized it would take time to write a
book with my wife,
Nicholas support.
She gave me the time I needed to try and write
my first book.
I left worth.
And she supported us for six months back in
the late 1990s when I had
my first crack at writing a book. So there's
sacrifices on her part.
And we had to tighten our belts a little bit,
but yeah,
so I knew from the time I could read that,
what I wanted to do in life was to be one
of these people that wrote
books.
Sorry.
As a library and I fully agree that the best
thing you can do is
encourage a love of reading to children.
In fact, one of our programs is beat,
which you'll see a banner behind me is the
first five forever program,
which is aimed to help parents introduce a
love of reading to their
children. So.
Yeah. So it's a great thing to do.
And particularly if parents can encourage
that from a very young age.
I think it's great. And I,
I remember spending a lot of time after school
in the local public
library. My mom, if you're watching,
I don't know if you were doing that as cheap
childcare and I won't
make any comment on that.
Was exposed to the library quite a lot as
a child. No further comment.
We won't come in on the librarians back then.
So moving right along then the next question
actually ties in a little
bit to the publication that never got published.
So, did you always plan to set your books
in Africa?
No, absolutely not because I had no connection
with Africa.
And when I first started writing, I made,
if there's there are people here, right face,
because they're interested in writing, I can
talk to you a lot.
About.
The writing process and, and,
and getting published and things like that.
But I talk from the perspective of having
made a lot of mistakes along
the way. And have you learned by trial and
error?
The first book I wrote when my wife agreed
that I could leave my job
and she would support us for six months, I
made pretty well.
Every mistake that you could possibly make
as a,
as a first time author,
I wrote a book that I thought other people
would want to read.
And you might think that that's fair enough.
But,
but what I was doing was not writing about
something that I was
knowledgeable about or passionate about.
I made a decision that I had tickets on myself.
I wanted this book to get published. I thought,
Oh,
I can write a book. I used to be a journal
and stuff.
And so I thought, what do people want to publish
is one,
what do people in England and America and
Europe want to read?
If they read it in Australia? North has book.
Cause I thought, Oh,
I'll get published overseas.
And I thought, I know that one of the book
or the Outback,
cause you know,
All down there being big in the thorn birds
and Collin McCulloch's
work and all of that great tradition of Australia,
literally just sit in there,
but I thought I'll write a book set in the
Outback and there was one
small problem. I'd never been to that.
I'd never been West of the blue mountains,
Cindy.
So I then set about buying books that told
me how to write and that.
In some of the things that we're saying we're
quite valid for many
writers, but I, I was writing not so much
to a formula,
but to a textbook, I was reading books and
saying,
this is what you have to do.
And, and also that was a mistake because.
The books I read said that I should have a
plot when I write,
we'll talk about how I write later. I guess
maybe we'll cover that,
but that didn't work for me.
And nor did writing about a part of the country
and a part of the
world to which I had no affinity,
or it's not surprising that when I finished
that book,
it never got published.
And that I.
I don't think it was a very good book and
I think it didn't get
published for a very good reason.
But I certainly learned a lot along the way.
I learned that because I found that process.
The process of writing about somewhere that
I knew nothing about,
and wasn't in particularly interested in no
offense, but, and,
and following rules about how to write instead
of just getting into it
and enjoying the process and learning what
works for me,
it was all very false. And I think I was trying
too hard.
To do things for other people or to do the
right thing. And that.
To me was a bit of an eye opener.
Cause it was not enjoyable.
I didn't enjoy the process of writing that
first book and it's
probably no wonder, and it probably shows
through,
because I went back to work in a couple of
years later to my wife and
I had started traveling to Africa.
We went on a once in a lifetime holiday in
1995.
That turned out to be not a once in a lifetime.
On the night we got hooked and went back year
after year and on our
third trip to Africa, I had another crack
at it.
I had another good at writing.
And I thought, you know what?
I'll ignore those textbooks.
I will write about a place that I'm interested
in. And by that stage,
I was well and truly hooked on the continent
of Africa. And I thought,
Oh, I'll just write a book set in Africa.
Cause they're I was, we had a four month extended
trip.
In 98.
And I just sat down one day in a campsite
and started writing another
book.
And that book was set on a tour around Africa
because we were going on
a four month self-drive.
Trip around Africa as great.
No meds might do around Australia today.
And every day I run a little bit more of that
book and every day
there.
The book progressed as our travels did.
And I found that incredibly enjoyable.
Cause I was writing about a place than I was
getting to know.
And more importantly,
a place that I was interested in and engaged
with. So if,
if you live in the Outback and love the Outback,
If you live in Gympie in Laguna beach,
probably write a book can be about your local
area.
If you live in Gympie and think people will
buy a book because I
settled in Melbourne. Maybe that's not a good
idea.
At least not for your first book. So yeah.
And I suppose, as you were going through that
process,
You're sort of developing your own voice,
your own way of telling your stories.
Yeah. Yeah.
And I found that the traditional means of
writing a book,
a blitz, and we may get to this later, but
I'll.
Just briefly mentioned it here. The kind of
the,
the most often taught way to write is in a
structured manner to,
to know,
to have a plot before you start writing to
know the beginning in the
middle and the end of your book and who all
the characters are before
you actually start writing.
And that's what I'd done with the first book,
but I found that incredibly boring.
And also something that was very challenging.
I thought I want to get writing. I want to
get stuck into it.
And yet I've got to do all this stuff first.
I'm going to map out the story and make up
the cases. Well,
it didn't work.
And so what I did with the second book is
I thought I'll just try
something completely different.
Because if I'm going to write a book.
I would no sooner want to know what the middle
and the ending.
Of a book that I'm going to write is, you
know,
who the bad guy is and who the.
Leading men in the leading lady ended up with whether it's the each
other or someone else.
I would notice in the one to know that in
a book I was going to write
any more than I would want to know that in
a booklet it's going to
read. So then what kind of make it up as I
go along and I did.
That's what I still do today.
Excellent.
The next question is, was there anything that
you did.
Edit out of your books.
That you really wish you could have kept in.
Look it.
Either 18 books, it happens, you know,
I've got a very good working relationship
with my publishers of
Pan McMillen, and we have known and worked with each other.
Certainly in the case of my publisher, it's
been the same person.
For the last 18, 19 years, you know, we have
a very good,
strong relationship, like any relationships
as, as its moment,
you know, but we work well together,
but I think one of the important things as
a writer and
What talk about advice later, but I'll mention
it now.
One of the best bits of advice I can give
to people who are here,
because they're interested in the writing
process is nobody gets it
right. First time. Absolutely. Nobody gets
it right first time.
And there's a new need to be invested and
you need to be passionate
and you need to own what you're writing and
you need to be totally
invested, but sometimes, well, all the time
you need somebody else,
a professional.
Not you necessarily your best mate or your
friend who was a high
school, English teacher or someone who's written
a book, you know,
you need a professional editor or a publisher
to say,
we don't really need that bit.
Or more often than not, we need more of this
bit.
So I'm quite often asked to,
to put a little bit more in our flesh it out
or.
Or, or Che or rewrite something my publisher
has, has.
A question that I've heard from her several
times.
Over the last 18 years where she said to me,
Tony,
did you just get to 120,000 words and think
that's it I've had enough
and we should end this book.
And to which I am. They're ugly.
Maybe.
Go back and rewrite the ending and fix it
up.
So that's what happens with me, however, yeah,
on occasion I ever had to cut stuff.
Now, one of the things I learned as journalist
was, again,
nobody gets it right first time.
And if someone is telling you to cut a scene
or a character or a piece
of research that you were so passionate about,
And you were so interested in these facts.
They're not telling you to cut it.
Because they're on some ego trip,
they tell you to cut it probably for very
good reasons.
It's not easy to say to anybody.
That's no good. Get rid of it now.
They're never that blunt.
It's not,
you've got to think twice before you say to
someone who has invested a
lot of their time and effort and life into
a project,
you don't need that.
You don't do it lightly. So yeah,
there have been the odd saying the odd thing
that I've had to cut out
a book, not, not so much in, in this one,
although in this one,
like a lot of books that I've written that
deal with.
Something technical, something that I don't
know about,
like the plant world,
there's probably a tendency to try and put
in too much facts,
research and stuff to make it look like,
you know what you're talking about.
Whereas a guy by the name of Stephen King,
and I'm just going to try and reach around
my computer without
knocking it over.
Who wrote what I believe is the best book
on how to write fiction that
was ever published is my Bible.
And I read it every year before I start another
book.
My mother-in-law forced me to buy this book
almost a gunpoint.
He's called on writing by Stephen King. Now,
Felicia,
I hope you have that in the library, dude.
I'll have to check that one, but.
We don't, we can get it in.
Cause it's the best book on writing that everyone's
at RIT.
The Stephen King has a good line about that.
Applies to just about anything to description
and characterization and
research.
And that is a few well chosen details will
stand for the rest.
Do you want to overeat the pudding? So yeah,
I have had to cut things out occasionally
and more often than not.
It's been when I've put in a little bit, too
much detail or something,
but the, the other point I wanted to make
is.
The editing process should be collaborative
and it could,
should be constructive. And when you've got
a good injury,
when you've got a good editor, it is so be
invested in your work,
love your writing, but be prepared to let
stuff go.
Because if someone's telling you to cut something,
it's probably for a jolly good reason.
When you, when you were mentioning that, that
no one gets it right.
The first time that resonated with me when
I was going through my
university studies,
one of the phrases that one of the instructors
quite often says was
that.
Fail was just an acronym.
And that it stood for first attempt in learning.
So everyone's going to fail at some point,
but it's not a true failure is just your first
step in learning and
progressing through that learning journey.
So.
Yes. I think that resonates quite well.
I was just to finish that point off. I never
criticize other authors.
Okay. And I would never be a book reviewer,
but I read a book recently by an extremely
well known author,
a very, very famous and well known author.
Now.
Either that author is such a dilettante that
they say no one should be
allowed to change their work, or they have
a very bad editor.
Because that book.
Had had so much,
several instances where the same description
had been used of the same
areas in the same types of places over and
over and over again.
And it was just, it was a sort of stuff I
would be slapped.
Over the risks for doing,
and it was just either very sloppy idling
or it was someone saying,
no one must touch my work. And, and you know,
that's that you don't want that.
You know,
you need editors and publishers as part of
the process to have a look
at your work and believe me, they're doing
it from a very,
very good point of view.
Now we have, we have touched on that,
the writing process a little bit.
How, how long does it actually take you to
write a book?
Yeah, well, I do a bookie. I do a novel a
year.
I quite often write a biography, as you've
said,
I've got another biography.
Coming out this year, which I'll talk about
if I remember too. And,
but it takes the novels in my mind.
My main bread and butter in my main passion.
And to do a book a year,
I have to finish that manuscript in six months.
In 2018 are released two books called captive
incentive fear.
We tried doing two in one year,
that was slightly thinner books than I,
I normally run about 120,000 words.
These are about a hundred thousand words each,
but that was really hard. That was, that was.
A big effort. I don't, you know, kind of be
the most prolific author,
but you know, you gotta crack on if you're
going to do a book a year.
And so yeah.
That's six months for the workable draft that
then goes to the.
Draft it goes to the publisher. Yeah.
Yep.
And so then it's a bit bit of back and forth
finalizing the final.
Look and feel,
and I suppose you'd also have to weigh in
on day cover design as well.
There's a bit of that. Yeah.
The publishers take over a lot of that.
I'm pretty flexible when it comes to covers.
I'd kind of say yes to everything. Yes. I
like that. Yes.
I like that one.
There's a lot of overlap.
So while I say it takes me six months to write
a book,
the editing process probably stretches over
about the next six to
eight months, but very much backwards and
forwards. And by that stage,
I'm already writing the next book.
So there's a lot of,
kind of shifting your head from one from one
to the other.
I, you know, I work.
1600 words and diet. That is, that is my eye
ideal.
And if I keep that up more or less with inevitable
breaks for travel
time and doing other stuff,
I can write a novel in six months that doesn't
work for everybody.
But yeah, that's how long it takes me.
And do you find that the process, I know we
just talked to every.
Briefly about when you were writing your first
book,
it was a rather exhaustive process.
Now that you're writing something you're a
bit more passionate about.
Is that an energizing process or is it still
a bit exhausting?
I love it. I love it. And, but I know myself
and my wife.
We'll tell you that it's a bit of a, it's
a bit of a roller coaster.
And it happens in every single book I've written.
So I get very enthused when I start,
I reached the middle and start to have a panic
attack and thinking
this is rubbish.
I'll never be able to fix it.
So go into a bit of a dip and then I get a
burst of energy towards the
end, which is where I am now with the book
for next year.
And then I try really hard to finish it off.
And then I think.
This is rubbish. No one's ever going to publish
it.
So then I go into a bit of a dip and then
I read through it and needed
it, fixed it up with the help of my wife and
other,
my mum and my mother in law,
who already did it near the other experts
and friends that I have
around. And then I send it off to the publishers.
And then I go down again while I wait for
them to hear.
And then we have a little party when it gets
published. So.
It's an up and down.
Privacy.
Do you have to love it?
I love it.
You know, and often we have ups and downs
in our life.
Not everyday is a great day at work, but if
you're doing your job,
you love.
And you're surrounded by people.
You love what it doesn't get any better than
that.
That sounds excellent. Now,
previously you did mention that you put quite a lot of research into
your books.
So what type of research do you do and how
long do you spend
researching? Do you pop down to the library
or do you sort of.
In Africa and Rhodesia and it was about airplanes. I love airplanes.
I love I'm interested in military history.
I put,
I did so much research up front on that book.
I visited museums. I read books,
I set my wife up for a flight in the vintage
world war two plane.
So she could capture the feeling of a five
foot,
two woman in the back of this. But like I'm
in.
Did every piece of research you could possibly
imagine.
And probably about 80% of it got cut. So if
you asked about gets cut.
Research gets cut so you can either do it.
So what I found my trial and error,
what works for me is I researched retrospectively.
So I have an idea for a book, a book about
endangered plants.
It's going to be a waste of time for me to
find it an expert in cycads
and read every book about my kids and learn
all about them and then
start writing it's absolute waste of time.
And I'll probably get lots of stuff wrong.
So I've got an idea.
They're rare plants. There's not many of them.
There's a thriving,
illegal, underground traded,
and these plants are worth a lot of money.
So I can start writing a story with that as
the basis of a story.
And as I go through writing my first draft.
If there's something, I don't know. I make
a note to myself.
I put check in bold and I know I need a fact
or a piece of information
and I finished the book. I don't stop. I never
stop. I never go back.
I don't stop the research.
I just write the novel and then, you know,
four or five months later.
I then.
Research retrospectively, I guess. True,
but do my first edit because it's sometimes
a lot of stuff that you
think you need, but you don't really need,
particularly when you do your first edit.
So then I'm progressively narrowing down the
info that I need.
And then what I do.
I'll tell you what I've done is I don't use
the internet.
Because there is so much info on the internet,
you can find anything and you don't know whether
it's right or wrong,
or sometimes there's a library.
If I'm looking for something in particular,
I find it's much better to go and find an
actual book on something.
If it's something historical, for example,
rather than.
Google away for hours and hours.
But what I do use the internet for is to stop
people.
In a nice way.
I'm sorry.
The best way to research something you don't
know about it.
It's defined someone who does know about it.
And so when I was writing last survivor about
psych ads,
I had a friend who's a botanist and she started
me off.
She was my first go to expert.
And then with her help and a little bit of
judicious Googling,
I'd run the contact details for a few other
experts in the psych ed
trade, a retired professor.
I found him online because he was the head
of the.
The particular branch of the cycad society
in Cape town.
And a couple of guys who worked for the South
African national
biodiversity Institute,
the government organization concerned with
biodiversity conservation,
and I then went to them.
With very specific questions. I'm Tony Parker.
I write books.
I need to know this.
That this plant or what is the rarest plant
and how much is it worth?
And then I can start filling in the gaps because
if I go to one of
these experts and say,
tell me everything there is to know about
sockets.
It's impossible.
And also I'll get something wrong.
But if I go with specific requests for information that lets me finish
the manuscript and then ideally,
and I was very lucky because several of these
people did.
Then agree to read the manuscript and you
know, yourself,
if you read a novel set in the library,
you will know all the mistakes that are made
that leap off the page.
As you, you.
You know,
if someone's talking about librarians and
customers and what they do.
And if I read something about Africa or my
military experience,
I know mistakes jumped out at me.
So if you get experts to review your work,
that's how I research long answer, but it's
a good question.
And lots of people lighting.
Are interested in research. So I'm afraid.
My advice to writers is don't do too much
research, not,
not in the first instance anyway, cause it
can, it can feel like it's,
it's fun.
And it can feel like it's productive,
but it's probably a waste of time. A lot of
them.
That of course your,
your first attempt at writing didn't quite
work out.
And then when you started to write what you're
passionate about,
it did get published.
So what happened after that?
Did you find that your writing process change
or did it stay the same?
Did you find that winning formula?
Or is it a continual work in process?
That experimentally.
I did what I subsequently learned from Stephen
King.
Cause I I'd done no creative writing studies.
I wasn't part of a writing group. I knew nothing.
And I was just left work one day and said
I was going to write a book.
I kind of wish I had read a bit more.
So Stephen King says it's okay to just make
it up.
As you go along in the industry.
I have learned it's now it's known as riding
by the seat of your pants
or being a pantser. So I'm a pantser as I
found out retrospectively.
So I make everything up as I go along characters
plot. I'll think why?
Because I like it. It's fun.
I like not knowing what's going to happen
tomorrow.
I work on the basis that if I don't know what's
gonna happen tomorrow,
nobody else will.
But did I learn a lot? Absolutely.
Even the first book that got published.
The first.
So the second manuscript that I wrote.
Which was the first book that got published,
a book called far horizon.
When I submitted that manuscript was all written
in the first person.
From the lead character's point of view.
Which on hot in reflection I found.
More difficult than writing in third person.
And it's something I've dabbled in a little
bit in a couple of books,
but I wouldn't recommend it because I mean,
everyone's different.
You gotta write what you want to lie.
So the first thing my publisher said, we're
interested in this book,
but we want you to do a few things to it.
Number one,
turn it into the third person.
That was quite a big, that was quite a lot
of work.
You know, but I actually found doing that.
It opened up more points of view.
Cause then I learned about things like points
of view,
which I didn't know about. I learned not to,
to change the point of view within a scene
stuff that have a lot of
people who would probably slightly better
prepared than me already
know.
But so, yeah, I definitely learned a lot.
I didn't change the fundamentals because I
found what works for me.
And what I did was last survivor. Exactly
the same as that first book,
I start with a premise with no idea.
I sit down and I make it up as I go along.
And that's just what works for me in some
people I would say.
Just to qualify that I now know quite a few
authors and I would say
probably a good 70% of us do plot.
No books.
And sometimes I wish I could.
And quite a few have an outline that allow
themselves to deviate from
it.
As, as they go along, that's another kind
of common approach.
Hmm.
Excellent.
Now, obviously you have led quite a bit.
Over the 18 books.
But what is the most surprising thing that
you have learned in the
whole creation process?
There's been, there's been so much, you know,
in different books.
I learned something was there.
Every book. I think what I've learned,
I just answered this in a kind of a.
Abstract. Wait. It's okay. Not to know stuff.
Okay.
It's okay to learn. Part of the process is
learning.
Whether that's experimenting with different
forms of writing.
I have one book which was parked in the first
person in part in the
third person. It's okay.
You can learn that it's actually okay to do
stuff.
And plus in this business,
when you do go down the path of learning about
things you don't know
about like plates.
It's amazing. These things.
They like us. They need a boy and a girl.
To reproduce.
So the rear has played the rarest psych ed
in the world is a boy
because there's no plants left and he lives
in the Kew botanical
gardens in London. Is this plant from Zulu
land,
from the Royal forest.
In South Africa in Zulu land.
And he's been there for over a hundred years
and he's probably
a few thousand years old and they'll never
have a baby because he
doesn't have a girlfriend.
It's the most amazing and sad thing.
A learn. And so in the book, his girlfriend
shows up anyway,
so that was pretty amazing.
Well, that's a happy ending at least.
Then in fiction.
But interesting.
One interesting thing I did learn right in
this book is, you know,
you make stuff up as an author. Yes.
You think of this will never happen.
I wrote a book called the prey a number of
years ago.
This is a serious subject where I had a fictitious
plan to develop a
coal mine inside a game reserve in Africa.
Now I'm an investor in my wife and I,
and some friends have invested in the rebuilding
of a lovely Safari
lodge in a place called [unknown].
National park. It's a place called net, which
large it's beautiful.
And when Kyler diver,
everyone has to come and stay with us at our
lodge.
Cause it's absolutely fantastic.
And it's this amazing wildlife area.
Well, we're just starting this week. That
not where we are,
but about 40 kilometers away, deep inside
the national park.
Two Chinese companies have got special permission
to start prospecting
for coal and probably develop a coal mine
inside the national park.
So crazy crazy stuff can, can happen.
So that was, that was surprising to me as
well.
On a good note.
A surprising thing that I did learn when writing
last survivor, I say.
The radio is playing to the world.
It doesn't exist and extinct female Encephalartos
woodii I somehow
discovered, I thought I'm going crazy here,
but I've talked to my friend and she said,
you never know.
There could be one out there.
And then doing a webinar like this a few weeks
ago from South Africa,
I had heard a fascinating presentation from
a lady involved with wild
flowers in South Africa.
And by mobilizing citizens, scientists,
ordinary members of the public who are passionate
about plants and
gardening and harnessing their efforts and
their passionate volunteer.
They've been going out,
conducting transects and surveys in the Bush
in South Africa.
In the last couple of years,
they have rediscovered 16 species of flowers
that were thought to be
extinct. That's like 16 Walmart Pines, as
we would say,
here in new South Wales, which is pretty incredible.
We found one, I've discovered six 13 in the
last couple of years.
So it's pretty amazing, you know, there's,
there's inspirational stuff that surprises
me and that,
that keeps me going as well.
Your books, they deal with a lot of very serious
subject matters.
So when you are writing a, an emotionally
draining scene,
how do you get into the right head space?
I think what I've learned in writing is to
not overthink things and
because I don't play, I don't know what's
going to happen next.
So sometimes, you know, you I'll find myself.
If I find myself nodding off while I'm writing.
It's not a good sign.
I think I've got to do. I've got it. I've
got a jazz it up.
So when that happens, I think, okay. Couple
of things,
we've got to happen here. Either someone has
to kiss someone.
Which is, you know,
That's kind of a nice way of saying something
has to happen or someone
has to shoot someone, you know, you've got
to keep it going.
There's someone shoots someone.
Sometimes I surprise myself because sometimes
I will find that a
character who I was quite getting used to
and getting into life is no
longer with us anymore. And that can be quite
confronting.
But then if I do that,
I haven't planned it cause I don't have a
plot. And you,
then you start thinking, well, this is terrible.
What people are going to be upset, I'm upset.
But then I think no,
carry on.
Because it came from somewhere. There was
probably some.
In bill.
Storytellers program that says.
Time for him or her to go.
And I did it once I did it in my first book,
I got rid of a character who was shaping up
to be the lead character.
Hmm.
And that character ended up.
Meeting a very grisly end and I got to look.
I have,
I have a friend in South Africa who still
can't forgive me for it.
I had seen his life.
I think he had fallen slightly in love with
this character and that
character is no longer with us.
And he's still endeavor for giving me to this
day,
but he's never forgotten it either.
So, yeah, I think you get into it. You roll
with it.
You roll with the emotions and that can be
good emotions or bad
emotions as we have been live. And I think,
Hey, that sounds terrible,
but if you're moving yourself, if not to tears,
but you're thinking,
Oh my God, that wasn't very nice.
Then you're probably going to evoke that.
Hopefully going to evoke that emotion in the
reader and that's the
business we're in.
Or they roll with it. Don't doubt yourself.
Carry on.
I doubt myself a lot, but I know from experience,
the only way to get over that is to push on.
Trust the process.
And if your process of sticking to the plot
every day and meticulously
doing what you planned out to do, they'd stick
to that process.
Don't rewrite it.
And if your process is to make it up along,
don't overthink it.
Just carry on.
Push on.
That sounds like excellent advice. And of
course, what was the,
what do you think,
who do you think was the hardest character
you have had to right.
It's when you start into real people, I'm
all fiction. You know,
I wrote a book called African Dawn, which
has set law.
It would set in Zimbabwe over the last 50
years and it comes on a
tumultuous times. A lot of my friends have
lived through,
and I had a scene in there with a younger
version of Robert Mugabe,
the late former president of, of.
Zimbabwe.
And I had to write.
A scene in there, which he was in as, as a
young man in prison.
And, and I, I tell you the truth. I did it.
I've done a bit of research.
I'd read a book about his life out of interest.
And I think here's a man who passed away.
Rightly pilloried for what had happened in
that country and the
misrule and corruption and everything that
he had overseen.
But at some point in his life,
he was an idealistic young primary school
teacher.
Who's main focus was the liberation of his
country.
So how do you write a character that is so
complex?
Sympathetically,
but where they are trying to pretend he was
the particularly good
person or did the right thing. They're very
challenging.
Very challenging.
I think if you dip into history can be very
challenging. Yeah.
That is excellent.
And I do think that writing historical characters
can be quite
challenging because they were real people.
And there's also lots of facts and things
that people can go back and
double check to see if you were actually telling
the truth.
Exactly.
So it can be quite, and then of course you
start to stray into,
I suppose you call it fan fiction.
Yeah. True. Yeah, exactly.
So I know.
You're an avid reader. And you've got your
favorite book with them.
Stephen King there that I have just been told,
we have actually ordered a new copies for
preparation of all tonight's
participants running into the library, looking
for that book. So.
Any brand new copies as well.
What do you think actually makes a good story?
What do you look for?
But I think one of the things I answered by
saying one of the things I
have learned, and from that first book is
write what you like.
So what do you think makes a good story would
be very different to me,
you know?
I'm look.
I don't. I think that we can get very hung
up.
I think particularly in Australia, I don't
know what it is.
I know that certain sections of the,
the literary world we'll either focus on whatever
the next best thing
is from overseas. I love the fact that re
that.
You know, the right versus focusing on an
Australian authors.
Thank you. Thank you so much.
Thank you for having people like me here.
I write what is now and I hope not disparagingly,
but mass market fiction. You know,
I saw a review of mine of last survivor and
a newspaper.
The other day is.
Oh, quite clearly, airport fiction, but in
a very snide way, you know?
Yes, it's here. I read airport novels. I spent
a lot of time flying.
I read to escape.
So my definition of a story is something that
will take me away from
now, particularly the here and now, maybe
to another country.
But we'll have relationships that are hopefully
realistic.
I like the bit of action and adventure, but
I don't like too much in,
I don't like gratuitous violence and I don't
like overly technical
military type thrillers and stuff like that.
And I'm an optimist.
I'm an Australian who bought a house in South
Africa.
Does any South Africans listen here.
Then you've got to be optimistic to do that.
I love the continent in the country, so I
like,
I'm a sucker for a happy ending, forgive me,
but I am, you know,
I don't want to write a book where everybody
dies and everybody ends
up upset. Like a lot of people do.
It's a lot of people think that's a good story.
And, but yeah, I think, you know,
Good stories, the sort of book I like to read.
So a bit of pace,
a bit of action, but not too much and a bit
of romance,
but not too much maybe. And, and, and, and
I like to learn as well.
My mum, the first grownup books, my mum got
me reading with James,
a Michener books.
Whopping thick books.
And you just learn so much from that guy about
history and different
times in different cultures and different
places. That's good.
I like that as a kid and I still like that
as a.
There's a grownup.
Hmm.
No, it's very great.
Now you have already given some amazing advice
throughout this talk.
Do you have any additional advice for those
amongst the audience who
are aspiring writers?
Yeah, I have seen it, a few things in there.
Cause I've been thinking,
this is a great question, Felicia. This is
a really, really good.
Good suite of questions.
I'm not a sporty person and never have been,
but I do think for me at my age, keeping fit
is very important.
So I run a run a lot, you know, and for an
old guy, I think I do.
Okay.
But.
And I swim, but I'm not a very good swimmer.
You know, I don't run or twins and I never
participated in sport.
And I don't think most people participate
in sport when they're
younger or in their formative years,
because they necessarily think they're going
to represent Australia or
make millions of dollars at a sponsorship
by becoming a first grade
rugby league player or something like that.
Some people should do,
and they can sit there.
Set their mind to it. I think by and large,
most of us do stuff like that.
That's perhaps outside of our day jobs or
raising a family or whatever
else we're doing, because we enjoy it.
So I think the most important piece of advice
I could give apart from
all the other stuff I've gone on with.
Is, you have to enjoy it.
Now if only, right?
Cause there's so much else you could be doing
in your life.
I only write if you really enjoy it. Now,
I say,
if I wasn't published, I would still be writing.
Cause I used to dabble all the time.
He used to try and right before work and after
work and I fully
believe that. Cause it's something that I
get enjoyment out of.
If you get published and you make some money,
that's great.
You can be someone who rides the instant best-seller
or you can be
someone like me is written 18 novels, six
biographies,
and eventually you make enough money to live
up. And that's how I'm,
I'm lucky, but I only ride because I love
it. And if you, if you know,
you want to write, but you're not enjoying
it.
You could be like me writing my first book.
It crispy cause could be.
Cause you're doing what somebody else told
you to do and it's not the
right way for you to work.
So don't be afraid of trying something different.
All the time, you know, and even within this
thing,
That I love. And I'm so passionate about.
Sometimes I will do something different with
a new book,
like write a book about plants.
That's very out of the ordinary for me. All
right.
Part of it in the first person, you know,
or.
I have a bit of anthropomorphism where I make
a character out of an
animal. Why? Cause it's different, you know?
And, and so, yeah,
I think my advice is love it. If you're not
loving it,
maybe you shouldn't be doing it or maybe just
try it. If you know,
you want to do it, just try something different.
So it sounds like excellent advice.
Now I know in the inner one of the previous
questions we touched on
the fact that you don't like writing about
real people.
But have any,
any particular characters in your novels actually
drawn inspiration
from real people?
Yeah, I think that's fair to say. Yeah,
because you shouldn't go down the path of,
of fictionalizing someone in say, this is
a thinly veiled,
fictitious version of a real person.
That's dangerous territory to get into.
But I know within my characters.
And I think it's probably from having worked
as a journalist,
is that working as a journalist, you become
a trained observer.
You know, you always watching people, it's
fun,
you listening to the way they speak and watching
how they act and
watching what they say and trying to work
out.
What they're really on about is that lots
of my characters.
Based on not so much real people I've met,
but things they've said and their experiences
and that can become
amalgams the lead character.
Well, one of the male characters in last survivors
guy.
Kevin.
And, and,
but he is experiences based very much on a
real life guy called
Ken McCloud,
who is a guy I met through Facebook later
on after doing some research
who was a us fish and wildlife department,
a special investigator who ran a two year
undercover operation.
About 15 years ago, he went under deep cover
around the world,
posing as a crooked cycad buyer.
And he bought down in international plant
smuggling ring.
So I have a character in here who is, I don't
think he's like Ken,
but he is Ken McLeod, the real special investigator,
but Rob,
Kevin has experienced as a very similar to,
to kids.
So I don't have any problem with that.
I pinch other people's life stories and experiences
and put them into
characters, but I don't base the characters
on those individuals.
No. That's excellent.
Now this, this could turn interesting. This
question. So.
One of the people have sent in.
Do you ever receive negative feedback from
government types in the
countries you write about?
So, hopefully it is now.
Government operatives on the other end of
this conversation.
Probably get in more trouble for talking about
mining in national
parks, but let me look.
I like I write content,
mostly contemporary novels set in Southern
Africa.
South Africa is Zimbabwe.
Mozambique Botswana. If you haven't read the
books.
You can't write a novel set in a country like
Zimbabwe or
South Africa, for example, and not touch on
politics.
Or current affairs.
Where issues like corruption and crime and
the poaching and the trade
in endangered wildlife, because these things
are part of life.
I think it's fair to say far more than Australia,
where we talk about politics and we have a
healthy debate about
politics in Australia.
But one thing I've learned at spending literally
half my life in
Africa for the last 20 years.
Is,
it is very easy for us to take for granted
what it means to live in a
functioning.
Democracy.
You know, and, and a peaceful functioning,
democracy,
whatever you think of politics in our politicians,
that is how we live. The countries I write
about politics can,
can quite literally be life and death. You
know, the,
the decisions or the attitudes or the policies.
Of of a.
Of a political party, you know, it can be
life and death, you know,
and really affect a movie on life.
And so you can't write a contemporary novel set in those countries
without mentioning politics and corruption
and crime because they're
part of day to day life.
The trick is I think to not let it drag you
down. So yeah,
if my books have been indirectly critical,
Of policies or governments it's probably because they.
Jolly well deserved it.
But I've, but I haven't. No.
And so that's one of the things I like about
traveling in
Southern Africa and the countries are traveling,
is there is spirited debate, you know, they're, they're his misrule,
but they're spirited debate.
I was in Zimbabwe one year after this book,
African Dawn came out.
And which is probably the closest I've sailed to the wind.
And I got an email over my emails one day,
and there was an email from the Australian
ambassador to Zimbabwe.
And I thought.
What have I done?
I'm about to be deported.
I was too scared to open up my wife to open it and Jabin email.
Email.
Good. I won the Australian ambassadors.
I really like your books, agile I've come
around for lunch one day.
So I was very relieved.
He did. He did tell me to be.
No, I've been lucky. I've been, I've been
like.
That's very great.
And what do you hope readers will take away from your latest novel?
I think an interest in the wider environment.
Me,
a lot of my friends and I we're all incredibly
passionate about the
plight of, of wildlife and animals like rhinos
and elephants in.
In, in, in Africa and pangolin and ideas take
Laila.
Wildlife it's endanger of Australia,
but how many of us stop and give a think to give a thought to a plan?
And if we do do what you think was really
not that big a deal, but.
The thing that is motivating the trade in
these endangered plants.
Is the exact same thing.
And it's motivating the trade in rhino horn
and elephant,
ivory and penguins. It's it's not.
Beliefs or medicine or anything like that.
It's great. It's money.
And the sooner the world catches a wake up call and, and,
and starts to accept that it is no.
Less evil.
To dig a plant out of a national park because it happens here in
Australia.
It's no less able to do that, then leads to
kill an animal.
The better off we'll all be, you know, and
I think that's,
I would like people to take away my new found appreciation for the
environment.
As a whole and not just whatever the current.
Causes or the current, you know,
Thing is, you know,
And I don't want to get into politics and
stuff in Australia,
but I think you could do,
you could probably draw a lot of parallels
here as well.
Excellent. And.
Is it? Oh,
I know that you've mentioned that you actually already working on your
19th novel.
Is there anything that you are able to share
with the audience here
today?
Yeah, I think the, I am writing it. I'm writing
it from here.
I should be in Africa, riding it.
I do often say in interviews and talks that
I get my inspiration from
Africa. This is where I look around and I
put all this stuff.
It's true. Unfortunately.
And I find it really hard riding from the
spare bedroom of my two
bedroom flat in Sydney.
But what I've done. And again, it's not really,
it's sort of crossing my rules about research,
but rather than immersing myself in the environment, in the Bush,
in Africa and everything where I would normally
be,
I've been talking to a lot more of my friends.
In Africa and some experts already, because if I can't be there,
I want to get into their minds because the
new book is about
traditional beliefs in African cultures. So
where we live,
my wife and I,
and a couple of my friends watching this we're on the edge of the
Kruger national park, where poaching is a
very big rhino.
Poaching is a big problem.
And as well as the guns and bullets that are used to.
No, unfortunately.
Animals, but also to defend them,
there's a number of intricate belief systems
in, in play.
Where people from the communities near where we live in, in,
throughout Southern Africa and Africa put
a lot of stock in rituals
and beliefs. And so poachers will be into
the Kruger national park,
carrying.
Muti,
which is traditional medicine that they have
paid for from traditional
healers to protect them from bullets and to,
to,
to help them avoid ranges and punches. And interestingly,
what I've learned for some academics,
the Rangers who are hunting them,
or quite often subscribed to the same beliefs.
So beyond the guns and the bullets in the
war that's being fought to
protect wildlife,
is this kind of whole battle within the minds
of each side,
capitalizing on their traditional beliefs.
It's been put to me that it's it's.
It's not unusual.
It's not African it's that anybody engaged
in high risk,
high reward behavior.
We'll have certain rituals and superstitions
about.
Now follow and, and, and,
and they're very ingrained and they're very
set in their ways.
And it also goes to soldiers and M and in
times of war go through.
You know, quite a number of rituals and superstitions,
superstitions,
and intricate beliefs.
And whether that crosses into religion is
another thing.
So it's a book about the mind a little bit,
but there's lots of action and romance and
animals. So don't worry.
No plans.
Excellent. Excellent. And while we're just
talking about.
Your new book, Lisa has just sent through
the three winners.
The wonderful signed copies that you have
sent us. So yeah,
they are here at the library.
So the winners names are.
Danny Roberts, Helen Kirkpatrick and the Linda Harris.
Is in contact with those people or shortly.
Organise how they would like to collect their wonderful prizes.
So that's very good.
I have two, two things. I just wanted to say,
Felicia,
I do have another book that's up for pre-order now I've done with
peppermint melon. It's a nonfiction book and it comes out in a tie.
That's a very.
It's a Queensland, it's a, it's the biography
of a Queensland about.
Dan Kieran who won the Victoria Cross in Afghanistan in 2010.
And I've had the great honor and privilege,
cause he's a fantastic bloke, of working with him on his biography.
And that'll be coming out later.
This year, it's called courage under fire,
and I quickly have a little special for anybody who's watching.
I am desperately trying to get rid of some
of these books from the
shelf behind me. So anyone who's watching
if you live in Australia,
I'm sorry, South Africans. I will do you a
copy of last survivor,
plus one of these other books, readers.
The cow.
Or captive. So last survivor, plus any one
of those four $30,
including postage no more.
And just messaged me on Facebook at Tony Parker
author.
Or email me by my website and I'll give you
it's better than two for
one posted anyway, within Australia,
a special deal for people watching right Fest
today or tomorrow.
Excellent.
And of course we would like to thank everyone
for logging on.
And of course, thank you very much, Tony,
for making time in your very busy schedule
to come and talk to us over
the.
Internet today.
So, thank you so much for coming along.
Thank you very much. And we almost got through
your list of questions,
I think, but there was such a relief.
Just missed about three at the end, but yes,
we got through most of them. We plotted along.
Thank you. And I just added the,
I just want to say before I go to Felicia
is thank you to everybody.
If you're here because you're supporting the Gympie regional libraries.
I, I, when I'm traveling,
I visit a lot of libraries around Australia
and the more I see and the
more people I meet and the more community
members are made to use
their local libraries, the more I realized
that we have,
what is probably an unparalleled resource
here in this country with
our network of local libraries.
And I think they fulfill an incredible role
in the community.
And they're incredibly important for people
like us,
people who not only love books, but it interested
in writing as well.
And we should consider ourselves very fortunate
in this country to
have their own network of libraries.
So thank you for organizing this and for having
me along.
And thank you very much for that.
For the plug attorney.
Now, before we disperse,
we do have a little poll that we would like
our participants to fill
in. It just helps us keep a little bit of
a record of who was able to
listen to the amazing Tony.
This evening. So we would absolutely love
it.
If you could fill in that hole before you
exit out of the meeting.
So I will launch that poll just now.
And while you're doing that, I would just
like,
if anyone would like to borrow a copy of Tony's latest novel,
or maybe reconnect with some of his previous ones,
you can go online to the website.
The regional libraries website or visit your
local branch and they
will be able to place copies of his books
on reserve for you.
And once again, I would like to thank you
all for joining us today.
It has,
this has been an online program sponsored
by the Bendigo bank of Gympie
as part of Write Fest 2020.
