Here’s a great offer from my publisher, Exisle — The Woman on the Mountain and Mountain Tails at just $A14.99 for the two.
You can order direct from Exisle here, but be quick because stocks are limited.
books
Book boom
Things are snowballing with the Rich Land, Wasteland coal book. One amazing lady has just bought 100 books to send to politicians whom she feels simply must read it to know what they are doing to us.
Bacchus Marsh and Inverloch here in Victoria are yet more unthinkable regions for mining/gas to be proposed.
When I get back from Victoria, I’m heading over to the mid-north coast for several talks before nipping down to Parramatta. Maybe some of you can make one, so just in case here are the details:
?Wednesday 27 June
Gloucester? 7pm Senior Citizens Centre
?30 Hume Street
Contact: Email Di Montague
??Thursday 28 June
Kendall—Laurieton?
5.30pm Laurieton Library
Contact: Kate Forrest, Librarian (02) 6581 8177 or email?
Friday 29 June
Kempsey
?4.30pm Kempsey Library
Contact: Alison Pope (02) 6566 3210 or email
??Tuesday 3 July
Taree
?1-2pm Taree Library
Contact: Margie Wallis (02) 6592 5291 or email
and ??6-7pm Taree Library
??Wednesday 4 July
Parramatta?
5-7pm Parramatta Library
Contact: Yan Zhang (02) 9806 5157 or email?
Hornsby talk
For interested Sydneysiders, I’m speaking at Hornsby Library at 10 am on Friday 8th June. Phone (02) 9847 6904 for details.
Having spoken there for each of my other books, I know it’s always a good event, with keen readers and a lively Q & A after the talk.
Novella Fine Books from Wahroonga will be there with books to sell — and be signed!
Eltham event
After winning the Alan Marshall Short Story Award in 2002 I spent three months at an historic and extremely atmospheric mud brick house, ‘Birrarung’, near Eltham.
This was a writers’ residency courtesy of Parks Victoria and Nillumbik Shire. It became a chapter in my first book, The Woman on the Mountain.
So I have a special spot for Eltham and Meera’s terrific Eltham Bookshop, and have spoken down there several times.
If you’re in the region, come and meet me on Sunday afternoon, June 10th, 3:00—4:30pm at Edendale Farm, Gastons Lane, Eltham.
Bookings are essential: Call (03) 9439 8700 or email Eltham Bookshop. Refreshments are included in the $5.00 entry.
Find your way to Edendale Farm by checking Eltham Bookshop on Facebook.
On Radio Australia
Click here to listen to my Radio Australia interview about Rich Land, Wasteland with Phil Kafcaloudes.
Friday 13th: a black and white day
Last Friday I collected a special parcel at the post office: my copies of the new book!
After two years, it’s reality, quite a hefty reality at 453 pages, but that includes the many references. It’s half as many words again as my first book, and in a larger format.
The cover looks great, and despite the size, the pages flip easily. So a great production job by Macmillan, following on from Exisle.
Both teams are working hard to promote it, as they are right behind the need for Australians to know of the urgency and gravity of this issue.
I think maybe at last I do feel proud of it, as people keep telling me I should; until now I’ve just been relieved to have survived to finish it! Cathy Smith took the photo.
I understand from Exisle that copies are already being sent to those who pre-ordered online.
I possibly need to explain that I don’t have (or own) the books myself so I can’t sign them, but bring them along to any talk I give near you and I’ll write in them for you.
So that was the white side of the day.
At 11 am I had to be at a rally outside Singleton Civic Centre, where a public forum was to be held on the Coalition’s Strategic Regional Land Use Plan. About 300 people were there, bearing signs expressing their concerns and their wishes, like ‘AGL go to hell!’ Merriwa, Putty, Bunnan, Bylong, Bulga, Jerrys Plains, Gloucester… all fighting for their futures.
Nobody was happy about the quite insultingly glib ‘plan’ which broke just about every promise made before the election.
That became anger and frustration in the actual forum as Planning Minister Hazzard in particular seemed to dismiss so many concerns in a manner that to me seemed quite patronising.
Apparently he can’t exclude or ‘ringfence’ areas from mining or drilling because they could be changed at a whim later; why not do it anyway, as Murray Armstrong asked, while they get their plan finalised. And why, I ask, can’t they legislate so they’re not subject to whims?
It would appear that obvious defects in the mapping were news to him: like no mention of a viticulture industry cluster for Upper Hunter wineries; almost nothing worth protecting, so needing to go through the ‘Gateway’ process, in the Gloucester Valley, nor on the cropping and grazing lands of Merriwa. It seemed like deliberate sacrifices of some areas had been made to coal and gas.
Farmers and residents stressed that Cabinet needed to realise this that was a matter of survival, to be aware of the ‘mental anguish’ of people forced into this daily battle against coal and CSG, and the critical importance of surface and groundwater to farmers. If they don’t, who knows where will it lead?
The feeling was that Planning was looking after the mining companies; there was no confidence in ‘answers’ given to the limited number of questions able to be fitted in. Surely more than two hours could have been allowed?
But would they listen anyway?
Everyone needs to have their say officially by making a submission by May 3rd.
If possible, join the rally on May 1 in Sydney: see the NSW Farmers website or call 02 8251 1700.
Submissions can be lodged online, by email or by post to
Director, Strategic Regional Policy,
Department of Planning and Infrastructure,
GPO Box 39
SYDNEY NSW 2001
Visit the Rich Land, Wasteland Facebook pageMy new book
At last I can tell everyone what I have been working on for the last two years, monopolising my mind and my heart, and near breaking both at times.
My new book, Rich Land, Wasteland — how coal is killing Australia, will be in bookshops at the start of May, a joint publishing venture by Pan Macmillan Australia and Exisle Publishing.
I knew the Hunter had been — is being — trashed by coal, and the wishes and wellbeing of its residents apparently treated with contempt by both corporate coal and government. Was this unique or could it possibly this bad elsewhere?
To find out, in 2010 I took my tape recorder and travelled to other coal areas around Australia — a black road trip in more ways than one.
What I found nationwide shocked me with its scale and scope and speed — and the awful human toll from the frenzied push for profits by the coal and CSG industries.
This was an industrial invasion — ‘a taking over of land and a clearing out of people’ — and it was by mainly foreign forces, with full government support via their loose and biased laws and processes — at best.
In the face of all the spin from industries with bottomless pockets and from gormless governments, I wanted ordinary Australians to know what was happening to their country and their countrymen behind their backs — in the confidence that they will say ‘This is not the Australia we want to be’ when they do.
Food and water security, health and social structure, precious natural resources and places, both environmental and agricultural, were being taken away from us and from future generations — and nobody apart from those immediately impacted knew much about it.
And, tied up and worn down with their specific local battles, nobody knew the full national picture.
Book duo
My first book, The Woman on the Mountain (2007) is sold out, but my publishers, Exisle, have the last 30 copies, returned from shops, so deemed ‘shopsoiled’.
I bought ten such myself, as gifts, and I actually couldn’t see anything wrong with them.
I have just found out that Exisle are currently offering a special double deal — one of these plus a new copy of my second book, Mountain Tails (2009).
So you get the two books for the price of Mountain Tails ($24.99), a collection of short tales about the critters with whom I live — and whom I photograph for these web posts.
I’m telling you in case any reader wants to get in while there are still some copies of The Woman on the Mountain left.
Here’s what the ABC’s Gardening Australia magazine said about Mountain Tails (although it’s not a novel!):
‘This delightful novel gives a lively and personal account of the animals that share the author’s wildlife refuge. The book is clearly written and is illustrated with the author’s own whimsical drawings. Read about romping joeys, quolls in the kitchen and marsupial mice in the bedding pile. It would be enjoyed by anyone with even a passing interest in the natural world and is the sort of book to while away a winter afternoon.’
or as The Adelaide Advertiser Magazine said:
‘You may think your neighbours are eccentric, but Munro’s are animals: spotted quolls, possums, wallabies, koalas, snakes, frogs and echidnas to name a few. She describes them in short, often humorous vignettes of her life on the edge of a national park, 90 minutes from the nearest town.
‘Her style is engaging and informal as if telling stories over a cuppa, and her enthusiasm and concern for the creatures are infectious. The stories are illustrated with her own sketches. Munro ends with a restrained but passionate call for action to protect wildlife. As a reminder she includes a list of species already driven to extinction.
‘A good read.’
See you at Toukley
For anyone who lives on the Central Coast and would like to say hello in person, I am giving a talk at Toukley Library this Thursday 28th October.
It will be between 10.30-11.30 at the library in Victoria Street, Toukley. All welcome.
Enquiries or bookings to the library on 02 4396 4247.
Hunter happenings
Under the murky skies of the Hunter Valley, despite its dominance by coalmines and coal-fired power stations, some culture does exist!
Singleton talk
Next Thursday evening I’ll be speaking at Singleton Library about my book, Mountain Tails and some other matters — apart from my wild neighbours — that stir my passions at present. I’ll also read some extracts from Mountain Tails.
This library always does a great wine and cheese spread to sustain the literati audience, and it’s free!
You do need to book, though:
6-8pm, Thursday 26th November
Singleton Library, 8-10 Queen St.
Phone (02) 6578 7500
Valley voices
While I’m talking Hunter happenings, I recently won the Prose Prize for a new anthology, People of the Valley, with my short story, ‘Greta Italiana’, about an Italian migrant’s experiences on his first night at the Greta camp, just after the war.
This is the latest anthology about the Hunter from Newcastle’s own Catchfire Press.
They have published Through the Valley, Beneath the Valley and now People of the Valley — Writings from the Hunter.
The book is an interesting mix of past and present, of fiction, nonfiction and poetry, with B & W photographs.
I understand the book is so far available at Hunt-a-book, Scone; Macleans, Hamilton and Toronto; and Angus & Robertson, Kotara.
The Cattleman’s Daughter
I have just read Tasmanian writer Rachael Treasure’s new book, The Cattleman’s Daughter. To my mind it’s her best book yet, with clear signs of the maturing writer as well as woman.
Like all Rachael’s very popular books, it has a central developing love story and lots of horses, but of equal importance here is the surrounding drama — the forced ending of traditional grazing in the Victorian high country. Rachael knows the High Plains and these people well and draws a sympathetic and vividly realistic portrait of the country, their history there and love of it, and their ways and attitudes.
She is not so kind to the bureaucrats who make such decisions without any connection to that land, or consultation with those who do have it, regarding the solution to a perceived problem. She puts clearly the graziers’ concern for who then cares for such land regarding fire hazard reduction and weed control, when the new ‘owners’, the government, provide little or no extra funding for staff to replace them.
At first, as both a farmer’s daughter and an environmentalist, I worried that the two sides would be stereoptyped into goodies and baddies, as I met extremists like the inner-city greenie, Cassie, and the ignorant and power-drunk bureaucrat, Kelvin. But Rachael also gives us Bob, a reluctant cattleman who does not care for his land at all. In between we have the commonsense types like the heroine Emily and her love interest, Luke, who has just taken a job with the opposing side, a government department with a very long name, but equivalent to what used to be in charge of national parks.
Words at Wollombi
Next Sunday, November 8th, as part of the Wollombi Country Fair, I’ll be heading to church. Not for a sacred service, but to speak at a Literary Morning Tea to be held by my publishers, Exisle, in the historic St. John’s Church at Wollombi.
Based at Wollombi, Exisle are very much a part of this artistic village community. I always love it that my books are displayed in the village general store!
I’ll be entertaining the muffin munchers with readings from my books, Mountain Tails and The Woman on the Mountain and talking about making literature out of my life with my wildlife refuge neighbours. Am expecting a lively Q & A session.
Sunday 8th, 11.30 a.m. Enquiries to Exisle, (02) 4998 3327.
For other events over the weekend, you can link from my event here.