Blue&Gold, Old School Ties & A Complete Pain in the ... Back!

Currently sitting here with an icepack on my back in the wee hours while trying to work on my blog for this week. I already have my 'lesson for the day' prepared - and it is ... 'sometimes things don't turn out exactly as you plan'.

This past week I was to meet up with my accountant, have a meeting with representatives of a well known Publishing House (Grrrrrr!) to get sign off, be in Sydney for most of the week to meet with members of the McCrae Family, fly back to Melbourne for Thursday to meet with a potential Publicist, get the groceries, clean the flat, go to gym, catch up with two sets of friends and finally, have one more phone hook up with an editor in the United States.

I meet with my accountant and now I am back in Melbourne and I was too busy to notice that it had rained (yeah, go figure)and Steven ends up in that ever graceful motion of saving ones self from falling to the floor at the entrance of the supermarket... and that is when it happened... my entire week changed.

...

I had no idea how putting one's back 'out' can debilitate one for days and the pain is quite excruciating. However, there are lessons to be learned and if one takes all that is thrown at one in any situation (ie bad week) with an amount of good humour and optimism for a better time (owwwwhhhh! - i just had to move.) there comes these special 'moments' that would never have occured had your week turned out 'just as you planned, tickerteeboo'.

More about that later...

When I started writing '209 A Story', I used various points of reference to create plot, story line, setting and character interest. It has been an extremely slow process, as month after month each character comes to life and each of their individual stories manifests into an interesting connected plot.

But how, and from where, does all the information originate?

Obviously the interenet is a wonderful resource and I often wonder how we ever did without it ... OR EVEN MORE HORRIFYING... how can anybody survive without the interent... hmmmm

In regards to Arthur McCrae, obviously the first point of contact was various members of the McCrae family. Sydney Grammar School and the University of Sydney were extremely helpful but obviously when trying to obtain information about past students there is an issue of privacy involved. So it was up to me to use a certain amount of poetic licence to kick it all along.

So, I called the Toowoomba Grammar School in Queensland. Grammar is one of the largest boarding schools for boys, steeped in history, with many famous old boys and one of the nine Greater Public Schools in Australia. I had spent my secondary school years there before I went on exchange to school at Winchester, England.

I was very happy to speak with Mrs Judith Gillies, who has been working the front desk of the school - and providing thousands of young men of the 'Blue & Gold' with a warm smile and motherly advice for over fifty years... she knew exactly what I needed ... and one copy of 'Still Playing the Game' (JK Winn 99)- the official history of the Toowoomba Grammar School since 1875 was being sent to me here in Melbourne...

WOW! I had no idea that that TGS history would need such an enormous book... I laughed - it was massive and, I might add, extremely heavy. I also had a giggle when I saw my name in the index of the book- hmmmm -My First Index. But it was more the company, in which, I saw my name that made me laugh - with the likes of Sir Harry Chauvel (Australian General who lead the Light Horse Brigade), Alan Jones, Sir Bori Kidu, Generals, Judges of the High Court, Opera Singers, Professors at Columbia and Harvard, Wallabies, Aussie Cricket Players, etc ... wow - and I had not even done much at that stage of my life apart from inviting members of the Royal Family to visit the school and having gone back there as a teacher.

OUCH.... steven now returns icepack to freezer... be back in ten minutes as I am currently walking like a quadruped...

tick, tick, tick, tick, tick... back...

After many days of reading the life of the school 1890 - 1905, I was armed with a sound understanding of what life was like for the boys during this period and what I discovered was that it was not unlike my own time at the school almost 100 years later... and having also experienced boarding school in the United Kingdom, it has provided a solid foundation for the school day story line of Arthur... and of course re-reading 'Tom Brown's School Days' did not hurt either.

That is one example of how I compiled information for this book.
1. Used what knowledge and experience I already poses.
2. Made contact with people who may have some knowledge.
3. Surf the net - it provides some fascinating details.

Finally, maybe sometimes things don't go to plan and you have these 'experiences' that you really do not want... but ... as I wrote before - re: optimism creates special moments... well, had I not put my back out - I would not have stopped at Christchurch on the way home as my back was literally killing me and I needed to sit down...

After taking my rest for a short while I looked up ... and there on the wall a plaque dedicated to the former Warden of the Chapel at Christchurch... one Sir Harry Chauvel who, I have since discovered, lived in South Yarra after he completed his time in Gollipoli in 1919... and of course after doing his time with the Blue & Gold at Grammar - Fedelis in Omibus!

Thankyou for your email and I hope I have been able to answer your question Joe from Bath and I'll let you know as soon as the book is available.

Have a good week everyone

Cheers
Steven

209 & Sex & the City...

As I sit here sipping from my City Series Starbucks coffee cup, (bought on the corner of 8th & 16th streets) and overlooking the rooftops of the Edwardian Cottages of South Yarra, Melbourne, I begin to wonder... What does the launch of '209 A Story' and the premiere of the new Sex & the City movie have in common?

More about that later...

Firstly, wow - I am a tad surprised at the level of interest in my blog. When a publicist friend of mine suggested the best way to commence the marketing of '209 A Story', in this 'new technological age', was to create a blog... I must have had a vacant look on my face because she asked me if I knew what a 'blog' was? Did I tell her I was a writer??????

In the past, I have read blogs of others, which, in general, were the ramblings of the politically unsettled or the paradoxically insane, and I even had a blog of my own. At one point I was getting over five thousand hits per day ... at that stage, if I remember correctly, I was one of about 50k people around the world who 'blogged'. But, like so many other 'bloggers' my entire life was spent putting together my little cyber stories - AND - I was doing it on daily basis...

So the reason I was surprised at the interest is not because I did not know what blogs were - I just did not realise that they are still as popular as ever. The emails since last Monday are testament to that level of interest and now I will answer some of the questions posed this week...

Q. Is this a biography?
A. No, it's not a biography of Arthur (btw - that's him at the top of the blog!). It is a novel with a plot of intrigue, a certain amount of suspense and the ending that is not a simple matter of Arthur's jorney on TITANIC.

Q. Is your book like TITANIC the movie?
A. Hmmmmm - interesting email... simple answer is NOTHING LIKE IT... There will be no, 'Jack come back... J..a..c..k' and a loving couple hanging from the stern of a ship. Arthur McCrae obtained a degree at the University of Sydney (engineering) in 1903 - he travelled, firstly, to Africa where he worked in a mine and then made his way up to take a position as Assistant Mine Manager in Siberia, Russia. He was the first Aussie Working Holiday Maker! ...GO TEAM!

Q. When will the book be available?
A. Currently, this is being negotiated. I try to stay out of that as much as I can because the creativity of a author Vs the demands of a publishing house does not a happy author make! Put it this way - launch date in Australia is 8th April 2009, UK 21 March 2009 and the United States 21 June 2009. But, I gather there will be a website by then and you will be able to buy it over the Internet.

Q. Most interesting Fact Uncovered?
A. There have been many...but I think one of the most interesting discoveries was that Arthur was a descendant of the Dukes of Gordon ... and that family originally owned Balmoral Castle in Scotland from the mid 15th century till 1798. Currently, it is the private residence of the Queen. I wrote seeking permission to have the UK launch there. This has now been confirmed and will take place on 21 March at 6pm.

Q. When do I write?
A. Ask any writer - it is more of an obsession rather than just something you enjoy... so it happens at any time of the day and sessions can last anywhere from 1 hour to 14 hours... yes - it is abnormal and yes it is exhausting - BUT - when you construct interesting sentences from having an amazing affair with words - it is incredibly satisfying...

Q. Other characters in the novel?
A. The story has 4 characters. Obviously, Arthur is the main character - but there is also Charlotte, Ned and a modern day character named, Dabria Livingstone. Two of these characters meet, one becomes famous by default and another loses his life on the most famous ship ever to have sailed the seas. However, they are all intrinsically linked, in a way that becomes obvious as you read further into the novel.

An editor from New York said to me the other day - that he believed, '209 A Story' will be as big as the 'DaVinci Code' ... I think this is a big call but it was rather flattering. He read the draft and I was pleased with the response from him because what I have tried to do, in the novel, is to make it a 'page turner' - which,let's face it, every publishing house requires of a submitted manuscript.

3 Quick ones...
A.Yes, I have facebook-under my name-happy to add you as a friend if you want...
A.Currently reading the 'Picture of Dorian Grey' by Oscar Wilde...
A. I would have to say Melbourne is my favourite city in the world...

OK, finally - so what does the launch of '209 A Story' and the premiere of the new Sex & the City movie have in common? Well...hmmmmm... nothing really but I did, however, buy my coffee mug from the same Starbucks where Carrie Bradshaw sat when she was writing her column during the series...

Next week I want to write about the ups and downs of getting a publicist!

Have a good week.
Cheers
Steven

The Email ...

Thank you very much for all the email. Almost 100 in the past 24hours - just to let you know that I will update this on a weekly basis (Sunday morning Australian time) and I will try and answer your questions next Sunday...

just a couple of quick ones ...

1. Yes - Updated weekly - tee hee - already covered that one...

2. Yes - Arthur was a real person - but the story I am writing is both factual and fictional. As you can appreciate, I have had to embellish certain situations to create an interesting novel. There are limited facts on the life of Arthur McCrae. Furthermore, it would seem hardly appropriate to write a novel about his life without making it an exciting adventure. If I have learned anything from members of his family and from documents they have sent to me etc, - he was far from ordinary. So, I will say from the outset - Yes, Arthur existed - Yes, a lot of what is written in this novel is true and I have uncovered some amazing facts. I have spent the past 4 years of my life working on it and now that I have finished my work - you, the reader, can discover which parts are real and which are not. It is a story - that is why I have called it '209-A Story'. To entertain the reader with, I hope, a style that is unique.

3. The image (above) is a photograph I took at the Fairview Cemetery in Nova Scotia in 2006. I was undertaking some reseach in New York and made my way up to Halifax to sit by his headstone and do some writing... I have tried my best to write in all settings around the world that appear in the novel. I do believe it has worked well...

4. The Characters - I will discuss other characters and plot on Sunday.

Finally, it's quite interesting when you have something that publishers want. About ten years ago, as a first time author, I had sent off a manuscript ... and was absolutely gutted when I got a 'thanks but no thanks'.

This time - it's a bit different ... for one of the supporters of this book, inparticluar, is someone who is a very important person in Australia. I feel extremely humbled by the experience of meeting this person and the help and guidance that they have supplied. They will not be revealed until the launch of the novel at which they will have a pride of place; and God willing - they will be able to attend the launches in the UK, Australia and in the United States ...

But I will write about that on Sunday.... thanks

Cheers Steven

209 The Story of a Story...

Several years ago I started writing a novel about the only Australian who died on the RMS Titanic. His name was Arthur Gordon McCrae (b.1880) and the research I have undertaken to complete this novel has been an extraordinary experience.

My name is Steven Rafter and this is the information behind the build up to the launch of '209 A Story'...

I have traveled across the world, walking in the footsteps of Arthur McCrae. From the gates of Sydney Grammar School on College Street in Sydney, New South Wales to sitting next to his final resting spot at Fairview Cemetery in Halifax, Nova Scotia in Canada, this story takes in four continents, eleven countries and spans a total of one hundred and forty-three years. Arthur died at the age of 32.

By creating this web log I hope it will give you some interesting information in the lead up to the launch of the novel in March of 2009.

From the amount of questions I have had from people about the novel - I thought it would be better to make this information available for anyone who is interested in being up-to-date in the lead up to the launch of '209 A Story'.

Please feel free to drop me an email if you would like to do so. Thanks for your interest and I hope you enjoy the book.

Cheers Steven