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
