Commercial Publications

Commercial
Publishing

My very first attempt at writing was a 77-page text (with hand-drawn illustrations) full of plagiarism and BIG ideas (as is evidenced by the title).
My book was all one-finger typed on an ancient typewriter that was, for some reason, in our home; with carbon-paper wedged between sheets (one copy for myself and one for "skipper" (my scouting 'writer's' badge).
Yes, I got the badge (after months of labour).

My next lot of writing very much reflected the forces influencing my teenage attitudes in a Catholic, lower-middle-class family in Geelong.

Letters to the Editor (Geelong Advertiser) became a public form of expression for me with:

comments reflecting my initial interest in politics (very much in line with the Democratic Labour Party policy).
opinion pieces on the plight of Aborigines penned following a visit to central Australia. This lead to an invitation for me to go with a group of seminarians to a mission station in Lese (gulf area of New Guinea).

Throughout my teaching career I have fortunately had ample opportunities to play with creative writing in its many forms.

Also, I experimented with poetry as a means of self-expression ~ on love, being loved and being hurt....

During the eighties, while involved with Geelong Dive and Outdoor Centre, I published the club monthly newsletter. This allowed me to experiment, albeit tentatively, with the integration of photography, prose and self-publishing.

My creative writing only formalised in my mid-forties while as a teacher at Grovedale primary school where I explored the concept of strategy gaming as a technique for developing pupils' problem-solving skills. So confident of my creation was I that I directly approached the editor of Longman Cheshire. In 1986 they published the "Play the Game" series.

When one of my editors moved to Macmillan, she requested that I produce another series of strategy-gaming books for teachers.

In 1990 the "Game-Play Program" was published.

Toward the end of the eighties things were getting pretty hectic.

I was asked to produce a new series of problem-solving texts for teachers across the primary-school division. I knew I needed to seek help from others more qualified at given grade levels: Glennis Harrison and Heather Rankin-Eagles.

The Mind Stretcher series was published over the 1989 - 1992 period.

I was becoming increasingly confident about my writing and increasingly enjoyed the challenge of creating new problem-solving activities. Wanting to try something different, and again with Heather, I wrote a teacher's book based around the ABC TV program, "Behind the News".

In 1990 "News Views" was published; again by Longman Cheshire.