Putting My Book On-Line

Putting My Book On-line

 It’s now done! And if you want to read it 

its now on Kindle  e-books!

 

Just getting the book written about the project took about three years. Getting it edited and formatted and published another two years and quite a lot of money. Now getting it up on Amazon took more money (for an e-Pub version) and more time (reading all Amazon’s legalize). This e-version has 25 pictures included. I hope it is available in your area as I tried to choose the offer that made the book available in most countries rather than just those that Amazon had a special deal with.

 

What its About?

My husband and I decided to take up, as a retirement project, the renovation of an old family house in Greece. We were filled with excitement. That was ten years ago, and since then we have been travelling to an old house on the island of Lemnos in the Aegean for six months of every year. And I have written a book about that adventure.

 

Why take the name Drury-Catton?

I’d always thought that if I write I would use an old family name not my own name as a pen name, though in the end I combined the two. My great grandmother was a Drury, and it was known that this name dates back to the Norman invasion of England when a knight called Guy de Drury came over with William the Conqueror.

In addition a writer from New Zealand called Catton has recently published a book. Eleanor Catton’s book, the Luminaries, won the Man Booker prize. Though obviously not in that league, I thought it could be confusing, if as a writer I used the same name.

Why Self Publish?

 

I did not approach any publishers, but I did approach 8 agents with my book and none took it up. (I know this is quite modest compared with other would-be-writers and perhaps I should have put more effort into finding a publisher.) However, this activity is largely a retirement hobby, and as I’m an elderly lady (75) and time is short, and I have other things to attend to – house, family and more writing, I did not want to spend more time and effort looking for publishers.

How Have I Distributed up Now?

This has been through word of mouth and a few library and garden club talks. Plus I’ve given a lot of copies to friends and relatives. I did put a few in a couple of bookshops, but these were independent books shops who don’t mind the extra work involved in displaying self-published authors, and negotiating payment for just a few books.

Aims for this book

I had been making notes all the time we were working on the house, and finally I decided to write a book about our renovation adventure.  However I did not to produce a book just about the renovation of a house, or just about living in an exotic location. I did not want a story about blue skies and tavernas, or of strange customs and people, I wanted the situation to ring true to what we had experienced. So, while writing about our unique adventure on an Aegean Island, I tried to weave two familiar ‘retirement’ situations into stories of  a special house and island.

 

The House Story

While the dream of a house on an Aegean island, with sunshine, warm seas and rural peace, is something many busy, driven, city folk long for it’s not easily achieved. It took a lot of hard work, and it took us ten years of working 6 months every year to complete the job. There is no doubt that Ogden Nash got it right when he wrote that ‘It takes a heap o’ livin’ in a house t’ make it home. It takes a heap o’ payin’ too.’

 

The Lemnos Story

On the island of Lemnos we’ve now lived and laughed, but also cried and sweated, for over ten years. There is no denying that this has been the most marvelous romantic dream-house adventure but I feel that we too experienced the truth of an old  Lemnian saying, that one cries twice when coming to this island. This saying may have originated from the time when the island was a designated place of exile, and folk would cry when they landed, arriving reluctantly. But often they would cry again when they left as by then they’d fallen in love with the island and its people. This was a recurring experience for me.

Takis’ Story

It was Takis’ perseverance over a very long period that enabled us to succeed; first buying the Venetian house from thirty-six cousins, and then renovating all three stories. And as there are only a few shops nearby, and it’s hard to get what you want when you want it , Takis was thrown back onto his own resources but I think this what Takis most enjoyed.

 

My Story

This project has taken its toll in various ways, emotionally, physically and financially. And, of course, no one can have missed the fact that this decade has been a tumultuous one for Greece, with enormous immigration and fiscal problems. Has this affected me? Of course it has.

But, while there have many been times when I’ve come to the island grudgingly, every time it comes time to leave I walk around my Greek garden very unwilling to depart.

Good Times in our Garden

Good Times on the Island

Launching my Book

 Book Launch

Planning Stresses

Publishing my own book is a very new experience for me. While it’s obviously not the way to make money I like writing and I just felt I should take the process to its end result. I’ve ordered 100 books and if I can sell some of them it will help to cover some of the expenses of editing and printing. 

I had a few problems and on the night I was a bit stressed, though I kept telling myself that it’s no big deal. I had made the mistake of booking a room in a library and then getting flyers printed but then I found that the library was not available on the night I wanted, and really only for 2 hours on any other night!  However, in the end, we found another venue in a nearby Uniting Church hall, which turned out to be perfect for our needs, plus the folk there were so helpful.

I’d also been worrying about the turnout. It was a free event with no bookings and as no one had booked we had no idea of the numbers and if it was a rainy night that would put some folk off driving out for an evening appointment. Plus it was very close to Christmas and many who had said they would come then found they had to attend Christmas event that evening.

The Evening

But it all turned out so well. About forty turned up and it was so good to see so many of our friends, family and associates meeting each other and enjoying the get-together

Before and after the program there was a slide show about the house and garden renovation. There is a lot in the book about the renovation of this old family house and garden but in fact the book includes a lot more. It tells about the friends we made on the island, and about the joys and the difficulties of travelling to and living on an island in the Aegean.

Program

Maria Millers, the teacher at my writing class, and former publisher, was Master of Ceremonies. After welcoming everyone she engaged Takis and I in conversation about the renovation of the house asking us questions like, “Why does the book have that title?”

Then Malcolm Faul who is the president of the Melbourne branch of the Mediterranean Garden society talked a little about the society and asked me some questions about our garden in Lemnos. The MGS is a worldwide society that promotes water-wise gardening.

Visiting a MGS garden with the group

www.mediterraneangardensociety.org

And finally Maria closed and launched the book.

Eating and Signing

Takis and I had done the catering - mostly finger food – and as we were not sure of numbers we guessed that we would get 40 max, and we made 40 of everything. Lucky guesswork, as that is about the number that arrived!

The book was on sale for $24 and while everyone was tucking in to savouries and cakes, tea and coffee, Takis and I signed books. We both did this as though I had written the book the project definitely was a joint effort in so many ways.

The Future?

I’ll place the book in a couple of local bookshops, and after Christmas I hope to post the book on iTunes as I believe you can embed a photo slide show with the book and that might interest some folk. Also, here in the Melbourne area, I’ll be doing one or two book talks at libraries.

Its all been an interesting exercise, the writing and the publishing. Having just gone through this last aspect I have been made very aware that writers do not just sit at their desks composing (a process I find very enjoyable) but they also need to be salespeople, as they are composing something that will then go on sale (a process that I don’t really appreciate). However, if this launch is anything to go by, even this part of a writer’s work can turn out to be very enjoyable!

Writing and Launching My Book

Writing and Launching My Book

About our Greek House and Garden

During the time we’ve been renovating I’ve been writing bits and pieces, planning to turn them into a book, and because these bits and pieces have been written over ten years the subtitle of the final compilation is ‘a memoir’. More recently, as I’ve been concentrating more on turning these notes into a book, I’ve arranged the chapters and then got the whole edited.

The book begins at the beginning of our project, in 2002, when Takis got the idea. Then there are chapters about buying the house from the 36 owners. (This was not easy as most of them were Takis’ cousins and it took us about seven years.) Then there are chapters about the island, the renovation, the garden, and others about neighbours and guests.

 

In the last two years, with publication in mind, I’ve approached a number of Australian agents, but they all came back with the comment that too many books of the same sort have been written recently. (See list below.) So I decided to self-published. Many call this vanity publishing but in the publishing climate of today, when bookshops are closing and online publishing is growing, this is becoming a good option. I found my own editor, and an excellent desktop publisher, and I’m pleased with the result.

It Began with the Watermelon

 

This is the story of our back and forth life, and it covers our last ten years of living part time in Greece and part time in Australia. And while, in this book, I concentrate on our time on the island of Lemnos – discussing the renovation of an old house and garden – I set these activities in the context of our peripatetic lives.

We are both hyphenated citizens, so I also mention our travels back home to Melbourne, Australia, and then, six months later, back again to Lemnos, Greece. The reason for this is that it highlights the complications of taking on a renovation project on the other side of the world, and that feeling of displacement a life of continually leaving one home for another leaves with you.

Those of you who read some of my earlier blogs know that from the beginning I proposed calling the book, It Began with the Watermelon, and this is its title.

 

There are chapters dealing with what it has been like to take up this renovation project in our retirement, and others dealing with the joys and woes of renovation, but underlying the whole story is that other dilemma, the one of living in more than one place, and feeling the need to be at ‘home’ in more than one place.

Launching before Christmas

 This week I will be launching this book here in Australia and maybe later in a digital form and after ten years of thinking about it I’d like to get it out of the way before Christmas, and be able to concentrate on other writing projects!

This is not a money making exercise, though I’m hoping to be able to sell enough books, to a few people, to recoup some of my outlay. It’s not a big deal as I’ve only got 100 copies printed but it’s been a rush to get even this small launch organized in the two months since returning from Lemnos – the ISBN, the bar code, the printing and the flyers.

  The Mediterranean Garden Society

                                                           www.mediterraneangardensociety.org 

The Melbourne branch of the Mediterranean Garden Society are helping me by sponsoring the event, and I’ll be using a Uniting Church hall. There are about 25 family members that said they would come, and I would not be surprised if a number of Greeks who have heard about it come, but I’ve no idea whether there will be 25 or 65 there! Takis and I are making cakes and biscuits and we will be showing slides of the house and garden. I think it will be a fun evening. I do hope it stops raining before Thursday!

Other Contemporary Books by Australians about Greece

There are a number of classic books about Greece written about living in Greece. Everyone quotes Charmain Clift’s, Mermaid Singing (Indianapolis, 1956), to me, or Gillian Bouras, who wrote a few books when living there with her Greek husband. There was A Foreign Wife (Penguin Books Australia1986) and  A Stranger Here (Penguin Australia, 1996), a novel that looks at the lives of three women and their feelings of displacement at living in Australia and Greece.

But in addition to these there have many other books by Australians about Greece written since 2000. Here are a few I’ve come across.

Arnold Zable, in his book Sea of Many Returns (Text Publishing 2010), discusses the seagoing life of many who live on Ithaka. Although this island is far from Lemnos, and set in another sea, the story shows how many journeyed to the Black Sea to trade around its shores.

Susanna De Vries  Blue Ribbons and Bitter Bread (2012) This book tells the the life of Joice Nankivell Loch  helping refugees in Europe, and then living in Greece, attempting to revive the old skill of carpet making for the villagers on the Halkitheki Peninsula near Mount Athos. Joice adopted Greece after a very inspiring life and settled down to live there until her death.

Claire Lloyd, My Greek Island Home (2012). This is a personal documentation of daily life in a village on the island of Lesvos. It is filled with photographs and tells of her life journey from Australia, to London, and the buying of a house on the island of Lesvos; a house which is now partly home and partly part of a business enterprise.

Lana Penrose, To Hellas and Back (2012) Lana was born in Sydney, Australia. She moved to London and a along the way she moved to Greece with her boyfriend and experienced some less than welcoming aspects of living in Greece. She parted from the boy and later returned and experienced a much more enjoyable holiday.

And, Spiri Tsintziras’ new book Afternoons in Ithaka is due for release with ABC

Books.

Writing about Living in Greece

Writing about Living in Greece

 

Travel Writing and Escapism

Some travel books are associated with tourism and these include guidebooks meant to educate the reader about the destination, provide advice for visits, and inspire readers to travel with their beautiful pictures. Other travel books try to do this using words and paint word pictures for airmchair travellers. This is what, in the mid-15th century, Gilles le Bouvier, in his Livre de la description des pays, saud was his reason for writing about his travels: ‘Because many people of diverse nations and countries delight and take pleasure, as I have done in times past, in seeing the world and things therein, and also because many wish to know without going there, and others wish to see, go, and travel, I have begun this little book.’

 

I too have ‘begun a little book’

Like Gilles de Bouvoir I too have written a little book. ‘Because many people of diverse nations and countries delight and take pleasure and …wish to know without going there.’

I have tried to paint word pictures of the old runined house, the disused garden, and the gradual creation of the beautiful house and garden we now have on the island of Lemnos. Beside stories about the renovation I have also included stories of those inbetween times, when we’ve travelled back to Australia. And, of course, I’ve also included  something about the interesting people we’ve met, our neighbours on the island, Takis’ extended Greek family, and family and friends that have come to stay with us from time to time, from around the world.

Writing about the Reality of Living Overseas

The experience of living in Greece for me, an Anglo-Australian following her Greek-Australian husband back to his homeland, began twelve years ago. It began as a different adventure for each of us; he was dreaming of a homeland and I was attracted to the adventurous nature of the proposed change.  Takis wanted to rediscover Greece, and get an answer to that question that afflicts so many of the Diaspora, ‘Am I really at home in Australia?’  While having made up my mind about that, and knowing that I did not want to return to live in England, my dilemma was basically about leaving my home and family in Australia for such long periods.

So, while Takis wanted one last project, and to go back and experience life in his old country again,  I wanted to see his homeland, and have one last adventure. All I had to go on when imagining living in Greece was the Greece of travel pamphlets, and some studies about Classical Greece.

I think that Takis imagined he’d be returning to the world as he once knew it, but that is not how my husband and I found the experience of returning for, like the rest of the world, Greece had changed. When reality hit home Takis had to absorb the discovered that the ideas he’d been holding onto were myths, no longer a good fit for the Greece he found. And, while some things resonated there were others that grated. Like Odysseus, he found things ‘back home’ were not the same as they were when he left. As for me I found not a continuously adventurous life for I now had to commit to a specific house, in a specific village, and a life that was in many ways more restricted.

When writing about our experiences in Greece I’ve wanted to point out this, that the project has in many ways been different from our first expectations, that although we have vastly enjoyed living half our life these past ten years in Greece moving between two very different cultures has also been difficult at time. However it’s also been enlightening and so I wanted to convey both the excitement of having some wonderful travel experiences and something about the effect it had on us.

Not just a Travel Book, a Memoir

Thus, my book is a memoir, it covers ten years and details our slow discovery, and growing understanding, of the life we’d taken on. I wanted to share our delight and pleasure in Greece but also include the fact that the experience has been a learning curve, teaching us life lessons about the divided life, the life of the diaspora who will always feel torn between life in Australia and life in Greece.

We found that living in two countries leaves you always feeling a hyphenated citizen – Greek-Australian. In Greece, though meeting and making friends with many Greeks, we were still regarded as Australians, even Takis who spoke Greek, and whose parents were Greek. So, often at social events we’d find ourselves more at ease associating with other ex-pats and non Greeks.

However, there are benefits, we found we could observe each country from a certain distance. We could stand back and observe both groups that we were part of and as resident observers we could compare. For example, when Australians complain about the number of illegal immigrants we point to the vastly greater number that come (so easily) into Greece each year. Or when Greeks tell us it’s no use paying tax to a corrupt government we point out that though they think this means they have more money in their pockets it also means they have live without the infrastructures that makes life more enjoyable.

It Began with a Watermelon

The book, It Began with a Watermelon, will be launched here in Australia next week and I’ve dedicated to Takis without whom this project could not have begun. And I’ve also dedicated it to my three Australian friends, one who encouraged me to begin writing, one who encouraged me to keep on writing, and the other who carefully edited the final manuscript.

Autumn Spring-Cleaning

Autumn Spring- Cleaning

On the island the ladies sort out their houses, ready for summer, as soon as the weather improved after Easter. I often arrive on the island to see carpets hanging over balconies. For me this cleaning and putting away happens in reverse. I get out our carpets in spring. I can see that you would not want carpets over the hot summer months, but for us the carpets add some colour to the house, and cover the uneven floors.

 


Most Lemnians Hang out Carpets in Spring, I clean them in Autumn

My spring cleaning happens in autumn. We, and our guests, have been living in the house for at least six months and so before I leave to return to Australia I take down all the curtains and clean and roll up the carpets for the winter. Then I get them out again when we return in spring.


Washing my Curtains in Autumn

My Cleaning Program

Simple and Cheap.



Simple Cleaning Methods

Because I’m not someone who likes strong disinfectants or strong scents with my cleaning fluids I use bicarbonate of soda, vinegar, unscented soap whenever possible.

 (Takis won’t even let me use any personal scent as he hates strong smells and says it give him asthma.)

 (I don’t mind Maria using something stronger when she does her monthly clean, chlorine is something that might be useful on an island where rubbish is still often piled at street corners, and sewerage is still not connected.)



Chlorine

Maria Cleaning the bathroom with Chlorine!

Our house has been empty over European winter and Maria and Anestis come and tidy up, dust and use the ‘electric scooper’ (vacuum) before we arrive, so the house is pretty clean and ready to use. Then I hang up the curtains and unroll the carpets that were put away for winter.

(Many are the stories we could tell of our Lemnian electric scoopers. They have been used by the men to vacuum up stones of cement and block and break. They have to be lugged up three flights of stairs. When they break they fill the room that has just been clean with a cloud of dust. And Takis always insists on mending them himself, with mixed success, though I still have my fingers crossed for the success of this latest find – a scooper brought found in a roadside dump by Anestis and superbly mended by Takis! This is a story, like that of the mice, that I’m sure will continue next year.)

Some Useful Hints.

Clothes

Wash Day

I try to avoid dry cleaning. Many things labeled dry-clean only can be washed at home. Not all things though I once tried washing Takis wool dressing gown and it shrunk three sizes. However most wool can be hand washed, but carefully!

I always hang my clothes outside, I love the idea that they are being cleaned by the sun and wind.  In mid summer when the heat is so strong I sometimes hang things out at night, especially delicate things I don’t want to bleach too much.

And believe it or not I still iron some things. This summer one of our guests passed through the kitchen and said with amazement, watching me iron, ‘I’ve not seen one of those in use for years.’ It reminded me of my past memories of wash day, and the passing of the old clothes ringers!

Kitchen

Marble is porous and will stain. I got some bad stains on some marble in the kitchen from tomatoes left to stand on it too long. One way to remove these stains I found was to use mineral turpentine.

Two tablespoons of bicarbonate of soda with three or four of vinegar poured down your sink outlet with help to keep it from smelling. Leave the mix of 39 minutes, and then flush out with some very hot water.

Autumn Spring Cleaning

Curtains on our |Australian Hills Hoist

Before I roll up my carpets for winter I sprinkle bicarbonate of soda on them to deodorize them, use a light brush to brush it into the fabric, leave of a few hours then vacuum.

I always clean windows with warm water which has a few spoons of vinegar added. Then dry the surface with crumpled newspaper.

House-Garden

You can remove plant stains from vases by filling them with warm water a drop of detergent plus vinegar.

 I put tea leaves and coffee ground on my pot plants. It might give them some nutrients but it definitely acts as mulch.

 And I find one of the best sprays for bugs is grated non-scented soap, which I dissolve in warm water, put in a spray bottle with a little cooking oil. The soap deters and the oil makes sure it sticks on the plant leave, though this application is better done in the evening as it can burn the leaves if applied mid-day.