Great Aussie Campfire WEEKEND!

Ready for some poetry around the campfire at Lake Borumba Camping Ground, QLD. Australia.

Sometimes you just have to pack up the 4x4 and get away for the weekend. It doesn't matter where, why or what-for. You just need to feel small in the vastness of the Aussie bush to put all your troubles into perspective. Stars overhead. Wife by your side. Suddenly nothing else matters.

So, after flicking through the pages of my newly arrived copies of my latest book Great Aussie Campfire Poems, we decided to mark the occassion by turning it into a Great Aussie Campfire WEEKEND!

Living on the Sunshine Coast, we are really spoilt when it comes to how quickly you can leave the beaches and crowds behind, and be surrounded by nothing. Less than an hour's drive up the Bruce Highway we were cruising some country backroads in the Mary Valley until we came to the town of Imbil. I'd strongly recommend a lunch at the historic Railway Hotel, before continuing on some 15 minutes over several single lane bridges that harken back to the good ol' days of driving. And soon you reach the Lake Borumba Caravan & Camping Ground.

They market this area as the Noosa Outback... although its far from anything remotely dusty. Trees, trees and a great Aussie swimming hole called Yabba Creek. My wife Denise and I are lazy campers. We throw a self-inflating mattress in the back of our Mitsubishi Outlander, some pillows, a sleeping bag, a change of clothes and a small toiletries bag. Along with an esky full of drinks and a picnic hamper, a pair of folding chairs and a battery powered lantern are usually more than enough for us to get away for a night.

This time we also packed our togs. I'm glad we did as the temperature hit 37 degrees Celcius on the day we arrived. Yabba Creek by comparision felt about 15 degrees.

Cooling off in Yabba Creek. You don't get a more Aussie bush camping experience than this!

Lake Borumba Dam. Campgrounds are downstream, water skiing upstream of the wall.

We've lived on the Sunshine Coast for almost 14 years, and this was our first visit to Lake Borumba. It definitely won't be our last. If you're into boating, the dam itself offers plenty of parking for boat trailers, and the lake looked full of jetskis and water skiers. Downstream by the campground however is a different story. Nice, quiet, and plenty of level camping sites for families with caravans and tents. And night time.... Just perfect! Stars overhead, and plenty of firepits available to place where you'd like. We enjoyed a night around the campfire, shared a few poems from my latest book, and polished off a bottle of wine or two.

And the perfect book to leave packed in our camp kitchen bag... 'til next time that is!

It's funny how time changes your perspective. A decade ago I would be busy drumming up interest for a newspaper article, promoting a book launch, followed by organising a book tour at whichever library, bookstore or the like would have me. These days.... not so much. Not only has consecutive years of COVID-19 enforced lockdowns put an end to that, but the cost of organising public indemnity insurance to safegaurd yourself against being sued for a papercut makes a simple blog post like this, or sharing the pictures on social media far more profitable.

One thing that came from a weekend away in deep conversation with my wife about the future, turning 50 next year and all the uncertainty that the world has to offer right now, was recognizing that I've always strived a little too hard to live my life purposefully with the aim of trying to get ahead. Turns out nothing much has come from that. Our kids are both raised. My books haven't made me rich at any point in the past 15 years, and whatever investments we have haven't changed our lives. In the process we've only gotten a little older, and a lot more fond of wasting time on the simple things that bring us enjoyment. I would very much like to live the next 15 years less-purposefully! That is, making time to waste time, instead of telling myself I should be working on this or that before I can sit back and enjoy everything.

That said, its nice to be able to have all my campfire-inspired poetry from the past 30 plus years in a neat pocketbook. Even if it is only to come out around the campfire. I feel it is finally time to sit back with my writing, and recognise the hard work I have previously put in. Even if it is just a case of honouring the personal satisfaction that has come with each and every release. Who knows? Wasting some time around a campfire may lead to a few more bush poems when I'm good and ready.

My book Great Aussie Campfire Poems is available now through Apple's iBook Store, eBay and direct from the publisher at Blurb.com I hope you preview it, or better still, buy a copy for when you next go camping. Anyway, that's just my story. So go on, get out there!

  

Favourite Australian Railway Scenes

Surprise encore release for 2021. A sequel for Favourite Australian Railway Stations!

I've kept this closely under wraps for the best part of 2021, but in a surprise announcement, Favourite Australian Railway Scenes is now available. Proof of this momentous occassion can be garnered from the above photo, which shows it is possible to orchestrate a grand book launch in the midst of a Global Pandemic. Albeit, a launch party for two.

To ensure I wasn't just sitting alone at my desk, I spared no expense on putting on an elaborate spread to be sure that my wife would join me on the couch, and you should have seen the launch party. The two seater couch was packed!

Nonsense and celebratory prattle aside, in the midst of pandemic-led border closures and restrictions here in Australia over the course of the past two years, suddenly my personal collection of over 10,000 railway images that I have taken across Australia since the dawn of the digital camera have become valuable. Even if I wanted to set off on a cross-country trip to photograph some remaining, decrepit, half fallen down railway structure in some far flung corner of the country, right now I simply couldn't. It led to me sit and once more collate another Favourite Australian Railway collection in the wake of how well 2020's release of Favourite Stations was received.

So now that this book featuring 80 unique never before seen images is available, once more in hardback, softcover, eBook or as a .PDF download, I can return to completing the next new release/releases I have planned for 2021. "What might that be?' I hear you ask. Well, you'll just have to wait and see.

60 page premium colour featuring 80 images.

  

Favourite Australian Railway Scenes is now available through Blurb, with the title to become available on iBooks in the coming weeks. (Click on the links above). Watch out for a special offer of signed copies available through my Philden Model Railway eBay store next month!

Once again, a huge thank you to all my readers, both here and on phildenmodelrailway , your ongoing support is much appreciated.

Phill O

2nd October, 2021

Great Aussie Railway Poems

Something new for 2020... and completely unannounced. Great Aussie Railway Poems.

This comes as a complete surprise, even for myself. After posting back in March that I was happy to call it a day with my railway themed books after releasing Favourite Australian Railway Stations, I go and do something out of the blue like release another railway book! A 72 page b&w paperback or eBook, it is packed with 45 great Aussie railway poems, (hence the title) that I have collated from a career that now stretches back to 1987. Inside are all of the poems from my Last Train series of photographic poetry books, along with every railway poem from each of my previous poetry eBooks. At $12.99 plus postage for the paperback, or just $3.99 for the eBook, it is a much more economical alternative for railway buffs and poetry aficianados alike.

So why the change of mind? Well... to be honest it was all a little out of my hand. With my past novels and poetry eBooks parked in retirement with Smashwords.com and doing sweet nothing sales wise, a letter advising that I needed to update my W8-BEN form to satisfy the U.S. Government in order to continue receiving royalties forced a decision. Ordinarily, filling out a W8-BEN form doesn't spell the end of the world. However, if you're a non-resident alien (as the U.S. like to call people from outside of America who earn money from inside of America) it does pose a conundrum if you just so happened to have sold an investment property in the past few years and got off the whole money-churning U.S. Tax merry-go-round. Fill out the W8-BEN form, and I'm suddenly back on it, even if merely to fill in non-lodgement forms stating again and again that we no longer own property within the United States. All for the sake of the few remaining books that weren't selling.

Removing all of my titles from sale was the easy part. What to do with a lot of hard work that had essentially amounted to nothing took a little more thought. Collating all of my railway poems from my previously available eBooks seemed the logical first step. Releasing them locally here in Australia through Blurb was the next one. At least here in Australia I am set up with an ABN to sell and distribute my own books as a sole trader. So one down, and a few different instalments to follow. Great Aussie Bush Poems will come next.

After that I'll be looking at re-releasing my four novels in print form once more. For someone who was happy to sit back and concentrate on my next projects, (namely completing the model railway that you can see in the top photo), I suddenly have a lot of work on my hands. I remember hearing at a writing conference back in the early 2000's, that a book only stops selling when you stop selling it. So I've also taken the time to completely refresh and overhaul this site. You'll notice a lot of changes, and there'll be a lot more to follow, beginning with a new approach to blogging that I'll be commencing in the coming weeks. What will it be? You'll have to follow this blog, or bookmark it and come back to see just what its all about.

Until then, try to stay safe in what is a very trying 2020, and be sure to preview the book over at Blurb.com.

Don't tell anyone, but...

Favourite Australian Railway Stations

Celebrating the end of the line with my final railway book, Favourite Australian Railway Stations which is out now!

There's a lot of nostalgic sentiment flowing in my household this week. I have a new book out, and once again there is no official book launch party, pre-announced book tour, or even plans to do much in the way of promoting it. The culmination of what has been a ten year project to criss-cross as much of the country as was possible, and spending the past two years sifting through more than 10,000 photos, has instead left me relieved to finally announce the release of the book I always wanted to finish my writing career with.

Between looking back at all the wonderful old railway stations I had managed to photograph over the past decade, and sensing that the time had come to collate them all into a book of my personal favourites, its almost uncanny to realise I may have saved the best for last. A sojourn from novel number four that commenced back in 2014, has led me here, to the moment where I can both announce my new book Favourite Australian Railway Stations, and take a bow before leaving the stage for someone else to command. In a world where aspiring to become a fulltime writer becomes increasingly more difficult, and people's attention spans seem shortened each passing year with memes, Instagram and ten second YouTube clips, its nice to be able to sign-off with something that will prove more lasting. A timeless book about a timeless subject, and one that shall remain forever close to my heart... railway stations.

I first came up with the idea back in 2011, while on a book tour in Tasmania promoting my second novel. The two week family holiday we were able to schedule around the book tour dates called for driving a 6,197 km round trip from the Sunshine Coast to where the blacktop ran out in the deep south of Tasmania. I saw a lot of railway stations along the way in towns that I'd only heard of but never seen. So I stopped to take a photo. Then another, and another and I've been doing so ever since.

The only reason the book is limited to 72 pages and a little over 50 of my favourite railway stations is simply the cost. I originally had this book ready to go sometime last year at a hefty 192 pages. The price it would have commanded however, had me asking who was going to buy it at that price? So I thought, why not simply limit it to my favourites, and limit the book to a more affordable number of pages. Which is exactly what I did.

Producing a book of the best of your best work sets the bar pretty high. So I'm of the thought that this is as good a place as any to leave the railway books aside, (this marks my 9th such effort), and see if I manage to come up with another 10,000 photographs of railway stations in another 10 years time. Whether I manage to hit the road on a scope such as was required for this book however, remains to be seen.

72 pages 8x10" full colour hardback, softcover or eBook available through

  

The 90 plus photos within the book have taken me all over the place, from the tropical north of Cairns, to the remote south of Tasmania. From the hustle and bustle of Sydney, to the golden sunsets of the west over Fremantle, there's no way I could have covered every station on every railway line, yet I managed to record some brilliant images just the same. Each section of the book opens with its own preface, adding words to one of the places that I happened to visit, be it an abandoned station or just a lonely platform well after the last train has departed. The book's theme is of course Australian railway stations, and railway stations are all you will find between the covers. People looking for a book on trains will be disappointed. There are none.

With the arrival of the first copies came the end of an era. I looked through the pages with my wife Denise, who has been by my side when I'd taken all of the photos featured in the book. We laughed about the moments that made finding these railway stations in strange towns so memorable, and pondered over what adventures may come our way next, before sitting back to enjoy an episode of Michael Portillo's Great Australian Railway Journeys (on SBS On Demmand). Bubbles and a cheese platter at our side, and our son opposite us on the couch on his iPhone, probably looking at memes and watching ten second videos of people falling over.

With this blog already having slowed to a trickle this past year, I hope readers both old and new continue to find it in the years to come, and be delighted by the hundreds of stories, articles and adventures it leaves behind. Since 2011, it has served as my own independent platform to share my travels, and bang-on about where you could buy my books from. All that remains now, are the due announcements of when my own four novels will be re-released into print later this year, thus closing the chapter on what has been a long and at-times drawn out part of my life.

Wherever the wind blows both you and I in the years ahead, my heartfelt thanks go out to all who took the time to stop by my blog and see what I was all about. An even deeper gratitude goes out to those who actually supported me by purchasing my books. I leave you with one final book to remember me by. A book that just so happens to feature my favourite Australian railway stations.

Thank you all,
Phillip Overton 3/3/2020