Secrets Through the Lens
Covid lockdown!
I couldn’t go anywhere so the idea of writing a novel began to incubate. As a visual artist, I wondered if I could be creative in the field of fiction, because everything I had written to date had been non-fiction.
As this would be my foray into the world of the novel, sleepless night followed sleepless night as ideas churned around in my brain. I would go to bed, close my eyes and try to relax for sleep. Then my eyes would fly open in the dark and I would start moulding the personalities of my characters and engineering experiences for them and putting words in their mouths. I kept a notebook by the bed and would jump up at intervals and write stuff in it. The all next day I would type. If another author can tell me a better way to do it, I’m all ears.
Secrets Through the Lens was released in 2022 and I am already thinking about my next novel.
BUY NOW from
Raising Your Talented Child
When I was a School Counsellor, I observed that talented kids are often overlooked in favour of the struggling child. Of course, it is good to see the strugglers get help, but I wondered how much talent failed to blossom because the regular curriculum was just not challenging enough.
The less the school does to foster talent in children, the more the parent must do, so I wrote Raising Your Talented Child to help parents identify and nurture gifts and talents in their children.
That was pre-internet days and the Angus & Robertson publicity machine swung into action, and I did lots of radio and newspaper interviews and several television appearances to promote the book. The book got a lot of attention at the time and was sold in five countries and translated into Indonesian. It is now out of print but I have a few reprint copies left for $10 each plus postage. Please contact me if you would like a copy.
After Raising Your Talented Child, my career got a mighty boost and I took up a senior position in the Head Office of the NSW Dept of Education. I also worked in the Education Minister’s office for a time. I then became so busy writing reports, policy documents, research proposals, funding proposals and evaluations that I had no more time for private writing for at least fifteen years.
Going Up?
When I was working in my own practice, the Advancement Centre, I was approached by the University of New South Wales and asked if I would produce some material to assist Uni students with learning disabilities.
This was a well-paid project and the outcome, Going Up? was a very user-friendly resource with easy-to-read text and humorous illustrations by Dr. Bob Futcher.
While it was designed for tertiary students specifically, students without difficulties have informed me that it was a useful tool for them as well.
Getting You Knighted
I went through a phase of wanting to know more about my ancestors so I decided to do some research. What a daunting task! Ancestry.com wasn’t much help and neither were the Mormons.
Based on the small amount of anecdotal evidence I had, I set out on an amazing journey. Joy of joys, I discovered that we had a convict in the family and records took me all the way back to the Old Baily where Joseph Knight, 15 years of age, was transported for life for stealing a silk handkerchief. Very good records were kept in the colony so the many hours I spent in the archives paid off.
I set parameters. I selected my mother’s branch. Her grandfather had ten children so I limited my research to just one of his sons – my mother’s father. My mother had five siblings and six half siblings and I followed their stories. That was a marvellous time for me and I found myself travelling all over Australia meeting distant and not so distant relatives and hearing their stories.
Suddenly, I had a place in the big picture. I knew who I was. That was an exhilarating sensation.
Getting You Knighted had a limited run in 2020 and was sold to all the participants and to local historical societies and museums. It is now available through the National Library of Australia.
A Life
A Life is a memoir of my own life. I wanted to call it connieeales@herstory.con.au but the printer advised me that people would be contacting me wanting to know why the email address didn’t work, so I opted for the more generic title A Life. It was produced in 2020 solely for my living relatives and was not made available to the public.
Writing your life can be a challenging experience and you have to be careful not to paint yourself as a hero. For me it was cathartic in many ways as I relived the ups and down of my life and remembered the people who had played a vital role. It also provided the distance that comes with time. I saw myself from the outside, as somebody else might see me.
In 2020, I thought it was a good time to write my memoirs as I wasn’t getting any younger and I thought I could cark it at any time. But then I didn’t die and a lot has happened since 2020, so I think I might have to write the next thrilling instalment.
Out and About
Out and About is the story of Connie’s world travels. Family members and friends who wish to read it, can contact Connie for a hyperlink to read online.