My life started out on a cattle station west of Alice Springs, my dad was a cattleman, but a severe drought that had plagued the country for years eventually drove the family down to Adelaide to start a new life. I never really rose to any great heights at school and bailed out as soon as I turned fifteen. A few years later I unshackled the chains of society and through them out the car window and set myself free.

 

I wandered around the countryside and tried every job known to mankind and went hungry a few times as well. Then somewhere around my late thirties I slowed down long enough to decide it was time to do what I always wanted to do, just be creative.

I'd always had a guitar and was the one singing around the campfire entertaining but I wanted to take it further. I was full of stories of adventures and mis adventures, near death experiences, failed romance and good campfires and bad hangovers. I'd had years of all that and now all I wanted to do was write about it.

 

Writing brought it all out and made sense of a reckless life and gave it direction. So there I was, still nomadic but now convinced I'd just become a writer, I started off with a card table a writing pad and a few biros and off I went!

The months went by, a few shit jobs here and there, and many hours parked up at the card table and finally I had a bunch of stories and got them typed up. Nothing was going to stop me now, although they did try... 

I sent my stuff to a literary agent trying to get a publisher and got a letter back that said I had no hope; no publisher would touch my stuff she reckoned. Admittedly it was a bit rough around the edges, but not in the mood to take no for an answer I found a printer and self-published and through a bit of hard work and wheeling and dealing I ended up selling thousands, the book was called '101 Adventures that got me absolutely nowhere'.

 

But don't get too excited because by the time I paid the printer, the distributor, the shops, and everyone else that took their slice all I made was enough money to buy a Ham and Pineapple Pizza and a can of coke. But I'd made a start, and I was learning the ropes, and over the years I wrote more books, and then evolved into other story telling genres like Film and Videography.

Of course, this is a real simplified account of the journey, but I hope you get the idea, and the moral of the story is don't let anyone stand in between you and what you want to achieve. If you get a knock back just try harder and stick it up em, and don't ever feel like you haven't had enough education, because when it comes to storytelling, life's experiences are the education.

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