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This Must Be The Abridged Version

Photograph copyright: DAVID McMAHON

Last month, I posted a couple of shots of Princes Bridge here in Melbourne, but today I thought I'd choose a different country. This was taken in Port Carling, Ontario, in September 2005. It was a difficult shot, because of the strong light and deep shadows, but I tried to make the shadows play across the surface of the yellow sign.

The Port Carling post office is in the background and if you look carefully you'll notice it was a very calm day, because the Canadian flag is limp on its halyard. This bridge, at Indian River, is very special to me, because it is described in my forthcoming novel, Muskoka Maharani, to be published by Penguin Books India.

If you'd like to see a pictorial narration of the plot, with images of the places and scenes actually described in the novel, just go to an earlier post of mine, called B Is For Beginning.

Check out RuneE's "Building Bridges" theme at Visual Norway.

Blank Stair

Never Be Intimidated By A Blank Piece Of Paper

Photographs copyright: DAVID McMAHON

When diXymiss, who writes the blog ineXplicable, challenged me to photograph a blank piece of paper, I immediately went through two or three visual options and thought I would experiment with each of them this weekend.

Then I thought I would take the challenge one step further, for the benefit of writers, artists and anyone with a creative instinct, irrespective of age or geographical location.

I was going to shoot a single sheet of standard white A4 paper when I spotted some of the coloured A4 paper that one of the Authorbloglets was using recently. There was red, there was yellow, there was blue. That's when I decided to take a sheet of the blue paper and stick it on the tray of my HP Photosmart 8230 printer, because I thought the hue would be a perfect match for the colour of the printer.

As I did so, I noticed that the bright winter sunlight was streaming through the windows of my study, throwing a beautiful gradation across the paper. Lucky choice, huh!

I write this in the hope that it might inspire some of you, who in turn will use your experience and your knowledge to guide and mould the aspirations of others, somewhere in the world.

After all, creativity is a two-stage process. First we need to recognise creativity. Next we need to nurture it. Having been blessed throughout my earliest years by people who did precisely that for me, I guess it is now my turn to pass on my thoughts.

How do you look at a blank sheet of paper?

I reckon there are two types of people. The first category are those who are nervous of the challenge presented by a blank piece of paper. And the second category are those who relish the prospect of imprinting their own creative instinct on the paper.


For the benefit of those readers who don’t know me too well, I paint, I sketch, I write and I take photographs. I rub my hands with glee when I see a blank piece of paper.

As a career journalist, I often get asked the question: "What is the most difficult thing to write?" For a tough question, it has a surprisingly easy answer. The most difficult thing to write is an opening sentence. Once you have that in place, everything else will follow.

The opening sentence of my first novel, Vegemite Vindaloo, is a modern twist on one of the most famous lines of Australian poetry. Andrew Barton "Banjo" Paterson wrote "There was movement at the station" as the opening of his wonderful bush ballad The Man From Snowy River. I humbly borrowed it from him and applied it to a contemporary railway station instead.

The opening sentence of my forthcoming novel, Muskoka Maharani, is a pun on a famous quote from Mark Twain. (Nope, I’m not going to tell you what it is, because the novel hasn’t been released yet - but I’m not stopping you from guessing!)

Whether you’re writing a blogpost, working on a novel, creating a sketch or forming a painting, you follow the same process as a builder. Each of those is an ancient art. Each of those is an ancient craft. Each of those is a separate challenge. But just remember this - if your foundation is strong enough, the rest of the structure takes care of itself.

This week I had a long conversation with a very gifted blogger, one of my many friends around the world who is writing a book. She had a major problem. It wasn’t writer’s block. It wasn’t that she had run out of inspiration. But her confidence had been rattled by a well-meaning assessment from someone else. So she went out and bought some how-to-write-novels books and told me she would finish reading them before she resumed writing.

I had some simple advice for her. I told her to mulch the books in one of her many immaculate garden beds.

Why would I tell her something like that? Not because I don’t trust how-to books. Don’t get me wrong. They’re always a valuable resource. But I knew that she didn’t need to be told how to write. You see, I’ve read enough of her writing over the past year to know that she is a wonderful writer.

I didn’t want her to try and write a novel from a contrived point of view, or from someone else’s point of view. Instead, I wanted her to follow her own instincts.

Spontaneity is a great gift for any creative person. And this friend of mine is so good that she doesn’t need to be told how to project her story.

In short, there is only one person who can tell your story/ paint your picture/ take your photograph. One person alone. And that’s you.

Trust your creative instinct. Put your first mark on a blank sheet of paper. You’ll be surprised at how wonderful an experience it is.

Write with freedom. Write with honesty. But most of all, write with joy.

Northern Composure

Ah, Yes, The Moose Is Back

Photograph copyright: DAVID McMAHON

In September 2005, I was in Port Carling, in northern Ontario. I spent three days there and the place made such a huge impression on me that it figures very prominently in the opening and closing chapters of my next novel, "Muskoka Maharani" which will soon be released by Penguin Books India.

Everything I describe in the novel that is set in Port Carling is accurate statement of fact. The things I put on the pages are many of the things I saw and experienced on that trip. I make no secret of the fact that the place captivated me - fair dinkum, how many novelists do you know who choose a locale based on real-life experiences that span only three days?

One of the places I browsed through in Port Carling was a shop just across the street from the post office. Christmas was still more than three months away, but they had a huge selection of beautiful hand-made ornaments. I asked permission to use my camera in the store and the lady in charge smiled and told me to go right ahead.

I shot about a dozen frames and was about to put my camera away when I saw this sight, tucked away near the back window of the store. I'd never seen a Christmas moose before - and try as I might, I knew I would not be able to fit this display in my suitcase.

But trust me, I'll buy the moose on my next trip. I know I'll go back to Port Carling. One day....

Check out the rules at Camera Critters or go to Misty Dawn.

B Is For Beginning

Here's A Novel Way To Picture The Plot

Photographs copyright: DAVID McMAHON

Have you ever taken a photographic journey through a novel?

I guess I'm lucky that I'm a photographer, because this means I can give you a glimpse at my next novel, "Muskoka Maharani", to be published by Penguin Books India. When I say "glimpse", I mean you can really see some of the real-life places where the novel goes.

This first shot (above) is taken at the U Dock of the Delta Sherwood Hotel in Port Carling, Muskoka, which is in the north of the Canadian province of Ontario. This is where an investigative Australian journalist must come in order to save his own career, his job and his way of life. It is here, in the pre-dawn light, that he attempts to interview a close-lipped woman in her eighties. Will she trust him enough to tell him her greatest secret, a revelation that could become the scoop of the year?

As you'll see in the post Booked For Life, my synopsis of the novel is simple and very brief....

The daughter of an embittered, hard-drinking Anglo-Indian engine driver from a little railway colony finally finds love in war-torn England. But it’s 60 years before she breaks her silence on how she helped unmask a German spy, and the aftershock takes an investigative Australian journalist all the way to the Vatican.

He thinks he is doomed and that his critical assignment has come to nothing as he spends a prolonged, uncomfortable silence with the old woman as she photographs and paints the stunning sunrise across the lake.


Eventually - completely unexpectedly - he wins her confidence. She spills out her life story, starting with her childhood in Marsdengunj, a remote Indian railway outpost, her time as a nurse in England during World War II and her eventual move to Canada.

She and the journalist spend hours in the picturesque dining hall of the Delta Sherwood. By the time she draws to the concluding portion of her life, the shadows of the setting sun are long and stark across the eastern lawn.


Among the high and low points of her life are:

• A ghostly eipsode from her teenage years
• Her mother's terrible post-natal depression that was not diagnosed
• The breakdown of her parents' marriage
• The mystery of what eventually happened to her mother
• The teenage love story that seemed so terribly thwarted
• How she found the man of her dreams amid the fear and loss of wartime
• The harrowing retreat of an army officer at Dunkirk
• How grave suspicions surface against a most unlikely person

But before she tells the journalist the last stages of her amazing story, she suggests that he should drive about 35 kilometres to neighbouring Gravenhurst. They come to this intersection .....

The description in the novel of Gravenhurst, a beautiful lakeside hamlet, is exactly as I saw it one afternoon in 2005, while I was photographing the area before taking a lake cruise.


But does the story end in Gravenhurst? No. What happens from this point on? You'll have to read the book to find out.

But now I throw thr forum open to every one of my readers. Now that I've shared this unusual journey with you, I'd be honoured if you could tell me what you think of it. Do leave me a comment with your frank opinion.

I Spy

Does Anyone Recognise This Bloke?

This interview appeared in The Statesman recently. Mathures Paul is the assistant features editor of the paper and he wanted to time this article to mark the fact that I have handed over my second novel, 'Muskoka Maharani', to Penguin, my publishers. If you want to read the text of the interview, just go to Booked For Life. Do let me know what you think ....

Ay Carumba

It's A Number Rhumba

Photograph copyright: DAVID McMAHON

This is just a quick thank you to all those readers and friends who sustain my interest in blogging. About 24 hours ago, someone in Illinois became the 40,000th reader of this humble blog. It's been an interesting day or two, because I also chalked up 70,000 page views while my Technorati Authority crossed the 200 mark. My very humble thanks to all of you.

I'd also like to express my heartfelt gratitude to all those who have wished me well as I finish my second novel, Muskoka Maharani, this month. Once that's done, I'll resume the Monday-to-Friday Post of the day segment and my Saturday trademark, Aussiejourno's Weekly Blog Awards.

I'm sure you all noticed that for the past fortnight or so, I have not been able to reply to each individual comment as I normally do. I am totally focused on my novel at the moment. You see, I have a reputation to protect - I have never missed a deadline as a journalist, writer, editor or novelist and I can assure you this will not be the first time. Thank you for sharing this exhilarating journey with me.

Aussiejourno's Weekly Blog Awards

This is a heartfelt apology to all my friends in the blogging community. For the first time ever, the Weekly Blog Awards will not be published this week - because I am writing the closing chapter of my second novel, Muskoka Maharani.

A Blessed Place To Start A Novel

L Is For Lake

Photographs copyright: DAVID McMAHON

At the moment, I'm in the completion phase of my second novel, Muskoka Maharani, and one of the characters in the novel makes a startling revelation while standing in precisely the spot that I was standing when I took this photograph two years ago.

The character in my novel is a painter in her eighties who decides to finally tell an Australian newspaper reporter the greatest secret of her life. What she tells the reporter has wide-ranging consequences, but you'll have to read all about it in the novel. All I can tell you is that when she makes the decision to break her vow of secrecy, she is using oil and canvas to paint exactly the scene you see in this photograph.

In the meantime, here is my story behind this picture ....

If you believe in ferry tales, then Port Carling in Muskoka, Canada is the place for you. I'm standing on the boat dock of the Delta Sherwood in complete solitude.

There is nary a sound across the surface of Lake Joseph as I rise before dawn. It is half an hour to sunrise as I stand alone on the main dock. As the soft light appears in the sky, the still waters around me reflect the stunning array of early autumn colours of the spruce, maple, yellow birch, silver birch and dark green pine that form an arresting natural palette.

There is not a cloud in the sky as the sun shrugs the horizon's shackles and casts a shimmering shadow of slender liquid gold upon the ebony surface of the water. A few minutes later, that slim shadow has widened into a brilliant avenue of soft orange across the lake, probing both further and wider as the sun climbs.

If you could ever have a sound and light show without any sound at all, then I have been blessed with front-row tickets to this one. Suddenly, the sound of silence is eroded by the roar of a speedboat that heads unerringly eastwards, as if its helmsman is navigating down the centre of the avenue of light, controlling the motor's bass timbre.

A pity there are no steamboats on the lake today. That would have given me a real ferry-tale ending.

Flower Power

Just My Way Of Saying Thank You

Photograph copyright: DAVID McMAHON

This bearded blossom is a native protea, and since I cannot possibly send real flowers to everyone who welcomed me so warmly to the Photo Hunt quest, this virtual tribute will have to suffice for the time being. As the new "kid" on the block for the popular Photo Hunt, I was expecting a few other participants to visit and say "G'day, Aussie" - but I have been completely overwhelmed.

Just minutes after posting the photograph The Crepes of Wrath, I was flooded with generous comments. It was a most memorable welcome and I thank you all from the bottom of my heart. As I always do, I will reply to each comment individually. I'll also return every single visit (as I always do) but it might take me a few days as I juggle a deadline for my second novel, 'Muskoka Maharani'. My thanks to all of you.

To participate in the Photo Hunt, go to Home of the Photo Hunt.

Telling Write From Wrong (Part 2)

Gotta Go With The Flow

Photograph copyright: DAVID McMAHON

Thank you for all those wonderful comments on yesterday's post, the first in this daily series. Hats off to Eve, who wrote more than five thousand words yesterday for her forthcoming novel, Rebel's Ascent. That sort of output is really prodigious and anyone who finds the time to top the 5000-word mark in a day is doing a superb job. That, in turn, leads me to a question I often get asked by writers, who always want to know how to maintain their writing flow.

Today's tip: Don't put too much pressure on yourself.

No one can tell you that your output must be 1000 words or day or 1356 words a day. Why? Because creativity is not a finite science.

Two colleagues of mine, both very good journalists who began novels only to put them aside, asked me what sort of target I set myself each day. My reply was simple. My wife and children are my first priority - always have been, always will be. Writing novels is important to me, but it is not a crucial part of my life. I confessed that my sworn target is simply 300 words a day.

They were obviously surprised. Yes, I admitted, it's just a small target - but it's a realistic target. There are days when I simply don't have time, between working full-time and doing all the things that fathers do, to write 300 words a day for my next novel. But I can make up for it the next day. And when you think about it, 300 words a day adds up to a tad over 9000 words a month. Pretty impressive when you look at it that way.

That's the approach I took when I wrote my first novel, Vegemite Vindaloo. And that's what I'm doing as I write my second novel, Muskoka Maharani. Writing a novel (or any book for that matter) must never take over your life completely. You should leave yourself enough space to enjoy the other pleasures of life, and it helps if you return to the manuscript because you want to, not because you have to. That is what keeps creativity alive.

Finally, there is no "correct" wordage on a daily basis. A steady output works for some people, while bursts of frenetic writing interspersed with several days away from the plot works for others. You write what you want to write, when you want to write.