Thursday, November 28, 2013

Cambodian street shooting rig

After the launch of Salt Story (normal service will be resumed soon, I promise, I've just got to bang on about this book a bit longer) I took off to the bush to finish off another writing project; using a solar powered laptop, my lovely shack, red wine and roasted almonds to sustain me.


While I was out there, mobile range was pretty dodgey. I could get text messages but had to drive into town every day or so to check my emails. Here is a really good one from Shark, aka Mark Roy:

"Sarah
Congrats on a fabulous opening night. I picked up a copy of your book at the bookshop and its just excellent. The writing is earthy and evocative but still that eensy bit elusive. Little eddies of mystery ... Anyways here are some photos. (They) are pretty gritty as I only had my Cambodian street shooting rig. So they're rough, wide and grainy. I was pushing shit uphill with the proverbial twig to register any light at all with only an f4 lens in that room."

That's me; always a crooked pirate lass.

While everyone else gathered inside to listen to speeches, one soul had more sense. This picture reminds me of Jonathon Seagull, for some reason.

Vern, who did the Welcome to Country. Doust, who spoke impromptu and beautifully too. Harley who launched Salt Story and Soraya from the Albany Library. There may be a bookseller lurking in the background.



My true salt sister Aussie, and me.



D'you like the waves? They were made of rock salt, courtesy of Jo.




 Aren't they beautiful?

But more beautiful and fitting is that Shark flew in from Cambodia, caught a bus to Albany, arrived totally, randomly at my book launch; and his shambolic appearance that I love so well reminded me of how Salt Story began. It began on his blog Electric Nerve. I guested on an Electric Nerve in 2008 with a piece that became the first chapter of what is now Salt Story. Here it is, right here. Click. Go on.. Very soon after that post, A WineDark Sea was spawned, because I was hooked. Shark had showed me how to get my writing 'out there' in a daily practice kinda way, putting it out to the blogging community to read, rather than stashing it in a drawer or sending it to a slush pile somewhere. His input helped me form the idea for A WineDark Sea and out of that emerged Salt Story.


All photographs, except the top one of course, by Mark Roy.

15 comments:

  1. Ah, it all looks and sounds wonderful. X

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  2. Everyone needs a Shark ;-)...and your smile!

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  3. What a lovely post Sarah. Heartfelt and warming. Great photos. Just wonderful to see such a large contingent (in proportion to the wadjella community) of local Noongars. Good ol' Shark, such a loyal friend. And such a typical thing for him to be so random and dishevelled. I'll revisit that first post now, and muse on your journey to here. Nice start to my day. XX

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  4. Thanks Tom, Peter and Michelle.
    One of the Aunties in the book emailed me last night, after reading it. She said that the memorial for the little boy in the story 'Shacklands' is for her little brother who died there in the 1940s. They used to get down to that place to get away from native welfare, when her white father went away to war. Said that later they used to drive sheep from Jerry to House Beach, shear them and then row the bales of wool out to the ships. 'A good life, back then,' she said.

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  5. Sounds similar to here, I know of a coastal sheep shorn, bales from the beach parallel. Is your book going to be available here? If not can I PM you to arrange purchase?

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  6. I'm not sure Peter. You could definitely buy it online from the Fremantle Press website. I'll find out more.

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  7. Ah yes I see it on the Fremantle Press site now. Easy as :-)

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  8. Hey Peter, I just rang the publisher and she said that you can order it into NZ bookshops as well.

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  9. Cool, yep we get most of our book supplies from Oz.

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  10. Terrific photos and what a great surprise visit. Great to have friends like that, Sarah. I didn't know about how Salt Story and TWDS got started. It makes sense in a new way. Well done. That first post from 5 years ago is like the calling card for the book now. Amazing really. I'm reading at night time, a couple of excerpts at a time and each I put it down I think how good the writing is. Tis a little gem...

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  11. Great photos of a great arvo...I was shocked to see you wearing fishnet stockings!!! then thought, no, that's kinda appropriate. I was trying to force myself into reading small bits at a time - but could not help myself, the book was like a bag of peanut M & M's, finished in one go! So lovely to see this become what it has.

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  12. It's possible to have a hell of a lot of fun in fishnet stockings Anne :~)
    And thanks - that is a pair of lovely references: a gem, and like a bag of peanut M&Ms. They'd look good on the cover.

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  13. These are great photos Sarah, but can you explain what a Cambodian street shooting rig is? Guessing it's a camera but I'm a bit huh?

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  14. Mark's a brilliant photographer, with an arsenal of different gadgets. He was using an old film camera that night. Looked like something my parents had in the 70s. And he'd just gotten back from Cambodia ... if you have a look at his last few blog posts (Electric Nerve, on the sidebar), you'll see the same style of photography, probably the same camera.

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  15. Oh my god just went to The Nerve. I could get lost forever over there. If I ever am say bed-ridden, or unable to read novels, or am dying or something and no one is visiting me in hospital (and I have wifi) I will spend my last weeks over there. Sorry to every other blog in the world.

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