Welcome to this first post of the Southern Cross Safari blog. It is linked to a website of the same name, which is also the name of my travel narrative book. If you have read the website, then you know about the book, so why the blog?
The blog has several functions. It allows me to tell people how the book is progressing. The answer: slowly but surely! So, as I sit here, tapping the keyboard, my editor-in-chief, Maryanne, is sitting somewhere else, proofreading the final manuscript. The deadline for completion is 30 July (that’s 2014 in case you were wondering!). Then it will be time to find a publisher.
The blog also gives me a chance to talk about the book, the stories behind the narrative, both the travel and the writing. The first draft of the manuscript was a brain dump, and produced over 400,000 words. It would have been a very big book, too big. So I spent over a year making many tough decisions about what to keep and what to cut, ending up with about 255,000 words. More rewriting and heavy editing since then has reduced it to its current size of around 240,000 words – it’s still a good-sized read, but then Australia is a big country, with many national parks to explore, wildlife to see and backpackers to meet.
Another function of the blog is to allow readers to ask questions or post comments – so please do.
Happy travelling.