Last Tuesday, 14th April, the Library at Albany in Western Australia invited me to speak about my novel, ‘The Green Velvet Dress’ to an audience of twenty three interested and responsive guests. Wine and tasty nibbles put everyone in the right mood, and my presentation went well.
I talked about my writing life, starting with stories my grandmother created and the imaginary friend who was my first character in stories I told myself from the age of three or four.
I related some of my teaching experiences in the small country town where I had about twenty five pupils, aged six to nine, in four classes. This, and other real situations in and out of the classroom, are used in the novel and I had several questions to answer on those experiences at the end of my talk.
The audience laughed at my jokes, including my comments about being a nerd as a teenager. My novel deals with society’s rules for women in the early 1960s, including the importance of correct appearance. Reminding people that women were forced to resign from professions at marriage and that unmarried mothers had to give up their babies for adoption or seek an illegal and dangerous abortion, showed them that women’s liberation has come a long way since I was young. It also got them wondering how Jennifer managed in the novel.
As many of them bought a copy of ‘The Green Velvet Dress’ I think they enjoyed my presentation.
On Wednesday, 15th April, I held similar presentations at Mt Barker (a small, but enthusiastic attendance) and Denmark (about twenty, including four men, which was interesting). The responses and questions were similar, although Denmark guests, several of whom were teachers, asked for more details and retired ones commented on their memories of similar country school postings.
From comments made by young, current teachers, I realise that situations today are not as different as I expected. I believe that all teachers, both active and retired, would be interested in my story.
I was also able to leave copies of ‘The Green Velvet Dress’ with Paperbark Merchants in Albany and Tea House Books in Denmark and with the library in Mt Barker, for interested parties to purchase later. All of the libraries have the book in stock.