How To Commemorate A Published Author’s First Anniversary

I have an anniversary. I have officially been a author/publisher for one year.

A lot has changed in a year and I decided it’s time to take stock of it all.

I have two books on the market. A third, closely followed by a fourth, are going to the presses in a matter of weeks.

The past year has been a whirlwind which has not slowed.

It has been so hectic I only became aware of the anniversary in the train on my way to see friends at a festival in Germany.

I was heading to a festival in a very familiar place. It was in a town I lived in many years ago.

It was in this town that the seed was sown for the story which would become my debut novel Loreless.

In retrospect I couldn’t have been in a better place this past weekend. It was like a homecoming.

Whilst living in the town I discovered that Europeans, and Germans in particular, had a great interest in Australian indigenous culture.

I shared that interest.

Unlike these people, I had seen and experienced it first-hand. It was in this period that I decided to share my knowledge.

I realised there was a passion for this ancient culture which didn’t exist in Australia. I decided the rest of the world should know more about it. It launched me on the path I now follow.

Little did I know it would lead me to writing a novel. Or that it would turn me into a full-time author.

I expected a relatively noisy weekend, it was a music festival after all. But I had no idea to what degree it would affect me. Neither could I know I would be practising my art to such an extent.

The festival was in a castle perched on a hill, surrounded by vineyards, on the edge of Germany’s Odenwald.

I did a solo singer-songwriter performance for the first time in 10 years.

I performed together with my old friends. They had a mobile music act where they moved through the crowd as the bands changed over on the main stage. My job was to basically music bomb them by jumping in the middle of their set and performing one of my own songs.

It was lots of fun.

It was all pretty exhausting but immensely rewarding.

I made new friends, I could share my experiences as a writer, and I could encourage other artists in their endeavours.

I ended my weekend by starting work on my fifth novel.

Quite something really. What a way to celebrate an anniversary!

The long weekend is now over and, as I write this, I am screaming back to Amsterdam in an ICE train.

I am moving at 300km/h.

I am in a rocket. I am racing home. It is a good feeling.

Even though my artist in residence is temporary, it is home for now.  A home where I continue my creative journey.

I feel I am going back to the right place.

I am going to where I can be an artist at work in a creative sanctuary.

An anniversary can signal the start of a phase.

I certainly feel I am embarking on one now.