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Book / 15.12.2021

I delivered an order for five books from the Vice President of the Lamington Natural History Association, after she emailed me about stocking the book in the Binna Burra visitor information centre. I phoned her right away and she was so complimentary about the book. She lives in Beechmont and I brought the books to her house. It is ages since I have driven to Beechmont, another of those alluring upland settlements of which the mountain is the most northerly.  

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Book / 01.11.2021

The lockdown officially ended on October 22. Between June 16 and July 30, I shipped 9 books to library suppliers, but I logged more orders than that by phone. I suspect some libraries did not follow through nor could I get clear answers about which library I was actually supplying. There is little point in resuming contact with libraries there, until the New Year.

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Book / 29.05.2021

This morning I set up my table at the book fair outside the mountain’s library in Main Street. It is a lively part of the street’s annual Five Senses Festival, which was cancelled last year due to the pandemic. In bitterly cold weather I nonetheless sold six of my books. Although it is not written for children, the illustrations are ideal for children to explore or be shown. I was particularly delighted that three books were bought by parents with young children, after I approached them to let their kids leaf through the pages. The first sale was to a mother with a three year old daughter and a five year old son. When she asked them if they wanted her to buy the book, they proclaimed a resounding ‘yes’. The second sale was to parents with a seven year old boy and the final sale was to parents who had only moved to the mountain from Sydney, the previous Sunday. Mum had an infant in a baby carrier and her eight year old daughter was engrossed in a book illustrating the birds of South East Queensland. She loved the illustrations in my book, which her parents were happy… Read Complete Text

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Book / 21.05.2021

On Monday I at last emailed the libraries of thirteen inner Melbourne cities and by today had received three orders from library suppliers, an unusually quick turn-around. Greater Melbourne’s prolonged lockdown last year, delayed my campaign. PS 28.5.21 By today, I have received five further orders from suppliers, which may include orders from the 24.5.21 mail out to another fourteen libraries. Not all librarians let me know that they have ordered the book nor do the suppliers name the library when they email an order to me. This makes record-keeping rather haphazard. As of 27.5.21 The State of Victoria entered an initial week long lockdown, bringing my campaign to an abrupt halt.

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Book / 11.04.2021

The books were stacked on the pallet in four towers of thirteen. Yesterday I was perturbed to notice that the two towers further from the side wall were looking like the leaning tower of Pisa and even the two next to the side wall were beginning to lean. Prompt action was needed to prevent a damaging topple. While I was visiting friends, the handyman, who also happens to be a resident of my unit block, re-stacked the books.

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Book / 31.03.2021

Today we relocated 52 boxes of books from the container to my garage. The people renting the container will relinquish it at the end of April. The move saves me the $100 a month I paid for storage. I have a pallet in my garage which held the 15,000 copies, awaiting distribution, of my bi-monthly Tamborine Mountain Visitor newspaper – published between 1993 and 1998. I paid a handyman to fix a sheet of plywood against the back wall to complete a neat corner in which to stack the books.

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Book / 12.03.2021

An email arrived from Port Augusta Library confirming an order via their usual supplier. This follows an exchange of emails on 10.3.21 with a librarian who is constrained by the Public Library South Australia monthly list of approved books, which typically contains 7,000 titles. My book was on the December list which cannot be accessed retrospectively by any of the libraries I contacted this month. PS By 25.3.21 I had received 5 Phase 2 orders. Once I return from Longreach on April 19, I intend to contact libraries in Victoria.

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Book / 09.03.2021

There were nine libraries in South Australia that I did not contact last November, an omission I made good today.

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Book / 30.11.2020

I received my first bookshop order in three months. Canungra Books and Art came up trumps with an order for four books.

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Book / 27.11.2020

My book is due to appear on the ALS Library Supplier new book list next month, however ALS emailed an order for two books from libraries I had contacted by phone.