The novel's setting is my hometown Ettalong Beach. I have included in the narrative certain landmarks, the historical cafe itself, the waterways are known as Broken Bay with Lion Island, Anderson's Boatshed, the bay's channel, oysters, prawning and fishing in the area. The book's timeline is the fifties & sixties when the author (also my characters) enjoyed the music of the times.
The Jealous Wall, Belvedere County Westmeath
The Jealous Wall built in 14th Century to block the view of Lady Rochford seeing her accused lover.
Shrewsbury, England
Shrewsbury, an old medieval town in the West Midlands of England. It is the county town of Shropshire and River Severn.
Lough Ennell, Ireland
Lough Ennell with shallow waters has the some of the best spawning streams of any Lough in Europe.
The Ruins of Fore Abbey
Fore Abbey (630AD) is a Benedictine Abbey ruin, situated north of Lough Lene in County Westmeath, Ireland.
Tullynally Castle, 17th Century
Tullynally Castle is situated 2 km from Castlepollard on the Coole Village Road in County Westmeath, Ireland.
Monday, 27 December 2021
Saturday, 11 December 2021
The Ozone Cafe - OUT NOW! - in Australia on Amazon.com.au
The Ozone Café, a historical novel with three separate owners, is about the café’s demise through council corruption.
Vincenzo Polamo, a Calabrian, builds the Ozone Café with his builder-brother in 1957 in fictional Satara Bay. He meets three children, Winifred, Casey, and Nicolas, creating a seascape mural on a café wall that includes them. The café changes from Italian to Australian cuisine. However, due to long hours of hard work and Vincenzo’s wife unwilling to migrate to Australia, Vincenzo sells the café.
Joe Pendlebury suffers setbacks with too few customers, poor health and problems due to a violent storm causing structural damage close to the mural. In major scenes, Pendlebury goes missing, and Nicolas dies from muscular dystrophy, heightening Winifred’s concerns to keep the mural sacred.
Con & Dion Lasaridis experience problems with the damage. Unable to convince the Heystbury Shire the café is sound after a rebuild, they lose ownership in a court battle; the Shire evoking a Demolition Order, 1946. The Lasaridis believe this is due to an undercurrent of well-known council corruption; Mayor Tyrone being a principal player in corrupt land and property dealings. Vincenzo (et al) removes the mural reinstating it at his home. The mural becomes a lasting memorial to Nicolas Battersby, as well as the sole surviving piece of The Ozone Café.
Available soon on Amazon & Adelaide Books, New York
Wednesday, 1 December 2021
MY EXPERIENCE WITH KIRKUS REVIEWS - Did not have a pleasant experience
You may have seen the Australian eBay advertisement on TV called eBay Tuesday where customers who do not use eBay are denigrated. The actor’s spiel is a mantra called, RIPPED OFF, ROZ. Let me tell you if I were to do an advertisement on KIRKUS REVIEWS I would use the same spiel, yes – this author is a RIPPED OFF, ROZ!
Several, well in the main, disadvantages that I have faced by getting published in the United States, New York City, has been due to COVID, the lockdown events, its restrictions, and the disadvantages of being unable to achieve an American promotion of my novel over there.
Unable to travel to New York, I sought the services of KIRKUS REVIEWS. Firstly, I paid for a review. It was so, so. In the opening sentence, my young couple were “feckless”. The rest was slighly positive, except for the very negative comment by the reviewer saying it was :-
An often entertaining, if unevenly executed, tale of the extraordinary lengths that people can go in pursuit of their dreams.
That didn’t bode well for me, since the idea of a review is to sell the book, esp. in the US. I thanked Kirkus Reviews for their effort, but $400 later, I now realise I was a RIPPED OFF, ROZ!
My other effort was to place a book advert on their website. $1,600 later, I was again a RIPPED OFF, ROZ! Not only didn’t the ad appear the first time, the 2nd time on contacting them asking for a refund, OR what transpired was a second screening in November. Again, the advertisement which was meant to be on several pages as follows, Homepage 970×250: https://www.kirkusreviews.com/ (third integrated) – Review pages 970×250: https://www.kirkusreviews.com/discover-books/fiction (third integrated) – News and Features 970×250: https://www.kirkusreviews.com/news-and-features/genres/fiction/ (third integrated) -Book List 970×250: https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-lists/ (third integrated) – only appeared a couple of times on “DISCOVER BOOKS” – a quick flash and it was gone! I spent hours scrolling through only to find it twice above a novel by Isabel Allende.
I have since written to Kirkus, complained that the ad should have been a fixed/static showing for 2 weeks, and asked the ad girl to let the company know about my book ad expectations and criticisms. Of course, a RIPPED OFF, ROZ, should not complain to an American Company – how dare she!
So folks, save your money. Don’t use KIRKUS REVIEWS as your book advertisement will only be A FLASH IN THE PAN, that neither ‘you” or ‘book buyers’ will see.
The following images were supplied by Kirkus Review on a Word .doc file and obviously not a screenshot of a real ad. Because it didn't appear. I can do something like this easily on Image Composer, duh!
