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.

Saturday 7 September 2024

REVIEW OF THE LAST ASBESTOS TOWN

 

Although my novel (1st Edition) was published in 2020, I have only recently found Lisa Hill’s review on her website ANZ LitLovers. Written on 18th February, 2024, it is a fortuitous find for any author. At the time she also kindly reviewed The Ozone Cafe and said she purchased the Asbestos e-book. Thank you, Lisa!

REVIEW by Lisa Hill @ ANZLitLovers

Right on cue, I was part-way through reading a novel about asbestos removal when an asbestos panic erupted in New South Wales.  Helen Hagemann’s novel is set in WA, but it’s in Sydney that playgrounds, parks and schools in Sydney have been closed, a Mardi Gras party has been cancelled, and hundreds of sites have to be inspected.  The culprit appears to be contaminated mulch, which is used widely in all sorts of places, causing widespread alarm because there is no safe level of exposure to asbestos

Synchronicity, eh? 

This is the blurb from Hagemann’s debut novel, The Last Asbestos Town which I bought after I had read and enjoyed The Ozone Cafe, (2021, see my review).

An Australian National law has been passed and a group known as the Asbestos Task Force (A.T.F.) is formed by the government to systematically remove all known asbestos from towns, cities and suburbs. The city of Perth, Western Australia and surrounds have undergone this removal, and gradually the task force spreads further afield into the South West. Their target has reached Farmbridge, an old pioneer town with numerous asbestos houses and buildings. Newly married, May and Isaac who plan to renovate their home, an old Girl Guide Hall, experience the imminent threat of losing their home after receiving their fateful letter. Believing their home is not made from asbestos, the couple set out on a relentless quest to save the hall from demolition.

Upfront, I’ll say that I would not have continued reading this novel if it had been promoting some sort of conspiracy theory nonsense that denied the dangers of asbestos. But no, The Last Asbestos Town is more about the kind of bureaucratic heavy-handedness over which governments sometimes preside.  Sometimes this happens because it’s cheaper and easier to deliver a one-size-fits-all solution and there’s not enough staff to fix the problems that don’t fit into the program, and sometimes it’s because in the haste to do something and be seen to be doing it, a program is put into place without the proper checks and balances .  Whatever, sometimes it’s just too bad for some unlucky people who are either drafted into somewhere they don’t belong, or, conversely, who are excluded from something that they really need.  Whatever side of politics we’re on, we can all think of examples that exemplify an unresponsive bureaucracy that’s not getting it right for everyone.  

(And, to be fair, we can also think of government programs that are very good indeed, and that help the people they’re supposed to help.  Truth be told, that happens because there’s an effective, competent bureaucracy.)

Set in a recognisable future in a town that features a street with a notorious name in the history of asbestos in Australia, The Last Asbestos Town features a young couple who are convinced that the property they’ve bought is built with a product that looks asbestos, but isn’t.  The thing is, asbestos can’t be identified just by looking at it.  A sample has to be analysed.  

And in the meantime, the task force is on its way and might well slap a demolition order on the property before their sample comes back from the laboratory. 

Read the rest of the review HERE – Book Cover is 1st Edition







Sunday 11 February 2024

Bounty: Prose Poetry


PROSE POETRY + PHOTOGRAPHY: 
This collection of prose poetry will surprise, astound, delight, tell a story, and provide you with an effortless read. Along with images, the poetry is created so that you can enjoy little blocks of prose that act like word pictures. The objects / subjects in the poetry are mostly given a narrative voice rather than written from a personal perspective. Moreover, this collection is subversive, adroit, deceptively plain-speaking, unpremeditated, and packaged in prose that stands alone in a crazy logic of its own.

 



COPYRIGHT MATERIAL (c) 2024 - Please note: the following poem is available for the purposes of private study, research, criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright Act.



Bee Season

 

The selection is strong if the scent is not awkward, and how soon an ordinary bee chooses colour over colour in the noir crop of nasturtiums, a considerable collection of nasturtiums in gold and yellow bright orange and something in between. The bee circulates the bed for it is spring and the open flowers are laden with pollen there is nothing quite flattening about the open petals they are displayed outwards not round perhaps slightly ovoid and monstrously vibrant against the green saucer leaves, an occasional resource to hide behind either from shadow or menace and since the bee is busy his presence is a splendid sequestering of his slick slick sticky in order to be clever this little insect cannot collect the same thing if the petals are closed and partly to dally is a measure of empty and this particular bee has a custom a plan a measure of length to stay and only to break away with the excess he needs and this shows filling.


 

 


Saturday 6 January 2024

2nd Edition: The Ozone Cafe -SUPER DEAL @ ,99 cents for a Limited Time Only


FOLLOW ME ON MY AUTHOR PAGE, view all my books of fiction and poetry and where you will find the SUPER DEAL.   AUTHOR PROFILE: Helen Hagemann

The Personal Story behind The Ozone Café

I'd like to reveal a little of the setting of my 2nd novel The Ozone Café.  The literary world often states for writers, “write what you know”. I have used my hometown in the setting of the novel, however the names have been changed to protect…yes no novelist wants to be sued or face undue litigation esp. when one writes about a corrupt shire. It was common knowledge in the area, that because the Ozone Café sat on prime property (a stone’s throw from the beach), it attracted the moguls and thus disappeared through dubious means.

Ettalong Beach, New South Wales

Ettalong was and has always been a small community lifestyle: a population of less than 5,000, an older community with shopfronts like the cake shop, chemist, newsagents, banks and supermarket. It hasn’t changed in 50 years. There’s fishing, prawning, oysters in the myriad of waterways that is known as Broken Bay which sprawls to Gosford and is known as the Brisbane Water District. What has replaced the café is a very large monolith resort-type building that I understand is not liked nor valued by the locals. Well, it’s a holiday venue for the “rich”.

I went to Ettalong Primary, and then later attended Gosford High School. As a teenager and even younger I frequented the café with girlfriends, esp.one in particular named, Heather. We would have a milkshake, buy lollies, click on the jukebox and if we had any money left we’d slide a twenty shilling piece into one of the pinball machines. Looking back, it was actually a challenge to enter the Ozone café as it was daily occupied by Bodgies and Widgies. They were the rock-n-roll gangs of the sixties, rather harmless, but I guess it was the leather jackets, the chewing gum and sneers that made you feel uncomfortable. Nevertheless, the café was so close to the beach, that after a swim that being hungry we often bought an icy-pole or ice-cream. So, my local teenage haunt was a vivid memory that I would never forget.

When my younger brother, still living in the area, told me that the Ozone had been pulled down, I wanted to write the story of life inside its walls and its ultimate destruction.

The Ozone Café, with three separate owners therefore, is the nemesis of my story and its demise through council corruption. 


 COPYRIGHT MATERIAL (c) 2024

 


Friday 2 September 2022

THE OZONE CAFE - Available now on Kindle Unlimited


I hope this doesn't sound like an advertisement for Amazon, (some people view them negatively) but my take on this company is that they are by far more professional when it comes to helping Indi authors. I haven’t yet looked into Smashwords or Ingram Spark who offer a similar service, but the fact that (at the moment)with Amazon it’s free, and Kindle Unlimited (per se KDP Select) as a promotional tool is also “free” for authors, I would say, how can one go wrong? It’s the buying readership market who are paying to read our Kindle books.

This is Amazon’s explanation of Kindle Unlimited.

Kindle Unlimited is a subscription program for readers that allows them to read as many books as they want. When you enrol in KDP Select, your books are automatically included in Kindle Unlimited. Your books will still be available for anyone to buy in the Kindle Store, and you’ll continue to earn royalties from those sales like you do today. For more information about Kindle Unlimited, click here.

The Ozone Café

Chapter 1

‘To all the pleasures and treasures of a new country,’ said Rennie, a large glass raised in drunken salutation.

    ‘To Australia, my new life here and to you, my brother,’ said Vincenzo. He drank deeply from his own glass, a middle-aged man trying hard to focus on the joyful occasion after sharing several bottles of Grappa. Vincenzo Polamo was indeed happy. Even though a large fly had resided on his nose for several minutes, and the bright sunshine had made him sweat, he could still raise another glass and toast a cheerful saluti to his new homeland.  ‘I’m very grateful,’ he said, a slur of other words following, like prost and nostrovia.

    ‘Take it easy, old man,’ said Rennie, patting his brother’s knee.

    Vincenzo scrunched his eyes into the glare. He liked being with his younger brother, and although older he was taller and hairier. Vincenzo remembered, as a boy, his deep set eyes and his thick eyelashes continually flicked. Two main vital parts of his nature mattered to Vincenzo. His brother’s warmth and emotion, a softening after a drink like the old days, and a trickle of tears when they first hugged dockside. Vincenzo had arrived only three days before in the middle of a sailing regatta in Sydney harbour and couldn’t quite believe he was here. In the relaxed atmosphere of warm weather and alcohol, he reflected on his past journey, meeting new Sicilian friends onboard, his brother’s crazy bear-hug on the wharf and then a sight-seeing tour across Sydney Harbour Bridge.

   On the upper deck where the two men sat drinking, Vincenzo witnessed the idyllic life of his brother, a successful model he’d worked hard for in the ten years since migrating. His north shore mansion was especially ornate with statues of cherubs, angels and crouched griffins, each one facing towards the treetops. The frontage featured high walls, twisted brickwork, automatic wrought iron gates, and reclining lions atop of two pillars. The street spanned into a wide cul-de-sac with other houses of similar build, backyards facing the river, some with their own private jetties.

    The afternoon sun shone hot on Vincenzo’s face. He didn’t mind after a cold blustery sea voyage. He had his feet firmly on terra ferma, and it was good to reconnect with someone from his family, while his own remained in Italy.

    A downstairs telephone rang, interrupting the men’s reverie. ‘That’s just business,’ his brother said. ‘I’ll be back soon, won’t be long.’

     Vincenzo loved his brother, but he couldn’t help notice the extra weight he was carrying; a paunch at his belly, wide across the shoulders and chest. H he was no longer the skinny little brother from ten years ago. Renato still had his thick wavy hair, and although Vincenzo’s was thinning on top, they had the same inherited nose, slightly elongated, robust tip with hairy nostrils.  Both could claim a further family resemblance to their father’s and grandfather’s five o’clock shadow, a dark stubble appearing within hours of shaving.

    In his inebriated state, Vincenzo lay back with his arms behind his head. His wife Maria hadn’t wanted to migrate with him. Before the voyage, he should have revealed the terrible stress he was under with the Camino brothers. He owed them extortion money. They had visited his car repairs, taken stock and machine parts; smashed everything in sight, leaving him shocked and humiliated, powerless to stand up to them. He remembered their combat boots kicking over every piece of furniture in his office.  The truth was he needed to get out of the country.

    He did not deny now that he’d made a big mistake being frantic and pig-headed in front of his family about living in Sydney. But since arriving in Australia he knew he could make a fresh start with his brother’s help.    

    The hot afternoon sun glared into Vincenzo’s face jolting him awake. He’d gone from musing about his time onboard, to his hometown, now he was back lounging in his brother’s magnificent house. He didn’t want to move. He gazed at the great expanse of Renato’s property, a work utility and a Mercedes Benz parked in the driveway. Grape vines and conifers lined the side of the driveway and a terraced backyard reached the verge of the river beginning with a swimming pool.

    He still couldn’t get Maria out of his mind. On their last day together, sitting on a bench in the main square of town, and in between the skulking shadows and branches, he had pleaded with her, the nervous, uncontrolled jiggling of his knees, his hands curling to a fist. Saying their goodbyes, he remembered the terrible darkness in her face, that stubborn sign that she would never come to Australia.  

    ‘I make a beautiful home for us,’ he said, getting up and shouting. ‘You wait and see! You will love Australia. I build a large home for you with my brother with lions on the gate and a big backyard.’

   How uncomfortable it had been arguing. 

   This day with his brother had brought many interesting and new things, and taking one more sip of Grappa, Vincenzo brought his grateful mind back to the blue sky and the warm still breeze. He crouched down on the floor, patting Rennie’s dog, a black and tan terrier. ‘We see,’ he said tousling her fur and lifting her name tag. ‘Maybe they will want to come later, hey… Pomadina!’

    The dog slid her paws across the tiled patio, barking at the top of the steps. ‘Hey, it’s me, stupido!’ said Rennie. ‘Pack some things, Vin. I’ve got a few weeks off. I want to show you my cottage in Satara Bay. We’ll leave tomorrow at dawn. It’s a slow trip.’

    ‘Oh good, Renato,’ he said.

    ‘Oh, one thing old boy, my name is Rennie now.’

    ‘You shortened it, hey?’

    ‘They put ‘e’ on the end of things here, like ‘vegie, barbie, tinnie’. I like it short.’

    ‘Oh, okay. I get used to it.’ Vincenzo scratched the back of his neck, so many changes and a mystery surrounding Cattania. He was surprised how silent his brother was about his wife, nowhere to be seen, although a large room upstairs remained locked. Another unusual thing tweaked his attention. Rennie had bought birthday roses for a neighbor up the street. He didn’t like to ask questions, it was none of his business, yet he hoped that his brother would tell him about his new lady when he was good and ready. On his arrival and telephoning Maria and the girls, Vincenzo explained that Cattania wasn’t in the house and stranger still that no one had heard anything from her, a girl who talked non-stop.

    Back in Paola, it had been a double celebration, his brother marrying Cattania and leaving for Australia in the coming weeks. Vincenzo and Maria joined the family singing around a large table, enjoying their last meal together. Although a little misty-eyed, Vincenzo was happy for his brother, the wine helping to toast a farewell to the happy couple. Later, in his brother’s letters, he mentioned owner-building different houses, the first one in Seaforth, then moving to Manly. He built his current one not far from the Gladesville Bridge, informing the family now and again about fishing from his boat or catching large silver bream off the rocks. But they hadn’t received any news about Cattania or whether a little bambino had arrived.

   Vincenzo and his brother had parted ways as young men living in different Calabrian towns. Rennie was once in a long relationship with a girl called Anna, but Cattania had been a strange choice over the girl they expected he would marry.

    If anything, Vincenzo preferred to talk about the good times as teenagers fishing for hours, trolling their skiff along the crusty valleys of the Savuto River. In the planned holiday tomorrow, he would learn about his brother’s his new life and he hoped those happy times would return, this time in a different bay, near a different ocean, casting rods into the sunrise.

 

 


Saturday 27 August 2022

3 Uploaded Books to Kindle

I have recently uploaded three print books to Amazon Kindle. I may not get big sales for 2 that are poetry books, namely of Arc & Shadow and Evangelyne & other poems, but hopefully my novel The Ozone Cafe might do well. Fingers crossed. I just have to keep promoting my work, ep. like writing blog posts. In this one I am sharing the processes that I took on how to upload to KDP Amazon (eg. Kindle Direct Publishing) and it's free. You can allocate the price of the book yourself and the percentage of royalty, either 35% or 70% that Amazon pays you! Check out My Author Page where you can purchase my books!

One of the reasons for uploading my books (novel & 2 poetry) is I have learned that publishing houses do not have the resources to convert your work to digital. They do this for high profile, top selling authors, but for the rest of us, it’s tough bikkies.

With Digital Publishing your POETRY you may not get high sales, but remember the internet is timeless and immortal. If you die, your work will remain on Kindle Amazon, if you have a free blog/website your hours of posting/ or promoting yourself as a writer will always remain. Hopefully the grandchildren or great-grandchildren will seek you out. You will definitely be immortal along with Hemingway, Jack Kerouac or Adrienne Rich (poet), to name a few. You would think that some story snippets from our Australian authors like Elizabeth Jolley, Peter Cowan, Patrick White or Dorothy Porter (poet) might be accessible for “free” to read online. At least, they should be available either as ebooks or audio books.

As per previous posts, again with “poetry” you have to think outside the box. Some videos have suggested you can turn your work into images like concrete poetry. The same steps for POETRY are below, and I have acknowledged a 6-year-old video from AuthorHouse Publishing where I learned “HANGING INDENTS” – this is because some poetry lines are too long and Kindle platforms (phone, ipad, ereader) will turn the end line and most likely not where the poet intended. It’s best to watch the video (see below) as all other tips mentioned are relevant for digital publishing.

If you have a poetry manuscript or print collection and would like to see your hard work as an ebook, follow these steps. A word of warning!  It is very time consuming, and also be prepared to upload as many times as you want to get it right/ perfection is another country!

For Your Poetry Book or Manuscript

Cover required for KDP.  This you will load last (I used my print book cover, slightly altered). KDP, Kindle Direct Publishing, on Amazon will style one for you although they may be a little bland.

  1. The manuscript is best in Word ie .doc / docx, Times New Roman, Font size 12, in single spacing. Keep it simple as Amazon changes the font anyway.
  2. Delete all page numbers.
  3. Re-format your poetry into one long continuous flow of text so that you only have one or two spaces in between poems. This is in order to insert Page Breaks. Page breaks work best at the end of your poem/ ie. last word – try every which way as we all have different Word editions. Click on the show/hide symbol to view your page breaks at end of poems. Show/Hide is in the “paragraphs” section on Word eg. 
  4. You need a title page, a copyright page, a quote/dedication page (optional), author page if you’re new to this, and a Table of Contents – before the first poem.
  5. Table of Contents: it’s important to click on Heading 1 (in style) on each Title of Poem. Word automatically links your title page to the TOC page. You do not need page numbers. You will see why when you use the KDP’s manuscript previewer. Please watch as many videos as possible on how to create a Table of Contents in Word. I have acknowledged Derek Murphy below. His TOC video is excellent!
  6. Note: If you’ve written free verse, you are definitely on the way. Small poems justified to the left work best for digital publishing. Really long lines spread across the page do not work so well as each digital platform will do a “hard return” and you could end up with something like this: eg.   
  7. The train, a long tube
    wound its way
    around the mountain

When finished promote your ebook to as many poetry readers as possible, include cover, link back to Amazon Kindle where your book is and post the release on all your social media. Good luck!

Remember!  You are the copyright owner of the work and if your contract doesn’t say anything about “Exclusive digital rights” you are home, hosed and out of the woods.

For Poetry

AuthorHouse Publishing – Poetry Books: Guidelines & Design Options

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMVk4BtHK4U&ab_channel=AuthorHousePublishing

Derek Murphy

How to make a Table of Contents for Kindle

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZ8bpEDHFh0&ab_channel=DerekMurphy

How to format a book with Kindle Create

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qfSMG0-Xaw&ab_channel=DerekMurphy


Thursday 10 March 2022

The Ozone Café - 2nd novel & Unboxing Books

 


The Ozone Cafe - Unboxing Books

I have recently tried (once again) to create a reasonable book video of “unboxing books”. Not only have I spent a lot of time, and tried to edit out BLACK COCKATOOS (yes, loud rasping from them in a neighbour’s olive tree) in my first attempt, I also discovered that WORDPRESS made it difficult to upload in media, (haha although problem solved). In a recent post I managed to upload my video in the *text section*. Never give up folks! 




So glad to share this space with you so that you can view my ”Unboxing Books” of the 2nd novel The Ozone Café, that has taken almost "14 YEARS!"

Also, I do have two other BLOGS and have uploaded same video to https://helenhagemann.wordpress.com and https://helenhagemann.blogspot.com/

So, apart from these frustrating promotional ideas, I am quite excited to receive a number of copies of The Ozone Café and will have a book launch on Saturday 26th March, at the Kingsway Bar & Bistro @ 12.30pm.  Book signing/ $25 cash only. Bar tab. Covid restrictions must be seated & certified. All welcome!

The novel can be purchased from me, the author on the “Buy Books” wordpress page & also from amazon.com.au  who offer a free postage deal.

The Ozone Café is about three separate owners and the demise of the cafe through council corruption. Set in a fictional town north of Sydney, the author brings to the novel her memories of growing up in Ettalong Beach NSW and visiting the cafe as a teenager.

From a review by Richard Regan on Amazon Australia. “At the heart of the novel is the Ozone Café itself, the loving creation of Italian migrant, Vincenzo Polamo, and treasured possession of its subsequent two owners. Their intertwined stories revolve around the café and the three local children whose images are immortalised in its courtyard mural.”

 

Monday 27 December 2021

The Personal Story behind The Ozone Café

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.