[00:00:00] Speaker A: Hello authors.
[00:00:01] Speaker B: I'm Joanne Morel, children's and young adult fiction writer and author of short nonfiction for authors. Thanks for joining me for the hybrid author podcast, sharing interviews from industry professionals to help you forge a career as a hybrid author, both independently and traditionally publishing your book. You can get the show notes for each episode and sign up for your free author pass over at the hybrid author website to discover your writing process. Get tips on how to publish productively and get comfortable promoting your books at www.hybridauthor.com au. Let's crack on with the episode.
[00:00:42] Speaker C: Hello authors. I hope you're all keeping well in whatever part of the world you reside and listen to the podcast in. Today's interview is with Callum Greenall and we chat how creative writing balances out low energy from our responsibilities, aspirations to write a full length manuscript, and how to succeed in between life commitments, Callum's books and tips for authors trying to write in between raising a family, working in an emotionally draining job, and juggling life's obligations.
So in my author adventure this week, I am recording this in a car park in Margaret river in my car. So yay. If you can hear traffic or birds or people or background noise, that's because I am on the road and this is the day after that I have conducted my talk that was in Australand. So for anybody who's listening outside of Australia, Australand is in Western Australia and it's down south near Bunbury and I'd never actually heard of it before. So the talk that I was doing was roadblocks in writing and that was loosely based on my author fears and how to overcome them. Book roadblocks being barriers that stop us from progressing in our author careers.
The library was about two hour drive from where I live. Pretty straight, easy drive. I enjoyed the drive. I'm definitely someone who likes to crank up the music and hit the road and it was pretty straightforward. And then I arrived in Australand and it's a beautiful little town on an estuary, and checked into my accommodation, which I had booked, that was about 6 minutes from the library on the same street. It was just a tourist park, nice little sort of cabiny thing that I had that overlooked a forest. And yeah, just started preparing for my talk and definitely in the lead up to the talk I have talking about Roblox and writing, I get a bit nervous. So what I do is write down the roadblocks, not roadblocks, but like author fears around the fears that I have that arise from going out and doing a talk and so for me, that was, what if I go blank and forget what I'm talking about or look stupid? The usual stuff that always comes up in my head. I don't know if anybody else deals with that. And the way that I get through it is by writing all the fears out and then addressing them one by one. It's about acknowledging them, meeting them with logic. So will I go blank during the talk? There's every possibility. It does happen to me sometimes, but I actually talk a lot. This podcast has helped me just chat my little box off. And I think that even if I was to go blank, I would just call myself out on it, oh, mind blank, and then move on. It doesn't matter. People don't care. And that really helped. And then in the traveling journey to there, I was just so excited. Like, I was really excited to meet the librarians who kindly hosted me for the so this is for the 2024 shire of Harvey Literacy Festival. And there was a lot of lovely big names, Wa authors, some who've appeared in the podcast mentioned in the past episode, Sasha Wosley, Kylie Howarth. I think Christy Byrne was there today. They had David Wish Wilson, who I haven't had on the podcast yet, and I think they had Sarah Foster today as well. But just great that they do this festival. I was just so honored to be a part of it. So when I went to the library, I went obviously half an hour early to set up, and I had taken books with me and a stand and my square reader and cash if people wanted to buy books. So I had that when I rocked up to the library, they had, and I've seen this before, librarians do it, obviously, for visiting authors and guests and stuff. They make displays. And there was my know when I walked straight in. Beside their theme this year is called imagine the possibilities. It was on discovery. So I think David wish Wilson's picture was above mine. He'd been there in the morning, and then there was mine. And they'd cut out some of the podcast episode icons and stuck them around, as well as my bio. So as funny, you see the pictures because I have blonde hair then. I've now got red hair.
[00:04:59] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:05:00] Speaker C: Anyways, the librarians were lovely, and they'd set some wine out and some cheese and food and things like that, and it was really relaxed and really casual. And I was grateful for that because I haven't really gone out and done many talks. And so it was quite intimate, less than ten people there, which was great. We were able to have a chat rather than just me talking the whole time. It was about an hour. My voice is tiny bit hoarse this morning, but managed to get through the talk and I think it was beneficial and helpful for people. It was lovely to meet some of the local artists and writers of the area and chat to them about their work and obviously touch on roadblocks in writing. So yeah, it went really well and I just loved which helped. They had this chair and if anybody watches Graham Norton, the host, the tv show host guy, and he's got one of these big chairs that swivels around. It was like that, but it had velvet on it and it was just. I just loved sitting in it. I felt like I was a queen, but it helped to sit down rather than to stand and it made it less informal and no tech issues with just plugging my laptop in and it coming up. So that all went to plan.
What else was wonderful was there was a lady there who listened to the podcast and that just blew me away. It really did that I was connecting with people and for me this is what it's all about. It's connecting with like minded individuals, making those networking connections just with other writers and whatever. That's what it was about for me. So all these fears that I originally had left me as soon as I went there and I was not nervous at all, I really enjoyed it. And I just think that the passion for what I do and for the message that I was trying to deliver came through. And yeah, I hung around and had a glass of wine with them before packing up and heading back to the accommodation. And I'm now in Margaret river, which is about an hour and a half out from where I was. It's getting further away from where I live to visit a friend for the weekend. Now I just thought, she's not that far. So now I'm down this way and I'm also going to visit a town that's another hour out from here tomorrow because the young adult fiction book that I've started working on is loosely based on this town. It's going to be fictional, but I'm loosely sort of using that as a base. So I'm going to go and do book research.
[00:07:21] Speaker A: So exciting.
[00:07:23] Speaker C: And then I'll be heading back home on Sunday and getting back into the usual come Monday. So especially around my talk roadblocks in writing, you could think about whatever you're working on this week or whatever you are, some things in this authorship career that you're concerned about and think might hold you back. So for me, public speaking has always been a thing, but it just isn't anymore because I've gone out and I've done it. And the feeling I got after I was so energized and I just thought, this is me. This is exactly what I want to do. I want to have my car filled with books. And I would love to just be touring around the country, me driving my car and visiting libraries and chatting and meeting people who are writers and creatives and just, yeah, this is definitely my calling, my career. But then I was nervous about this. So imagine if I had let that roadblock, that fear stop me from going ahead with doing this. I would not have the new experience I have today from last night of how good it was to draw upon. So consider that, and consider things that you might be scared about with this career, whether it be sharing your work or putting yourself out there and write it down and meet it head on. And just know that you need to go on the other side of it. So get past that initial thought to experience what's on the other end of it, because it's more than you'll ever imagine.
So if you love the podcast or any of the episodes has helped you further in your author career, you can now pay it forward. By buymeacoffee
[email protected] slash thehybridauthor let's all support each other.
[00:09:16] Speaker A: Alan Greenall is a mental health nurse and self published author. His award winning debut picture book, Sam's Stormy Night, is the first in a four part series, with the second Barry's Broken Dam, due for release later this year. Along with other self publishing projects, Callum is also in the process of trying to secure a traditional published contract. Welcome to the hybrid author podcast, Callum.
[00:09:38] Speaker D: Thank you.
[00:09:39] Speaker A: It's good to be oh, we're absolutely thrilled and honored for you to join us today. So we'll just get stuck in. How did you come to join the writing and publishing world?
[00:09:48] Speaker D: Stumbled upon it, really. We had our first child in 2019 and until then come across picture books much since I was like, reading them myself as a kid. And obviously we read every night to him. We just started reading so many, and I fell in love with them again until we got one that was not as good as the other, shall we say?
Yeah, and it didn't quite work as well. My wife walking past and saying, oh, geez, Cam, you could do better than that, being a competitive.
And then I started having a go and then obviously found out there's a reason. It's a lot harder than it looks to write picture books, but I just kind of fell in love with it when I started doing it. Yeah. So I started in about 2019. Yeah. Started putting together what I could and, yeah, I've just found it so rewarding. Such a nice escape to do it. And since then, put together my own picture book. Help publish that. Yeah. Go make it part of the four part series as well. Yeah.
[00:10:44] Speaker A: Amazing. Well, I think we've all sort of come across a bad book before, haven't we? And just thought, why? Come on.
[00:10:52] Speaker D: Yeah, it wasn't even bad. It wasn't even bad. It was like a rhyming one and there was just one line in it that popped out and it took you out of the experience. It felt like even my son, who was like three at the time, he noticed or two at the time where it was okay. Yeah. Don't want to hate him because now I know it's really hard for me.
[00:11:10] Speaker A: Yeah, that's it. Well, I think that's why they always say as well, to be a writer, you need to read, especially in the genre that you're going to write in, because like you said, you can learn from what to do, what not to do, what feels like it works and what kind of doesn't, doesn't work. But even just outside of writing, just anything that looks easy, I think, or just anything. I never say.
I get that. I think behind every profession there is sort of struggle or a hard work that you don't actually get to see.
[00:11:39] Speaker D: Yeah. No one sees the hours of work before they read it.
[00:11:42] Speaker A: Yeah, that's it. It's the same as, like, screenwriting and stuff. It sounds so glamorous and you think, wow. But it's the same with any writing. There's that solid solitude where the person's just sitting, grafting and probably tearing their hair out and grappling with their inner critic. No one sees that. They just finish.
[00:12:01] Speaker D: No one wants to see everyone else's. You're the worst on your own. You don't need everyone else's.
[00:12:08] Speaker A: Well, you are a hybrid author via your publishing endeavors. You're self publishing under your imprint, Bumblebrook books, and you're also chasing a traditional publishing deal for your children's fiction. So did self publishing just come first to you? You just thought, I'm going to give this a go myself. You didn't actually think about going for a traditional deal first off?
[00:12:29] Speaker D: I did.
Yeah. That was my first thought. And then it was just very naive. And then when I started looking into it, it was just so daunting, like looking at statistics of less than 1% and where do you even start? How do you submit? How do you even get going with that? And it seemed, like, mysterious. It just seemed impossible and also seemed kind of just insulting to think that I could do that straight away, you know what I mean? So came across this. I was talking to a friend about this story I'd written, and she said she was part of this chat group through her work, and someone had been talking about this company that helps people self publish. You can just publish your own books. Is that what you can do? So when I started looking into that, it seemed like a really good, feasible way of getting going at that point as well. I wasn't completely focused.
It was like, if this doesn't go any further, at least I've got something to show. But it'd be really cool to show my son and family and friends and stuff. And then as the process went on, I realized, keep doing this.
[00:13:32] Speaker A: Amazing. Yeah. Sounds like you've been, what they say, bitten with the bug.
[00:13:36] Speaker D: Yeah. And I was really lucky as well that about three years before, five years before that, I'd reconnected with a mate and his wife, amazing illustrator. So her style was perfect for what I'd written as well. So I already kind of had this image of what it went to look like, and she was perfect as well.
[00:13:57] Speaker A: No, that's great now. That's awesome. And almost, it sounds like from your story, you sort of fell into it through that experience. But I'm a wee bit cookie and think, oh, it sounds like it's meant to be. You're on the right path.
[00:14:11] Speaker D: Well, yeah, it kind of feels a bit. I've always been a bit creative doing stuff, but, yeah, I've definitely felt like there was a moment last year. So this is a few years past. The book came out now and I did a reading at my kids school. So we went there for book week. I did the day there, like, half an hour with each class, and it was just so much fun. I had such a great time.
[00:14:33] Speaker A: That's really cool.
[00:14:34] Speaker D: Getting all their feedback and then. Yeah, it was really good. Definitely. Day there was like, yeah, this is what I want to do. This is awesome.
Hopefully, fingers crossed. Keep touching and get some more out.
[00:14:48] Speaker A: Yeah, no, that's great. Well, obviously, like you've mentioned, you are a father and you have your husband as well, and you're holding down a very rewarding but emotionally taxing job as a mental health nurse. Can you talk us through what, a week in your life looks like and where you try to fit your writing into it because you've got a lot going on.
[00:15:07] Speaker D: Yeah, well, yeah, it can be tricky. I'm a community mental health nurse, so based on one place, but we go out and see people all over the suburbs. I work nine to five, so by the time someone wakes up, like half five, but brain is not going to be working, then I think I've figured out anytime before I go to work, it's not going to be suitable for writing. I think my brain just works too logically at that time. It just get this done, get this done and it's not thinking creatively. So I've kind of written off anytime before then it's not going to be productive and then get home. It's about 07:30 probably by then, kids are in bed on a good day. If it's not being stressful, there's an opportunity there to do some writing. But I guess what I found is I tend to write more on my phone than I do a laptop or anything, just like a note, especially with picture book kind of lessons, they're only like 500 words, so it's not a massive document that you need. And because I tend to do rhyming manuscripts as well, you can do just a couple of standards at a time, really. You only need 15 minutes. It took me a while to realize that just you can still get a good amount done in 15 minutes, even if it's only like two standards. That's a good portion of your book. If you're writing a whole book, that's a whole chapter.
It's a decent amount. Trying to find those little snippets. When I just had wanted.
When Henry was in the past, he would be having a quiet time there.
When he was older, there'd be like 15 minutes there where before I just sit and scroll through reels, I got to a point where I think, you know what? 15 minutes is a real amount of time there where I can plot some stories out or just throw some ideas around or. Yeah, trying to find moments like that and not even just writing either. Like times that I would be scrolling Instagram or Facebook, trying to switch over to my author account. So I'm not just scrolling immature rubbish, it's following different authors. Like here in Perth, we've got people like James Fowley's website. It's just got heaps of information and advice on it. Sean Avery, he's got loads on his Instagram account. Really helpful just following those. So, yeah, finding little windows. I think if I had to do, like, a couple of adult novels might be a bit harder, but trying to find those little snippets and down and taking advantage of car journeys to work, to get to work, feeling like in a good mood. I've put on a podcast about books like yours or other people. Just trying to find those times to keep my mind thinking creatively.
[00:17:44] Speaker A: No, that's fantastic. And so do you feel like you're kind of strategic that way, that you're sort of just going on the goal? You do it with your phone, but it's kind of as when inspiration strikes or you just think, right, I'm on a lunch break. You open your notes and it's just constantly in your mind.
[00:18:02] Speaker D: Yeah. I find that there's definitely parts where something will just pop into my mind and I do need to pull over the card and write that down before it gets off. That's probably one of the best bits of advice I had. There was this in England, you got BBC.
Yeah. And they did this course with Julia Donaldson. And it was a really long video course and she talked about all these things, but the main thing that stuck out was she had this, a five notepad that was just full of ideas that she'd never used. She's like, and every now and again, come back and book one out and start working with it. But you can guarantee the one that you don't write down is the one.
[00:18:37] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:18:38] Speaker D: Could have been the best one. Always try and try and do that. But I guess, yeah, most of the time I've presented with like a little window of time and then it just needs to kind of switch on. I find that if I get those in the afternoon, I can make something of them. I just feel like my mind is a bit more silly in the afternoon, whether that's like. Because I've been working all morning and I just need an outlook for it, I think probably what it is. And I find to be a bit sneaky at work as well. If you have your phone on a computer, people will look at you, but you just on your phone, you kind of get a go within the 15 minutes and then. Yeah, but I found I was getting bit bogged down and trying to. Trying to write, having to write something that was going to turn into something like full manuscript. And really it's good just to keep writing, practicing. And I mentioned before that, John, every full series post on Instagram about little bits and advice. And one of them really stuck with me was trying to approach writing like an athlete would approach their sport and just, they would train every single day, four or five days a week. Even if they're the only place once a week, the only place is in. They're always training.
That makes sense. Your brain is the same. You got to keep training it and keep working it. So I kind of came up with these things I've just called ramble lines. I just put them out on Instagram. There's like three, four standards at a time, two or three times a week. And they're standalone nonsense. Completely utter nonsense. Doesn't make sense. Anything else that I'm doing, they may not be that good, but they rhyme, they fit in order, and it just keeps my mind trying to be creative.
[00:20:18] Speaker A: So it sounds like you like to be a bit silly and a bit playful and things like that. Because I was just thinking, you've got your job, which can probably be a bit emotionally draining some days, and then children as well, and I have some. So I know that sometimes your energy can be a bit low with obviously juggling all that. So is that how you find creative writing? Balances out that sort of low energy to give you energy, you just kind of playfully approach it that way, you be silly rather than you were saying, like trying to tackle a bigger length manuscript kind of pecks your head a bit?
[00:20:52] Speaker D: Yeah, definitely.
I love my job.
I really do. But it is draining helping people at the worst points of their lives.
It takes doctor to have something that you can move to that is if you just wrang a picture book or so immature and so absurd. It is a brilliant release. And I get really dolphin covering ball. That's not the right word, like tunnel vision. When I'm writing these kind of things. So it really kind of takes all my attention away, which is good. But, yeah, I think it took a while to kind of figure that there was definitely things that went through. After my first self published book, it felt like a year. I was like, I need to get published. Need to get published. And it was just this goal I had, but it wasn't a good way to write. Just have to remind yourself that I'm writing because I enjoy writing. That should be the thing. If you do that, then everything else will, hopefully.
[00:21:50] Speaker A: Yeah, that's it. I think a lot of people can forget that as well because when you get crunched into the publishing mill and you get crunched out with lots of rejections and stuff, you can start to get really disheartened. And it is a tough game as well. That's why I love that we have so many options to be able to put our work out there, and that traditional path is just one of them, even though that a lot of people strive for that because of various reasons. But being able to do it yourself, there's an absolute joy in that as well, because at the end of the day, like you said, you've got something physical to hold in your hand and you're able to share with the friends and family and you get that positive kind of reinforcement and feedback with putting your own work out there. And then, like you said, keep going. And no one's going to achieve a traditional deal if they don't keep going.
[00:22:38] Speaker D: Yeah, exactly. It seems so obvious, but it's completely right. If you think you're never going to achieve it and you stop, well, then you're definitely never going to achieve it.
[00:22:48] Speaker A: Yeah. And I've spoken to many a publisher on this podcast and they all say, and it's a message that I've heard a lot over the years as well.
You don't have to take the rejections to heart. Sometimes they're just saying it's not their fit right now and there's just so many different things that come into play. So it can be really difficult, though, in the beginning for people not to take it personally because if they want it so bad, but, yeah, I've had.
[00:23:12] Speaker D: One come back recently and they said they loved it. It was great. They'd want to go with it, but they just needed to check if it fitted with the marketing side of.
Do some research on the marketing side of it, and then that one got me a bit harder. You're so close, but they just need to figure out if it fits in with their marketing strategy for the year and what other things they're doing.
[00:23:38] Speaker A: Amazing, though. Yeah, that's really positive. I feel for. I know a lot of people that, a friend of mine as well, they just kept getting to the acquisition stage and then getting knocked back, and I would think that would just be hell. I would rather probably not know that I'd gone to that stage. Maybe or maybe not. But that feels like you're super close as well. So now, congrats. That sounds like you're on your way. Yeah, really good. So what are your aspirations? To write a full length manuscript?
Would it still be in the children's fiction genre or in adults or anything like that? Maybe about your job?
[00:24:13] Speaker D: No, I don't think so. I think we're definitely keeping it in children's genre. Yeah. I find, like, picture books, especially doing them rhyming, I find, like, it's just great. Being so creative and being able to get just really silly, absurd ideas out there, but linking them in, in a heartwarming way as well. And then once you've got all that good creative stuff going, then you can kind of start with a puzzle of making sure it's the rhythm and the rhyming is all perfect as well. I like both sides of that. Although recently I did have a submitted from my manuscripts to my critique group. One of them came back and said, you thought about doing this as a chapter book? Like a junior fiction chapter book. The characters have got a lot more in there. I was like, you know what? I hadn't at all, but I'll give it a go and had a little try it. Recently, I did find, like, the opposite. I just felt like it was so rewarding to be able to not have to be in those constraints of, like, 500 words and must be timing and just go wild with some idea.
I've had an absolute blast. So I have kind of got a first draft draft of a chapter book, hoping at some point become something more, but I think I'll always come back.
[00:25:22] Speaker A: To, yeah, it's funny because everybody that I know in the children's and myself included. So I started out writing ya fiction many years ago, and then slowly have started to come down the ladder into middle grade and then picture books and all that. And I think it was through reading, like yourself reading a bunch of them when my kids were young, and you get used to the language or whatever, which sparks an idea. But everybody I know who's on picture books now are all starting to move up to junior fiction and move it up.
[00:25:51] Speaker D: It seems that way. I think maybe there's definitely been, like, I've been exposed to a lot more. My son keeps bringing them back from the library now with, like, captain underpants and all those. They're so hilarious to read compared to the fiction books that have been read for the past, like, four years. So maybe some of that sunk in. But, yeah, there definitely does seem to be a shift going on towards chapter books and graphic novels away from picture books.
[00:26:16] Speaker A: That's it. Well, it sounds like you've already got a first draft, because I was going to ask if you're going into the full length manuscripts, like, a little bit longer than picture books. It's more of a word count. How have you succeeded in doing that between life commitments? Still just the same approach, just on the go, on your phone when you can.
[00:26:33] Speaker D: Yeah, well, it had to be a little bit different with the chapter. It's sitting around 5000 words, just too much to do, like a notes and phone or word on your phone.
That was a bit tricky. I did have some time off. We were on holiday, so I did some work there. But yeah, I think if I was to go do more of that work would be nice because I'd just take a half day of annual leave, maybe here and there, once a month or something. And I think then if I could get to the library 2 hours solid time by myself, I could probably get a decent amount of working.
[00:27:09] Speaker A: Do you meet your critique group or is it online? How often is that?
[00:27:12] Speaker D: I would like to. I only joined literally like six months ago. So I would say up until around six to twelve months ago, I've just been kind of doing like the writing equivalent of just googling around. I feel kind of just having a go at it, having a play at it. I would say in the past year I've tried to turn a lot more focus onto it and be a bit more, I guess, professional about it. The way I go around my social media or the way I'm presenting myself or the way I'm looking at it. I kind of had this weight shift of talking to people and thinking, if I'm trying to get us to be a published author, whether it's self published or traditionally, I need to start acting like a believer can, rather than just playing into the impostor syndrome. Give it a go. We'll see what happens. Yeah. So I've been trying joining, going to the workshops that are on here. Like Larry House had some great ones last year, online workshops and pitch parties and stuff like that. And then join the squibby and a couple of other things as well. So, yeah, join the critique group was such a help to me. You got like five or six people giving you feedback who all in the same boat.
Way more helpful.
[00:28:25] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. And I just mean with the critique group as well, I know that that can keep you accountable. So, you know, you've got to have something to share with them by this date if that's the way you guys work. And sometimes that can work as a good tool to get you to make the time or the space to just get the words down as well.
[00:28:42] Speaker D: Yeah. Because you see people posting every single month.
Okay, I need to start up my game a bit.
[00:28:49] Speaker A: Yeah, it sounds like you're on your way. You're doing all the right things. And I love how you said you're thinking about it more professionally, which means trying to quieten that voice. And even now, honestly, that I have been doing this very long time. I just finished a women's fiction project and I think I've given it to my mum as well to read. And she finished it the other day and the questions that. The things that came out of my mouth were, like, pinpointing, I guess, what I would be worried about the work, I suppose. And then she went off and I went back through and said, do you know what? No. I said, the work is actually so good and I really loved it. I love the story, I love this and that. And I'm stopping talking this way now rather than go for all the insecurities first or, oh, do you think it was this or that? Just like, yeah, talk about the positives and the joys of it or whatever.
That's what I'm trying to work on. And to look at it, to think that is a professional attitude. Own it.
[00:29:47] Speaker D: Yeah. The fun with picture books.
I got to a phase where I just was analyzing everything that I wrote as I was writing it. And then I was spending so long doing, like, one standard that I was never getting anything done. I had, like, a switch where I was like, you know what? Even if it's not where I want it to be, I just need to get it all down and then I can go back and go through it and kind of meme or make it because I was getting just. And then if I got halfway, I was starting to fall out of love with whatever story I was writing because it was getting so bogged down in tiny details.
So that's been a bit of a shift as well. But I think that's where it came from for me was you always told, you need to be more analytical about looking at your own manuscript and you spend months kind of rereading, rewriting and just picking them apart with all the tiny details and then suddenly you got to present it and forget all that and not get bogged down in that idea, trying to get people's opinions of it.
[00:30:45] Speaker A: Yeah. And I think we just need to realize that perfection is not a thing. We went to see Henry Winkler last night, the Fonz at the Perf concert hall, and he had such a positive message about that, about the people sort of waiting for perfection or still working towards perfection are still doing that, whereas you just need to get yourself out there and put yourself out there and do the best you can, which was a message that I sort of took back, which was cool. Well, you've honestly shared so many tips already, Callum, and just wondering if you had any other advice to writers who are raising families, working in jobs that are taking a lot of their energy from them and just trying to juggle life commitments in general. It can be a struggle for some to find the time to write or do you have any other advice you want to share?
[00:31:32] Speaker D: Yeah, just be kind to yourself.
Not every single moment that you have spare has to be writing. Sometimes you just wind down and you need to watch some comedy or whatever it might be that you do to wind down. Don't feel guilty about not writing.
Sometimes it's just as good to know when what you've got to write is going to be productive or not. If you're kind of 50 50 because you're really tired, you're probably not going to write anything you're going to use anyway. So just write it off and kind of survive the writing of the day.
[00:32:06] Speaker A: Yeah, no, that's fantastic advice. I like that. And again, another thing that we can often forget is to have the downtime that is maybe out of the writing world or being kind to ourself definitely is a big one for sure. So, no, thank you. Thank you very much. So, Anne, for your time, expertise and the lot. Callum, can you tell our listeners where they can find your books and all the things you do online?
[00:32:30] Speaker D: Yes, I've got Facebook and Instagram. It's Callum Greenall.
You can find my book samstorming on Amazon. The second book in that series should be coming out soon, probably the next couple of months. And I'm also working on another self published book with somebody else, which is really excited. I'm not asking any details at home, which is just going to be really cool when it does come through.
So, yeah, give my instagram mainly a follow and you'll find out.
[00:32:57] Speaker A: Amazing. Well, thanks again, Callum. That was great.
[00:33:00] Speaker D: Thank you. Cheers. Thanks for having me.
[00:33:08] Speaker C: So there you have it, folks. The truly exceptional Callum Greenall, who has just released his new picture book, Barry's Broken Dam, and is launching it 7 April at the State library in Perth. So go check out everything Callum does online. And yeah, if you can make it to the launch, then go support loco. Next time on the hybrid author podcast. It's a loner. So from me and I'll be chatting on creative freedom or artistic freedom is the ability to create without barriers, the fear of judgment or any preconceived ideas about the creative process and artistic rules. I wish you well in your author adventure this next week. That's it for me. Bye for now.
[00:33:46] Speaker A: That's the end for now.
[00:33:47] Speaker B: Authors, I hope you are further forward in your author adventure after listening, and I hope you'll listen next time. Remember to head on over to the hybrid author
[email protected] dot au to get your free author pass. It's bye for now.
