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Australia & New Zealand Magazine

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Author Vicky Gray talks about how she persisted to achieve her writing goals

After relocating from the UK to Australia, non-fiction writer Vicky Gray began writing for a variety of travel publications, and had her first book, Didgeridoos and Didgeridon’ts: A Brit’s Guide to Moving Your Life Down Under, published in March 2009. She talks to EssentialWriters.com about the importance of getting your name out there, anyway you can.

What inspired you to become a writer?

I have always enjoyed writing and luckily people have always enjoyed reading what I write. But I think what really inspired me to write Didgeridoos and Didgeridon’tswas having a project that I felt so passionate about.

When I started answering emails for a relocation website, I found myself determined to make sure I was giving people the right advice and I got such a buzz out of liaising with official departments and knowing that I was making a difference in people’s relocation experiences, mainly due to the fact that I was able to empathise with so many people on different levels.

Did you receive any formal training?

Other than an ‘A’ level in Drama? To be honest I am no great scholar, I did qualify as a podiatrist in 1999 and the theory side required many essays to be written. I always managed to keep within the guidelines of ‘1,000 words’ or whatever other requirement they needed – but the tutors would always comment on ‘how I saw things from a different prospective’. I always hoped that was a good sign.

How did you find your first writing work?

I had got to the stage where I was beginning to wonder if I would ever get my work published. After so many rejection letters, you can’t help but feel a little despondent. As luck would have it, I met a new friend who had just migrated to Australia and had just had her first book published.

She gave me just the encouragement I needed to approach the bigger media and offer to write for free, just to get my name out there. Once I had got the first ‘yes’,I suddenly became confident in my writing again, then the work just began to flow… It really was a snowball effect.

Where are we likely to see your work?

At present I write articles for Australia & New Zealand magazine and their website as well as various other newspapers and magazines.

I run my own blog at www.australiauncovered.com, but my book has taken up most of my spare time (I say spare, but I have three children!). At the moment I’m concentrating on writing lifestyle features and interviews to promote my book.

What are the biggest challenges of the job?

Sometimes you can go for weeks without anybody needing an article or feature, then suddenly a few people will want one at once.The problem with that is, it can happen when the children are on school holidays.

So you suddenly have to put your writing head on, when you are making dozens of cheese and tomato toasted sandwiches and have play doh stuck in your fingernails. That said, being an author is great because it fits in around the children.

I have managed to become organised enough to always be one step ahead though now, I had a cunning plan to always have a few 500 word articles at the ready, and just tweak them for whatever style is needed.

What are the biggest perks?

When I am writing the hours just fly by. Having to pop back to the UK isn’t bad either. It’s great to catch up with my two sisters and my mum. I am very lucky and I am really grateful for the hand I have been dealt.

How do you adapt your style to suit different publications?

Most of the time the publications are pretty much in the genre – either relocation, humorous or inspirational, or all three. I prefer the latter, which is the main tone and premise of the book. Occasionally other fields contact me for articles, so I just research their style and adapt my own to suit them. It’s good practice to write in other styles.

How did you make the transition between writing features and writing Didgeridoos and Didgeridon’ts?

Actually, the book came first. It was initially written in diary entry style until I realised that I wasn’t going to get it published with that approach alone!

So writing short, feature-style articles was already what I did best. Writing Didgeridoos and Didgeridon’tstaught me how to elaborate on subjects that people may have no idea about and trying to explain them without sounding patronising!

What has been the highlight of your career so far?

When I finally received recognition for my writing – I remember the email I got from the Senior Editor of a magazine:

“We get so many submissions from people, claiming that they are the next Dickens when in fact they are verging on the illiterate… Happily you passed with flying colours…”

I was ecstatic to say the least. Then I just kept on getting more and more work. I still get excited now, even when something small gets published.

What advice would you offer an aspiring writer?

Never lose focus and always write about something you feel passionate about. Your readers will be able to tell if you aren’t thrilled to be writing articles on satellite navigation systems, so stay true to yourself!

One other thing… never give up. With each rejection remind yourself that you are only one ‘no’ nearer to a ‘yes’.

What are you working on now?

I’m mainly working on articles and maintaining the blog on my website. I’m also getting involved in marketing Didgeridoos and Didgeridon’tswith my publisher – which is a whole new area to me and I am thoroughly enjoying the buzz of the media.

I also have a new book in the pipeline. It’s another relocation guide, but with more emphasis on inspirational stories about expat life. Some of the stories I am collecting are just hilarious, and hopefully they will help others to not fall into the same traps!

Didgeridoos and Didgeridon’tsis available from Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com

Interview on essentialwriters.com April 2009.

Driving me crazy!

On the face of it, driving in Australia is very much the same as driving in England, only omitting the unwritten ‘courtesy law’. It’s not so much a case of recklessness that afflicts the Aussies, or even road rage – after all, they are famed for being laid-back. It’s more a case of lacking etiquette. The British turn-taking scenario of: “After you…” “No really, you go first…” “Oh, but I insist!” is not the done thing in Oz.

However, once you leave your manners behind and embrace your newfound ‘anti-social attitude’, everything seems to flow perfectly.

There are, however, a couple of little points of which you should be aware. Flashing your headlights at other drivers, at T-junctions for instance, no longer indicates that the other car should go first; here, it’s generally a warning to oncoming cars that they are about to approach a police speed-check point.

To be honest, I’m grateful that I no longer have to abide by this light-flashing etiquette, as I was forever injecting a jet of washing solution onto my windscreen and ending up peering through the resulting bubbles, wipers frantically whisking away – when all I had intended was to be kind and let someone to go before me.

My first venture onto an Aussie highway had me dribbling with fear. While the rulebook might state: ‘stick to the left lane unless overtaking’, I was too terrified to whizz past the vehicle in front, as I was following a ‘Ute’ liberally festooned with flapping canvas and ominous-looking sharp, pointy metal objects that threatened to break free at any moment, crashing straight through my windscreen.

Then, within seconds, the whole of my rear-view mirror was being hogged by a vast 100-tonne Kenworth truck loitering a mere six inches from my tailgate. Definitely not your typical laid-back Aussie!

When it comes to driving Down Under, it is essential to get your UK licence changed to an Aussie one within three months, or you could be classed as ‘driving without a licence’, leaving you open to prosecution. Luckily, since March 2006, the government rules for us Brits have been relaxed, and migrants no longer have to take the theory test. All you need to do now is pop into your local Transport Office and produce your UK licence, fill in the relevant forms, pay the fee and make sure you can read the last line on the eyesight chart!

However, on my arrival in May 2006, I still thought the theory test was mandatory, and apparently the new rule hadn’t filtered down to the employees of Queensland Transport either, as they readily accepted the cash for my many attempts at the multiple choice test – which I consistently failed!

Back on the streets, if you intend to turn either left or right when the traffic lights have turned green, the crucial thing is to watch out for pedestrians… as they also have a little green man telling them to go forth – it’s safe to cross!

Frankly, I have never encountered a more dangerous sequence of turn-taking, and it took many a shaken fist at poor unsuspecting children before I realised that it was they who had right of way, and not me, (even though I believed I was following the most obvious of road rules).

All in all, the good news is that once I accepted the new ways and read my Highway Code book, driving in Australia was no longer petrifying, but a pleasure.

Article published in Australia & New Zealand magazine. December 2008.

Expat guides – by Vicky Gray

Vicky Gray is the author of Didgeridoos and Didgeridon’ts: A Brit’s Guide to Moving Your Life Down Under, an expat guide aimed at anyone who wants to move to Australia and would like to have a slightly less bumpy ride on their adventure. The book is available from Amazon.co.uk. For more information on Vicky and to read her endlessly useful and entertaining blog visit www.australiauncovered.com

So I began to write email after email to my friends and family, and the more I wrote the more I enjoyed writing.

It was only looking back over my ’sent items’ that I realised how much I had learnt since I had moved to Australia and being so passionate about living here, I started answering emails on an emigration site. I soon realised that I was not only answering their questions but pre-empting their problems – which gave me an idea for a book.

I began to write down all the subtle differences that I had encountered during my first year in Oz. This led me onto researching how to make the relocation experience as fool-proof as possible – in the end I found I was emailing and liaising with Government departments, Education departments and a host of other people who were more than willing to give me, someone who didn’t even know where the ‘outlook express’ button was a few months before, official information for my book!

This was great, but I still had to find a publisher for my book. So I spent countless hours reading the Writers and Artists yearbook in search of someone who might want to publish an emigration guide. I sent off batches of seven manuscripts at a time to publishers who I thought would be interested, with a covering letter, a winning proposal and a big brown SAE for any returns.

Over a period of about eight months, 23 big brown stamped addressed envelopes housing their rejection letters came back. Every one felt like the twist of a knife in my stomach – but I was utterly convinced that this book was going to be a winner.

So I decided to try a different approach. I offered to write articles on websites and magazines for free just to get my name out there and create some kudos.

Within the week I had managed to secure myself a contract with Australia & New Zealand magazine, and my first article was published.

This huge boost of confidence spurred me on once again and my positive attitude obviously shone through – a month later I was signing a contract with a publishing house for my new book.

What I learned about writing and publishing expat guides over my journey was:

• Choose a subject you know inside out and have personal experiences of
• Consider who your readers will be and what they need to know
• Share this information in as entertaining a way as possible
• Get in touch with the relevant Government departments and official bodies to ensure your information is accurate and up to date
• Build up a name for yourself as an expert, or at least a knowledgeable person, in the relevant field before approaching publishers or agents

And finally, be passionate about what you are writing about and really believe that you can do it – a positive attitude really does make a difference.

Article published on EssentialWriters.com March 2009.