The book came about after I was asked by the Cairns Nautilus Scuba club to do a talk on my adventures in the Amazon at one of their monthly meetings. I asked them how long they wanted me to speak for and they said about an hour. I didn’t want to talk for an hour just on the Amazon and particularly about the unfortunate ‘incident’ so I decided to include some of my ideas on environmental issues and where the diving community could play an important part.
I got halfway through what eventually became a twenty page speech, re-read it and thought, ‘ Hey this doesn’t sound too bad’. I showed it to friends, and mostly the reaction was, ‘Hurry up and finish the rest, we want to see how it ends.’ When I did finish it and my friends read the whole thing, they encouraged to see what could be done with it with regard to publication.
I had no idea where to start. The sum total of my writing experience was two short articles for the ‘ Seamaster’ log. I knew nothing about publishers, publishing or indeed anything about the literary world. I eventually accessed the list of publishers in Australia on the internet, chose four at random out of a list of 200 and sent each a copy of the speech with a note asking what could be done with it. One was a ‘Self Publisher’, two were ‘no reply’ and the last one, ‘Zeus Publications’, which was the last one on the list of 200, came back with a positive response.
The great thing about Zeus was their website. It was very informative and very realistic about the chances of novice writers breaking into the competitive world of professional writing. Their description could have been quite discouraging but I chose to try them because of the honesty and forthrightness of their website.
And of course I was pleasantly surprised when they came back to me and said they would be willing to look at a book based on the speech. One of their suggestions was for me to write the first three chapters and submit them for review. I decided not to. I thought that if I sent the first three chapters they might ‘ can’ the amateur subject matter and style of writing straight up, which of course would cause me to give up the project altogether. So I went ahead and over four months wrote the whole book, thinking that if nothing else, it would become something of a family heirloom.
Most importantly I absolutely, thoroughly enjoyed writing it, and when I submitted the manuscript I said in my covering letter that I would not be disappointed if it was unpublishable, the pleasure I derived from writing it was enough.
The feelings of joy and excitement were indescribable when six weeks after submission, the publishers wrote and informed me that they had accepted my book for publication. Included with the letter of acceptance was a contract for me to sign and the project was set in motion.
The book essentially is about my working, travelling and personal life. From leaving home at age nineteen and joining a fishing fleet in North Australia, up to and including an adventure in the Amazon River which ends in a rather tragic way, and which has caused me to review my life and priorities. Writing the book was an important cathartic and healing experience. It also showed me just how much I had done in my life, how much I had seen and how I had made use of all the incidents, accidents, twists and turns on my life’s path. The way I have conducted myself through all this has brought me to the point at which I am now, and bottom line is I am happy with what I have done and who I am.
The theme of the book is my observations and experiences regarding human and environmental issues and at the same time a ‘ripping yarn’. Part of the publishers evaluation of the work reads; ‘ It is the most profound and honest statement on the environment I have read to date’.
While I am very happy and proud of this description, the book is also an entertaining read. Warm, sometimes humorous, positive, thought provoking and ever hopeful. But it’s not just my life, everybody has had a piece of it. I really do hope readers will find something of use as they recognise themselves or incidents in this book written for every one.
Rob Warring.
Cairns,
29/06/04
An Excerpt from a letter of encouragement:
'I have greatly enjoyed Rob's book. First, it is a pleasure to read such a literate work. Rob is quite an accomplished writer. Second, he could have been writing about the state of our coastal fishing industry, the pollution of our local waters, and the concrete walls of condos that line our lovely beaches and restrict our access and even our view. The things we loved about this area and tried to preserve in our own building plans are disappearing. The developers are overly greedy, and too many new owners are not full time residents, therefore are not as concerned about their impact on the environment.
No doubt there is some effect from global warming, but it distresses me to see how the issue has become a political football, abetted by the media. The thinking, sane voices seem to get lost in the rhetoric, and any reasonable approach to a solution gets mired in posturing for political advantage. Tell Rob to hang in there and continue to be an advocate for nature and the environment. He can do a great deal of good by writing his books and relating his experiences. A minister once said that he could get more people to listen by telling stories than by preaching.'