Today’s guest is novelist Patricia S. Gibbons to talk about Life’s Journey.
During her virtual book tour, Patricia will be awarding a $15 Amazon or Barnes and Noble (winner’s choice) gift card to a lucky randomly drawn winner. To be entered for a chance to win, use the form below. To increase your chances of winning, feel free to visit her other tour stops and enter there, too!
Bio:
Patricia writes under the fictitious name of Patricia Gibbons. She has lived a busy life and some of her adventures are in her new novel, Life’s Journey, but not all:
In her teenage years singing and dancing were also one of Patricia’s loves and she appeared in a number of stage performances.
Patricia successfully bred Rottweilers for 42 years, and wrote her first book The Rottweiler In Australia about the first 20 years. She published this book back in the mid-1980’s. After becoming an All Breeds Dog Judge, Patricia judged Championship Dog Shows all over Australia, and she travelled overseas to judge in the UK, USA, New Zealand, Malaya, the Philippines and China.
Please tell us a little bit about your new novel.
Penelope, aged 9, and her family emigrate from the UK to Australia. This book covers her journey onboard the ship and her family’s friendship with a Greek family. This friendship continues in Australia throughout their life’s journey.
The book includes the life effects of being interfered with as a child, and the ups and downs of adopting children. Along the way there is mystery, murder, love and disappointment.
I keep you intrigued and in wonder of what is to come.
An exciting read!
Excerpt from Life’s Journey:
It seemed like we were driving forever, past many fields (which I later learnt Australians call ‘paddocks’). The weather was warm, but there was no air conditioning in the Citroen in those days. So, the windows were down, and we all appreciated the breeze to cool the car. After driving for over an hour, we finally came to the check-in gate entrance to Point Cook. Dad showed the sentries on the gate his credentials, and after a quick salute from the sentries that Dad reciprocated, the gate was opened, and we drove into the station that was to be our new home.
Point Cook was a small community. We drove along the narrow bitumen road, past the airfield, and turned right, past the young conscript’s quarters where they were marching in formation. Their yelling and the noise from their boots on the concrete were deafening. We continued past the tennis courts and right again at the church. There were green grass areas between the houses and living quarters, which looked like small plane hangars with their curved tin roofs.
They called these ‘The Silver City Huts,’ and they were converted into houses for the immigrants. They were two and three-bedroom living quarters, lined and painted inside, with a kitchen and bathroom. Each ‘hanger’ (as we called them) had been fenced in at the rear, so they had a backyard with an outside toilet (called a ‘dunny’ in Australia). Every week the ‘dunny man’ would come and empty the cans and leave an empty one.
There was a laundry out the back and a clothesline in the backyard. This was to be our home for three years. Dad had applied for us to have one of the new houses being built to house the Air Force married men and families, but it would take three years before we experienced that luxury.
When we first settled in, Mum was very unhappy in the small accommodation and was not used to the heat, mosquitoes and flies. She found the heat unbearable at times. When our furniture arrived, we soon realised most of our belongings had been left behind. I had wonderful memories of a polar bear skin on the floor in front of the open fire in our home in the United Kingdom that I loved to cuddle up on at night. Mum had sold or given away a lot of our furniture, and unfortunately, Auntie Flo took the polar bear skin rug.
Shirley being the pretty blonde, soon found herself another boyfriend. His name was Arthur. He was tall, dark, very charming and handsome, a real sweet talker, and a sergeant in the Air Force at the base. Before we knew it, Shirley was married at eighteen.
This was not unusual in those days; most girls were married around eighteen or nineteen.
What inspired you to write this book?
My varied life adventures I felt would be of interest to others.
What exciting story are you working on next?
I have been encouraged by the acceptance of Life’s Journey and as my life continues on, I do have additional adventures to include and carry on with more of my ‘Life’s Journey’. I am working on Life’s Journey continues and it is amazing how I am enjoying writing my second journey.
When did you first consider yourself a writer?
Even when I was young I did enjoy writing stories. I always excelled in English at school, so I guess it was something that I had always wanted to do.
Do you write full-time?
No, my life is a full one. I judge dogs and that takes me all over Australia and overseas. I have grand children now, and 3 are in Tasmania and 4 in NSW, so I am constantly travelling whether it be to judge or to visit my children and grandchildren.
As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
I wanted to be a singer, and I did accomplish that in my teens. I was lead singer with Johnny Chester and the Chessmen at the Preston Town Hall on Saturday nights, and Friday nights and I sang with the Thunderbirds there also. I was privileged to be a warm up singer for a number of top overseas performers at Festival Hall.
Links:
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Thanks for hosting!
Thank you for sharing the excerpt, sounds good.
Sounds like a good book and I look forward to reading it.
The book sounds very interest. Thanks!