Justin Sheedy's Blog - Posts Tagged "goodbye-crackernight"

My new book, "Nor the Years Condemn" is now available in print-on-demand paperback format at Amazon. With great reviews, thankfully. See below... 1st from Michael High of Colorado Springs, USA.

NOR THE YEARS CONDEMN - FIVE STARS.

"Nor the Years Condemn": Where to start? The writing. Excellent. Everything flowed and, from the first chapter to the end, was fluid. Hints here and there as to what may happen in the future were freely dropped along the way. This kept me engrossed, kept me reading.

The story. Again, excellent. The history behind these young men (and women), the planes they used, the circumstances surrounding this time frame, et cetera - all well done. I thoroughly enjoyed the "story" of each character and how they interacted with each other. There were some shockers in there; war is hell, no? I also liked the hint of "espionage" involved.

"Nor the Years Condemn", to me, was a fantastic read. I can but recommend this book to others and impatiently await Justin's next work.

Mike High
Colorado Springs, CO

2nd Review from Martin Zitek of Sydney, Australia...

IN APPRECIATION OF "NOR THE YEARS CONDEMN"

"Nor the Years Condemn" recounts the horrors of war as seen by one elite and effective unit of WWII. The author puts us there, in that time, by depicting: language, description of locations, the attitudes of the people and the spirit of the nation that would see it prevail through its darkest period of history. The reader is shown in clear, flowing narrative how war can touch us all, from the other side of the world, to the heights of the clouds.

The characters feel so real, we are sure they must have existed. The flying is portrayed so brilliantly, we feel an ace fighter pilot must have possessed Justin's head while he wrote this. The planes themselves become characters, even though mere machines, they became tools of victory and a symbol of ingenuity, technology and bloody determination. This is a testament to the research undertaken by the author and his wordsmithing we see as the end result.

We should count ourselves lucky today that the whole world has not since been embroiled in such a conflict and we hope it never will be again. Recounting the bravery of these men, and the staggering odds against their surviving, should make us never forget.
We will remember them.
Martin Zitek
Sydney, Australia.

I’ve just had the following article written by me published in the NSW Writers’ Centre Members’ E-Newsletter. My huge thanks to Portia Lindsay of the NSWWC.

Member Story
THE POWER OF PERSEVERANCE.
by Justin Sheedy

Ow!

Any day now…

Ow!

If you bash your head against a wall long enough and hard enough, eventually you make a small hole in it. With a bit of luck, a hole in the wall too… Right now, I seem to be peering through the tiny hole I’ve made in a wall, on the other side of which lies the Bright and Shining World of Authorial Success. It’s a very small hole.

My name’s Justin Sheedy. My first book, Goodbye Crackernight (a portrait of growing up in 1970s Australia), was published at the end of 2009. Yes, it needed a NSW Writers’ Centre Mentorship Program manuscript assessment to transform it from good but unpublishable raw material into an actual decent read and, yes, I had to have a new brain fitted after the ordeal of the transformation but that was well worth it.

As I write this, I’m still a ‘new’ author, yet no longer a ‘brand-new’ one. And can now offer a nugget of advice to those still brand-new: There is one important thing about your first publisher. One thing. Their Distributor. Try it: Walk into a bookstore, say, “I’m from Mars and I’ve just written a book.” Bookstore manager will say, “Distributor?” You then tell them and start planning your first book launch. Brand new authors, say it with me: “Distributor. Dis-tributor…”

With my first book launched, I visited nearly every store in Sydney to which it had been distributed and secured media coverage for it in a string of local newspapers, also on community radio plus Regional ABC radio (all possible to secure without a paid PR Agent, just a metric s***load of phone calls, emails and leg-work). But then one morning I received a return phone call from a local newspaper. A nice lady said, “You don’t know me but I feel like I know you. Thank you for writing that book; I’m still laughing and crying.” After I’d regained consciousness she said she’d like to help me (insert heavenly choir sound effect here) get onto the program of the Byron Bay Writers’ Festival 2010. Which I did. And the Rest is…

…a continuum of hard work, knock-backs and general head-against-wall bashing.

My latest book is entitled Nor the Years Condemn. It’s an historical fiction based on the stunning true Australian story of how the best and brightest of a generation ironically picked one of the fastest ways to die in World War II. And won it. This book, too, only became the book it should be after a NSWWC Mentorship Program assessment. …And I had my second new brain fitted in as many years.

By 2011, now being able to ring Australia’s major publishing houses and say the magic words, ‘published author’, I was able to get past reception at all of them and onto their commissioning editors. Each of whom said Nor the Years Condemn sounded great, ‘Please send it in’, and proceeded to reject it one after the other over the course of 2011. By the end of the year, however, having attended a Byron Bay Writers’ Festival E-Publishing info seminar subtitled ‘Bypassing the Gatekeeper’, I published Nor the Years Condemn as an ebook, then in January this year as a print-on-demand paperback at Amazon.

Soon after publication, reader reviews started coming in. Though such reviews have only been made possible by an international awareness of the book which I’ve built up through almost daily Facebook and blogging activity – I launched Crackernight.com in 2009. Plus I’m currently building on early gains made: The media contacts I secured cold in 2009 are now warm! Recent local press headlines for Nor the Years Condemn have included ‘A Must-Read’ and, poignantly, ‘The Fight for Survival’. One paper labels me ‘In Demand’. Two more Sydney local papers have already conducted their interviews and photo-shoots with me, two more with coverage promised.

If anyone from the major newspapers or ABC Sydney happens to be reading this, I have no PR Agent, only a story to which Australian readers as well as from the USA, UK, Philippines and Sweden are already demanding a sequel. Maybe you’d like to have a look at it. (?)

An Australian Publisher has yet to pick up Nor the Years Condemn though in the meantime I’ve just been invited to the Gloucester Writers’ Festival 2012 on the strength of it. This being the first time in the whole of my publishing experience that anyone has approached me from scratch, I asked the Festival Director what led her to me. Her answer? ‘Google.’

Yet back to work must I.

Ow!

Any day now…

Ow!

The above article by Justin Sheedy published by THE NEW SOUTH WALES WRITERS’ CENTRE…
“Justin Sheedy is a Sydney-based author attracting local and international interest. For more information on Justin, his books, or articles and reviews about his work please visit his blog.”

Reader feedback on the above article. (Writes Portia Lindsay of the NSW Writers’ Centre: “I just wanted to pass on some lovely feedback from one of the readers.”) “Hi there! I found Justin’s story absolutely spot on – honest, inspirational and simply wonderful! Kindly pass my comment on. May you fly, Justin! Ayshe”.
My massive thank you to Ayshe, NSW Writers’ Centre member.
JUSTIN SHEEDY – April 2012
http://crackernight.com/2012/04/21/th...

AUTHOR’S SECOND A HISTORICAL WRAP - Northern District Times Wednesday 5 December 2012
Article by Robbie Patterson / Picture by Robert Kennard

THE brave tales of Australian fighter pilots in the throes of war, love and youth have been immortalised in Justin Sheedy’s latest novel, Nor the Years Condemn. The book follows on from the success of his first book, Goodbye, Crackernight, which detailed his 1970s childhood in North Epping. His historical fiction book depicts the heroism of young Australians who trained as fighter pilots for the British Empire in World War II. Struggling to find a publisher to pick up the story earlier this year, Sheedy pursued publication through a print-on-demand system. “Publishing companies move slowly but surely, and I decided to publish it myself while I wait for them,” Sheedy said. However, the story has already generated interest through online buyers and Dymocks retail book stores. The Dymocks George St outlet has already placed orders for the book six times. The author attributes the book’s popularity to its focus on a largely untold chapter in Australia’s wartime history. “I’ve tried to put readers right in the cockpit with them, but Nor the Years Condemn is also very much a mother’s story as for every shining young man who flew a Spitfire there was the poor mother cursed to let him go,” Sheedy said. Readers have described the cockpit sequences as ‘brilliant’ and ‘cinematic’. “It isn’t just reading about the history but the young Australians who made it,” he said. Sheedy will be hosting a book signing at Dymocks Macquarie Centre on Saturday at 10am.

I’m truly looking forward to this Saturday at Dymocks Macquarie – particularly as I grew up in the very area. Link to Full Crackernight.com Blog post on event HERE...
http://crackernight.com/2012/11/25/no...

My most profound thanks to Collette McGrath for acting as my PR Agent-extraordinaire in securing the above article in The Northern District Times, Sydney on this, my latest book. Collette truly does deserve a medal for all her help in promoting Nor the Years Condemn over the last many months, securing a plethora of radio & print interviews in the lead-up to various of my in-store book-signing events. Huge thanks also to The Epping Library (particularly to Library Manager, Sue) for their support of this Dymocks Macquarie Centre event on Sat 8 December – just as they went out of their way to support my first book, Goodbye Crackernight , both my books now stocked at the Library – also to Northern District Times Editor Colin Kerr for his enduring & brilliant support of my writing – way back to Crackernight . Colin is a Gem of a Man, and recognised as such. - Justin Sheedy, December 2012.
See Full Crackernight.com Post HERE...
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Sydney author Justin Sheedy was delighted to close a highly successful 2012 with yet another sell-out book-signing in a series of such sell-out events throughout the year for his latest book ‘Nor the Years Condemn’.

On Sat 22nd December Sheedy began his day at Dymocks Broadway in central Sydney at 10am, signing copies of his book for store customers, sharing with them his passion for the great Australian story on which ‘Nor the Years Condemn’ is based. Sales of the book were so lively that all copies of the book sold out by mid-day, requiring Sheedy to race away and return with all available boxes of the book. Which then sold out. Sheedy was informed by store staff at the end of the day that he had in fact smashed all existing records for in-store event sales, a delightful end-note to a very happy day and writing year.

Sheedy had only just spent the day previous, Fri 21st December, at a similar in-store event at Dymocks North Sydney, a day beginning at 8am with a local film producer on the spot to speak with the author about a possible docu-drama based on ‘Nor the Years Condemn’. During the day Sheedy was delighted to meet and chat with Caroline Lowry, manager of Dymocks Books brand-new publishing arm, D-Publishing, who was on hand to witness Sheedy’s in-store event style in action. At the end of the day Sheedy expressed his sincere thanks to Dymocks North Sydney owner Sandra Wigzell and her exceptional staff for inviting him to this return visit to the store following on from a Fathers’ Day lead-up book-signing in August.

It has indeed been a successful year for Sheedy. ‘Nor the Years Condemn’, his second book, was published in January and promptly saw him invited to the Gloucester Writers’ Festival 2012 (resulting in a lovely interview of Sheedy by prolific Australian author Lisa Heidke). In May, ‘Nor the Years Condemn’ was stocked by Dymocks George Street Sydney who, thanks to the inspired insight of Dymocks book-buyer Ben Garland, have since re-ordered the title no less than 7 times. In the months to follow Sheedy was invited to a series of promotional civic & school talks and in-store events beginning with Dymocks North Sydney and Chatswood.

The pace of success then went up a notch for the author with his interview on the iconic John Laws Show which led to the first of Sheedy’s sell-out book-signings at Dymocks George Street Sydney – a special Remembrance Day weekend event including bagpiper and ‘The Last Post’ on trumpet – FULL STORY & PICS by Emmy Etié HERE.
http://crackernight.com/2012/11/17/dy...

This day was closely followed by another sell-out event at Dymocks Macquarie Centre, the author’s day there concluding with a centre customer stopping to inform him that he had signed her copy of the book recently at Dymocks George Street and that she had ‘absolutely loved it from start to finish’.

During the year Sheedy has received the warmest reader responses and press reviews for ‘Nor the Years Condemn’, opening with a feature in the Byron Bay area Northern Star newspaper, then in Sydney’s Inner West Courier, Central Magazine, Parramatta Sun PS Magazine, Anzac Day issues of Sydney’s Northern District Times and North Shore Times, podcasts and radio interviews on Triple-H FM and NSB FM, also RRR FM and 2CCR FM, a heart-felt review by media presenter/pilot & mother Kathy Mexted in Australian Pilot Magazine, the year closing with the Northern District Times’ second glowing review of the book. During the year Sheedy was additionally delighted to be commissioned by the prestigious New South Wales Writers’ Centre to pen an article on his experience as an emerging Australian writer for the NSWWC Members’ online magazine. Most fittingly did the Centre entitle Sheedy’s resulting effort ‘The Power of Perseverance’, an article which was hugely well received by his fellow authors. Click the link to read...
http://crackernight.com/2012/04/21/th...

Readers of ‘Nor the Years Condemn’ are, as you read this, begging Sheedy for the sequel, which he is half-way through writing: ‘Ghosts of the Empire’ will be published in 2013 – but only after the author can absorb the overwhelming amount of historical and technical advice and support he is currently being showered with by kind souls from all over the globe. Sheedy would like to express his profound gratitude to ALL who have encouraged and supported him in 2012. See below for an introduction to ‘Nor the Years Condemn’ – now available at Dymocks George Street, Dymocks Macquarie Centre and North Sydney, Chatswood, Broadway, Bondi Junction, Rouse Hill and Camberwell stores, also Berkelouw Books Paddington, The Australian War Memorial, as a print-on-demand paperback at Amazon, as an ebook at Smashwords and all major ebook sites. The book is also available at Epping Library, Hornsby Library and The Stanton Library North Sydney to whose staff Sheedy is eternally grateful for their ongoing support. (Sheedy’s first book was ‘Goodbye Crackernight’, also available at Amazon, Dymocks, and through all good bookstores.)
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My E-Chat With… Justin Sheedy - Author Justin Sheedy Interviewed by Kristen Alexander, 1 May 2013 – Originally Published at KristenAlexander.com.au


Author Kristen Alexander
The book world is changing. Print books are challenged by ebooks; traditional publishing houses are threatened by self publishers and niche publishers. Even the way readers think about books is changing: is a book something to treasure; is it disposable; is it something to read on a smart phone, ipad, ereader, or something to listen to on the ithingy. Writers, of course, face the greatest challenge, that of finding a readership when traditional publishers are becoming more choosy about what they print, and ebook lists are flooded by thousands of new titles every day. And, assuming they have found a readership, writers can’t just close the attic door and get on with their writing. They have to market themselves continuously. They have to be available for interviews and signings—or book tours if they have cracked the big time—constantly twitter, blog and facebook. How on earth do they succeed in a rapidly changing world where social media is king?

As I anxiously await the results of my agent’s attempts to pitch my next opus to a traditional publishing house, I watch, fascinated, as one writer successfully navigates through this strange new world. Justin Sheedy started his self publishing career with Goodbye Crackernight, a memoir of growing up in 1970s Australia. He followed this with Nor the Years Condemn, a fictional tribute to the boys of the Empire Air Training Scheme who flew Spitfires and Typhoons against the Luftwaffe. He is currently poised to release hosts of the Empire, which focuses on one of the characters from Nor the Years Condemn. I wondered, how does Justin do it? I thought, it wouldn’t hurt to ask, would it? And so I did. In the week he prepared for an in-store appearance at Dymocks Chatswood and an interview on a local radio station, Justin kindly answered a whole raft of questions about his life and writing experience.


Author Justin Sheedy

First off, I asked Justin how he overcomes the challenges of self publishing, the limited distribution networks, the miniscule publicity budgets. The secret of his growing success, Justin told me, is ‘employing the three Golden Rules of Writing and Publishing. 1. Persistence. 2. Persistence. 3. Persistence.’ And Justin works hard at being persistent. He almost daily posts on his facebook pages, he puts in personal appearances at bookshops, chats with radio interviewers, produces a blog to publicise his books, and attended the 2010 Byron Bay Writers Festival. All this, even as he holds down a day job and works on his next book.

I am always intrigued about the person behind the book. Cover blurbs hardly ever tell you much about the author, so being happily married myself and a potty pet lover, I like to know that others are in a similar state. And if they are, how they manage to balance their home and writing lives. (OK, I’ll admit it, I’m just trumping up the fact that I am a sticky beak, but I bet you’re interested too!) Justin currently has no conflicts between ties at writing. ‘I am bound to meet my significant other any day now. I see her all the time. But I have yet to meet her.’

Still stickybeaking, I then asked for a potted version of Justin’s life and passions. ‘I grew up in the suburbs of 1970s Australia, back when a child’s proudest possession was not a PlayStation but a second-hand bike’, he reminisced, and my mind instantly turned to my own childhood of the 60s and 70s when I was desperate for a bike so I could range around the neighbourhood (not that we used that term then. Somehow, that was too American). How well I remember those wonderful, carefree days. But hang on. This is not about me. It’s about Justin, who ‘wrote all about this amazing childhood in my first book, Goodbye Crackernight’.

Childhood behind him, what does Justin do to earn a crust? ‘My first job out of school was as a go-go dancer in a 60s psychedelic night-club, I studied Fine Arts at Sydney Uni (qualifying myself to drive a cab), sang in bands, and worked in the Australian Public Service for a time though made a full recovery.’ I am glad to see that the service (or ‘the circus’ as we fellow escapees not so fondly refer to it) did not knock out Justin’s creativity and sense of humour. They (you know, the ubiquitous ‘they’) always tell you to make the most of your life experiences, and Justin certainly did. He worked for the Department of Veterans’ Affairs, ‘where I was privileged to speak to many WWII aircrew veterans, brilliant research for my latest book, Nor the Years Condemn’. Now, Justin works for ‘a not-for-profit organisation who are really supportive of my writing and writing commitments such as radio interviews to promote my in-store events, writers’ festivals etc.’

As part of my research for this first Echat With…, I listened in on one of his interviews thanks to the wonders of internet streaming. It was held at 11.30 on a work day, and as well as promoting the aforementioned Nor the Years Condemn, it heralded the Dymocks signing session. Justin has obviously had lots of radio experience. He deftly fielded the announcer’s questions and told just enough about his book to whet appetites and have the local listeners bounding into the bookshop that weekend. His enthusiasm for his subject shone through; his passion was clear. And on the subject of passions, writing, of course, is one of Justin’s but only one. ‘My passions are women, military history, cooking, women, mountains, fogs and snow, also skiing so am counting on becoming a best-selling author so I can earn enough cash to keep doing it. Please help.’ Love that sense of humour!

Just for a laugh (and to see if our tastes coincided in any way) I said to Justin: You have a gift voucher for the world’s biggest DVD shop. It stocks every film, TV series, doco, one off special ever made. What five all time greats would you spend your voucher on. With barely a blink, Justin proved something I have long believed, that maths is not a strong point of the creative types: ‘First Light, the story of Geoff Wellum, youngest allied pilot of the Battle of Britain, and possibly the best docu-drama I have ever seen, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Spy Who Came In From the Cold, the House of Cards series, the Sherlock Holmes series with Jeremy Brett, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Oh, and The Italian Job with Michael Caine. Sorry, that’s six, no, seven. Doh!’ Interestingly, all bar the classic caper film are based on books. Just proves that Justin is a reader from way back, and so, naturally, I asked who or what was the greatest influence on his reading life. ‘Many’, he told me, ‘but a key three would be Tolkien, for his mastery of the “journey story”. Michael Herr (Dispatches), for his capture of the perverse “sensuality” of war, and Bill Bryson for his hilarious, warm and wonderful humanity’.

Influence aside, Justin has any number of favourite books, too many really to designate just one as his ultimate, all time favourite ‘but in the context of my latest work, Going Solo by Roald Dahl for the way he portrays the adult world (in WWII) with the involuntary unrestrained perfection of a child’s eye. In the context of my first book, Unreliable Memoirs by Clive James which a senior English teacher friend of mine recently maintained as “one of the funniest books ever written”’. Going Solo was a must read for me when researching Clive Caldwell’s experiences in the desert. I have not read any Clive James yet but with such a good (double) recommendation, I will have to add Unreliable Memoirs to the pile next to my bed. And with that, we turned from the personal to the creative, and Justin’s personal book philosophy.

Justin believes ‘that a book must make me read it. It should never be a struggle but a constant reward. In precisely this spirit, I try to make anything I write constantly reward the reader for buying my book. One of the nicest things I’ve been told by readers about my latest book Nor the Years Condemn is that they feel IN the history I’m writing about, that the characters become “friends” to them, even that they “become” the characters. And to my blessed relief and delight I’ve been told this a few times now’.

I always wonder how writers start off. Was there a spark that made them pick up the pen, or was their desire to write as innate as breathing. For Justin, it was ‘When I met an Australian Korean War RAAF veteran who flew Mustangs there in low ground attack. Despite all the death and destruction he meted out and narrowly survived, including the loss of dear mates, he looked at me square in the eye and said, “Justin, it was the best time of my life.” And I knew that I had to write and hopefully capture that monumental human irony.’

There is usually a long journey from spark to first published piece, and many hours hunched over a desk writing or typing, scrawling notes on scrubby bits of paper or in a writer’s journal if you are really organised, or even wandering around, just thinking. Given I try to write in a cluttered office where my creative life is constantly in conflict with the demands of my ‘real’ life, what, I wondered, is Justin’s special writing place: ‘The floor of my flat in Glebe’ but he would forsake that spot in a flash: ‘If I won the lottery I would move it to on the water at Kirribilli’.

That floor in Glebe has seen the creation of two works now, and another that is still in the works. Goodbye Crackernight, the first, was Justin’s ‘personal portrait of growing up in 1970s Australia (when it was still the 1950s!). The story is full of laughter, tears, simplicity, in a way a “shared” memoir for a few generations of Australians, a “mirror” to them. It traces the demise of Crackernight in parallel with the passing of our youth, showing how, just as we were growing up, so was Australia, and turning from a “white-bread” world into the multi-cultural Oz we know and love today’.

Justin was inspired to write his latest release, Nor the Years Condemn ‘to bring to life a truly great Australian story which is so exciting, so heroic and tragic, in a word so dramatic as to seem the stuff of science fiction and yet it is true: The story of the young Australians who flew Spitfires and Typhoons as part of the Empire Air Training Scheme, WWII. The true facts on which my story is intensively based really are the stuff of Star Wars, the attack on the Death Star. I wanted to bring this largely untold chapter of our history alive for Australians and in doing so make them even prouder of who we are. I wanted to tell the story of how the best and brightest of an Australian generation ironically picked one of the fastest ways to die of WWII and yet did so much to win it. The loss of any young person in war is a tragedy, yet these young Aussies were the shining stars of their era, which (given the true history on which it’s based) can’t help but render my story a heart-rending read, and the anti-war portrait that it is intended to be.’

As you would expect, Justin put in the hard research yards. It took ten years to research Nor the Years Condemn. His ‘main research resource' was the internet, 'and the access it gave me to the amazing range of WWII historical experts and institutions who so selflessly aided me. (It’s a massive list, included at the end of Nor the Years Condemn.)’

Justin’s trawling of the sources has paid off. He has a feel for the cut and thrust of battle and an affinity with military aviation. Why then, did he decide to write a fictional account of young airmen’s lives, rather than history? For Justin, fiction was the best way ‘to bring alive the stunning true history on which my book is based by engaging readers in a way that only the descriptive powers of Fiction can allow, and thereby have readers feel the loss of such young Australians as vividly as it deserves to be felt. Also, it’s only via Fiction that a reader can be put ‘in the cockpit’, not just reading “about” the history, but entering “into” it.’

One thing I have discovered is that other writers are usually all too happy to help others. I have enjoyed assistance from seasoned writers as well as on-going chats with new authors, all the while gaining much from their different experiences. Justin was recently asked to be a mentor to a budding writer and I asked him about the sort of advice he would pass on. (I will confess to a lot of self interest here, over and above the sheer altruism of sharing Justin’s words of wisdom). ‘Find a subject you are passionate about’, advised Justin. ‘Readers will want to buy your book because of your passion’. Next, he encourages, ‘write the book. Then re-write it ten times, after which your book may just turn out to be the book it should be. Then when it is, LOVE talking about it to people in radio interviews and at your in-store book-signing events. I do.’ Such sound advice. Justin also willingly shares the most important advice he has ever received: ‘No askie, no gettie.’

Once they have enjoyed one book (or two!), readers want to know what else the author is working on. I am no different. Happily, Justin is currently in the latter stages of a sequel to Nor the Years Condemn, entitled Ghosts of the Empire. Its ‘hopeful’ due date is at the end of June 2013. Just over two months away, so not much time left to wait now! ‘This is the ‘parallel journey-story of one character from NTYC who flies the awesome “Wooden Wonder”, the de Havilland Mosquito against Nazi tyranny. One key theme of Ghosts of the Empire is, if all those young aircrew who flew Lancasters had been flying Mosquitos instead, they’d have most likely died of old age.’

Like any author worth his salt, Justin is already thinking about what will come next. There is a sequel to Goodbye Crackernight in the pipeline with the working title Memoirs of a Go-Go Dancer.

Well, I think that is enough of picking Justin’s brains. For more details of his writing life and practice, hop onto his blog at Crackernight.com. You can befriend him at his Facebook Page, ‘like’ his “Nor the Years Condemn” Facebook page and “Goodbye Crackernight” Facebook page, or follow him on Twitter. Yup, Justin certainly has social media all wrapped up!

For those who haven’t already read Nor the Years Condemn, Sydneysiders can obtain it at Dymocks Sydney, Chatswood, Macquarie Centre, Broadway, Bondi Junction, Rouse Hill and North Sydney; at the iconic Gleebooks; and at Berkelouw Paddington. It is also available at Dymocks Camberwell and the Australian War Memorial. You can order a print on demand paperback at Amazon, download the ebook from Smashwords or take a sneak at Amazon LOOK INSIDE.

Happy Reading! – Kristen Alexander

I am delighted Justin Sheedy agreed to be the subject of my first Echat With… Stay tuned for next month’s where Charles Page, former commercial pilot and author of Vengeance of the Outback. A Wartime Air Mystery of Western Australia and Wings of Destiny. Charles Learmonth DFC and the Air War in New Guinea, reveals the secrets of his life and writing success, including the influence of his very special co-pilot.
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As special guest author at Dymocks Chatswood’s Christmas VIP Night, Justin will be signing copies of his latest historical fiction, “Ghosts of the Empire”, also his first two warmly received books, “Nor the Years Condemn” and “Goodbye Crackernight”.

“Ghosts of the Empire” is the story of peaceful Sydney boy, Mick O’Regan, who, as the storm of World War II breaks, is cursed to enter a world of high-speed life and death. To save the British Empire, his job is the most dangerous of the War: flying for RAF Fighter and Bomber Command. “Ghosts of the Empire” is also a story of young people living life to the full while they can – in a blacked-out world where dance partners, sex and death flow in equal abundance.

Though standing on its own, “Ghosts of the Empire” is the sequel to “Nor the Years Condemn”, Sheedy’s highly acclaimed story of shining young men destined never to grow old. For Rave Reviews of “Nor the Years Condemn”, click the Link...
http://crackernight.com/2012/01/17/gr...

“Goodbye Crackernight”, Sheedy’s first book, is his comic memoir of growing up in the suburbs of 1970s Australia, back in a long-lost era when a child’s proudest possession was not a PlayStation but a second-hand bike. For Rave Reviews of “Goodbye Crackernight”, click the Link...
http://crackernight.com/reviews/

Date: Thursday 21 November, 2013
Time: 6pm – 9pm
Venue: Dymocks Chatswood, Shop 301 Westfield Shopping Centre, Chatswood
Cost: Free!
Bookings/Enquiries: (02) 9412 1630 or chatswood@dymocks.com.au
ALL DYMOCKS CHATSWOOD STOCK DISCOUNTED ON THE NIGHT!
http://crackernight.com/2013/10/26/au...

NORTHERN STAR WEEKENDER – Saturday 14 December 2013 – feature by Helen Hawkes

A Must-Read – WARTIME TALES – Title: Ghosts of the Empire – Author: Justin Sheedy

TRUE Australian stories of war and bravery and lives lost too young are the stock-in-trade of rising Australian author, Justin Sheedy. After the success of his first books, "Goodbye Crackernight" and "Nor the Years Condemn", the self-published author, whose books will soon be available nationwide thanks to a large distribution deal, has penned "Ghosts of the Empire".

As the storm of the Second World War breaks, Mick O’Regan is a peaceful Sydney working-class boy. Cursed to enter a world of high-speed life and death, he flies for the Royal Air Force Bomber Command. "Ghosts of the Empire" is also a story of young people living life to the full while they can – in a blacked-out world where dance partners, sex and death flow in equal abundance, says Sheedy. If you like a rollicking wartime story, you’ll love his latest adventure.

Justin Sheedy's books are available in paperback & Kindle formats at Amazon, at Dymocks Bookstores and orderable via ALL bookstores.
For full blog post, click the Link...
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1985.

Though early December – the beginning of summer in Australia with nights balmy to hot in Sydney – the nights in Melbourne were still mercifully cool. Cool enough to dress up and hit the town. Which Germaine and I did on that very first night. And when we hit it, I realised Melbourne had something Sydney did not.

Nightclubs.

Sure, Sydney had nightclubs but not the kind that welcomed two kids under the legal drinking age with open arms – perhaps because, as was clear from the first establishment we entered, the emphasis here in Melbourne wasn’t on drinking but on dancing.

Stepping down into the ‘Groove Tube Café’, a whole dancefloor full of people going coolly berserk to "Stepping Stone" by The Monkees, on the walls and on the dancing people were revolving cartwheels of colour, each wheel of numberless coloured spokes all intermeshing with others in perpetual harlequin-shaped motion.

‘This is AWESOME,’ I sided to Germaine above the music.

‘As it should be,’ she returned close to my ear. ‘Sydney’s got natural beauty. Melbourne...’ She shook her head. ‘So we make beauty.’

‘I can’t believe this!’

‘Believe it,’ she flowed. ‘Sydney, you’re fine if you like the one thing that every club in Sydney is doing. Here there’s so many clubs there’s always one doing what you like. I like Go-Go. And here it is...’

Go-Go Dancing! And here indeed it was... Just like in the black-and-white photo in the school library except exactly 20 years later and in colour and I’d just stepped into the photo. The people weren’t just dancing like fools (not that there’s anything wrong with that); here there was a definite style, just like in the still photo from 1965 except here it was moving and, man, was it moving. Some of the dancers were better than others but their style was a mix of mania and grace, a fusion of passion and poise only ever seen elsewhere in Flamenco dancers.

But then Stepping Stone finished and a song began that I had once heard for the very first time through Steve, one he by now famously hadn’t thought I’d like...

HHEOWWWWH!!!

"I Got You" by James Brown meant one thing only. I spun to Germaine.
‘Dance?!’

For the second time that day she put out her hand to me. Though this time I didn’t ‘take’ it, as such...

I grabbed.

"MEMOIRS OF A GO-GO DANCER" WILL BE THE SEQUEL TO JUSTIN SHEEDY'S WARMLY-RECEIVED FIRST BOOK, "GOODBYE CRACKERNIGHT". FULL BLOG POST AT SHEEDY'S CRACKERNIGHT.COM HERE...
http://crackernight.com/2014/06/22/a-...

Sydney author Justin Sheedy shares one thing in common with Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott: They attended the same school. Sydney’s famous Saint Ignatius College Riverview. This week Sheedy is proud to have been lauded by his alma mater in its influential Ignatian Magazine on the publication of his latest book, Ghosts of the Empire .



Critically acclaimed author of Goodbye Crackernight and Nor the Years Condemn Justin Sheedy (OR86) is back with a new book, Ghosts of the Empire …

As the storm of World War II breaks, Mick O’Regan is a peaceful Sydney working-class boy. Yet he and the shining youth of his generation are cursed to enter a world of high-speed life and death. Based on a true Australian war store only now being brought to life, Ghosts of the Empire is a story of young people living life to the full while they can in a blacked-out world where dance partners, sex and death flow in equal abundance.

Both Ghosts of the Empire and book one of the series, Nor the Years Condemn , are currently available through all good bookstores and are stocked by the Australian War Memorial.