I know – for someone who is supposed to be a writer, I seem to veer off into musical territory quite a bit. Truth is, I’d really love to be a muso. Unfortunately, a fairly complete lack of musical talent, coupled with a (supposed) talent in the writing area pushed me this way instead. Still, in my writing, I like to take inspiration from the musical side.

Anyway, the subject for this post was inspired by a music review a read in a newspaper a few years back. Can’t remember what paper. Can’t even remember what album (or band) was being reviewed. But it did make a point that has kind of stuck with me.

It talked about the idea of mixing lightness and melancholy to create music that was both engaging and bright while having a kind of inner depth. And it got me thinking about the kind of music I like, and how that is something I could say for a lot of it. Bands like Crowded House or R.E.M. (I know, I’m definitely showing my age and era) seemed to be masters of this style, making their music so engaging on so many levels. Even a supposedly hard rock band like Cold Chisel had an under-appreciated talent for mixing these two modes in a lot of their most enduring material.

Which leads back to the writing. I’m not sure it’s particularly conscious but I can see how the lightness and melancholy thing fits a lot of my writing. Even though most of my writing could be broadly cast as humour, there is that somewhat melancholy thread to it.

I think particularly of the adventures of my good friend, Neville Lansdowne. He has odd adventures and meets very peculiar people. But there is another side to these stories as well. He’s often alone, in strange and unfamiliar circumstances, particularly at the beginning. I think it’s this touch of melancholy that adds a bit of depth and (dare I say) humanity to what would otherwise be strange and whacky stories.

I could apply this to other stories, such as Magnus Opum, where Magnus is struggling to understand the world he lives in, and who are and aren’t his friends. He often feels sad and alone as he negotiates his adventure. And it’s also there in my new picture book (out in just a few weeks) Thomas and the Tiger-Turtle. The turtle is both a comic figure but also at times a sad one too.

So there you have another one of my theories. Lightness and melancholy. It works a treat in music. And it’s a really effective thing to include in a story as well. 

I started writing books when I was about five. I know, because I still have the books. Well, when I say “books” I mean pieces of paper stapled together, but for a five year old, I reckon that totally counts as a legitimate book.

I used to write books about everything. If I spent a day out at the park, I wrote a book about it. If I went on a family outing, I wrote a book about it. Whatever happened in my life would be the inspiration for a book (to be honest, I’m not sure things are any different now).

These books were generally scrawly drawn pictures (hey, I said I was a writer – I never said I was an artist) with a minimum of text (hey, I was five years old). However, there was one thing I always put a heap of effort into. The back covers.

Then (as now) I saw the back cover of my books as a wonderful marketing opportunity (not that I knew what marketing opportunities were back then). Inspired I think by Little Golden Books, I used to draw the covers of all my other books onto each back cover. Which ultimately led to a problems.

With every book that I wrote, I had more books I had to add to the back cover. But not only that. I also had to go back to every other book I’d written so I could add my new book to their back covers. This began to get pretty time-consuming. After a while, I think I was spending significantly more time updating back covers than I was writing new books. Some of the later books were barely more than two pages in length. I’m pretty sure this is what ultimately ended my first attempt at becoming a writer.

This came back to my recently, after I put out my last novella, Scrawling. Now being so aware of the potential for marketing in a book’s back matter, I spent quite a bit of time not only placing information about my other books into it but also going back to the other books to add info about Scrawling. It gave me a very strange feeling of deja-vu.

Funny how the more things change, the more things stay the same. 

For the last three years, the title of this blog has been Dag-Lit Central. I thought it was a kind of fun idea – maybe even a bit of a conversation starter. And yes, it did actually start one or two conversations. But not a lot more than that.

I’m now moving into a new phase in my career (or whatever you want to call it) as a writer. My focus is less on self-publishing and more on working with publishers – especially with the re-release of Magnus Opum now hopefully only a few weeks away, and Thomas and the Tiger-Turtle due out in mid May. So I think it’s time to say goodbye to Dag-Lit Central. From now onwards, I’m putting my own name up in lights and proudly proclaiming myself. You’ll see there’s a new link to access this site, and a new title to go along with it.

It doesn’t mean I’ll be changing too much. I’ll still be just as daggy as before. I’ll still try to write stories and posts that will put a smile on your face and maybe get you to see things a little bit differently. But I’ll do that under my own name. I feel kind of proud about it.

Anyway, the good news is, the old Dag-Lit Central link will continue to work for a while. I’m not sure what will happen to this site next. It’s likely there will be some upgrading, but I’m hoping it will never get too slick. I’d like to keep this as a fun, down-to-earth kind of place where I can talk about my books and other stuff that interests (or obsesses) me.

It’s all a little bit exciting. Hope you have a great week too. 

Would I like to be famous? To be honest, I’m not sure. I would like to be successful. I would like to be able to do the things I like to do (which is primarily writing I suppose) well enough that I could make a good living out of them. I don’t need to be rich. And I certainly don’t have any desire to be mobbed by fans every time I go to the shop to buy a loaf of bread. So if that’s what being famous means, I’m not sure if it’s for me.

Sometimes, I like to reflect on those moments when fame has approached a little bit close. Being in Australia, I don’t often get an opportunity to have access to the most famous of the famous. But I have had a few moments.

A number of those have involved sports stars (and here in Australia, that’s kind of up at the top rung of famousness). As a kid, while shopping for a cricket bat, I was once served by a footballer who is often spoken about as the finest player of his era (yes, back in the ’80s, even the best Australian footballers needed day jobs). I never ended up buying the bat, but I did get to feel very connected to a genuine sporting great.

Speaking of footballers, one of my physical education teachers at school was the captain of one of the top grade football teams. And a hell of a nice fellow to boot. Years later, my family ambushed him at an awards night and even with the cameras clicking, he was happy to stop for a moment and say g’day.

I’ve had my moments in the writing sphere as well. I guess the biggest one was actually getting close to one of my real heroes as a writer, the late (and lamented) Douglas Adams. It was at a literary lunch many years ago and the highlight was definitely when I got him to sign my old and dog-eared edition of Hitch-Hikers Guide. It’s still a prized possession.

It’s nice to think that somebody like myself can have these little brushes with fame. Who knows, maybe one day people will be excited to have lunch with me, and they’ll line up to get my (admittedly rather pathetic and scrawly) autograph on their copy of one of my books.

Like I say, I have no great desire to be famous, but it would be kind of nice. 

Firstly, it’s too long. Three syllables is far too many for something as simple as a name. I think two is fine, and one would be even better.

Secondly, nobody seems to know how to spell it. You wouldn’t believe the number of different combinations there are out there. O’s instead of A’s, and H’s cropping up in all sorts of strange places. And the worst part is, because people have no idea how to spell it, there are now kids being born who officially have their name spelt incorrectly. It’s extremely frustrating.

Thirdly, it seems to be one of those names that is always used for nerdy sorts of characters. I have no idea why. There doesn’t seem to be anything inherently nerdy about it (except possibly its length). But whenever you have a character who wears glasses and a vest and long socks under shorts, he always seems to be called Jonathan.

In my younger years, I have thought of changing it. In my older years, I’ve thought of coming up with a pseudonym, just for the writing.

I’ve considered using my middle name, David, which I think is a good, solid, easy to spell, and not too long kind of name. David Gould. I could just see it on those book covers. Has a nice ring to it.

I’ve also thought of being a bit more creative. I’ve thought of reversing the name and then messing around with it a bit, so it sounded kind of presentable. The result I came up with was Nathan Ojdluog.  Doesn’t sound too bad. Little bit exotic. For a while, I thought it might have some potential.

But in the end, I went with my name as given. I can’t even tell you why. Maybe I’ve become a bit more used to it over the years. Maybe I really wasn’t that imaginative. Or maybe, it’s because I feel like my books are a big part of me, and I wanted to be able to identify myself with them as fully as I could.

No idea really. In the end, whether they were written by Nathan or David or Jonathan, they’re still the same books. I hope you like them.