Hills author Dorothy Williams with her newly released book of short stories. 46348
By Tania Martin
MONBULK’S Dorothy Williams is giving the world a different perspective on being alone.
Her first collection of short stories has just been published by an American company and is available online.
The book, titled Found Alone and Wandering, has more than 30 yarns which look at different aspects of being alone.
It has been more than 20 years in the making.
Ms Williams said the stories some based on true stories and others which are totally fictional but have the same connecting link.
“There are some about catastrophes, portrayals or even breakdown of relationships and some are about solitude or enjoying nature,” she said.
Ms Williams admits she is a compulsory storyteller which was her main inspiration for the book.
She wrote her first short story more than 20 years ago and despite having several of the stories published in magazines this is the first time she has had a collection printed.
Ms Williams has had a passion for prose since she was eight years old. But she never had the opportunity to pursue her passion until she took early retirement in 1982 and even then it was just a hobby.
However, after starting to research her grandmother’s life Ms Williams’s love of writing was reborn.
“It was a fascinating project,” she said. But the book has sat in her bottom drawer for years, currently containing more than 100,000 words of prose.
Since then she has done numerous writing courses and hopes having her short stories published would give her the inspiration to take her grandmother’s story out of the drawer and give it another go.
Ms Williams is also renowned for her collection of history books, poetry and several junior novels.
But she said it was very exciting to have her short stories bound together into a book.
“It’s always very satisfying to pick something up that’s bound in a cover and looks and feels like a book,” she said. But for Ms Williams it’s all about the sharing.
“It’s no good to anybody if it’s in the bottom drawer and it began to irk me a bit that they (the stories) were sitting there with nobody reading them,” she said.
So she found herself an agent in America as she knew the Australian short-story industry was difficult to crack.
Months later and Ms Williams has released her first book of short stories.
“I thought why not put them out there where somebody else can get some enjoyment out of them… perhaps get a bit of thinking out of it,” she said. Ms Williams said people learn a great deal from general reading.
“It expands our view of the world and gives us different alternatives if you are in a similar situation… it widens our horizons,” she said.
Those interested in the book can purchase it on line through the Strategic Publishing Group at www.strategicpublishinggroup.com/title/foundaloneandwandering.
