Book launch date!

Howdy Folks,

Wow, just over 2 years ago I opened an email in my inbox with the subject line “possible book”. I remember the day clearly, Mandy and I had just arrived in Melbourne and since we didn’t have internet had gone to a local cafe. Mandy opened up the internet and my email inbox pops up, and she goes to me “Hap, you have an email here about a possible box”. My thought was ahhh, probably some “Nigerian Publishing Company” promising to publish  my book if I send them my credit card details. But as it turned out, that email happen to be from my now editor, and no, not a fake Versace suit, “Dolex” watch wearing Nigerian scam artist, but an actual editor, the New Zealand commisioning editor of Australasia’s  largest independant publisher, Allen & Unwin.

If I had known how bloody hard hard writing a book would be, how much time it would take, how I will probably end up making less than half the minimum wage by the end of it, how dedicated I needed to be, how lonely it can be, how frustrating it can be when it’s not flowing, how on those cold mornings when I had to get up and work 10 hours day in the Tasmanian mining industry but I had to get up an hour earlier so you can write that bloody book and then return after work for another hour of writing, I might have not replied to it. But I did reply to it, because it had been a dream of mine.

It was actually 3 years previous to gaining that email that I had committed to that dream of writing the book. The date was 14th of October 2007, a day that is not memorable to you, but a day that I will remember for the entirety of my life. It was the day I thought I was going to be in a wheelchair and blind for the rest of my life. I had fallen six metres from a rope swing and impacted on the base of my neck (and yep, that was as fun as it sounds). But little did I know at that moment, that was the best thing that could of happen to my writing career. Because lying there with my eyes open with nothing but darkness in front of me, I commited to writing about my travels, to writing a book. Eventually, my vision came back along with the sounds of the rescue helicopter. After four days in hospital I was told I needed at least three months of rest and rehabilitation. So with that, I took a loan off my sister to pay my travel credit card off and used the rest to buy my first lap top and set about starting this blog, Hap Working the World.

Nearly three years on from that day, I got that email from Allen & Unwin, and now just over five years from that day lying under the tree, Hap Working the World the book will be on shelves!

In my long winded ways of letting you know the book launch date, it is going to be Friday 26th of October. Everyone in Australia and New Zealand (the rest of the world can order from me online) will be able to rock up to their local book shop and grab themselves a copy, or maybe a few more for Christmas presents, and yes it will be out in ebook version as well. I will also be selling them on my new website http://www.hapcameron.com which I’m currently constructing. I will have this website up and running by early October where you will be able to pre-order copies from me, so as soon as I get them I can send them out (And of course no worries if you’re overseas, I’ll post em your way). If you want me to deface it with my signature (if you’ve seen the disgrace that is my current signature, don’t fear I’m also currently re-inventing a new “Hap” signature) and a little message, it would be my pleasure.

So that’s that folks, what a crazy ol’ ride it’s been, I’m super excited about the book, I’m just really pleased with it, kind of like a landscaper standing back at a property they been working on all week, it’s a Friday knock off, they have a cold beer in hand and looking over the property they have transformed. Well, that’s how I feel, I’m definitely proud to have my name on the cover of it, and all those frustrating times, half minimum wage salary, lonely times, early mornings before work have been worth it!

I’d just like to take this time to thank all that have played a major part in the writing process of the book, my editor at A&U, and my assistant editors: My wife Mandy Cameron, my father Big Geoffrey Cameron and sister Jarnia Cameron, and all my mates that have been sounding boards and put forward their skills and opinions. Chur

Nuthin But Love Hap

PS everyone now knows what they are getting for Christmas from me!