AFTER a busy life running hotels, writing for country newspapers, running a farm – and even selling real estate – Frankston author Marjorie Darling Ward has a plethora of topics to write about.
Now, after a “career change” into retirement – and aged 93 – she’s earning plaudits as a published author. The role is giving her a great deal of enjoyment, as well as fostering a well-founded sense of achievement.
With a new book: Twenty-Six Sheilas on a Bus and Murder Most Foul completed, the writer and member of the Frankston Writers’ Block says the craft keeps her mind active and alert, as well as giving her contact with fellow writers.
Ms Ward cut her teeth as a journalist on country Riverina weekly papers, covering council rounds and local news, and had her own column: Women’s View, which saw issues from a female perspective. “Country people like real local news,” she said, “such as when that pothole in the road is going to get fixed.”
She wrote an equestrian column in the Herald and Weekly Times as well as fiction, non-fiction, poetry and stage plays here and New Zealand, as well as for other newspapers and magazines, and featured on ABC Radio National. She’s been a contributing author to Anthology Fiction 88 – selected by writer Frank Moorhouse – and is a multi-winner of national short story awards.
Her other published books include Cast a Pebble in the Ocean, Things You Can’t Leave Behind and Singing the Country.
Her newspaper background has given Ms Ward dozens of book themes. “You’ve only got to open the newspaper and there are about 20 plots in every edition,” she quipped.
Twenty-Six Sheilas on a Bus and Murder Most Foul – really a novella – is the first time she has dabbled in murder. “But it’s not your usual murder,” she quipped, recommending readers “should not take it too seriously”. The long-term project took her 10 years and “it was a thrill getting to the last word”.
In a twist, the book will be translated into Braille for the blind in China, with a portion of the sales money donated there.
Writers’ Block president Fran Zervaas described Ms Ward as a “treasure and an inspiration to all of us”.
The book launch will be held at Cube 37, Davey St, Frankston, 12.30pm, Saturday 27 June.
Light refreshments will be available.
