Item: Stargazer
Author: Gina

Stargazer by David Scott | Exclusive Excerpt – Spotlight – $15 Giveaway

A book blog tour from Goddess Fish Promotions.

Thank you to the author, publisher, and Marianne & Judy at Goddess Fish for providing me the information for this tour.

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Book Details

Stargazer by David Scott
Published by Tellwell Talent on 01/27/2020
Genres: Inspirational & Personal Growth, Non-fiction, Autobiography, Memoir, Poetry, Values & Virtues
Pages: 385

For thousands of years, stars have held our attention and imagination. They influence our life--we wish upon them, sing songs about them, navigate by them, write about them, follow them, and even give their name to the actors we love. My memories have revealed a lifetime of navigating by the stars, and moving beyond the fear and anxiety that self-doubt so insidiously cloaks us in. Yes, as Jiminy Cricket sang for us in Walt Disney's Pinocchio, "when you wish upon a star . . . fate steps in and sees you through."

Memories and influences have a profound effect on our lives. I look back on my childhood years--the 1940s to mid-'50s--and I can recall the people who were inspirational to me. Mostly it was my family, but there was also Jiminy Cricket. You no doubt recollect the song "When You Wish Upon a Star," with its lyrics that lift the spirit and let you believe anything is possible. I didn't doubt Jiminy for a minute.

The early years of my life were a time of innocence, security, adventure, and family love. How quickly my situation changed--one decision by my parents, made with my best interests foremost in their thoughts, shattered the world I had known. Through the fear, torment, isolation, and loss of my own identity, my memories and influences would come to have an overwhelming power on the choices I was to make.

My transition from teenager to adult seemed to happen overnight, but my unflappable outward appearance belied the struggles of a boy coming to terms with his guilt and an irresistible need for his parents to be proud of him. My future was being shaped from the past, but it took me a long time to realise it. I chose the road less travelled, steeped in the wonder of the cinema and accompanied by my beloved animal companions, and it has been intriguing, daunting, rewarding, and, at times, solitary, but I always felt it was the path I was meant to take.

Like so many people, I let the emotions attached to memories hold me captive, and I missed opportunities to choose with more clarity. A near-death experience helped me to live a simpler life. Participating in a creative writing course inspired me to engage in scriptwriting, stage work, and novel writing.

This is my third book, an autobiography that has revealed more of me than I ever intended to share, and fate has led you to it.

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Exclusive Excerpt from Stargazer

Deprivations were never an issue for me; the security of being with my parents fulfilled my every need and I nestled into the cocoon of my existence without taking much notice of the outside world. I believed everyone’s reactions and experiences were the same as mine, so not understanding different character traits came to bite me on the bum during adolescence.

Dad slung two ex-army hammocks under the peppercorn tree for Pat and Max when they came home for the summer break. The sturdy beds were made of heavy-duty Mackintosh, the sides opening out as waterproof awnings, leaving zippered netting to ward off insects. Pat didn’t get to sleep in hers, gladly trading it for my bed when I begged.

Awakening in the hammock on Christmas morning to find Santa’s present at my feet was my idea of Heaven. It was a sky-blue tin ship, almost the size of my arm, with two red stripes along its sides and around its funnels. Half a century later it became the hero of a series of children’s stories I wrote but never sent to a publisher.

Dad was hand-digging trenches for his theatre’s foundations when a young drover (a sheepherder) turned up asking for a job. For Dad, it was as good a time as any to have a cuppa, so they shared bikkies and tea from a thermos Mum had prepared. They got on like a house on fire, and Dad not only employed him but they became lifelong friends. Between them, they completed the lion’s share of the theatre’s construction, which was no mean feat as it entailed hand-mixing cement, using mostly unpowered tools and coping with bent nails, crinkled sheets of iron and chipped bricks. Jim stayed on after the theatre opened, becoming Dad’s co-projectionist and daytime handyman around the theatre.

During the autumn of 1946, they took a fortnight off building the theatre to erect a small brick-veneer, caneite-lined dwelling at the rear of a block that would later feature our two-storey house in front of it. Moving into it after almost six months in the hut should have been monumental, but it’s blank in my memory—I was four then, so I guess I have an excuse for that. Being with my parents was normality for me and that didn’t change no matter where we were.

It was a humble dwelling of one large room with a garage on one side and a tiny bathroom off a small veranda on the other. The bathroom housed a clawfooted bath, a toilet, and Mum’s pride and joy: a Bendix front-loading washing machine that rocked so violently during its cycles that Dad had to bolt it to the floor. My biggest thrill was not having a smelly dunny, refuse from this one going into a septic tank. We were really moving up in the world!

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Purchase Links for Stargazer

Amazon Bookshop/IndieBound

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About David Scott

David Scott is a playwright, director, and novelist – among other things. His career included forty years as a film exhibitor; establishing a horse stud; managing a motel; working in the hospitality industry, and a few other experiences along the way.

David’s latest book, Stargazer, is an autobiography highlighting the value of family, ingenuity, bravado, old-fashioned common sense, colourful characters, and unfailing good humour.

From rural towns in Victoria and New South Wales to the mountain life in Queensland, the constant has been faithful canine companions, perseverance, and a joy for living.

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