Pat Ritter. Books

[patritter]

Each chapter fed into the next until the story was gaining momentum. Actually it started to take over my life. My purpose was growing in strength and more I learnt about John, more I came to admire his strength and resilence to life.

For instance at seventeen years of age he decided from that moment onward he pledged his life to harness racing. How many young seventeen year old youths today decide what they want to do for the remainder of their lives.

This story became inspirational to look at my own life and examine what I'd achieved and to climb to the great heights John climbed.

Like for instance when he was forty years old he decided to build a harness racing complex near Albion Park Paceway in Brisbane similar to the ones in America. This was a huge step at this time in his life. After he acquired the land to build the complex, he'd borrowed $300,000.00 for the project, the Australian dollar increased so instead of owing this amount of money, he owned twice as much.

He told me, 'Pat, my hair fell out and I honestly didn't know what to do. I did the only thing I could do and that was to roll my sleeves up and buy race horses to race and sell in America.' In little over six years he repaid the total amount.

Another lesson I learned from writing this book was to always dot your 'i's and cross your 't' s. When we were almost to the top of the mountain, John wanted the book finished. It had drained him of everything - his emotions, ups and downs, and his family.

Wait until tomorrow and I tell you how I completed the book to John's satisfaction.

[patritter]

One important factor came to light when I was about to finish John's book. During writing the book John mentioned over forty people he'd included in his story. Therefore I needed to contact these people either through e-mail, personally or mail to receive their approval to have their name used in the publication.

Over the course of a couple of weeks I'd contacted all of these people and received from them permission to use their names. I was so overwhelmed from the response I included their written stories into the second section of the book.

What was an amazing experience was their stories corresponded with what John had told me. They didn't know what John had written and he didn't know what they'd written until the whole manuscript was complete. This gave me more credience to the fact John was honest and trustworthy.

Both John and I were pleased when the book was finally published and printed. It was launched on television on 'Queensland Harness Racing Show' and sales began.

Here is the book: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/7906. Hope you like it.

Wait until tomorrow and I share with you my next book which would be a turning point in my life.


'Hollywood' John McMullen Story, an Ebook by Pat Ritter

John McMullen knew what he wanted to do at 17 years of age. His deep desire to be a harness racing driver. His desires bubbled to a point when he achieved his dream to drive against the best drivers in the world. How did he do it? This is a story of personal strength; tenacity; heartache; and inspir...

[patritter]

Sometimes throughout our life we often ask questions on 'who is the captain of the ship'. Shortly after 'Hollywood' John McMullen book was launched and sales boomed, the Lions Drug Awareness Foundation decided to end their distribution of 'Closing The Gap' throughout their Clubs.

I appreciated what they'd done for over a decade and almost 8000 copies were distributed throughout the communities of Australia and Papua New Guinea. I'll explain at the time how I felt. It was as if I was cast overboard in the middle of the ocean from a huge ocean liner into a row boat to fend for myself. This feeling of being a passenger on the ocean liner and without notice suddenly being cast into a row boat to survive. To see the ocean liner sail off over the horizon and to start rowing or drown. It was my choice.

As John had done in his book when faced with adversity I rolled my sleeves up and continued corresponding with Lions, Leos and Lioness Clubs to continue to distribute 'Closing The Gap'. At my own cost I had an extra thousand copies printed. This worked for a couple of years however in the end sales fell away to nothing.

Marketing is always a problem with selling anything, especially books. It was 2001 when I met Alex who at the time was a lecturer teaching Information Technology. It was the commencement of the internet. Alex designed a website for me to advertise my books as well as stories I'd written. It was also an outlet to publish a monthly newsletter. ...

Wait until tomorrow and I'll share with you my initial steps into cyber space.

[patritter]

My idea at the time Alex designed my website was to write books and sell them direct from the website. I was a decade before my time with the idea. Anyway it gave me a improved way to market my writing.

Before the internet - to market my books I either spoke in public, advertised articles in newspapers, or sent out brochures. It was a hard way to spread-the-word. Along came the internet with a huge audience across the globe.

After 'Hollywood' John McMullen Story was published and books sold I made a decision which changed my life forever. Olga and I were sitting on the front verandah at Redcliffe one Saturday morning and I said to her, 'I want to retire from the workforce and write fulltime.'

She almost fell from her chair. With an open mouth her reply was, 'how do you expect us to eat.'

After a considerable swapping of ideas she agreed with my thinking. I was fifty-three years old at the time. In my mind all I wanted to do was write. I had so much to write about. It was to either sink or swim.

The date was Saturday 22nd October 2002. I didn't want to retire at Redcliffe, instead I wanted to move to a small town with quietness. She wanted a farm to retire on. I asked her where she wanted to retire and when she replied, 'Imbil', I said, 'where in the hell is Imbil?' I had no idea. It could've been on Mars for all I knew.

That day we drove to the small country town of Imbil west of Gympie on the Sunshine Coast and there advertised on the notice board at the Estate Agency was a property for sale at Brooloo a quiet village north of Imbil.

Before we returned to Redcliffe that day we'd purchased our retirement home at Brooloo where I still remain to this day. I don't know if you believe in fate or destiny but that day was the turning point in our lives in more ways than I could ever have imagined.

Wait until tomorrow and I'll share with you what happened after we moved to Brooloo.

[patritter]

To say we were excited about our purchase would be an understatement. Olga had acres for her horses and I had a peaceful quiet place in the bush to write to my heart's content.

We'd only been home for a couple of days when Olga asked me to look on her shouler to see if there was anything there. Her bra strap iritated her. I looked and could see nothing untoward. If she was so concerned visit the doctor and ask him, I told her.

Her visit to the doctor revealed she had melanoma cancer. Within nine months after many treatments of chemoptheraphy and radiation theraphy she lost her fight with cancer.

The day she was diagnosed with cancer was the day I resigned from my job and looked after her until the day she passed away. She was my heart and soul.

She never had the opportunity to see the new home built on the farm. We'd spent the final weekend at the farm before she entered the hospital for the final time. That weekend she told me this was the place she always wanted since she was four years old. A garden was built in front of the house where she rests in peace.

I was deversated and didn't know what else to do. Our home was finished, fences built, and everything she ever wanted was there to enjoy. The only problem, I didn't have her to enjoy what we each worked for during our life together.

I didn't want her life to end at this point. For days I sat at the computer and wrote a tribute of her life story.






Following the death of my beloved wife 'Bub' (Olga) I have written the book ' In Rememberance of Bub'. Writing it was painful but helped me come to terms with the loss of my friend, partner and wife of 31 years. Read it as a celebration of a wonderful woman.

[patritter]

Honestly I didn't know how I was to keep going. I sat on the front verandah to wonder what of the future and how I'd ever come to live at Brooloo, a place I never heard of before in my life.

One of the many thoughts I had was 'get myself together' and do what I wanted to do and that is to write - idiot.

I am an alcoholic. On the 13th January 1977 I had my last drink of alcohol. For the following twenty years I was a 'dry drunk'. My drinking may have stopped but I failed to correct my behaviour. Look at the demons which caused me to drink.

Working in the field of alcohol and drug gave me information and a pathway to follow, study and correct my behaviour. I needed to be honest, trustworthy, responsible and accountable.

With help from Olga I worked on a programme to help me alter my behaviour which I learned over my lifetime. At forty-five years old I worked solid for twelve months changing my thoughts, creating new ones and 'taking control of my life'. The programme helped many others I counselled why wouldn't it help me.

In 2004 I wrote and self published 'Confessions of an alcoholic'. In this book I created a character I named Bundy Quicksilver. Of course that person was me in true life. He is a fictional character in the book.

Wait until tomorrow and I tell you how I came to name this character Bundy Quicksilver and his recovery from alcoholism.

[patritter]

The reason I came up with the name Bundy Quicksilver was because of Bundaberg Rum (a rum made in Bundaberg, a Queensland town) and Quicksilver because when you're on the downhill slide of alcoholism it is like quicksilver, slippery and dangerous.

For days I typed the story of Bundy how he lost his wife Ada through cancer and now didn't know what he wanted to do with his life. His mind turned to alcohol; he remembered a promise he made to Ada some twenty-seven years before. He didn't want to go down that track again. He would keep to that promise.

Bundy recaptured his childhood memories of when he was introduced to alcohol by his grandfather at twelve years of age. The first taste of alcohol never left his mind. Over the next sixteen years he consumed more alcohol each year and became so accustomed to drinking alcohol his tolerence rose and he became more dependent on drinking it everyday.

On the morning of the 13th January 1977, his wife Ada told him she'd had enough and threatened to leave him, íf he came home drunk that night and take their two children with her.

He made her a promise Í WILL NEVER DRINK ALCOHOL AGAIN!' and kept his promise.

It was okay to stop drinking but the problem was how was he going to change his habits of drinking and change to not telling lies and being a good and loving husband and father.

Wait until tomorrow and I'll share with you how Bundy overcame alcoholism and became a better person for these changes.

[patritter]

Each day when I wrote Bundy's journey to overcome alcoholism, my mind echoed the journey I'd taken myself. This journey uncovered many demons in my life, especially an important one 'being a rescuer'.

I lived with this habit since I was six years old when the seeds of this habit engrossed my mind to such a degree I became so good at being a 'rescuer' I didn't know any other way to please people, especially my father.

You see all I ever wanted from my father was the words, 'I love you - you are my son - you are a worthwhile person'. Unfortunately I never received these words from him then or forever after. To seek his love (or non-love) I did anything in my power to appease him. Even made a hot cup of coffee and watch him drink the coffee and drink a stubby of beer at the same time.

After leaving home I continued this habit with my bosses, peers and any person in authority. Writing this book was probably the best thing I could've written at this time of my life. I remember when I was about two-thirds of the way through the book I suddenly hit a brick wall.

I knew what I wanted to say or write, but do you think the words flowed. Not in your life. For a fortnight I tried in vane to restart the process. I wanted to get it right. However, the rights words wouldn't flow from my mind.



One morning I awoke at two o'clock in the morning when a sudden flow of words, like a river, flooded my thoughts. I jumped out of bed, turned on the computer and wrote the remainder of the book for the next ten hours without a break. That's not exactly true because I made heaps of cups of coffee and visited the toilet many times.

Wait until tomorrow and I'll continued my journey of being an author.

[patritter]

Thank you all for liking these short stories of my writing career.

[patritter]

Eventually I completed the manuscript of 'Confessions of an alcoholic'. Up until this time I tried traditional publishing and self-publishing. After completing this book I felt great about the story but moreso how it could help people who had a problem with alcoholism.

After my time as a alcohol and drug counsellor I knew there were many people out there and hoped to reach those people to help them overcome their alcoholism. I took the bit between my teeth and thought 'what have I got to lose?' I self-published the book and had printed five hundred copies.

When I look back on the time now, hindsight is a wonderful tool to have, I discovered two hundred copies sold almost automatically. Unfortunately three hundred still remain in their boxes in my office.

It wasn't until the book converted to a e-book I've been able to sell more copies than I printed. There is a broader audience.

This is a link to 'Confessions of an alcoholic': https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/7688

Wait until tomorrow and I'll share with you my next book on this journey.
Confessions of an alcoholic, an Ebook by Pat Ritter
http://www.smashwords.com
Bundy Quicksilver is an alcoholic. He tasted his initial taste of alcohol at 12 years old. Before he knew what alcohol could do to him it was out of control. At 28 years his wife gave him an ultimatum 'if he didn't do something about his drinking she was leaving and taking the children'. He promised...