Open Mic at Mentone Public Library  11am on 25 November 2023 See our catchy Facebook flyer/video below, or on Facebook for some creative inspiration. Entry only $5   Bookings via email mentonepubliclibrary@gmail.com

 How do they do it? Writers write. Artists draw. But cartoonists? They are the rarest of breeds, skilfully combining both. The topic. The line. The nuance. The gag.   In a break from our “author” tradition, Mentone Public Library proudly presents  Award-winning local cartoonist and caricaturist ALAN ROSE Outlining his career in one of the most challenging of the publishing arts: setting up the scenario and delivering the punchline. WHEN: Saturday, November 11. TIME: 11 am. WHERE: Mentone Public Library, Rear, 36 Florence Street, Mentone, 3194. BOOKINGS,   entry $5.00, via: Try Booking -   https://www.trybooking.com/CMTHG Or   Bank Transfer to BSB 013 352, Acct no 009777676, Reference ‘Rose’. Or Cash or Credit on the day. Let us know you are coming:  mentonepubliclibrary@gmail.com   ALAN ROSE: The Herald, Australasian Post, Sunday Observer, Juke Magazine, Recorder Newspapers UK; working alongside luminaries including Geoff Hook, WEG, Vane Lin...

Katie McMahon in An Author for All Seasons.  Interviewed by Graeme Johnstone Graeme Johnstone and Katie McMahon entertained us in a light-hearted conversation, covering Katie’s life journey as a writer from young days growing up in Frankston to her decision in India to go back to high school and train to become a doctor, touching on her current work in training doctors in communication, and her two psychological thriller novels. Graeme and Katie shared some of their favourite lines from the books, all the while showing the light-hearted sense of humour that makers for an enjoyable read. It was an inspirational event.   We sold more tickets than we had seats at the library this time, so we held it at the Mentone Activity Hub. It’s a great venue with a view of the park and only a short walk from our library.   Keep an eye out for another An Author for All Seasons event and our Annual General Meeting, both hopefully in November. Our next Open Mic event will be on 22 nd ...

Lover, Husband, Father, Monster and the art of coercive control What a pleasure it was to have Elsie and Graeme present with us on the difficult topic of coercive control on Saturday, 15 July, using their trilogy of books as a springboard for conversations. Graeme and Elsie Johnstone wrote three inter-connecting novels on this topic under the banner of ‘Lover, Husband, Father, Monster’, entitled ‘Her Story’, ‘His Story’ and ‘The Aftermath’. The works are best read in the order of 1 The woman’s perspective 2 The man’s perspective and 3 The views of those who it affected.  When they were working on these books, Elsie and Graeme decided to write every time it rained and being Ireland, they wrote a ‘bloody lot’. Their task was to find out ‘What drives two men on either side of the planet to commit such awful acts, both in Australia and Ireland, and how have their marriages come to this?’   The novel is set in Dublin, and it focuses on the marriage of Jennifer, a legal gr...

Judy's Open Mic reflection, 24 June 2023 Last Saturday (24 June 2023) we had a great ‘Open Mic’ session. Stimulating writings by several members revealed their literary talents either through ‘in depth’ revelations of lives or humorous accounts of every day observations.  Pip, Jan and Elsie opened up about their inner thoughts giving us a deeper understanding of even our own lives. Bruce was in poetic and artistic form, and Graeme took a light-hearted look at Russian politics. Word choice and poetic pattern were exemplary in both cases. Terri, Tony and Judy attempted another radio play script, unrehearsed, which sadly needed better secretarial management (my bad!). Mind you Terri did a superb ‘boy voice’ for her character struggling up Balcombe Rd with a horse and dray in 1899 going to the races at Mentone Race Course; and Tony was equally in charge of his masculine character. Ron also had stories about a Jack Russell named Jill,   (There is a Jack and Jill Russell joke t...

Lenny Marks Gets Away with Murder and Kerryn Mayne coming again for Writer meets reader Kerryn Mayne.  What a breath of fresh air! Some people are born to speak in public and Kerryn is one of those lucky ones. We could have listened to her all day and not been bored. A full house at our Mentone Public Library was entertained and enthralled as we listened to Kerryn traverse many subjects – life as seen by a police officer, the busy and sometimes hectic life of a mother of four children under five, two of them nine-month-old twins, living with a young family in Aspendale Gardens, the goodness in almost everybody, even hardened criminals (there but for the grace of God, etc).  And those were just the side topics! What Kerryn was there for was to speak to us about the journey she took through pregnancy and COVID to produce a magnificently entertaining novel, ‘Lenny Marks Gets Away with Murder’, a sort of crime fiction / psychological study / philosophical / human st...

Writer meets the Reader in May. Some say Don’t scratch the ancestors history too deep, you might find out things you didn’t want to know.  But Janine Marshall Wood did scratch very hard and attacked the history of her ancestors with zest.  She unearthed a fascinating story of a family who fought for their rights and prospered, but not without some deprivation and suffering. Janine Marshall Wood joined our book club last week to talk us through the development and  construction of the story her Welsh forebears who came to this country in a convict ship. It is really two story about one family.  The freedom fighter, (a man called Rebecca) who led the Rebecca protests against the unfair tolls the English imposed upon them.  The men and women of Wales was incensed and destroyed the toll gates, resulting in many of them being deported to the penal settlement of Van Diemen’s Land. There begins the Australian story.    But it was...