Had The Adventure. Didn’t Need The Kombi.

I had the adventure.

I didn’t know what hit me.

I was gobsmacked, alone, boke, with not even a Kombi to save me.

I didn’t need it anyhow.

Because, somehow, I had the adventure.

After I went bankrupt.

I’ve written the book to tell you everything that happened.

History.

Romance.

A mystery.

And the paranormal that seemed to have my back as I ventured fourth..

Having lost everything.

Like I was being taken care of because what knew had to be told.

So here’s the thing.

I had uncovered an historical mystery.

A very true story where some lovely people were hurt.

Lovely people who were in the wrong place at the wrong time.

In Regency times.

The late 1700s in Georgian England.

The time when the King was going mad.

When those on or near the throne of England feared for their safety.

Even from losing their head.

This is the hidden story.

Because of what they knew and where they were sitting in or close to Royal circles.

There was strong anti-Catholic sentiment.

The Gordon riots.

Evidence of a secret marriage burned.

And more.

I know all this.

I’ve told it as I uncovered the hidden facts and the trail of where it might have been.

All of this as I struggled with bankruptcy and losing everything.

I encountered twists and turns in every moment.

And paranormal clues that followed my trip everywhere.

Across five countries.

Retracing their steps as I went.

Encountering romantic stopovers.

Meeting interesting people.

Having the adventure of my life.

May I share it with you.

At every stop I take you with me as the adventure unfolds.

I want it to be your adventure too.

Just read the reviews here.

Or buy the book here.

Enjoy the journey with me.

Love and peace,

Neil the Smith

Runaway Train.

My life has been like a runaway train.

After I went bankrupt.

I’ve written the book to tell you everything that happened.

History.

Romance.

A mystery.

And the paranormal that seemed to have my back as I ventured fourth..

Having lost everything.

Like I was being taken care of because what knew had to be told.

So here’s the thing.

I had uncovered an historical mystery.

A very true story where some lovely people were hurt.

Lovely people who were in the wrong place at the wrong time.

In Regency times.

The late 1700s in Georgian England.

The time when the King was going mad.

When those on or near the throne of England feared for their safety.

Even from losing their head.

This is the hidden story.

Because of what they knew and where they were sitting in or close to Royal circles.

There was strong anti-Catholic sentiment.

The Gordon riots.

Evidence of a secret marriage burned.

And more.

I know all this.

I’ve told it as I uncovered the hidden facts and the trail of where it might have been.

All of this as I struggled with bankruptcy and losing everything.

I encountered twists and turns in every moment.

And paranormal clues that followed my trip everywhere.

Across five countries.

Retracing their steps as I went.

Encountering romantic stopovers.

Meeting interesting people.

Having the adventure of my life.

May I share it with you.

At every stop I take you with me as the adventure unfolds.

I want it to be your adventure too.

Just read the reviews here.

Or buy the book here.

Enjoy the journey with me.

Love and peace,

Neil the Smith

PS. Shown above is the Flying Scotsman which my great-great-great grandfather drove several centuries ago. I’m told he once drove Queen Victoria who told him that she was terrified on the trip because he drove too fast and would never be his passenger again. My true story is about her uncles.

I Didn’t See This Coming.

Just when I was down-and-out, when my freelance copywriting business of 10 years had hit the skids, I went bankrupt.

Strange things started to happen.

What was going on?

You’d think I had started a new life without intending to.

New things, new ideas, new open doors were rushing towards me.

Which is where my story begins.

Right here.

My first thought was survival.

I needed a place to live.

Cheap.

I had nothing.

I’d been offered a small Victorian holiday flat in a quiet springs resort in the Wombat Forest about one and a half hours from Melbourne.

I packed all my stuff into my car and went to the Central Highlands.

My life, as I knew it, was over.

I arrived with nothing, to nothing, with nothing to do.

Soon I was offered an old caravan for almost nothing.

I moved in and lived there for the next 5 years.

Parked precariously outside my benefactor’s home in the hills I could relax at last.

He created evocative airbrush paintings under the house.

She was a devoted follower of Sai Baba, her Indian Hindu guru.

An interesting couple.

We had many inspiring conversations.

The kind of mental and spiritual stimulus I’d been missing in the corporate world.

It was my new life among the sweet smells of Nature and the soothing sounds of the birds and the waterfall outside the caravan.

I felt at home there to ponder my fate and, well, to recover from the stresses of the past.

Then something happened that woke me from my reflective mood.

A file of documents about an historical mystery fell into my lap.

There was a friendly ghost from the past.

I’d been given, very mysteriously, a new challenge and my mind was off again.

And that mysterious file was the start of a new adventure that had my mind racing in a whole new direction I had not anticipated.

No way.

Which is where the intriguing material from the mystery file grabbed my attention.

Which soon became the focus of a new and amazing true story.

A 250-page book, a true story.

I’ve given my book a knockout title.

A very different title for a very different kind of book.

Of survival without money.

Of the paranormal.

And of the romantic.

Of a hushed up secret from the early days of British exploration around Australia and New Zealand.

One reviewer calls it “fun and entertaining”.

It’s an exciting story that took me to the other side of the planet chasing clues to a true historical romantic mystery across 5 countries.

I’ll tell you more next time.

Watch for my next post or follow me at aussiescribe.com.

Love and Peace,

Neil

How I Lived On A Shoestring (And What You Have To Do)

Living on a shoestring is easy when you know how and what you have to do.

I did it so I know what you need to do.

I’ve put everything in an inspirational book ‘Back to the Wall’ which tells of my journey after bankruptcy.

I describe exactly what I did from the day after I lost all and, then, what happened after that.

Along the way I inherited an historical mystery about the early days of the British settlement of Australia which, while struggling for my very survival, I followed with unexpected revelations.

It’s a good read as well.

This is not a book with instructions on how to live on a shoestring.

It’s an adventure story about how I was left with no choice but to live that way.

And what I had to do.

Follow my lead and you will learn how to live a good life on a shoestring.

You can look over my shoulder as I learn in the doing.

At the same time I’ll take you with me on an adventure following the clues to a real mystery.

It’s a page turner.

“This is a fun and entertaining manuscript,” said one review, “the readers will truly love this material.”

We’re living in a new world.

We need a new mindset.

Written before the world changed, this is the new mindset written ahead of it’s time.

And for its time.

It’s also a fun and entertaining read.

I really hope you will read my book and follow my experience into a more peaceful and happier life.

Best wishes.

Neil

To follow my blog scroll down and click the Follow button.

To read in your browser click here.

To buy ‘Back to the Wall’ click here.

 

 

First Fleets Mystery.

The First Fleet entering Port Jackson (Sydney) January 26, 1788

What untold secrets did they take with them? They sailed from Portsmouth, England, between 1787 and 1791 to an unknown world with a cargo of mainly convicts to start an experiment in self sufficiency in a strange new land on the other side of the planet already inhabited for maybe 80,000 years by the Australian aborigine.

They had nothing except for what they brought with them on sailing ships which, in many cases, were not up to the trip. Nor were many of the passengers. They left behind families and loved ones, for good.

They set out on a long up to 11 month long voyage at sea into the unknown.

They were going for life.

Many died on the voyage.

Only now I have learned of the mystery.

Actually, more than one mystery.

One concerns an all female convict ship the ‘Lady Juliana’.

Another is the ‘Mary Ann’.

Yet another is the ‘Lady Nelson’, not part of the First Fleets arriving in Port Jackson (Sydney) 9 years later.

The biggest mystery of the lot involves the enigmatic Commander of the ‘Lady Nelson’ who took over in an emergency at the age of just 23 or 24.

Who was he, what was his mysterious past and what was his explosive secret?

Was he, I wonder, a legitimate son to Maria Fitzherbert and the Prince of Wales, King George IV?

The evidence is all there in my fun and entertaining romantic historical mystery ‘Back to the Wall’.

To buy now CLICK HERE or on Amazon HERE

In the book, full of twists and turns, you can read how the mystery unfolded for me as I chased the clues across three countries as well as here in Australia and New Zealand.

You’ll read of Australia’s only military coup, of confrontations with the Maori Chief Ti-Pahi, of drama on the High Seas with equipment and men washed overboard, lost anchors and torn sails, of convicts who escaped from early settlements to live with the aborigines, of a secret royal wedding, of a King’s physician banished to the colonies for life because of what he knew, of another little-known mutiny against William Bligh of ‘Mutiny on the Bounty’ fame and of his return to England to face court marshal, and more.

Then there’s the ghost that started this all off. But that’s another story you’ll read in the book.

“You have discerned an amazing story”, said the Judge of the Reader’s Digest 21st Annual Self-Published Book Awards.

It’s a non-stop adventure with twists and turns from cover to cover.

To buy now CLICK HERE or on Amazon HERE

Best wishes

Neil