Walter Mason: #Robinpedia

Walter Mason is a Sydney based writer, mentor, and teacher. He has worked in every part of the book industry and is one of Australia’s foremost literary citizens who always encourages the spirit of generosity and giving back to the writing community. His principles of Literary Citizenship can be found HERE</.

Walter Mason is the author of two travel memoirs, Destination Saigon and Destination Cambodia. Both have been well received by readers and critics.

Walter Mason teachers writing courses through WEA Sydney, City of Sydney Alexandria Library, NSW Writers Centre and many other locations around Sydney. His courses Fabulously Creative, Creative Groove and The Mindful Writer are particularly popular amongst writers.

Walter is so popular amongst Sydney writers that he has accumulated a group of followers affectionately dubbed Walterites. Some noted Walterites include writers:

Claire Scobie http://clairescobie.com/

Vanessa Berry https://vanessaberryworld.wordpress.com/

Sharon Livingstone http://sharonlivingstone.com/

Ashley Kalagian Blunt https://fullofdonkey.com/

MEEEEEEE!!! You’re here already!!!

 

Walter Mason is one of the founding members of The Universal Heart Book Club. This is an online book club and podcast which focuses on books that refresh and enhance your spirit.

 

Find Walter Mason’s Website HERE.

Find Walter Mason on Twitter HERE.

Find Walter Mason on Facebook HERE.

Subscribe to Walter Mason’s Enewsletter HERE.

Find The Universal Heart Book Club HERE.

 

Please feel free to comment with extra information that you would like  me to add to this Robinpedia entry. Particularly if you wish to be added to the list of Walterites. As I always say, if you don’t love Walter Mason you have either never met him or have no soul.

Learn more about Robinpedia HERE.

Literary Citizenship with Walter Mason

Today I attended the First Friday Club talk for members of the New South Wales Writers Centre. Today’s talk was about a subject near and dear to my heart, literary citizenship, and involved two people likewise near and dear to my heart, Walter Mason and Ashley Kalagian Blunt.

Walter Mason, as I have mentioned earlier, is a standout member of the Australian writing community. His generosity is legendary and his workshops never fail to inspire. Walter is one of the forerunners of a concept known as literary citizenship. It’s essentially the idea of looking after and promoting others in the writing community. This is especially important for the Australian writing community because we’re so small.

Walter wrote an article about literary citizenship quite sometime ago which has been reprinted and reblogged many times. You can find the article here. The article recommends that to be a good literary citizen you should attempt to do the following 7 things:
Buy new books and read them
Get your books at a bookshop
Be a fan
Go to author events
Subscribe to a literary mag
Be a campaigner
Embrace generosity

This article has inspired many people, including myself, especially with the idea of fandom. I am a fan! As well as author Sharon Livingstone who was in the audience as she is a fellow acolyte of Walter, and also Ashley Kalagian Blunt, program officer at the New South Wales Writers Centre, who has an article coming out in this months News Write on her attempt to utilise Walter’s principles for a full year. Some she found easy to take on board, others she struggled with more so. Keep an eye on your mailbox and make sure you read all about it when your copy of News Write comes OR subscribe to the New South Wales Writers Centre newsletter.

I was very flattered when not only both Walter and Ashley mentioned my name as a person who was a good literary citizen but so did author Sharon Livingstone from the audience. She says she likes my author memes. Which is great because I love making them. Walter mentioned my recaps of The Book Club ABC hosted by Jennifer Byrne, another labour of love. I tell you what, if my two greatest loves – Walter Mason and JByrne’s Book Club – could combine I would pass out in ecstasy. And it was really nice to know I’m not the only one who enjoys what I’m doing. They used those things as examples of bringing your own unique spin to being a fan. It was a lovely surprise to be mentioned.

It was a really great talk and I do urge you to do a future course with Walter because he is such an inspirational teacher and I hope to see you all next month at the First Friday Club. Especially Dr Crisetta MacLeod, who I sat next to and whispered the most hilarious commentary in my ear, Sharon Livingston who is even more entertaining in person than she is on twitter, and Nat Bayley who I also got to meet.

Fabulously Creative With Walter Mason ( @walterm )

I love attending Walter Mason workshops because he is the writing equivalent of viagra. We writers can be a terribly insecure and depressive bunch, much inclined to wallowing and procrastination. Walter Mason is the antidote. An encounter with Walter never fails to send blood rushing to the brain and joy spurting from the fingertips to splatter words onto paper.

Those closest to me know that at the moment I’m not exactly winning my battles with depression. Hey, it’s a war, so I’m sure I’ll get there, but right now I’m just flat, tired, and not winning. These flat times make not only eating and moving hard, but also writing. These glorious notions of depression creating exquisite pain to tap into emotional brilliance aren’t entirely true. Sure, you need light and shade to truly feel and you want that in your writing but being in a depressed state isn’t really conducive of writing. It’s grey, not fifty shades of grey, just one shade of grey. And hard to climb out of or write from. Writing once out of it is easy. The stereotypes ring true, once out of the pit, not so much in it. So a pick me up is vital.

So if you need some inspiration or an extra dose of fabulous, I do urge you to attend a Walter Mason event or read either of his travel memoirs, Destination Saigon and Destination Cambodia. Everybody needs a pick me up every now and then.  Especially creative types.

For more information please visit:
http://www.waltermason.com/

P.S. when is a travel show going to pick Walter Mason up? Getaway, Sydney Weekender, I’m not fussy, but this man needs to be on television.

Book Review: Destination Cambodia by Walter Mason

Firstly, I had to argue with a very stubborn three year old to be able to read this. She insists that it has a princess on the cover and that it is hers. I still periodically find that she has nabbed it from bookcase and placed it on her own. I am thoroughly glad that I persisted through my battles with the Dictator to read it because it was fantastic.

I’m not a massive fan of Travel Writing,  if you hand me a copy of “The Lonely Planet Guide” I’m a bit WTF is all this boring text. This book however is far from boring. It takes you through the heart warming and hysterical adventures of the writer,  Walter Mason, in Cambodia.  Through these personal stories I got a real sense of the vibrancy of Cambodia. I yearned to be merrily drunk and wanting ro belt out Cher in some dusty Karaoke Bar with Walter Mason, I wanted to smell those same beautiful fragrances and more importantly I wanted to embrace the people he met. This book actually gave me a desire to see Cambodia for its heart, not simply hopping from tourist location to location. Beautiful,  just beautiful… as was said in “Destination Cambodia’s” predecessor “Destination Saigon. ”

 

Buy Destination Cambodia here https://www.booktopia.com.au/destination-cambodia-walter-mason/prod9781742376622.html

 

Buy Destination Saigon here https://www.booktopia.com.au/destination-saigon-walter-mason/prod9781741759495.html

Review also on Good Reads – https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1046867466