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2019 promises to be a much quieter year. Aside from the pending (and long overdue) release of Last Train to Bunbury, (the third such book in my photographic railway bush poetry series will be out sometime in mid 2019), I've been taking some time out for me. Even to the point of cancelling my planned book appearance on Saturday 9th March at Clifton's 150th Railway Anniversary in South West Queensland. For reasons both personal and logistical, the time and money I would have had to expend to make my being there possible, was going to be another example of the moment asking for a whole lot more than what it was prepared to give in return. Someone once told me that you will reach a point in life where you will know your worth, and after a 2018 that seemed to ask so much of me, I'm enjoying more of the time that I would otherwise have put towards one endless project after another. It's taken me a long time to realise that my books aren't the be-all and end-all of me.

So with a few hundred dollars worth of signed books that were stockpiled for Clifton now at my disposal, I have listed them on eBay for readers wishing to add some of these to their railroad library. There are only half dozen of each title, and the Train Tripping Around Melbourne and Sydney titles always seem to sell out every time I list them on eBay. So first it, first served!

Which brings me to a spot of good news. After much procrastinating, gnashing of teeth and general frustration at how slow these books have been selling, I have now reviewed enough material and photographs taken from my last sojourn south to the Victorian border to decide that a fourth and final installment will follow in 2020. Why 2020? Well, the bad news is that while making my way across outback New South Wales in 2018 to photograph some obscure and out-of-the-way relics from our railway past, I failed to obtain even one suitable photo with yours truly wearing the trusted black hat that has become a staple of my railway adventures so far. So you guessed it, I now have to plan another sojourn south to the Murray River to capture the photo for the cover, and that journey won't happen before mid 2020. Last Train to Sydney will be my fourth and final railway bush poetry book, so expect to see me taking a bow on the cover.

One of the highlights of last year was seeing my HO scale Australian model railway layout featured on the cover of the Australian Model Railway Magazine, all while taking it to no less than four model train shows in South East Queensland. 2019 will see me attend just one exhibition at the Brisbane Model Train Show on the 4th & 5th May at the Brisbane Showgrounds as I construct a new model train layout in 160:1 N scale, with no blogging, no Facebook, no Twitter or Instagram. Just the pure enjoyment of building a model railroad of the Pacific Northwest of the United States for my own satisfaction. Why? Simply because I like the scenery and hope to travel to that part of the world one day to see it in person. For once, my books and everything else that life demands can simply take a back seat to my hobby.

Instead of planning more books for the future, it seems I'm doing the opposite. My first two novels The Long Way Home, and A Walk Before Sunrise will soon disappear from sale. Temporarily of course. In order to plan a way to re-release my first two novels in print sometime in 2020, I want to first be sure that they will have disappeared from every possible sales channel. Through Smashwords.com, the eBooks both filter down through almost every sales channel bar Amazon.com. Making them disappear is anything but an instant click of the mouse, and can take upwards of months at a time for each online sales channel to reprise their listings. Best to get the ball rolling now while things are quiet.

Then there is.... or was, my most recent railway photo book Behind the yellow line. Just four months after release it has already disappeared from sale. Why? Because of an opportunity to create an epic railway book project to take its place in the near future. It's more advantageous to remove the book from sale now, rather than later. We're talking a hardcover, 200 page plus lifetime volume of work that won't come easy, and won't come cheap! It gets back to that whole 'you will know your worth' mantra that I seem to have embraced this year. All I can say is that the book will be out sometime in mid 2021.

Yes, it's still coming. Last Train to Bunbury will be out mid-year!

Which brings me back to Last Train to Bunbury. A book much talked about and long promised since my Western Australia trip back in 2017, that you'd be forgiven for thinking it was a model train pre-order! The thing I've loved about writing these books, is being able to have complete control of the production process. I've captured that sense of nostalgia with each of them that I set out to achieve, and without rushing my latest project, Last Train to Bunbury has only gained an even greater sense of nostalgia in my writing as time has passed since trekking through South West Western Australia. The four collections, for being self-financed and produced, will live on long after I have finished writing them. As will my 10th and final railway book that will cap-off this era of my writing in 2021. For those who haven't yet discovered my writing career, a trip over to phillipoverton.blogspot.com will set you in the right direction, and probably amaze you with the 100 free posts I have compiled over the course of my railway reminiscing years Down Under.

After that? Well who knows. Perhaps by then I would have saved up for that dream holiday to Canada, the US Pacific Northwest and Hawaii. Now wouldn't that be nice. I only have to sell a few thousand more books!