Wynne Gibson has had a lifetime of interruptions she hasn’t regretted one bit but the writer who is better known as an artist here in the Illawarra, is finally ready to launch her first book.
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It is fitting that Fine by Morning, which is almost 60 years in the making, will be launched at Gibson’s ‘’second home’’ Port Kembla.
Gibson helped establish the Red Point Artists Association in 2008 and held the position of secretary from then until 2015.
‘’When I stepped down last September it was time to get on with a book I’ve been working on since the 1960’s,’’ the 76-year-old said.
‘’Last Christmas, I had two pieces of good luck.
‘’First, my husband Stuart told me to get on with the writing while he took over the housework, and then my friend Evelyn Harrison spurred me on to find a printer I’d be happy with, because I intended to self-publish.
‘’I found Andrew Jones and his family of masterful printers at Warrawong and we started designing the book.’’
As a writer, Gibson has always used her full name – Dixie Wynne Gibson – but is firmly against promoting an author image. ‘’It’s about the book, not the writer,’’ she said.
Fine by Morning follows the life journey of a dozen ‘ordinary’ Australians from Gallipoli to Long Tan.
‘’I use that [period from 1915 – 1966] because that’s when I think Australia was an adolescent,’’ Gibson said.
‘’It stopped being a child at Gallipoli. It started being adolescent until Long Tan and then all of a sudden we started to grow up in a big way.’’
The Horsley writer said it took her so long to get around to writing the book that the internet had taken over from the boxes of research materials, tape recordings, reference books, letters and photos Gibson had accumulated in the process of writing Fine by Morning.
‘’I’ve had a lifetime of interruptions that I don’t regret for a moment,’’ she said.
Gibson reared a family of girls as a lone parent and at various times has held every editorial position on many newspapers and magazines in Queensland, NSW and Western Australia.
But it’s her work with the Red Point Artists that gives her the greatest pleasure.
‘’We were determined to bring the whole street back to life...our president Dulcie Dal Molin and then treasurer Val Ochalski dreamt of reviving the famous Port Kembla Billy Cart Derby,’’ she said.
‘’So, in early April 2012, the week I finished radiotherapy for breast cancer, we started the long hard process of bringing back the derby. It was worth all the effort to see tens of thousands of people in Wentworth Street.’’
The Fine by Morning launch is at 1pm on Saturday, August 13 at Red Point Artists Workshop Ten, 100 Wentworth Street, Port Kembla.