Pat Ritter. Books

[patritter]

A couple of years before I retired from the police, my wife Olga wanted to join the ranks of Queensland Harness Racing. We purchased a racing complex at Redcliffe where she would learn from the heart of the industry.

She had much success in the industry. Often we raced our horses at Albion Park in Brisbane on a Saturday night.

One Saturday night I was standing with one of our horses in the birdcage (that's an area where the horses are prepared before they race), when an idea flashed into my mind. The idea was to write a book about a celebrity in the industry.

I don't know if many readers have heard of 'Hollywood' John McMullen for during the 60's; 70's and 80's he was the King of Harness Racing in Queensland. John was seated near the birdcage watching the racing. Personally I didn't know John but on instinct walked over and introduced myself.

We spoke about the industry and I mentioned it would be a delight to write and publish his life story. He declined.

Two years later I received a telephone call from John wanting to know if I was still interested in writing his story. I agreed.

Wait until tomorrow and I'll share with you this extraordinary story of a legend in Queensland Harness Racing.

[patritter]

One afternoon John came to my home and we sat and talked - he did all of the talking. His enthusiasm bubbled over. I ended up with brain bruise and information overload.

I'd never written an biography before and this was my greatest challenge since I commenced my writing career. Writing this book taught me more lessons in writing than I care to imagine.

You see it's okay when you're writing about yourself or a subject you're familar with but when you delve into the soul of another human being, you're digging out information which will be public property. I failed to see this at the time because I was so excited about writing and publishing a book based on John's life.

'In sixteen weeks I have it finished'. I told him. And believe me it was exactly sixteen weeks and I had it completed and published.

My plan to sit with John and let me open up with his story. I took written notes, I find using a tape recorder is too intrusive. After we covered a chapter of the book, I wrote that particular chapter. On our next visit I handed him a typewritten chapter and asked him to read it and change whatever he wanted.

We followed this procedure until the book was complete.

I didn't know at the time, I was the first person in the history of Queensland Harness Racing to write a book about a celebrity in harness racing.

We were invited to appear on the television programme 'Harness Racing Queensland' to tell everybody at home I was writing a book on 'Hollywood' John McMullen.

Wait until tomorrow and I tell you about my journey of writing this book.

[patritter]

Each week went into the next. It was likened to climbing a mountain. Starting at the base when John was seventeen years old and decided to set is life in harness racing. His dream to drive against the best in the world.

Each year a show circuit commenced in May and travelled the eastern seaboard country towns of Queensland and finally finish at the Royal Brisbane Show in August of the same year. John rode in equestrian events and harness racing events.

His first experience of driving in a harness racing event - he caught the 'bug' of harness racing. From that moment on he slept in a horse stall at each show grounds before competing, joined the rank and file of harness racing people to learn all there was about harness racing and to listen to their stories.

After writing each chapter I became so engrossed in John's story I started to doubt if some of this information he was providing to me was in fact the truth. John produced documented evidence of either newspaper clipping, video evidence, bank statement, horse training records, and every other piece of evidence he ever needed to convince me he was 'honest' John.

Like I mentioned yesterday about writing another person's story. It is like pushing your hand into their soul and grabbing hold of everything they'd ever experienced in their lives and making it public knowledge. You've got to take the good with the bad.

Writing this book taught me many lessons I needed to know at the time to learn. One, never be judgemental. Lay the story out and piece it together like a gigsaw puzzle making certain all of the pieces are there to complete the picture.

Wait until tomorrow and I'll share with you how 'Hollywood' John McMullen Story came into print.

[patritter]

Each chapter fed into the next until the story was gaining momentum. Actually it started to take over my life. My purpose was growing in strength and more I learnt about John, more I came to admire his strength and resilence to life.

For instance at seventeen years of age he decided from that moment onward he pledged his life to harness racing. How many young seventeen year old youths today decide what they want to do for the remainder of their lives.

This story became inspirational to look at my own life and examine what I'd achieved and to climb to the great heights John climbed.

Like for instance when he was forty years old he decided to build a harness racing complex near Albion Park Paceway in Brisbane similar to the ones in America. This was a huge step at this time in his life. After he acquired the land to build the complex, he'd borrowed $300,000.00 for the project, the Australian dollar increased so instead of owing this amount of money, he owned twice as much.

He told me, 'Pat, my hair fell out and I honestly didn't know what to do. I did the only thing I could do and that was to roll my sleeves up and buy race horses to race and sell in America.' In little over six years he repaid the total amount.

Another lesson I learned from writing this book was to always dot your 'i's and cross your 't' s. When we were almost to the top of the mountain, John wanted the book finished. It had drained him of everything - his emotions, ups and downs, and his family.

Wait until tomorrow and I tell you how I completed the book to John's satisfaction.

[patritter]

One important factor came to light when I was about to finish John's book. During writing the book John mentioned over forty people he'd included in his story. Therefore I needed to contact these people either through e-mail, personally or mail to receive their approval to have their name used in the publication.

Over the course of a couple of weeks I'd contacted all of these people and received from them permission to use their names. I was so overwhelmed from the response I included their written stories into the second section of the book.

What was an amazing experience was their stories corresponded with what John had told me. They didn't know what John had written and he didn't know what they'd written until the whole manuscript was complete. This gave me more credience to the fact John was honest and trustworthy.

Both John and I were pleased when the book was finally published and printed. It was launched on television on 'Queensland Harness Racing Show' and sales began.

Here is the book: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/7906. Hope you like it.

Wait until tomorrow and I share with you my next book which would be a turning point in my life.


'Hollywood' John McMullen Story, an Ebook by Pat Ritter

John McMullen knew what he wanted to do at 17 years of age. His deep desire to be a harness racing driver. His desires bubbled to a point when he achieved his dream to drive against the best drivers in the world. How did he do it? This is a story of personal strength; tenacity; heartache; and inspir...

[patritter]

Sometimes throughout our life we often ask questions on 'who is the captain of the ship'. Shortly after 'Hollywood' John McMullen book was launched and sales boomed, the Lions Drug Awareness Foundation decided to end their distribution of 'Closing The Gap' throughout their Clubs.

I appreciated what they'd done for over a decade and almost 8000 copies were distributed throughout the communities of Australia and Papua New Guinea. I'll explain at the time how I felt. It was as if I was cast overboard in the middle of the ocean from a huge ocean liner into a row boat to fend for myself. This feeling of being a passenger on the ocean liner and without notice suddenly being cast into a row boat to survive. To see the ocean liner sail off over the horizon and to start rowing or drown. It was my choice.

As John had done in his book when faced with adversity I rolled my sleeves up and continued corresponding with Lions, Leos and Lioness Clubs to continue to distribute 'Closing The Gap'. At my own cost I had an extra thousand copies printed. This worked for a couple of years however in the end sales fell away to nothing.

Marketing is always a problem with selling anything, especially books. It was 2001 when I met Alex who at the time was a lecturer teaching Information Technology. It was the commencement of the internet. Alex designed a website for me to advertise my books as well as stories I'd written. It was also an outlet to publish a monthly newsletter. ...

Wait until tomorrow and I'll share with you my initial steps into cyber space.

[patritter]

My idea at the time Alex designed my website was to write books and sell them direct from the website. I was a decade before my time with the idea. Anyway it gave me a improved way to market my writing.

Before the internet - to market my books I either spoke in public, advertised articles in newspapers, or sent out brochures. It was a hard way to spread-the-word. Along came the internet with a huge audience across the globe.

After 'Hollywood' John McMullen Story was published and books sold I made a decision which changed my life forever. Olga and I were sitting on the front verandah at Redcliffe one Saturday morning and I said to her, 'I want to retire from the workforce and write fulltime.'

She almost fell from her chair. With an open mouth her reply was, 'how do you expect us to eat.'

After a considerable swapping of ideas she agreed with my thinking. I was fifty-three years old at the time. In my mind all I wanted to do was write. I had so much to write about. It was to either sink or swim.

The date was Saturday 22nd October 2002. I didn't want to retire at Redcliffe, instead I wanted to move to a small town with quietness. She wanted a farm to retire on. I asked her where she wanted to retire and when she replied, 'Imbil', I said, 'where in the hell is Imbil?' I had no idea. It could've been on Mars for all I knew.

That day we drove to the small country town of Imbil west of Gympie on the Sunshine Coast and there advertised on the notice board at the Estate Agency was a property for sale at Brooloo a quiet village north of Imbil.

Before we returned to Redcliffe that day we'd purchased our retirement home at Brooloo where I still remain to this day. I don't know if you believe in fate or destiny but that day was the turning point in our lives in more ways than I could ever have imagined.

Wait until tomorrow and I'll share with you what happened after we moved to Brooloo.