distinctive pink mohawk) with the group of locals who attended.
Author Lucy Bloom, who’s been described as a business, leadership and philanthropy powerhouse, gave an author talk at Cobar Shire Library on Friday.
“I love travelling to the region and I seek out opportunities to travel to the regions,” Lucy told The Cobar Weekly.
“Cobar Shire Council was holding a wellbeing day. I got wind of that and I pitched to them and said, I can talk, and they said, we think so too.
“At council I spoke on courage and kindness but there were lots of belly laughs.
“That’s always very healthy.”
Lucy said she had some time up her sleeve on Friday morning waiting to catch a plane back to Sydney and offered to speak at the library and also at Cobar High School.
“Library talks are really fun.
“I spoke about my books and how they’ve been produced during my life.
“Each gap in my life has meant I could spit out a book and it is kind of a good vehicle for the life story anyway.”
Lucy said she got into writing because no one told her she couldn’t!
“I think that’s the short answer and I write how I speak,” she said.
She said her 20 years of running an ad agency helped.
“To do that, you’ve got to be a good writer.
“And then as far as long form writing goes, I saw the opportunity to write my first book, which was the childbirth guide for men [Dads and Childbirth].
“I saw there was a gap in the market when I was working as a doula, which is a childbirth support person, and I could just see all these blokes suffering.
“They had no idea what to do, they were feeling hopeless, and there was so much they could do and wanted to do.”
“No one had written one and I love a world first, so I just researched the hell out of this 150,000 word epic.”
Lucy said she was approached by publisher Harper Collins to write her second book, Get the Girls Out, which is her memoir.
“I’d just been fired from a dream job and I said, yes, I do have another book in me and it looks like I have the time,” Lucy said.
“Then I wrote my novel, The Manuscript, during lockdown. Again, I had the chunk of time to do it.
She’s also released Lads and Dads, an ebook, which is a collection of birth stories by men.
“Storytelling is important and we weren’t letting men tell their stories. And so there’s lots of stories in that.”
Lucy said she has a writing schedule but it’s flexible.
“I have learned never to force myself to write when I just don’t feel like it.
“When I’m in the flow, I can write 5,000 words a day, so I only write when it’s coming to me and when it’s not coming to me, I get out in nature, I exercise, my dog loses weight and then I write.”
Lucy said her next book will either be a sequel to The Manuscript, or a story about her personal experience with cyberbullying.
“Or I would love to have a crack at screenwriting so I could take The Manuscript to the screen,” she said.
“Cobar is one of the friendliest towns I’ve been to in a long time and it just reinforces that I love coming to the regions.
“The guy across the road knows my name already in Ay-Jay’s. I love it!”
