Don't Forget to Remember Me, #author Annie Drum

Don't Forget to Remember Me is a heartfelt coming-of-age novel about first love, identity and the value of true friendship.

Thirteen-year-old Starling 'Star' Cooney lives with her grandfather, Roy, in Rocky Point. She has not made any friends that is, until new student Bronte arrives. Then Roy disappears, and Star must decide who to trust as she searches for her mum.

To connect with Annie ...
https://www.instagram.com/anniedrum.author/
https://www.amazon.com.au/Dont-Forget-Remember-Annie-Drum/dp/1764132157

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:02

It's good morning, Annie Drum. Welcome to Yellow Shell for the first time.

SPEAKER_00 0:06

Good morning, Joe. Thanks for having me. I'm pretty excited and great to meet you.

SPEAKER_01 0:11

It is great to be able to talk about your book. Congratulations. Don't forget to remember me. Tell us all about your book.

SPEAKER_00 0:20

Well, the title came to me before the book. So I just got the idea for a title, and I thought if that was in a book, what would happen? Um for that title to be a title. So I decided it would be the last line in a story. So I thought I'll work back from the last line, which is sort of how I write. I get an idea, and I think if this happened at the end of the story, who would be the characters and how would we follow them to here? So the story is set in a fictional town on the New South Wales South Coast, and it's a place where I go a lot that I love, but I've invented the names obviously for the story. The story follows a young girl called Starling, but we call her star in the book, and she's pretty lonely because she doesn't really know how to make friends. And there's reasons for that. Her mum has, you know, violent boyfriends. Um, she's been placed with her um grandfather, Roy, um, who has his own backstory that we don't really get into, but he's a complicated character, but he really loves her, she really loves him, but they don't even know how to communicate. So it's a I suppose it's a story about complex families. So Starr meets a boy who comes new to the school, his name is Bronte, and he's got his own backstory. Um, so he's come to the school because his parents are concerned about him, and he's got some gender identity issues that aren't fully fleshed out. But his parents send him to this little country town to basically to sort himself out himself out. So he and Starr form a sort of a friendship that's almost like a love affair, and in the midst of that is the school bully called Tremaine, who Starr thinks is a really nasty person. And what happens and evolves in the story is that Tremaine is about as lost as she is. Bronte is also about as lost as Starr is, and they form a little threesome.

SPEAKER_01 2:31

Yeah. And Annie, do you want to tell us a little bit about, you know, where you get these ideas from characters? So, yes, the the town's fictional, but you're, you know, you you you visualize it because you're there. Do you want to tell us a little bit about the characters and how you bring them together as um yeah, as a reflective story?

SPEAKER_00 2:56

So um I'll give you a bit about my backstory. So I've worked in, I'm a social worker, and so I've worked in homelessness, family violence, child protection, and at even schools. So one of the themes that comes through in all my work is that people that uh have to share this raw sort of humanity in order to get a service, and it's a really vulnerable place for people to be. And it's a really it's hard to be a worker saying, Well, you tell me what you need, and then I'll refer you to something that's helpful. And in that process, you hear these, you see this fantastic vulnerability and humanity that we've all got. Um so I decided to write a story about three misfits, I guess. And they see themselves as misfits, and in fact, they're not, which is the struggle that we all have. You know, who's gonna like me? Am I gonna have friends? Am I gonna fit in? Fit in, yeah. How do I talk about my really awkward family because it's really awkward and no one else is having this experience? When in fact, we're all having those experiences. So I wanted to make up a story about that that reflected, I guess, um, the struggle we have in life about how to be. Yeah. How in the world? Do are people gonna like me? What you know, what's life about, I suppose.

SPEAKER_01 4:20

Yeah, yeah. And Annie, you you sort of mentioned it, you know, you've you've had a varying career. This is your first published um book. So tell us about the braveness to leap into writing. Um, have you always written? Tell us what we need to know about you and the journey to to put the book out.

SPEAKER_00 4:43

Um, I've always been writing since I was young. It was a way of escape, I think. Reading and writing the way it escaped into my head. And so I've been writing short stories, um, poetry for quite a long time. Yeah, and I had a um little um anthology of short stories that um I published at Clunes Um Book Town in 2016. And I've written a novella unpublished, but it's still sitting there and um and hoping that one day someone might love it. Yeah. But so I've been writing forever. Yeah, and um if I send something out to publishers and I get rejected, I have that terrible heartbreak and think, oh, what am I gonna do now? Am I just gonna do social work? Which I can do. But writing is like my lifeblood. Yeah. And so you pick up the pen again, you start again, and um, so that's just what I do.

SPEAKER_01 5:41

I think there's a really powerful share in that, Annie, that you know, yeah, like you you know it's in you. Hundreds of authors I've spoken to feel that pain of uh thanks, but no thanks, doesn't fit, not this time, with the publisher, but you've persisted away. Um, there's extra work in the background. I mean, keep going. I know people watching will be like saying exactly what I'm saying. Keep going because I have spoken to authors who, you know, just persist away at this, whether successful with publishers or not. It's it's a really interesting journey talking to authors to really understand your why and your background and you know the story behind the story. It's it's it's really powerful. Annie, if anyone's curious about your book, people should be because we should all support not only first-time authors, but we should support um you know, indie publishers and and you know, people who've self-published. What's the best place to go to you on the socials? Because I'll put some links in the show notes. Um are you on any socials that you're willing to share? Like point us in the direction of where we go if we want to get a copy of this book.

SPEAKER_00 7:01

So um I'm on Instagram, okay, and people can contact me there. But um, my publisher is Baker's Lane Publishing. Yes. And so that's headed up by Ginny Grant. So the book is available currently for pre-orders. Yep. And it comes out officially on May the 1st. Yeah. Um, but I'll also be um doing a book signing in Ballarat if anyone is listening and they're in the area, and that is on um Saturday, May the 16th at Collins Bookstore in Lydian Street in Ballarat. So the book will be there. I'll be signing, and you can come and meet me and hear more.

SPEAKER_01 7:39

Wonderful. Well, listen, enjoy that journey of launch and bookstores. It's part of the uh what is often a beautiful journey because you do get to meet the people behind those who purchase the book and who are curious. Um, Annie, keep writing. I'll keep supporting you and keep coming back on Yellow Shelf to share any of your future work. But thank you so much for sharing today.

SPEAKER_00 8:03

Thank you very much, Joe. Thanks for your time. Cheers.