The Pearlsong Letter

Story Circle Network review of Anne Richardson William's Unconventional Means: The Dream Down Under

Linda Wisniewski has reviewed Anne Richardson William's memoir Unconventional Means: The Dream Down Under at The Story Circle Network. Wisniewski writes that Unconventional Means published by Pearlsong Press in 2005)  "takes us down a path quite different from the typical woman's 'journey.'"

When you were a little girl, did you ever dream of traveling to a place you read about in a book? Anne Richardson Williams did exactly that. When she was sixteen, she read A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute. She was grieving her father's suicide at the time, and books were her refuge. She wrote in her diary that one day she would like to visit Alice Springs, Australia, the town where the novel takes place.

Twenty-six years later, in 1989, she found her old journal and contemplated her girlish dream, as yet unrealized....After her divorce, she began to explore her spirituality and to meditate. One day she saw a calendar picture of Ayers Rock in the Australian desert and discovered 'the closest town of any size, across two hundred miles of desert, is Alice Springs." This is just the first of many serendipitous and mysterious events that bring Williams on her journey.

Read the entire review here.

EBook version of Unconventional Means now available

Pearlsong Press has released the Adobe PDF eBook edition of Anne RIchardson Williams's memoir, Unconventional Means: The Dream Down Under.

You should be able to find it in your favorite online bookstores (Amazon.com, etc.) in a week or two. And it's available for purchase & download now from the Pearlsong Press online store.

The eBook contains the complete text and page layout/design--including illustrations--of the original trade paperback, which was published by Pearlsong Press in June 2005. But the eBook contains color versions of Anne's artwork, which is black & white in the paperback...AND a bonus section of color snapshots related to Anne's journey.

Due to the desire to retain the original design of the print edition, the eBook edition of Unconventional Means: The Dream Down Under will only be available in Adobe PDF format. EBooks in this format can be read using the free Adobe Reader program, which you may already have on your computer. (If not, click the free Adobe Reader link to be taken to the Adobe webpage where you can download the program.)

To read more about Unconventional Means: The Dream Down Under, or to purchase the eBook (or an autographed original trade paperback), visit http://www.pearlsong.com/unconventional_means.htm.

Enjoy!

Peggy Elam, Ph.D.
Pearlsong Press

Free shipping on advance orders for Unconventional Means

Pearlsong Press is offering free shipping for advance orders of Anne Richardson Williams' Unconventional Means placed through the Pearlsong Press website.

Williams' moving memoir will be published in June 2005. Advance orders placed through the website will be shipped in late May.

Coming soon from Pearlsong Press....Unconventional Means by Anne Richardson Williams

Coming in June 2005...

Sixteen-year-old Anne Williams, shattered by a family tragedy, tries to cope through art and reading. She eventually finds solace in Nevil Shute's novel A Town Like Alice. His heroine's passage through the tribulations of war to find love and a new home modeled after the town of Alice Springs, Australia gives teenage Anne hope that "there is something on the other side of the terrible things" for her, too. Some day, she promises herself, she will go to Australia and to Alice Springs.

Decades later, Anne's call to Australia deepens. Now an artist and successful businesswoman, she is reading a book about the continent's Aboriginal people when a photograph of Aboriginal elder Lorraine Mafi-Williams mesmerizes her. She feels an immediate kinship, even though others find it ridiculous that this upper-middle-class Southern white woman and an Aboriginal elder could share more than a common last name.

When Anne finally sets out for Australia, she adds to her desire to see Alice Springs the dream of meeting Lorraine. But with no address, no phone number, no conventional way to get in touch with an Aboriginal woman, Anne must rely on unconventional means -- dreams, visions, meditation and intuition -- to guide her halfway across the world to find the woman whose ancient stories of a land and its people will help heal her.

Pearlsong Press is proud to publish this second edition of Unconventional Means, revised and updated from the 2000 In Circle Press edition.

Advance Praise for Unconventional Means

Steven McFadden, author of Legend of the Rainbow Warriors (a revised edition of which will be published in 2005), recently read the galley of Anne Richardson Williams' Unconventional Means: The Dream Down Under, the second edition of which will be published by Pearlsong Press in 2005.

Readers of the 2000 In Circle Press edition will recall that it was a photo of aboriginal elder Lorraine Mafi-Williams, also known as "Alinta, Woman of Fire," in McFadden's 1992 book Ancient Voices, Current Affairs: Legend of the Rainbow Warriors that called to Anne so strongly that she ended up traveling halfway around the world to find her. (The revised & updated Pearlsong Press edition contains new material  bridging Anne's childhood attraction to Australia, which developed after the heroine's journey in Nevil Shute's A Town Like Alice helped her cope with personal tragedy, with the adult events that precipitated her to the Land Down Under. The Pearlsong Press edition also contains a touching update to the original memoir and narrative.)

Here's what Steven McFadden had to say about the second edition of Unconventional Means:

Yesterday I put a double CD of "Four Bach Orchestral Suites" on the stereo, pushed the play button and sat down at my desk with the galley for Unconventional Means. It was a pleasure and a wonder to page along, and to re-read the story. Beautifully done. The typography and layout of the pages are a perfect compliment. I had a happy afternoon taking the journey again page by page and scene by scene. My sincere thanks for giving me a chance to take this meaningful reading pilgrimmage with you, and to remember Alinta.

Incidentally, I happened to catch an episode of the CBS TV series "Survivor" earlier this week. It seems one of the teams on the show is called "Alinta." Hmmmm?

At any rate, you are welcome to use any of this e-mail for the blurb, as suits the purpose. Here's an official attempt at blurbage:

Anne Williams has written an intelligent, lyrical and inspirational tale about her excursion into the outbacks of Australia and of her soul. The true story of her pilgrimmage is beautifully and directly told, creating a literary roadmap of trust that readers might learn how one soul navigated unconventional -- but vital -- pathways forward.

Steven McFadden
Author, Legend of the Rainbow Warriors
Director, Chiron Communications