I was born in Brisbane but grew up in Sydney.
Attending St. Pius X College in Chatswood from 1962 to 1971, I spent four years in the school cadet unit.
In this time, I discovered two important personal traits. The first one was that I cannot shoot to actually hit anything.
Not even the stationary targets at Long Bay Rifle Range were troubled by this cadet. They gave me a supervised go on a Bren gun, but I still missed the target.
The second thing that I learnt painfully over four years of cadet camps was that I hated camping. Particularly when it rained on my tent. And I missed having toast more than anything else we were denied.
After high school, I went to the University of New South Wales to get my Commerce degree and Diploma of Teaching!
Majoring in Economics I had dreams of joining the Reserve Bank and/or Treasury.
This never happened because I did not get first class honours in Economics.
Thus, for five years I worked in the NSW Department of Education as a teacher. My schools were (in chronological order): North Sydney Boys High; Mosman High; North Sydney Girls High; and Moree High.
Whilst at Moree High School I taught hundreds of country teenagers. But also, I taught many Koori teenagers. I learnt a lot!
One of my neighbours back in Sydney, had relatives and friends outside Moree, so I used her introductions to obtain permission to visit their properties. This was an eye opener for a city born male.
On one such visit to a country Queensland property; I met a local man who was the best shot I had ever seen. He is the role model for my SNIPERS series main character's ability with a rifle. Again, all kangaroos were safe from my borrowed gun.
After my time at Moree High School, I resigned from the Department of Education teaching service to start up my first business.
It failed!
I went back to teaching but this time at a Catholic systemic school. Then I resigned again to travel through France. In particular I enjoyed the train trip I took all through the beautiful Bordeaux region.
I came back to Sydney to run another business for two years.
It failed!
So, I went back to teaching full time once again. At the same time, I did manage my mother's publishing business part-time. This is where I learnt a lot about self-publishing. Teaching in independent schools from 1987 to 2011 was an eye opener. In that time, I only worked in two schools. This was when I started writing! I began writing my opus THE KOORIS after a visit to a Redfern halfway house. There I spoke to an incredible Koori woman. Over the next thirty years I filled up over a thousand pages of longhand drafts. My task was to show a way out for the Kooris.
Finally, I resigned from all my teaching work and took early retirement. Once more I travelled through France. But I added on trips through England, Japan and Ireland. My ancestors come from northern England and the southern counties of the Republic of Ireland. My Anglo-Celtic roots called me back.
Whilst overseas I got into the habit of writing stories on an English self-publishing site. None of my fast stories were good enough to publish online. But two of them were well received.
After my travels in Asia and Europe, I returned to Sydney to write full time. Initially I wrote about what I knew best: Economics. However, while I was always re-writing that economics book, it was never accepted for publication. At the same time, I also wrote over 400 short stories, quips, fast stories and movie ideas. I even wrote five plays.
I finally began to write fiction for my first eBook. Initially I only wrote fiction. But due to the COVID19 pandemic in 2020, I began once more revising my economics book. Its finally published title is TOO MUCH MONEY! This is available in selected bookstores and online. Look for my book cover photo of the Arch de Triumph. I am very proud of that photo that I took on the streets of Paris back in 2012. In 2022 I wrote the sequel I entitled RATES TOO HIGH.
I have close to five hundred story ideas in many folders. Some I have turned into fast stories, plays, movie scripts, embryonic tales, quips and short stories. I have also written some poetry.
As previously mentioned, ever since 1989, off and on, I have been writing an epic fictional story involving another sort of civil war in Australia. I call this epic KOORIS. It will be my longest book!
In May of 2017, a fictional story called SNIPERS was my first choice to write 60 000 words on a fictional and violent end to Australia's "class war". It touched on my economic prejudices and my experiences of living in and around Sydney. If you are ever walking down any main street of any CBD look up at the skylights. You will see high rise apartments. Notice that you are never hidden from their line of sight, being in full view from many rooftops. That was my inspiration for my first eBook entitled SNIPERS! For the sequel, I drew heavily on my experiences in and around Moree to write BUSH SNIPERS. My third book in this series was FEMALE SNIPERS! This was finished in April of 2018. It has been my best-selling book by far. This al but concluded the SNIPER series I had imagined would only bring one book. All three books are available online at many eBook sites. One day I will write the final story in the SNIPER series.
My Christmas story MOSSY'S FAMILY was a prequel to that trilogy. It introduced the reader to the Feelgood family. This is a short book on romance that was available for publication by Christmas 2019. It is obtainable from selected bookstores and selected eBook sites. There is another short book on the Feelgood family. This is a darker novel called THE STAR. It covers the dark side of events outlined in my first prequel MOSSEY's FAMILY. This completed my tale about the Feelgood family history. All five books take you on a wonderful journey through Australia's class wars and political intrigues.
I have also written a fictional life story of an inspirational young female living in Sydney. It's like I am the ghost writer of this female's biography up to the age of twenty-three. I called it THE STORY OF ROSEMARY BUTTONS. This is available on the internet from many eBook sites. One day I will write a sequel to complete her life story.
At the same time, I began a science fiction story I have entitled NO TIME ZONE. In it I introduce a character called THE INVESTIGATOR whose activities dominate this book. I hope you enjoy my only attempt at writing science fiction. It is now exclusively available on the internet at selected eBook sites.
My next fictional autobiography was entitled ELMO EVEINGS. This story starts with a family tragedy that sends ELMO off to the USA. He finds work in The Bay region of Florida. For ten years Elmo grieves for his lost family. But the story skims over this part of ELMO's life. It quickly moves on to see him at the age of thirty years old. Suddenly fate starts playing with ELMO's life. He gets promoted against his will; three women fall in love with him; and one woman tries to have him deported. What happens to Elmo? You will have to find out by enjoying reading this book. ELMO EVEINGS is still available from certain listed bookstores and can also be purchased online from selected eBook sites! It is a light romance fiction.
Just to keep my Greg Pius fans happy I also wrote a fictional epic entitled ALL ARE MORTAL. This relates to the purely imaginary happenings in the early life of Abraham. One of the patriarchs, Abraham lived a long life. Some of it is recorded in the bible and other religious tombs. In my book I look at a younger Abraham when he was still called only Abram. I make up a tale of how he met Sarah, then known as Sarai. This should be an epic read. But be warned, Abraham lived in a time of paganism and violence. His nephew lived in Sodom, so you get the picture. Abraham's reality was one filled with violence, lust and greed for power. This book is also available from certain bookstores and available online from selected eBook sites.
One of my stories came to me in a daydream. I entitled it simply BRILLIANT. The subtitle warns you that it is about a football star. In 2012, whilst travelling in England, I noticed that even in May the English were still football mad. So, I wrote my very first online fast story. I called it THE BRILLIANT ONE. It was about the greatest footballer to ever play the game. Fictional of course but I made this player simply unstoppable. Back then I wrote it as one of my first ever fast stories. Yet it was never published because it was too short. Now I have expanded this fast story into a book length fictional sports biography. Yes, I have made him Australian! This book is available from many listed bookstores and is available online from major eBook sites.
More stories are bubbling away in my brain, so I have lots more to write. I have published a book of historical fiction entitled ALIAS ARAMIS. This is a tongue in cheek look at the background story of one of the most famous of the French Musketeers. It also takes a fresh look at the royal intrigues of the court of King Louis XIII. It is available on the internet from eBook sites and selected bookstores.
The death of my mother led me to write my first poem. This was the first one in a collection I call PERIODIC POETRY. For this first poem I simply called it: JUST CALL ME VAL. There are many more short poems in this collection. My most popular one is about the terrible bushfires in and around Sydney at Christmas 2019. It is called WALL OF FLAMES. I published this collection in March 2020. The whole collection is available
from many bookstores and from selected eBook sites.
At the same time, I have finished writing my next fictional biography entitled WHY NOT ME! This is a story of real-life endurance. With a lot of editing still to do and some proofreading.
In the meantime, I have begun my collection of FAST STORIES. These are ultra-short in length. My first one is a ghost story, but they vary in genre. I have posted many different ultra-short stories in this collection, but still have hundreds more written down in many longhand writing books. It is unlikely I will ever have enough time to expand these even up to short story status. So, I will eventually publish a whole heap of them in one publication.
In 2021 I finally published my first economics book entitled TOO MUCH MONEY. This is the final product after many drafts were rewritten five times since 2005. In October of 2008, I watched as global financial markets went into overdrive. During May of 2012, I toured Japan, France, England and Ireland where I saw first-hand the economic fallout from the GFC's induced Great Recession. Since then, I have observed the global economy struggle to regain its economic stability. In March of 2020 the pandemic changed all the rules of economic behaviour. My book compares and contrasts the economic policies used during the Great Recession of 2009-12 with the economic policies used during the Global Pandemic of 2020 and 2021. I then wrote the follow up economics book, for publication n 2024. That book is entitled RATES TOO HIGH. It was written at a period of historically high official interest rates in most OECD countries. The era of global disinflation and deflation that followed was predicted in that book.
My second book of poetry, entitles DIARY OF A VIRUS, has on its back jacket cover a photo I took in Dublin in May of 2012. It is of the famous Temple Bar. There is no one outside the pub waiting to go in for the craic.
This was in contrast to my visit there the night before when I could not get past the door. When Dublin was in lockdown, no one was going into the Temple Bar for any reason. My poems touch on the unique experiences witnessed during lockdowns, virus scares, panic buying, public health stuff ups and death in the family. It's a very personal account but in no way unique.
I have started on sequels. They are continuations on a theme from two of my previous books. The first is a long-awaited sequel to ELMO EVEINGS. In this sequel Elmo is married and living in Florida, Fran his wife is a highly paid lawyer, they have twins and Elmo has decided to be a househusband. For that reason alone, my title is TWO MAKES FOUR. Now available from selected bookstores and online. At almost 400 pages it is my longest published book. In 2022 I began writing the third book in this series. Its working title is ONE DOWN.
The second sequel in my ancient times series is based on the bible just like my previous book ALL ARE MORTAL. This time I try to fill in the gaps in the early life of Moses. The bible tells us that he was adopted by a princess of Egypt one minute; then suddenly he is an adult. I give a fictional account of these missing years in the life of Moses. That explains my working title HIDDEN GENIUS (subtitled Earlier Years of Moses).
On the 26th of June 2021 Greater Sydney was put into a two-week lockdown due to the spreading of the Delta virus (then the latest version of COVID19). This prompted me to return to writing short poems. My third book of poetry is entitled LOOKOUT. This collection is a work in progress.
In December 2021 I began to write a personal account of Australian politics. This book has the working title of PRIME MINISTER. It begins in 1965 and follows the time of all Australian prime ministers up until 2021.
As for my short story collection. I am adding stories all the time. For example, NORTHERN TALES is a collection of short stories writing by my family members who actually lived up in northern Queensland. The first one is called THE GULF and is set in 1879. There are also murder mysteries and the early autobiographical work of Vivian Mckenzie, my father. I have published my mother's very last book that she wrote after my father died. I miss both my parents very much, Mum died in 2019, I wrote her biography. This book is entitled NARNIE and it highlights what a remarkable woman she was over her ninety-one years living in Australia. My mother lived through the GREAT DEPRESSION and the SECOND WORLD WAR. She then raised five children while writing thirteen books. Mum was also the best baker and cook that I have ever seen.
Facebook has updates on all my other works in progress. To see them just go to my handle: Gregory McKenzie.
ENJOY THE READ.
STAY SAFE.