About My Book

To clear up some confusion that has been expressed: my blog is not my book—and it’s not really all that much like my book, other than the writing style. (Though there are a few excerpts from the book back in the earliest posts, before the book came out.)

My book—Waltzing Australia—does contain details of Australian geography, history, and culture, but it also contains a fair bit of adventure—and far more places than I’m showing on the blog. This blog is kind of like the bonus tracks on a DVD—things that got cut, additional background, further adventures. So for those who have worried that the blog just repeats what the book says, it doesn’t.

As for what my book is like, here’s an excerpt from my press release (and I only mention that it’s from the press release so you’ll know why I’m suddenly referring to myself in the third person):

Clampitt circled and crossed the continent, covering nearly 20,000 miles, many of them rugged. As she traveled she changed—and she wrote. The child of that journey is the book Waltzing Australia, a journal that recounts six months of joy and adventure. It is a story about finding out who you are. But above all, it is about Australia: the history, legends and art, both European and Aboriginal; the beauty, the challenge, the people, the land.Best-selling author Richard Lederer wrote of Waltzing Australia, “Cynthia Clampitt’s luminous chronicle of her love affair with Australia resonates to the heart’s deep core.” Readers are comparing her to Annie Dillard and Bill Bryson. But Clampitt sees the chief virtue of the book being the lesson that you can start over; you can make dreams come true—if you are willing to pay the price.

Waltzing Australia will encourage those who dream, as well as those who travel. It will delight those who know Australia and enchant those who do not.

As author/reviewer Helen Gallagher wrote, “Cynthia Clampitt surprises us with a writing talent and story-telling technique that is tough to master, yet she is consistently compelling to read.”

I realize that not all of you will get Waltzing Australia, and the blog can stand on its own. However, I do hope you’ll get the book—not just so you can read about all the things I did in Australia, and not even so you’ll fall in love with Australia, but so you can be encouraged to dream your own dreams.