Trailer trash or travel writer?

I have been asked what Bali Raw is all about, what it all means. And I'm not going to lie to anyone. Bali Raw is just my opinions and experiences after having lived in Bali for eight years. I am not a literary genius that has come forth with some great secret about Bali...far from it actually. 

Bali Raw is my first book. It was written in a tiny two bedroom house in the back blocks of Bali. The house was falling down about my ears and there were great globs of mould growing from my bedroom walls. This carcass of a home was all I could afford to rent, because I borrowed money and took a year off work so I could write a book. (My working title at the time was Busting Bali)

I shared this house with a menacing drunk who would stumble into my room at all hours of the morning with a working girl in tow. He would constantly wake me up or interrupt my writing. And then he would regale me with tales, over and over, of his night's misadventures. 

This menacing drunk is actually still a good friend, but we no longer live together. He once went to the toilet on my stereo while I was in the middle of writing a chapter. And I had to stop writing and half drag half shuffle him to bed on more than one occasion. 

Bali Raw was written on an eight year old computer that would seize up every three minutes. Then it would take ten minutes to restart. The computer was so old that I suspected some of the mould growing around my house had been incubated within its innards. It took me four months to write the first manuscript for Bali Raw. And at the time it contained 116,205 words.

Bali Raw could be considered the tumbled wreckage after a collision between a trailer trash
writer and a travel writer. 

I hope that explains something of what the book's about. But if it doesn't, you might just want to read Bali Raw. You never know, you might enjoy sharing some of my Bali experiences.