AMRA PAJALIC
  • Home
    • Blog
    • About Me
    • Press Kit
    • Za Bosance
    • Resources for Teachers >
      • Remote Learning >
        • Narrative Writing
        • Poetry Writing
        • Fun activities
        • Spelling activities
    • My Newsletter
    • News & Events
    • Book Me >
      • Aspiring writers >
        • Six things writers should do
        • Young Adult Books
        • Writing tips for young people
    • Articles
    • My Books >
      • Young Adult >
        • Cuckoos Song
        • Sassy Saints Series >
          • Sabiha's Dilemma >
            • The Good Daughter
          • Alma's Loyalty
          • Jesse's Triumph
          • Sassy Saints Series Books 1-3
        • The Climb
      • Memoir >
        • Things Nobody Knows But Me
        • Teacher Teacher anthology
        • Growing up Muslim in Australia
        • Meet Me at the Intersection
        • Rebellious Daughters
        • St Albans piece
      • Romance >
        • Dreams of Destiny Romance Series >
          • Hollywood Dreams
          • Vintage Dreams
          • Vengeful Dreams
        • Return to Me
        • Kings of the Bay Romance Series >
          • That One Summer Anthology
      • Dark Fiction Horror >
        • WomanOnTheEdgeShortStory
    • Contact
    • Amra's Writing Room
    • Authorly Advice
    • Podcast >
      • Benefits of a residency
      • Journey to Self Publishing
      • The Art of the pitch
      • Balancing the pen and the paycheck
      • Short stories for publication portfolio
      • Evolution of an author
      • Wounds to Words
      • Own the Stage
    • Pishukin Press
    • Grant Writing Course
  • My Shop

My memoir is being published!

2/4/2018

0 Comments

 
PictureAmra as a seven year old
Sometimes I feel like I have only one story I want to tell and that I've spent my whole life finding a way to tell it.

I have been a professional writer since the age of 20 when I enrolled in the Diploma of Professional Writing and Editing at the Council of Adult Education and had my first paid publication opportunity in Voiceworks Journal. I started writing a memoir then, a story about my childhood and my mother's life. About being the daughter of a Bi Polar sufferer and about the hardship that my mother endured being from a Non-English Speaking Background while suffering from a mental illness. I eventually abandoned it, scared off by the raw emotion.

Picture
Picture
​I still wasn't able to be vulnerable in the way that writing a memoir demands, and so The Good Daughter, my first young adult novel was born. My protagonist Sabiha is a Bosnian girl, who grew up in the Western suburbs, and had a mother who is a Bi Polar sufferer. I gave Sabiha my memories, feeling safe in disguising fact with fiction. I launched The Good Daughter into the world with a sigh of relief. I had exorcised my demons and was ready to move on

Picture
Then I became a mother in my 30s and all my childhood memories resurfaced. The first few months of being a mother I kept getting flashbacks to my childhood. Ten months after having my daughter I was diagnosed with post natal depression. As always writing was my saviour. I had no choice but to write a memoir, but how? It was a journey that took seven years and sometimes turned me inside out.

Getting published is always a dream, but getting my memoir Things Nobody Knows But Me published feels even more special. This memoir honours my mother and the hardship she has endured. I am so happy that Transit Lounge will publish my memoir in 2019 and I look forward to sharing my publication journey with you.

Mum and Me

Picture

Things Nobody Knows But Me blurb

Things Nobody Knows But Me is the story of a bond between mother and daughter, and of the toll that mental illness takes on an individual, a family and a community. It is also an insight into Bosnian culture, and more broadly the experience of mental illness for people who come from non-English speaking backgrounds.
I was sixteen when my wagging caught up to me and I ended up in my high school counsellor’s office, and I finally learnt the medical label for the malady that had dogged my mother and affected my childhood. I had spent my whole life calling my mother’s illness a Nervous Breakdown, now I found out that my mother suffered from a mental illness called Bipolar Disorder.

In adolescence I became my mother’s confidante and learnt the extraordinary story of her life: when she was fifteen years old she visited family friends only to find herself in an arranged marriage. At sixteen she was a migrant, a mother, and a mental patient.

Things Nobody Knows But Me is about a mother-daughter-bond fractured by years of manic and depressive episodes, marked by powerful changes in mood and energy, that was eventually brought under control through an accurate medical diagnosis.

​I was funded by Creative Victoria to be mentored by Alice Pung in developing this book. Excerpts have been published in anthologies: ‘School of Hard Knocks’ in the upcoming anthology Meet me at the Intersection (Fremantle Press, 2018), ‘Nervous Breakdown’ was published in Rebellious Daughters anthology, (Ventura Press, 2016), and ‘Woman on Fire’ in Etchings journal (Illura Press, 2013).

Previous blog posts about writing my memoir

Follow Amra's board Memoir Blog Post series on Pinterest.

Telling Mum my memoir is getting published

It was a very long journey to get my memoir published and there was one person I really wanted to tell the news to. My mum. I was so wrapped I had to film it so I have the memory forever.

Subscribe to my newsletter and read an extract

Subscribe to my newsletter below and receive an extract of my memoir titled ‘Woman on Fire’ that was previously published in Etchings journal (Illura Press, 2013) as a free ebook. 
0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Picture

    Author

    Amra Pajalić is an award-winning author, an editor and teacher who draws on her Bosnian cultural heritage to write own voices stories for young people, who like her, are searching to mediate their identity and take pride in their diverse culture. She writes memoir, young adult and romance under the pen name Mae Archer.

    newsletter

    Sign up and receive free books.
    Picture

    Twitter feed

    Tweets by @AmraPajalic
    Follow Amra's board On Teaching on Pinterest.
    Follow Amra's board Memoir Blog Post series on Pinterest.

    Archives

    May 2025
    April 2025
    March 2025
    February 2025
    January 2025
    December 2024
    November 2024
    October 2024
    September 2024
    August 2024
    July 2024
    June 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    October 2021
    August 2021
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    September 2018
    April 2018
    October 2017
    August 2017
    March 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    June 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    October 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    December 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012

    RSS Feed

    Categories

    All
    Author Feature
    Book Review
    Essay
    Memoir
    My Life
    My News
    Pishukin Press
    Plugs
    Poetry
    Publication
    Publishing
    Teaching
    Writing

Copyright Amra Pajalic 2025
  • Home
    • Blog
    • About Me
    • Press Kit
    • Za Bosance
    • Resources for Teachers >
      • Remote Learning >
        • Narrative Writing
        • Poetry Writing
        • Fun activities
        • Spelling activities
    • My Newsletter
    • News & Events
    • Book Me >
      • Aspiring writers >
        • Six things writers should do
        • Young Adult Books
        • Writing tips for young people
    • Articles
    • My Books >
      • Young Adult >
        • Cuckoos Song
        • Sassy Saints Series >
          • Sabiha's Dilemma >
            • The Good Daughter
          • Alma's Loyalty
          • Jesse's Triumph
          • Sassy Saints Series Books 1-3
        • The Climb
      • Memoir >
        • Things Nobody Knows But Me
        • Teacher Teacher anthology
        • Growing up Muslim in Australia
        • Meet Me at the Intersection
        • Rebellious Daughters
        • St Albans piece
      • Romance >
        • Dreams of Destiny Romance Series >
          • Hollywood Dreams
          • Vintage Dreams
          • Vengeful Dreams
        • Return to Me
        • Kings of the Bay Romance Series >
          • That One Summer Anthology
      • Dark Fiction Horror >
        • WomanOnTheEdgeShortStory
    • Contact
    • Amra's Writing Room
    • Authorly Advice
    • Podcast >
      • Benefits of a residency
      • Journey to Self Publishing
      • The Art of the pitch
      • Balancing the pen and the paycheck
      • Short stories for publication portfolio
      • Evolution of an author
      • Wounds to Words
      • Own the Stage
    • Pishukin Press
    • Grant Writing Course
  • My Shop