Arts Alliance of Pine Rivers Inc

Bernie Dowling

Bernie Dowling is a foundation member of the Arts Alliance of Pine Rivers, and a professional journalist working in the Pine Rivers district. In recent years he has developed his skills as an author and self publisher, and has produced four books.

Towards Peace...A Worker's Journey Phil O'Brien with Bernie Dowling.
One for the Money short story collection.
Showtime history of the Pine Rivers Show.
Iraqi Icicle novel.

As he said, "I would like to be a professional author, but you will still see me travelling to work each day."

QUEENSLAND journalist Bernie Dowling has launched his first novel, the detective thriller Iraqi Icicle.
Dowling said writing a novel, while working full-time, required persistence.
``I had written a short story collection and a short history of the Pine Rivers show but a 400-page novel is more daunting,’’ Dowling said.
He said writing the first draft was the easy part and making the many revisions the difficult task.
``I guess I tried the patience of my wife Trish and son Kevin with all the time I spent at the computer.''
Iraqi Icicle is a detective thriller set in and around Brisbane from 1986 to 1992.
Dowling sees the period as an extraordinary time in Australian and world history.
``We had the explosion of personal computers and mobile phones in Australia as well as the recession of 1990-91.''
``In Queensland, we had the Fitzgerald inquiry into police corruption and the fall of the long-serving Joh Bjelke-Petersen government.
``Overseas, the internet started, the  US invaded Panama to arrest its president Manuel Noriega, and America and its allies prosecuted the first Iraq War.''
These international and national events invade the blackly humorous novel, Iraqi Icicle which introduces young orphan gambler Steele Hill as the unlikely ``detective''.
``I am interested in how popular culture, such as music, film, television, theatre, the internet, gambling and even drug use, intersects with mega social events.''
Dowling said his novel was, in other respects, a typical plot-driven detective yarn with a darkly humorous edge, a femme fatale, a healthy body count, crooked officialdom and eccentric minor characters.
He has two Steele Hill sequels ``in my head''.
News photographer Russell Brown shot the novel’s cover image.
Iraqi Icicle is available from www.digitalprintaustralia.com www.Amazon.com www.Abebooks.com www.Alibris.com and www.Borders.com

For more than seven years, Northern Times reporter Bernie Dowling has been casting a humorous eye over events in his part of the world.
He has the support of loyal readers who huff and puff and deconstruct the social world according to their quirky whims.
Bernie Dowling’s latest book 7 Shouts (Bent Banana Books, 2008) presents the best of My Shout.
Olympic Gold Medal winner Jess Schipper provides the introduction, while multi-talented ventriloquist Daniel Anderson does the drawings.

`I think son Kevin is the best prospect to carry the Dowling name into the annals of Pine Rivers Show history. His biggest radish is mighty grand, indeed.
I'm not sure if you are allowed to name your vegetable entries but Kevin's Japanese radish is called Sumo. If you enter our Lawnton vegetable patch, be very afraid.’

Review report on Bernie's work Click here

Links to Bernie's work

http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog&pop=1&ping=1&indicate=1

www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUje6RE3u_I&eurl

www.steelehill.blogspot.com

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