Kooy, who has cerebral palsy, which makes it difficult for him to type, wrote the book over three years using Dragon for Mac software with help from editors Lucy Boon and Kylie Kempton. Astonishingly, Kooy says he wrote the first eight chapters in one sitting.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was talking non-stop for nearly eight hours,\u201d Kooy says. \u201cI came away still writing, because the ideas were still flowing and I was really enjoying it.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/13662253_1232457126766978_7949493107520375395_o-2.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Cover art by Julia Elms.<\/p>\n
Kooy sent The Master of Names<\/em> to a number of publishing houses, but was ultimately unsuccessful in getting it published. Eventually, he decided to self-publish to Amazon.<\/p>\n \u201cThe publishers thought it was a good book, but they just didn\u2019t take to it,\u201d Kooy says.<\/p>\n \u201cSelf-publishing is a bit of an effort, particularly with fantasy. You really have to market your book and I haven\u2019t had enough time to do that because I\u2019ve been uni-entrenched.\u201d<\/p>\n Fortunately for Kooy, he is about to get a whole lot more free time after completing the final exam of his Japanese<\/a> course, which he started four years ago, inspired by his love of Japanese anime series such as Digimon<\/em>, Pok\u00e9mon <\/em>and Sailor Moon<\/em>.<\/p>\n \u201cMy lecturers, like Asano-Cavanagh<\/a>\u2013sensei<\/em>, have been accommodating and lovely. I\u2019m also really greatful to my private tutors for their ongoing support through the course and to the Curtin Disability Services<\/a> staff, particularly my disability advisor Jackie Weinman, who provided me with a native Japanese speaker who took notes for me during lectures,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n \u201cLearning Kanji [the Japanese characters] has been a constant challenge. It\u2019s been great having such a supportive university help me achieve my dreams of learning a language.\u201d<\/p>\n Kooy enjoyed his Japanese studies so much that he self-funded an exchange opportunity to Kanazawa University in Ishikawa Prefecture on Honshu island for five months.<\/p>\n The experience was eye opening for Kooy, who was required to speak very formally to his tutors, tested almost every single day and expected to show up to class even when sick.<\/p>\n \u201cI went mainly there for the experience of being in a different culture. My classes in Japanese at Curtin were really beneficial, but nothing can prepare you for being thrown in the deep end, because that\u2019s all part of the experience. I had to keep pinching myself to remind me where I was,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n Although he admits that life can sometimes be difficult because of his disability, he says he has never thought of himself as being unique in battling against the odds.<\/p>\n \u201cEveryone has their own odds, which they have to face. Everyone has their own fight, which they have to battle, whether it\u2019s dealing with a difficult relationship at home or trying to get into university,\u201d says Kooy.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t really think my disability defines who I am. I believe that I\u2019ve broken beyond that and become something quite different.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019re at this stage in life at university where you have the freedom to travel and do things. I think if there\u2019s something you really want to do, just go on and do it.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Master of Names <\/em>is the first book in The World of Lore Chronicles<\/em>.<\/p>\n Buy The Master of Names<\/em><\/a> for Kindle on Amazon today for AUD$2, and make sure you keep up-to-date with the World of Lore blog<\/a> and Facebook page<\/a> for more details.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Curtin student Robert Kooy discusses writing and publishing his own novel, travelling on student exchange to Japan and his experience with cerebral palsy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4275,"featured_media":6330,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":true,"_oasis_is_in_workflow":0,"_oasis_original":0,"_oasis_task_priority":"","_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","wds_primary_category":3,"wds_primary_research-areas":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"research-areas":[],"class_list":["post-6329","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus-and-global-community"],"acf":{"post_options":{"":null,"additional_content":{"title":"","content":"","image":false},"related_courses":[{"title":"Japanese","qualification":"Bachelor of Arts","link":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/study\/offering\/course-ug-japanese-major-ba--mjru-japan\/","description":"With a still widely unknown origin, Japanese is comprised of three different written systems and is spoken by 130 million people around the world.
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