Hairy George

Welcome to the shadowy and not-so-shadowy space behind Sally's books. If you're not familiar with this blog, scroll down to see what it's all about.

 Hairy George (Post 31)

 One of my writing habits is networlding, the process by which elements from one book, or series of books, appear in otherwise unrelated stories. I love networlding and indulge in it whenever I can. I've waited for decades for someone to write to me (or even to ask me in a workshop) how this book and that book are related, but as far as I'm aware no one outside my family has ever noticed the links. 

Regular readers of this blog may remember Post 16, Another Good Friend, in which a teenager named Dominic plays a part in a four-hander about high school kids writing a musical play for their school production. Dominic appears in the sequel, All the Sea Between and also in an otherwise unrelated book called The Magician's Box. Amber, another of the teens, plays roles in Down River, Time Off and Winter Spring Garden. They all crop up under other names in Peri. The musical play the kids write has elements in common with Post 8, Anna's Own and the author who helps with the play had a major role in a book named Out of Time aka Operation EVATrans which was never published. That's just one version of networlding; linking books through characters in such a way that most of the titles are not sequels or even in the same series. Only the most vigilant reader (or completist) would spot all the connecting points. 

Hairy George (2001) was one of those cases, and, as in the game Seven Degrees of Kevin Bacon, this bonsai novel links with Dominic and Amber's reality as well as with Post 13's Three Missing Days and even with another set of books called Blue Gold and Spiral Stairs. Until I wrote this post I had no idea just how tangled the threads were in my networlding.

Hairy George is the story of a sensible boy named Max Drake. Max enjoys indoor habits such as reading and who is mildly addicted to apples. His mother, a free spirit, decides he needs adventure in his life, so she removes him from his comfort zone to take part in a camel trek along with Aunt Jessica. (The inspiration for that came ultimately from my one and only ride on a camel, partaken of at Ulverstone Show.)  Mum and Aunt Jessica get elegant camels named Lasseter (in a nod to Lassiter's Reef) and Stormchild, while our hero Max, a late booking to the camel trek, is mounted on a creature named Hairy George.

George encounters wild camels and makes a run for it. Only quick thinking and a bag of apples gets George and our hero back to civilisation.

The idea of luring George with apples probably originated in stories I was told as a child about my grandmother who used buckets of apples to move reluctant pigs.

So, how does this story networld in with the others I mentioned? Well, the camel trek is run by a company called Case Travel, and the personnel are Juliana Case and her daughter-in-law Lori. They come from the town of Bandinangi. 

Three Missing Days is one of the Bandinangi Books series. 

The Magician's Box is not directly part of that series, but an off-stage character is described as having come from --you guessed it--Bandinangi. 

Dominic from Another Good Friend played a part in The Magician's Box and because he later goes to school with Amber from the Down River series the whole net hooks into place. 

Case Travel, incidentally, features in a story called Serendipity and the narrator of that story plays a part in another other of the Bandinangi Books; One Weird Week. So round we go again.

What's the deal with Bandinangi and why does it keep popping up in different books? Well, after it formed the setting for Three Missing Days with its upside-down page (did I mention that in the relevant blog post? If not, I'll go back and put it in...) it was established in my mind as a place where the slightly-odd might easily happen. I never established why. Maybe it was built over a rift (no... that's Torchwood) , or perhaps there was a bit of odd magic lying about in soil (no... that's Xanth). Maybe it was settled by a lot of slightly-related and magically-talented people. Who knows? However it happened, it remains a useful in-joke for me; if anything weird happens in one of my books, I can always hint that one or more of the characters has connections with Bandinangi. 

Bandinangi is pronounced Band-in-ang-ee, with a hard "G" as in "anger". Yes. Really. And yes, I insist upon that. Why? Because an editor once informed me I was pronouncing one of my character names incorrectly. Considering I made up the name I thought I should know. 

This has been your introduction to the concept of networlding which appears again in a couple of my how-to books which no doubt will form other posts in the coming months.

About the Blog

Sally is Sally Odgers; author, manuscript assessor, editor, anthologist and reader. (Sally is me, by the way, and I am lots of other things too, but these are the relevant ones for now.)

The goal for 2017 is to write a post a day profiling the background behind one of my books; how it came to be written, what it's about, and any things of note that happened along the way. If you're an author, an aspiring author, a reader or just someone who enjoys windows into worlds, you might find this fun. This preamble will be pasted to the top of each post, so feel free to skip it in future.

The books are not in any special order, but will be assigned approximate dates, and pictures, where they exist. 

Drummond

Welcome to the shadowy and not-so-shadowy space behind Sally's books. If you're not familiar with this blog, scroll down to see what it's all about.

 Drummond (Post 30)

 Drummond (1990) was that rare bird; a commissioned novel. It was unusual in more ways than that, too. For one thing is was a large size; similar to an A4 picture book. It also had coloured pictures in the interior. Nevertheless, it wasn't a picture book, but a primary school novel. I don't know or remember the full story (after all, it was 27 years ago) but this is my impression of what happened. A publisher was approached by someone from a toy company who, probably in the wake of the successful Paddington character bear, wanted to create a character bear that didn't spin off from a book, TV series, film or any other similar source. The bear was to be called Drummond, and he was to be dressed in an Edwardian blazer, boater and watch chain. 

Wanting a book to "support" the bear, the toy person (whose name I never knew, so I'll refer to him or her as BEARPERSON) invited a friend to write a story. This story was presented to a publisher. The publisher said the story wasn't in tune with books of the late 20th Century, and offered to find an author to write a new manuscript. This he did; me. I was happy enough to take the commission. I was introduced to the bear (sans costume) whom my kids christened Growly Ted, and given the guidelines; a chapter book to suit primary school readers, about a bear named Drummond. I was told about the costume. Anything else was up to me, except I seem to recall the editor saying there were to be no magic buttons.

To suit the fairly wide age-brief, I took a family of three children; Sarah, who was about eleven, Nicholas, a year or so younger, and their much-younger sister Halley. She was named after Halley's Comet. The children helped an older relative out with a fair held in her house's grounds. While working, Nicholas called loudly for his sister Sarah, and another voice joined in. 

It turned out to be a teddy called Drummond, who was convinced the person being called was his owner, Sarah. What poor old Drummond didn't understand was that he'd been hibernating for many years. He'd come out to Australia on a ship with his Sarah, and because she had no other companion, she'd 'talked him to life'. Now all he wanted was to find her again.

Many adventures later, his quest is successful but Sarah (you've guessed it) is now old...

I handed in the story in good time, and the publisher hired an illustrator. Unfortunately, the deal fell through due to another job the illustrator had. Someone else was chosen, and this one moved house during the job. When all the ducks finally lined up, there was a new hitch; BEARPERSON had either gone out of business or else decided not to proceed with the line of character bears. So, the lucrative (we all hoped) spin-off deal never came to fruition. 

The publisher did bring the book out, though, still bearing all the attributes that were put in place to fit it for the toy-tie-in market. (Large format, colour pictures...) During the editing process, Halley's name was changed to Kate, and most of the specifically-Australian terms were removed, so when a US edition came out, a reviewer claimed it was set in an English seaside village. The inside jacket of this edition claimed that I lived on Tasmania, which was also disconcerting. 

Despite all this, Drummond did pretty well, and the odd copy still shows up on eBay or in the second-hand market. There was one postscript; the rights of publication were sold at some point, and the book subsequently went out of print. A small company called "Drummond Publishing" got in touch, hoping to bring out a new edition, but either whoever held the rights didn't respond or this person changed his mind. I never discovered which.

So, that's Drummond a nostalgic favourite with some readers, so it seems, and an interesting exercise in a slightly different way of producing a book.

ABOUT THE BLOG

Sally is Sally Odgers; author, manuscript assessor, editor, anthologist and reader. (Sally is me, by the way, and I am lots of other things too, but these are the relevant ones for now.)

The goal for 2017 is to write a post a day profiling the background behind one of my books; how it came to be written, what it's about, and any things of note that happened along the way. If you're an author, an aspiring author, a reader or just someone who enjoys windows into worlds, you might find this fun. This preamble will be pasted to the top of each post, so feel free to skip it in future.

The books are not in any special order, but will be assigned approximate dates, and pictures, where they exist. 

Replay

Welcome to the shadowy and not-so-shadowy space behind Sally's books. If you're not familiar with this blog, scroll down to see what it's all about.

 Replay (Post 29)

Replay (2007 / 2017)

It's a strange thing, but I can't remember the first prompting of an idea that led to Replay. The reason it's odd is that this one is one of my favourites. It's one of the most ambitious books I ever wrote, and it spans the longest fictional period.

The story begins in Kent (1067) soon after the Battle of Hastings, and ends (for the reader but not for the characters) in  2309. This is a span of 1242 years and - wait for it - two of the three protagonists are the same characters throughout.

The first chapter (Australian Overture) begins in 2007, which was a year or two after it was written. It is told in the first person by a fourteen-year-old Australian girl named Ellie. She has been ill but is now well, and like many girls, she's devoted to her pet dog. All is not as it appears, because although Ellie is a girl and Harry a schnauzer, they are also husband and wife.

Ellie's story is a long one, spanning more than a thousand years. She recounts it in some detail to her new friend Saranna, with whom she has been abducted and locked in a deserted house. With a captive audience, Ellie tells of her childhood in Kent near the Oakenwood. At this time she was known as Aelfthryth of Westweald, the daughter of a manor, betrothed since babyhood to Hereweald, the heir to the next manor. Now both their fathers have been killed in the Battle of Hastings and so Harry (as she calls him) and Aelfthryth face an uncertain future. Aelfthryth's cousin, her guardian, has plans and they're not good ones. Aelfthryth is locked in her chamber but she escapes to Harry's manor and the pair go to Aelfthryth's old nursemaid for help. Old Nan comes up with a dangerous plan; a Romeo and Juliet scheme that will see them married, and will then free them or leave them dead. Something goes amiss, and the next thing Aelfthryth knows it's 1192 and she's somehow become a girl named Alys. Charged with caring for her employer's new and sickly baby, Alys/Aelfthryth is bemused to find she knows him and loves him; he's her Harry! 

Down the centuries they go, surfacing every few decades under new names and in new places. They never quite know the rules, except that they always recognise one another when they meet, they always communicate through their thoughts, their consciousness never lasts beyond their original ages of fourteen and sixteen, and they are never in sync. In one century Aelfthryth is a parrot, while Harry is a young scholar, in another Harry is a lay brother while Aelfthryth is a shepherdess, and in yet another their families are on opposite sides of a civil war. And so it goes on, until they reach their 21st Century Replay (as they call these periods of awareness) in which Aelfthryth is a schoolgirl and Harry a schnauzer. And now Aelfthryth has been kidnapped, and Harry needs to find her.

So Ellie tells Saranna this story, but she doesn't know Saranna is hiding a secret as well.

As you might guess, I had a wonderful time researching the periods on which I hung episodes of Aelfthryth's story. I always found an anchor for the time and place, (guild riots, Black Death, Wars of the Roses,) even though the young couple weren't necessarily directly involved. I also had a ball finding names and personae for my characters to occupy, and titles for the chapters. These all have musical names, and each chapter is designated as a track. Finding synonyms for the words song and tune took quite a while. The ones I found included lay, melody, calypso, overture, polka, and lullaby.

Working out the intricate timelines, and how Saranna's secret fitted with the main narrative took nearly as long as the writing. So did pondering on what would happen if Harry, in dog form, died of old age while Aelfthryth was still young, and also what happened to their physical forms when their consciousness went into each Replay.

When I finished researching, pondering and writing, I offered the manuscript to a couple of publishers. One never replied, and another liked the story but wanted me to make Harry and Aelfthryth siblings instead of a couple. I considered that and I can see the editor's point of view, but I decided not to make that change because it was such a radical one. Siblings may well share a bond, but a blood bond is permanent and unchosen. I wanted two people who chose to be together and who loved one another on such a level that their current physical shape, status or even species could not destroy the bond.

As 2007 was passing, I didn't want to spoil my timeline by moving all the dates about, so I decided to self-publish Replay before it began to date. This I did, in paperback and PDF. I discovered the title was a problem, because doing a google-search turned up lots of books with this title or a variation of it, but it fits the story so perfectly I left it be. 

This year, 2017, marks the tenth anniversary of my much loved and complicated story-child. While trawling a pre-made cover site I spotted a cover that seemed to capture Harry and Aelfthryth. The period costume isn't really right, as they weren't those ages and forms at that time, and the hair colour isn't right, but the tone and feel is... and so I bought the cover, wrote a new interim chapter set in the 2020s and re-released the book in new paperback and epub editions. If you want to check these out, click on the links.

ABOUT THE BLOG
  

Sally is Sally Odgers; author, manuscript assessor, editor, anthologist and reader. (Sally is me, by the way, and I am lots of other things too, but these are the relevant ones for now.)

The goal for 2017 is to write a post a day profiling the background behind one of my books; how it came to be written, what it's about, and any things of note that happened along the way. If you're an author, an aspiring author, a reader or just someone who enjoys windows into worlds, you might find this fun. This preamble will be pasted to the top of each post, so feel free to skip it in future.

The books are not in any special order, but will be assigned approximate dates, and pictures, where they exist. 

A Basket of Onions

Welcome to the shadowy and not-so-shadowy space behind Sally's books. If you're not familiar with this blog, scroll down to see what it's all about.

A Basket of Onions (Post 28)

A Basket of Onions (2000) is one of a handful of books I wrote under the pseudonym Nicholas Flynn. As with Edward E.B. Cracker (see Post 14 - Selka) I had a good idea of what Nick was like. He was quite a lot younger than me; maybe in his late twenties, and he liked odd or unusual settings. He had dark hair, cut short, and blue eyes. His surname was a nod to my maiden name and our joint Irish ancestry. His first name was to echo the vowel sound in his surname. My original name had an"A" echo. Nick's had a "I/Y" echo.

The story is set in Holland and the narrator, Oom Jan, recalls his boyhood during Tulipmania, a period when Dutch tulip bulbs brought enormous prices and were so prized they attracted crime and hardship. Jan and his sister Sibella had an adventure which led to them transporting valuable bulbs disguised in a basket of onions. This is the story Jan tells his great-niece Lina.

I enjoyed writing A Basket of Onions on several levels. I'm fond of tulips and in fact the very first story I ever remember writing was about a tulip. I grow them, and I was lucky enough to see them massed at the tulip farm some years ago. I'd read something about Tulipmania, possibly in one of those Readers Digest Strange Stories collections. I also have a slight family connection with Holland, as Mum's cousin married a Dutchman, making me quite familiar with the Dutch accent. The adventure genre is based on books by Geoffrey Trease; an author who specialised in historical adventure stories with young teenaged protagonists. I don't think he ever wrote one set in this time and place, but I have always thought it a good way to present a historical period to younger readers.

Like Selka, A Basket of Onions is a bonsai novel; a novel in miniature. It's long out of print, but there are probably some copies kicking about in libraries.

About the Blog

Sally is Sally Odgers; author, manuscript assessor, editor, anthologist and reader. (Sally is me, by the way, and I am lots of other things too, but these are the relevant ones for now.)

The goal for 2017 is to write a post a day profiling the background behind one of my books; how it came to be written, what it's about, and any things of note that happened along the way. If you're an author, an aspiring author, a reader or just someone who enjoys windows into worlds, you might find this fun. This preamble will be pasted to the top of each post, so feel free to skip it in future.

The books are not in any special order, but will be assigned approximate dates, and pictures, where they exist. 

The Case of the Disappearing Dog

Welcome to the shadowy and not-so-shadowy space behind Sally's books. If you're not familiar with this blog, scroll down to see what it's all about.

The Case of the Disappearing Dog (Post 27)

The Case of the Disappearing Dog (2001) originally had another title, but in this case I can't recall it. If I remember, *I'll amend the post. The story of Jilly Randall, her family and the dog they know as OB, short for Old Butterpaws, had its roots in one of those minor mysteries that beset families. We've had a few in our lives, including the disappearance of a sanding block which vanished between its purchase and the (short) car ride home, the loss of a pair of brand new bathers (purple check, if I recall correctly) which disappeared during a (short) walk to the river and never were found. Things that get lost in this fashion are bewildering enough, but what of the things that appear? We acquired at least two towels which weren't ours but which no one else ever claimed, and then there was a smooth wooden implement that looked like a drumstick (my dad played the drums in the 1930s, but it couldn't possibly have been his). The oddity that inspired this book, though was a red rubber ball. It wasn't the usual sort of bouncy plastic ball our kids played with, but was made of solid rubber. It was red, and obviously quite old because it was faded and had a pitted surface. We had no idea where it had come from; it was just there, lying on a garden path, lurking on the lawn, getting tossed or kicked aside from time to time. It hung around for weeks, and then one day it just wasn't there anymore.

The case of the red rubber ball combined in my brain with maths one of the children was studying and (of all things) ranunculi, which I must have been planting in the garden. There was also the clause 'X was always looking for someone to blame'. I can't remember where that came from, but there it was in my mind. These matters came together to give my Jilly Randall and her dog, who tended to cause problems which riled her mum. Then there was a science-fiction-writing landlord. Jilly's troubles increased when a red rubber ball appeared out of nowhere, and when OB vanished, and reappeared without benefit of an open gate. The solution to the mystery involved time-travel, a second person claiming OB as his dog and some fancy footwork from all concerned.

I have liked science fiction for as long as I remember, and I'm also interested in dogs, and in this book I combined those fascinations, as well as my partiality for gardens. I seem to remember planning to write a sequel for this one, but for some reason I never did. The Case of the Disappearing Dog has been out of print for years, but it does sometimes show up on eBay. Its brilliantly-coloured cover means it's difficult to miss.      

* I'm pretty sure the original title was Dimension 4.


About the Blog

Sally is Sally Odgers; author, manuscript assessor, editor, anthologist and reader. (Sally is me, by the way, and I am lots of other things too, but these are the relevant ones for now.) The goal for 2017 is to write a post a day profiling the background behind one of my books; how it came to be written, what it's about, and any things of note that happened along the way. If you're an author, an aspiring author, a reader or just someone who enjoys windows into worlds, you might find this fun. This preamble will be pasted to the top of each post, so feel free to skip it in future. The books are not in any special order, but will be assigned approximate dates, and pictures, where they exist. 

The Astounding Sound

Welcome to the shadowy and not-so-shadowy space behind Sally's books. That's Sally Odgers; author, manuscript assessor, editor, anthologist and reader. (Sally is me, by the way, and I am lots of other things too, but these are the relevant ones for now.)

The goal for 2017 is to write a post a day profiling the background behind one of my books; how it came to be written, what it's about, and any things of note that happened along the way. If you're an author, an aspiring author, a reader or just someone who enjoys windows into worlds, you might find this fun. This preamble will be pasted to the top of each post, so feel free to skip it in future.

The books are not in any special order, but will be assigned approximate dates, and pictures, where they exist. 

The Astounding Sound (Post 26)

The Astounding Sound (1994) is a follow-up to Post 11, The Incredible Smell. It again stars Fritz, the long-nosed dog having a hapless adventure in Platypus Street. Instead of the smell from the first book, Fritz this time is responsible for a loud and sinister sound as he tears along the street howling into the bucket that has hitched itself behind his ears.

Second books in a series often don't have the more elaborate how-they-came-to-be stories behind them, simply because they're often thought up deliberately. I did consider having Fritz involved with Smell, Sight, Sound, Taste and Touch, but when you come to think about it, the other three senses don't work very well in this context (though I could have done a sloppy tongue scaring someone's ankles) so this was Fritz's final outing (well, so far!) Fritz's mad dash down the street was inspired in part by something that happened when I was young. We were bucket-feeding dairy calves and one of them (you guessed it) butted the inside of the bucket so hard in his pursuit of milk that he knocked the handle down... behind his ears. His flight wasn't as dramatic as Fritz's, but there it was, lodged in my memory when I needed a mechanism for Fritz's astounding sound. For some reason the cover picture I have here is black and white. If I find a colour one I'll make the substitution.

The Bunyip Wakes

Welcome to the shadowy and not-so-shadowy space behind Sally's books. That's Sally Odgers; author, manuscript assessor, editor, anthologist and reader. (Sally is me, by the way, and I am lots of other things too, but these are the relevant ones for now.)

The goal for 2017 is to write a post a day profiling the background behind one of my books; how it came to be written, what it's about, and any things of note that happened along the way. If you're an author, an aspiring author, a reader or just someone who enjoys windows into worlds, you might find this fun. This preamble will be pasted to the top of each post, so feel free to skip it in future. The books are not in any special order, but will be assigned approximate dates, and pictures, where they exist.

The Bunyip Wakes (Post 25)

In Post 23, (Bunyips Don't), I mentioned this 1996 picture book wasn't my first venture into Bunyip territory. That was twelve years before when I wrote The Bunyip Wakes (1984). It's a long time ago, and although I can remember some things about writing it, I don't remember why I first decided to write about a bunyip. I do remember doing some research first, ad being confused by the different pictures and descriptions I found. Bunyips, I concluded, are like dragons. One person's vision is utterly different from someone else's.

Fantasy set in Australia has a few difficulties for the writer. Many of the familiar fantasy creations just don't fit our environment. We don't have any four-century-old houses, or ancient tombs. I made three decisions regarding my bunyip. Bear in mind that these decisions were made in 1983, based on what was generally known/believed then. 

1. I decided to capitalise on the brief period of European settlement in Australia instead of letting it be a liability.

2. I decided I wouldn't be tied to anyone else's vision of a bunyip.

3. At school I'd been taught the original inhabitants of Tasmania were not the same, culturally speaking, as the original inhabitants of the mainland states. Therefore, if anyone challenged my vision of the bunyip, I could explain it was a Tasmanian bunyip and thus different from the mainlanders.

A long time ago, the bunyip went into hibernation in a swamp. Decades passed, and the land changed about it. Fast forward to the late 20th Century, and Adam Penrose's dad decides to dig a dam on his sheep property. All the noise and vibration wakes the bunyip, who surfaces and finds itself in a strange world.

Young Adam meets and befriends the bunyip and, when it discovers its old world is gone, he agrees to help it get up to speed with life in the 1980s. Comic adventures ensue, culminating in the appearance of another bunyip.

The oddest thing about The Bunyip Wakes, I think, is the cover. The bunyip is described in the text as somebody who can be (and is) mistaken for a human in a wet suit. Ahem.  Add an illustration showing an indubitable koala up a gum tree, (thus proving the setting cannot be the real Tasmania) and the plot thickens. Conventional wisdom in the 2000-teens say the role of book covers is to attract readers, and not necessarily to reflect the actual content of the book. I think this interpretation came about at some point in the later 1990s, because that, as I recall, is when book covers changed to incorporate computer-generated and manipulated stock images. I might be wrong there, but that's my impression. The cover art for The Bunyip Wakes isn't a stock image, but it does fit the bill of being more about attracting readers and less about being specific to the story. Perhaps in this area it was ahead of its time.   

Glory Gate

Welcome to the shadowy and not-so-shadowy space behind Sally's books. That's Sally Odgers; author, manuscript assessor, editor, anthologist and reader. (Sally is me, by the way, and I am lots of other things too, but these are the relevant ones for now.)

The goal for 2017 is to write a post a day profiling the background behind one of my books; how it came to be written, what it's about, and any things of note that happened along the way. If you're an author, an aspiring author, a reader or just someone who enjoys windows into worlds, you might find this fun. This preamble will be pasted to the top of each post, so feel free to skip it in future.

The books are not in any special order, but will be assigned approximate dates, and pictures, where they exist. 

Glory Gate (Post 24)

Glory Gate (2001) began with a sunset. It was one of a handful of books (see Post 20 for another of them) where the idea just popped into my mind. I was walking along our road when I saw the sunset. As I'd thought now and then before, (and since) the sunset sky looked like another world. On that evening I wondered how one would get to that world. Glory gate, said my mind, or my subconscious or some universal author-botherer. Grand title, I thought, so I wrote a book to match it.

Glory Gate is one of my rare political stories. I'm not sure how that came about because I'm generally not interested in politics, except in so far as decisions made in political offices may have effects on people down the line; and they can be effects not even the decision-makers thought about. The story is also a science fiction adventure, because I love writing science fiction. The hero, Gavven, lives a comfortable existence with his family, and his school friends. He knows some of the adults are not too happy about the way things are run, but most people are quite pleased. The ruling party, after all, stepped in to bring peace out of chaos, and it has worked. It's a kind of benevolent and paternalistic dictatorship, with brown-shirted governors on hand to help out, to organise and to educate. Some of the stuff being taught at school is gently redirected, a teacher, involuntarily retired, and the brown shirts (and this was long before Firefly!) explain how some changes have to be made for the sake of peace. 

Everyone's house must be painted. The brown shirts provide the paint and other materials. Gavven's dad is not too pleased. 

In the manuscript, the houses had to be painted pink. I had two reasons for this; we used to pass a pink house sometimes and it always stuck out as an odd colour for a building, and I'd read that pink is a softening, pacifying colour. The (American) editor insisted this colour must be changed to lavender. I was surprised, because, hey, I like lavender, and if I saw a lavender house I'd think it looked good, not odd. I respectfully asked why, and the editor informed me that in one part of the US a lot of houses are painted pink... and so readers from that area wouldn't find pink unusual and might in fact be offended if my characters did.

Okay. Lavender it was. Mustn't offend the readers who live in pink houses. (Actually I like pink. I just think it's an odd colour for a house.)

After the great house painting, the brown shirts came up with something else. Gavven's friend Jamal and his sister Indiri were sent to a different school because, explained the brown shirts, it was differences in belief and culture that caused wars. Therefore, keeping cultures apart was the best way to peace. Gavven soon finds Jamal won't associate with him even outside school. He's been gently and oh-so-thoroughly brainwashed.

The next move comes when the brown shirts take away Gavven's much-loved little sister, Sudeshi, because she is adopted. The only concession is that she will be brought up by Jamal and Indiri's family, whom she already knows.

Enter the Glory Gate. This is a method of space travel, developed locally. The brown shirts now use the Gate to send each cultural group to a different planet, where each will be effectively stranded. They will have everything they need, but will be locked away from other cultures forever. Gavven and his parents are desperate to get Sudeshi back, and Gavven discovers his father, and his old teacher, are working on a solution. They have their own Glory Gate and have decided to relocate with a group of cross-cultural friends and mixed families. They're working against the clock, and at the last minute, Gavven enlists the help of Jamal's sister Indiri to get his sister back. The resistance group goes through the Glory Gate, which has been randomised. They have no idea where they'll be, but they will at least be free of the well-meaning brown shirts.

It's years since I reread this story, but I did enjoy writing it. It's not particularly long, but it did have enough room for world-building, which has always been one of my favourite pastimes. It's probably out of print by now, but I sometimes see copies on eBay.  So - from a sunset to political science fiction, eh? The places our minds go to get ideas!

Bunyips Don't!

Welcome to the shadowy and not-so-shadowy space behind Sally's books. That's Sally Odgers; author, manuscript assessor, editor, anthologist and reader. (Sally is me, by the way, and I am lots of other things too, but these are the relevant ones for now.)

The goal for 2017 is to write a post a day profiling the background behind one of my books; how it came to be written, what it's about, and any things of note that happened along the way. If you're an author, an aspiring author, a reader or just someone who enjoys windows into worlds, you might find this fun. This preamble will be pasted to the top of each post, so feel free to skip it in future. The books are not in any special order, but will be assigned approximate dates, and pictures, where they exist. 

Bunyips Don't! (Post 23)

Bunyips Don't! (1996) wasn't my first bunyip book; in fact, it is one of four. Way, way back in the 1990s, I was one of the authors who contributed to Lucky Magazine. We used to be given themes, and we'd write stories of around 700 words to fit the theme. The editor(s) would then pick one to put in the magazine. One issue, the theme we were given was birthday parties. I wasn't too inspired by that, as a birthday party, like a boat trip (which is a tale for another post) is something that has great potential for fun in real life, but less so for stories. I think reading about a party bears the same resemblance to watching someone play Scrabble. It's fun to do, but not much of a spectator sport. Nevertheless, I always liked a writing challenge, so I cast my mind about for something that would make a birthday party interesting. Bingo! I remembered the birthday parties my sister and friends and I used to hold for our pets when we were young. On one occasion, I asked Mum if I could have some ingredients to make a cake for my cat, and she said I could have a pound of mince and some flour. I went to the fridge and appropriated the package of mince and a jar of flour. It later devolved that I'd actually picked the two-pound pack of mince (I just knew a pound was "a lot") and the icing sugar but you can't have everything, eh? Not to worry, the cat enjoyed it, and it may have inspired my lifelong habit of messing with recipes.

I thought about writing about a cat's party, but then wondered about other animals and somehow arrived at the notion of using a bunyip. After all, I'd written about bunyips before. I wondered how a bunyip might celebrate a birthday and concluded that the grouchy elder bunyips wouldn't. Thus Bunyip's Don't! was born.

Young Bunyip is a kind of apprentice or mentee to Old Bunyip, a grumpy old brute who is teaching him the ways of the bunyip. Young Bunyip is a happy soul, who sees beauty in the sunshine, hears music from the wattlebirds and loves to watch brolgas dancing. Every time he initiates something he loves, Old Bunyip insults him (Bark Brain, Hammer Nose) and tells him Bunyips Don't. Finally, Young Bunyip sees some children enjoying a bush birthday party and tells his mentor he supposes Bunyips don't have birthday parties either... Old Bunyip, satisfied that he's taught Young Bunyip to behave, leaves to live alone in contented grouchiness... and Young Bunyip goes back to the party (where the children assure him everyone has birthdays) and so he concludes Old Bunyip was wrong about that. He decides to hold his own party the next week. He also has the gladsome thought that is Old Bunyip was wrong about birthdays, he was probably wrong about everything else, too!

It's a simple story, and I was pleased with the way it came out, so I sent it to the editor of the magazine. The editor telephoned me some time later. I was flabbergasted, as editors just DON'T. He told me he didn't want to use Bunyips Don't in Lucky. I said, okay... but I was puzzled. Normally, editors send a rejection letter or simply choose a different story. Then he said... but he'd like it for a picture book text and did I mind?

I didn't. 

Bunyips Don't! was illustrated with a mix of shadowy and sun-sparkling images, which included a host of creatures, including one little fellow I couldn't identify. When I was lucky enough to meet the illustrator, I asked him what it was. He said it was lust a little critter, so I informed him it was henceforth to be known as 'The Gamble' after him. 

Bunyips Don't! was a great crowd-pleaser at schools and libraries, and it's been read on YouTube and also performed more than once as a play (see here for a link) 

It came out in a few different editions and, like Dreadful David (see Post 4) it seemed set to go on forever. It even came out as a Classic! However, that was its last burst, apparently, because not long after someone asked me where she could get a copy. I said, as usual, "ask at any bookshop and if they don't have it they can order it..." but it soon devolved they couldn't, because it had slipped out of print. It's still hanging in there in public libraries, school libraries, and family collections and now and again a copy pops up for sale on eBay.

Bunyips Don't... but sometimes, they do! 

Powderflash aka Gold's Bride

 Welcome to the shadowy and not-so-shadowy space behind Sally's books. That's Sally Odgers; author, manuscript assessor, editor, anthologist and reader. (Sally is me, by the way, and I am lots of other things too, but these are the relevant ones for now.)

The goal for 2017 is to write a post a day profiling the background behind one of my books; how it came to be written, what it's about, and any things of note that happened along the way. If you're an author, an aspiring author, a reader or just someone who enjoys windows into worlds, you might find this fun. This preamble will be pasted to the top of each post, so feel free to skip it in future.

The books are not in any special order, but will be assigned approximate dates, and pictures, where they exist.


Powderflash / Gold's Bride Post 22

Powderflash (1999) was one of my first ebooks, published as a --wait for it -- small-format floppy disk. After it went out of print, it was published as a paperback and more modern ebook in 2005 as Gold's Bride . This edition is still in print as far as I know. Certainly, it still shows up on all sorts of websites. I find this odd for all sorts of reasons, none of which I'll go into here.

This is the story of Garnet Perry, a girl whose stepmother and stepsister don't especially want her around.  A marriage is arranged with a distant relative of her stepmother, and she sets of to the colonies. Upon arrival she's dismayed to find her husband-to-be is older, drunker, and more unpleasant than any young woman should have to put up with, and is in possession of a spectacularly horrid old mother who is determined for her son to have an heir. Neither Garnet or her husband finds that idea enticing, so enter a man servant whom Garnet doesn't like either. Old Mother comes to a bad end, and her son, who never wanted a wife in the first place, sets up an auction with Garnet as the merchandise. She's purchased by Jeremiah Gold, who is half Jew and half convict and thus doesn't particularly fit into society. He has a land grant, and wants a wife, so he pays his money and takes his chance. Garnet, whose bad temper won her the nickname "Powderflash" in childhood is not pleased. Neither is she pleased to find she's supposed to work. She escapes. Bushrangers, a fire, attempted murder, and a spell in a house of ill fame (complete with a hot teapot) ensue.

Powderflash aka Gold's Bride is as ripe a melodrama as I ever wrote, as you may have guessed from the description of some of the action. I was thus delighted (if bemused) when a reader in the US reviewed it as being "somewhat more realistic than most romances" (or something similar). It was a good favourable review but I did wonder what impression my lovely reader had of we downunderites! Other readers also enjoyed it, though they didn't mention the realism angle.

On the other hand, the book also had the most scathing review of any I have ever had, or possibly ever seen. To add to my dismay it was reviewed not once but twice (once under each incarnation) by the same reviewer. Evidently, she disliked it so heartily she went to the trouble of seeking it out again and printing the review again to make sure I got the point. All I can say is - OUCH.

One more thing makes Powderflash / Gold's Bride unusual among my novels. As you may see from the covers of the two editions, the two publishers had very different notions of how my 19th Century heroine would look. I am fond of the first cover. It depicts a scene from the story, and Garnet is dressed in costume and hair style of the right period. The second cover is also attractive, but to my mind Garnet looks like a modern woman. As for the thing in the background; I am told that's a prairie schooner, which, as far as I know, is something that never existed in Australia.  This aside, I'm interested to see how different the two impressions are. Which, oh reader, do you like best?

Wilderness

Welcome to the shadowy and not-so-shadowy space behind Sally's books. That's Sally Odgers; author, manuscript assessor, editor, anthologist and reader. (Sally is me, by the way, and I am lots of other things too, but these are the relevant ones for now.)

The goal for 2017 is to write a post a day profiling the background behind one of my books; how it came to be written, what it's about, and any things of note that happened along the way. If you're an author, an aspiring author, a reader or just someone who enjoys windows into worlds, you might find this fun. This preamble will be pasted to the top of each post, so feel free to skip it in future.

The books are not in any special order, but will be assigned approximate dates, and pictures, where they exist. 

Wilderness (Post 21)

Wilderness (2008) is the story of Miriam Moses who is running for her life. In remission from cancer, Miriam is beset by her anxious aunt but with no idea how long her reprieve will last, she decides to do something interesting with her life. She's going to run Australia from toe to top. Harry mercury, of Mercury Shoes is her sponsor, and although he's in it for the publicity, he finds himself intrigued by Miriam's will and personality. She is supposed to let him know when she needs a fresh pair of shoes, but she hardly expects Harry to arrive to fit them personally.

As Miriam runs, she slips in and out of stories belonging to other people, all facing dilemmas or seemingly hopeless situations. Their encounters with "the running girl" have profound effects on all of them. 

I wrote Wilderness in a four-day burst while staying with an author friend in Sydney. It allowed me to weave in lots of places I'd been, and to play with lots of themes, ideas and arguments. It's a favourite of mine. It was available in epub and paperback but these days I think it exists only in the Kindle edition bookmarked in the link above.

I named the novella Wilderness because wilderness is its major theme. Miriam runs through a physical wilderness and a wilderness of the spirit. Many of the people she encounters face their own personal wilderness and some of it is deadly. I still think this the perfect title for this book, but it is not the best title for finding in a google-search. 

As with many books of this century, technology has done uncomfortable things to the plot. No longer do mobile phones behave quite the way Miriam's does. All I can say is the mobile phone I had while writing this story did. 

Ramses Rat and the Great Cat Bastet

BUY ME

Welcome to the shadowy and not-so-shadowy space behind Sally's books. That's Sally Odgers; author, manuscript assessor, editor, anthologist and reader. (Sally is me, by the way, and I am lots of other things too, but these are the relevant ones for now.)

The goal for 2017 is to write a post a day profiling the background behind one of my books; how it came to be written, what it's about, and any things of note that happened along the way. If you're an author, an aspiring author, a reader or just someone who enjoys windows into worlds, you might find this fun. This preamble will be pasted to the top of each post, so feel free to skip it in future.

 The books are not in any special order, but will be assigned approximate dates, and pictures, where they exist.

Ramses Rat and the Great Cat Bastet (Post 20)

Ramses Rat and the Great Cat Bastet (2015) scurried into my life a few years ago, squeaking excitedly and informing me he was Indiana Jones... sort of. I told him he wasn't because he didn't have a hat. He just looked at me and said, in the most sarcastic squeak ever- "Lady, I'm a rat. Why would I want a hat?"

Okay, so it didn't quite happen like that, but Ramses did pop into my mind fully-fledged one day. We were driving into town to do some shopping when his name arrived by express from somewhere in the depths of my brain. As soon as my husband parked the car, I nipped into a newsagent and bought a small pad and pencil to write it down. A few days later, I wrote the first story.

Ramses is a rat, living in ancient Egypt. As with any self-respecting rat, he is clean, intelligent, adventurous and curious. He is dedicated to the search for food, but he wants more than that; he wants his place in the world. Having been born in a VIP (Very Important Pyramid) gives Ramses a high opinion of himself, so when he goes to find his fortunes in a city, he heads for the temple.

Here, he befriends old Ka, an ancient rat living by the Nile, makes the acquaintance of Tau, the young scribe, rouses the enmity of The Rats of the Nile, and has a truly whisker-shaking encounter with Bastet, the Great Cat, who threatens to eat him. Impressed by his courage and quick-thinking, Bastet grants him the boon of human speech for as long as he is within the temple. This allows Ramses to make friends with young Tau, who undertakes to write down his adventures.

As well as being an adventure story, I wanted Ramses's world to be as accurate as possible. He explains terms in his glossary, using information from Tau as well as his own keen observation.
I already knew quite a lot about Ancient Egypt owing to a childhood fascination with the Greek, Roman and Norse pantheons and later interest in books by Elizabeth Peters, Eloise Jarvis, and various gee-whiz publications on mummies, pyramids and tombs. I also knew quite a lot about rats, as we used to keep them as pets. Much of Ramses's expressed opinion and philosophy comes directly from my experience with these pets.

I wanted illustrations for Ramses, so I hired a few illustrators to do me character sketches. Most failed to get Ramses's character right; he would look too servile, or too humanised. Finally I found someone who drew cartoon-like illustrations which I thought caught the personalities of the characters. You can see Tau with Ramses on the mug on the left of this picture.

I also hired a musician to write me a theme tune for Ramses. You can hear that by going to THIS SITE and clicking on the sound link at the top.
Ramses Rat and the Great Cat Bastet is available as a paperback, ebook and audio book (though I haven't worked out how to distribute this yet!) and his image appears on mugs and tee-shirts.

A new Ramses story, Ramses Rat and the Guardian of the Crown is in the works as of January 2017. To buy Ramses in paperback or ebook, click on the BUY ME link under the cover picture, or go to
HERE.
To order a tee-shirt or a mug, write to me at sodgers(AT)iinet.net.au

Summer Magic

Welcome to the shadowy and not-so-shadowy space behind Sally's books. That's Sally Odgers; author, manuscript assessor, editor, anthologist and reader. (Sally is me, by the way, and I am lots of other things too, but these are the relevant ones for now.)

The goal for 2017 is to write a post a day profiling the background behind one of my books; how it came to be written, what it's about, and any things of note that happened along the way. If you're an author, an aspiring author, a reader or just someone who enjoys windows into worlds, you might find this fun. This preamble will be pasted to the top of each post, so feel free to skip it in future.

The books are not in any special order, but will be assigned approximate dates, and pictures, where they exist. 

Summer Magic Post 19

Summer Magic, (1992) began as a fantasy picture book text about Grandma, who, feeling the need for a hobby, took up swimming. She swam a lot. In fact, she swam such a lot she turned into a mermaid, somewhat to Grandpa's dismay. An editor liked the central theme of an older person being active and enthusiastic, but wasn't so keen on the fantasy aspect. He asked if I'd rewrite the text, keeping Grandma's ebullient nature but bringing it more into the realm of possibility. After some thought, I did change the story. 

Grandma is feeling a bit flat and bored with life, so, with the support of her grandchildren, especially the youngest, Annie, she takes up a string of hobbies. In each case, she proves a quick learner and gets accomplished quickly. She wins a bicycle race, has an exhibition of painting, and is asked to take over teaching the cooking class she attends. Grandma is thrilled and the grandchildren are pleased and proud, but after a while she realises she's missing out on a lot because her hobbies take up nearly all her time. For example, she can't go to the children's swimming carnivals because she has an exhibition. The obvious thing is to become a full-time grandma again, but she can't go back. Finally, Annie suggests she might continue with all her activities but incorporate them in her normal life. So, Grandma cooks up a storm, and they all ride their bikes to the park.

The theme is moderation and enjoying activities instead of letting them take over your life.

There are three odd things about Summer Magic. One is that the main character is a woman in her sixties. You do get some picture books with focus on older characters, but it isn't common. Another is the cover picture which unluckily just preceded the helmet law in Australia. Oops.  The third is of course the title, which, amid many of my titles which were changed during publication, somehow stayed the same. Grandma's magic summer originally contained scales and a tail. In the published version it's about painting, cycling and cooking! Oops.  

Dog Den Mystery (Jack Russell: Dog Detective #1)

Welcome to the shadowy and not-so-shadowy space behind Sally's books. That's Sally Odgers; author, manuscript assessor, editor, anthologist and reader. (Sally is me, by the way, and I am lots of other things too, but these are the relevant ones for now.)

The goal for 2017 is to write a post a day profiling the background behind one of my books; how it came to be written, what it's about, and any things of note that happened along the way. If you're an author, an aspiring author, a reader or just someone who enjoys windows into worlds, you might find this fun. This preamble will be pasted to the top of each post, so feel free to skip it in future.

The books are not in any special order, but will be assigned approximate dates, and pictures, where they exist.

Dog Den Mystery (Jack Russell: Dog Detective #1) Post 18

Jack Russell: Dog Detective was born from a remark my husband Darrel made when we were out walking our dogs, Ace and Tess sometime in 2004. The first book, Dog Den Mystery, came out in 2005.

Tess was an odd little black and white dog, a rather fey Jack Russell. Ace was younger, a Jack Russell of great character and inventiveness. When we were walking, Tess simply trotted straight ahead, but Ace used to peer around all over the place, including up int the trees. My husband said, "She's a real little detective". We started talking about how a dog detective would function, and by the time we finished our walk we'd worked out a whole scenario for a children's book series.

We decided to make the main character and narrator a Jack Russell, modelled on our Ace. Because we wanted to use puns and jokes centred on the name, we made our hero male, and named him Jack. We decided he would belong to a policeman, from whom he'd have picked up information about how to run an investigation. Jack's owner, or landlord, as Jack styles him, is named Sergeant Russell, known familiarly as "Sarge". Thus Jack's name is Jack Russell as well as him being one. Jack is smart, confident, inventive and curious, just like our Ace. 

We filled out the character portfolio with Auntie Tidge, Miss Russell, who is Sarge's aunt. She is loving and provides a softening influence on Sarge and Jack. It is Auntie Tidge who adopts the cranky street dog Foxie, who is the subject of Jack's first case in Doggeroo, the country town to which Sarge is transferred in the beginning of the book. Foxie was modelled on Tess. Two more characters who play a large part in proceedings are Caterina Smith, a local woman who makes friends with Sarge and her pedigreed setter, known as Lord Red. Red is a feather-brained aristocrat, but he proves a loyal friend. More characters join the cast as the series progresses.

We had a few firm ideas for the series. 

One was that would be no major child character. This decision was made because we needed Jack to be the point of view character, and the one with whom young readers would associate themselves. 

Then, Jack and his friends would investigate only crimes or mysteries that would be in legitimate interest to dogs. 

Jack and his friends would have dog capabilities. They would speak among themselves, but their communication with humans would be limited to what real dogs can do. 

The fourth decision was that the stories would be set a few decades in our past. Jack, being a dog, would have no concept of dates, or map references, or money. Therefore the decade is not important. What is important, although it's never started explicitly in any of the books, is that Jack cannot live in a world of compulsory microchips, strict dog control laws or high volume traffic. This is not the remote past; Dog Control Officer "Ranger Jack" does disapprove of dogs running riot, but he's more likely to take them back to their owners than to put them in the pound. Sarge does shut Jack in his yard, but he's not too fussed if Jack gets out and trots off down to the river in search of clues. Caterina Smith does get ruffled when Lord Red disappears through the tunnel under the fence, and barely a book goes by without her indignant cried of "Lordie, Lordddddieeee!" ringing through Doggaroo. We never consciously decided on a decade; it's sufficient to say Sarge drives a car, Jack knows all about terrier-phones (as he calls them) and trains, but mobiles, laptops and GPS simply don't exist in Doggeroo.

Jack follows up clues, formulates theories, and manoeuvres his friends into acting as his back-up squad. He tells his story to readers in a straight-forward manner, but employs Jack-Talk, which includes dog puns, (especially terrier puns) and Jack's Facts. He makes nose maps, and often gets distracted by the idea of treats, rabbits, or Fat Molly the cat from the library.

In this first book, Jack is around two years old; a young adult dog. Sarge is a bachelor who is probably in his thirties, while Auntie Tidge is middle-aged.

We wrote up a proposal for the series and four months later it was picked up by an editor, who commissioned us to write the first four books.

Book #1, Dog Den Mystery was popular from the start with young readers, and also appealed to adult dog lovers and parents, teachers and librarians, many of whom credit Jack and his friends with bringing reading enjoyment to previously uninterested readers. He is also credited by many of our correspondents with giving young readers an impression or animals as beings with real feelings, real intelligence and their own codes of behaviour and expectation.

It was published overseas in the UK, US, and Canada, and went into French and audio editions. The illustrator, commissioned by the publisher, provided a public face for Jack and his mates and her pictures form a great part of his appeal. The UK edition is called Dognapped which has confused a few readers, and has a cartoon cover rather than the photographic cover on the other editions.

If you want to know more about this series, check out http://www.jackrusselldogdetective.com