The Anti-Tourist

The Anti-Tourist 2003 Post 325

The Anti-Tourist  is a dual-first-person story, told by Eddy and Adamina, whose sisters Zann and Keira are epals. 

Zann, living in Townsville, envies Melbourne-dwelling Keira her frequent holidays (including skiing) and feels she can't compete. She may live in Tropical Far North Queensland where tourists abound, but she and her family never actually do any of the touristy things.  Eddy suggests telling Keira about the activities (visiting Magnetic Island, glass-bottomed boating etc) without actually saying she does them herself. This works for a while, but then Keira starts getting envious. Abetted by their elder siblings, the epal emails continue, but Eddy persuades Zann (whom he categorises as having about forty teeth when she's grumpy) and the rest of the family to actually do some of the (free or cheap) activities in their area. Zann might still snarl about tourists (she's an anti-tourist because they clutter up her stamping ground) but at least she's finally reaping the benefits of her part of the world.
After the epal-ship dies out, Eddy and Adamina take it upon themselves to make contact... and their e-friendship begins.
This story has dated, due to the electronics used... desk-top computer, scanner, camera etc, but the other-side-of-the-fence and the take-advantage-of-what-you-have themes still work.

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Sally is Sally Odgers; author, manuscript assessor, editor, anthologist and reader. She runs http://www.affordablemanuscriptassessments.com and Prints Charming Books. (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. The books are not in any special order, but will be assigned approximate dates, and pictures, where they exist. If you enjoyed a post, or want to ask about any of my books or my manuscript assessment service, leave a comment.