Tropical Dreams is a fantasy set in Queensland. I can't find a copy of the cover, but if I ever do, I'll put it up. This is the story of the Santacaterina family; Kim, who is fifteen, Hal, thirteen or so, and Junee, who is ten. They have just moved to Frangipani to live in Dad's dream house, bought with his redundancy money. Dad now works part time as a groundsman, Mum is a book illustrator and Gran lives next door in the granny flat. The kids have issues; Mum thinks everything needs to be done by hand, Dad preaches responsibility and consequences, and Gran wears cardigans and pearls. These are parents who never forbid anything outright, but who reason, explain and suggest until Kim and co find themselves obeying just to make it stop.
When the story opens, the three kids are unexpectedly in charge of three toddlers... Mum, Dad and Gran. In flashback, we find out the regression began on Tuesday, when Mum, Dad and Gran started acting like teenagers. On Wednesday, they were little kids, and now they're babies. Suddenly tossed into a responsible caretaker role, Kim, Hal and Junee are at their wits' end! How did this happen? Was it Mum's interest in hypnosis and regression? Gran's aloe vera? Dad's idea of a joke?
I borrowed the surname from a teacher at the Distance Ed camp I attended. Junee is named after the town in NSW.
ABOUT THE BLOG
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 was 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. 2017 is now behind us, but I ran out of year before running out of books, so the blog will continue for at least the next month or so.
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