When Glen finds himself in a surreal version of the Outback, he finally meets Clio in the flesh.
He saw just the pink of a hopeful sunrise. Just the sight of
a teenaged girl, tending a miniature garden.
She was wearing jeans, and some kind of filmy shirt
that covered her (technically) from throat to wrists. He could see the shadowy
curves of her arms and shoulders as if through gauze. A wide brimmed hat hid
her hair, and she was working with concentration. She had a small gardening
fork in her hand; Glen could hear the very faint crunch of the tines as she
worked it through the soil.
She might be a ghost, or a might have been, or someone else's memory, but to him, she's real and to Clio this is the only world there is. Clio is sweet and compliant at first, as befits a boy's daydream. Then, as Glen comes to love her as a person rather than a dream, her personality strengthens and sharpens and she reveals a mind and opinions of her own. Unfortunately, to keep her and the life he's built with her, he would have to remain in the Outback, and there's someone else with a better claim to the strange second-chance at life; Glen's great-uncle Arthur, who died at Gallipoli.
Loving Clio represents manhood to Glen. To leave her, he has to be a man.
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. As of February 18th 2018 I STILL haven't run out of books, but many of those still to come are MIA by which I mean I don't have copies and remember little about them. There are more new books to come, and I'll certainly showcase those, but in between times, I'm profiling some of my characters, just for a change. Thank you so much to everyone who's come along on this journey so far!
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. As of February 18th 2018 I STILL haven't run out of books, but many of those still to come are MIA by which I mean I don't have copies and remember little about them. There are more new books to come, and I'll certainly showcase those, but in between times, I'm profiling some of my characters, just for a change. Thank you so much to everyone who's come along on this journey so far!
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