Tracy Farrier 'The Evil Stepmother'

Today I have started a couple of new chapter and have found that the character who plays Toby's mum isn't the wicked stepmother I'd planned her to be. Toby has enough enemies in the manuscriot and this character wouldn't let me paint her as evil. I have pasted my character sheet on Tracy below.

Tracy has never got over giving Toby up and has carried the guilt inside her for years. She spent her mid teens and twenties modelling for David Jones Melbourne to help her through University.

Her friend Michelle had married tall and handsome truck mechanic Darren Farrier and they’d drifted apart for a few years after Darren bought the family tucking business from Michelle’s mother’s estate. After Toby was born Michelle contracted the same disease her mother had, Breast Cancer. After a brave fight she too succumbed and Darren was left to look after the baby. He contacted Tracey about taking care of the book work and managed as he could with a baby seat in the truck and the two of them travelled Australia carting stock.

Arthur had his hands full with Lois and her decline during this time but they took Toby when they could. This gave Darren a much needed break and soon he and Tracy became more than friends. Five years after Toby was born Tracy became his step mum. The relationship was strong and they adored each other, only after Toby began school did the trouble start.

NAME:                                               : Tracy Farrier

Position in story:                                 : Secondary

Age:	37
Nationality:	Australian
Socioeconomic level as a child:	Secure
Socioeconomic level as an adult:	Well Off
Hometown:	Kyneton
Current residence:	Kyneton
Occupation:	Mother – Business Partner – Accountant was a catwalk model when younger
Income:	High Earners
Talents/skills:	Multi Tasker very capable mother keeps the business on solid financial footing.
Salary:	Draws a salary of 65,000 per annum Darren has a similar drawing
Relationships:	Married to Toby’s father Darren
Birth order:	Third of four girls
Siblings (describe relationship):
Spouse/partner (describe relationship):	Darren total commitment to each other, she is his second wife after Toby’s mum died. Both women were friends
Children (describe relationship):	Toby estranged. Adele and Jasmine
Parents (describe relationship):
Grandparents (describe relationship):
Grandchildren (describe relationship):
Significant others (describe relationship):
Relationship skills:	Peace maker, doesn’t mind a fight but will find a common purpose to end conflict. Good negotiator
Physical Characteristics
Height:	160cm
Weight:	56 kg
Race:	Caucasian / English descent
Eye Color:	Green
Hair Color:	Blonde from the bottle tends to change it twice a year
Glasses or contact lenses?	Glasses to read
Skin color:	Fair skinned but will tan easily. Uses fake tan for special occasions
Shape of face:	Angular with high cheekbones, her nose is straight with a bit off a turn up.
Distinguishing features:	There is a dimple /crease in her chin.
How does he/she dress?	Her dress is elegant and expensive. ‘She could wear a bag and make it look good’ was Darren’s claim
Mannerisms:	She tilts her head and screws her nose up when considering her next move
Habits: (smoking, drinking/drugs/addictions etc.)	Nil likes good wine but never in excess
Any physical illnesses?	None
Health:	Very good goes to the gym five days a week
Hobbies:	She likes to ride and does eventing and show jumping
Favourite sayings:
Speech patterns:	Her speech is trained and no strine in her voice although she will “go all outback” if the need arises
Disabilities:	None
Style (Elegant, shabby etc.):	Elegant
Greatest flaw:	She lacks self confidence and although successful her fear of failure drives her toward her goals. Tracy never lived up to the expectations her parents put on her. They thought modelling was for Bimbos and accounts couldn’t make it into medicine.
Best quality:	She is empathetic and kind. Which is how she came to marry Darren, she helped him through the dark times after his first wife died of breast cancer. She spends a lot of time working for the Jane McGrath Foundation
Personality Attributes and Attitudes
Educational Background:	Melbourne Uni
Intelligence Level:	Very high
Any Mental Illnesses?	None
Learning Experiences:	Plenty, losing her friend and Toby’s mum hurt and giving Toby up has left a stain on her self esteem.
Character's short-term goals in life:	Be a good wife and mother
Character's long-term goals in life:	Keep the business successful make their marriage happy till death do they part.
How does Character see himself/herself?	As keeping up a charade of confidence and strength
How does Character believe he/she is perceived by others?	As one tough cookie
How self-confident is the character?	She fakes it till she makes it.
Does the character seem ruled by emotion or logic or some combination thereof?	She would love to let emotion in but only Darren knows how fragile she can be.
What would most embarrass this character	Failure in her part as wife and mother, losing Toby is her greatest regret and considers it their biggest failure. He didn’t deserve what they did to him
Spiritual Characteristics
Does the character believe in God?	Would love to but is too pragmatic. She admires her sisters and mother’s complete devotion to the Catholic faith but too many things tell her it’s all bunk.
What are the character's spiritual beliefs?	She doesn’t know
Is religion or spirituality a part of this character's life?	No
If so, what role does it play?

 

 

Missing Ben

It's been just thirty one years today
at two o'clock you closed your eyes
an angel's arms then lifted you
for in this matter, I had no say

A lot has happened since time
Some good, some bad, some hard
but no a day goes past my son
I forget you in my rhyme

I think of all the stuff you'd do
with family near and far
would you have a wife and kids
or be a keeper in a zoo

I get a little choked up too when
I see your friends now all grown
With children running round
and so I've put paper neath my pen

I've seen a million changes
and done some stupid things
I've written lots of words to you
and told of you to strangers

It's been just thirty one years today
at two o'clock you closed your eyes
an angel's arms then lifted you
for in this matter, I had no say

Kundela on Kindle is $0.99 from after Midnight Valentines Day until Friday 21/2/2014

About six weeks ago I tried to organise a Kindle promotion price for my novel KUNDELA as an e-book through Amazon's Kindle Books. Being new to publishing with their format I made a couple of mistakes and when I posted on Facebook and other platforms that the book was available for ninety nine cents, it didn't work that way.

To make up for misleading everyone I have manually adjusted the price to $US 0.99 as of midnight Australian Eastern Time 14/2/2014 and will leave this pricing in place for seven days.

Please advise your friends and fellow readers so they can take advantage of the pricing. Hard copies are priced at $32.95 including postage and are available by e-mailing; kundela@bigpond.com

I am sorry for any inconvenience caused and hope this initiative helps.

Terry

When Satan Took the Wheel.

This is the first rough draft of a set of verses that popped into my head while I was waiting for my wife at the supermarket. I wrote the lines in a journal before I lost them altogether. I'm told that other writers musicians and poets keep something handy to record their ideas and  until now I always maintained I'd remember it, not so. By writing these things down you are able to conjure up the inspiration of that moment, and begin where you left off.

I would like to challenge anyone whose interested to play around with it and make it better.
If you are inclined paste your version in the comments section below. As for the copyright aspect of it, I will surrender that for as far as I'm concerned this is out in the ether now and anyone can have access to it.

Papa was a trucker
and he drove a Bulldog Mack
Mumma rode the sleeper
They would overnight to Sydney
and tomorrow they'd be back

They carted fruit and veg and fridges
The load would never change
And late at night it happened
On the great Dividing Range

Five hundred horses snorting
The load was high and wide
they felt the door swing open
Satan joined them for the ride

Lightning flashed around them
And made the mountains white
Wipers swept swept away the rain
But Satan steered the rig that night

Mumma screamed out tractor
A huge shape without a light
Papa swung the wheel to miss it
But Satan's grip was tight.

Too late they clipped the tractor
and sent it or'e the side
The mack followed like a magnet
When Satan took his ride

On on her deathbed wheezing
Mumma prayed to stop the squeal
Of demons dancing gaily
When Satan took the wheel.

Stinking Dogs and School Socials

As I write different things, memories flood back and I keep notes of them in a file that I call "Letters to my Children". Someday it may form the basis for a memoirs. I found these notes from a Master Class I did with Kirsty Murray. They are a first draft only.

 

The door flew open we could read the fury on our mother’s face.

‘Get that stinking dog out of here.’

‘David let him in...’

She cut me off before I could finish. ‘He’s your dog and he’s rolled in something.’

‘Out.’ I yelled and pointed to the door she was still holding open oblivious to the swarm of blowflies that circled past her. That anger would wait.

Fido ,who had never done anything in a hurry looked back at me. He shared the same look as my mother. At the door he peered out and looked up at Mum as if to say, ‘Are you serious?’ Fido took his time, but before she could move her foot behind him and give his backside a nudge he shook. A long violent shake. Wet cow dung atomised, and bits and pieces of green and black goo speared from his black and white hide. A mist of stink landing on Mum, the door, the stove and the fridge. Everything within a metre copped it.

He might have gone to golf with mum that day, something he wasn’t welcome to do, but he always made sure he was home to greet David and I when we’d finished school. Fido was my dog and now more than ever I knew it. Mum would make sure of that.

She stormed out cursing all kinds of obscenities toward David me and the dog. She muttered about dress fittings and school socials and how she’d promised Mrs Gibb I’d go with Gwenda. That was fine, she and her brother Allen were mates. She insisted I would have to ask her to dance. Me dance, I have no rhythm or sense of timing and at thirteen I thought boys still got germs from girls. Well they did, didn’t they? Having to dance with any of the girls filled me with terror, there was no way I could do that, dancing was something different again.

But after the Fido incident, I was not in a position to refuse and at the end of it all of us had a good night.

I don't have Writer's Block, I'm Procrastinating

Since attending a writing workshop in August I have had trouble finding time to keep writing. Les Gillespie's Gold lies abandoned in a cobweb covered file on my desktop, and my Toby Farrier manuscript is craving for attention. I have written a few small short stories and spent a lot of time on research, but if I'm being honest with myself, all of that is procrastination.

I know that I pointed to the workshop as the trigger, but this is unfair. It was great to spend four days with intelligent and funny people all with the same ambition. Sure I was intimidated by their writing prowess and found myself in awe of their academic ability, but the real reason for my lack of word count was distraction. I was drawn away by other things. Oh and I had a simple excuse, I had writers block. What tripe, story ideas dance across my mind continually, I even jot down notes or dialogue that I can use. No, I was letting stuff get in the way.

Social media for me is the greatest trap of all when I am writing, it is too easy to click onto Facebook of follow a tweet. I can find plenty of time to promote and create awareness for my novel. I have developed complex plans for a dozen new projects, but again if I'm honest, this is just putting things off. Building and maintaining my author platform (which is what I am doing now) is the greatest consumer of my time and saps at my creativity. Oh and I can blame my self publishing and printing a substantial quantity of  my novel KUNDELA. This knowledge requires that I acknowledge the investment we have in unsold books, and therefore out of respect for the family finances I have a responsibility to introduce them to as many bookstores as possible. This too takes time.

I am from a sales and marketing background so I find calling on retailers familiar to me. However this field is new and all of the cold call fears and trepidation surface as I prepare to make a new contact.  More lost time as I build the courage to make a cold call. One thing I do know, is that I am able to present my product well enough for a bookstore manager to make a purchase, or at least take a few books on consignment. Thankfully all of these calls have resulted in more acceptances than knock-backs.

Another time investment for a writer are in-store promotions and author talks. These are fun events and everyone I know loves signing copies of their book. Talking to like minded people and listening to a reader enthuse about your work is great. We all want to get that affirmation and as often as we can and in my case, time to write gives way to this vanity. Again it is too easy to put off working on my manuscripts by saying that the existing book is more important.

Recognising these things that I use to justify not writing is easy to put aside, after all these are important things that must be done. Bull-dust to that, I am only making them important and as big as I make them, they really don't matter much. I just need to get some discipline and structure into my writing week.

To define my Writer's Block is easy.

Procrastination fuelled by fear.

The more I learn about writing the more I struggle to get it right before the words hit the screen, and then I ask myself, how would my author heroes frame the same passage? I waste hours on this. At the root of this procrastination is that I continually question my skill.

• Is the story strong enough?
• Are the characters believable?
• Have I planned enough?
• Did I spend too much time on planning?

I even know how and why I am procrastinating. Social media called, and I weakened to it's lure.

However there are some benefits. Analysing my problem has highlighted the traps, and if I can take one thing from this process, it is that everything I have learnt has challenged me to write in a purposeful fashion. Therefore the solution to my writer's block will be to make sure I build some structure in my writing day. I can do this by developing and working on the following points until they become a habit:

• Spend no more than 10-20 minutes a day reviewing the story plan and character profiles.
• Write for at least 3 hours before lunch every day without distraction, or a break.
• Only check my e-mails after 3.00 pm.
• Dedicate one full day a week to sales and promotion.
• Limit Facebook and other social media until both manuscripts are completed.
• Set the manuscripts aside for at least 6 months before beginning to edit.

I have taken the summer to re-read everything I've written and I must say I've become a bit impressed with myself. I know that sounds cocky, but after reading my first drafts I know the thing I have most to work on is self belief. I need to understand the strength of my writing and know anything out of place will be fixed during the edits. This affirmation is best summarised by the following points:

• Let the characters develop unrestricted and have them take me on their journey.
• Believe in the storyline, mostly the plot is strong and the subplots colourful.
• Get the words down, any problems can be edited it later.

So why should I doubt myself? I don't need to.

Sorry got to go now, I can hear a character calling.

It's funny what research turns up

We all agree that our planet seems to be suffering from dramatic climate events, none more real than the expanding deserts of Africa and into Asia.
Doing research for my novel Les Gillespie's Gold, I spoke to one of my daughters about one of the plot points and she sent the following link to me. It will mean revising that particular plot but what it has done is explain how we can save the great grass lands that we have lost over the years of ecology science.
In the eighties farmers in my home district of Orroroo began using minimum tillage farming as a means to increasing crop yield. This TED talk by Allan Savoy shows the science now being employed around the world to stop desertification. A lot of the techniques used duplicate what those marginal farmers from Perth to Adelaide were trying.
Take a look at the link, maybe it will cause us to rethink our views, change the way we manage stock numbers and even save a few endangered flora and fauna species in the process.

Link: http://www.ted.com/talks/allan_savory_how_to_green_the_world_s_deserts_and_reverse_climate_change.html?utm_source=email&source=email&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=ios-share

KUNDELA is now avaiable as an e-book

I thought I’d let you know that my novel KUNDELA has now been released on Amazon’s e-book list and the good news is that for the next few days it is available for just $0.99.

You will need to act quickly though as on the 7^th of January 2014 it reverts to the recommended retail price of $9.99. If you’d like to spoil yourself  with an entertaining holiday read, download it to your tablet, e-reader or desktop now.
I continue to be amazed by people who take time out of their day to let me know what they think of the story and this encouragement motivates me to finish the next book in the series.

Here is just one of the reviews I received last week.

 

Dear Terry,

I just finished your book Kundela, I actually started it last night and kept reading all day until it was finished - I just loved it.  Although having just returned from staying in Orroroo for the Carrieton rodeo and after travelling on the back roads via Hammond to Quorn, the images of that country were very fresh in my mind making the story very believable.

I can't believe a big publisher has not seen the potential in your work.

Cheers

Cathryn Harris

Montana and the Pirates

This is a story written by Montana at the age of eight. It is amazing how competitive siblings can be and she sat at the computer and typed this story with out too much assistance, insisting it was her story. Over time I will encourage her to write it again and either add more to it or correct the punctuation and rhythm of the piece.
I am pleased that today's children are encouraged to express themselves in writing more so than when I was a child..

 

 

Once upon a time in a country where pirates who keep the other people very poor and frightened except for a brave girl named Montana. She’d once lived in a beautiful home with her youngest sister India, her big sister Kyamah, and her Mum and Dad.  Montana loved her family dearly and she cursed the day the pirates arrived and smashed the peace of their lovely village. As she watched the last sail burn on her father’s ship and it slip below the waves Montana swore she’d she would see that pirates face in Hell.

She felt the soft touch of her mother's hand stroke her long brown hair. ‘It’s going to be okay Darling, we have had troubles before and come through okay.’

‘But I hate them so much, I swear to you on life. I will get revenge.’

‘Come come Montana, that’s just silly. You’re only eight years old.’

‘But every day I grow a little bigger and get stronger and I promise you and this island that one day I will see to it that Blackbeard’s day will come.’

She knew just how lucky she was. Along with her family, Granny and Papa were there too, they would look after things when her parents were away. From today however things would change she would become one they relied on, and she knew it would take time.

‘Mum look down there, just outside the bay.' Montana pointed to the ship with the red sails, it’s black hull bristling with cannon and Jolly Roger. 'They call her Queen Anne’s Revenge, and I’m going to take her for Dad.’

Well on the other hand the pirates were much much worse in fact they stole everything mostly the money. There Captain was Black Beard . These pirates were the meanest things on earth back in those days. Captain Black Beard and his crew would sack every place in the village and the people had to give the pirates something, or money. Mostly money so the village got very poor and sick especially Montana's family apart from her, but  the pirates, they got very rich.

One day Montana was tired of Black beard and his crew's pillaging because Montana's family was very very sick, they didn’t have any food. Later the pirates came for more but instead of money or gold, they were ambushed Montana got her sword and put the point at Black Beard's heart.

Black beard whipped out his sword out and slashed it at Montana’s sword Montana was a very good sword fighter so the pirate couldn’t kill Montana easily. The sword fight ended and Black Beard walked back to his ship with his crew but Montana wasn’t finished she followed him back to the ship. Black Beard saw that Montana had followed onto the ship and realised she wanted more. He said. 'If you want more you have to face your fears.'

          'I know.'She said

They started having another fight Black Beard was about to stab but instead hit the sword and said. 'I’m to quick for ya” and didn’t die. Just then Montana swung back and stabbed Black Beard in the heart Montana had won.

Montana got all the things that was the villages and shared it all. For Black Beard well he had to be tied to a rope and swim around the boat three times. Montana's family got much better and lived happily ever after with no more pirates.

                                    The end!

My Grandaughters' Bunyip Stories

About twelve months ago my grandchildren and I were looking for frogs and tadpoles in the local creek that runs through the golf course and into the park. We started making up stories about monsters and people of old. From that little game I produced a bunyip story good  enough to be short listed in the Melton City Short Story Competition.

Kyamah started the Dadididi tale you can find on the link below, she was almost nine when the project started and this is a very rough first draft.

After seeing children and teenagers receiving awards at the short story awards has re-ignited her passion to write, and even if Dadididi remains untouched you can see where her career as a writer began.

Montana too has worked on a yarn about kids a creek and a monster. She will post her story soon.

http://wurugi.blogspot.com.au/p/kyamahs-scary-stories.html

Writers Victoria

Today I received my copy of the December Issue of The Victorian Writer and found a wonderful piece on how to get off of the slush pile written by Shivaun Plozza. She has encapsulated a lot of information in about 450 words. Shivaun talks about the synopsis and how important it is to getting your manuscript read. Drop over to her blog where she has offered even more advice to would be published writers.

Link:   http://shivaunplozza.blogspot.com.au/p/services.html

Should I set up my publishing company and embrace other authors or not.

Since writing the post below, I like many other self published writers have hacked my story around numerous bookshops across Australia. I have pestered my friends, family, associates and anyone else I can think of, for leads to people who might like to buy a book. The only thing I haven't done is to set up at any of the many book fairs, as I have only had the one book to sell. This is the same problem facing any salesperson canvassing for sales, how can I strengthen my product line to make a sale every time I call on a bookshop?

 

Knowing I can only realistically expect to produce and publish one quality 100,000 word novel per year if I am trying to do the marketing and selling too, it's not enough. If I wait for three years I may have three books to sell by the one author, me. While they may be great novels, they are still too small of an offering to make me a serious competitor in the book sales business. Therefore, what options do writers like me have?

1. We can continue to submit our work to the regular publishing houses and hope to land a deal.
2. E-publish our work on the various forms and promote it via e-mail and social media trying to drive possible buyers to our books.
3. Self publish via one of the many vanity publishers and do the rounds of friends and family.
4. Develop your own publishing house to manage the printing registration and distribution.
5. Establish a co-operative scheme to embrace authors of a similar mindset and present their work as a combined and professional publishing company that will attract the interest of distribution businesses across the globe.

Over the past few weeks I have developed a fondness for the latter scheme if I am unable to find a publisher for my next two novels. The only drawback I can see is that I'd prefer to be writing than building a business, and I'm sure this is the same for every writer I know. However if we wish to be professional writers producing quality work and being properly promoted and compensated this may be the only option for many.of us.

For now I'm only tossing a few an ideas around but would be interested in comments from anyone about their success and failures at becoming published in hard copy.

Either leave me a comment, or e-mail me at terry.probert@bigpond.com

Terry

 

 

Tuesday, 22 January 2013

To Self Publish or Not? That is the Question.

Having finished my novel KUNDELA I have sent out samples to different publishers. Having religiously followed their submission guidelines in the hope that someone would chance upon my masterpiece, I have checked the e-mail inbox daily with disappointment. Weeks of waiting and with response times now passing I have to face the possibility of not being picked up on this first round of enquiry letters.

I have been through most of the self publish websites and now have would be publishers from all over the world willing to publish and market my book for a fee, in some cases a rather large fee. I don't have that kind of money to spend, and I'm not sure that Francis from Frisco can be bothered with the marketing plan my novel needs. I think it's an opportunity for them to make money from the author rather than the other way around.

Taking the view that I'm a trades person with a commodity to sell takes the marketing of KUNDELA into an area I know well. I've spent all of my previous career in sales and marketing so I have the skills. What I don't have is the contacts, therefore I will need an agent or at the very least the contacts an agent has. The first question raised now, is how do I do I gain that knowledge. Therefore I started to research the people who have been in a similar situation to me and gone on to become successful and published authors.

From my research I find that it is necessary to embrace rejection as something that teaches you a lesson, and to learn from it. Another point I found helpful was to create a business plan for your proposal. To sell anything you need to know everything about it, what it is, what products it competes with, the strengths and weaknesses of both yours and your competitor's product.

Now I am on a quest to structure a business plan for KUNDELA, complete with a marketing plan, sales strategy and finance plan. Now I find that I'm on familiar ground with a product to sell.

Proving that writing is a business.


One of the sites I found helpful was a You tube Interview by Stacey Cochran with John Fuhrman as his quest. It is over 50 minutes long but contains some wonderful information.

Melton Short Story Competition

Last Friday night a good number Melton City Council's best writers, their  families and friends gathered for the annual short story competition. Each year the council has offered an opportunity for local writers to submit stories poems and plays and compete for both monitory reward and more importantly recognition among the writing community.

The Melton City Council provided three competition categories this year and offered monitory prizes for each. Entrants were advised of being short listed a couple of weeks prior and this added to the tension in the room as every author there wondered if they had been successful and their guests wanted to know who had won too.

Amra Pajalic, author of 'The Good Daughter' was master of ceremonies for the night and kept the night moving as she introduced the judges and winners of awards.

I'm told the adult section was fiercely competitive this year, and Beverly Eikli said she had a tough job picking the finalists. This comment lifted the spirits of the entrants as each of us wanted to know if the standard of our writing was of quality.

With a great sense of pride I listened as Beverly called out my colleague Chris Mack from last year's Longitudinal Writing Workshop as the first place winner.

Her story about a child finding her place among her peers was a heart warming account of a girl from a low income family looking for clothes at the local tip was read to the spellbound crowd. It was a wonderful rendition and something I'd love to have happen with one of my yarns.

In equal second place was Fikret Pajalic and I shared this award with him.

In third place was the fantastic Melton writer, Craig Henderson, who I believe should win almost everything he enters. Yes his short stories and longer works are that good.

When I think back over the months that I have spent with some of these people I find that the work and time given by Merlene Fawdry to assist and encourage writers of all skill levels is evident in the winning stories.I met Merlene last year by attending her workshop and was impressed by her drive and commitment to help us succeed.  Some months later I was in awe as she selflessly gave her time to copy-edit and produce an anthology of stories by Melton and Caroline Springs storytellers. Storytellers who by way of the book can be proud of the stories and poems she helped polish to make suitable for publication.

I have put my story 'Banib the Bunyip' onto Amazon's Kindle format and for December it is only US$ 0.99 to download.

Here is the link: http://www.amazon.com/Banib-Bunyip-Terry-L-Probert-ebook/dp/B00GRLFU2E

Banib the Bunyip is a Dreamtime story told by an Aboriginal boy to a group of kids on a school camp. It's a scary story that my friends and family love and it's set in Melton to the west of Melbourne. I'd love to get some feedback on what people think of the story so please let me know as both good and bad critique is welcome.

Blog Links:

• Chris Mack:                  http://chrismackauthor.wordpress.com/

• Merlene Fawdry:          http://www.blogger.com/profile/08318707687125028987

• Amra Pajalic:               http://www.amrapajalic.com/

Save Mona 693 petition signatures and climbing.

With every project we plan there are milestones and one of these is a tipping point. For the wild rhinos across the world their extinction has already crossed that point and it seems they are doomed for extinction. So why should we care. We should care because we can and we don't wan to tell our children and our grandchildren we stood by and did nothing while these animals crashed into a bloody and horrible death at the hands of poachers.

From my point of view the problem needs to identify why the animal is being poached? Oh and I do know it is for the belief that the horn is an aphrodisiac but if that is the root cause it should be easy to manage a change in opinion by offering a substitute, the makers of products like Viagra spend millions each year telling us about a better sex life. I think this is like many things only available to the rich, it is about status and power. Rhino horn is about power, being dominant showing that you can thumb your nose at the world and everything in it. Proving that everything has a price and you can pay it..

Ask yourself these questions and maybe you will find the answer:

• What turns a farmer into a poacher?

• What can we do as a group?

• What can I do as an individual.

If you want to do something to help today drop into the Save Mona website and sign the petition, we are not at the tipping point yet where a groundswell of support will cause politicians across the globe to do something but if you share your thoughts and encourage others to sign the petition maybe we can bring these animals back from the brink.

Click here now to take part: http://savemona.org/ and please remember to post the link on your social media timelines too.
Cheers,
Terry L Probert

Kundela Update

Today has been one of frustration, and missed opportunities for NaNoWriMo. I have been refurbishing my contacts database to ensure that it is up to date and I'm sure that most of the bookstore were busy when I asked them to confirm their details.

The reprint of KUNDELA has arrived and I'm extremely pleased with it. The new cover distinguishes it from the old one yet retains its Aussie character. I have taken an opportunity to change a couple of irritations that bugged one or two fo my critics but that's all it needed.

To say I'm a happy camper is an understatement. A big shout to all of you who have bought the first copies, they were a small print run and your support is power for my pen.

More updates to come.

Save Mona

Thanks to all my Facebook friends who have liked and shared the Save Mona page. Your actions will create a groundswell of people expressing the same opinion and one day we may save these creatures and many others from extinction.

Let us all hope our grandchildren don't point to a photo of a rhino and say why didn't you do something Gramps?

Check out the website and leave a comment please: http://savemona.org/

And the petition: http://www.change.org/en-AU/organisations/save_mona

Thanks everyone.

Terry