The Voices

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The Tales play out through the auspices of several narrative voices, some through flashbacks into the past or through a journal device that join the various strands of the Tales together.

The principal voices are


Sophie Taylor - a doctor specialising in EMDR therapy, who returns to Africa to work for an aid agency running clinics for victims of the Zyandan genocide, still suffering from the ravages of PTSD 13 years on. 

Sophie's Tales ~ Smoke and Thunder; Watching; Onwards and Upwards...; After the Rains; Trophies; Perfect Day; The Gathering of Water; The Season of the Year; Here Be Dragons (all); Hard Rains; Angels of the Abyss; Omega and Alpha

Sister Teresa 'Terry' Olatunde - a battered and maimed orphan of the horrific war and famine in Biafra, whose valiant, but ultimately rash attempt at intervention to rescue terrified Zyandan refugees, results in her making the ultimate sacrifice.

Terry's Tales ~ The Land of Nod; Kwashiorkor; Here Be Dragons (The Physician; The Deeps)

Harry Burton - a highly accomplished Zimbabwean game guide and hunter whose memories of colonial childhood and adult experience of civil war and ecological vagaries pours light on yet more aspects of life in modern Africa.

Harry's Tales ~ Trophies; Perfect Day; The Gathering of Water; The Season of the Year

David Mukuga - the boy soldier who witnesses his comrades slaying Sister Terry and two other men at a refugee camp and whose adult life is dogged by inescapable guilt and despair as he struggles to rehabilitate himself and make amends for his grisly past under the watchful eye of the mother of his dead best friend.

David's Tales ~ The Land of Nod; The Acts of the Apostles; Here Be Dragons (The Physician; Truth; The Deeps); Hard Rains; Angels of the Abyss; Omega and Alpha

Verity Beleshona - a strong and principled woman who lost her entire family to the genocide, trying to transcend the tragedy and working tirelessly to help her countrymen 'pay the amnesty' of survival and rebuild shattered lives in a new UN sponsored community project, the Mgakera Enclave, on the borders of Zyanda and Tanzania.

Verity's Tales ~ The Land of Nod; The Acts of the Apostles; Here Be Dragons (all); Hard Rains; Angels of the Abyss;

Sophie's thread is the one that binds them all together as she eases back into working life in Africa, meeting Harry and his nephew, vet Luigi Ogilvy, on the way, before taking up her new role as a consultant clinician in Mgakera.

6 comments:

  1. Hmmm - so they're all going to die?

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    1. Nope! Of these 5 'leading' characters, only Teresa is dead and it's her murder, along with Sophie's fiance Tom, that fuels the rest of story when Sophie returns to Africa years afterwards.

      Only Harry Burton is unconnected to the Teresa/Tom storyline and its repercussions. It's through Harry that Sophie meets her new love as she goes to take up her new career at Mgakera and meets Verity and David there.

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  2. D'lo here- I noticed you use flashbacks. They are difficult to write. Perhaps you could provide a source or sample. By the way, your blog looks good. Thanks.

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  3. Thanks for dropping by D'lo - and for giving me a nudge because I was meaning to do another taster page using some of Harry Burton's anecdotal flashbacks, but was holding back because of the delay with the eBook coming out (long boring story and I'm tired of waiting now...).

    Will get on that tomorrow I think - watch this space!

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  4. Its good to have a detailed description of the characters. I have a hard enough time just keeping up with them so this helps a lot. Good Job Jan!

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    1. I was lucky in that some of them turned up at different times, Shirley - and I mean YEARS apart! Verity was last one to arrive and she's possible my favourite, although Luey (who's Sophie's love interest/healer and not a main character in terms of steering the story) runs her a close second as they both shot from the hip and won't keep quiet when something matters to them :-)

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Love to hear your comments and queries!