Dreadful David

Sally's People are characters I invented for books, short stories and poems. Their creation spans the last three decades of the 20th Century and (so far) the first of the 21st.
Dreadful David is a character I created back in the early 1980s for a picture book of the same name. Young David, an energetic child or two or three years old, was very loosely based on my son, but David's exploits are mostly invented. "Dreadful David" was illustrated by the wonderful Craig Smith, published by Omnibus Books in 1984, and is still, amazingly, in print as of 2009. It was my twelfth published book, but my first picture book and, not knowing what I was doing, I made a lot of tactical errors.
Here are just a few of them:
David was very young. (The received wisdom is that child readers prefer protagonists older than they are themselves.)
The story was told in rhyme.
David was a naughty little boy, and thus a bad role model.
David was a naughty little boy, and thus a stereotype.
Granny smacks his bottom.
For some mysterious reason, none of this mattered, for David is fondly remembered by many readers, and still goes down a treat with children to this day.

The Dragon Mode Hero

Sally's People are characters I invented for books, short stories and poems. Their creation spans the last three decades of the 20th Century and (so far) the first of the 21st.
It always comes as a surprise to me when I realise some of my characters, even major protagonists, don't have names. Sometimes this is because they are first-person narrators, and star in short books, so no one has the opportunity to address them by name. Sometimes it's because they go by nicknames, imposed by themselves, or by others. For example, the protagonist/narrator of "Call Me Fizz" gives herself that name in the course of her story. But what is her actual name? She says she's "Annie Average", but is that her name, or a description? Another character goes by three different names in the course of her story... She is Annabel Jackson, who prefers to think of herself as Annabel Falmouth (her maiden name) but who introduces herself as Anna Bell. Then there's Sam, from "Shakedown", who uses the ambiguity of this name to fool most of the people most of the time.

The Dragon Mode hero is an example of the first, less complex kind of unnamed protagonist. He is a lively, noisy small boy with a vivid imagination. He seems to have little use for proper names, as he refers to his brother, mother and the cat by role names. Only his teacher is dignified by her actual name, and at that he probably thinks her first name is "Ms". This pragmatic treatment of the real world contrasts with his rich inner existence in which he can slip into "dragon mode" and become his inner dragon. Our hero's dragon is brash, noisy, and clumsy, but ultimately out of place in the suburbs. Only in the sky can he express himself without troubling others. Far from being angry, the people in the street admire his dexterity in the air.

This lively youngster appears in "Dragon Mode" (ISBN 978-1-921042-57-7), published by New Frontier in 2007. He is wonderfully brought to life in illustrations by Chantal Stewart.

Miriam Moses

Sally's People are characters I invented for books, short stories and poems. Their creation spans the last three decades of the 20th Century and (so far) the first of the 21st.

Miriam Moses sprang into my mind at some point in the 1990s. I loved her so much that I wrote her whole story in four days of frenzied keyboarding. She finally achieved publication in 2008.

Miriam is a young woman in her late teens or early twenties. She is utterly ordinary and utterly extraordinary. In remission from cancer, she decided quixotically to run the length of Australia for charity. Miriam's odyssey is a picaresque tour of the great continent of Australia, south to north. On her way, she touches the lives of many and diverse characters. Miriam always has an effect on them, but she will never know the ends of their stories. As she runs, outpacing fear, doubts and the dreaded Big C, her lifeline is a tenuous mobile telephone contact with Harry Mercury of Mercury Shoes.

Miriam appears in WILDERNESS, published by Eternal Press in 2008.

Scholar Ankooria

Sally's People are characters I invented for books, short stories and poems. Their creation spans the last three decades of the 20th Century and (so far) the first of the 21st.

Scholar Ankooria is the teenaged son of Lord Toombs. He is a reluctant besieger of Castle Torm, a red-headed conner (scholar) as his name suggests. His father hopes Scholar will make a dynastic marriage with Tegwen of Hasselsjo, but Scholar has his own plans.

The heir of Toombs Castle is quiet and withdrawn, the clever offspring of an ambitious lord and a long-dead Ankoorian mother. The only thing he loves, beside his studies, is his spellhound, the lovely Tace (Tah-chee), whose name means "silence". Faced with death and battle at the siege of Torm, Scholar is sick with misery and anxiety, so when the chance comes to help a girl-child in her escape from the castle, he takes it. But there's a catch- she must take his precious Tace away from danger.

Scholar is another character who has more power than he understands. His name reflects his nature, while his braided red hair hints at a less than common destiny.

Scholar Ankooria is a major character in Candle Iron, published by harperCollins Australia in 2000. Candle Iron is the third in a loose series that comprises "Amy Amaryllis", Shadowdancers", "Candle Iron" and "Wintersong".

Sarge (Sergeant Russell)

Sally's People are characters I invented for books, short stories and poems. Their creation spans the last three decades of the 20th Century and (so far) the first of the 21st.
Sarge is an old-school country copper, a friendly, laconic bloke who takes his job of policing Doggeroo quite seriously. The thing is, he takes it seriously by NOT taking it too seriously, finding it better to blend in as a friend of the townsfolk rather than look for trouble. Sarge first appears in "Dog Den Mystery", Book #1 of the Jack Russell: Dog Detective series. At the beginning of that book, Sarge and his dog, Jack, are transferred from the city to Doggeroo. Sarge likes his new posting and so does Jack, especially when Sarge's Auntie Tidge moves into the same street.

Soon Sarge is part of the town, playing steward at the dog show, helping out at thye Dog and Sausage day at the school, teaching kids about road safety, and catching the odd crook along the way. He makes friends with Caterina Smith, the wealthy owner of Uptown House. Soon romance is on the horizon...

Sarge is pictured by Janine Dawson as a happy-looking bloke, especially when he's mucking in with his friends and the dogs. The Jack Russell: Dog Detective series is published by Scholastic.

Aurora Quinn

Sally's People are characters I invented for books, short stories and poems. Their creation spans the last three decades of the 20th Century and (so far) the first of the 21st.

Aurora is fourteen years old. She is talented and pretty, and longs to know more of the world beyond the island where she lives with her parents and younger brother and sister. When Josh visits the island, she longs to be friends, but he is her cousin and brings danger of a peculiar kind; of all the people in the world, Josh is one of the few who know Aurora Quinn should not exist.

Aurora herself is dangerous. She could kill Josh, or any other human, with one blow. If anyone knew the truth about her they would be afraid, and Aurora's family would be torn apart. What do you do when you have been brought up by a species that is not yours? Aurora doesn't know. She looks human. She feels human. And Polly and Keith are the only parents she has ever known.

Aurora appears in "Aurora", published by HarperCollins Australia. Originally, the story was called "UFO", but editorial advice was to change the title. Through Aurora, I explored what it means to be human, through her mother, Polly, I wondered how far a parent might go to protect her child... and through Josh I looked at truth and justice, and the rights of society vs the rights of the individual. Mind you, I didn't know I was doing all that when I wrote it. I thought I was writing about a baby found in the wreckage of a UFO.

Pirimba Raven

Sally's People are characters I invented for books, short stories and poems. Their creation spans the last three decades of the 20th Century and (so far) the first of the 21st.

Pirimba Raven is fifteen, beautiful, self-willed, athletic, and lucky. That is, until she skips school one day. This leads indirectly to the accident that leaves her quadriplegic. Suddenly, independent Pirimba must rely on others for everything, and there's little hope she will ever improve. When she begins to dream of dancing, it almost drives her mad, but still the music lures her into astral travel. Suddenly, she is free of her ruined body and living as someone else, a Valourn (acrobatic dancer) named Pirry of Midpoint. Pirimba knows nothing of the land of Rargon or of the strange encampment of Valourns, but she has a mentor. As she learns to live and to dance, danger threatens, and then comes the hardest choice of all. The real Pirry begins to stir deep in Pirimba's consciousness. Can she stay in Rargon and share a life, a vocation, a body and a love with Pirry, or must she return to her real identity?

Pirimba was the first of my teenaged characters to face real terror... and the first to face an ambiguous ending. I thought it was pretty obvious, but readers didn't necessarily agree.

Pirimba appeared in "Shadowdancers", which has one of my most beautiful covers, painted by Greg Rogers. I am lucky enough to own the original. Shadowdancers is related to the other titles "Amy Amaryllis", "Candle Iron" and "Wintersong".