Concluding the story of Shuki - modern day eunuch.

The Shuki Series

The Story of Shuki began in 'Not a Man,'  first published 2011.

 

The book was first seen on the writers' site, Authonomy, run by Harper Collins.  It won a great deal of attention, and there was an offer to publish at almost the same time as it reached the top five books on Authonomy, which earned it a professional review from Harper Collins.

 

The first paragraph of the Harper Collins review - ‘Not a Man’ is an ambitious and insightful novel; it tells the story of Shuki, a young boy from the slums of Elbarada, a fictional area of Arabia, who is castrated against his will at the age of 10. Shuki’s journey is one of great trial but also incredible strength, courage, and determination, and as a hero, he is fantastic, evoking not only sympathy, but aspiration and reverence. I loved the fact that the operation which is supposed to prevent him from reaching manhood is the very thing that makes him strong and mature. The novel is written in a pared down manner; the narrative reminded me of the prose styling of Paulo Coelho: unaffected and matter-of-fact.

 

This review can still be seen in full by accessing 'Not a Man' on Authonomy.  There are over 400 other comments, some good, some bad. 

 

 

Among the Authonomy comments  - 

 

Andrew Wright:  The strength and singular power of your main character are captivating from the off. The sorrow of the story, the opportunity for salvation, the fight for some kind of justice after the rebellion. An enigmatic and enthralling lead whose experiences drew me in from the beginning. 

Joanne Ellis: Absolutely fabulous writing and story.

Rachel Vevers:  This is a book I stayed up half the night to finish. The writing is beautiful and the plot is painful and poignant. The character of Shuki is naive and wise, complex and empathetic.

Ashen Venama:  Not a Man - stunningly original. A consistant gentle voice renders this incredible tale right through. Against all odds, Shuki is a remarkable character. The sexual scenes are shocking yet drawn with enough detachment to not take away from the real process going on for the boy who has the intelligence to overcome his victimhood. Elegant and touchingly surreal. The artist at work. This must be appreciated on many levels. 

Bill Carrigan:  This is beautifully written, fascinating, disconcerting, and moving.  

 

"Not a Man' is set in an unnamed country of Arabia. Shuki is aged ten, and a 'bed-boy.' His master wants his beautiful boy to stay beautiful, so arranges for him to have 'a small operation.' This traumatic event changed forever the life of a clever, determined boy.

Shuki learns to manipulate his master. He learns to read and write, he gets his master into the habit of giving him large sums of money, and he makes friends with the Master's sons.

Shuki becomes more beautiful with every passing year. His master becomes more possessive, more jealous, and Shuki is guarded. When his master takes him to England, he escapes and starts a new life with the money he's saved. He is fifteen.

 Shuki's story continues in 'The King's Favourite.'

 

 

Feroz was viewed as a puppet king. Just sixteen, yet he is the all-powerful monarch of a country in Arabia. When an important and complex trade deal hangs in the balance, his Chief Councillor bargains an extra concession to keep his young king happy. Added to the details of the enormous payment promised was the reference to ‘other considerations.’ Shuki’s freedom is traded away by his own country. He becomes slave and companion to a king.

No cliff-hangers.  I abhor cliff-hangers in a series, and each book has a satisfying conclusion.

 The third book in the series is 'To Love and To Protect.'

 

With a series, one finds that the number of characters mount up.  With this book, I have provided a list of characters at the front of the paperback, and with the ebooks, wherever I think it could be useful,  a reminder of characters at the beginning of some chapters. All the same,  readers are likely to enjoy it more if they have read the first two in the series.

 

 

The third book of the series is called 'To Love and to Protect.'

 

 Shuki is home, and enjoying being home. He loves his wives, he loves his children, and he loves Elei. To the Daouds, he is someone special, theirs to love and to protect, as their father, the Old Master Hassanel, laid down in his will. To Shuki, the Daouds’ home is his home, though he does not regard himself as belonging to anyone - or maybe to Elei, as Elei belongs to him.

He is fond of Hasquitri’s children, the girls and the boys. The girls, at fourteen, are of marriageable age, and are closely chaperoned. They are still permitted to ride their horses when suitably escorted, and Shuki makes a point of riding with them. Alone among the men, he knows what it is to suffer under too much protection.

The boys have a full life, learning about their father’s businesses, travelling, enjoying the hunting and the shooting and the riding. Fifteen-year-old Zahu, in particular, has become a close companion. But when Zahu finds just what Shuki is, the relationship becomes a lot more complicated.

 

 

The fourth and final book in the series is called 'The Frost and the Sunshine.'

The publication date for this book is set at 17th October, 2014.
 
Early in his life, Shuki made a vow to himself never again to leave it too late to run. There were dangers at Naelahin, dangers because of who he was.  But in a new place, a new home, where no-one knows his history, then he would be safe.  Shuki has moved his family to rural Australia.  There, he finds the peaceful life he wants.  
 
For those interested, I have placed Shuki's new home between the small town of Uralla and the university city of Armidale, New South Wales.  The towns have been fictionalised and renamed Bellerusse and Leverson. Shuki teaches at Leverson University. 

 

 

 

 It was particularly interesting writing this book.  I range forward into the future, and it is absolutely spooky that what I wrote is so very much on track with what has happened since the writing of it.

Not all that I wrote as a fictional future will come true, of course. It is interesting that some things are already coming true.



 I have set the publication date at 17th October, 2014, but it will be available on Smashwords probably a week or so before that date. 

To find my books on Smashwords,  go to:   https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/Samray
  

Global warming - The Science is settled?

Global warming  -  'The Science is settled,'  they said. If that is so, why do they need to fudge the figures?  

 

 

These past years, announcements of 'record' hot temperatures have become routine. It is odd, 'the hottest summer ever?'  It didn't seem a particularly hot summer to me.  Yes, a heat wave early on, but perfectly ordinary from then on. And was it the summer before last when they shrieked that they had to put another colour on their weather maps to denote those places that reached over 50 degrees Celsius? (That's Centigrade, for those who don't know.)  122 degrees Fahrenheit! 

 

But the places they were talking about have always been known to sometimes have extreme temperatures. 50 degrees is horrendous. It's why some Outback towns have most of their living areas underground - and that didn't happen just in the last decade.

So now I have some explanation - they've been fudging the figures. They call it homogenisation, though it's strange how the homogenised temperature records show results all in the direction of a warming trend.

This article below:  Records detail heat that 'didn't happen.'   The Weekend Australian, August 30-31, 2014.  Article by Graham Lloyd, Environment Editor.

 

Find it online - 
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/climate/weathermans-records-detail-heat-that-didnt-happen/story-e6frg6xf-1227041833824?nk=d292919b6d9f4798f95dad35fb9775b1#

 

The source is Ian Cole, who's a farmer in Bourke, inland NSW. Bourke is well known for its extreme temperatures. His father kept detailed temperature records for most of his life. It is fortunate that they were not simply lost, as they do not support the current religion of Global Warming.  (called Climate Change more recently, since the temperature has obstinately refused to rise as predicted.) 

But the records have been changed - 'homogenised in line with world's best practice.'  So now what was a slight warming trend has become a real warming trend. And what was a cooling trend is now a warming trend.

Actual figures, as recorded manually - no, they do not show a warming trend. Quoted from the article:   'A 1.7 C cooling trend in the maximum temperature series in the raw data for Bourke has been changed to a slight warming.'

 

 

'The Bourke cotton farmer may be managing director of the local radio station 2WEB but Mr. Cole can only broadcast temperature records that date back to 2000 because the Bureau of Meterology won't supply historic records to service provider Weatherzone.'  

 

I've heard something like that before - that a record announced is not really a record because it only dates back around 10 years.

There is also this - that a carefully noted temperature of 51.7 C,  recorded on January 3rd, 1909, was dropped from the records 'on the assumption it was a clerical error.'  And this:  'All the data for Bourke for 40 years before 1910 has been discarded from the official record.'  If that is true, it is quite simply criminal. Scientists are supposed to note and understand what is, not ignore or change data to fit a theory.

Homogenisation - 'used by equivalent metereological organisations across the world.'  Homogenisation seems to be about comparing temperatures with temperatures recorded from 'neighbouring' areas, and eliminating the blips.

'World's best practice?'  Used as justification. I guess that means that the whole world is being lied to.

 

Global Warming became a religion, though surely a few of its adherents might be beginning to lose faith by now.  But as we know, religious people are always extremely reluctant to admit an error. 

 

But fudging the figures, and worse, trying to 'lose' old records that do not support the theory - that's going too far.

 

There are places in Australia known for extreme temperatures.
This is not Bourke, but somewhere around Mt. Isa, Queensland.

 

 

 

 

 

PS:  5th September, 2014

 

A little more evidence of fudging the figures. 

This is copied direct  from Andrew Bolt's blog -

 

      http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/how_much_of_this_warming_is_real/

 

 

     How much of the warming in Australia was produced back at the lab?

      SOME of Australia’s long-term temperature records may contain faults introduced by the Bureau of Meteorology’s computer modelling, according to a widely published expert.

      David Stockwell said a full audit of the BoM national data set was needed after the bureau confirmed that statistical tests, rather than direct evidence, were the “primary” justification for making changes.

     Dr Stockwell[’s] ...  published works include a peer-reviewed paper analysing faults in the bureau’s earlier High Quality Data temperature records that were subsequently replaced by the current ACORN-SAT.

     Dr Stockwell has called for a full audit of ACORN-SAT homogenisation after analysing records from Deniliquin in the Riverina region of NSW where homogenisation of raw data for minimum temperatures had turned a 0.7C cooling trend into a warming trend of 1C over a ­century.

 

           The bureau said it did not want to discuss the Deniliquin findings because it had not                  produced  the graphics, but it did not dispute the findings or that all of the information used had come from the BoM database.

There is a huge risk of confirmation bias in this process. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My books are for sale on sites such as Smashwords, Book Depository and Amazon.

 

http://www.amazon.com/Not-Man-Shuki-Series-ebook/dp/B0089H5X58/

 https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/Samray

   http://www.bookdepository.com/Not-Man-M-McRae/9781477615966

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Don't call the cult 'Islamic State!'

ISIL, ISIS, IS or 'Islamic State?'  No. It's a murderous cult, just as our Prime Minister, Tony Abbot, called them. We should stop dignifying the monsters by calling them what they want us to call them. Especially we should not call them 'Islamic State' which carries connotations of legitimacy.  So from now on, I'll call them the MCs - for 'murderous cult.'

We know of the MC's dreadful acts - the beheadings, the massacres, and then more massacres. It has just become public that a second American journalist has been beheaded.

But what sent chills through me was something that some would say by comparison, was quite minor. Maybe it's why I've only heard of it once, or maybe it is not even true - that they announced that every female under the age of 40 in their area of control should be forcibly circumcised. It is strange - it has always been denied that the hideous practice of female circumcision  (genital mutilation)  had anything to do with Islam, but it appears that the murderous cult do not agree. Do they chant Allahu Akbar as they take a knife to a woman's genitals?

The murderous cult has to be stamped out. And those Muslim communities who have fostered the ones who are now fighting with them, should stop pretending they had nothing to do with it, should maybe remember the radical muftis they allowed to speak at their mosques, and acknowledge that they do indeed bear some responsibility. Instead of screaming racism when the government attempts to deal with this very real problem, they should be first to do whatever they can.

So could some of them have some sympathy with the terrorists?  I think they probably do. For instance, Board of Imams Victoria president, Sheik Gul Saeed Shah, declined to comment on the problem because 'he did not know enough specifically about Islamic State.'   (Australian, 12/8/14.)  If there are a few like that, then maybe suicide bombing may be a good idea - only out in some paddock somewhere so they will be no innocent victims. 

But not 'Islamic State.' There is no legitimate 'state' just a collection of murderous thugs.

 
No pictures this time.  The subject is too sad and too true for pictures.

 

 

 

'Breath of Africa' by Jane Bwye

  

Guest article by Jane Bwye, 

author of  the highly regarded  'Breath of Africa.'

 

 As a young girl I used to curl up with a book on the window seat of our sitting room, sometimes gazing out at the garden. For we had a farm in Africa … not, like Karen Blixen, at the foot of the Ngong Hills, but overlooking the Great Rift Valley, where Lake Nakuru and its flamingos lay half hidden behind a hillfold.

 

Flamingos and cormorants on Lake Nakuru

 

I’ve always been a dreamer, and I’ve learned that dreaming is a powerful thing. Twelve years ago I found myself in a place I did not want to be due to circumstances beyond my control. I did not know how we were going to survive, and then I was challenged to write a wish list. I was told that if I didn’t know where I was going, if I had no objective, I would never get there.

Was this person crazy? But for want of anything better to do, I complied, and found the exercise quite stimulating. I wrote down my wildest wishes, visualised them, and put the list in the bottom of my in-tray to re-visit and renew every year.

 

Bryce Canyon, the US on 9/11/11



            I’ve been round the world, but there are still so many places to see. I went to the Galapagos Islands, Egypt, Israel, and to Australia and back. There is still the Far East and Russia, and when I get really old and doddery, most of Europe.

I dreamed of setting up a Granny travel fund for my seven grandkids, all in Australia. That was indeed building castles in the air, given our circumstances at the time. But do you know, two of them have already claimed from that fund!

I wanted to write a book and have it published by a real publisher. Now that was far-fetched, but it had been my dream ever since I’d learned to read. You can lose yourself in a book, you can forget your surroundings and you can write – pour out your soul as a catharsis when you’re caught in a place you never wanted to be.

That’s what I did. I wallowed in nostalgia as I dug into old diaries, letters and jottings, sifted through old photographs, and relived it all again while I researched the turbulent history of my homeland, which was Kenya. That’s how BREATH OF AFRICA was birthed after a gestation period of forty years. The birth was protracted: over seventy rejections from publishers and agents – and that’s not counting the no-replies. Countless edits and re-edits. And I know it’s a cliché, but it was well worth it in the end, and I wouldn’t have had it otherwise.

 

 

***

Two reviews of  'Breath of Africa' 

By 'Reading Otter' on March 28, 2014,  Amazon.com 

It is rare to read a novel set in the heart of an important world even, written by someone who was an eye-witness This novel contains several threads set against the background of an awakening African independence. The new order is mirrored in personal relationships. Who will accept it and who will be swept away by it? The old ways will prevail, they will not lie down and die but will they succeed?
This is also a very moral tale by someone who obviously loves the country and her descriptive powers made me feel that I was there. I havenever been to Africa but now feel I know it better.

By R. Nicholson-morton on July 15, 2013,  on Amazon.com

I fell in love with the continent of Africa as an adolescent and was fortunate to visit a couple of countries there some years ago. This is familiar to me, evoking the sounds, smells and sights, and written with heart.

Spanning almost thirty years, this novel follows the trials and tribulations of Caroline, a girl from a privileged background in Kenya. Her childhood with best friend Teresa is scarred by the State of Emergency that existed due to the Mau Mau uprising. Two other significant characters are Charles Ondiek, a farm labourer who aspires to study in Oxford and Mwangi, a wielder of effective black magic curses. Interwoven in the story is Kenya's transition to independence under Jomo Kenyatta.

`The great canopy of sky overwhelmed her; she breathed in deeply, savouring the immensity of the scene. The breath of Africa filled her being. This was her country, her home.' This quotation comes from p92 - but the breath of Africa permeates the entire book and certainly reminds me of Doris Lessing's 'The Grass is Singing' in the depth of feeling by Jane Bwye for the dark continent.

Despite tragedy and disappointments, Caroline survives, an example of fortitude in an uncertain world.

Breath of Africa is a novel of recent history that sheds light on the place and the period. There's a useful glossary at the back.

About Jane Bwye. 

Jane Bwye, an intermittent freelance journalist who lived for fifty-five years in Africa, has dedicated her book Breath of Africa, to the people of Kenya. Described as “a hymn of joy to Kenya,” it can be bought from amazon.com and amazon.co.uk, or the publishers

http://www.crookedcatbooks.com/.

 

 

 

 

You can read more about the book on Jane’s website and blog:

http://janebwye.com/breath-of-africa

 

 

Jane Bwye's second novel will be launched on 7th October, 2014; not the sequel – yet – but a glimpse of the pain of being in a situation where you never wanted to be.

https://www.facebook.com/events/284107581774947/

Boy beaten for refusing to be confirmed into the Catholic Church.

Boy beaten for refusing to be confirmed into the Catholic Church.


Yes, it did happen. It was a nun who did the beating. It was around 1960.


She unbuckled her belt. I felt her iron grip on my upper arm. Then I felt the first stinging blow. My blood thawed, then boiled. I welded my teeth together and commanded my vocal chords to be still. I ordered the little voice in my head to repeat over and over, “You can’t hurt me, you stupid evil bitch . Enjoy this, because you will never beat me again.” She beat me more savagely than I had ever been beaten before. She commenced the beating in her office, but I tried to run and she followed me and beat me in the hallway . I ran to the asphalt quadrangle between the kitchen and the playground. She followed me there and made a ceremony of beating me in front of fifty-eight pairs of watching eyes, stopping all pretence of play. She beat me with the buckle end of her belt, and it cut my skin. She beat me until I fell to the ground, then she paused and ordered me to rise and beat me until I fell again. When, finally, I could not rise again, she thrashed and flogged, and when I curled up in a little ball to try to protect my tenderest parts from the blows, she kicked me again and again with that heavy black boot. All the while she shouted at me that I would take the Catholic faith, if she had to beat me to within an inch of my life to make me.

When she was done with me, a herculean six-foot-one-inch one-hundred-and-seventy-seven-pounds of black-robed, leather-booted crone collapsed against the kitchen door huffing and snorting, her face ashen, her wimple sweat-soaked, and her lips and chin sagging. The strap fell from her grip. While I lay consumed with an agony more terrible than I could ever have imagined suffering, and with a murderous rage more intense than I could ever have conceived it possible to feel, the Mother raised her hands to clutch her chest and closed her eyes.

The next day , I was called to the Mother Superior’s office to be advised I would be sent to an Anglican Boys’ Home in a small town about an hour away.

And that was very good. It meant that Paul did not go to St. Vincent’s , a boys' home in Westmead, run by priests.  Even then, the boys knew that the priests liked to rape those they were supposed to be looking after.

It is strange. I always  viewed the 1950s and 1960s as civilised times in Australia. It was an era of prosperity. Certainly there were poor - there are always poor for whatever reason. But most people of that time were enjoying a standard of living far better than their parents, and improving all the time. They were good times.  So to hear about a child being taken from his parents to an institution, and then treated very badly indeed - it is a shock. An eye-opener, and something that makes me furious even now.  For most of the culprits are still alive, and have never been punished.  They are even revered - nuns. Supposed to be so sweetly serenely devout.  The wicked women in this true book gives the lie to that fabrication.  

This book is truth - though names are changed to protect the guilty and occasionally the innocent who don't like their circumstances being made public. So truth, but somewhat fictionalised.  





A hit on the head with a pencil case began Paul Wilson's lifelong battle against the system and the pencil-pushers who tormented him... but nothing could break his indomitable spirit. Paul was a fifth generation, native-born white Australian, and a stolen child. Bureaucrats stole him twice. So-called ‘women of God’ and a misguided carer stole his identity, his heritage and his self-respect. Journey into the home and lives of a battling Aussie bush family and weep over cruel injustice that breaks a mother’s heart and kills a father’s soul. Witness child abuse and deprivation in an almost Dickensian world. Meet foster parents whose dedication and caring gives orphans and waifs hope for a future. Follow Paul’s struggle through adult life, sharing his and his family’s pains and joys. Celebrate his triumphs. Mourn his foolishness. Admire his strength and courage as he fights continuing injustice, haunted by demons from his past and nursing an insatiable thirst for revenge. A story that illustrates the beauty and strength of the human spirit and the power of family love.



A recent review.

By Books That Sow: Strength, Character & Diversity on April 3, 2013

Format: Kindle Edition

"The Pencil Case" a definite must read, is a spell-bounding, page turner based on a partially fiction, but well-told story about a young boy and his sister's unfortunate fate of life. This pair were removed from their parents who loved them more than life, and thrown to people who cared less, but why?

If parents are financially impoverished does it mean that they don't love their children and can't provide properly for them? How healthy could it have been to be placed into an orphan life full of cruel evil nuns who beat and tormented sweet little children, and emotionally scarred and ripped them of any chances of a wholesome and balanced life?

Follow author Lorraine Cobcroft, who is a skillful writer that told of a story that she has heard from her husband, and carried into her own adult married life in a very unique way. It takes an adept and proficient writer to weave a story on paper from another's perspective while allowing the reader to paint a strong vivid picture of past tragic accounts.

Because part of her husband's life spilled over into Lorraine's life, she had to feel the pain as she scripted her manuscript. I can only imagine her trickled emotions as she managed to write, revise and edit her book chapter after chapter.

As an African-American, I am happy that I had a chance to read this heartrending story. It definitely sanctioned me to gain a different cultural perspective as I embellished my understanding of how other races of people experienced prejudice and unfairness within our diverse society.

"The Pencil Case" should make its way as a very prominent and popular stage play one day. I hope to have the opportunity to be in the audience for its opening debut.

I cannot see this as a stage-play, but maybe a film. It is an important book, and should be a required read for any Australian.  These are things that should be known.  With the ongoing  Royal Commision into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, much of it by the Catholic Church, more people are talking of it, and more people are talking about the evil done by that once respected organisation known as the Catholic Church. There were priests whose crimes of child sex abuse lasted 40 and 50 years!  And all the time, the priest was not only protected, but allowed to continue abusing children - maybe transferred if the complaints became too loud.  

I hope that one day the wicked people who so abused a boy - many boys, many girls - will be made to pay. At the very least, they should face what they did. I do not believe in any sort of a heaven. If there was, these 'brides of Christ' would not make it. Did they believe?  Who knows?

The Pencil Case is  by Lorraine Cobcroft;

The book is available from most online sellers, including Amazon. 

http://www.amazon.com/Pencil-Case-Lorraine-Ann-Cobcroft/dp/0980571413/

http://www.bookdepository.com/Pencil-Case-Lorraine-Ann-Cobcroft/9780980571417

 https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/300714

                                         

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-pencil-case-lorraine-cobcroft/1114999259?ean=9780980571417

 

'Lionel's Wedding' is not yet available. Publication date, 17th October, 2014.