Author: Silver Dot

Storyteller Bob Maumill, author of Letters from a Hard Country, uses six stories of different length and tone to explore themes of good and evil, reflection, guilt and the torment of regret.

Thylacine is a speculative fiction, crime mystery novel set 30 years in the future. By this time, advanced science and bio-technology have enabled the once extinct Thylacine (commonly known as ‘Tasmanian Tiger’) to be restored to life in the laboratory.

Following this landmark achievement, a research installation has been set up in Tasmania to breed and restore thylacines to their original habitat. Without warning, the entire installation has become the subject of a mysterious raid under the noses of unsuspecting hosts. Kaz Ingham and Stewart Richardson, known to readers from Rodney’s novel “Covert State“, experienced detectives in solving high level crimes, have been called out of retirement to solve this perplexing mystery.

The standout feature of the raid is its boldness, fooling the farm’s hosts into thinking the removal of the installation had been authorised. Delving into the obscure motivations behind the crime proves crucial to solving the mystery.

(*) Minipublishing’s contribution to the publication is a cover design only

The state of our world demands our attention. The effects of climate change are with us. The threat of nuclear catastrophe is ever-present. The number of us sharing our planet’s surface has increased threefold during the last seventy-five years and now tests our planet’s capacity to sustain us all. Biological diversity has long been in decline and its decline continues. The source of all these problems and more is plain for all to see — human activity.
But why have we humans brought these problems on ourselves and on all life? This book attempts to find answers to that question and finds them in the nature of mankind itself. People living a hunter-gatherer way of life respect and conserve the natural world around them. The majority of recent and present generations through the successful application of a succession of technologies — use of fire, domestication of animals and plants, ever-more complex tools, etc. have through natural selection evolved the mental characteristics of intelligence and personality favourable to the manipulation of nature and lost those characteristics that inclined us toward the conservation of nature.
The author, Mark Weatherley, describes this process of psychological evolution step-by-step and supports it with his knowledge and experience of the aspects of Psychology involved. He goes on to describe how the attitude of modern mankind toward nature is reflected in our social manifestations — languages, religions, work, militarism, population growth, relations with other species, nature conservation, and government.

Grace Pemberton’s great great grandchildren are again involved in another war, the Vietnam War. Toby, Lucy and William, great granddaughter Grace and husband Joe’s children become involved as a doctor, nurse and soldier. Toby and Lucy work together to put the wounded Aussie soldiers back together again. Grace is devastated as youngest son William enlists with encouragement from his father Joe who is still in the Army teaching recruits how to use artillery. It is indeed a proud father that sends his sons and daughter off to Vietnam. Grace is not thrilled.
Another great grandchild Ben, father Luke who had fought in the Navy in WWII and mother Joanne see another member of the family go to war. When Archie, the son of Eveline and Michael follows in his father’s footsteps in the RAAF it is almost too much for the family to take when he too joins the conflict in Vietnam.
Heart break is felt by all the family when one young soldier does not return. The experience of the events in that war are written about and felt by the whole family especially when the soldiers return and find themselves not heroes as in other wars. The effect lasts for a very long time until they are finally recognised many years later. A beautiful Vietnamese woman joins the family and has to learn how to integrate into Australia. Many refugees fled South Vietnam after the war, some coming to Australia.
This book is the last in the series of For the Love of Grace. The author hopes you have enjoyed following the lives of the progeny of Grace and Charles Pemberton.

Grace, the great granddaughter of Grace Pemberton is devastated when her husband Joe enlists in World War 11 along with other young men in the family. How proud would the grand matriarch be of the fighting spirit of Michael, Rebecca’s son who joined the RAAF and fought in the Battle of Britain along side Jeremy, his younger cousin. James and Luke join the navy and served for the duration of the war.

               Tragically Steve, brother of younger Grace is killed at Tobruk, saving Joe’s life. The fighting of our Australian soldiers transfers to New Guinea and Joe finds himself on the Kokoda Track where his mates are being killed or taken sick with the various diseases rife in the area. Joe succumbs to malaria and has to be lifted out of this dangerous position. He doesn’t want to return to the fighting having already been injured seriously in the African campaign and now again in New Guinea. What does he do for the duration of the war?

               Great celebrations in Sydney and all around Australia erupt when finally the war is over. What will these young men do with the rest of their lives? What have the women been doing whilst their loved ones were away? Who finds love with a former lover from his past?

               How life changes after the war and our characters rejoice in the new world. Grace is able to return to her chosen field of architecture.  Laura and her husband John return from giving service as doctors at Rocky Creek hospital on the Tablelands in Queensland. A double wedding is planned and life moves on from the tumultuous years of the war.