AT THE GOING DOWN OF THE SUN

At The Going Down of the Sun hasn’t been published in "real print", but it doesn't matter, because I'll be bringing it out as an Ebook.

This book, a novel of complete fiction but well based in fact,  is about the Australian Lancaster bomber crews who bombed Germany during 1942-1945. They suffered a very high casualty rate and weren't expected to survive more than five missions, although the total for a "tour" after which they could quit was thirty.

I'm very lucky to have met a veteran of thirty missions, a great bloke by the name of Noel Collins, who wrote his own book about his experiences and was more than willing to share them further with me. Unfortunately Noel passed away a few years ago. I was really hoping to get this novel out while he was still with us.

Noel and his crew got shot down on his last mission and spent the last months of the war in a POW camp. His stories of flying among hundreds of aircraft all dropping bombs, or escaping night fighters, or (worst of all, he'd have you believe) avoiding the clutches of half the young women in London- all make up a brilliant tale. Turning it into a novel in the same style as And In The Morning was a task I enjoyed immensely.

Also, there is the father of a close friend of mine. Mike Sand's dad was Desmond Ossiter Sands, who was a navigator in a Lancaster that flew in one of the earlier daylight raids, a particularly famous mission to the Augsberg diesel manufacturing plants. The pilot was John Nettleton. Their aircraft was the only one in their flight of six to return against tremendous odds. Nettleton was awarded the Victoria Cross and Desmond Sands the Distinguished Service Order. Desmond was later shot down on his fortieth mission, survived the war in a POW camp, and finally passed away in 1998. Unfortunately he suffered a car accident in the 1970's which diminished some of his ability, so his personal story has never really been told to a new generation, but his career in the airforce is still an inspiration. Mike has shown me photos, newspaper clippings and his fathers Flight Log Book.

It’s a puzzle that young generations today seem to have a great interest in this sort of history and military tradition- you only have to see how many people travel the pilgrimage to Gallipoli each year to know what I mean. Yet publishers won’t get enthusiastic about this type of fiction.

Well, who needs 'em? It's going to be a great Ebook.

GOD BREATHED IN THEIR FACES

This is my new World War One novel and it's a work in progress. It's a harder, more revealing story about soldiers at Anzac Cove and the Gallipoli campaign. Right now it's a halfway off being finished and I've got a long way to go. I don't know if I'll offer to print publishers or not. I'll finish it first and make that decision afterwards.

GHOST TALES

This is a collection of four "short" horror stories- except none of them are short. One of them called "Footprints In The Snow" is 60,000 words long. That's half a normal-sized novel. Again, I'm converting this into an Ebook and it'll be available very soon.