Let me tell you about my book, “A Family Of Strangers”. It’s a historical saga that traces the life of an Irish convict girl, Kate O’Neal who is transported to Australia in 1793. This novel took me some thirty years to research and write. As I wrote, the words ran away from me. I realised then I’d have a novel taller than all of Leo Tolstoy’s books stacked up in a pile! Reluctantly, I broke up my story to fill several books.

I’m hoping you will find Kate’s story in “A Family Of Strangers” engaging, that it will win your heart so you’ll want to know what happens to her in the sequel(s). Yes, Kate will be an old, old lady, when I’m done with her.

Five years ago I started looking for a publisher. Three agents believed my book had promise and offered me representation, but it took a book packager, Tekno Books to get Thomson Gale’s Five Star imprint to publish it. My novel, in hardcover, is now available for purchase in major bookstores across the United States. It is also available through Amazon.ca, but it may take a few more weeks before it becomes available in other parts of the world.

You are welcome to read the synopsis of my debut novel, and a sample chapter too.

Do check out my book trailer

— a one-and-a-half minute slide show which will, hopefully, make you want to read my novel.

PREQUEL/PROLOGUE

The Prequel to this novel, written in two parts as Prequel Part 1 and Prequel Part 2, is available at Amazon.com as Amazon Shorts and ready for download for 49 cents each.

You can check out my writing style and my story and decide if you wish to continue with Kate’s story in my novel.

If you have already read my novel, you might like to read the backstory to discover how the novel began.
SEQUEL TO “A FAMILY OF STRANGERS”. I am presently working on this. Yes. Kate’s saga continues ….

I have listed some of the online bookshops here so you will be able to compare prices for my book. Since the ISBN has changed from 10 to 13 digits beginning 2007, you may need to type in my “new ISBN” (9781594145438) to access the webpage for my book.

NEW ALTERNATIVE!!

In Australia only

Payment via PayPal/credit card.

I offer my hardcover book (autographed or accompanied by signed bookplate) with two bookmarks at $38.00/copy.

Shipping is by Australia Post (for free), within 24 hours on payment.

Thank you for visiting my website. Maybe you’ll drop in again soon? I would love that.

1. If you have the bandwidth, you can watch my 1:30 minute/26578KB book trailer here. QuickTime Movie

If you have a problem viewing this movie, you may need to update your QuickTime software. You can Download it here

2. I have an updated 1:51 minute/48640KB file of this book trailer that you can view at YouTube. The video downloads faster there and you don’t have to worry about the lack of any plugins. However, the resolution of the images at YouTube is shocking!

To view the book trailer at YouTube, click here YouTube

3. You can view this updated version here too, in Shockwave format (7MB). However, you will require a Shockwave for Director plug-in for your browser to view this version. You can download this plugin for free at Adobe

Then download the Shockwave movie here Book Trailer

4. The final format is Microsoft PowerPoint. The images will be large and clear and the file is 18MB.

If you don’t have MS PowerPoint installed in your computer system, you can download the player from Microsoft: PowerPoint Player

Install the player, then download my book trailer the PowerPoint version

If you’re not familiar with PowerPoint, Click on the “Slide Show” on the Menu Bar when the page is displayed, then click on View Show”. If you wish to stop viewing the show, just hit the Esc button.

If you have comments, I would love the feedback.

The Kangaroo

Marsupials are found mostly in Australia and neighbouring island nations. They include kangaroos, koalas, wallabies, wombats, bandicoots and opossums. The opossum is the only marsupial found in North and South America.

The male kangaroo is called variously as “buck” or “boomer”. The female, a flyer, and the baby, a joey. There are 45 species, ranging in size from the two-pound rock wallaby to the 300-pound red kangaroo.

Kangaroos only respond to moving objects. In the wild, they live in groups or “mobs” of up to 100 kangaroos. They can speed away at 40mph/60kmh from what they perceive as a threat.

The occasions of extreme drought conditions in Australia have caused the kangaroos to adapt. The drought often decimates the kangaroo population, but recovery can be very quick. The female can have three young ones with her at any one time: one as an embryo, waiting to be born, another nursing inside the pouch, and a third still feeding on its mother’s milk. Quite often a population explosion may occur. Man has been forced to resort to the cull, to keep sufficient grazing grounds to meet the demands of both the farm animals as well as the wild, to keep all animal stock healthy.

The Koala

Koalas are nocturnal animals who sleep 80 percent all their lives away. They do not build nests, but sleep in a tree fork or on a high branch. They are marsupials—they raise their young in their pouches—and their closest relative is the wombat.

Koalas weigh 5–10 kg. The heavier ones are found in Victoria. They live between 10 and 20 years, leading a solitary life, except for the times when they mate, and when the mothers raise their young. They also live in communities—next door to each other, and respecting each other’s boundaries.

Sanchona is, as you’ve suspected, a “made-up” name. I make no apologies for this. My photograph on the right shows you what I look like, just more spruced up than usual!

As a child, I learned in my history class that the treatment of malaria lay in drinking the tea made from the bark of the cinchona tree. I fell in love with the word, “cinchona”. When I was asked to find an 8-letter word for a username when I subscribed for an internet service, I jumped at the chance to use this word. I substituted “san”(which happens to be my best friend’s surname) for “cin”, and Sanchona has been my username ever since. It soon became my pseudonym for all my writing. This is why it is listed as the author of my novel.

I’m Australian of course, but it didn’t start out that way. I was born in Malaysia (Alor Star) and educated there. After I graduated with a B.A.(Hons) degree from the University of Malaya in 1968, I worked as a high school teacher for a year before returning to the university to get my teaching credentials. Then I did some travelling—first to New Zealand, then to Australia, England, Europe, Canada and the United States of America before finally settling in Australia. I obtained my M.Comm(MIS) degree from the University of New South Wales in 1991

I’ve worked as a teacher and a secretary. I’ve helped run a small private maternity hospital in Malaysia, and I part-owned and ran a busy supermarket in Sydney.

I am a voracious reader, and have been since I discovered fiction in my early teens. Over the years, I became convinced I could write a novel as good as several I’d enjoyed reading, and better than quite a few that I found absolutely disappointing.

I decided to write a novel about the Chinese in Australia during the gold rush of the 1850s.

While I worked at a “real job”, I began researching material for my novel. As a history graduate, I kept extending my research into Australian history to include that of the United Kingdom, Europe, China and the United States of America, while deepening the research by going further back into history to get a better understanding of the setting for my novel. It struck me then that I should write my story from the start—when Australia was founded. And as I wrote my saga, the words ran away from me. I couldn’t cram the story I had envisaged into one novel. And so I was obliged to divide it into sequels.

Joining an online writer’s workshop taught me a humbling fact—I was a fool. I had written a book, but I knew next to nothing about the technical aspects of writing a novel. Several writers in the workshop became my friends, and they taught me the necessary basics.

I was lucky in my first venture out to secure a literary agent. Sonia Land’s interest in my novel was most encouraging, though no sale resulted from this association. Two other agents thought my novel had promise, but did not manage to sell it either. It took John Helfers of Tekno Books to make the sale.

I am hopeful my first novel which covers the period 1793–1802 will be well-received so I’ll get to tell the rest of my story, especially that of the Chinese in Australia in the 1850s