Free to download in July for 10th anniversary: a book with an eco message showing the nice side of wolves to counter the historic demonising, with a Wizard of Oz fantasy theme mixed with the factual forced migration of British children around the Commonwealth for a century, which had recently been told in the book/film Oranges and Sunshine.
Book summary blurb on Smashwords:
Rebel without a cause, werewolf without claws, Grey travels across all regions of Oz (Australia) in a comedy-fantasy parody of the Wizard of Oz. It is not witches that hunt the protagonist for a ruby slipper, but monotheists desperate to get their hands on an emerald cork hat. There’s no scarecrow, tin man and cowardly lion searching for brain, heart and courage; instead, we have Elle McPherson, Angry Anderson and Bon Scott inspired characters needing a body, mind and spirit confidence boost. Will Grey and the intrepid travellers elude their pursuers and reach their destination? This book provides amazing action and surreal comedy in poetry and prose before reaching a cohesive and thrilling ending.
Smashwords explained: The ebooks on Smashwords can be read online using online readers, or they can be downloaded to other reading devices such as the iPhone, Amazon Kindle, Barnes & Noble Nook, or to other ereading devices.
As mid-winter Christmas and other holidays approach, the latest episode of your favourite werewolf travels Australia to a Wizard of Oz theme travel quest satirical comedy epic couldn’t be timed better.
Australiana: a cork hat on a sixpack of VB (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
I looked around at my travel companions, and they all nodded in unison. I had not doubted them. I told Emily the emerald cork hat we would be proud to join her in the battle of Bri’s bane.
She thanked us, before inviting us to join the crowd in the cavern. She told me she thought I’d recognise a few faces.
Meeting Old Friends
There were indeed some familiar faces.
Miniature Australian Sheepdog puppy (Photo credit: Just chaos)
I could hardly believe my eyes when they told my mind that Digger and Aussie, two of the first friends I made on the trip, were standing in front of me.
It wasn’t until I’d hugged them that I accepted it as bona fide. After catching up with my canine cohorts I introduced them to Angry, Cathy and Elle; because I hadn’t even met them when I met ol’ Dig and Aus.
It all seemed such a long time ago now, and strange to think that I had landed in Oz all alone.
I was just getting over the surprise of Dig and Aus when there was a tap on my shoulder.
English: Common Wombat (Vombatus ursinus tasmaniensis) on Maria Island, Tasmania, Australia. The entire island is a national park, Maria Island National Park. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
When I looked around I saw yet another of my dear ol’ friends from early in the journey: the very venerable Vombatus Ursinus. It was great to see it looking swell. Vombat the Wombat joined our circle and soon got to know everybody and everything.
Mine’s a Large One
I was about half way through telling Vombat about my journey when the walls started to rumble, and some rocks broke off. Everybody looked at the epicentre with anticipation, while beginning to take guard.
I wondered if it was a bulldozing blitz by Bri’s bane.
Collie Pups (Photo credit: me’nthedogs)
A hole started to appear, and everybody tensed.
As more rocks fell a paw emerged, and then the identity of the new arrivals was revealed.
Why, it was none other than Colin and Ollie, the collie collier twins from Collie.
I’d forgotten what a wacky wordplay voyage it was for the Werewolf of Ozzers up the Oz east coast, and there’s more trailblazing Tasman Sea tomfoolery in this episode.
Throwing Boomerangs in the Fog (Photo credit: johnwilliamsphd)
While it has been pretty plain sailing since Dolphin Bay, this episode sees trouble torpedo the travel quackers quartet’s quest… in the shape of that most Australian of flying weapons: a boomerang.
Yes folks, as an hour-long episode of the most iconic of British soap-operas starts, it’s the start of the Werewolf of Oz Boomerang Beach trilogy, with Coronation Street making a guest appearance.
Hold on to your cork hats, and prepare for lift-off:
123. Corrie Soap before Boomerang Dashes Green Hope
Being in the sea didn’t mean we missed out on seeing land animals. Why, while passing Wommara Avenue we saw a wombat hitch-hiking to the Masai Mara; and on Kalaroo Road we saw a kangaroo either side of LA.
We stopped for a wash at the Corrie Island Nature Reserve, as it was overflowing with soap, and there were lots of spare brushes on the nearby Mungo Brush road.
A replica of the The Rovers Return pub, from the British soap opera Coronation Street. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
We dried off under the whopper wind at the Wind Woppa Reserve.
Feeling refreshed, we ate up the nautical miles at a good rate of knots in the afternoon, and a few hours later reached Boomerang Beach.
That’s when the day started going downhill; or to be more accurate, around and around.
Because once we stepped onto the beach we were thrown up into the air, and spun around at great speed over Elizabeth Beach and The Lakes Way.
I thought, at least we’re heading north, maybe it’s a stroke of good fortune. I saw Green Point ahead, and hoped it might be a sign: maybe we’ll land on a nice patch of green when we reach it.
Boomerang Beach (Photo credit: candiceecidnac)
However, I hadn’t taken the Boomerang part of the beach’s name into consideration. The next moment, the return movement seemed to kick in over the Booti Booti National Park, and we just about reached Green Point before being spun south again.
We gathered pace on the southerly downhill, and before we had time to draw our breaths, we were descending to Boomerang Beach. I hoped the nightmare might end when we returned to the beach, but as soon as we neared the ground we were thrown back into the air for another circuit!
Dolphins seem to want to play all day
it’d be nice if we could leave them that way
respecting them as our intelligent aquatic cousins
and appreciate them teaching us marine biology lessons.
Hi, it’s Greenygrey. It was great to return from a long weekend away yesterday and see a postcard that seems to bear ol’ Wolfhol’s distinctive and almost certainly impossible to forge signature on this blog.
It looks like he’s in a good proud peacock place, which along with the fun introductory poem is nice for today’s blog, as it features a sad episode of the usually satirical comedy literary nonsense filled Werewolf of Oz: Fantasy Travel by Google Maps.
However, as well as being a comedy classic it is also a travel quest epic, and as anybody acquainted with the genre knows, sometimes there’s just got to be a tragedy. And that’s what we have in this episode, a complete and utter unnecessary tragedy.
Hopefully we can learn some lessons from it. Moreover, there’s some great news about Barry the bottlenose dolphin from Kalbarri, called by Grey while passing the Western Australia coast, in tomorrow’s blog.
An adult female bottlenose dolphin with her young, Moray Firth, Scotland (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
So please don’t feel sad tonight, as Barry and family are just a part of the Swan Lake tragedy, and there are many real dolphins in need of consideration and conservation every day.
I shapeshifted into human form after we moored on the edge of Swan Lake, and looked up the Swan Lake tale on Wikipedia before going to Cudmirrah with the people. Barry and family were happy to lounge in the lake.
Swan Lake Cudmirrah Swan Lake
A man approached us on the edge of town and introduced himself as Prince Siegfried. I said I was pleased to meet him, but thought twice about that after his next words.
Pavel Gerdt as Prince Siegfried in the Petipa/Ivanov revival of Swan Lake, St. Petersburg, 1895 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
He said he was about to harpoon me when I was a dolphin; but then he saw me change into a human, and fell madly in love with me.
I thought this Cudmirrah Swan Lake situation could mirror the Swan Lake plot a little too much for my liking.
So I said I was just passing through, and although very flattered, wouldn’t be able to spend any time with him. He looked a tad disappointed, but seemed to accept it.
We continued into Cudmirrah, which is a lovely town in a beautiful setting, and stocked up on provisions for the onward journey.
We were about to leave the lake and head out to open sea, when we saw the prince dive into the far end of the lake. An older woman shouted, ‘Siegfried, no, don’t do it, come back.’
Swan Lake Tragedy
I was shocked, but didn’t want to get involved. Barry said he wanted to help, so he untied his harness, and started swimming toward the prince; his wife and children followed, hot on his tailfluke.
Engraving by J. H. Clark of the harpooning of a whale (c.1814) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
We watched them closely, and paid a heavy price for it. For as our dolphin friends rose out of the water and into the air, half-way there, a salvo of harpoons landed all amongst and around them.
I finally broke free of my harness, and set off to look for our bottlenose buddies, but half-way there I saw them ascending into the ether; clicking and smiling with what looked like love, just the same as when they’d played in the water. It was a scene straight out of Swan Lake, literally and metaphorically.
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Notes
In Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake (1875-1876), Prince Siegfried falls in love with Odette, who is turned into a swan by sorcery. It was inspired by Russian folk tales.
mistYmuse 