Precious Moon

I started writing Precious Moon many years ago while I was travelling around South East Asia, having spent the previous few years alternating working in the UK with long trips backpacking around Europe, New Zealand, India and Asia.  I was on my way to Japan, where I’d just accepted a job teaching English.

The primary theme of my story was displacement - that feeling of not quite feeling at home anywhere, and not really wanting to settle down in your place of origin either.

In Precious Moon, Katie and Alex both feel this, for different, fascinating and touching reasons.  Katie won’t go back to Kenya, Alex stays away from England, and both decide to stay in Argentina, despite warnings from the British government that they should leave.

I initially chose to set the story in Argentina because it was a country I was fascinated with in a romanticised way, probably because of books I’d read and films I’d seen and music I’d listened to.  As I researched more, I realised just how deep and profound the country’s history, and in particular recent history, was.  Argentina was the perfect setting and backdrop for the story I wanted to write and themes I wanted to explore.  The wars I wanted to incorporate in my story tied in perfectly with my aims, as well as the time frames linking it with the back flashes to Katie growing up in Kenya.

The story is set in 1982 and the Falklands War has just broken out.  Living in a remote Andean village far from the hostilities down South, Katie and Alex can have no way of predicting how bitter the war will become, and how it will affect their lives, now that they are citizens of the enemy nation.

The Argentinean military Junta supposedly re-ignited the animosity with Britain over the sovereignty over the islands as a way of distracting its people from their disillusionment with their military rule, and to garner popularity.  Argentina had been suffering under their rule of fear since 1976.  Thousands of innocent civilians disappeared in the dead of night, never to be seen of or heard from again.  The Junta denied the existence of any of The Disappeared, and any involvement with the missing people.

Precious Moon explores the traumatising affect of inexplicable disappearances on those left behind; children, parents, lovers all suffer this unanswerable loss.

But Argentina surrenders in the Falklands War, and its people are left bruised, bitter, humiliated, defeated, and anger towards the Junta leads it to step down, and a new nation free of fear can now rise up.

Katie and Alex’s friendships with some of the Argentinean villagers are tested and strained as they insist on remaining in the Andes, despite the fighting in the freezing South Atlantic Ocean.  Precious Moon’s cast of strong characters are fiercely loyal to the country they believe in, and are prepared to fight for liberty from its oppressors.

As the story unravels with unexpected twists providing suspense and intrigue, the characters reveal their complexities, strengths and motivations, as ordinary people who survive and find a way forward in extraordinary circumstances.

Precious Moon is a light and easily readable read that deals with heavy and powerful issues of war, loss, disappearance, courage, escape and exile.  It fluidly takes you backwards and forwards from Kenya in the 60s to England in the 70s to Argentina in the 80s in a manner evocative of the times and places.

It took me about seven years to complete writing, researching and publishing this story as I had an overwhelming necessity to get every detail right, out of respect to the countries and history I wrote about, and the people who would have lived through these eras.

Writing Precious Moon was a wonderful experience; challenging, enlightening and satisfying. 

Now that I’ve published, I’m enjoying interacting with other readers and writers.  Please feel free to connect with me on www.facebook.com/siobhanprattauthor  or on twitter @siobhan_pratt

Siobhan Pratt

A Novel Idea

            My second South American mystery novel, “The Ambivalent Corpse”, is set mainly in Montevideo, Uruguay.  The premise is that our heroes find parts of a dismembered corpse on a rocky stretch of beach in Montevideo, apportioned equally between the Memorial to a German cruiser sunk in World War II and the Memorial to Jews killed in the Holocaust.  Because of the murder victim’s strategic location shared between two antithetical monuments, the Uruguayan press names her “The Ambivalent Corpse”.

            I got the original idea for this book’s title and basic premise when my wife and I took a walk in Montevideo in 1999 and we saw that strange juxtaposition of the two monuments.  As you can tell from the dates, it took a while for me to find the time to sit down and start writing the book.  I remembered the Graf Spee Memorial, which was a favorite spot for snapshot taking among the university students I knew, from my first stretch of living in Montevideo in 1982, but I didn't remember the Holocaust Memorial from my earlier visit.  Perhaps this shouldn't be too surprising since the memorial was first dedicated in 1995.

            The novel's story sort of took over and wrote itself after the third chapter in the first draft (6 chapters long) became the first chapter in subsequent versions.  Because of this change, the action began immediately in the new Chapter 1 thanks to the suggestion of my youngest son, who I asked for comments.  After I recovered from his criticisms, it was clear that he was correct.  Much of the back-story and details came later, during editing of the book and after some friends read the later drafts and gave me helpful feedback.  Part of one of those first two chapters, with a bit of revision, is tentatively included in the fifth book in the series, currently in the plot development stage.  As we say in California, recycle, reuse, revise, and repeat.

            The setting for all four of my novels thus far has been South America, especially Uruguay and Northwest Argentina, both places my wife and I lived during a sabbatical I took several years ago.  I’ve been back to Montevideo and Salta, Argentina, site of my first novel, “The Empanada Affair”, several times since then for collaborative research and teaching programs there, so I know the locales, the food, and the people I use for the books pretty well.  My third book in the series is set in Chile and Peru, and a fourth novel is set in Montevideo and Santiago, Chile, all places I have spent time in thanks to the various scientific collaborations that began during our sabbatical leave.

            I try to write books that are fast moving and entertain the reader while introducing them to an exotic region that is a long way from home for most English speakers.  Montevideo, Salta, Machu Picchu, and Iguazu Falls are characters in these books, and the novels will have succeeded for me if readers say that they’d like to visit these places because they seem so vivid and real.  I believe my strengths are in inventing interesting plots, paying attention to story details, and trying to entertain the reader.

            I’d love to see you pick up a copy of one of my novels, read and enjoy it, recommend it to your friends, and write a good honest review that you publish wherever you purchased the book.  
Jerold Last 
My (blog) website:  http://rogerandsuzannemysteries.blogspot.com
All my books are available on Amazon:
The Matador Murders 

 

The Surreal Killer  

The Ambivalent Corpse   
The Empanada Affair