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

Trumpeting for Joy

 I like happy stories anytime of the year, but particularly during holiday times.  And so I rejoiced along with the elephants upon learning of TEAPA, the Traveling Exotic Animal Protection Act, that was introduced in Congress in November.  We are not the first country to consider it.  In fact, we are at the end of a long list after Bolivia, Austria, India, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Sweden, Portugal and Slovakia that already have passed measures that ban wild animals in circus acts.

     I share Jay Kirk's feelings, "If you're like me, you find the spectacle of animals at a circus not only disturbing but weirdly embarrassing.  It has to do with knowing that the only reason these animals have suffered is in order to learn, let's admit it, a fairly lame set of tricks, especially when we are truly eager to see the acrobats and trapeze artists.  The paid entertainers."  Jay Kirk is the author of the just-published "Kingdom Under Glass:  a Tale of Obsession, Adventure, and One Man's Quest to Preserve the World's Great Animals."
     The documentation of what amounts to torture for these animals is sickening.  The massive elephants, who can walk 15 miles a day in their natural habitat, are confined in overheated trucks for long periods of time over what can be 50 weeks of the year going from circus location to circus location.  The ways they are "trained" to do stupid tricks involve other tools of torture -- bullhooks, whips, metal pipes, and kicks.  The spirits of these majestic animals are broken to make them more compliant.
     This bill will not ban circuses, but is being fought by spokespeople for Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Bailey circus on the basis of taking away jobs provided by the 141-year old family business.  However, Kirk points out that circus animal trainers often hold a variety of jobs within a circus and will still be needed.  And, the circus did survive phasing out the cruel freak shows.  Besides, what about all those other countries ahead of the U.S. who have banned it?
     I learned about TEAPA at the same time as I read that elephant rides at our local zoo have been stopped.  The reality of an elephant going on a rampage loaded with children was all too scary and possible.  Personally, I believe it's better for the children to see the giant elephants as intelligent animals that should be respected rather than as a huge toy to play with.
     I lost my admiration for Walt Disney many years ago when I had neighbors who had worked for Disney.  They told me of the horrible ways that live animals (before computer characters were possible) were forced to do what a script required.  Some even met untimely ugly deaths if they didn't comply.  Years later, when I was at a zoo in Israel, I remember watching a camel cry -- at least that is what it looked and felt like to me.  In China, I watched in horror as bears dressed in frilly clothes stood on their hind legs with a large chain around their neck as people snapped photos.  A lion was paraded on a float as a supposedly dangerous animal, but it was easy to see the animal was paralyzed and close to death.
     I was never a big fan of the circus, and I particularly hated zoos after I went on a safari in Kenya where we had to search for the animals in their natural environment.  TEAPA won't change all the cruelty to animals, but it's a worthwhile start.  Hooray!


Comments?? E-mail Suellen at ZimaTravels.com