Shooting Butterflies
Page 38
Donovan Maskell, who shared so much with me, and scrounged photographs, etc, in South Africa from friends to share in my research.
To the boys who left school in the time of compulsory conscription, my thoughts were with you a lot while I wrote this book. You began your military training as school boys and came home men and heroes.
South African Special Forces League (Recces) for your information and your help. I couldn’t have given my hero Wayne a better family to grow into a man in. Thank you especially to the Webmaster of recce.co.za, who was so helpful and prompt with his replies to my search for information. For sharing tales of life within the Forts at that time, for stories of Terry the lion and general information on being a Recce.
To everyone who knew and loved the real Terry the lion so much and made space in your hearts for him. I don’t know if his happy ending here helps, but I like to think he was just fine after you left him – remember always he was one of you and would have survived at all costs!
To the real Kwasi, who I met in a shopping centre in Caboolture, Australia, and inspired a character with his hair, thank you for being the beautiful man you are.
To the real Jameson at Ivory Lodge, Zimbabwe, the inspirational name behind Shilo Jamison Khumalo. Thank you for being so patient with my sons, and for entertaining my Isinkwe with tales of the Africa bush, you have a heart as big as Zimbabwe herself. I will bring my ‘bushbaby’ for another visit, so you can teach us how to make those beautiful elephant hair bracelets.
To the real people of Karoi who on their Facebook page answered so many questions about the town for me.
To my cousin Albert Durant who gave me a condensed version of growing tobacco in Zimbabwe, in four short hours by phone, and whose amazing farming ability has survived a move to a new continent. You are a true farmer, Alby, and I love you.
To Tjaart Boshoff, from Ditjabe Wildlife Services, who spoke at length to some mad woman author on his mobile. For the crash course in translocating different animals, and for being so patient with me running scenarios by him, and for explaining the live game trade in South Africa. For planting the majestic sable in my thoughts and for your tales you told me. To running fast and learning from mistakes as you learnt on the ground in a business that grew in a rapidly changing society.
To my daisy chain of ex-South African and Zimbabwean ladies on my island who support me through the good and the not so good. How you won’t let me forget how bad my Afrikaans is, but don’t care. Thank you for long lunches, and never letting me change. Especially to Ess Grubb, Jauline Rene Benson, Siobhan Graham and Petro Grobbelaar for all you help in spellings in Afrikaans, Zulu and sayings, and to Jauline, who first told me about the name Buffel in a string of swear words I had asked her for. Thank you to Jauline, Siobhan and Petra for being beta readers and fitting my deadlines into their lives.
Sam Eeles, for your beta reading, correction of my spelling and grammar, and also for putting up with me when I haven’t had enough sleep, and when I’m lost in my own creative world.
Rachel Hyndes from Boot Camps Australia, who tries so hard to help me make healthy choices and just keep showing up to get fitter. And everyone at boot camp who see me at my most vulnerable, thanks for the constant encouragement.
Leonie Tyle, who first read a version of this story as a young adult novel years ago, and told me that the real story hidden inside was of Josha’s parents. For always encouraging me, and for continually believing in me as an author as well as the CYA Conference organiser.
Dr Sue Eaglesham, psychologist, for your advice on characterisation of PTSD. Thank you for your professional opinion, guidance and help on making my character Buffel believable. But more importantly, for your friendship.
Dr Emile Brits, GP, for your advice on pituitary adenoma. For your friendship through the years and then for smiling when I asked to upgrade you to a neurologist and use your name, for not shooting me down in flames of technical jargon as to why I couldn’t!
Wendy Skidmore, for answering even my most untactful question honestly about unwed teenage pregnancy during that time, to her husband, Shane, who is by her side still today. For proving that teenage love is real and worth risking your heart on because it can be forever.
To my mum-in-law, Caroline Clark, for doing general housework, the washing, the folding, the ironing of work shirts, the dishes, and everything else while I was rewriting the main body of this book and you were supposed to be on holiday. Thank you, your help doesn’t go unnoticed and is always appreciated.
To my dad-in-crime, William Clark, for doing the school runs, the grocery shopping, the weeding, taking out the bins, watching the forecasts to ensure the boats are tied down in stong wind warnings, and generally picking up the slack while I was writing this book and you were visiting on holiday. Thank you for just being you.
To my son Kyle, who did my original electronic mud maps – thank you for making the life of the design team at Harlequin easier so they didn’t have to read my handwriting for most of the process.
To my son Barry, who watches my type of TV programs with me, and often figures out who the killer is before me. For discussing the villains in my stories repeatedly with me, mostly during the school run, and who doesn’t mind going over and over different scenarios with me. Because he decided that Buffel was a ‘collector’, and it pushed my imagination further, to darker places.
To staff at Harlequin Mira Australia, thank you!
Sue Brockhoff, who bought Shooting Butterflies after a conversation without a full synopsis. I love you for that as I’m totally useless at those. Thank you for your belief in me and for your help in growing me as an author.
Annabel Blay, who is so great at answering emails so promptly, and for whom nothing is ever too much to ask.
Glenda Downing, for your help in making my stories sparkle in the real world, and in helping shape my book into a better story.
Lilia Kanna, who held my novice hand most of the way through My Brother-But-One and made me want to publish more titles with Harlequin, because nothing was ever too much or too hard for her.
The design team, my cover fairies, thank you! May I now upgrade you to gods?
FACT VS FICTION
Hanging sacrifices of children in the muti and witchdoctor trade in Africa are real. The details and ritual I have built around this are fictional.
The Shona name for the Sinoia Caves (Chinhoyi Caves) is Chirorodziva, Pool of the Fallen. The Shona believe that there are ancestors sleeping in this pool, and that you shouldn’t throw a stone into the water as the spirits will catch the stone and a curse will fall on to the stone thrower. The sacrifices and further superstitions I have built around these beliefs are fictional.
The Rhodesian Philological Operations Unit – POU – was real. The motto Tiri Tose was real. The details and the deeds of my PSYOPS and atrocities they committed are fictional.
Terry the lion in Fort Droppies was real. Please see www.recce.co.za/terry-s-pictures for pictures of his interaction with the troops and some of their first-hand accounts of what Terry got up to within their Fort. Obviously my characters’ interactions with Terry are fictional.
PTSD, post-traumatic stress disorder, is real. The term was first used by anti-Vietnam War activists and the anti-war group Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW) in the mid 1970s, but was only formally recognised by the Committee of Reactive Disorders, USA, in 1980. Today many people are diagnosed with PTSD, and while some seek the help they require, many still don’t.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
TINA MARIE CLARK
Born in Zimbabwe, Tina Marie completed her primary school years at boarding school in Bulawayo, but on weekends and holidays, her time was spent exploring their family ranch in Nyamandhlovu, normally on the back of her horse. Her teenage years were totally different to her idyllic childhood. After her father died, the family of five women moved to Kokstad, a rural town at the foot of the Drakensberg Mountains in South Africa, where she lived in the boardi
ng school hostel as her home. In winter she walked to school in the snow and could never get warm, and in summer she sweated having to wear an impractical, but smart, blazer on the same trail.
She began writing fiction when she moved to the UK while being a stay-at-home mum to her two sons, following a suggestion from her husband Shaun during a trip to Paris, and she hasn’t looked back.
Now living on a small island near Brisbane in Queensland, Australia, Tina Marie combines her passion for story telling with her love for Africa. When not running around after the men in her life, she gets to enjoy her hobbies, which include boating, reading, sewing, travel, gardening, and lunching with her friends. (Not necessarily in that order!)
Passionate about Africa, different cultures and wildlife, most of Tina Marie’s books are set somewhere on that ancient continent.
Readers are welcome to find Tina on social media:
Facebook Page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/TMClark-Author/130010083845439
Twitter: @TinaMarieClark2
Or visit on her website: www.tmclark.com.au
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ISBN: 9781488742675
TITLE: Shooting Butterflies
First Australian Publication 2014
Copyright © 2014 by T.M. Clark
All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilisation of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the permission of the publisher:
Harlequin Enterprises
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
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