My Australian Heart Is Broken

Early last week, the national broadcaster down here in Australia - the Australian Broadcasting Corporation - broadcast a documentary on it's "Four Corners" program which has, literally and figuratively, broken Australia's heart.

Australian current affairs stalwart Kerry OBrien, host of Four Corners.

The hour long documentary titled "A Bloody Business" exposed the slaughtering practices that are undertaken in Indonesian abattoirs where a large portion of Australia's cattle are exported to. Australia's live export industry is worth many billions of dollars annually to it's economy and our beef is the envy of many nations around the world.

The practices that were documented in the "Four Corners" were not the humane slaughter of prime beef cattle.

It was unmitigated, heinous torture.

Footage obtained by the investigative team at "Four Corners" and by a lone animal rights activist - who spent many months travelling throughout Indonesia compiling video documentary evidence - was presented in a no holds barred document.

It showed the absolutely deplorable conditions inside at least 11 Indonesian abattoirs. It showed workers kicking, beating, whipping and gouging the eyes of Australian cattle as workers tried to force the cattle to go into the slaughter boxes installed by the Australian industry, with Australian Government support. The cattle were, of course, quite visibly terrified. And this all occurred before the animals had been slaughtered.

These cattle had ropes tied around their legs whilst held in a special pen and, once the pen was opened they were forced out onto a concrete ramp where they were sprayed with water in order to trip them up and get them onto the ground. Then, without the usual practice of stunning these beasts, the workers moved and slit their necks - often with a blunted knife and the dismemberment begins.

The screams of terror bellowing from these animals were more chilling than any horror movie could conjure up.

In one instance, a hapless cow - so panic stricken, managed to break loose from it's ropes and and go on a rampage through the abattoir. This was AFTER it's neck had been slit and blood was gushing everywhere. It's head nearly falling off completely, it tried ramming the workers surrounding it and it took a full 3 to 4 minutes before the animal collapsed to the concrete, where it was set upon by the workers and taken apart - still alive.

The following video shows in detail what I am talking about and I have to warn you, it is harrowing viewing so please watch only if you have a strong constitution. 

Even before the "Four Corners" program ended last Monday night, the nation went into a collective spasm of shock, outrage and grief. Politicians offices were inundated with telephone calls and emails from openly traumatized citizens begging for action. The domestic news wires went absolutely ape shit and the doco became the leading story, receiving blanket coverage across the land. 

Our government, apparently having known that the shit was about to hit the fan, was caught completely unprepared for the depth of the community's reaction and was forced to act - albeit reluctantly. The fact that they had to even argue the toss over what to do about this is a fucking travesty in itself. For the time being all live exports of Australian cattle to Indonesia have been suspended pending an inquiry. There is a significant movement emerging seeking to terminate the live export trade with Indonesia permanently.

And this is how it has been for almost a week since.

Now, you could argue that no animal slaughter is humane and that what we do in the killing and eating of animals is torture. But I don't agree with that. 

Here in Australia, we take a good measure of pride in our animal welfare practices - from the farm gate to the dinner table. We have some of the finest cattle stations in the world. We have representative bodies like the RSPCA who work closely with the cattle industry to ensure that the welfare of animals is paramount. I know abattoirs and the people who work in them and for better or for worse, Australian abattoirs are among the best in the world. Their practices have at their core, the highest regard for the animal and the process of slaughter is swift, it is painless and it is clean. The animals do not experience pain once they have been stunned and the process of butchering the animal for market is almost surgical in its swiftness.

Humans eat meat and many of us enjoy it. I certainly do and I don't deny for a second that I don't consider where my meat has come from. However, what "Four Corners" revealed last Monday night was one of the most shocking and horrific acts of human cruelty I have ever witnessed. And I won't soon forget it - nor will many millions of my countrymen. 

An argument was made by those working in the Indonesian abattoirs was that the method of slaughter employed by them was the Islamic Halal method, mandated as law by the Islamic Religion. This has, thankfully, been roundly discredited by everyone - including reasoned Islam itself. 

Australia's live export industry future is now in doubt and rightly so. Though the industry is calling for calm and farmers are grappling with their consciences, we cannot allow this Indonesian barbarism to continue. To my absolute dis-fucking-belief, our government is debating this whole issue as though it actually doesn't know how to proceed. If we do proceed, then we are complicit in that very barbarism. 

Australia's heart was broken last week. 

Only a sense of decency will repair it.

DFA.

The Romance Reviews features Me.

My feature Interview with Laura over at The Romance Reviews has just gone live and will be featured throughout the month of June on the front page of their site.

I hope you can click on over and have a look at the interview and let me know what you think. I had fun with this one and Laura was keen to explore some of the underlying themes in my writing which I liked a lot.

Here's a little grab from it in which I discuss the thematics of The Hambledown Dream:

"One underlying theme is how the power of music can be a force for good and it can salvage the most wretched of souls if that soul is willing to let it. Reincarnation is a prominent theme in the book also but I kind of bent the rules in relation to how that theme plays out. Usually, stories of reincarnation see an individual move on from what was their life before, of letting go but in THE HAMBLEDOWN DREAM, reincarnation was more an obstacle or a challenge put in front of the protagonist in his quest to find his way home, back to where he belongs..."

 DFA.

Planting The Seed - First Look At "Seed" by Ania Ahlborn.

This week I am particularly buzzed to be presenting Ania Ahlborn, a totally rockin' it indie author from Albuquerque, New Mexico. Ania is going to be one of the standout new talents of 2011 - I just have a particular feeling about her. Ania has already established an engaging platform as an author, has garnered a dedicated an loyal following via her blog "21st Century Author" and is about to launch onto the world stage with her debut novel "Seed" - an inventive and refreshingly original horror novel - which hits June 1st across a number of platforms.

So here's the guff on "Seed"

Jack Winter has a secret...he's spent his entire life running from something no one can see.

After two decades, he's sure he's escaped the shadow that haunted his childhood. That is, until his youngest daughter, Charlie, begins to change.

After a sudden highway accident and a flash of soulless eyes, Jack has no choice but to watch his little girl drown in what he's sure is a family curse.

Jack begins to realize that he never outran the darkness. It's just been hiding, waiting for the perfect moment to make a reappearance...

But this time, it hasn't come only for Jack. This time, it wants them all.

Now, I've had the chance, to preview a copy of "Seed" and I have got to say, this is one seriously fine and spine chillingly effective literary work.

Ania has a very visual style of writing - that is to say - I found myself immersing myself in the the imagery and the atmosphere of her story right from the first page. Her hook was sharp, cinematic even and I have to say, from the outset, "Seed" seriously scared the shite out of me - in a totally good way. The novel is resplendent with some good old fashioned psychological tension that will have you closing the doors, making sure they're locked and making that last two...or three checks of the curtains just to make sure the darkness from outside doesn't get inside. "Seed" is described as being in the spirit of Stephen King and Joe Hill but I think there is a freshness Ania brings to the genre that is very original and thus attractive. Make no mistake, Ania Ahlborn is already right the way up there.

In the lead-up to the June 1st release of "Seed", I got to sit down with Ania and talk a little bit about her writing journey, the genesis of Seed and her blog "21st Century Author" where she compels her readers to think outside of the box...and invites some pretty passionate discussions 

1. It's a real pleasure to be able to have a chat with you Ania. Tell me a little bit about your writing journey with "Seed"?

Hi, Dean. First off, thanks for having me. My journey with “Seed”… lets see. I’ve always been fascinated by demonic possession. Does it really exist? Is it just some made-up phenomenon?  It’s something that truly scares me. The concept of losing free will, let alone to something that’s less than human… it’s a terrifying concept. Of course, my weird attraction to squirmy little girls led me to watching movie after endless possession movie, and quite frankly, I was disappointed every time. They normally start out great, but quickly spiral into cheesy horror, and that always gets me; it gets me to the point of making me mad. The concept has such potential for terror, but these movies… the books, they all crap out in the end, like they’re afraid to truly explore the ‘what if’ of the situation. What if demons are real? What if they could take over our bodies? Would we honestly think we could beat them with some chanting and a splash of holy water?

With “Seed”, I wanted to explore that what if, but I wanted to push it further. Not everyone believes in Heaven and Hell, but everyone believes in the innocence of children. I took those two concepts and mashed them together… and refused to let a Priest anywhere near it.

2. I certainly can't argue with that. You are described as someone who enjoys the spookier things in life. What kinds of things or experiences have fuelled your penchant for the spooky?

This is actually kind of funny at how relevant it is to “Seed”. I’ve always been a bit of a ‘weirdo’. One of the houses my parents and I occupied when I was around five or six was a creepy-looking A-frame in Ruidoso, New Mexico. The place is tiny… just a village, and I wasn’t exactly the type of kid to have a lot of friends, so I spent a good amount of time amusing myself. Our house was right next door to Forest Lawn cemetery—nothing but a chain-link fence separating the two properties. Leave it to me to find a hole in that fence and crawl through it every day. And leave it to that experience to make a grand appearance in “Seed” itself.

Also creepily relevant: the first time I was truly terrified. I think I was nine or ten, and it was New Years Eve. My parents decided they were going to attend a New Years Eve party, which left me and my cousin (only one year my elder) alone in the house for an entire night. Earlier that day my mom took us to a video rental place. At the time my parents had only been in the States for a handful of years and weren’t fluent in English, nor were they too good at reading and writing; I say this because I highly doubt my mother would have ever approved The Exorcist otherwise. I mean, if the cover had had a picture of a sickly grinning demon girl on it, my mom would have flipped. But it didn’t. It had a silhouette of a Priest walking up some steps. It must be a Bible story, right?

That was the first time, and the last time for about two decades, that I saw The Exorcist. You’d think an experience like that would sway me from having anything to do with horror again. Of course, it didn’t.

3. I still have to peel myself off the ceiling when ever I watch the Exorcist. In "Seed", you have a richly drawn cast of characters. Was there one character in particular you found yourself drawn to specifically/more than the others? Why?

As a writer yourself, you know as well as I do that there’s a little piece of us in every character we write. I threw the terror I felt that New Years night into Jack, the main character. I put my smart-assed personality into six-year-old Charlie, party for comic relief, partly for creep factor. I was a really quiet kid, so I put that into Charlie’s sister, Abigail. And I’m sure if you ask my husband, I’m a handful to deal with at times, so I put my tendency to overreact in Aimee.

As far as being drawn to a particular character, it’s a close tie between Jack as a kid and Charlie. There’s something about the spirit of those two that I caught that really resonates with me.

4. They are two fascinating characters indeed and I enjoyed observing them in the story Ania. The novel has a taut story line and you have balanced the tension factor brilliantly. What is your "method" for constructing your stories? Are you compelled to have a detailed plan before you write or do you let the story guide you?

I didn’t really have a set plan for “Seed” when I sat down to write it. The only thing I knew for sure was that I wanted two stories running parallel to one another. I’m a big fan of stories within stories. It keeps the narrative fresh and interesting, and that was my ultimate goal. The second thing I knew I wanted to incorporate was the South. I have a ridiculous love for Louisiana. Those who have been there understand the magic that buzzes through the air. I wanted to capture that to give the story a gritty down-home feel—almost a sense of warmth despite the horror that would occur. Otherwise, there was no plan. I knew the characters, I knew the end result, and that was it. I’m a believer of allowing the story to tell itself.

5. Oh - I could kiss you right now - I love it!!  Now, you have really captured my imagination with your blog, 21st Century Author, and you make some fearless observations about the state of the writing/author social network, which I applaud. What drives those observations?

My uncontrollable snark.

But seriously… the world is getting weird. People are afraid to say what they mean; they’re self-conscious of their own opinions, and while a level of ‘filtering’ is definitely required, people have gotten scared to speak their mind. I think its bullshit. I mean, hell, if everyone was scared of everyone else and what other people think, I would have never written “Seed”, because who wants to piss off the God-fearing church-goers of the world? Don’t get me wrong, I don’t stir the pot on purpose. It isn’t like I sit at my computer and think ‘well, today I’m going to write an outrageous post that will piss off a lot of people.’ That takes way too much planning and energy. I write my blog posts on the fly. Sometimes they’re decently agreeable. Sometimes I spout off whatever’s on my mind and they become a bit hilarious. Sometimes, yeah, they piss people off… but whatever. Being passionate about what you believe reminds you that you’re alive, and I’m definitely alive.

6. Tou-fricken-che! I say! So, what are your hopes for "Seed"? Do you have in mind some sort of bench mark that you'd like to achieve with the novel or are you taking more of a wait and see approach?

Do I have hopes for “Seed”? Absolutely. I shouldn’t be in this game if I don’t. Do I want it to be wildly successful? Yes. Do I want to be in the top 100 Kindle books? Um, yes please. Do I think it’s going to happen overnight? A girl can dream, can’t she; but no. I know these things take time, and I know my patience will be tested. Now, rather than waiting for rejection slips I’ll be waiting for daily sales counts. But I’d rather be waiting on sales counts than for some overstuffed NYC agent to send me a scrap of paper telling me I’m not good enough. In my mind, I’ve already succeeded. I’ve written a book that, personally, I think is damn good. I have a killer cover and I’ve already built a pretty solid platform for myself, even before the book’s release. For a debut novel with nobody but myself to rely on, I think I’ve done a bang-up job. Will that translate into sales? God, I hope so. Will it stop me if it doesn’t? Not a chance. I’m as relentless as I am opinionated. I’ve wanted this to be my career for a long time, and now that I have a chance… I’d be stupid to let it slip through my fingers.

Ania, this has been an absolute blast! Congratulations on the upcoming release of "Seed" and I sincerely hope that we will be seeing more of you in the near future.  

So there you have it. "Seed" will hit the shelves this coming June the 1st and I highly recommend you purchase the book and visit Ania's blog to keep abreast of all her happenings in the meantime.

As I said earlier, watch out for this girl - she is definitely one of my #authorsyoushouldknow.

DFA.