Читать книгу Down a Country Lane - Gary Blinco - Страница 4

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Gary Blinco grew up in the bush on the Darling Downs in Queensland during the fifties and early sixties. His large family existed in poverty stricken and primitive circumstances in those days, and the author credits his harsh beginnings with his insight into landscapes and the human condition. He is also a Vietnam Veteran, having completed two tours of duty as an infantry soldier after being conscripted during the National Service era of the late sixties and early seventies.

His first two books, ‘Down a Country Lane’ and ‘The Wounds of War’ are largely about soldiering during the Vietnam War. But his writing also deals in sensitive terms with personal relationships, including conflict on and off the battlefield, and romance, which provides a refreshing contrast against the harshness of military combat. In this sense the books offer more than just a blood and guts war story.

Blinco has four more books now in an advanced stage of development and these are planned for release during the next two years. ‘Under the Harvest Moon’, is a romantic murder- mystery novel set against the backdrop of the first bulk wheat harvest on the Darling Downs in 1957. The book provides an entertaining journey across a spectrum of history, mystery and romance during a time of rapid change.

‘Brennan’, is the first of two books on ‘The Mystical Swagman’. The books follow the experiences of an orphan boy of mysterious origins who develops mystical powers while tramping the wallaby track with two old swagmen. The books give an insight into the bush and early colonial Australia.

‘A Place in Time’ is a novel about Australia being invaded by another country, somewhere in the near future. The lead character is Ian Lane, a middle-aged business executive who decides to retire early and concentrate on his writing career while taking his wife and child on a caravanning trip around Australia. They are camped by an isolated waterhole in the remote central northern outback when the invasion begins. An alliance of countries to Australia’s north strikes swiftly from within and without, bringing the nation to its knees in a matter of hours. The defence forces are crippled, highways are closed, communication systems are taken down or closely monitored, curfews are imposed and all aircraft are grounded. Australia’s allies sit back and take a wait-and-see position.

Ian is a Vietnam Veteran and he longs to take some action to help save his country as he watches helplessly while great convoys of invading troops swarm down the central highway. Then by chance or destiny he finds a fissure through a wall of desert rock that takes him 252 years into the future. There he finds an ally and access to technology that will help him in his quest to serve his country; and he gains a glimpse at the future that gives him hope for the present. He also finds a new but impossible relationship that inspires and confuses at the same time.

While these later works are a departure from the author’s usual genre, they are still set in the Australian bush environment that the author knows so well. Again, the books capture the wonders of the Australian bush.

Gary works in sales and marketing in the financial services industry and lives on the Central Coast of New South Wales.