Adventures in Community Sponsorship of Refugees
[Media Release]
Afghan refugee Sara Tahiri, her Australian-born cousin Jamila Amir, and honorary Castle of Kindness Refugee Sponsorship Group member Lizzie Banks.
On the 7th of June this year, Musa and Amina Tahiri* were told they and their four children would be moving to Australia in fifteen days. Musa and Amina are Afghans who lived as refugees in Iran for thirty years before the Australian government’s Community Refugee Integration and Settlement Pilot (CRISP) opened the door to a new life.
Musa and Amina Tahiri.
When they arrived in Australia on June 22nd, mother of two Felicity Banks met them at the airport with snacks, water, and a ball for two year-old Sara to play with. Along with other members of the Castle of Kindness Refugee Sponsorship Group, she accompanied them to a house in Canberra. It was prepared for them with furniture, linen, and seasonal clothing donated by the wider Canberra community. There was halal food in the fridge, colourful art on the walls, and a freshly-made Afghan meal for them to eat.
Sara Tahiri.
A few days later, a member of the Castle of Kindness was showing the Tahiri family how to walk to their local Aldi while Canberra’s winter wind whipped sleet into their faces, and was astonished when eighteen year-old Ahmad used Google Translate to tell her, “I think this is like Paradise.”
Sara Tahiri with Lizzie Banks at the National Arboretum.
The Castle of Kindness Refugee Sponsorship Group is made up of a mix of Canberrans, some of whom had not met before forming the group. Each person brings their own skills, connections, and personality to the table. Felicity Banks is the coordinator. She says, “None of our group members speak Farsi, and it’s often difficult to communicate. But the fact that I speak English means I already have a skill that refugees need. We also have access to free translation services, and the local Afghan and Iranian communities. One Canberra woman grew up in the same Afghan town as Amina—and now their youngest daughters go to the same playgroup.”
Sara Tahiri communicating eloquently with Lizzie Banks.
The Castle of Kindness Refugee Sponsorship Group has shown the Tahiri family around their new neighbourhood, accompanied them to health care appointments, taught them how to catch buses, and connected them to English lessons, local small businesses, and more. “People think Canberra is soulless and unfriendly,” says Felicity, “but it’s simply not true. The wider community has welcomed the Tahiris with gifts, practical help, kindness, and friendship. There are groups like ours forming all around Australia. Most Australians already know that refugees deserve a chance to thrive.”
Amina and Sara Tahiri with Leslie, another member of the Castle of Kindness, the day they moved into long-term rental accommodation chosen by the Tahiris.
One day, when the Tahiris were preparing to walk home from Felicity’s house, little Sara confidently told her family, “You go home. I’ll come later.” She is a bright, defiant, affectionate and confident girl that Felicity calls “Little Miss Pterodactyl” because she loves to scream for joy. “When I imagine this strong-willed and clever girl growing up as a stateless woman in Iran, I shiver,” says Felicity. “Amina sleeps better now that she lives in Australia, because her children are safe. She has also just started a new job.”
Sara playing with Lizzie’s hair
The Albanese government recently announced that they would increase Australia’s Refugee and Humanitarian Intake to 20,000 per year, which is welcome news to refugee advocates. Minister for Immigration, Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs Andrew Giles also says, “The Government is committed to ensuring that Australia steps up and plays its part in addressing the global humanitarian crisis, including by increasing community sponsored and other complementary places gradually to 10,000 over time and making this additional to our humanitarian intake.”
Amina and Sara Tahiri in Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve
On the other hand, Iran alone is currently hosting over 750,000 registered refugees, most of whom are Afghans. Felicity says, “I can’t provide a home for every refugee in the world, or even every refugee in Iran. But to Sara and her family, the world has changed completely because of one small group of Canberrans. They’ve changed my world for the better too.”
Felicity and Sara at Bondi Beach (photo by Amina).
The Tahiri family loves to see cockatoos, gum trees, and kangaroos around Canberra. When the Castle of Kindness found out the Tahiris had close relatives in Sydney and had never seen the ocean, group member Christine O’Callaghan joined Felicity and her whole family in taking the Tahiris on a holiday to Sydney—including a trip to the beach with their cousins the Amirs. “Because we’re a community group, we can choose to do things just for fun,” says Felicity. “My heart was filled with joy to see the Tahiris connecting with their Australian-born cousins. And Mrs Amir invited all twelve of us to her home where she filled our stomachs with delicious Afghan food.”
Hassan Tahiri, Amina Tahiri, Felicity Banks, Sara Tahiri, Gisoo Amir, Lizzie Banks, and Christine O’Callaghan eating ice creams.
CRISP groups like the Castle of Kindness holistically support one refugee person or family at a time for their first twelve months in Australia.
Jamila Amir, Mrs Amir, Gisoo Amir, Amina Tahiri, Sara Tahiri, and Lizzie Banks at Bondi Beach.
The Castle of Kindness Refugee Sponsorship Group receives no government funding. They are running an Open Garden Fundraiser on Saturday 11 November from 10:00am-4:00pm at 15 Cockerill Pl McKellar including a plant stall, live music, home-made baked goods, contests for kids and adults, a talk by horticultural expert Bryn Hutchison at 11:30am, and a talk by Felicity Banks about refugee sponsorship at 1:30pm. There is also a Posy-Making workshop at 3:00pm. Their GoFundMe is here.
Their web site is here, and Felicity can be contacted directly at CastleOfKindness@gmail.com
For more information about the government’s Community Refugee Integration and Settlement Pilot, click here. Or here for an update from the office of the Hon Andrew Giles MP.
*names have been changed
Farting My ABCs: Chapter 1
A long, long time ago (before I had kids!) I wrote a 7000-word story called Farting My ABCs. It is fifteen chapters long, and I’ll release one chapter a day to help carry bored kids all the way through the school holidays.
Warning: This may cause your five year-old to make more fart jokes than ever. Also most kids older than five will find it terribly immature (Louisette certainly did).
A lot of authors (and readers) have been reading books aloud lately, and I decided to do one better. Instead of merely reading this book, I read it to my kids. Instead of filming me, I filmed them. I also selected a variety of real backgrounds (mostly outside) to help all of us remember what trees look like. Zipper showed up some of the time too.
But you’re here for the first Farting My ABCs video, right?
For those who want text, here’s Chapter 1 (or email fellissimo@hotmail.com to get all of it at once):
Spoiler space…
CHAPTER ONE: The Boy Who Talks With His Bum
Oh no. Please, no.
Please tell me the teacher’s not going to make me stand up and introduce myself to everyone. I’ve already done it in maths, history, and science.
So here I am in English, and I can feel my gut bubbling. It’s been bubbling all day. Today is my first day at this school – of course I’m nervous. But right now I think my bum is going to explode. Pow! Just like that.
I wish I could open the lid of my desk and crawl inside.
My feet drag me to the whiteboard (my belly gurgles).
The school year started only two weeks ago, and I can still see the teacher’s name – Mrs White – half rubbed out underneath today’s work. I bet no-one else had to stand up in front of everyone like I’m doing. They all know each other, and I don’t.
“Tell us a bit about yourself,” says Mrs White.
I face the class (my belly groans). A girl is giggling from the back row. I still can’t think of anything to say.
One boy is rolling spitballs. I heard someone call him Jack, so I guess that means I’ve learnt something today: the name of the most annoying kid in school. No matter how many times Dad makes me change schools, there’s always one person who hates me right away. I don’t know why. Maybe my big nose just makes people angry. Or my red hair. Or my freckles. Maybe my freckles spell out a rude word. I don’t know.
By now I should be used to this talking thing (my belly grunts and grumbles). But I’m not. In fact, every class is worse than the one before.
“My name is Fred,” I say.
Jack says, “Drop dead, Fred.”
I wish I could (my belly howls and growls).
“Tell us something you’re good at,” says Mrs White.
There’s really only one thing – one amazing thing – that I can do. Whether I want to or not.
After this whole long day, I can’t hold it in any longer. So I stare right at Jack’s cold green eyes – and fart.
I fart the alphabet. I fart my last three addresses. I fart my name and the fact that I have a dog the size of a horse. (Probably should have said that in one of the classes today. Everyone likes dogs.) I fart like a brass band.
The girls laugh. The boys clap. Jack swallows his spitball. Mrs White opens and closes her mouth. She turns purple.
My gut is more amazing than it’s ever been before. (It’s actually very difficult to fart the alphabet – even if it really sounds a bit like, “Arg! Blurk! Sss!” instead of, “A, B, C.”)
Finally Mrs White gets a breath. A big one. She screams: “Principal’s office! Now!”
I run out the door and down the hall with my red hair falling into my eyes and blinding me. With every step, I fart.
Pfft, pfft, pfft.
Death at the Rectory
It’s been a long, long time but I finally have another ChoiceScript interactive story.
DEATH AT THE RECTORY (iOS, Google Play, Amazon, etc) is a cozy crime mystery (with magic) which was very much inspired by the real-life rectory of St John’s Anglican in Gundagai. Here are some pics from the actual rectory:
And here’s a bit of the church, made of the same beautiful local slate:
I’m no professional photographer, though, so here’s the real cover (and an unrelated church):
Want those shiny links again? Here they are!
Antipodean Queen 1: HEART OF BRASS
HEART OF BRASS is my first published novel; the beginning of all my (mostly Australian) steampunk fantasy stories.
You can buy it here, and in all the usual book places (online and offline).
You can also buy the full Steam & Sorcery pack here (all three novels plus Magic in the Mail: Emmeline’s Empire).
Book 2 is SILVER AND STONE.
Book 3 is IRON LIGHTS.
The book trailer is here.
Like to read the back cover? Here it is:
Emmeline Muchamore is a well-bred young lady hiding explosive family secrets. She needs to marry well, and quickly, in order to keep her family respectable. But when her brass heart malfunctions, she makes a desperate choice to steal the parts she needs to repair it and survive.
She is unable to explain her actions without revealing she has a steam-powered heart, so she is arrested for theft and transported to Victoria, Australia – right in the midst of the Gold Rush.
Now that she’s escaped the bounds of high society, iron manacles cannot hold her for long.
The only metal that really matters is gold.
The ISBN is 978-1-922200-58-7 (pbk) | 978-1-922200-59-4 (ebook)
You can use that number to quickly and easily order it into any bookshop you like. Most Australian bookshops and libraries should stock it already. If you’re in Canberra, Harry Hartog’s in Woden does a good job of keeping it in stock.
HEART OF BRASS can be bought in physical form directly through the publisher (who will post it to you—Odyssey is linked to printers in Australia, the US, and the UK, so if you’re in one of those nations the postage cost will be domestic).
You can also buy either print or digital copies from Amazon US, Amazon Australia (kindle only at the time of writing), Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Abe Books, The Book Depository, etc.
It is extremely helpful to me for readers to leave reviews at Amazon and/or Goodreads. The more you say why you like/dislike it, the more other readers will know if it suits them or not. I do read reviews but I’m not bothered by negative ones (sometimes I even learn something), so go ahead and be honest!
Like a sample?
Full disclosure: I screenshotted the beginning of my book from Amazon (where there’s a longer sample) because I don’t know how to take the final editing marks out of the copy I have. Sad but true.
Antipodean Queen 2: SILVER AND STONE will be released on October 10 2017 (you can pre-order through OdysseyBooks.com.au) and the third book in the trilogy will be released in 2018 (probably August).
HEART OF BRASS cover reveal
Here it is…
On the publisher’s website it has an official release date less than a week away!
If you’re in Canberra and you want your copy signed, email me at fellissimo@hotmail.com and I’ll see what I can do.
I’ll also be at certain conferences this year, including:
Brimbank Writers and Readers Festival
1-11 September (I’ll be there on Saturday 10th only), Melbourne
Including a 2-hour panel on Interactive Fiction, and a get-together for IF lovers at the cafe around the corner (at 11am). Plus a possible spontaneous game.
September 30-October 3, Canberra
Including a workshop on how to write profitable IF, plus a panel or two.
Conflux always includes one-on-one pitching opportunities, which happens to be how “Heart of Brass” found its home at Odyssey Books Australia.
8-9 October, Sydney
Including a panel or two, probably (to be advised).
Goulburn Waterworks Steampunk and Victoriana Fair
Saturday 15 October, Goulburn
Including hanging out with several other authors (including Tara Moss), free horse and carriage rides, dancing, makers, and other marvels of the steampunk world!
ARR ME HEARTIES!!!
The long weeks at sea have dragged by as the scuttlebutt is whispered from captain to cabin boy… there’s going to be a post-comp release of SCARLET SAILS… it’s twice as long… there are new chapters… there are even more chances to stab, shoot, or magically murder people that annoy you…
It turns out that (just this once) the rumours are true.
The beginning is free, and the rest is $2-$4.
You can buy it as an app through iTunes, Amazon, Google Play, or Google Chrome…. or on your computer.
“Worst one I’ve played”: Reviewing the Reviewers
Or you can play directly through the publisher’s web site, here. That’s the simplest if you’re not tech savvy (although you’ll need a credit/debit card there).
On most sites, it LOOKS like the game is free, and has in-app purchases. This is just a backwards way of saying, “You can read the first bit before you pay for the rest.” It’s a one-off $5 payment.
I’ve started up a facebook page just for this specific gamebook (discussion, reviews and steampunk/Victorian-era fun), at https://www.facebook.com/attackoftheclockworkarmy/
Interactive Fiction: My Shiny New Obsession
If you’ve set eyes on me for more than thirty seconds at any point this year, you know all about my shiny new obsession: interactive fiction. It’s the digital form of “Choose Your Own Adventure” novels.
As of seven minutes ago, my first publicly-available interactive fiction story is live (and also free… for now) right here – scroll down to the bottom of the linked page and click on this:
You don’t need anything more specialised than a computer, and you’ll read the book within a Firefox browser.
This particular story (which takes about twenty minutes to read) is about what happens when a two perpetual students fall through a portal into the magical, tropical world of Rahana. It’s a place where a pregnant queen’s island is under siege, and where a handshake can kill.
You, dear reader, are one of those perpetual students. You choose whether you’re male or female, happily single or crushing on your best friend (who just happens to fall through the portal with you – you also choose their gender). You decide whether you’re a natural fighter or a master manipulator; a doctor or a jack of all trades. When the battle begins, you can choose to kill or heal, to strategise or inspire. Even if you’re completely useless as a character, you get a good story out of it – and you can be someone completely different the next time you read it, too.
How does it work?
Funny you should ask.
As a player, it’s a simple matter of clicking your mouse (or in some cases your finger, since most interactive fiction can be read on smart phones) on the choice that looks best to you, then on the “Next” button to go to the next page. Your choices make a difference in various ways. Usually, choices change your statistics (for better or worse) – recording your personal traits, your relationships with others, and the skill/s you practise along the way. Later on in the game, those choices change your ability to succeed or fail in certain endeavours. You can check up on your stats along the way (there’s a button at the top of the screen), or ignore them and choose with your heart every time (that’s what I do, especially on the first read-through). I also like having “Achievements” listed as a tantalising hint of some of the story’s possibilities. There’s a button for achievements, too, but it’s not possible to gain all of them in a single play-through.
I really like the American company Choice of Games (yes, that’s why my spelling is suddenly non-patriotic) because they’re fun, non-graphic, and determined not to discriminate. In their games, it’s always possible (when relevant) to pick both your gender and orientation.
The lack of strong female characters in fiction magically disappears when a player chooses his/her own gender – and I love that!
So, that’s a lightning-fast preview of the big news I’ve been hinting at all year. “Down the Wombat Hole” isn’t even my first interactive novel…. but the details of the others will have to wait for another post! Let’s just say my days of steampunk and piracy are just beginning.
Oh, and by the way? It just so happens that “Down the Wombat Hole” is set in the same world as my print novel (coming out in 2016) “Stormhunter”. So if you’ve ever read a fantasy book and wished with all your heart you could visit it yourself, now is your chance.
Edited to add: “Down the Wombat Hole” is now part of a full-length collaborative game called LOST IN THE PAGES (with the new chapter title THE QUEEN’S CHILD, and no wombat).
And the small press Satalyte that was going to publish STORMHUNTER has stopped running, but Odyssey Books has just (as of October 2017) taken on the middle-grade pirate trilogy set in the same world, which suggests STORMHUNTER will sail again (it’s young adult, and set hundreds of years after the middle-grade trilogy, so it makes sense to publish the middle-grade trilogy first).
Do Pirates Squee?
This one does.
Fifteen – yes, fifteen – years ago I invented a fantasy world called Rahana based on Indonesia (I was sitting on a folding chair in a concreted Indonesian room attempting to listen to a sermon at the time). My idea was that if I had a rich and complicated world I could base a whole lot of books inside that world.
I was sick of white men dominating. . . everything. . . so I wanted a fantasy world that, to me, felt female. And non-white (much as my own heritage is Omo-white for generations). So I created a tropical world where there was enough magic that physical strength wasn’t necessarily important to gain power, and where art and storytelling was considered to be the most valuable (and best-paid) type of skill. People looked Indonesian, and people and place names were based on Indonesian words.
Soon after that, I began writing a young adult trilogy set in that world. Then I wrote a middle-grade trilogy set in the same world. Altogether so far I’ve written around half a million words and received seventy rejections just for this series.
Every time a book was rejected I asked myself, “Why was it rejected? How can it be better?”
The first book of the young adult trilogy has been edited so dramatically and so often it barely resembles the original draft (which I wrote in three weeks). Eventually, gradually, it became a good book. The simplest way to describe it is in three words:
Narnia with pirates.
A few days ago I received an offer of publication for that book – my paper baby – STORMHUNTER.
It’s really happening. My first book is going to be published. I can’t believe it. . . this is so great. . . I’m going to tell EVERYONE EVERYWHERE. . . pirates are so cool. . . this book helped me meet my husband. . . I’m going to sign books, and do conferences, and schmooze reviewers!. . . What the. . . has it really taken FIFTEEN YEARS!?!?!?!?
I won’t actually publish this blog entry until I have the green light to do so, but I thought I’d better write it now (Easter Sunday 2015). At the very beginning. [Observant readers will notice that I accidentally posted it at the time, then deleted the content. . . but left the tags, which are pretty awesome clues.]
Anything could happen from here. Ninety percent of published books flop. . . but I’ve come this far, and I intend to keep going. Ninety-nine percent of books don’t get published at all, so I’m doing pretty well 🙂
This is a picture of some of my pirate research – aboard the Young Endeavour sail training vessel at the tender age of twenty-three. That was ten years ago, and I was doing research specifically for STORMHUNTER. I guess it paid off, huh?
Some of my main audience wasn’t born when I came up with the idea for the world of Rahana. In fact, the middle grade readers weren’t born when this picture was taken five years later. What were YOU doing in the year 2000?
STORMHUNTER will be released in both print and digital formats in 2016, by Satalyte.
If you’re interested in writerly stuff, stick around and/or like my facebook page. TJ turns one in less than ten days, and after that this blog will be much more about writing (and piracy, and reading) than it has been for a long time.
If you want to know major announcements only (but reliably – unlike facebook), send me an email at fellissimo[at]Hotmail.com and I’ll add you to the official mailing list, which will average less than an email a month (including info on conferences I’m attending and book signings etc).
Squee!
Felicity Banks 