Seeing Things

By John Malone

"John Malone’s lively and quirky imagination produces widely appealing poetry. The poems in Seeing Things are keenly observed, accessible and often humorous or whimsical. How fortunate we are that one of South Australia’s most published children’s poets is sharing his other poetry here in Seeing Things. M

• Language: English
• Publisher: Debbie Lee
• Release date: Feb 27, 2016
• ISBN: 9781740611015

John Malone

Since John was a kid, his favorite movie has always been The Wizard of Oz. As he got older, he and his brother developed an affinity for the horror film genre, always looking for the next great thriller. Knowing of his love for both horror and Oz, John was introduced by his friend, Nicole Delgado, to the Dorothy Must Die series by Danielle Paige, a dark Oz thriller he found absolutely amazing. After reading through the series, and intrigued by the backstory and characters used from the original stories, John went on to read the original fourteen books in the Oz series by L. Frank Baum. After noticing his increased interest in everything Oz related, Nicole, having already published a book, posed an unexpected question. If you could write a book, what would it be about? One immediate idea came to mind: John’s own dark and twisted version of the Wizard of Oz. John has always enjoyed a good storyline filled with plot twists and surprises. Following in the footsteps of some of his favorite movies (Fight Club, Inception, Oculus, and Shutter island), shows (American Horror Story, Black Mirror, Breaking Bad, and Gotham), and video games (Bioshock, The Darkness, Half-Life, and Portal), John was inspired to create a story that would also keep within his idea of a perfect horror story: something dark, twisted, and completely unexpected. And as a fan of the villains from the Batman and Spiderman comics, John knew his story needed a villain that would keep the story interesting. With the twisted story ready to be written, John and Nicole began collaboration to on their first book in a whole new dark Oz series. Out of respect for the original series, and being a huge proponent of keeping true to the originals, John created his ideal story, Oz Will Fall: The Royal Marriage. But as much as he stayed true the original, that didn’t stop him from breaking from the classics to bring is own dark aspects to the story every chance he could. After all, what fun is it to create the ultimate villain if you can’t break a few rules?

Book preview

Seeing Things

Seeing Things

John Aquilina

Ginninderra Press

Contents

Copyright

Acknowledgements

Dedication

Seeing Things

Seeing Things

ISBN 978 1 76041 101 5

Copyright © text John Malone 2016

Cover image © olly – Fotolia

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All rights reserved. No part of this ebook may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the copyright holder. Requests for permission should be sent to the publisher at the address below.

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First published 2016 by

Ginninderra Press

PO Box 3461 Port Adelaide 5015 Australia

www.ginninderrapress.com.au

Acknowledgements

Some of these poems have appeared in

The School Magazine (NSW) and the NZ School Journal.

‘On Being Compared to a Gnat’ has appeared in The Friendly Street Reader.

Many thanks to Graham Rowlands for editing this collection and to Stephen Matthews for taking it on.

To Caty, with love and gratitude for helping me stay buoyant during heavy times.

Seeing Things

Off With the Fairies

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Where’s Uncle Midge? I asked one sunny afternoon.

He’s off with the fairies again, Aunty said

Then quickly changed the topic. But I stayed on.

Off with the fairies? How did Aunty know?

Did he leave a note saying he’d be back

By so and so a time? It was hard to imagine

Uncle frolicking