About the Books
Restoration of the Golden Orbs
A Step into the Unknown
What made Dylan’s life so difficult to cope with? Like so many other insecure, sensitive fourteen-year-olds, Dylan confronts the usual series of problems, but his seems more stressful than most.
Firstly, he needs to adapt to a new, large city school in Perth after moving from a small rural community down south; then he suffers being victimised by a remorseless school bully, not to mention by his inconsiderate siblings, who allow him little personal space; and, finally, he faces a tyrannical teacher who makes his schooling seem like hell.
So, when a weird alien visitor – Orf – enters his life, he scarcely believes that everything begins to change for the better.
Orf teaches him how to tap into his latent powers and listen to his intuitive voice.
Despite some embarrassing failures, Dylan not only learns to manage his own troubles but ends up assisting some of his classmates with their challenging dilemmas. But where does all this learning lead him? Why did this teacher appear? Could this mentor have his own, secret agenda?
Find out about how important dreams are to Dylan’s journey. Several of these are actual dreams in real life. Read about how Dylan helps friends cope with problems of domestic violence, body image and how healing only occurs through forgiveness and letting go of past resentments.
For those of you who are anxious about reading aloud in class and giving oral presentations see how Dylan and Michael learn to overcome their fears.
Interview
I would see it as a blend of a science fiction novel and a metaphysical novel.
Well metaphysical means able to look beyond the physical. So if your body is showing pain or malfunction it is important to find its source. It could easily be a simple cause, such as using the wrong pillow. If there is no simple cause, then you might need to look beyond. For example, the neck is associated with will. A painful neck might suggest you are using your will inappropriately. Perhaps you are dominating a close friend or partner without giving them the power to express their unique identity. Metaphysical also means to provide the ability to look at various characters and their attitudes and behaviour and see similarities with ourselves. I hope this gives the novel a definite philosophical dimension.
Well, there are so many students who are feeling stress in our schools today that I wanted Dylan to represent these students.
Well, firstly, he is starting at a new school in a new community and many students have to face these circumstances a number of times in their lives. When I moved as a six-year-old from a small Welsh community to a primary school in Sidcup, Kent, I found great animosity to me because of my sing-song, Welsh accent.
At that stage, I was a very good wrestler and I got each of the students who were treating me badly by themselves and wrestled with them, sat on their head so it became impossible for them to breathe, and made them promise to treat me well in the future.
It did, but I had to wrestle with twelve different boys, and so it took some time before the situation was controlled.
Definitely not! When I emigrated from the UK to New Zealand as a twelve-year-old the same thing occurred, because I then had a strong English accent in a NZ community, and they called me Poney (Pommy), and various other unsavoury names, and gave me a hard time.
Well, many of the boys were now much larger than me so the former strategy became null and void. In any case, when I was in first year high school in England, as an eleven-year-old, I had an epiphany. I got into a fight with another boy in my year and in the middle of it I heard a small voice within me say, ‘So what if you smash this kid up? What are you going to achieve?’ I walked away from that fight and have never been in one since.
Absolutely. I realised the power of listening to the quiet, intuitive voice within, and that violence achieves nothing, and this is the main focus of what Orf teaches Dylan. I believe we all possess this intuitive voice, but stress in our lives and our over-reliance on mobile phones and computers often prevents us from discerning this quiet, unobtrusive voice. I also believe in the power of forgiveness and that a person can only really grow when they learn to forgive and let go of resentments. Many of these stem from the past. When people let go of these grievances, they can find in themselves a new lease for life.
Absolutely. I realised the power of listening to the quiet, intuitive voice within, and that violence achieves nothing, and this is the main focus of what Orf teaches Dylan. I believe we all possess this intuitive voice, but stress in our lives and our over-reliance on mobile phones and computers often prevents us from discerning this quiet, unobtrusive voice. I also believe in the power of forgiveness and that a person can only really grow when they learn to forgive and let go of resentments. Many of these stem from the past. When people let go of these grievances, they can find in themselves a new lease for life.
Yes, without these actions Dylan would never have achieved initiation.
Computers and mobile phones are a part of our society and are here to stay, and they have been vital to us to connect us in the pandemic, but we need to achieve harmony and balance in our lives. There must be times when we can turn off these devices and tune into ourselves, and then we might hear this intuitive voice and then have the determination and discipline to act upon knowledge given.
Unfortunately, domestic violence remains a prominent part of modern society whether we like it or not. The West Australian newspaper recently referred to a survey which suggested that this will occur in one in four homes in Western Australia and has significantly increased as a result of COVID-19. The same source also pointed out the alarming number of children in our state who were taking anti-depression drugs, even some as young as six years old. We cannot simply bury our heads in the sand and pretend the non-existence of this huge problem. The more the problem becomes exposed, the greater the possibility of finding some solutions, even though I am very much aware that this problem is complex and has no simple solutions.
Again, this happens to be another major problem in our society and I think everyone is aware that the problem of obesity in Australia and in the western world grows more prominent each year.
I have constructed her character as one who proves to be very much a work in progress in terms of her problem. I do believe self-image plays a critical role in dealing with this problem. I tried to demonstrate that some people become obese, not because of eating copious amounts of food or foods that contain too much sugar and fat, but one based on the genetics inherited. By no means has Lauren completely solved her problem but she is learning to change how she sees herself. When a person sees the beauty in themselves then they project this image to others.
Yes, as a teacher of many years, I have become aware that more and more students are becoming stressed when forced to talk in front of their class. Everyone needs to become proficient in this skill so they can perform confidently at interviews and can support themselves in their lives when they are being unfairly treated.
I have tried to marry the metaphysical and science fiction elements of the novel. It is true that some of his skills seem not to be skills that the average student develops, but some of them are linked to real life. Being able to listen to the quiet intuitive voice within and the ability to forgive and let go of the past become so important in managing our lives. The healing skills originate from a Cybernetics course I attended many years ago which drastically changed my life and my perspective towards the world. In that course, presenters taught using the skills of relaxation and visualisation. We first focussed our consciousness into inanimate objects, then plants and then animals and then into the bodies of human beings, so we possessed the ability to see them from an inner perspective.
Sometimes they directed us into the blood and sometimes into the bones. For example, they taught us to provide healing in a similar way, as demonstrated in the novel. Using the power of visualisation changed my life. Before I attended the course, I used to have about five weeks off every year because of sore throats. After using this skill, I taught for sixteen years without a single absence. Listening to your dreams is another skill I have learnt. Many of the dreams in the novel are actual dreams of my own, or those of my family, or of dreams l learnt about at dream seminars.
I have certainly experienced dreams that have guided me, and I have helped others with dream interpretation, especially those dreams of a repeated nature. A cousin’s husband experienced a repeated dream for ten years, and when we analysed that dream, he and his wife saw exactly what the dream meant. Significantly that dream never occurred again. Listening within seems to be the key. Sometimes this means openness after a prayer or sometimes it manifests in a vision given during a time you feel very relaxed and in tune with yourself.
Years ago, my wife and I searched to buy a house in Willetton, Western Australia and looked around many houses for sale in this vicinity. We walked into a particular house and we looked at each other and knew it to be the house we wanted. The problem became the high price of the house, way over our price range, so reluctantly we walked away and continued looking at other houses. Five weeks later we received a call from the agent about this house saying that the house remained for sale and the vendors felt desperate to sell
and would accept a much lower price. We made an offer within our budget, ten per cent less than the asking price, and made it very safe, conditional to finance and the sale of the house that we then owned, with a settlement of six and a half weeks. Two days later the agent rang and informed us that two cash offers had been made at the full asking price. In terms of the conditions of the contract we had forty-eight hours to make it unconditional or other people would buy the house. I prayed about it and received the answer to go ahead and make it unconditional, but that I would be tested to the full extent. I made the offer unconditional, confident of us selling our existing house within the next six weeks. You guessed it. Luck seemed to be against us as we received no reasonable offers on the house. It was the weekend before the settlement and we appeared to be heading into big trouble, having to pay hefty bridging finance payments. The house had been open on Wednesdays and Saturdays for the entire six weeks. On the Saturday night as I played cricket with my two boys at the front on the wide grass verge, a car bowled up.
‘I can see your house is for sale.’
‘Yes it is. Do you want to come in and have a look?’
‘We’re not really looking in this area.’
‘Well come in and have a look anyway.’
An hour later the agent wrote up the contract of sale with a look of amazement on his face. It all happened exactly as per the answer to my prayer and we certainly had been tested to the very end.
Yes. In metaphysics the number twelve means the number of completion. The whole first novel focusses on the initiation of a young boy who learns to master a number of prerequisites to allow him to become initiated.
Obviously Ethan is the main source of bullying in the school arena. I have tried to show how he is a product of his home circumstances and that, with assistance, it can be dealt with if the deep-seated cause is addressed. I do not believe anyone is all bad or totally evil. With understanding, bullying can be reduced.
I am aiming at adolescents but hope that some adults might gain insight from the issues explored in the novel to help them with their own children and in their own lives.
Publication Date
June 10, 2021
Pages
218
ISBN-10
0228841313