Guest Post: Post Apocalyptic Walkabout by S.C.Flynn
Post-Apocalyptic Walkabout
By
S.C. Flynn
Adolescence is rightly considered one of the key periods of human life. The young person has to find out for themselves who they are and what they will become. All this while questioning the values and family they grew up with and re-evaluating their relationship to their peer group, who are going through the same thing.
They had something in common that the elders could never have, never share.
Our technological Western society tends to leave young people to get through this as best they can. Other cultures take a much more focused approach. One of these is the traditional Aboriginal culture of Australia.
I am a descendant of white European settlers in Australia, so I can not hope to fully understand the complexities of Aboriginal culture; I grew up in the country, though, and have always been interested in it. One aspect that still intrigues me is the adolescent-to-adult transition often known as the Walkabout. The young person goes off on their own for weeks. When they return, they are accepted into the community as an adult.
Precisely what happens during the Walkabout is secret, but I have often wondered about it. What does the young person feel before, during and after it? In CHILDREN OF THE DIFFERENT, I have tried to imagine the experiences of various adolescents. A post-apocalyptic brain disease provided a cross-cultural way of exploring these. The characters spend a lot of their time in comas while their minds go through the psychic dangers of the Changeland. The contrast between their lives before and after the Changing allowed me to show many crossovers: adolescence to adulthood, “normality” to “difference”, friendship to love.
I enjoyed being able to bring in other contrasts, such as between the inner mental journeys and the outer physical journeys undergone by the main characters, or between the bright sun of Western Australia and the psychic world of the Changeland.
For me, it was very important that what happens in the Changeland stays with the person when they emerge from their coma. This is no purely “imaginary” mental world – if you get bruised in there, your outside body shows it. If you are injured or die, you will be permanently damaged, or at least altered, once the coma is finished.
I know something strange has happened to me.
It really scares me.
Does the Changeland make you into what you think you want to be? What you secretly want to be? What you need to become? Does it help you overcome your fears? Or does it bring out aspects of
yourself you never even knew you had? In the novel, I have not tried to definitively answer this; we
still know so little about the human brain, and probably about life as well.
About the Author
S. C. Flynn was born in a small town in South West Western Australia. He has lived in Europe for a long time; first the United Kingdom, then Italy and currently Ireland, the home of his ancestors. He still speaks English with an Australian accent, and fluent Italian.
He reads everything, revises his writing obsessively and plays jazz. His wife Claudia shares his passions and always encourages him.
S. C. Flynn has written for as long as he can remember and has worked seriously towards becoming a writer for many years. This path included two periods of being represented by professional literary agents, from whom he learnt a lot about writing, but who were unable to get him published.
He responded by deciding to self-publish his post-apocalyptic fantasy novel, Children of the Differentand, together with an American support team, aimed for a book as good as those created by the major publishers.
S. C. Flynn blogs on science fiction and fantasy at scflynn.com. He is on Twitter @scyflynnand on Facebook. Join his email newsletter list here
About the Book
Nineteen years ago, a brain disease known as the Great Madness killed most of the world’s population. The survivors all had something different about their minds. Now, at the start of adolescence, their children enter a trance-like state known as the Changeland and emerge either with special mental powers or as cannibalistic Ferals.
In the great forest of South West Western Australia, thirteen-year-old Arika and her twin brother Narrah go through the Changeland. They encounter an enemy known as the Anteater who feeds on human life. He exists both in the Changeland and in the outside world, and he wants the twins dead.
After their Changings, the twins have powers that let them fight their enemy and face their destiny on a long journey to an abandoned American military base on the north-west coast of Australia…if they can reach it before time runs out.
Children of the Different is a post-apocalyptic fantasy novel set among the varied landscapes and wildlife of Western Australia.
In the great forest of South West Western Australia, thirteen-year-old Arika and her twin brother Narrah go through the Changeland. They encounter an enemy known as the Anteater who feeds on human life. He exists both in the Changeland and in the outside world, and he wants the twins dead.
After their Changings, the twins have powers that let them fight their enemy and face their destiny on a long journey to an abandoned American military base on the north-west coast of Australia…if they can reach it before time runs out.
Children of the Different is a post-apocalyptic fantasy novel set among the varied landscapes and wildlife of Western Australia.
Children of the Different hits bookshelves September 10th and is now available at:
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