Hey guys,
I haven't heard much from you guys about the book, would love some feedback!! If you have read it!
Sorry I've been a little quiet on here for a while, I've actually been writing a textbook in the meantime which has taken all of my time from my creative pursuits!
For anyone in Queensland you will know that Psychology is coming in as a High School subject, and I am a psychology teacher, so I have been busy creating new content for the course and writing some chapters for the upcoming textbook :) - For more on this, please head to my blog page:
Teacher lyf QLD page
Anyhow, would love to hear from you all about the Innocent child of war if you have read it already?
Hope you all have a great time and look forward to hearing from you all!
Mojo xxoo
Original Scribe by Mojo S
Monday 20 August 2018
Thursday 3 May 2018
IT IS LIVE!!!!
Hello All!
Exciting news today! I am now published on Amazon around the world!
You can find the book by going to www.amazon.com.au and typing in Mojo Saunders as the author!!!!
I really hope you guys like it! I'm in the process of writing the second book now and would love your feedback or thoughts on where the story should go!
If you do like the book or have any feedback please leave a review here or on Amazon! Any support is greatly appreciated! Here's the link below:
https://read.amazon.com.au/kp/embed?asin=B07CSSH7LY&preview=newtab&linkCode=kpe&ref_=cm_sw_r_kb_dp_-4I6AbT5F4YVQ
Wednesday 18 April 2018
Sneak Peek!!
Prologue
“No, please stop!”
Emilia yelled. “Please!” Her pitch rising.
“Sit still or this
will hurt more than it needs to.” The man in the lab coat said calmly as he
held her arm.
Emilia continued to
squirm but the more she squirmed the more the guards who were holding her
squeezed on her small skinny arms. Emilia was only eleven years old, and very
trim for her age. She continued to wail as the needle went so far into her arm
it hit the bone. Three more went in the same way and then the pressure on her
upper arm released and she fell to the floor.
She knew what would
happen next, the older girls told her what would happen but she didn’t want to
give up.
She tried to crawl
away from the table, but she couldn’t. Her arms and legs betrayed her and her
vision was turning to black. She couldn’t even see her limbs to scold them for
their blatant disobedience at her commands.
A cold darkness
engulfed her completely and she was lost in it.
********************
When Emilia woke, she
could feel the pain in her neck and in her abdomen from the surgery. She
huddled in the foetal position in agony. Her cot dug into her bare shoulder as
she whimpered quietly.
All that was in her
room was a small toilet, a sink and the white tiled floor all enclosed in
Emilia’s little barred cell. Behind the barred gate of her prison, she cried,
cried for the childhood she had, cried for the future she would be forced to
have and cried for the pain she felt in that moment.
After some time and
after her tears had run dry, she heard the bars rattle. She knew it would be
her nightly meal, a can of tuna with broccoli and rice. Same every day. She
didn’t even look up as the guard dropped the contents on to the edge of her cot
like he did every night. She waited to hear the bars slam but instead she heard
only silence.
She lay as still as
she could wide eyed and waiting for something to happen. Then she felt a hand
touch her bare back as she lay facing the wall. It was warm and large and
welcome on her cold body.
She knew she should
have been frightened, she should be trying to defend herself, but she felt no
malice in the gesture, instead she felt loved in that second and it bought new
tears to her eyes.
“There, there little
one. The worst is over.” He said.
Her whimpers softened
after another few minutes, his soft touch comforting her.
As he stroked her
back, he told her stories about his home in a suburb of Melbourne, about his
daughter who was just a bit older than Emilia, and he told her of the
opportunities she would have in the future to travel and experience amazing
things.
Emilia knew that the
night guard was right and she should feel a sense of privilege at having these
opportunities because otherwise she would be rotting in an orphanage or worse -
a group home. The barracks had saved her from the system when her parents had
died and Emilia was grateful most days, but right now, she couldn’t think of
anything but the pain and her loneliness.
“I want my mum and
dad.” Emilia whispered, interrupting the guard’s monologue.
“I know honey.” He
said warmly. “But they died over a year ago.”
She started to sob
again. “I know but it is not fair.” She choked out through broken breaths. With
that, he leaned in and hugged the girl, holding her as she rocked from her
sobs.
“It sucks, but life is
not always fair baby girl. It’s best you learn that now.” He said as he hugged
her closer.
She whimpered slightly
from the pain but she craved the physical contact so much that she didn’t even
care that she was bleeding from her stitches.
“Be brave now, I have
to go. Eat up, you will need your strength in the morning.” He replied, and
with that, he was gone.
Emilia fell into a
fitful sleep, dreaming of needles and operating room lights.
She woke to the sirens
sounding the start of a new day.
It was 4am, she had
not slept more than 20 minutes all night. She knew she would come to regret the
lack of sleep because she knew that Wednesdays were boot camp day, she knew
that even at her best she struggled with these training sessions.
Emilia turned over on
her cot and as she sat upright, her head felt like it was spinning
uncontrollably. She fell back down and closed her eyes to try and stop the
overwhelming feeling of vertigo. She focused on evening out her breathing and
counted to 100 before trying to sit up again. This time, she felt more even, nauseas,
but not spinning anymore.
She struggled to pull
on her uniform, and when she did, the shirt she was wearing seeped red from the
stitches that had ripped opened during the night on her belly. She knew she
would get into trouble for that by the drill sergeant, but she didn’t have the
supplies to clean herself up.
Soon Emilia stood by
the barred doorway at attention, swaying slightly from the wooziness. She stood
as still as she could and waited for her cell to be opened as it did everyday
at exactly 4.30am.
Emilia heard the
barred gates from either side of her cell open and close with the drill
sergeant yelling commands. But they didn’t come to her. Emilia waited and
waited for the drill Sargeant but her cell remained undisturbed. No one came to
the cell except for a small woman, one that she had not seen before in a
pristine white lab coat and a small headscarf.
“Hello Emilia, my name
is Dr Singh. I am here to check your stitches and to give you a few tests.” She
said with a kind smile on her face.
Emilia always trusted
a smile. Captain Drummond always said she was a gullible fool for trusting so
easily. She could be the best, he would say, but her biggest weakness is her
trust. He had always said that he needed to break that trust, and it made Emilia
wonder if this was a test.
“Hello Doctor.” Emilia
replied with hesitation.
If this was a test,
she didn’t want to betray too much about herself or about how she was feeling.
Emilia wanted Captain Drummond to be proud of her and the only way he would be
is if she is able to resist the kindness of this woman.
“Come and sit down on
the cot will you?” the Doctor asked.
Emilia obediently followed.
She had already sized up her competition by the time the doctor landed on the
cot, Emilia felt confident she could take her out. For now, she played along. Captain
Drummond always said paranoia will keep you alive and obedience with scepticism
is the way to become the best soldier, so Emilia played the part.
The doctor unbuttoned
her top to see the weeping wound on her belly and checked the bandage on her
neck. Her touch was gentle, stitching gently to fill the missing stitches that
had popped apart and using numbing cream to save the little girl from feeling
more pain than necessary.
“You have to be
careful with your movements for the next few days. You are exempt from training
until after the weekend so that you can heal.” She ordered.
“And…” Doctor Singh
paused.
“Yes doctor?” Emilia
asked.
“And…I’m sorry for
what we have done to you.” She said and walked quickly out of the cell. From
the other side of the bars, Emilia could see the doctor’s kind smile, and tears
rolling down her cheeks.
For the rest of the
day, Emilia laid prone on her uncomfortable cot and read some books that were
left for her at the bars by her friendly night guard who finished his shift
just after breakfast that morning.
He had left her books
every week or so since she was transferred here through the department of human
services at age 10. Emilia didn’t know it was him that dropped off the books until
this morning when he had smiled at her through the bars as he dropped them off.
First he started with
primary school books, but Emilia quickly graduated to adult books. She learnt
quickly, that was one of the things that Captain Drummond had liked about her,
“The girl picks up quick” he would say as he observed her during IQ testing and
when she would learn new skills within hours rather than days, anything from
combat, to how to handle weapons, Drummond would pat the little girl on the
head praising her intelligence.
Today, the night guard
had left the Iliad, The Bell Jar and The complete works of Charles Dickens. “The
classics”, he said, “the only things worth reading”. Once Emilia had gotten through the Bell Jar
and was half way through the Iliad, she was bored. The days seemed so long when
she had nothing to do but to stare at her ceiling or read.
Emilia fell asleep
with a book across her chest some time during the day.
Careless mistake.
She felt the book
being ripped off her chest, waking her suddenly.
It was Captain
Drummond checking on her healing.
“What is this?” He
yelled. He was only centimetres from her face.
Emilia jumped up to
stand at attention for her Captain.
“Sorry sir. I was just
passing the time.” She shouted back monotonously as a good soldier would.
“Who gave you these?”
He asked aggressively, with his spit flying onto her face.
“No one sir…I stole
them from the library the last time I was there.”
“You are lying.” He
continued.
“No, sir I am not.”
She yelled back defiantly. She was not going to let her only saviour and friend,
the kind night guard, get in trouble for her carelessness at hiding the book.
“Did you just speak
back to me, Soldier?” He asked.
“No sir, I am just
admitting fault.” She replied, softer now, losing her resolve.
“If you weren’t hurt,
I would put you in the punisher right now.” He yelled, his hot breath forcing
her eyes closed.
Emilia shuddered at
the thought. She was terrified of the punisher, a small metal box that the
Captain left out in the field with a lock only on the outside. The box was not
long enough for a person to lie down, so instead you are forced to huddle in
half. Depending on the crime, you could stay in there all day.
“Your emotions always
betray your bravery Soldier 357. I can see fear all over your face.” He said
softer now. “Trust will be the death of you.” He warned.
“Yes, Sir. I will try
harder Sir.” She replied.
“Good.” He smiled.
“Are there any more books I should know about?” He asked.
“No Sir.” She
answered, staring straight ahead to ensure that her eyes did not give away her
hiding spot.
“Good. At ease
soldier.” He responded and walked out of the cell.
Emilia immediately
slumped down back onto her cot as soon as the Captain was out of sight.
She scratched at the
cut on her stomach, the abrupt movement she made, going from lying down to
standing had aggravated the wound. She peeled back the bandage and to her
surprise, she saw that there was barely even a pink line left on her skin. The
stitches on her stomach were now useless; she had already healed underneath
them.
She was shocked. How could this happen so fast? It was
bleeding this morning! She asked herself internally. She tried to remember back to the lessons in
Biology that she had had as part of the school program here at the barracks.
She remembered the immune system was made up of B cells and T cells, they help
with the healing process, but they usually took days to work. Maybe the cut was not as deep as she had
initially thought? Maybe the operation happened more than a day ago? They had
been giving her medications, and the doctor put on some sort of cream today,
could it be possible that she had slept for more than a day and didn’t know it?
She ripped the bandage
away from her neck wound and felt the stitches. Again there was no open cut,
and the stitches on her neck were already growing out. One of the stitches fell
out from her neck as she touched it. Emilia held it in her hand and examined
it. It was still circular, as if the skin had pushed it out of the way so that
it could seal the cut.
She quickly put the
bandage back over the cut and she did the same with her stomach wound. She was
confused, how could this be when all her education told her that this type of
healing was not possible?
She suddenly missed
the creature comforts that she used to have when her parents were still alive.
She desperately wanted her phone with a data plan and Google at her fingertips.
She wanted to search what could cause accelerated healing but she had no way of
doing that from her cell.
She felt tears surging
up again when she thought of the good old days. Emilia shook her head violently
dissolving the thoughts of the past. She forced her mind to stop thinking. She
counted backwards from 100 and by the time she had hit 40, she was dead asleep.
Exciting news
Ok so just to throw a spanner in the works, the book I have been publishing on my blog is going to be re-vamped and won't be available for a while, but the exciting news is.....
MY SECOND BOOK is nearly ready to be published on Kindle :)
It's called
And I am very excited to show you all what it is all about.
If you are interested in futuristic, science fiction based books with a little bit of soppy romance, I think this one is for you!
Keep checking the blog, I'll have more details as I set up everything ready for publishing!
If you want more information please comment below would love to tell you all more about it.
MY SECOND BOOK is nearly ready to be published on Kindle :)
It's called
The Innocent
Child of War:
Those Who Came
before Us
And I am very excited to show you all what it is all about.
If you are interested in futuristic, science fiction based books with a little bit of soppy romance, I think this one is for you!
Keep checking the blog, I'll have more details as I set up everything ready for publishing!
If you want more information please comment below would love to tell you all more about it.
Thursday 30 November 2017
Origins of my book
Working as a secondary school teacher, I don't really get a chance to be too creative in my work, especially in the realm of science teaching.
This year, I found that I had more time due to being more prepared at school and also because I finally learnt how to manage my time better. But that meant more time for my anxiety and my overthinking nature to take over. Time is my natural enemy. I complain daily that I don't have enough of it, but then when I have it, it sets off some sort of primal fear in my brain, phrases like "You're wasting time!" or "You're not doing enough with your time, that's why you're bored" or even "You're not working hard enough if you have time to do nothing!"
So instead of drowning in my own thoughts and fears which I have done so many times before, I took on meditation.
I don't mean sitting on the ground saying "Ommmmmmmm" and remaining deathly silent and still, but instead, I decided to write as my form of meditation.
I've always been creative, ever since I was young and I enjoy using my creative energy as much as possible. As I grew older however, I stopped having this creative outlet because the "real-world" told me to be serious and to work hard and put away childish things. So I did...and I suffered for it.
I truly believe that a lot of my clinical anxiety that I've had since I was a child was a result of limiting my creative energy and forcing it to stay within me. So this year, I decided to stop doing that and I started to write.
Now the interesting part is that English is not my first language. Having been born in Hong Kong and knowing no English until age 8, I have always been told throughout my whole life that I am not good at English and that I never will be because I am not a "native-speaker" (Even though I feel more confident with English these days than my so called "native tongue").
So when I decided to write, a terrible self-doubt overwhelmed me and I nearly didn't start. Instead of allowing my negative self-talk to take over, I decided to look on the bright side instead, I mean what is the worse thing that could happen? That no one reads my book? That people laugh at my horrible English? So what? Why was that so bad? At least I tried!
And you know what? I'm damn proud of myself!
So this book came out of a strange dream I had...it's about a town called Omen, a mystical town...
Clearly I am a novice writer and this is a hobby of mine rather than a serious profession, so I hope you enjoy it, I'll release a little Chapter each week or so and any feedback would be great :)
Let me know what you think, any criticism welcome and I look forward to hearing from you all!
This year, I found that I had more time due to being more prepared at school and also because I finally learnt how to manage my time better. But that meant more time for my anxiety and my overthinking nature to take over. Time is my natural enemy. I complain daily that I don't have enough of it, but then when I have it, it sets off some sort of primal fear in my brain, phrases like "You're wasting time!" or "You're not doing enough with your time, that's why you're bored" or even "You're not working hard enough if you have time to do nothing!"
So instead of drowning in my own thoughts and fears which I have done so many times before, I took on meditation.
I don't mean sitting on the ground saying "Ommmmmmmm" and remaining deathly silent and still, but instead, I decided to write as my form of meditation.
I've always been creative, ever since I was young and I enjoy using my creative energy as much as possible. As I grew older however, I stopped having this creative outlet because the "real-world" told me to be serious and to work hard and put away childish things. So I did...and I suffered for it.
I truly believe that a lot of my clinical anxiety that I've had since I was a child was a result of limiting my creative energy and forcing it to stay within me. So this year, I decided to stop doing that and I started to write.
Now the interesting part is that English is not my first language. Having been born in Hong Kong and knowing no English until age 8, I have always been told throughout my whole life that I am not good at English and that I never will be because I am not a "native-speaker" (Even though I feel more confident with English these days than my so called "native tongue").
So when I decided to write, a terrible self-doubt overwhelmed me and I nearly didn't start. Instead of allowing my negative self-talk to take over, I decided to look on the bright side instead, I mean what is the worse thing that could happen? That no one reads my book? That people laugh at my horrible English? So what? Why was that so bad? At least I tried!
And you know what? I'm damn proud of myself!
Clearly I am a novice writer and this is a hobby of mine rather than a serious profession, so I hope you enjoy it, I'll release a little Chapter each week or so and any feedback would be great :)
Let me know what you think, any criticism welcome and I look forward to hearing from you all!
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Update
Hey guys, I haven't heard much from you guys about the book, would love some feedback!! If you have read it! Sorry I've been a l...