fiction – Donna Goddard

March 5, 2023March 21, 2023

Geboor (Book 2 of Dadirri Series): Poustinia

Part 2—Sacred Spaces (Autumn)
Poustinik Dancer

Something about the dance studio this morning reminded Maliyan of a poustinia. Its lack of people, furniture, and electricity. Its striking emptiness. Poustinia is a Russian word for a sparsely furnished cabin where one goes to pray and fast. Its most fundamental element is its aloneness. Alone, except for God. In Russia, poustiniks often live on the edges of towns. They are available to their community for spiritual help and sometimes practical help. Although Maliyan had plenty of self-starting drive to dance in her poustinia, there was no doubt that another body, another being, another type of energy gave dance a different and wonderful dimension.

January 21, 2023March 21, 2023

Dadirri Series Background

Here are some real-life places on which the fictional places of the Dadirri Series are based.

The fictional town of Nanima is rural Wellington, N.S.W., Australia.
The main female character has adopted the Aboriginal name of Maliyan, the Wiradjuri name for wedge-tailed eagle (totem for the Binjang mob of Wellington).
Fictional Luna Tiks cafe (Four Cats) is across the road from the empty, pink dance school.
Cathedral Cave (Wellington Caves) is where Maliyan meets the spirit of Wandaang, who wants his ancestor’s bones back.
The tiny fictional town of Yan Yan Gurt (where Maliyan’s ancestors come from) is Stuart Town.
Historic Stuart Town cemetery is the Yan Yan Gurt cemetery where Maliyan senses her ancestor’s spirits.
The mystic artist character, Euroka, gets his name from a family property in the area.

January 9, 2023March 21, 2023

Geboor (Book 2 of Dadirri Series): Shophouse

Spectrum

“I think you are on the spectrum, boo,” said Luna.

Maliyan laughed and thought, Always the joker.

Luna wasn’t smiling and continued sympathetically, “Lots of people are. I mean, I like people on the spectrum. I find them interesting.”

Maliyan wasn’t sure what was worse—Luna’s diagnosis of her mental state or his trying to make it better by kindly reassuring her that, regardless, it was fine with him. It made it all the funnier or all the more disturbing.

May 31, 2022May 31, 2022

Waldmeer Series—balancing ourselves inside

When are things perfectly balanced on the outside? Rarely. And in those glorious moments when they are, it doesn’t last long. The only viable option is to try and balance ourselves on the inside so that we are not pushed around by what happens outside. Purnima (Book 7 of Waldmeer)

I have been updating the 7-book Waldmeer Series with new covers and other editing. I would so love to share the series with you. It was the love of my creative life for the 5 years it took to write! The cheapest and easiest way to read the whole series (if you are an ebook reader) is Waldmeer Collection (7-books-in-1). Available on AMAZON.

January 1, 2022March 21, 2023

Nanima (Book 1 of Dadirri Series): Discovery

Happy new year, 2022. May you make the most of this year. Here is the beginning of a new story to start the year!

Chapter 1: Nanima

Nanima lay in a pretty-as-a-picture valley at the joining point of two living, breathing rivers. The small country town had an English name, but Nanima was its ancient-as-the-rivers Aboriginal one.

When discovering it, English explorer, Oxley, said, “It is beautifully picturesque.”

Of course, he didn’t really discover it. Even before the local people knew it, the valley and rivers knew themselves. The idea of discovery and consequent possession is used by those with neither the intelligence nor sensitivity to see the value in lives other than their own. Anyway, the Aboriginal people had a different sense of ownership. There is no need to possess anything when there is access to everything. It is only when someone says that your mother belongs to them that there is a problem. For more than fifty thousand years, there wasn’t a problem. For the last two hundred, there was.

November 19, 2021March 22, 2022

Waldmeer Series – Combined Volume

The complete 7-book Waldmeer Series is now available as a combined volume of 2 larger paperback books.

“How deeply and unknowingly we are all connected. Life knows us all and plays with our interconnectedness.” From Purnima (final section)

Thank you for journeying with me for the past 5 years of the Waldmeer Series. Your energy has contributed greatly to the evolution and continuation of the series.

June 7, 2021March 28, 2022

Purnima (Book 7 of Waldmeer): Tom & Hardy

Chapter 4: Ekadashi

In the city, at Tom & Hardy:

“You don’t want any food, today?” asked Tom. “Only coffee? Aren’t you hungry, boo?”

“No, not really,” said Merlyn as she leaned down to pat Tom’s little dog, Hardy. “Anyway, it’s Ekadashi.”

“E-Kardashian?” repeated Tom.

May 28, 2021March 28, 2022

Purnima (Book 7 of Waldmeer): Purnima Passage

Chapter 1: Seeing the Totality

A full moon evening, late in May, in Waldmeer:

Purnima means full moon. Full moons are auspicious occasions for new beginnings, and so we begin; again. Merlyn and Gabriel stood awkwardly at the entrance of Twenty Mile Track. Awkward because they barely knew each other, and this seemed too big an adventure for virtual strangers. Nevertheless, there they were, brought together by some unknown force.

October 28, 2019April 14, 2022

Pittown (Book 5 of Waldmeer): Moving On

Different and Better

Although there were nicer shops a suburb or two closer to the city, Merlyn made a point of shopping at the Pittown ones. It seemed to her disloyal not to use them. Besides, she found the people interesting. Not infrequently, someone walked past her and turned their head to give her a second look. They looked like they thought they knew her, but then decided that they didn’t. Sometimes, they looked at her quizzically as if they were thinking that she didn’t belong in Pittown.

December 20, 2018March 28, 2022

Faith (Book 4 of Waldmeer): Look After My Boy

PART 1: SUMMER

Chapter 1: A New Year

Spring had come and gone in Waldmeer and it was well into summer. As Waldmeer is in the Southern Hemisphere, summer carries with it a new year. Gabriel and Aristotle were travelling in the car to Waldmeer from Gabriel’s apartment in Darnall. It was Aristotle’s idea. Gabriel didn’t like going to Waldmeer anymore. Since Amira had mysteriously disappeared in early spring and her nasty cousin, Eve, had taken over the house, the whole of Waldmeer felt different. It was as if a light had gone out and a dark cloud had spread over the town. Nevertheless, Aristotle wanted to visit, so Gabriel said yes. Gabriel said yes to almost everything Aristotle wanted. They had been inseparable buddies for the last three months even though Aristotle was only twelve and Gabriel was forty. Aristotle was probably the child Gabriel had never had. What an exceptional child he was – intelligent, kind, quick-witted, and altogether delightful to be around. When Gabriel looked at Aristotle, a thought often popped into his mind – Look after my boy. He could not remember that they were Lady Faith’s parting words when he and Aristotle entered the frame which transported them from Borderfirma to Waldmeer.