Ernest Bywater: Stories

What can happen with universal postal voting systems, especially when implemented at short notice. Like many ideas, how it goes depends more on how it's implemented than the idea itself. 4,700 words.

A Rivers Region Story
They say the Chinese have a curse - May you live in interesting times. A 15 year old boy has a major change of lifestyle forced on him. We follow along while he adjusts to the changes. However, he lives in interesting times and he must deal with them as well as rising to the challengers presented to him. Through all this his true nature shows and he changes the lives of many others in the city of Rivers, and elsewhere. Set in Australia. / (Reviews)

A Rivers Region Story
A retired soldier's farm is attacked. When his weapon is damaged the 11 year-old son is told to take is almost 2 year-old sister and escape out the hidden exit after promising to care for his sister until she can care for herself. Their parents are killed while they travel down the tunnel, so he sets off the final defences as the enemy moves in, and kills more of the attackers. He's faithful to his promise as they live through 'interesting times' while his sister learns to care for herself.

Kim is badly injured in an incident at school, an accident that should never have happened. He's a teenage boy with a reputation of being an unstoppable force that always gets things done. Recovering from injuries that should have been fatal he lives 'in interesting times' as he sets out to prove the doctors wrong. He's determined he'll walk again; if his powerful enemies let him live that long. Set in Australia.

No good turn goes unpunished. There's nothing so constant in life as change. Shortly after finishing his Australian university exams Smoky Grey learns these two sayings are true. His life and plans are totally changed by an encounter in the university car-park. For the next few years his life is one change after another. Some of them being ones he initiates. He's a catalyst for changes to improve the lives of many people.

A Rivers Region Story
A young man with a unique heritage that guides his destiny has to deal with many hard issues starting with the murder of his father while 10 years of age. We follow his life for the next decade while he works to survive, protect his heritage, and fight the man he holds responsible for his father's death. He's more than what he seems, and strives to meet all his responsibilities. Set in Australia.

A man just out of university inherits a trust in the USA. He has to live in the house it owns, but first he has to make it liveable. He also has to worry about some old feuds in place in this rural valley in the Appalachian mountains. He has to survive his first weeks in the mountains, and in doing so he finds a wife and partner for life while they deal with old feuds and the local weather. Starts in Australia and moves to the USA.

A Rivers Region Story
A two hundred year old Australian building is destroyed by fire when a jet taking off from the local airport is shot down. This is how the owner turns a fire gutted building of five sandstone walls back into the elegant building it once was, despite not having much cash to do it with and having to fight the state bureaucrats. It also talks about his important personal and family events during the reconstruction. The fire is very much a life changing event for the owner and his family.

This is a true accounting as a report of the abuse of office by a number of Australian people and how they cause trouble for people who dare to believe in things different to them. They use the cry of 'Child Porn' to scare people into accepting what they want. The worst part of this is the government greatly changing the law but not publicly saying they did. This hasn't ended well, but as best as can be. The people and events in this book are real with names are changed for legal reasons.