Team Dusty Gazette

For those of you who missed out, below is an excerpt from the Team Dusty Gazette which was sent to my subscribers in January 2024. To be the first to get the news subscribe here – you’ll also receive a free book of stories including Shanty Shooting which won the Scarlet Stiletto prize in 2023 (Mystery with History).

                                                                           Ciao Team Dusty!
Here in Melbourne the city is buzzing with tourists and fun, in part due to the Australian Open Tennis. The weather, however, is not playing ball. Melbourne is well known for its erratic weather and this year is no different. We have had serene temperate days befitting our ‘temperate oceanic climate’, high humidity days, cool days, drizzle days and thunderstorm days and all in a random mix. January is usually a relatively dry month in Melbourne but this year we have had the wettest start to a year since 1996. I accept some responsibility for this because I have been asking for rain for weeks. You see, I used a little of the prize money won by my story Shanty Shooting in the 2023 Scarlet Stiletto Short Story Awards to buy an umbrella in a beautiful rich yellow from Blunt Umbrellas who make top of the range umbrellas that are designed to last a lifetime. I call it my ‘Rolls Royce’ umbrella. I was so pleased with it I wanted to show it off, so I needed rain! 

When not out doing my Mary Poppins impersonation, I’ve been working on Dusty Kent #8 - almost every day. It’s a blissful experience hiding away in my ‘hayshed’* with nothing else on my mind except writing. I get so lost in ‘the zone’ I sometimes have to remind myself to eat. I have finished ‘Act I’ (apart from the fine tuning) and have just started ‘Act II’. My progress was slowed down by the unexpected appearance of a new character. I had to pause to create a profile for him and think about his role in the story. He seems to be a bit of a grumpy old man! 
*As a kid growing up in the Australian bush I often escaped into our hayshed at the bottom of the paddock. I nestled into the hay bales out of sight where my brothers could not find me to read books. It was sanctuary where I could live in stories. That’s why I use ‘hayshed’ as a metaphor for the place where I write.

                                                                                Did you know?
One of Australia’s quirkiest animals is named after a creature from Greek mythology known as the ‘Mother of Monsters’ who was half-woman and half-snake - because the animal was perceived to have qualities of both mammal and reptile. Just like a reptile, it lays eggs. Just like a mammal it feeds its young on milk – even though it doesn’t have any nipples. The milk oozes out of the skin in the pouch and the baby animal licks it up. That’s not all that’s quirky about this monotreme with porcupine-like spines. The echidna also has a toothless jaw, a bird-like beak, a quoll-like pouch and their babies are called puggles.

And now for the quirkiest thing about the echidna; their unconventional sex life. The breeding season starts with an echidna train – a long line of around ten male echidnas waddling after one female echidna. The ‘train’ winds its way through the bush for long distances until the female is ready to mate. Then she flops down on her stomach and waits for the males to dig a circular trench known as a ‘mating rut’ around her. The largest male wins the lady. When he has pushed all his rivals out of the way, he lies down next to her, places his tail under hers and they mate. 

But that’s not the quirkiest thing of all about echidnas. Red alert! I’m about to ‘talk dirty’. The male echidna has a four-headed penis! It is used only for mating and never carries urine. When mating, two of the heads retract while the other two grow bigger. Both male and female echidnas are promiscuous. Male echidnas alternate which penis heads they use when mating with different partners to improve their chances of becoming a dad! (The mind boggles at what scientists must go through to find this stuff out.)     Ref: www.environment.sa.gov.au

                         The next Gazette is due out in March 2024. Don’t miss out. Subscribe now!
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