Howard Gaukrodger
The new author from Downunder
“A full-time author, Howard has been involved in writing all his life,” reports Denise Baden of Habitat Press. “He taught English, studied translation, then operated a language consultancy in Norway.”
In love with adventure, Howard has lived in Europe, South America and Australasia. However, it was his escapades of cycling across North Africa that triggered his interest in writing a short story about the Sahara Desert many years later.
The Desert Spiral Initiative was published in the anthology No More Fairy Tales in November, 2022. This fictional short story narrates the adventures of a tough and wizened Berber called Zdan from Siwa in the north-west of Egypt. Determined to improve the life of his Saharan family, he strives to increase crop yields and discovers a farming method that is ultimately adopted for re-greening the entire Western Desert.
This anthology was promoted at the COP 27 climate conference in Egypt, November 2022.
Part I of the story is available as an audio file below.
The Desert Spiral Initiative (Part 1)
The Desert Spiral Initiative was published in the anthology No More Fairy Tales in November, 2022. This fictional short story narrates the adventures of a tough and wizened Berber called Zdan from Siwa in the north-west of Egypt. Determined to improve the life of his Saharan family, he strives to increase crop yields and discovers a farming method that is ultimately adopted for re-greening the entire Western Desert.
This anthology was promoted at the COP 27 climate conference in Egypt, November 2022.
Part I of the story is available as an audio file above.
Having turned his attention to climate change, Howard’s first cli-fi novel, Global Dawning – The countdown begins, is an intriguing metaverse thriller that he hopes will grab the attention of young adults.
This cli-fi thriller is the first in a series. It reveals the animal metaverse of Lufianblid and plays it against the human world that the Lufians call Felacynn.
Fusing tension and tragedy, inspiration and recovery, the plot of this novel is upbeat and full of hope and determination. All parties know they can mitigate climate change; they will mitigate climate change; but they need to do it in harmony with the animal kingdom to safeguard the world’s biodiversity.
This is where Maluk, the star of the Lufian metaverse, knows he can help – that is, if the conspiracy of greed and ignorance allows.
While cli-fi is Howard’s current focus, he’s no stranger to other genres, and his first novel was a humorous travelogue. Recently rewritten under the title Campervans Gone Wild, the novel builds on his experience touring New Zealand in the 1990s. Howard is now looking to work with a publisher to bring the book to market.
I kept a detailed diary of my tour of New Zealand – focussing on people and their behaviour. It was invaluable in creating fictitious characters that supported the real characters. And then there was Ivan the campervan – a reliable old tank of a vehicle that had enough character to star in his own TV show. The novel is full of humour and pathos, and my family were constantly giggling or sighing when I read it aloud.
Creative writing is art.
– Don’t shoot the artist for depicting the devil