The Real Thing

By Danielle de Valera

Short story, 17 pages. When Charles Lawson (aka God) is forty and enjoying a career as a troubleshooter for coin fraud, he goes to Maralinga in South Australia to determine the authenticity of a mysterious coin found there after the British atomic explosions of 1960. Here he meets twenty-five-year old Jamie Stanborough, chief archeologist on the coin dig. Jamie sets out to seduce Lawson for his own ends. 5,885 words.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Danielle de Valera
• Release date: Oct 16, 2014
• ISBN: 9780992331160

Danielle de Valera

Until now, Danielle de Valera's been best known for her short stories, which have appeared in such diverse magazines as Penthouse, Aurealis and the Australian Women’s Weekly.All in all, she's had a chequered career. She’s worked as a botanist, an editor, a cataloguer for the Queensland Department of Primary Industries Library and the John Oxley Library, and on the main floor of Arnott’s biscuit factory.The manuscript of her 1st ever novel (then titled Love the People!) was placed 2nd to published author Hugh Atkinson's in the Australia-wide Xavier Society Literary Award for an unpublished novel - in those days, there was no Vogel Award for Unpublished Writers under 35. After that, she abandoned writing for 25 years to raise her children, whom she raised alone.She resumed writing in 1990, somewhat behind the eight-ball. With Louise Forster she won the Australia-New Zealand-wide Emma Darcy Award for Romance Manuscript of the Year 2000 with Found: One Lover.That first novel, Love the People! was shortlisted for the Byron Bay Writers’ Festival Unpublished Manuscript Award in 2011, and for the UK’s Impress Prize in 2012, under the title A Few Brief Seasons. It's due out here in October 2021 under its final title Those Brisbane Romantics.A freelance manuscript assessor and fiction editor since 1992, she has won numerous awards for her gritty, streetwise short stories. MagnifiCat, a departure from this style, is her first published novel. It was followed in 2017 by Dropping Out: a tree-change novel in stories - to put it another way, a collection of linked short stories.For more information on this author, see Smashwords iInterview. There's lots there.About that NameDanielle de Valera’s father claimed he was related to the controversial Irish politician Eamon de Valera on his mother’s side. But he told some tall tales in his time, and this is sure to be one of them. Born Danielle Ellis, she found that this name was replicated many times on the web. In searching for another under which to write, she first tried her mother's maiden name, Doyle, but there were a number of those, too. What to do? Then she remembered her father’s story and chose it as her writing name. But she feels any real connection is unlikely.

Book preview

The Real Thing

Danielle de Valera

Copyright Danielle de Valera 2015

Smashwords Edition

The Real Thing

Cover and glyphs by C S McClellan

All rights reserved. No part may be reproduced in any form by any means without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review.

If you would like to do any of the above, please seek permission first by contacting the author at [e-mail]

ISBN 978-0-9923311-6-0

Published in the United States by Old Tiger Books.

Smashwords Edition

My sincere thanks to Barry Landy for allowing me to use one of his photos of Maralinga for the cover. Baz is a great lover of life, a believer in making the most of each day. His blogsite, Baz—The Landy (Out and About) at: the landy.com in which he records his travels, contains some wonderful shots of outback Australia. Thank you, Baz.

Table of Contents

Story start

Halfway

Last scene

About the author

More O’Neill, Star and Lawson stories

Other works by this author

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The Real Thing

Forget what you’ve seen on TV, Lawson thought, and all those glossy National Geographics. Central Australia was boring—just red soil, scrubby trees and dust. He couldn’t see what the fuss was all about. But he was weary of his life in Sydney, his suburban life with Angela-and-the-kids (though he loved them). He was glad to get away for a while. And then, of course, there was the money.

The Science Centre, so hi-tech for 1960, loomed in the fierce sunlight as Lawson crossed the tarmac from the plane to Reception, the bitumen soft under his feet. Already he was beginning to have misgivings. As far as the eye could see, the facility was enclosed by a high fence topped with barbed wire. Armed guards patrolled the fences. And all this security was for what?