The family vacation was at Rainbow Beach on the Sunshine Coast. Many of the beaches in this region, including Frazer Island have impressive sand dunes and cliffs where erosion has exposed a palette of unique coloured sands, colours ranging from white to brown, golden to caramel and other colours of gold and orange, even blue and black. I saw the sign‘Coloured Sands’.  I thought it would be a wonderful title for my novel. I had to find a way to work it into the storyline. This is how I did it:

The pioneering woman Mary is caring for the Crazy Orphan Emily who is participating in silent tantrums of a terrible nature (the child is struck dumb after the shock of the massacre). The indigenous tribe on the creek bring Mary a baby on the verge of death. She has the baby in a steam tent.  Emily is filled with jealously and contempt and kicks the cot. The exhausted Mary who is pregnant once more deals with Emily and soon after falls asleep on the little couch near the wood stove.  This is her dream that she retells to Emily in a bid to calm the tormented little soul – the dream that gives credence to the title of the novel.  

Mary’s Dream

Shedrifted into a dreamy world where

frothy water washed onto a beach of coloured sands –

thecolour of people - black, white, yellow and brown;

thensuddenly a huge wave, whipped by a fierce wind

churned and swallowed the colouredsands that kept swirling and

 curling, around and over, thisway and that way 

until one colour emerged - the colour of tan.

 People walked proudly out of those waves – 

beautiful goldentan people, the colour  of all people combined 

and the eyesthat shone from those  beautiful, golden, tan faces werefull

 of love and peace.

www.colouredsandstrilogy.com.au