"Talented and steadfast BeWriter Marion Moon was killed on New Year's Day.

Marion from Kent in the UK -- always a globetrotter -- was in a minibus in South africa that crashed when it swerved to avoid some nutcase who'd lept into the road in a selfish suicide attempt.

Marion's Husband, Stephen, and seven other Britons were also killed.

You'll remember Marion from her wonderful stories (one of which, 'Raud', I'd slated only yesterday - the day she died - for the lead on the 'Kaleidoscope' anthology.

You'll also recall a lovely, smiling face in her short on-site biography. One of the reasons she's smiling in the photograph is perhaps that, she told me recently, her first novel was almost ready to be sent over to us in 2004.

Marion joined BeWrite in 2001 through mutual friends in the fine writing circle, Write Idea in England, which numbers so many other old BeWrite members.

One, Barry Ireland, sent us the sad note below this afternoon.

Neil
You've probably heard the news by now, but Marion Moon and her husband were two of the Brits killed in the minibus accident in South Africa. Marion's bio on Bewrite tells only part of her story. She was a fascinating lady who had spent much of her life being successful in several diverse ways, and who had travelled extensively. At one stage she was a guide for tourist expeditions in the Amazon Basin. She told us that the best part was when everyone was asleep at night and she could swim naked in the Amazon and feel the fish brushing against her. Fish and what else, for goodness sake! Marion started writing quite late in life and had been a member of The Write Idea for three years. In that time, her writing improved in leaps and bounds with her short stories often containing some gem of information or experience picked up on her travels in exotic places. She was a valuable contributor to the group with intelligent, finely detailed creative criticism of other members work. Marion was a lovely character, full of surprises, and it's really hard to accept that we will no longer enjoy the pleasure her company.
Regards
Barry

I'm sure I speak for us all when I say our thoughts are with the couple -- in whatever heaven they choose -- and with her friends and her family in the world they seem to have inhabited as though it were a single country.

Love to you both, Marion and Stephen --

Neil et al."