FEAST OR FAMINE

READ ON MARTINANICOLLS.SUBSTACK.COM   MARTINA NICOLLS MartinaNicollsWebsite    I    Rainy Day Healing    I    Martinasblogs    I    Publications    I    Facebook    I    Paris Website    I    Paris blogs    I   Animal Website    I   Flower Website   I   Global Gentlemanliness SUBSCRIBE TO MARTINA NICOLLS FOR NEWS AND UPDATES  Martina Nicolls is an Australian author and international human rights-based consultant in education, healing and wellbeing, peace and stabilization, and foreign aid audits and evaluations. She lives in Paris.  

  Dear Santa, How’s things with Mrs Claus and your helpers? Busier than usual, I imagine, given world events this year, so this email is just to let you know that a letter from me is on the way.   I’ll begin with my gratitude to you for putting a post box conveniently in my neighbourhood supermarket – and early too! You must know about the challenges I have with mail delivery. It was difficult writing to you from Afghanistan and Sudan, because, like you, I usually work over the festive season. What a surprise to see the post box! Red too, which, of course, is your colour! – not the typical French yellow post box.   Thank you also for having the intelligence to re-purpose the red post box. I see that the post box has EuR on the front (for Europe), instead of E II R after Elizabeth Regina the second – Queen Elizabeth – given the sad end to her long reign.    I’m writing to express my Christmas wish. I’d really like world peace this year, if you can manage it. More...

    MARTINA NICOLLS - NEWS AND UPDATES FOR SEPTEMBER 2020 Hello everyone. September is the months of autumn, or fall, in the Northern Hemisphere. Summer in Paris was quiet due to the summer vacation, when the French typically go to the coast for their holidays. Due to the Coronavirus pandemic, there were fewer tourists, especially American tourists. And on Friday 28 August, the mayor of Paris announced that face covering must be worn inside and outside for everyone except people exercising or under 12 years of age, due to the high number of increased cases of Covid-19 (6,111 new cases reported on 27 August).  Due to begin on 27 June, the 2020 Tour de France cycling event was delayed due to the Coronavirus pandemic. However, the first stage (Le Grand Départ) began on 29 August in Nice. After 21 stages, it is expected to conclude down the Avenue des Champs-Élysées in Paris on 20 September.  This email includes updates on Paris, my animal website, my aid development wor...

The latest news from my friends and family in my home town of Adelaide in South Australia is that Cecilia the young Komodo Dragon has arrived, is out of quarantine, and in her new enclosure.     Cecilia the Komodo Dragon is the Adelaide Zoo’s first ever Komodo Dragon.    She came out of quarantine in late June 2020, when the zoo re-opened after lockdown closure due to the Coronavirus pandemic. She is in the Reptile House, because she is a reptile – a lizard.   Cecilia the Komodo Dragon actually arrived at the Adelaide Zoo late in 2019 and was in the usual quarantine program before release into her enclosure. So, visitors had not seen her until June 2020.    She arrived from the Prague Zoo in the Czech Republic where they have a breeding program.    She is quite small at the moment because she is only 4 years old and not fully grown. She will eventually grow to over 2 metres long.   In the future – in about two years – the Adelaide Z...

  MARTINA NICOLLS - NEWS AND UPDATES FOR JULY 2020 Hello everyone. June 2020 started with the gradual 'deconfinement' in Paris and the opening of restaurants (first for outside dining and from the third week for indoor dining) but with precautions to avoid Covid-19. The Coronavirus pandemic continues to affect the world, and France's situation continues to improve. I had a lovely flashback in June to my roots in Adelaide, South Australia, where I grew up. Thanks to Pam, the SALIFE (South Australian Life) magazine featured me in their expat section, "Expats at home - South Australians chat from overseas."  The giveaway launch of the e-book version of my book Similar but Different in the Animal Kingdom attracted a worldwide response. Thank you to everyone who entered. The three winners are John from America, Sarah from Germany, and Sonia from Trinidad and Tobago. Stay tuned for future giveaways.  I hope July is a special month for everyone. A penumbral full moon lun...

    I am happy to announce the three winners of my ebook giveaway. The June ebook giveaway of my book SIMILAR BUT DIFFERENT IN THE ANIMAL KINGDOM attracted entrants from all over the globe.  The competition is now closed.   The three winners are John of America, Sarah of Germany, and Sonia of Trinidad and Tobago.    Congratulations! Your ebooks are on their way to you.    More competitions, giveaways, and offers are planned for the future.     MARTINA NICOLLS Website Publications Facebook Paris Website Animal Website SUBSCRIBE TO MARTINA NICOLLS FOR NEWS AND UPDATES    MARTINA NICOLLS  is an international aid and development consultant, and the  author   of:  The Paris Residences of James Joyce   (2020), Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) ...

The title for my latest novel on Mongolia has taken many iterations and variations. I can now announce that the title is THE SHORTNESS OF LIFE: A MONGOLIAN LAMENT. The Mongolian novel is a fictional portrait of strength and resilience in the country's longest and harshest winter on record. A flu epidemic takes hold. Hospitals can't cope with the influx of patients, predominantly young children, and families take extreme measures to protect their loved ones. Cattle, crops, and children are dying.  For readers familiar with my previous novels (The Sudan Curse - 2009, Kashmir on a Knife-Edge - 2010, and Liberia's Deadest Ends - 2012) this is the return of Jorja Himmermann, Australian aid specialist, working in Ulaanbaatar. A synopsis will be posted in due course. I estimate that the title changed up to 30 times during the three years of writing. Working titles for the manuscript included the obscure and ridiculous - Dancing in Silence, Moon Cuckoo, Devoid o...

Since my novel, Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2013), I have been intermittently writing the next novel in between work assignments. The inspiration for my sixth novel was Mongolia, where I worked in 2010, during the longest, coldest, bleakest winter on record. This is the fourth book with Jorja Himmermann, the Australian aid worker, as the protoganist. Here in Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia, and the coldest capital in the world, she works as a health expert administering the inaugural competitive grants process to support health clinics and hospitals in urban and regional centres. I’ll add more information on the synopsis in future blogs. The novel began at the end of 2013 in Australia after working in Sri Lanka and concluded in Paris in 2015 after working in Pakistan, with the read-through in Georgia. In between I had nine country visits and the launch of my regular blog section “Giving Naturally, Giving Ethically” in Australia and New Zealand’s Wellbeing magazine. The...