Interrogation of Linzé Brandon - Part 1

Sunn City Police Headquarters: Interrogation Room #2

Date: 3.14.A MoonZone 1

Interviewer: Detective J Stone

Interviewee: Linzé Brandon               Status: Prime Suspect in the Case of the Novelist

I was escorted into the room and told to sit in the chair on the far side of the table. I sat, and watched the door close, leaving me alone. The room looked like they do on cop shows. Drab. Bare. One table. Two chairs. The mirror-like window flanking the wall facing me. I wondered who was on the other side scrutinizing me.

I have to confess that I was nervous. I have never been interviewed before, by the police no less.

The door opened again.

“I am Detective Jessica Stone,” she said, taking the chair opposite me.

The silver haired detective had startling blue eyes that seemed to miss nothing. She didn’t ask my name, and I didn’t offer it. My nerves didn’t quite settle down.

The blue screen in her left wrist flashed as she moved her hand. It was doubly disconcerting given the fact that this young woman was a character of my own making. I didn’t know what to make of her brusque manner. Did I create her like that? Then again, does one really know the characters that we create in the stories we write, the tales we weave?

She flipped a file on the tablet in front of her, then looked straight at me. Did I just squirm in my seat? Surely not. What did I have to hide?

“What the hell were you thinking?”

I blinked, and wet my dry mouth. “Excuse me?”

She pointed to the tablet on the table between us. It displayed a picture of the cover of my first novel, Géra’s Gift.

“You are an engineer and a project manager. What possessed you to think that you could write? And a romance novel no less?”

I wanted to remain serious, really I did. I was being interrogated after all. But I couldn’t help the pleasure that infused my expression. I could talk about my books and writing forever and a day.

“Why not?" I managed in a relatively normal sounding voice. "I have always loved books. I read them. Many of the ones I own I have read many times. I also collect first editions, when I can afford it, of course. Then someday I had an idea to try and write my own book.”

(Interview to be continued 8 July 2012)

Sunday Afternoon Nap

Like many people, we enjoy a Sunday afternoon visit with friends or family. Nice coffee, perhaps a slice of cake, and lots of catching up on the happenings of the past week or so.

This afternoon my sister-in-law texted us with the usual invite, but asked my husband to bring along his camera and a long lens. They had a “big bird” visiting that they couldn’t photograph clearly since it was too far away. Of course, never letting an opportunity pass, we got all the gear together and got in the car.

The Snymans do not live too far away, so we arrived in good time to see their big bird. It was sitting fairly high in a tree, and driving the other birds crazy with its presence. To them he was more than just a visitor, he was a threat.

When we had a similar owl visiting not so long ago (8 Jan 2012), we were quite happy to see it, since we do not live far away from the Rietvlei Nature Reserve. The Snyman’s home cannot make the same claim. However, their suburb is rich with trees and parks and an ideal place to find an owl or two.

These nocturnal birds are often found in built-up areas since their main source of food also happen to like human habitation very much. The family did mention that they often had mice pestering them and their neighbours, so the owl was a welcome sight. It had been spotted before, so it knew that there could be food around come sunset.

Keep an eye out in your trees, especially at late afternoon, you might find an owl resting there before it turned those sharp eyes to the rodents that might be infesting your neighbourhood. If you have a mice or rat problem, take care to only use animal-friendly means to get rid of them. Poison will kill the predator too, and remove a more friendly means of keeping the place pest free.

Photographs are courtesy of Francois Venter.

Science Helps to put Poachers in Jail

Picture from RhODIS presentation - see link in text

This is not my normal type of blog, but today I thought to mention something which I thought was quite amazing. If you had paid any attention to the news the past few months you would have learned about the rhino poaching that has been going on in South Africa. And not even far away from my own home.

As a fellow animal lover, you will understand the feeling of violence that overcomes me when I hear about another rhino cow killed for her horn (my husband does have a very graphic way of explaining his feelings on the matter too). And to make matters worse her baby died too, either as a direct result of the killing or later on when it died of starvation. Rhino calves depend on their mothers for quite a while, and if they not found in time, they will die.

That is where science comes in. They cannot, as yet, prevent the rhinos from being senselessly slaughtered, but they can help to put the criminals in jail.

If you are like me who thought that the DNA from one animal species is pretty much the same as the next, think again. The University of Pretoria’s Veterinary Department at Onderstepoort, has developed a DNA test that could uniquely identify each rhino that was killed when a sample of the horn is tested.

If the police then catches someone in possession of a rhino horn, Dr Harper and her team can then tell to which rhino it used to belong. Evidence that then puts the people involved in jail.

One for the justice system, I would say.

The team consist of only five people who have done this ground breaking work, and they are in need of funding. Check out the links to see the work done in South Africa to try and protect the dwindling rhino population and how Dr Harper’s work benefits the efforts to put these people behind bars.