The Coral Sea Monster

The Winner of the Open Section this year is the most beautifully illustrated as well as the best written story of the bunch: ‘The Coral Sea Monster’ by Prana Writers. The team was given the challenge to include a podiatrist, a sheep shearer and a sea animal in their work, as well as to employ the setting of a motorway and the theme of love.

The result is an amusing and engaging story of a 13 year-old sheep-whisperer, Jack, whose hopes of competing in the shearing event at the Ekka showgrounds are shot through when a truck overturns on the motorway into Brisbane, blocking the traffic in both directions. The truck in question is carrying a sea monster, of course, and Jack and his new found friend, a teen podiatrist (yes, there is such a girl!), set out on a fun-packed adventure to save the sea monster from the clutches of Lionel Measly, the greedy Ocean-World curator who hopes to make a million out of the endangered species.

A competition like Book-in-a -Day challenges all of its competitors to take an imaginative leap, to work together against the ticking clock, to produce something extraordinary and new. ‘The Coral Sea Monster’ is a delightful example of the best kind of new work this competition is capable of producing.

Congratulations to team members Tom Betts, Rob Brown, Margaret Choinski, Rebecca Fraser, Janis Hanley, Kerry McGuicken, Helen Stubbs, Angela Sunde and Amanda Worlley, as well as to the children at the Royal Children’s Hospital in Brisbane, to whom this team’s sponsors directed their funds. You are all very worthy winners.

Julienne van Loon

Write a Book in a Day Judge

Prana Writers: Tom Betts, Rob Brown,

Margaret Choinski, Rebecca Fraser,

Janis Hanley, Kerry McGuicken, Helen Stubbs,

Angela Sunde, Amanda Worlley

Illustrated by Angela Sunde

The Coral Sea Monster

Prana Writers

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Copyright © Prana Writers 2011

www.pranawriters.wordpress.com

Illustrations Copyright © Angela Sunde 2011

www.angelasunde.com

All rights reserved. This book is copyright. Apart from the Write-A Book-in-a-Day Competition and any fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review, as permitted under Copyright Act, no part may be reproduced or transmitted by any process or means and in any form without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Parameters for this book

Primary Character 1 Podiatrist

Primary Character 2 Sheep Shearer

Non-Human Character Sea Animal

Setting Motorway

Issue Love

Random Words Hearty, Plopped, Amongst, Beef Stroganoff, Ginormous

Dedication

This book is dedicated to children in hospitals everywhere, past present and future. May the wonderful world of words help make your stay a little more pleasant. We are honoured to be a small part of that.

Sponsors

We wish to thank our sponsors who have so generously supported the Royal Children’s Hospital (Brisbane), a truly worthy cause.

Acknowledgements

We wish to acknowledge the members of Prana Writers, Gold Coast who generously volunteered their time and expertise for this worthy cause; our mentors and in particular Louise Cusack, for helping us develop into the writers we are today; the Gold Coast City Council and their ‘Creative Juices’ program who brought us together in the first place; and RADF who have helped us continue.

The Regional Arts Development Fund is a Queensland Government and Gold Coast City Council partnership to support local arts and culture.

Chapter One

Crunch. No screech of brakes, twist of steel or scream of terror. Just a heart wrenching thud of metal-on-metal as the car behind stopped a fraction too late.

‘Strewth!’ spat Dag as his body jerked forward. Jack put his hands on the dash to steady himself and glanced to his side to gauge the look on Dag’s face. This wasn’t going to be good. His brother didn’t like things that didn’t go according to plan at the best of times, least of all today.

Jack reached through the open window and adjusted the side mirror. As far as he could see behind them, and up to the overturned truck ahead, cars were