Saturday, June 21, 2014

Talon: Come Fly With Me / Giveaway

leave a comment to win a copy of all four books in this series: 

Title: TALON: COME FLY WITH ME
Author: Gigi Sedlmayer
Publisher: Aurora House
December 2013
ISBN: 978-0992339920
Genre: Children’s fiction

Nine year old Matica lives in a remote village on a dry plateau in the Andes of Peru with her Australian missionary and schoolteacher parents. Matica has a growth handicap and is trapped in the body of a two year old, causing her to be rejected by the local people, who do not allow her to play with their children.

With patience and a sense of adventure, Matica befriends a pair of condors. A strong bond and love develops between them.

She rescues the egg the condors, Tamo and Tima, are trying to protect from poachers and nurtures it to hatching. The egg hatches on her 10th birthday. She names the new fledging Talon.


This is the beginning of many incredible adventures with Talon and Matica. It is a story of hope, determination and love.

I don't even know how to begin with my thoughts about TALON: COME FLY WITH ME. There is a lot of telling, and "head-hopping". There is also passive writing. But it is also engaging and gripping. The story is about a missionary's daughter who is considered "possessed by evil spirits" because she has growth problems, so no one will befriend her--except an unlikely pair of condors.

It is sweet the way she befriends and protects the condors--who are endangered--and care for their egg (then baby) so it will be protected from poachers.

The book says on the back cover it's for children. I think maybe she means tweeners? I'm not sure. Younger kids would struggle to read it and it's too long for a bed-time story book. Older kids and adults might be interested in reading it, especially if they have an interest in the setting, birds, or missionary children. It was a good read--from a reader's point of view.

This is the first book of four in the epic adventure series Talon. $4.95 Kindle, $18.95 paperback. 187 pages. 




More About the Author


Gisela (Gigi) Sedlmayer was born in Potsdam, a suburb of Berlin in Germany.

Her family escaped to the West just before the infamous wall went up. They moved around in Germany until finally settling in Munich where Gigi studied architectural drafting and met Albert in 1965, marrying in December 1967. She worked as a civil draftsperson in various private consultancies in Munich.

Since her uncle was a writer, she tried to write short animal stories herself. Nothing further came of it, but she developed a love for the written word and started to consume books.

In May 1975, Gigi and her husband moved to New Zealand. Because of language challenges, she started a handicraft business. As a specialty, she made colourful parrots of which she sold thousands in a few years.

In 1988, they decided to adopt and became adoptive parents of twin girls the year after. They lived in New Zealand for eighteen years and moved to Australia in September 1992.

Two years later Gigi was diagnosed with cancer. After operations and radiation, she withdrew, thinking that she would probably soon be dead, like her friend who died of cancer, but her two little girls gave her the courage to keep going. After a few years, still among the living, her brain started to work again, so she thought, 'Get a grip on yourself and do something good with your life'.

She remembered the time she wrote short stories and got inspired again, seeing her husband Albert writing the story of their adoption. Her English became increasingly better so she pressed on to develop her creative writing. 

Albert taught her how to use a computer and she wrote many short stories. She entered them in competitions and often got very good reports back, which gave her confidence to go on writing. One day the idea for the TALON series came to her and she spent the next several years bringing the story and the characters to life.

She now loves writing and spends most of her time at the computer, developing new story lines. She also loves travelling, 4x4 touring, swimming, gardening, handcrafting, reading, fossicking and enjoys good adventure DVD's or going to the movies.

Visit her facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/gigisedlmayer

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