Born
in Sydney, I grew up in the suburbs but was fortunate enough to have spent
school holidays running around in boats on the northern coast of New South
Wales.
Amidst the chaos and clutter of Sydney University life in the seventies I actually managed to acquire a degree - principally because most of my undergraduate life was spent on a beach. The best way to understand the mathematics of a breaking wave is to go surfing! Half way through writing the final draft of my thesis on sea level change and global warming, I decided that running a sail boat and dive operation in the South Pacific would be safer, and probably a whole lot more fun, than a career as an academic.
A yachtie lifestyle was ideally suited to working as a freelance photojournalist, so I went on to work as a staff writer and correspondent for several magazines. One thing led to another, and over the years I became involved in adventure and ecotourism, and promoting tourism to Vanuatu in general.
One evening in the late 1990s, sitting on the edge of an erupting volcano with a jug of slightly ashy margaritas in hand, I allowed a couple of my friends – a volcanologist and an epidemiologist – to talk me into finishing my thesis. With the philosophy that ‘the play’s the thing’, I chucked the thesis idea and instead wrote the eco-thriller, The Rhesus Factor.
In late 2000, I decided that I'd had enough of bugs, mud, infectious tropical diseases, cyclones, recalcitrant volcanoes, cranky witchdoctors and openly corrupt politicians. Going toe to toe with not one, but two Vanuatu prime ministers over cetacean capture legislation issues was the final straw (I won both battles btw, and in both instances dolphins were released). I came home to Australia with my two children to discover a whole new anthropological experience: suburbia and malls.
In
2003, I completed the first draft of The Rhesus Factor,
and began work on a second novel, Ark Ship.
In 2004, The Rhesus Factor won a Draco Award
for Excellence in Science Fiction, and subsequently, a publishing contract.
Perhaps more importantly, the galley alarmed an Australian MP sufficiently
to cite the novel in the Queensland State Parliament.
While Rhesus and Ark Ship were being prepared for publication in 2005, I received an offer too good to pass up, to write a proposal for a novel based on the televisions series, Stargate SG-1. Three months later the first draft of Stargate SG-1 City of the Gods was born.
For their sins in goading me into this literary lifestyle, my epidemiologist and volcanologist mates have made an appearance in Chimera, a bioterrorism thriller.
My MA thesis in Speculative Fiction at the Queensland University of Technology, was based on Stargate Atlantis The Chosen and Stargate Atlantis Exogenesis, with Stargate SG-1:Roswell, a close follow up on this research. Subsequent to the release of my final Stargate novel, Stargate SG-1 Blood Ties with Elizabeth Christensen, I bought a small property in New Zealand and began research on a YA anthology with Jennifer Fallon. In December 2009 my latest story was published in Allen and Unwin's Christmas anthology. Currently, I'm working part time on the YA anthology , and slowly pecking away at a Stargate Universe novel.
- Sonny Whitelaw, Oxford New Zealand, January 2010 sonny [at] sonnywhitelaw.com
Top
image: Yasur volcano, Tanna Is. Vanuatu
Click image for a larger view
Bottom: Ice caverns, Fox Glacier, New Zealand
| Year | Publications (see also articles and short stories) |
| 2009 | |
| December | Anthology: More Than One Life Allen and Unwin 2009 Christmas anthology: How Do I Love Thee? |
Magazine (fiction): Deconstructing the Butterfly Effect Escape Velocity |
|
| 2008 | |
Anthology (non-fiction): But I Only Wanted One Photo Best Women's Travel Writing 2008 |
|
| Novel: Stargate Atlantis The Chosen | |
| 2007 | |
| April | Novel: Stargate SG-1 Roswell |
| May | Interview: Cliff Simon (Non-fiction) Titan Magazines |
| August | Educational article (non-fiction): Te Wahipounamu’s Rivers of Ice The World and I School |
| October | Short story (fiction): 'K-T' Titan Magazines |
| October | Short Story: The Promise Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine: Issue 31: |
| November | |
| 2006 | |
| Novel: Stargate Atlantis Exogenesis | |
| Novel: Journey's of the Mind Vol 1 - edited anthology of speculative fiction | |
| Novel: Stargate Atlantis The Chosen | |
| Short Story (non-fiction) The Spiffy Cult: Short Stories Australia | |
| Article and cover photo: Photos from Hell Australian Photography | |
| 2005 | |
| Novel: Chimera | |
Short
Story (non-fiction) Voices
of Australia (Page 24-5) Entire magazine can be downloaded
 |
|
| Vanuatu Philatelic Society - First day cover, posters and postage stamp for Volcano Post | |
| Island Spirit Magazine: cover photo | |
| Novel: The Rhesus Factor | |
| Novel: Stargate SG-1 City of the Gods | |
| 2004 | Novel: Ark Ship |
| 2003 | National Geographic Magazine: Yasur Volcano Tanna Island |
| 2000-2001 | ISLAND SPIRIT magazine: Ambrym, The Land Time Forgot |
| 1998-2001 | Vanuatu's online encyclopedia for the National Tourism Office |
| History, culture, society and tourism. I'm not adding a link because I left Vanuatu in 2000 and the site has not functioned correctly since 2004. A copy of the Kids Volcano pages are on my site. | |
| 1999 | ISLAND SPIRIT magazine: Vanuatu Down Under |
| 1990s | PACIFIC PARADISE magazine |
| The
Lost Squadron - underwater discovery of, and history of WWII Corsair. |
|
| Mysterious Ambrym - traversing one of the world's largest active volcanoes | |
| The Dolphins of Erakor - article on the Sea World coordinated rescue of stranded dolphins | |
| 1990 | PACIFIC ISLAND PROFILE magazine |
| Behind the Dolphin's Smile | |
| 1987-1992 | PACIFIC PANORAMA magazine (staff photojournalist) |
| The Toka - grade taking and pig killing ceremony in Tanna, Vanuatu | |
| Gold! |
|
| The N'Gol - the Pentecost land divers | |
| The Tonga Patchwork Company | |
| Tusitala - the Teller of Tales - Life, loves and death of Robert Louis Stevenson in Samoa | |
| Aggie Grey - biography | |
| It's Raining, It's Pouring - what to do when it rains on your vacation in the South Pacific | |
| A Day at the Races - the inaugural Annual Kiwanis Race Day in Vanuatu | |
| Tatu Malu - the tradition and art of male and female tattooing in Western Samoa | |
| The Kingdom of Tonga | |
| Va'vau - Tonga's northernmost islands | |
| Aitutaki - Cooks Islands northernmost islands | |
| Sydney on a Sunday - international transiting in Sydney | |
| Anyone for Tucker - the sinking and wreck of the WWII wreck U.S.S. Tucker | |
| Accommodation in the Cooks | |
| The Milk Run | |
| Death of a President - the wreck and dives of the S.S. President Coolidge sunk during WWII | |
| The John Frumms - Cargo cult on Tanna Island, Vanuatu | |
| 1984-86 | PACIFIC magazine, (Hawaii) - Vanuatu correspondent (several dozen news articles) |
| VACATIONS magazine - Pentecost Power | |
| PENTHOUSE Magazine (Edition Français) - Le Saut De L'ange (The Jump of the Angel) | |
| FRANCE SOIR - La tour infernale (The Never Ending Tower) | |
| 1985 | BUNTY (German national magazine) - The Land diver of Pentecost |
| 1982-1985 | SPORTDIVING magazine |
| The Emperors of Escotts - Diving Escott's Hole, Lord Howe Island | |
| Diving at its Best - Diving North Efate, Vanuatu | |
| Death of a Lady - diving on the sinking wreck of the M.V.Lady Kathleen | |
| 1981 | AUSTRALIAN BOATING magazine |
| Lady Musgrave Island | |
| 1980 | (Photography only) Life on Earth (BBC book from the David Attenborough television series) |
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