Born
in Sydney, I grew up in the suburbs but was fortunate enough to have spent
school holidays mucking around in boats on the northern coast of New South
Wales, Australia. That instilled in me an endless fascination for the marine and coastal environments so naturally enough, that's what I ended up studying at Sydney University.
Amidst the chaos and clutter of university life in the 1970s I managed to acquire a degree, principally because most of the time I was either on a beach, in a boat, or underwater. While writing the final draft of my Master's thesis on sea level change, I realised I wasn't temperamentally suited to convincing politicians that climate change was real. So I ended upworking as a freelance photojournalist and running a dive charter and adventure tourism company in the South Pacific.
Twenty years later my island paradise was changing - fast. The reefs were dying because of rising temperatures and unrestrained development, and politics was making it increasingly difficult to run a business. One night I was sitting with a couple of friends – a volcanologist and an epidemiologist – on the edge of Yasur volcano (photo) with a jug of slightly ashy margaritas in hand. They half talked me into returning to research. With the philosophy that ‘the play’s the thing’ ,I moved to Brisbane with my two children and turned my pen from fact to fiction. The result was my first novel, The Rhesus Factor. The novel won a Draco Award and alarmed an Australian MP sufficiently to cite it in Parliament.
While my next novel, Ark Ship was being prepared for publication ,
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.
By 2008 I had completed an MA in Creative Writing and, having fallen in love with teaching the craft of writing, I took on a Certificate IV in Training and Assessment. I'd also published a further four novels: Stargate Atlantis: The Chosen, Stargate Atlantis: Exogenesis, and Stargate SG-1:Roswell. 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 spent two years restoring it. Currently, I'm working part time on a young adult trilogy, part time on the property (it's lambing time!) and full time on a graduate Diploma in Environmental Management.
- Sonny Whitelaw, Oxford New Zealand, September 2011, 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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