Blame it on the Dwarf (ePub)

Blame it on the Dwarf. Everyone else did - even his mother, the local witch. Despised at home, Bogden left Europe for the 19th century gold rush in Australia. But very soon, he found himself in conflict with Jack, a red-haired miner.

Matters became worse when the albino Dwarf found gold. Big Jack and his mates beat him up and left him for dead. Bogden, however, had enough of his mother's magic to survive. He returned to the camp at night and woke the drunken Jack just to stick a shovel into his throat. Cursing Jack's descendants, the Dwarf set fire to the miners' tents and fled.

Buying nearby land, Bogden cursed it to keep other people away. Naturally 150 years later, that was the place chosen for coal seam gas mining. Blame it on the Dwarf. Why else turn a food bowl into a wasteland?

Sophie, an actress with a greenie theatre group, led the protest against the mine. But just days before she is to lead an important rally, she is kidnapped. By Red Jack, of course, who has started to manifest a dwarfish aura.

Sophie, still in her costume as a modern Madame Butterfly, is hidden with a man obsessed with butterflies. Fortunately, the theatre group includes Thorn, a woodturner. Unusually, he can intuitively judge the depths of bowls, or other spaces, and this leads to Sophie's rescue.

Her rally is a success but the theatre group want justice. One of their members, Tubs, an ex-junkie, maintains contact with a former veteran who has become a security expert. With his help, justice happens.

Finally, the thespians create a ritual and remove Bogden's curse from the land.