“Talon, Come Fly With Me” and “Talon, On The Wing” by Gisela (Gigi) Sedlmayer

TALON, COME FLY WITH ME is about the life of nine-year-old girl, Matica. Matica lives in a remote village on a dry plateau in the Andes of Peru. She moved here with her Australian missionary and schoolteacher parents when she was five years old. Ever since Matica could remember, she faced cruel rejection because of a growth handicap that traps her in a body a two-year-old. Because of her appearance, the local Indians wouldn’t accept her into their community or allow her to play with their children.

Under the watchful eyes of her parents, lonely Matica explores the plateau of the Andes. She found a pair of condors soaring near the mountains and with patience and a sense of adventure she befriended them. She named the condors Tamo and Tima and a strong bond and love developed between them.

The adventure of this book begins two years later, as Matica helplessly witnessed poachers stealing the condors’ egg from their nest. After a dramatic fight between Tamo and the poachers, the poachers abandoned the egg leaving it far from its nest. Being unable to bring it back to the nest, Tamo and Tima sent signals to Matica to take care of their egg.

Later on, during Matica’s tenth birthday, the condor egg hatches. The hatchling is called Talon and this story focuses on the self journey of Matica, as she teaches the little hatchling to fly. This experience changes her life completely and enables her to see a positive side to her handicap.

***

TALON, ON THE WING is the second book in the Talon series. What Matica has dreamed ever since she first befriended the condors actually happened in the last chapter of the previous book, Talon, Come Fly With Me. And now the adventure continues.

Finally accepting Matica into their community with that incredible event, the Indians of Peru loves seeing her together with Talon and his parents, Tamo and Tima. Now she has to tell all of her adventures with her condors in class.

Only her mother wasn’t very impressed with that event but she finally is turning around as well and loves her seeing them together in that intimate way. Her mother first saw danger in it but after showing her how safe she is with Talon her mother gave her the go ahead.

Matica is now happy that she is small and doesn’t want to have it any other way. She is accepted, she is loved and she can have the incredible adventure with her beloved Talon. What more could she have? All her rejection and hardship is over.

In this book she has scores of incredible adventures and near disasters with Talon. Also, a love between Amos and her develops.

The adventure continues.

***

TALON, FLIGHT FOR LIFE, the third book in the series will be published soon.

***

Gisela (Gigi) Sedlmayer was born on 19 May 1944 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, 4×4 touring, swimming, gardening, handcrafting, reading, fossicking and enjoys good adventure DVD’s or going to the movies.

Click here to read an interview with: Gisela (Gigi) Sedlmayer, Author of “Talon, Come Fly With Me”