Vision in Conflict - Paperback

by J. L. Cracknell (Author)

In 1970, an American teacher moved to Sydney to her adopted country and her new Australian love, Walter Cracknell, a QANTAS employee. They married and had two daughters and Jo Anne, the brash Yankee, embarked on a program that was to change some deeply engrained attitudes in this male-dominated society. While she loved the lifestyle, the beauty of the country, the people and their unique sense of humor, there were some subtle conflicts between her free California upbringing and her newly adopted country. With the family's move to a farm on Queensland's Gold Coast a whole new lifestyle began. Surfer's Paradise was alive with an entrepreneurial spirit and the millionaire developers and investors flocked to the area. The "White Shoe Brigade" took advantage of the climate, the population growth and the wealth to take enormous risks in building such iconic features as Sea World, Sanctuary Cove Resort and Dreamworld. It was the ideal time and place to build Australia's first private university, Bond University, with Alan Bond who had recently won the America's Cup and been named Australian of the Year. This is an American's look at the visions in conflict with the culture of the time and how the risk takers grabbed at opportunities to usher in changes to the laws and university traditions. It is a funny but hard look at a culture trying to hurdle economic oblivion in the 1980's and 1990's and a region that embraced new dreams to take Australia into the 21st century. The dream and success of Bond University became part of the melting pot of destiny of the new Australia.

Author Biography

Jo Anne Cracknell is a dual Australian/American citizen living in Queensland, Australia. She has a daughter in the film industry and son-in-law in IT in Sydney, and another daughter, a commercial pilot in America, whose husband is also in the aviation industry. They have two adorable young sons. After careers in television, education, executive recruiting in the biopharmaceutical industry, and writing the feasibility study for and the history of Australia's first private university, she began writing fiction. Creating suspense based on her real life career experiences and adding a love interest became her focus in recent years with the publication of: "Love and a Hell of a War" about Vietnam and based on a true enduring love story. The Corporate Danger series about the biopharmaceutical and fundraising industries began in 2015 with "Dangerous Recruit" based on a love story and a murder that actually took place in the competitive biotech industry. "Betrayal," is the second in this series and follows Billy Ridley, one of the charismatic American male characters to Australia where he saves a beautiful Australian from personal danger. Billy helps to uncover major fraud in the biotech and fundraising industries in both America and Australia while falling for the woman he is assigned to protect. You can find Jo Anne's most recent books and order them by direct link on her website: https: //jlcracknell.wordpress.com or through Amazon.com. Her books are available on e readers and in paperback.