Welcome to our Contemporary collection, where you'll find spectacular titles by Australian authors ready to ignite your imagination...
Benny Basilworth makes connections.
A rare intellect, he sees things that others don't see and draws conclusions that others completely fail to grasp. He has the kind of mind that can make a person a national sensation on the television gameshow "The Connection Game"- and the kind of mind that can be the target of predators.
Despite his brilliance, Benny and his family find themselves destitute, living in a basement apartment with one tiny window that affords them only the view of the feet of passersby on the street above.
It is from this vantagepoint that Benny once again starts making connections. Mad, inconceivable connections. Connections that can change lives . . . and turn the entire world upside down.
Humorous, surprising, wise, and remarkably perceptive,
The Connection Game is a novel unlike any other and one that you are unlikely to forget..
As Freddy gazes at the majestic river gushing past him in the depths of an icy winter, he's ready to jump in and end his life.
But what happens next is not what Freddy expects. From the moment he enters the river, Freddy starts a journey which is more beautiful, funny, and mysterious than he could have imagined. And through this journey Freddy's story becomes interwoven with a cast of unforgettable characters who are equally lost and in search of answers.
Eventually they all unite in their quest for an answer to the biggest question of them all: will the river take them where they want to go?
In the tradition of inspirational works of fiction like The Alchemist and Life of Pi, Secrets of a River Swimmer is at once a profound exploration into living with meaning and an affecting story of people on the cusp of change.
Recently widowed Mary feels something needs to change, but she is not sure what ?
She decides to sell her home in Sydney and move to a retirement village in sunny Queensland. Mary has always enjoyed her own company and struggles with the many personalities she encounters in the village.
There are two things Mary won’t tolerate. Idiots, and nasty women. Unfortunately for her, the village is full of them.
Has Mary made a mistake, or will she find something wonderful?
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This daring, irreverent short-story collection dissects and explores the conundrums of contemporary life and what it is to be human, through a world very like our own.
A corporate satire follows a pair of dark operatives working for a chicken franchise as they take careful revenge on counterfeiters. A coder calculates the odds of her husband's cold developing complications and killing him, in a story told in code. A relationship at breaking point is told via a scrambled timeline of events that works like a puzzle. A man spends his inheritance on technology that will allow him to fly. And an archeologist working for mining companies against the interests of Indigenous communities develops a mysterious psychological condition that causes her to black out and commit extreme acts of generosity.
"At turns dreamlike, luminously satirical, fever-pitched and achingly mortal, the scope of Andrew Roff's debut collection is utterly refreshing and a joy to linger in." - Josephine Rowe
A group of school-leavers free at last, ready to party, expectations high.
A remote island on the Western Australian coast wasn’t exactly the plan, but they’re not going to let that hold them back.
Blame, fear, mistrust, coverups, power plays and dark secrets tear the group apart and expose the deadly tensions beneath the surface. And each teen is forced to confront demons that will lead them either to devastating tragedy or transformative triumph. Whoever survives the week will never be the same again...
The Brink is a raw, powerful novel that pulls no punches in its authentic exploration of masculinity, sexuality, mental health, drug and alcohol use, relationships and sex.
Joe’s isn’t the only life transformed when he discovers, in mid-life, that he was born a twin, and goes on a journey to find his long-lost sibling.
Will uncovering the truth about his birth bring him much needed peace, or lead to further heartache? As he unravels the mystery surrounding his birth, and the separation of the twins, Joe makes peace with himself.
But can he find a way to unite all the threads of his life to find true happiness?
Weaving Words is an anthology of diverse short stories written by women, about women.
It emerged through the collaboration of eight passionate writers who got together to share ideas, offer advice, and give each other support. Their passion and creativity fuelled their efforts and culminated in a book filled with unique and fascinating tales, as varied as the authors themselves.
This eclectic collection spans a range of genres from murder to travel, from comedy to mysticism.
Meet Willa Waters, aged 8 . . . 33 . . . and 93.
On one impossible day in 1965, eight-year-old Willa receives a mysterious box containing a jar of water and the instruction: ‘One ocean: plant in the backyard.’ So she does - and somehow creates an extraordinary time-slip that allows her to visit her future selves.
In 1990, Willa is 33 and a mother-of-two when her childhood self appears in her backyard. She’s also a woman haunted by memories and is on the brink of a decision that will have tragic repercussions . . .
In 2050, Willa is a 93-year-old whose memory is fading fast. Yet she knows there’s a warning she must give her past selves. If only she could recall what it was.
Can the three Willas come together, to heal their past and save their future,?
This book by Naomi Downie and Bee Williamson is an exciting collaboration of two women’s art making and poems.
Gathered over a period of time when they were exploring personal and universal expressions of identity, intimacy, sexuality, spirituality and nature, The Hidden Self is both a stunning and important collection.
Our project is also about the process of dreams coming true, friendship, celebrating and honoring the creative self, sharing our hidden beauty, strength and struggles with you.
From the author of A Lifetime of Impossible Days (winner of The Courier-Mail People's Choice QLD Book of the Year Award) comes this beautiful and uplifting story, that will make you laugh and make you cry.
Welcome to The Emporium of Imagination, a most unusual shop that travels the world offering vintage gifts to repair broken dreams and extraordinary phones to contact lost loved ones. But, on arrival in the tiny township of Boonah, the store's long-time custodian, Earlatidge Hubert Umbray, makes a shocking realisation. He is dying . . .
The clock is now ticking to find his replacement, because the people of Boonah are clearly in need of some restorative magic.
Like Enoch Rayne - a heartbroken ten-year-old boy mourning the loss of his father, while nurturing a guilty secret. Like Ann Harlow, who has come to the town to be close to her dying grandmother. Though it's Enoch's father who dominates her thoughts - and regrets . . .
Even Earlatidge in his final days will experience the store as never before - and have the chance to face up to his own tragedy . . .
'Prepare to immerse yourself in wonder, childish delight and dark, dark trauma in this unique novel from a new and important Australian literary voice.' Australian Women's Weekly on A Lifetime of Impossible Days
The balance of power in a marriage shifts, with shocking consequences.
An elderly woman recounts a chilling childhood memory on the family farm. A taxi driver with a missing wife reveals unexpected skills. An inherited painting brings an eerily troubling legacy.
Subtle, compelling and unsettling, Amanda O'Callaghan’s stories work at the edges of the sayable, through secrets, erasures and glimpsed moments of disclosure.
They shimmer with unspoken histories and characters who have a ‘taste for silence'.
In 2010 Melbourne poet Bee Williamson set herself a challenge.
After publishing several slim volumes of poetry it was time, she thought, to tackle the big issues in life: God, War, Love, Nature, Life and Madness.
As a Café Poet for Australia Poetry Ltd, she’d sit down with her café latte at the cosy Pheast48 in Armadale to write a new suite of poems that would form the backbone of Torment & Soul.
A beautifully transcribed, designed and illustrated book of nature poems and botanical illustrations by Bee Williamson.
Written in 2010 during residency as Cafe Poet at Pheast48 in Armadale, with Australian Poetry Ltd., this book contains a collection of nature poems and art work lovingly designed and crafted by Melbourne-based artist, Bee Williamson.
The work huddles around her love of Nature, where she finds peace, joy and the inspiration to write and draw, deep within the source and solace of nature's gentle hand.
The Fault Lines Founding Liberty explores the tensions inherent in growing up and moving on from faith, family, and past versions of ourselves.
With unanswered questions and hovering guilt, a young woman comes to confront the specters of her past through dialogue with an unexpected companion. This process is as uncomfortable as it is transformative.
Freedom is discovered not by eliminating life’s loose ends nor running away from them, but in gathering them bravely and continuing to put one foot in front of the other despite everything—a process made hopeful in the solidarity of unexpected friendship.
Also available on Audible as an audiobook narrated by the author.
Comfort for Every Sorrow is an all-encompassing title that begs the question – is it humanly possible to find comfort for every sorrow?
This collection of sensitive poetry by Bee Williamson, certainly gives us hope to believe there is. Segmenting her poetry into themes on The Divine, Nature, Creativity, Intimacy, The Feminine, Suffering, Conflict and Ancestors, Bee covers the spectrum of emotions, fears, and anxieties of human belief and the subsequent consequences and inequality of our inaction, Bee writes with breathtaking honesty. She wears her heart, mind and soul on her sleeve.
She understands the nuances of contemplation, introspection and silence..
Will is sixteen year old Lucy’s best friend. Their lives intersect in dreams, where destiny pulls them together through different times in history.
Even though their meetings are more real to Lucy than the present, Lucy is uncertain if Will exists outside her mind. Lucy’s mum thinks there is something wrong when Lucy sleeps for days at a time. She is so caught up with finding a cure she doesn’t see the real problem.
Lucy is bullied at school and is thinking of ending her life. When the bullying goes too far and Lucy ends up in a coma, only Will can reach her.
But how do you live when the only person who can save you doesn’t exist?
Starting Over is a contemporary novel set in a small coastal town in South Australia.
When three feisty young women, Erin, Rebecca and Gabby, arrive in a quiet rural backwater, they bring with them a world of complication and trouble.
A heart-warming novel, the story arc follows their growing friendship as they start new lives in Woolshed Bay. Here they encounter quirky locals, drug-running gangsters, a religious sect, new challenges at every turn, and also, life changing relationships.
Overcoming danger and prejudice, they each find love and happiness with three very different men, in unexpected ways.
Park Court is a fairly typical Melbourne neighborhood, hosting a very diverse, multicultural community.
Africans, Indians, Chinese, Lebanese, Sri Lankans, Christians, Muslims, straight and gay people, they all live there, and not always peacefully. What is lacking, however, is a White family to complete the diversity.
But when one finally moves into the court, it is more than what anyone had bargained for.
Reason and Passion is a collection of poetry pieces crafted through a meditative and unique lens.
Within this book lie writings of philosophy, perceptions of the world, and personal experience. Through these short poems, there is a hope to revivify others with a newfound love of the world, a love of language and intentional living.
Among the hills, where the trees grow in purposeful harmony, it is clear that reason rests in the forest.
Yet, through the harsh forest fire that blazes through the innocent leaves, it is clear that passion rests in the forest.
Like an arcane forest at the mercy of the elements, you too shall rest in the cool shade of reason and move with passion's fire...
It’s a hot summer, and life’s going okay for Jackson and his family on the Mish.
It’s almost Christmas, school’s out, and he's hanging with his mates, teasing the visiting tourists, and avoiding the racist boys in town. Just like every year, Jackson’s Aunty and his annoying little cousins visit from Sydney – but this time, a boy named Tomas comes with them.
Tomas is quiet, from a troubled background, and he’s artistic – more into his writing than he is willing to admit. And as both boys let down their guard, and their friendship evolves, Jackson must confront the changing shapes of his relationships with his friends, family and community.
He must face his darkest secret – a secret that could shatter the careful persona he has built for himself on the Mish.
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Free agents or captives of our past? In Life, Bound, characters find themselves caught in situations not of their own making, or trapped by ingrained habits, walking in grooves carved out by past events.
An artist’s progress is pleasingly channelled into a pattern laid down a century earlier. A solitary man’s story is almost preordained, but is indecipherable to researchers looking back some sixty years later. Karma mops up in the wake of a mousy clerk. A local legend falls foul of the town gossip. Spouses are constrained or liberated by love.
Sexuality, gender, resentments, attachments and perversities all play a part. Yet the grip of the past needn’t always hold firm.
Many protagonists are offered a potentially life-changing moment; whether or not they grasp it is up to them.
At sixteen, neurodivergent Peta Lyre is the success story of social training. That is, until she finds herself on a school ski trip and falling in love with the new girl.
Peta will need to decide which rules to keep, and which rules to break… 'I'm Peta Lyre,' I mumble. Look people in the eye if you can, at least when you greet them. I try, but it's hard when she is smiling so big, and leaning in.
Peta Lyre is far from typical. The world she lives in isn't designed for the way her mind works, but when she follows her therapist's rules for 'normal' behaviour, she can almost fit in without attracting attention.
When a new girl, Sam, starts at school, Peta's carefully structured routines start to crack. But on the school ski trip, with romance blooming and a newfound confidence, she starts to wonder if maybe she can have a normal life after all. When things fall apart, Peta must decide whether all the old rules still matter.
Does she want a life less ordinary, or should she keep her rating normal? A moving and joyful own voices debut.
Driving Into The Moon is a compilation of poetry and narrative ranging in context from the final stages in our lives to the highs and lows of parenthood, the various aspects of the natural world to the life lessons learned in our modern universe.
The day was almost over as, I turned out of the drive.
I left behind the homestead, My home for most my life.
The road stretched out before me, Proceeding through the gloom. Driving away from sunset, Driving into the moon.
The book also includes a short preview of a Science Fiction novel to be released in the future called "Quadron Fire".
Life in a small mining town can be like living in a fishbowl, where everyone knows everybody else's business.
Fifteen-year-old Jodi's mother wants her father to quit his binge drinking and his dangerous job at the mine - even more so after a collapse leaves two miners dead and three trapped deep underground.
As tensions escalate both at home and around the town, Jodi seeks comfort with her friends but soon faces a double betrayal. As Jodi struggles to gain autonomy over her life, she begins to discover the person she really is.
But with everything around her spiraling out of control, it may not be the right time to let her family, friends, and ultimately the whole town know - no matter how much she wants to.
Karen Romano met and fell in love with John Pascoe when she was eighteen.
He was her first love and she thought they would last forever. But like so many first loves, they didn’t last forever, and Karen was devastated when it ended. Martin Cosgrove, a country boy born in far western New South Wales, who moved to the city and became a highly paid executive working for the Australian government, fell in love with Karen at their first meeting and courted her until she agreed to marry him.
He turned out to be a devoted and loving husband.
When Adelaide is rocked by an earthquake, no one is left more shaken than David Burrows.
A recently completed apartment building suffers severe structural damage and collapses, leaving 26 people dead and countless injured. The building should never have collapsed and sparks a furore of condemnation by the press and public alike. David receives an alarming phone call from Alice Springs where the steel used in the construction was manufactured and the race is on across the country to uncover the truth.
As the plot unravels we learn that the failure of the structure is the result of something far more sinister.
If she screamed, he wonders, would they hear her up there, up there in the houses? If she ran, he wonders, could I catch her?
And if I caught her, could I ...?
He coughs again, furious. Would I?
These unsettling short stories, which include the prize-winning novella 'Quarry', expose an anatomy of worry in its many guises—unease, fear, dread, and terror.
Through a multitude of distinct voices, H.C. Gildfind’s startling tales explore the absurd, macabre, surreal—and too-real—whilst wrestling with the irrevocable acts, immutable facts, and relentless uncertainties that lie at the dark heart of every life.
When Callie Taylor was eighteen she eloped with her high school sweetheart.
Then they broke up. On the same day. And they never told anyone that they were married.
Almost a year later, Bill Darcy is back, living in the house next door and caring for his recently-orphaned sister. And he's determined to win Callie back. Over the course of a single day, Callie finds herself learning some huge life lessons as she struggles to reconcile her head with her heart.
Can she forgive Bill? Or, more importantly, does she even want to?
NATE AND THE NEW YORKER
Nate once had the love of his life, but he’s met Cameron, a New York millionaire with an eccentric cross-dressing butler. Cameron is keen to share his world of classy restaurants, Broadway shows, and fabulous parties, and while Nate’s friends see the makings of a fantasy romance, it’s Nate who has to learn how to open his heart again. But is Cameron simply second best?
NATE'S LAST TANGO
Nate’s life couldn’t be better. He’s living with his rich boyfriend, Cameron, in New York while being wined and dined all over the city. But when Nate decides to visit his friends back in Sydney, Cameron suggests they break it off for a while. Cam’s cross-dressing butler is not impressed, and with the help of his lesbian aunt, they drag Cameron down-under to sort out his relationship and take in the sights of Mardi Gras!
With Nate at a loss to what went wrong, he faces the dim reality that love may have run its course.
Primary school teacher Annie Yates has a great job and friends she can count on, but her love life has never worked out the way she wanted.
If it wasn’t bad enough that, years ago, she fell madly in love with Jack Delaney before realising he was gay, now her new fiancé has walked out on her. Her world has come crashing down. All she’s ever wanted was security, love and a family of her own. Her plans for motherhood have gone out the door… or have they?
Jack, now Annie’s best friend, wants to co-parent together. Plenty of women have babies and end up co-parenting, so what’s so bad about starting out that way? This is a second chance she never expected, but nothing ever did go smoothly for Annie.
Is having a baby with your gay best friend a recipe for disaster, or could this be the platonic love story Annie had never imagined?
Become a part of the outback – the land, they call home. A land as beautiful as it is harsh. A land which captures the hearts of all those who live on her.
Dr. Andrew Lowman is an Australian Eye Specialist who has a passion for restoring sight to those who would otherwise endure life with poor eyesight or blindness. Medical facilities are not easily accessed in the wide-open spaces and isolation of the outback where the air is hot, flies are plenty and life is tough for those on the land.
A number one best seller on Amazon in February 2019!
A contemporary fiction novel about the friendship of two men and their love for the same woman.
Edward does not know that Dave was married to Faith for a short time. Will this secret hurt their friendship? Dave and Edward are two lonely men who find a connection neither expected.
When Dave and Edward meet at the local Killcare Men's Shed, they form an unlikely friendship.
In early 2020 much of the world went into Lockdown as a means of dealing with Covid-19. This created a new situation for many people - separated by distance; connected by ideas and relationships, new and old.
Written during the first wave of the virus, this eclectic anthology documents the early days of Corona, and how we began to negotiate the strange new force that took over our lives.
With a broad range of characters, experiences and reactions, everyone will find something to relate to in "Life in the Time of Corona."
Three Short Stories – Bloodbath – The Gruesome Murders, deals with a man applying a brutal approach to satisfying his need.
A Tale of an EHO (Environmental Health Officer) includes food safety and adult entertainment, reluctant and good looking food operators, cult like Church leadership and adult entertainment venue ownership. It’s a complicated tale.
Learning to Kill explores how a professional hitman and his family educate their son.
Calm, mature, forgiving, honest, stylish and sober. Brisbane’s Terry Flynn possesses none of these qualities.
Bumbling his way through life without any real direction, knockabout Terry is the first to admit he’s never achieved anything of great significance in his 44 years. Seeking retribution from anyone he believes has wronged him is common practice, but when a degenerate gambler looks set to turn his world upside down, Terry is prompted to produce his greatest square up to date.
With an extremely short fuse and an inability to conform with modern society, it’s not going to be a walk in the park though. In fact his best mate reckons it’s the most ludicrous scheme Terry has ever devised and only gives him a 50/1 chance of pulling it off!
Terry’s not concerned in the slightest, he’s just got a cranky builder, a dangerous driver, English cricket fans and an 80’s television star amongst others to deal with first.
It’s going to be a busy few weeks in December, but with the help of a few friends, Terry’s going to give it a crack or go down swinging!
Bad things happen to good people.
This is a fictional account of changes that come over individuals when disease, old age, and poor decisions threaten life as they know it. Recognition, acceptance, and then deciding what to do is at the heart of this story.
For the characters in this book, background, upbringing and beliefs are important until uncertainty and fear take over. It is only then that true strength emerges and guides them towards a company who understands.
Choice Cruise Lines.
Euthanasia is a controversial word. Freedom to choose should be available to all.
Romance, suspense, crime, mixed with sadness, laughter and outrageous behavior brings each one of us closer to the characters as we each can see comparisons in our own lives.
Four unrelated short stories of adventure and life!
IT’S THERE FOR THE TAKING - Christmas 1963, a US Army payroll was robbed in Garmisch, Germany. The $2 million in cash was never recovered. Some say this is not fiction but a true story. Some say they know the perpetrators...
LOPEZ - Lopez was a pitcher with the New York Mets who had to prove to himself and to the fans that he was worthy. When is the next step one too many? A story of courage for every reader.
SINNER SID - Sydney (Sinner Sid) Moffit was an evangelist with a difference. As a ‘sin consultant’ he advised on which decadent activity to choose. People either loved him or absolutely despised him. Sid was also a sex addict.
Including a free bonus story, MORRIS MORRIS is a man who believed the exciting life he had once had enjoyed, was ending. A chance meeting with Sheila, an ensuing romance, a friend’s death, and an unusual business idea, transforms Morris Morris.
Getting to know Morris Morris may save you a bundle of money!
6 short tales for readers who enjoy...
Sex Scenes, Scams, Infidelity, Halloween, Drug Use, Perversion, Hippies, Vengeance, Murder, Love with Sexbots, Political Correctness, Injustice, Free Love, Age Prejudice, Marriage, Deviates, Family Life, Fast Cars, Romance, and Sex Scenes!
People are not as they seem.
These tales will have you looking twice at your friends, neighbors, and family.
Taught by her mother to hate herself, rejected for being an Indigenous Australian, Alice is tired of the life she has.
A new year brings new resolutions, Alice is determined that this is the year she completely overhauls her life…If she can just make it through January!
An emotional journey of hardship and hope, "The Alice Diaries" is a coming of middle-age story set in Australia's harsh outback, perfect for fans of Sophie Kinsella, Milly Johnson, and Marian Keyes.
"Of course, you think. Of course he lives. Because even if you could hide a pregnancy, or the death of a baby, you cannot hide—or kill—a ghost."
By recounting one person's real-time witnessing of a couple’s experience of stillbirth, BORN SLEEPING explores the ambivalence that lies at the heart of human relationships, the difficulty of comprehending others’ realities, the voyeurism of being on the outside of trauma and the disturbingly cool, detached eye of the writer.
Addy Loest is harbouring a secret – several, in fact. Dedicated overthinker, frockaholic and hard-partyer, she’s been doing all she can to avoid the truth for quite some time.
A working-class girl raised between the Port Kembla Steelworks and the surf of the Illawarra coast, Addy is a fish out of water at the prestigious University of Sydney. She’s also the child of German immigrants, and her broken-hearted widower dad won’t tell her anything about her family’s tragic past.
But it’s 1985, a time of all kinds of excess, from big hair to big misogyny, and distractions are easy. Distractions, indeed, are Addy’s best skill – until one hangover too many leads her to meet a particular frock and a particular man, each of whom will bring all her truths hurtling home.
Told with Kim Kelly’s incomparable warmth and wit, The Truth & Addy Loest is a magical trip through shabby-chic inner-city Sydney, a tale of music and moonlight, literature and love – and of discovering the only story that really matters is the one you write for yourself.
On Vélo chronicles Maine’s hapless bicycle trip across the English Channel with his friend Maggie, a romantic optimist “born 30 years too late”.
The two concoct an ill-prepared cross-country journey into the heart of rural France in a quest for freedom and adventure, dragging their bunch of motley international friends along for the ride.
Maine’s observations on humanity while smoking his way through the countryside, and the group’s Beat-generation lifestyle, makes On Vélo a captivating portrayal of longing and timeless friendship in the formative years between youth and adulthood.
