Escape to Yackandandah

Two young ladies excitedly leave school just before Christmas to enter the work force. As teenagers, they do the usual things that teenage girls do. A summer rock concert in particular was a “must do”.

Then they disappear. No one knows how, when or where they have gone except the matronly police officer and two undercover agents.

The story unfolds with its twists and turns and things that we often experience in Australia. And, of course, some romance.

Engulfed

My story isn’t the beginning or the middle. It is the end of the end. It was over before it could ever really begin. A tale of nothing and everything. The world stopped in a heartbeat. We were given a mere forty-eight hours. If that. It seemed cruel. Suddenly next-day delivery meant nothing, but getting ourselves to our family the next day meant everything. Those who weren’t within driving distance of their family didn’t have a hope in hell of returning to them to be with them. Those who did manage to get to them would feel as though the time spent with them just wasn’t long enough. Nothing was enough now.
A personal and intimate account of a young couple facing an almighty tragedy. Luke and Maya are still in the honeymoon period of their life, renting a small apartment, with their little dog Cassie; they are working tirelessly to save every penny they have to one day move into their own beautiful home and start a family. They didn’t see this coming. No one did. When the announcement for the end of the world comes, it is hard to believe, but with the world slowly grinding to a halt, Luke and Maya know that they have some hard decisions to make and time is running out. With less than forty-eight hours till the solar flare engulfs the earth, they are faced with impossible questions to answer.
What would you do?
Where would you go?
What matters most?

Ebrangle

Growing up without knowing about her true identity, Julianna DeGel came to a sudden discovery of who she actually is and who raised her. The innocent, sporty and clever girl got pushed into an unknown world by an unfortunate scenario; however, Julianna is determined to search for herself and her true power. Quick on her feet and highly intelligent, Julianna picked up the skills she needed to survive in her new environment in just weeks.

Not only did she reunite with her long-lost childhood friend, but Julianna also met a group of individuals along the way to resolve a murder mystery. The higher she climbed up the ladder of truth, the more overwhelming and complicated the situation got. Who can she really trust out of all the new people she met? Problems after problems, will she be able to fight her way through with her new power? Will she resolve the murder mystery?

Dust on the Shelf

This tale of deceit on several levels is interspersed with historical and linguistic references.

As the second son of a wealthy family in Les Landes, a region of Western France, Bernard Gauthier is destined to enter Holy Orders according to an age-old tradition, now obsolete. His elder brother will inherit the rich property but Bernard has other ideas. He inherits some precious objects from his beloved grandmother. Does Bernard manage to free himself from the bond of poverty and celibacy required by the priesthood? What is the role of his formidable mother in all this? His interest in travel leads him to take a holiday in Australia where he is faced with an unexpected situation.

Dreams

Dreams is a modern fairy tale that tells the story about a friendship between three children – Jude, Jane and Jake. Over the decades, their relationship deepens, their friendship expands and they grow closer, much closer than most family ties are and soon it evolves into love. Their love goes much deeper into the soul – an unconditional love, so deep and primal that it expands from this life out and into the universe. 

The setting is a most beautiful one – the Pacific coast of California, where the sun shines almost every day and you’ll always find beautiful, laughing people, but – like life shows us again and again – nothing is as it seems: life is like the powerful Pacific Ocean – there is always an undercurrent. If you look behind the facade, you’ll find the counterpart: the brightest sun brings out the darkest shades, the most beautiful sunset brings out the darkest night but the darkness itself is dawn not yet born.

This fairy tale is a spiritual journey which tells the story of terrifying childhoods, children growing up to be haunted by traumas and memories only to evolve into human beings who learn to understand that the power of love – unconditional love – will heal them, make them whole again and see the beauty in life once more.    

That is the miracle of love.

Dr Nathaniel Goodrich - The Plight of Divorcement

Struggling to understand the challenges and exert positive change in his marriage, Dr Nathaniel Goodrich, a principal investigator of haematology, and the first in line to inherit a conglomerate of pharmaceutical-related companies, has something in mind. And then in the scrub room, he catches the radiating sparks in Dr Kristopher McCall’s mesmerising eyes. That is when Nathaniel recognises the appointed time is intimate. No longer determined to keep his inclination of intrigue to himself, Nathaniel faces a life-changing decision. What Nathaniel does not intend is to lose Annabeth, his beloved wife and disadvantage his four dear children. Nathaniel knows that if he were to pursue his secret self-interest, his parents would seek to disinherit him. But is it too late – a beautiful mess? Is Nathaniel conquered by the glow of the magic hour? If only Nathaniel can find out why Annabeth cannot be pleased before it’s too late. Only then can he solve his marriage predicament and hide his head during the appointed hour.

Don’t You Believe Me?

Will someone not wonder what you are about,

If the truth remains hidden and does not come out?

An opportunity to get your husband the £10,000 that he owed.

Does that not sound good? Is that not what Kelly would have thought, and gone along with, when presented with this once in a lifetime offer?

But those who presented her with this opportunity, were they really her friends? Were they thinking of her? Or, were they using her, and thought only of themselves?

And what of the malicious gossip going on in the background, accusations of which she was totally unaware.

If only she had told her husband the truth right from the start, then all the uncertainty and mistrust would not have ensued.

But she did not. She wanted everything to be a surprise. Thinking it was the right thing to do but she kept quiet. And the quieter she kept, the more guilty she appeared...

As Christmas drew near she decided to tell him the truth. But had she left it too late?

Her nonsensical story, her ridiculous version of events sounded so far-fetched and absurd.

After all of this time, after all of the secrecy, was she expecting too much to imagine that he would believe her?

Don't Lie

“Gladys could tell fortunes but it was Harriet who made them.”

When Harriet tried her teenage hand at being a ball girl at the local tennis club the day after England won the World Cup, Ian’s wife Betty was intent on winning the doubles trophy. Betty still had time to encourage Ian to take up Harriet’s cause with the club officials who threw her out as unsuitable. Harriet may have had to leave Southport but she was prospering when Ian tracked her down in Whitstable and followed the notorious local trial where Harriet was a star witness. An end of the pier seaside romp where telling the truth is to no one’s advantage.

Digging for Gold

Billy Davies is a Welsh Falklands War veteran suffering from PTSD. His mental illness forces him into vagrancy. As he sits on a London street, he witnesses a tragic incident. A hastily erected memorial presents Billy with the opportunity to meet two sixth formers who help alter the direction of his life. Their lives become closely entwined and Billy discovers his creative ability to help others. He tackles major sociological problems on London’s streets and instigates a hair-raising rescue in the Middle East. This capacity to solve problems results in Billy becoming an acclaimed national figure. His ability to display the Midas touch brings him into conflict with a far-right group who are desperate to end his life. In a dramatic twist Billy makes a personal sacrifice to save a neo-Nazi’s life.

Following his counsel Billy’s two young friends establish themselves as eminent figures in society. Digging for Gold is a heart-warming story of human triumph over adversity providing a glimpse into the potential for creating a harmonious society.

Dhanmondi Road

The year is 1973. The Bangladesh war of independence is over but the country remains in chaos. Gareth McKinley, a young Australian, arrives in the country to work on a project set up to care for destitute children. He quickly learns that living and working in a post-war environment can be dangerous. A crisis emerges when some children involved in the project cannot be accounted for. Does the explanation lie in a mysterious letter that seems to have been sent from Dubai? Dhanmondi Road sensitively captures the atmosphere of a country in turmoil and charts Gareth's progress towards increasing self-knowledge and -awareness in ways he could not have dreamed of before setting out on this journey.

Death in Garrydangan

Father O’Byrne blessed him “In nomine Patris, et Fillii, et Spiritus Sancti…. Well, my son what are your sins?”

“I am going to kill Frankie Dalton.”

The priest was shocked into silence, not sure he heard correctly.

“What did you say?”

“I am going to murder Frankie Dalton.”

Father O’Byrne rubbed his forehead, “Did you say you wanted to or going to? There’s a difference, my son.”

“I’m going to, Father.”

In 1950s Ireland, the village of Garrydangan is divided and seething with resentment. The Land Commission has transferred farming families from the poorer districts of the west of Ireland to rich, available land in the Midlands. These families are resented by the locals and are called ‘migrants,’ ‘troublemakers,’ and accused of ‘taking their land’.

Frankie Dalton, the son of a local businessman, is a violent young man who targets the families of “Mayo migrants”. He shows no remorse for his actions and is never punished. But one day he goes too far and the Keanes want revenge.

Darcy Lane

As she sat in her bed reading from a book, seven-year-old Elise Rose was unaware that her childhood would be over by morning. She was too young to know that violent hands played cruel tricks or that innocence held little fight against cheap beer and cigarette butts. After the trauma of childhood, Elise, now twenty years old, walks the streets in need of escape. The town around her has become stained and the ghost of a loved one will not let her rest. So, when she stumbles across an isolated house at the end of Darcy Lane, she believes that she has found the thing that she needs more than any other. The house is away from town, surrounded by green fields and absent of the memories that she would rather forget. The house is bright in the morning sun and soon becomes lodged in her imagination. So, the question is set. How far is she willing to go in search of absolution?