Black Clouds to Sunshine

These poems are the author’s way of expressing her feelings and thoughts, and a way of coping with mental illness experienced by herself and her family. By putting her thoughts into poems, some sad and some funny, it gives her a sense of belief.

She hopes this experiment of hers will help others out there, knowing there is a way to relieve the pressure of anxiety by putting pen to paper and writing about those pent-up thoughts.

Black Knight Shade

In the 21st century, the god Horus, known as Rama, discovers that his covenant has been broken. The once-protected Secret Falcon Society is now vulnerable, as the Sacred Book of Scrolls has fallen into the possession of Rama’s evil brother. This brother seeks to claim the ‘Fruitful Throne’ and crown himself king, but in doing so, he puts Rama and his home at risk. The fate of the Good Eye of Horus hangs in the balance.

With only one scroll left, Rama is determined to protect his society. He seeks out the Chosen Ones, who hold the key to restoring the ‘world of Truth.’ Together, they embark on an ancient journey, aided by their sacred Falcons, and realize that the fate of their world rests on their shoulders.

Eliash and Celeste, two of the Chosen Ones, quickly discover that knowledge is their greatest weapon. Only the Wedjat Eye can give them the power to protect themselves from the evil Covenant. But as time runs out, they must confront the possibility that the Evil Eye has already awakened. Will they be able to stop Blackheart and save their world, or is it too late?

Blowing Away the Bura

In this novel, by October 1991 war in western Croatia between Croats and Serbs is daily and deadly. Navenka Berik, a wimpy 25-year-old Serb mother of two has had her Serb parents and her Croat husband make decisions for her. During the next few months:

- Her father is taken and presumed killed,

- Navenka is raped,

- Her husband is arrested and probably is killed,

- Her mother becomes crippled,

- From the rape, another child is born,

- Remaining family members are on the run as internally displaced persons in the dissolving Yugoslavia,

- The hassled Navenka has to step up and lead.

Unwelcome anywhere, the family languishes with temporary protection visas in Germany. In 1996, they are accepted as refugees in Australia. Peace, the English language and Australia’s very multicultural society bring many new problems. Navenka’s ongoing memories of her husband keep her wishing that he might be alive. Thoughts of moving back to Croatia or to Bosnia end when, briefly, Navenka attends the trial of those accused of murdering her father. There, poverty and the old ethnic prejudices live on. Back in Australia, her long “lost” husband finds her. However, after the initial joy wears off, the terms of his demand, at gunpoint, that his family go and live in Croatia with him are unacceptable. Navenka’s daughter Srebrenka, too young to be burdened by bad memories of Yugoslavia, cleverly resolves the impasse.

People react differently to war. Some think. Some “just feel”.

Bonecreake: The Strange Tale of Maudy Jiller

December 1878. North Sea gales batter the wash estuary of England’s east coast, covering the desolate marshes and riverbanks under a near impenetrable blanket of snow and ice. Isolated and alone, the impoverished fishing community of Bonecreake faces hardship like never before.

But when the warmth of spring thaws the freezing conditions of a prolonged winter, a terrible secret is revealed: four children of Bonecreake are missing.

Investigating their disappearance falls on the youthful shoulders of Constable Hollins. With both the inhabitants of Bonecreake and his superiors demanding answers, is the inexperienced Constable Hollins capable of solving the macabre puzzle of the children’s disappearance?

What part does the widowed mother, Maudy Jiller, have to play in an investigation exposing the hypocrisy at the heart of the social and moral values of Victorian England?

As disturbing as it is engaging, Bonecreake: The Strange Tale of Maudy Jiller is every parent’s fear, and every mother’s nightmare.

Bonfire Night

A bonfire blazes in Outback Australia. Two men sit all night in its glow, commemorating their dead friend. He blew his head off with a shotgun. Bonfires burn across Lewes, England, commemorating Guy Fawkes Night. As crowds of revellers lurch through the streets, a boy stands teetering on the ledge of a bridge, waiting for the train to pass below. Two different lives, two different places, one story to tell.

Book Seller

This book is meant as an anthology of minimalist short stories that I have published throughout the time in literary magazines, using a minimum of means to create the artistic background. In terms of style, I could mention Jack London, J.D. Salinger, Raymond Carver, Virginia Woolf, Marcel Proust, as authors that influenced my career as a writer. Though seemingly simple, the short stories in Book Seller are carefully crafted, like exquisite pieces of jewellery and each, in turn, can represent the appropriate starting point for other challenging books. I let my characters speak for myself and give a decisive role to suggestion. This leads to a lyrical outline of the events, described as if my characters sometimes dress themselves in poetry from time to time. A moment in the existence of a character, a snippet of a moment, a coincidence, may be enough to make the beginning of a novel or the beginning of a short story similar to those found in this book.

Brett: ‘Love of My Life’

Sometimes a girl’s dream is to have a safe home.

Steph’s escape is listening to her Queen records and dancing at the discos. It is the ’80s; music keeps her mind safe – it is the only thing she trusts. At 16, she finds love and friendship in a bikie called Brett. She never knew her first love would be the ‘love of her life’.

Brett is as damaged as Steph; tragedy seems to follow them. He is the only person who ever believed in Steph and her dreams.

However, with no money and no family to help her, Steph hits obstacles at every turn – with sex, drugs and rock ’n’ roll.

Will Steph ever escape and follow her dream?

Bright Shadow

This is the story of Katherine Plantagenet, self-proclaimed “daughter, sister and aunt of kings” who endures extraordinarily traumatic reversals of fortune, as her life swings through wealth and adversity.  A glittering future as an English princess is swept away by the untimely death of her father, Edward IV, and the usurpation of her brother Edward V's throne. Surrounded by murderous intrigue, conspiracy and ambition, Katherine and her sisters fear what lies in store … The pragmatic marriage of the eldest, Bessy, to the victor of Bosworth, Henry Tudor, brings an uneasy peace to Katherine's young life but the shadows of suspicion and rebellion continue to swirl around her.  

Katherine witnesses first hand the events that plague her brother-in-law's reign. As a political expedient, she is given in marriage to William Courtenay, heir to the Earl of Devon, but Henry Tudor's paranoia soon falls upon her beloved young husband who is imprisoned in the Tower. An intelligent and resilient woman, in a world where men hold all the power, Katherine fights her way alone through a tense decade that ends in personal tragedy. With a vow of celibacy as her chosen route of self-preservation, Katherine continues to tread a wary path of survival ... until the charming Benedict Haute enters her life. However, the failure of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon to produce a living son changes the way any Plantagenet is viewed by the king; Katherine knows her royal blood could cause trouble for her family.

Broken Link

Owen Link, working as a hitman for the mob had one job to do, little did he know this job would lead to his undoing.

Now on the run from the mob and the law, Owen must prove that although several murders he may have committed, this one was not done by his hand. Running out of options Owen turns to an old friend, Robert, for help. Now working for the F.B.I. Robert would hold Owen’s fate in his hands.

Going against his better judgement Robert decides to help, unaware this would uncover secrets he thought had been buried long ago. Keeping Owen out of jail, however, would prove difficult when Robert and his partner Charlie, realize that this murder holds many similarities to their existing case. Now on the case, will Robert help Owen escape, or use him to save himself from the demons of his past?

Cambridge Brains

Under the surface of an outwardly successful, highly educated family lies quiet suffering and spiritual isolation.

Mark and Emma have an unarticulated problem within their marriage for which neither feels able to seek help. A business trip to India provides a healing process for Mark while an encounter with an old friend on Dartmoor does the same for Emma.

Self-effacing Uncle Jonathan, a retired vicar, can no longer endure to live with his wife. He fears the harshness of social judgement and is tormented with feelings of inadequacy. However, he knows he must act and cope with any resulting difficulties.  He tries hard to make a success of his new life but his estranged wife is determined to keep him in a state of wretchedness. Then a miracle occurs.

Mary, an attractive widow living in Cheltenham, has an unscrupulous son with designs on her wealth. Frightened by the prospect of being bullied into signing a document which would hand over her house but, at the same time, desperate for discretion and avoidance of shame, she turns to her new neighbours, Mark and Emma, for advice.

Champions of Circumstance

Let me ask you this question: what does an exiled king, a thief with morals, a young sorcerer off on his own, a high elven wizard with secrets, an unlucky sell-sword, a somewhat clueless child, a man with gambling issues and a sewer needing cleaning have in common?

The answer is: not a whole lot.

But when the king is a three-meter-tall polar bear man, the thief one of the capital’s most wanted, the sorcerer unlucky, the wizard too prideful, the sell-sword cursed with the body of a snailman, the child eons old and made from rock, the gambler a blessed priest and the sewers filled with monsters, then things start getting interesting.

Now five hundred years after the defeat of Molthos the Enslaver, demon emperor and thousand years tyrant of the Almira continent, civilisation has flourished, and the annual Purge Festival is just around the corner in the human capital, Kivar.

Follow a group of less-than-compatible people as their chanced meeting and later enforced companionship get them caught in a deadly popularity contest in which they are forced to participate under the threat of prison. Follow our…not heroes…but champions brought together by circumstance as they battle slavers, oozes, giant insects, blood mages, living plants, nightmarish terrors and more.

Follow along in this book the opening act of an epic tale, depicting the story of those who go from strangers to comrades, to friends and to champions.

Class Act

Biggsy is an idealistic 50-year-old English teacher in a West London boys’ secondary school. A maverick head of department who battled against the educational establishment for twenty-five years, he’s beginning to crack. His departmental colleagues love him, but he suspects that the school’s management team is out to get rid of him.His wife, Myra, a medical secretary, is his mainstay. She patiently endures his total commitment to his calling without complaint. However, when she realises that his work is taking an inordinate emotional toll on his personality, her patience wears thin.Through his exchanges with teenage Ella, their only child, Biggsy reveals his beliefs about the connections between literary theory and the lives we all lead. But a violent assault on one of his students, an unexpected sexual encounter and professional betrayal expose the flaws in his philosophy. He discovers that trying to think one’s way through life is all very well, but the time comes when one has to act.