#australian fiction

[canberramaidan]

10+ books from Canberra authors

[uranusguided]

Hey my publisher finally got my book series, The Silent Trilogy, up on Apple Books! Check it out!!!

My publisher calls Silent Trilogy 'X-Men meets Good Omens'. That's not wrong but it is a series about abuse, colonialism and the importance of love in ways those aren't.

In more detail: the Silent Trilogy is an urban fantasy series set primarily in Hobart, Australia. It tells the story of the dainisa, a not-so-hidden magical community, focused primarily on their non-binary Princess, Torao Yamaguchi.

Desperate for her child to have a better life than she did, the leader of dainisa Amaya Yamaguchi sparks a revolution to claim Australia as a magical continent where dainisa can live in accordance with their own laws, not those of humans. However fighting power is a complex thing in a world built to function on injustice, and a pretty siren desperate for revenge could ruin it all…

Narrated through the eyes of a human who doesn’t quite get it, the Silent Trilogy is about the narratives we build of history. It's an exploration of trauma, the ways people learn to live with it, and how bigotry works. Also there's angels and demons messing things up. More info on the website!

I finished this series a long time ago but I'm still very proud of it!! It's a niche story I had a lot of fun with. I wrote this NB protag before I even came out myself so that's always cool. And every time I have to reread a part of the series I have a really hard time stopping cos I enjoy my own work so much lmao. So hopefully you'll enjoy it too!!

(it's also on Amazon if you prefer kindle, and if you don't wanna support either, well, chuck me a couple dollars on Patreon)

[sonyaheaneyauthor]

Despite their growing attraction, both Peter and Elizabeth have secrets that will come between them.

New South Wales, 1887

Peter Rowe's life is in the city, but his soul is in Australia's southern tablelands - a place he's never seen. Taking the new land manager's position on the thriving estate of Endmoor is the chance he needs to discover what happened to the family he has never met. What he doesn't expect to find in the bush is his employer's talented, beautiful sister.

Elizabeth Farrer's world is changing rapidly. An artist whose work has begun to gain acclaim, her brother's marriage has made her redundant in her own home and she intends to leave the country and make a life of her own. Her plans would take her far from her beloved New South Wales, but with the arrival of Endmoor's newest employee - a man unlike any other she has met - she discovers there might just be a reason to stay right where she is.

Just as they conquer their most difficult obstacles, old prejudices rise up and threaten to keep them apart ...

(via The Artist's Secret (Brindabella Secrets, #2))

[thirtyknives]

Who likes free reads? Everyone, that's who! This piece initially went out in Netherworld Arcade's in house lit mag, Denizen's Digest. Happily I have rights to publish it myself now, so I've put it out for free on my Patreon. You can get your copy here. Small compensation for folks who can't get themselves out to Brisbane's premier gaming bar. Content Warning: Descriptions of death, lots of swears, irresponsible use of a kebab.

[bluevelvetcat]

The Dry by Jane Harper - Book Review

I haven’t read Australian fiction in a while, and I quite enjoyed this solid, well-written crime novel set in regional Victoria during an unrelenting drought. Continue reading The Dry by Jane Harper – Book Review

[fox-the-rainbow]

Quartz spacecraft, and a few rain drops

Black night thrown against the sky, a sky that put this dress on, a last minute thoughts. A similar rocket would not do for it, slanted against myself by the right side of my leather jacket. Sipping a long gone glass of coffee, dregs and all downed in hours past while contemplating if it was worth all of this. A quartz spacecraft, a few raindrops, a coffee in my hands as I watch it launch. Is…

[elysh-k-letters]

Seeking beta readers/critique partners

I finally finished the third draft of my first novel !! (only took me months longer than I originally planned).

Now looking for anyone to read and provide feedback to move to the manuscript phase. If you want to give it a read or would like to exchange critiques of works please let me know!

Synopsis:

November 1979, Kathrine Walker hasn’t spoken to her best friend Joan Martin in nearly two months. A brief moment of bravery followed by an apparent ultimatum is jarred by Joan’s sudden disappearance. Spanning over two weeks in the emergence of an unforgiving Australian summer, Kath struggles to mine through her memories and the glimpses left behind to understand why Joan left her behind before they had planned to escape.

Themes: queer identity, coming of age, fallibility of memory, character focused.

If you have any interest please contact me for more information!

[tamsin-lillywhite]

On Earth, Where There Are No Angels by Tamsin Lillywhite

(Part 1 of a Duology)

Mini blurb

Nobody tells you how to recover from losing a friend, who you've lost from growing up and growing apart. And nobody tells you how you're meant to reconnect when they come back to you, or if you should. Can you get back to what you once had? A close friendship so nourishing, so close, like pure love.

Or did you grow apart for a reason.

On Earth, Where There Are No Angels is one part of a place-based magic realism duology that follows a somewhat non-chronological format. It centres on the dramatic and romantic tensions between old and new friends, with a backdrop of angelic intrigue via three main protagonists; Briellen, an archangel, Hazel, an ex-angel hunter, and Zeke, an angel hater.

Where to buy

$11.99 Kindle Edition or $32.99 Paperback on Amazon (AU)

£6.28 Kindle Edition or £15.61 Paperback on Amazon (UK)

€23.50 Paperback on KulturKaufhas (EU/Germany)

£16.99 Paperback at Waterstones (UK)

$21.42 Paperback at Barnes & Noble

[dinosauring130]

Fangirling rn because I own a complete set of Tobias Madden books, all signed!!

[scuffedgrannysblog]

The Whispering Palms by Annette Leigh

A search for a missing girl takes our heroine, Andie Yates back to Bayswater where she grew up and which holds good and bad memories for her

The Whispering Palms is an accomplished read which has pace throughout. It tells the story of Andie Yates who is asked by a woman called Maureen Daniels to look for her daughter, Summer who has disappeared without trace. Andie is an investigator with previous police experience and so you know that you are in the presence of someone who will pursue the truth until it is found. The difficulty that…

[bookjotter6865]

Winding Up the Week #362

An end of week recap “If you don’t know where you are going, any road will take you there.” – Lewis Carroll (born 27th January 1832) This is a post in which I summarise books read, reviewed and currently on my TBR shelf. In addition to a variety of literary titbits, I look ahead to forthcoming features, see what’s on the nightstand and keep readers abreast of various book-related…

[canberramaidan]

10+ books from Canberra authors to read this summer

[loonarmuunar]

Humans being the first. Not the strongest or the smartest or the weirdest or the most violent. Just the first.

We called out into the dark over and over. We sent out messages in hopes. We searched every planet we could reach, in hopes of any sign of life. Any at all.

We thought, hoped we were the last, because we couldn’t bear the idea of being the one ones this awake and alive in a world as vast as this.

And we died alone.

When the others are born, many many years later, they find us, everything we left for them.

They recover The Golden Record and look at it a million times over, they dig up our fossils and put us in museums, they study us for years and years, loving us as we love our ancestors’ painted hands on cave walls.

In a lot of their languages, the word they use for us has the same root for “mother”.

[sonyaheaneyauthor]

READ THE FIRST CHAPTER

New South Wales, 1885

When Alice Ryan wakes to find thugs surrounding her cottage, on the hunt for her no-good brother, she escapes into the surrounding bush.

It is wealthy landowner Robert Farrer who finds her the next morning, dishevelled, injured, and utterly unwilling to share what she knows. With criminals on the loose and rumours that reckless bushrangers have returned to the area, Robert is determined to keep Alice out of danger, and insists on taking her into his home-despite the scandal it may cause. Convincing her to stay on with him for her own safety, however, is going to take some work.

What Robert doesn't expect is his growing attraction to the forthright, unruly woman staying in his home. Before either of them can settle into their odd new situation, their home and wellbeing come under threat and they will need to trust each other to survive. But they are both keeping secrets, secrets that have the potential to ruin their burgeoning love, their livelihood ... and their lives.

(via The Landowner's Secret (Brindabella Secrets, #1))

[thirtyknives]

"I get the headache before we get to the corner near Crystal’s place. It feels like cold iron in my sinuses, a cruel weight that threatens to shut me off before I even get started. It’s the hum of a bad fluro light and the feeling of grinding dry chalk with your teeth and it tastes like the bile in your mouth just before you throw up. All in my face, right behind my eyes.

“God, she’s got some guts behind her, doesn’t she?” I say, but Dio doesn’t answer. He just points, and I can see the lights flickering in the front windows of the blue place.

There’s no screaming, so that’s nice, I guess."

Part two of our first little visit with Amber, Dio, Mr. B and the erratic neighbours up the street. In which our girl makes some new friends and a few only somewhat terminal mistakes. Also the gas bill arrives! I've decided if I'm going to bust my butt doing all those transparencies for the story I may as well use them in promos and it was a lot of fun doing this card. I'll probably do a lot more!

[the13problems]

Shout out to Jenny Pausacker, the author of my most reread series 'The Blake Mysteries' who compiled a handy "guide to Australian LGBQ+" children's fiction from 2007-2015 list. Hopefully it gets updated in another few years!

*edit: upon further examination this doesn't include trans or ace characters. I'll look around for another list here.

https://jennypausacker.com/so-gay-a-list-of-australian-childrens-and-young-adult-contemporary-realist-novels-with-lgbq-characters-1985-2015-plus-three-remixes/