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Felix Schmidt is backpacking on the Camino de Santiago when he meets the love of his life, the beautiful French Pascaline. He brings her back to Australia where he joins a new firm of management consultants. Deeply engrossed in the company's growth, he neglects Pascaline. She believes his addiction has reduced him as a person, wearies of his obsessive workaholism and returns to France.Felix pines for his lost love, but as the company expands, he advances into management and is totally immersed. Disillusioned that ambition has seduced him to climb a ladder that leads to nowhere, that forces him to inflict pain and make decisions he abhors, he loathes the character he has become. Eventually, he quits his work.Once free of responsibility, he aims to win back Pascaline, but first he must work on himself to restore his former undistorted self. With trepidation he returns to France, anxious about the person he will find in Pascaline.

Paul Arnold, CSIRO scientist, pays $1000 for sex with Rachel Doyle, prostitute from Northern Ireland who has a technique no other prostitute can match. Rachel escapes from Derry to Brisbane after a client threatens an acid attack.Here she meets up with Fergus Burrows who is living in Brisbane.At a barbecue hosted by Fergus, Rachel meets Matthew, who after paying $500 for sex, offers Rachel $20,000 to relaunch her career in Australia. The offer has serious strings attached. Paul has divorced his wife Louise, who returned to Cowra to live with her parents and two sons. Paul switches his research from physics to biology to follow a path to reduce the need for abortions. When Paul sees Rachel, her bodyguard Steve, recognises Paul and pursues him.

An underlying motivation for my writing this book flows from a desire to understand God and His divine creation. We can only marvel that the genesis of God's work In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth (Genesis 1:1) has endured throughout the world today, even amid the evil and devastation around us. I have sought to return to the 'beginning' to research the human journey in order to discover the many people who have worked to bring goodness, love, and advancement through their discoveries to countless lives throughout the ages. Commencing at the beginning, I became aware that the Pentateuch revealed to me a relationship with the world as we know it today. These five books, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, together with other biblical references, completely cover the works of God and His creativity from prior to our existence to the present age. One can be in awe at human endeavour and achievements from Creation to the present time! These questions could be asked: How could we mortals have created so many amazing edifices with such primitive tools? How could artists paint amazing pictures and mosaics throughout the centuries, with such a limited palette? How is it that the great works of literature and epic writings from prior to the invention of the printing press survived, not only during the period of Creation, and that much is still around for all to enjoy today? I will seek to address these questions and many more as I explore the breathtaking musical achievements that have taken place throughout the ages.

The highly decorated pilot, Squadron Leader Charles Scherf, returns home to take up his role of father, husband and heir to the wealthy family estate in northern NSW.It is post-war Australia. A war has been won but for some the battle has just begun. Violent energies within and without infect the whole family and especially the young daughter born when the father was at war. There is a pushback from the snobbish, small-minded community and Charles begins to free fall into a mysterious, early death. In this culture of intolerance and misogyny there is no place for unheralded heroes, women left behind or fatherless children. It is through the eyes of the daughter, that this gritty, true Australian drama is played out. How far will she go to find the answers ?"The living must go on.They continue to live in order to make sense of the dead."

A contract killing on a remote coastal track. A deadly boat explosion occurs in nearby waters soon afterwards.Are the two connected?Meanwhile, Angelina makes an audacious escape with the assistance of her underworld connections and continues her ruthless agenda. To follow is a chain of events that, when unravelled, shocks Nic Drakos to the core and links him inextricably to Elena Perez, imprisoned by Angelina on the other side of the world. But can he believe a word she says, or is this another one of Angelina's ploys to lure him out of hiding and into a trap? As Nic uncovers the truth, it becomes a race against time to save Elena's life. But will he be too late?

"Marilla looked quickly away, not wanting her sibling to see the same look of concern and doubt on her face. This grand adventure that she had planned to live and explore the world beyond the confines of the coven was proving to be more difficult and dangerous than she had first thought. Her dreams of emulating the skills and mastery of magic in a real world was fast becoming a nightmare instead..."A tale of deception and greed and the evolutionary enlightenment of two traditional witches into a contemporary world.

The Kenyan bush is breathtakingly beautiful but potentially deadly without the honed skills of a highly trained marksman and experienced "white hunter". Gavin has all the skills needed to run his highly regarded safari tours, but does he have the skills to deal with the additional challenges thrown at him while on safari with Sir William and his beautiful wife? The unexpected keeps happening, including the unscheduled arrival of a fashion model and some unsavoury criminals.

Award-winning journalist Bill Poulos delves deep into Australia's turbulent and lawless past with this collection of stories recalling crimes, murders and tragedies that once made headlines around the nation.His detailed research takes the reader into townships, settlements and the wide-open spaces of the outback where there is no escape from the shocking and often brutal events he vividly recreates.Bush Tragedies throws a light on shocking events that occurred far from the big cities - tragedies that disrupted and divided tight knit communities in obscure towns and settlements.The author takes us well beyond the bare facts of crime and punishment. Postscripts add fascinating backgrounds and outcomes to those involved - the cause and effect of the brutal deeds he describes.Readers become observers at inquests and trials, even joining the witnesses at the gallows. We are introduced to rogues and villains, their unfortunate victims, and the lawyers and judges who decide their fate. This rollicking time capsule brings to life the truly appalling crimes and tragedies that horrified a nation all those years ago.They are retold in graphic detail from start to finish, complete with the cut and thrust of cross-examinations by police and lawyers.It can be a tragic world out there in the bush . . .

Alyssa has begun a career as a counsellor at the upmarket Donald Clinic for mental health. To her dismay, this proves an increasingly treacherous environment and lives are in danger. Can she discover the truth about what is really going on before it is too late? After all, Alyssa's own name even means "Truth". Yet everywhere she turns, all she finds are lies. For the sake of her own survival, the truth about the Donald Clinic needs to be uncovered.Why then is Alyssa not telling the truth either? Why is she not forthcoming about the deaths associated with her own past? What is she hiding? Is everyone at this clinic a liar? Are we about to discover the most frightening truth of all: the truth about Alyssa? The truth about the Truth. Alyssa should have been dead by now, but she's not.Just don't mess with her.

Queen Charlotte, the Queen of Falconia and her husband King Philip have just had triplets. It should be a time of celebration, but old enemies have reappeared and two of the babies are magically interfered with. Thirteen years later the enemies are back, and the two children fall into a coma from which no normal cure is known. Thus begins a quest of unlikely allies journeying across half the world to find the Chalice of the Dawn; the only object in the world that can save them, together with a very strange potion.This is an exciting tale full of strange creatures, dark magic, armies of dwarfs and men, battles on land and adventure at sea. Will the unlikely allies be able to find the Chalice and return with it to Falconia and save the children? And if so, will the potion work?

Can a person living in the present dare to go back through time to another era? Laura has lost her husband; facts come to light that their marriage was not all it seemed.Grieving and at a loose end, she befriends an elderly professor - a decision that sends her life in a whole different direction.Life becomes exhilarating, frightening, even shocking. Could she live like this? Or is it best to go back to a simple, normal life - safe and secure, but without excitement.

Caroline Dalglish is a young freelance features writer, recently widowed when her husband, a brilliant Oxford historian, dies in an accident. She had been quietly adjusting to life without John when she is approached by the UK Government, which offers her funding to undertake research for an article about The Foundation, a suspicious organisation based in San Francisco. The new assignment pulls Caroline into an exciting romance and puts her life, and that of her new love, in danger.

Christine went to the kitchen to get a sleeping tablet. She swallowed the whole bottle. Why?Christine had been strong all her life. She had dealt with mental health issues that included caregiving, raised a son with multiple disabilities, and recovered from severe antidepressant withdrawal.She had always hidden behind a façade of being strong, her shield that kept her safe and protected her from terrifying feelings.The Covid lockdowns coincided with a prolonged period of caregiving stress and financial worries. As well as her own health needs, her son needed additional support, and her parents needed to move into care.Christine was struggling to hold on to life in the present. She was suffering from caregiver burnout. Seeking help meant facing the truth. Life had been traumatically taken from her in the past. This is an insightful, courageous and ultimately triumphant account of a suicide attempt and her recovery.

Early one morning a baby zebra was born. The baby lay close to its mother. Mama Zebra looked down at her baby and was surprised to see that something was different. As we all know, zebras have black and white stripes, but Baby Zebra's stripes were all the colours of the rainbow!

To dare is to lose one's footing momentarily. Not to dare is to lose oneself.Soren KierkegaardIt is often said that the most important relationship we have in life is the one we have with ourselves. Within this idea is a path of self-discovery and self-understanding in relationships with others - implying that our best life teachers are those with whom we have the closest connections. In this collection of poems, the author reveals her trajectory of self-understanding - evolving from a deliberate conscious desire to fulfil her potential to love and be loved. She gives herself permission to experience the risks as well as the joys that would inevitably ensue. The collection provides glimpses into a life-altering journey as it flows from 'deep and reflective' poems in Part I, to the 'hopes and dreams' love poems of Part II, and the 'light and joyful' connections with nature in Part III. An opportunity to create her own large expansive garden on top of a hill in sub-tropical Queensland, allowed the author to become fully immersed in nature's abundant gifts - perceptually, physically and metaphysically - thereby finding unexpected treasures within herself.

In 1904, the Sri Kumala, a Chinese schooner became wrecked off Sanur in Bali. Claiming the vessel had been sacked by the Balinese, the Dutch attack recorded in history as the brutal Puputan Wars, was to change Bali and its culture forever. Entire kingdoms perished as wave upon wave of the island's inhabitants committed suicide. European artists become entrenched, integrating with the Balinese. Their stories of surviving the Dutch invasion, then the Japanese and the brutal 1965 slaughter of more than eighty-thousand Balinese, reveals an unspoken image of Bali, The Island of the Gods.

WARD OF THE STATE - AIR FORCE - BRITISH NUCLEAR TESTS VETERAN - COLD WAR DIPLOMAT - BUSINESS This is a true-life story told by a man who believes that despite his start in life he succeeded in reaching the almost impossible goals he set for himself. There is much to interest the reader: Domestic and child abuse - Ward of the state - Orphanages - RAAF service, British nuclear tests at Maralinga, Office of the Air Attaché, Washington, DC, USA; and Foreign Service at embassies in Moscow, USSR in the '60s and again in the '70s, at Santiago de Chile, and the Consulate-General in Chicago, USA, and Business.The author spent his formative years in orphanages run by the Christian Brothers in Western Australia. After serving in the Royal Australian Air Force, he travelled, lived and worked in western Canada, and Washington, DC with the Office of the Air Attaché, Joint Staff HQ. He served with the Department of Foreign affairs (DFA) with postings to Moscow, Santiago de Chile, Chicago, and Moscow again, until being declared persona non grata by the Soviet Ministry of Foreign Affairs after which he continued his career with the DFA back in Australia. After retiring from DFA, he had a successful career in business as a restauranteur on the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia, and later managed several film and video companies. His last business before retiring was as Agency Head of the French company Bollé in Queensland. After working as a volunteer, he returned to the workforce and joined the Administrative Appeals Tribunal in Brisbane. He now works with the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, and the Department of Foreign Affairs as a Protocol Officer facilitating the visits of royalty, foreign presidents, prime ministers, and foreign ministers to Australia.

Butcher's boy Jimmy D'Aubin went willingly to war when duty called in 1916. Excited, thrilled to be part of a big adventure and determined to play his part in fighting the enemy.Like so many of those fortunate to return, this son of a loving Melbourne family soon found his life had changed forever. The bright-eyed lad had vanished somewhere amid the mud and trenches of the battlefields of France and Flanders. Replaced by a man physically and mentally broken.A stranger to all who once knew and loved him. Even his parents.His battle now is with alcohol. And with the thieving needed to sustain his addiction.There are minor victories among his defeats. He marries, fathers four children but is incapable of supporting them.Divorce follows. He lives on the streets, often sleeping where he falls. He welcomes his frequent spells in prison as they provide a bed and a meal.Help is offered but war has damaged him mentally as well as physically. He finds Billy, his battlefield mate, has fared no better.Jimmy's story mirrors the life and times of the author's grandfather. It paints a vivid picture of mid-twentieth century Melbourne. A period endured by many who went willingly to war and returned to find a bigger battle awaited them.

PART 7 OF THE GRIPPING CRIME SERIES 'WHEN DUTY CALLS', 'KNIFE EDGE' RATCHETS UP THE TENSION STILL FURTHER... Two cannisters of nuclear waste bound for the newly developed storage facility in northern Victoria have been hijacked by the Ndrangheta, a lethal Mafia-based crime syndicate. In direct opposition to this group, The Board, a Russian criminal organisation with links to the Kremlin, has attempted to blow up the storage facility, resulting in the deaths of a number of guards. Determined to bring the cold-blooded killers of both parties to justice, Homicide detectives, Michael Ballard and John Henderson, along with their Serious Crime Taskforce Commander, Peter Henderson, find themselves pitted against Igor Greshnev, The Board's master criminal. They soon realise the Russian is prepared to do whatever it takes to steal the cannisters from the Ndrangheta, all the while continuing with his objective of destroying the storage facility. The detectives' concerted efforts take them to Moscow where they discover to their horror that Igor is threatening to unleash horrendous repercussions on their loved ones and the general public back home should the officers continue to hunt him down.

Professor Arif Ahmed steps warily into a seedy massage parlour in suburban Melbourne, uncertain what he will find beyond the beaded curtain.This is unknown territory for the inquisitive academic. A personal voyage of discovery with few preconceived notions.Reluctantly he succumbs to the urgings of Amelia, the baffled young woman assigned to service him. He accepts a gentle shoulder massage but nothing more.A conversation develops. He discovers Amelia is far more than her massage parlour job suggests. A migrant like himself, but one struggling to survive. A student with a degree in disciplines similar to his own but lacking the resources to progress and achieve her ambitions.True to his belief that human life can consist of more than one existence simultaneously he follows his heart and endangers his family life and professional career to help Amelia reach her academic goals.Could this bring relief from the scars and insecurities he still bears from his own adolescence? As he fosters Amelia's rapid success at university his mind transports him back to his own student days of uncertainty, deceits and deception.An absorbing tale of life's parallels across generations and cultures.

In the midst of a heated battle during the vietnam war, peter jackson falls into A strange new adventure, where time is just another dimension...After dangling precariously from the end of a rope, Peter Jackson, on tour in Vietnam, falls through the air during a failed extraction, legs flailing madly. In the thick of battle at the time, his next, and not so unpleasant recollection is that of falling not to the dark jungle many feet below, but on top of a beautiful young Vietnamese woman on a museum floor. Noc had been endeavouring to clean the glass case in which the Uc Dai Loi had been housed for some time, as there was evidence of mould growing, which would not do for the many visitors to the museum to see such a thing. Even though it was one-sided, Noc had developed a relationship with the handsome but unattainable soldier and chatted to him each day from the outside of the glass case.Little did she anticipate what would happen next...

The year is 1990, and for twenty-something Tom O'Connor, life is good. Descended from a family of Queensland pioneers, he runs a newspaper at Airlie Beach. Success and women come his way easily. But that is soon to change. An 1860s incident, in which an Aboriginal woman was killed, has surfaced to haunt the O'Connor family. Tom's ancestor should have been investigated over her death but was saved by his magistrate brother. This dubious act invoked the O'Connor Protocol - a family tradition that obliges an O'Connor to protect his sibling. Generations later, land-developer Todd Steele, whose descendant took the blame for the crime, intends squaring the account. Tom O'Connor is alerted to Todd's mission only when drugs appear in the beautiful Whitsundays.Adding to the chaos, an Aboriginal tribe inexplicably registers a sacred site on the O'Connor farm. Billy - Tom's Aboriginal colleague at the newspaper - has his own story to tell about drugs and tribal injustice.Drawing on their limited resources, the pair grapple with the threat to their paradise. They uncover more than they bargain for. Will the O'Connor family have to invoke the protocol again?

Joe Burnett was living the dream; retired young from the corporate world and volunteering with his local fire brigade. It didn't last.First the black summer fires sweep through, then strangers start shooting at him, then he meets the mysterious Jessica. He's barely had time to walk his dog before his safe, ordered world disappears, and he crashes head-on into a merciless international criminal organisation and the corruption it propagates.

A book of touching messages across an ocean between a man and a woman."It is late and I know I have just responded to your message but I want you to know that I deep in my heart and I can not explain this, that I miss you so much. I understand that there are many differences between us but when I even question these things it seems to matter very little, all I know is that you, my dear Tuan, will until, I see you again, remain always within my heart the dearest and most special love. Much love Antoinette"

When life serves you nothing but lemons, you have a choice: hit the tequila with a dash of salt or make lemonade and sparkle. Not that it is always that simple. As the author of Romancing My Fantasies learns early in life, bullying and harassment have a way of ripping out the humanity in you. Which raises the question: do you respond with a similar volley of torment, or stand your ground and maintain your integrity? Teri Galea-Thorne goes looking for the answers in this rollicking no-holds-barred, warts 'n' all trip down a memory lane that ranges high and low through the gamut of emotions.This often raw account tells of her suffering at the hands of practically everyone she meets - and shows how it has shaped her into the woman she has become. For anyone who seeks to know and understand the woman behind the author, this is the book to read.So many lovers remembered - and forgotten. Schoolday relationships - the bitter and bad, the good and joyful. The often fragile family ties and the workplace dramas. How many such experiences do we recall - and with fondness, bitterness or regrets? Do we think of them always, often or never? Romancing My Fantasies is a ripping yarn, an enchanting and reflective story laced with an undercurrent of humour. A thoughtful story for anyone who has loved and lost, and survived to tell the tale.One for the romantics in us all.

I should have been a happy teenager...W henever I walk past a particular house around the corner from where I now live ... I am thrown back in time, remembering my teenage years, when I lived in that house for protection from a boy who was stalking me and causing trouble.Growing up in a dysfunctional and sometimes hostile environment, raised by emotionally stunted parents unable to show love except from the end of a plank of wood, my sister and I were unaware that we weren't a normal familyDid it teach me resilience? Although it was no preparation for the dramas of my teenage years and tragedies of my adult life, it may have helped me to get through the fight of my life at the age of fifty-three.

There's a deepening mystery that the world's written language kept disappearing for good, with no explanation. Schoolgirls Davidia and Slirander catch a perpetrator finger-licking his way through a book, making the words disappear, and were puzzled. They spring into action to find the cause of the destruction and find themselves on a journey, trying to solve the puzzle of the disappearing words. A Moonah tree whose leaves represent the letters of the alphabet help them on their journey, transforming them to strange and mysterious places where they find the fateful pit of lost letters, but not before they had to escape the traps set for them by the different keepers of the alphabet who hung tenaciously to their letters. All the while they had to outsmart their adversary, the enemy who had stolen the written word from the world. Who was this character? Were the girls successful in their mission to save the language of the world?