Author: William

Kaaren Sutcliffe delivers a richly layered fantasy tale with intrigue, romance and compelling characters. The trilogy weaves together a young spy mage on a covert mission, a rogue half-mage, an alluring bird caller with uncanny abilities. A fiercely competitive dragon boat teams and river dragons with a hidden past seeking amends from a Mages' Guild founded on deception. A grumpy river dragon withholds rain. Their crops wilting in unrelenting sunlight, the provinces plan a festival of dragon boat races to appease the dragon. [read more...]

Burnt Sienna Sky explores the passage of time, and how it shapes one’s existence. It’s about acceptance and being comfortable in your own skin. But most of all Burnt Sienna Sky is about finding the courage of resilience and speaking up when you think something needs to change, even if you think no one will listen. The thing I love most about Jackie's work is her use of colour, and remember that light and shadow are just colour and the absence thereof. "After the camera flashes, / I want to be the one standing beside you in / [read more...]

In 1999, a Parliamentary (Senate) Inquiry in Australia had found that "a strong case can be made that the Kormoran's underwater torpedo played a major role in the defeat of the Sydney", whereas in 2009 the Commission of Inquiry had found that "the Sydney had been struck by a torpedo from the above-water tubes of the raider Kormoran while both vessels were sailing along at close quarters at a speed of some 14 knots". These diverse rulings mean one or both are not correct. In fact, the latest inquiry has been eroded by more [read more...]

Sydney 1986, and Devlin's life is music, madness and a vivid dream of another life. Another place. A place he's seen and can't forget. A place of heat and dust and silence, and endless blue. Time to think. And to kill. And forgive. A place he calls Warkon. Warkon is part psychological, part bildungsroman, part crime mystery fiction, helped largely by the clever interweaving of storylines and the author's fine feel for language and tone that is quintessentially Australian. It manages to blend stark existential horror with [read more...]

Leaving Macquarie Island and the 1979 expeditioners was a mixed bag of emotions. I witnessed the grieving of some of the expeditioners from losing one of their mates, a biologist. I felt for them and wondered what wintering on the Island was going to be like for them. I was pleased to finally go home Aboard the Danish ice breaker, Thala Dan. 15 Months was a long time away from home on an isolated Australian Scientific Research Station. I boarded the ship after she serviced the other Australian Stations in Antarctica. Seeing [read more...]

Growing up in the harsh climate of Central Western Qld, the N.T. and top end of W.A., author Lynn Moodie must have endured sun damage for a good deal of her life. Later, living on the coast but still in the harmful sunny areas with high UV ratings at Mackay and Townsville she has no longer been able to keep the killer away that will end her life.