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Charlie Lansdowne's life is going nowhere... fast. Trapped at home with his eccentric father, Roger, and his stroke-affected grandfather, Frank, he finds life a daily exercise in dysfunction as three generations of men strive to get along. But when Charlie meets the volatile and tempestuous Maxine - a surfer girl who works at the local abattoir - his life goes supernova. Friendships implode, passions ignite and death comes stalking in the night. Pulling Down the Stars is a story about the confusion of love, the longing for reconciliation and the need to pull our unrealistic dreams back down to earth.

Q: The Queermance Anthology - celebrates the best of queer Australian romance writing.

Commissioned to celebrate Melbourne's inaugural Queermance Literary Festival this is an anthology of erotically-charged romances from famous, emerging and aspiring writers.

Volume 1 features fabulous tales of love and lust by Kerry Greenwood, Matthew Lang, NM Harris, Julie A Pollard, Susan Beck, Alison Evans, Kristen Henry, Mary Borsellino, Anders and Nicole Field.

Sexy ~ Erotic ~ Romantic ~ Australian

Sexy ~ Erotic ~ Romantic ~ Queer ~ Australian Writing

Q: the Queermance Anthology - vol 2

This second volume of fabulous, erotically-charged romances from well-known, emerging and aspiring writers coincides with Melbourne's second Queermance Literary Festival.

Q2 features moving, inspiring, sad, funny, dark and light-hearted tales of love and lust by:

NM Harris, Beck Mitchell, Matthew Lang, Isabelle Rowan, JJ Carroll, Lou Kohler, JFR Coates, Renae Kaye, May Wilson, Marion Adams, Scott Thornby, Nicole Field, EE Montgomery, Dominica Malcolm and Victoria Brown.

'Raki' is the Australian Aboriginal generic word for rope, the unifying metaphor of Wongar's novel, representing the conquered or bound state of oppressed people. From the confines of an outback Australian prison cell to war-torn Serbia, 'Raki' invokes a powerful story of enchantment and struggle - the struggle to uphold traditions and nurture memory and joyous fortitude in the face of human devastation.

Drawing on tragic similarities between the forced separation of Aboriginal children from their tribal families and the decimation of his Serbian native land, B. Wongar has written an epic, surprisingly optimistic novel. And the unifying symbol is raki - the rope which fuses the historical facts, linking the Serbian and Aboriginal cultures to time immemorial. But raki is also the yoke of servitude, the rope which snaps with the shock of genocide, but which ultimately binds people together with love.

This ebook brings together two of Lurie's novels, the comic "Rappaport", which focused on a day in the life of a young Melbourne antique dealer and his immature friend, Friedlander, and "Rappaport's Revenge" where the characters, transplanted to London, were further chronicled. These are followed by several short stories: "Rappaport Lays an Egg", "The Death of Rappaport", "Dirty Friends", "Rappaport Dragged Over the Coals", "Rappaport Takes Lunch", and "Rappaport and Friedlander Meet in Heaven".

Diagnosed autistic at an early age, Sherlock Holmes is on the outer edge of every curve.

From his birth to his unique adulthood, Sherlock finds his immeasurable gifts of observation and deduction overbalanced by struggles with his senses and the incomprehensible nature of humanity.

Though nourished and cherished by his family, they cannot protect him forever, so Sherlock exiles himself, alone and always observing.

Then he meets Dr John Watson. John takes Sherlock's hand, pulls him close, and together doctor and detective fall in love.

Rare and Wonderfully Made brings a timeless character into our modern age and wonders…what if?

What would you do for love?

Would you kill? Would you die? Would you give up your soul?

British soldier, Dr James Sharpe, returned from Afghanistan a changed man. Like most war veterans haunted by deadly choices and the horrors of battle, James struggles against his demons. Unlike other ex-soldiers, his demons are real. Transformed in the heat of a desert battlefield, James Sharpe is now a vampire.

Struggling London artist, Gabriel Dare, has his own secrets - like who he really is, and why he lived on the streets before lodging with Dr Sharpe; like the ghosts he used to see, that made others question his sanity.

James knows Gabriel is the best thing in his life, but questions his ability to love and fears he's a danger to all. Gabriel knows there's something different about his enigmatic landlord, but can't deny his attraction.

When some of Gabriel's street friends go missing, he discovers that London is full of monsters - real, vicious, otherworldly monsters.

The two men join forces with a clairvoyant cop and a Peer of the Realm to uncover the truth, for it seems the vampire who sired James is back in London - with a diabolical agenda that threatens the entire nation.

In a series of four books based on war, each with a different focus, G.S. Willmott has extensively researched war 'histories' and from them, has created 'his stories'.

This, the fourth and most compelling, recreates a multitude of experiences of the young men caught up in the frenzy and futility of World War 1.

Sex and death, eternal themes, bind together these individual stories; the shared experiences of love and death are the strong bonds which link these young Australian and British soldiers across France, Egypt, Flanders, even Syria. Their suffering is what makes us think deeply about ongoing conflicts which eternally destroy human lives and from which we seem to have learned nothing.

In Red Lights on the Somme, Willmott unearths surprising and positive aspects of war; man's inhumanity to man is counter-pointed by mateship between soldiers, tenderness between lovers, and trust and inter-dependence between humans and animals. The contrast between the nobility and loyaty of non-humans (including dogs, pigeons, horses) forms a stark contrast against the brutality and treachery of mankind.

'This book tells the stories of young men far from home in the battle of their lives, fighting ultimately for their survival. Evocative, gruelling and often brutal the book touches on most aspects of life as an infantryman on the western front and the harshness, sadness and realities of life for those who participated in the first world war. Historically accurate, factual and graphic this well written book is a must read for anyone with an interest in Australians in World War One.' - Christine McLean-McIntyre

Commander Bryn Gideon and the crack Australian 'Redback Retrieval Team' rescue hostages from Pacific island rebels. American journalist Scott Dreher, researching computer war-game training, uncovers links between Western government agencies and known terrorist groups.

Meanwhile ritual killings in London and Tokyo, a bomb on a European train, an assassination on an Australian beach, and an attack on a US army base have half the world on high alert. The question is: are these incidents the work of isolated opportunistic terrorists, or part of something more sinister?

Gideon's Redbacks join the race to expose the ultimate conspiracy of a truly evil force; one that plays both sides of the terror divide against each other.

Uncanny disturbances, death, and the dank breath of the native bush.

 

Remains to be Told: Dark Tales of Aotearoa is mired in the shifting landscape of the long white cloud, and deeply imbued with the myth, culture and character of Aotearoa-New Zealand.

Laced with intrigue, suspense, horror, and even a touch of humour, this anthology brings together stories and poems by some of the best homegrown and Kiwi-at-heart voices working in dark fiction today.

Curated by multi-award-winning editor Lee Murray with a foreword by six-time Bram Stoker Award®-winner Lisa Morton and stories and poems by:

Kathryn Burnett, Helena Claudia, Gina Cole, William Cook, Debbie Cowens, Neil Gaiman, Del Gibson, Jacqui Greaves, Denver Grenell, Tim Jones, Nikky Lee, Paul Mannering, Owen Marshall, Tracie McBride, Kirsten McKenzie, Celine Murray, Lee Murray, Dan Rabarts, Bryce Stevens, and Marty Young.

 

'New Zealand's darkest minds and brightest talents take you on a journey through the fierce mythology, stoic character, and unforgiving - yet fascinating - landscape of Aotearoa.' - Geneve Flynn, double Bram Stoker Award®-winner and editor of Black Cranes

Xavier has seized control of the western realms and now he is looking east towards Frith, the hub of commerce in the southern kingdoms. But The Society disagrees. They encourage King Xavier to turn his armies north and destroy the auchs.

In the north the auchs are gathering to prepare for a war predicted by the prophet Afi while Queen Fittoreah of Frith prepares to defend Frith. Camille and the witches know they must support the auchs in their fight against their people and the little witch's powers are growing stronger every day.

Behind all the troubles of the world lies the secret of the lost magic.

Ireland, early 1800s. The Napoleonic Wars have ended, leaving an already disjointed country in peril. Maurice O'Dwyer, a young Irishman, considers the lifeless body of an English tithe-collector slain under a rain-filled sky. From that moment it seems his fate is sealed: he and his young simpleton brother, Padraig, are exiled to Australia, An Astráil, to the convict-filled island of Van Diemen's Land - leaving behind his love, his land, and his liberty. However, in the bush Maurice discovers that there are allies in the most unlikely of places.

"With the passion of an activist and the ear of a poet, John Tully constructs his novel out of the differing perspectives of the colonial project, weaving Irish lives and English lives, black experiences and white experiences into a dense tapestry of oppression and the many little resistances it fostered. This is an account of settlement in all its complexity, a multilayered book written with a deep sympathy for ordinary people coping with the collision of very different worlds. It's a text built from parallels, echoes and resonances, a much-needed excavation of a past that still haunts us." - Jeff Sparrow, co-author of Radical Melbourne: A Secret History

In 1962, and one month following the disappearance of Michael C. Rockefeller off the southern coast of what was then known as Dutch Western New Guinea, Indonesia invaded and annexed the territory and commenced the systematic slaughter of indigenous Papuans, to pave the way for a massive wave of transmigrated Javanese.

With the meteoric rise of the new powerhouses, China and India, Indonesian-occupied West Papua's wealth of oil, gas and minerals precipitates an international power-play for control over the vast natural resources.

Decades have passed since the twenty-three year old Rockefeller disappeared - long presumed dead, when sightings of the heir are widely reported.

Demands for West Papuan independence gain momentum and Australia is again drawn into military conflict with the Indonesian Motherland, Ibu Pertiwi.

Duo Ex Machina has a new album on the verge of storming the 2004 charts. Frank and Milo's promotion tour in Melbourne is hijacked by a serial killer stalking gay men - one of them an old friend from Milo's past. Juggling their heavy PR schedule with Milo's hometown return and this sudden loss is bad enough. Finding out who the killer is - and his chosen final victim - will be so much worse.

 

Originally published by Homosapien Press in 2004, Fly By Night and its companion novella, Sacrifice, were nominated for a Ned Kelly Award for Best First Crime Novel in 2004.

SALMANCIS

Lovers desire to unite with the other half of themselves. When the desire is deep enough, when the love is profound enough, the Gods listen. And they have a funny sense of humour.

JETSAM

Cold, naked, beautiful, expendable, the merman washes ashore at her feet. There is nothing she cannot do to him.