eBook Listing

This entertaining collection includes a romp of a novella called The Rattler, as well as short stories and micro fictions all set in and around contemporary Melbourne. Sometimes serious, sometimes seriously playful - always written in breathtakingly beautiful prose - these stories uncover the heartbreaking tragedies, slow-burning emotions and serendipity of ordinary lives.

* Cover endorsement from acclaimed Australian authors, Paddy O'Reilly and Ryan O'Neill and award-winning UK author, Vanessa Gebbie.

* The Rattler & other stories are written with the wonder and the wit of Peter Carey and Jonathan Franzen.

* A S Patric is an exciting new Australian talent.

* Cover and evocative sketches by talented artist, Miles Allinson.

Are you ready to ready to read an adventure book that has ... BLANK PAGES?

Does this sound WEIRD?

This story is a bit weird.

It is about TIME TRAVEL and GREED and humans trapped in NON-HUMAN BODIES and GYPSY MAGIC and EVIL CURSES and a CRYSTAL EYEBALL (that pops out!) and RAVENS, hundreds and thousands of VICIOUS RAVENS.

And ... a CHRISTMAS MARKET!!!

Miss Julie (everyone's favourite teacher), Jack and Poppy hope to discover the answer to all these Strange events but will their dithering old headmaster Mr Grovel spoil everything?

You'll never know unless you're brave enough to OPEN THIS BOOK and let the adventure begin.…

Sin City, 1970s. Crooked cops take the cream off the top of crime profits. Judges frequent illegal gambling dens. The winners of races are known before the horses have run. Heroin floods the streets, And the fight for the control of the trade sees men being gunned down left and right. This is the world of George Freeman.

Often portrayed as a charming celebrity gangster, he was in fact a calculated criminal motivated by greed and a lust for power and influence. One of Sydney's most notorious and unforgiving hard men, Freeman preferred others to do his dirty work. He dominated that city's underworld alongside Lennie McPherson, controlling a vast illegal gambling empire while keeping top cops, judges and politicians in his pocket.

Here, at last, we hear the truth about Freeman's links to the Mafia and drug trafficking, his secret addiction and the accusations of murder. In this compelling and unsettling account, award-winning writer Tony Reeves reveals George Freeman without the gloss.

Aussie child star, Billy Parsons, on contract with Universal Studios, goes missing in 1965 in Hollywood. Last seen walking alone down North Beaumont, the child vanishes without trace. One witness, Mrs Marjorie Femmer, claims to have spoken to Billy on the fateful day, but no one else saw the child. No further investigation is done by the police and the case is conveniently filed away.

Fifty years later, the case is reopened by the Los Angeles Police Department at the request of the Australian Federal Police and Billy Parsons' family. Why is the ageing Mrs Femmer so reluctant to speak again about the events of that day she saw Billy? Is she hiding some dark secret? Detective Chief Inspector Marty Hislop, along with his trusty assistant, Detective Sergeant Miguel La Paz, commence unravelling a long chain of dark circumstances, and a haunting past of deceit and manipulation is soon unmasked.

In times past there was an Aboriginal man called Cumbo Gunnerah. His people called him The Red Kangaroo. He was a clever chief and a mighty fighter (this man from Gunnedah). Later, the white people of this place called him The Red Chief.

It would be hard to find a more satisfying hero than the young warrior Red Kangaroo, who by his mental and physical prowess became a chief of his tribe - the revered and powerful Red Chief of the Gunnedah district in northern New South Wales. His story is a first-rate tale of adventure but it is something more - a true story handed down from generation to generation by its hero's tribe and given by the last survivor, King Bungaree, to the white settlers of the district.

The Remarkable Mr Morrison delves into the life and musicality of James Morrison, one of Australia's most internationally acclaimed musicians. It follows not only his transformation from tearful primary school boy to supremely confident performer, but also explores the nature and development of his giftedness.

James discovered his natural talent early and was playing international jazz festivals in his teens. He has a unique ability to play a variety of instruments to world-class standard, while maintaining an affable and effervescent approach to his multi-faceted life.

In his spare time he drives fast cars, flies planes, loves boating, abseiling and gadgetry and has completed several triathlons, but above all he is a musician par excellence.

This book critically examines his qualities, both musical and personal, and his rise to the highest echelons of every jazz genre.

The book has been written with the cooperation of James.

Discover the secrets successful businesses are using to double their profits, even in harsh economic times.
The author Andrew Carter, successful entrepreneur and business marketing expert, unlocks his closely guarded secrets and reveals how to really grow your business in less than 30 days.
The information is designed to turn your business (no matter how big or small) into a genuine wealth generating asset - one that allows you to earn more than you have been, whilst working less than you have been - so you can start living the lifestyle you want.
You'll discover:
- 4 unbreakable rules of great business success
- stand out so far from all your competitors that customers naturally come to you
- charge more for the same items as your competitors, yet actually attract their customers, as well as keeping your own, even when they start slashing their prices!
- the simplest and easiest to implement strategies that will increase your bottom line profit dramatically, without increasing your workload
- how you make more money with less customers and far less work
- why price slashing doesn't work and how you can avoid it
- how to have your customers coming back to you and spending more each time
- and much more...

"Smart retailers will survive and even thrive over this time. The skills these successful retailers possess is a skill set that can be learnt by any business owner ... this book concentrates on those areas." - Richard Evans, Executive Director, Australian Retail Association.

Four friends, four very different stories.

The Rooftop is set a against a quintessential Sydney background. At Darlinghurst East Public School, Emma, Maha, Simon and Talia, learn about themselves and each other through the unusual combination of Scripture class and netball.

As Mr. Zulman reveals the story of the Exodus to the students, they reveal their own stories to each other: Simon's parents are separated and warring with each other, Talia's dyslexia makes the classroom an everyday struggle, Maha's family is facing deportation back to war-torn Iraq, and Emma, who has lived all her life in Sydney, begins for the first time to appreciate the value of freedom.

Outside of class as the netball season progresses, freedom takes on a new meaning for the four students when on the very day of the netball finals, Maha and her family face the very real prospect of deportation.

In 1986 a bomb went off outside the main police headquarters in Russell Street Melbourne.

The Russell Street Bombing looks at the consequences of this shocking act of violence from the point of view of an entire city, the police force that was targeted, and in particular one 19-year-old victim.

Welcome to Crime Shots - short, sharp, true crime stories from Australia's past and present.

Why had Luke Marks driven specially out to Windee? Had he been murdered or had he, as the local police believed, wandered away from his car and been overwhelmed in a dust-storm? When Bony noticed something odd in the background of a police photograph, he begins to piece together the secrets of the sands of Windee. Here is the original background to the infamous Snowy Rowles murder trial.

 

Napoleon Bonaparte my best detective. - Daily Mail

Throughout all the game of war, in every Age, there has been no task so fascinating, so alive with thrills, as that of the scout. Against an enemy army he plays a lone hand as does the sniper. But the scout's job is not to hide and kill, his is to press forward and see, but never be seen. And - he must return.

Ion Idriess's Australian guerrilla manual presents a rare insight into one of the most vital functions of small-unit combat intelligence - scouting. Despite great technical achievements in modern military science, the small-unit commander must still rely heavily on the eyes, ears and stealth of his scouts. Details obscure techniques often overlooked in most U.S. Army and Marine scouting texts.

The sixth book of the Australian Guerrilla series, The Scout, by Ion Idriess is now available. It is packed with knowledge and bush lore, and gives to any soldier who studies it most of the data necessary for the job of scouting. With the rest of the series it provides a small compact little work that, carried in the haversack, is a means of learning as you go. - Hobart Mercury, 1943.

In The Secret Love Letters: A Family History, the author delves into the history of her Spanish ancestors, the once-illustrious San Miguels, and uncovers the forbidden love affair that tore the family apart.

Fay Johnston told her daughter of a collection of letters she had kept hidden away for over 60 years, promising to show them to her when the time was right. It was only after her mother died that Dolores found the letters, concealed beneath a large piece of wood deep within a storage cupboard. Through endless research and close analysis, Dolores pieced together nearly a hundred letters, newspaper ads, doctors' notes, and postcards to unravel the story of her parents' romance, kept secret for over two decades.

Dolores San Miguel, acclaimed author of The Ballroom: The Melbourne Punk and Post-punk Scene delivers a luminous, tightly woven account that places her own family saga in the wider context of early European immigration to Australia, as well as offering a fascinating glimpse into Melbourne life in the lead-up to World War 2.

Joan Lindsay's classic novel Picnic at Hanging Rock is a subtle blend of mysterious and sinister events set in a period of Australian social life drawn with loving nostalgia. The final chapter of the novel was removed at the request of her publishers, creating a mystery to which thousands have begged to know the solution.

The missing chapter reveals what did happen to the schoolgirls who vanished from the Rock after a St Valentine's Day picnic in 1900, and holds commentaries by John Taylor, Yvonne Rousseau and Mudrooroo.

Joan Lindsay's classic novel Picnic at Hanging Rock is a subtle blend of mysterious and sinister events set in a period of Australian social life drawn with loving nostalgia. The final chapter of the novel was removed at the request of her publishers, creating a mystery to which thousands have begged to know the solution.

The missing chapter reveals what did happen to the schoolgirls who vanished from the Rock after a St Valentine's Day picnic in 1900, and holds commentaries by John Taylor, Yvonne Rousseau and Mudrooroo.