Recent Posts

by

#FridayFreebie# Missing Presumed Dead – Mark Tedeschi QC

Missing Presumed Dead

Mark Tedeschi QC

Simon & Schuster Australia

ISBN: 9781761104459

Description:

It was the double murder case that gripped Australia, and former Crown Prosecutor Mark Tedeschi QC is finally able to share all the shocking details.

Dorothy Davis and Kerry Whelan were both happy, healthy, affluent, middle-class women from conservative, loving families.
Such women are hardly ever among the ranks of the missing. They were not hitchhikers, or associates of drug dealers, or unhappy with their family relationships, or suffering from mental health issues. Dorothy Davis and Kerry Whelan came from different parts of Sydney, mixed in quite different circles, and led completely different lives. They had never met each other, and if they had, they would have had little in common. In fact, Dorothy Davis and Kerry Whelan had one thing in common – they both knew Bruce Allan Burrell.

The disappearance without trace of these two women caused massive police investigations and resulted in sensational trials that gripped the nation of Australia. This book explores the intricacies of those investigations and delves into the twisted, tortuous processes of the legal proceedings, while exploring the dark recesses of the mind of Bruce Burrell.

Meet the Author:

As a Barrister and a Crown Prosecutor for thirty five years, Mark Tedeschi QC has appeared in some of the most significant criminal cases in Australia. He has been the Senior Crown Prosecutor in New South Wales for fifteen years and is the President of the Australian Association of Crown Prosecutors. He has had many articles published on the law and is the author of a legal text book and the critically acclaimed biography Eugenia. He has published many articles on history, genealogy, photography, and horticulture. Kidnapped is his second work of creative non-fiction. 

Giveaway:

Thanks to Simon & Schuster, the author and Dmcprmedia I have one copy of this Australian true crime expose to give away. ** Australian residents only** In the comments let me know of another true crime written by this author.

by

#FridayFreebie: Forgiveness Is the Hardest Thing – An Anthology

Forgiveness is the Hardest Thing – An Anthology

Leschenault Press

ISBN: 9781922670373

RRP $34.95

Description:

Forgive (verb): 1. Stop feeling angry or resentful towards a person who has done something hurtful or wrong. 2. excuse an offence or mistake.

Forgiveness (noun): the action of forgiving.

(OED, Oxford University Press 2009)

The path to forgiveness requires acceptance, introspection, admission of guilt, and the ability to see the situation through another's eyes.  

During the prolonged Covid-19 lockdowns, twenty-one women were invited to write about their experiences of forgiveness through the medium of poetry or prose, fiction or non-fiction. The result is an anthology that lays bare the shared need to forgive or to be forgiven.

It captures deeply personal stories of domestic violence, family disruptions, the disintegration of friendships, and the impact of taking an individual's power. But it also brings gifts of insight, stories of healing, techniques to help with physical and mental well-being, and a discourse about the spiritual side of forgiveness from a unique perspective.

Featuring the writing of multiple-award winning authors from across North America, the UK, Ireland, NZ and Australia, Forgiveness is the Hardest Thing is an inspiring collection to draw from when you too are wondering, how can I forgive?

**Thanks to Leschenault Press I have one copy of this evocative anthology to give away. Simply hop over the publishers website https://bookreality.com/project/for-authors/ and list one  of the contributors to the anthology. Open to residents of Ireland, USA, UK, Canada, New Zealand and Australia.  Winner randomly selected on 5/2/022.**
by

More on My Art Journey

This year is a year of building my art profile to reach a bigger audience. If you have a minute ( in the next 24 hours before the event closes) could you click on the link and vote for my piece? Your support is greatly appreciated.

https://gallery.artgeo.com.au/product/picking-up-the-pieces/?fbclid=IwAR15DHjej46t_qYQv1qvfVBuRuoBgLn0G25JWdyeVM4srsN6neyQGwz67vI

by

Time for a Little Holiday

We are so lucky in Western Australia, our relative isolation to the rest of the country (and good management skills by State Government) has meant the harshness of Covid19 has been softened and travel within our state is relatively free and easy. I am grateful.

And we are taking a little break to recharge after a busy few months.

by

Guest Post by Kim Lock

Recently I had the pleasure of reading Kim’s new book The Other Side of Beautiful, it was outstanding. I am a fan of Kim’s writing and storytelling and when I finished this particular read I asked myself, and then asked Kim, how does she write each book so differently, each as standalones, each a unique story? When I read her response I had a big AHA moment. Thanks so much Kim for enlightening me.

Carol: How do you write each book so uniquely?
Kim Lock: Good question. Let me think.

When I get up in the morning, here’s what happens: I shuffle into the kitchen, squinting. I put the kettle on; I sit and drink a cup of tea and wait for my brain to catch up with the phenomenon of daylight and being vertical. Once that has happened, there’s another cup over a book, or perhaps my emails. This – the squinting, the tea, the brain catch-up – happens without fail every morning. Of an evening, there’s the couch and chips or chocolate and an hour or two of Netflix. These are the comforting rituals that bookend my day, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Between those morning and evening rituals? It varies. I’ve recently released a new novel, The Other Side of Beautiful, so lately there’s been publicity work to attend to. If I’m writing or editing, I’ll make that a priority for most of the day. Sometimes I’ll head into the garden, or drag myself to the shops for groceries or errands. Go for a run. Oh, and I have two home-educated preteens so there’s that.

This quiet unpredictability? I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Although I must be clear: while I don’t love schedules, I also don’t especially enjoy dramatic surprises. Sometimes shock feels too much like fear. While I relish the ebb and flow of an unscheduled day, I also like to know, at least loosely, what to expect. (Call me contrary, but what human isn’t?)

So, I write fiction, returning again and again to the subjects I’m fascinated by, but with the steering wheel in front of me. (Or so I tell myself, until the characters have other plans.)

I’ve found my books shelved under contemporary fiction, women’s fiction, Australian fiction, historical fiction, thriller and noir, romance, humour and adventure. I’m told I write ‘genre-straddling’, ‘commercial-literary hybrid’, writing that perhaps ‘isn’t easy to categorise.’

But like most writers, I just write to try and understand the human experience. I write to try and make some sense of this nonsensical world, to explore the what-ifs that fascinate, frighten or engage me.

The funny thing is, as much as my novels are all different, I also know I am always writing about the same thing: women’s experiences of reproduction and motherhood in patriarchy. Becoming a mother upended everything I thought I knew, and became the bedrock of my feminism – and the obsessions that fuel my writing. But because I’m driven by novelty, I’ve also written about the army, adoption, psychological abuse, domestic ménage a trois, 1960s Australia, politics, mental illness and health, loneliness, happiness. I’ve written about the quiet joy to be found in solitude, in company, in the present moment. I like to include humour into my work; if it makes me laugh, it keeps me going.

What I love most especially is a new idea. I get delighted by small, bright changes. (You should see me when the bulbs in my garden sprout!) I love learning something new or having my stale old beliefs knocked about or eliminated entirely. (I admit this is sometimes challenging – hello motherhood – but it always works out to be a good thing, even if I complain about it at the time.) And I love it – love it – when people act in a surprising way, or do something out of what I had perceived to be their character.

In The Other Side of Beautiful, Mercy Blain has been stuck in her house for two years. To Mercy, newness and novelty are anathema. In order for my character to find herself – to dig into those same questions with which I as the writer am obsessed – I had to shove her out into the world. So, in the opening scene, I set her house on fire. Then I asked myself, Alright – now what’s she gonna do?

Now what? I suspect it’s a question I’ll keep asking.

by

Missing …

Found: Maggie Dog

If you have been wondering where i have been of late, we got a new addition to the family and she is taking a bit of settling in but is making lots of progress.

Maggie is a staffy x – crossed with something with long legs🙂 She is submissive and a bit cautious of the world – she is what is becoming known as “a covid puppy” born in a time of lock downs with less opportunity to be socialised. But this little girl has a warm heart and just wants to be part of the family.

She is learning that we are here for her and that together we can learn so much.

Her favourite things are; Me, food and third Garry and the lounge.

Maggie Dog