Cirrus@Austlit

'A book of surrealist art, comics, puzzles and activities for enquiring minds.

'A harried office worker escapes into an absurdist surreal world and learns to follow his dreams.

'Recommended reading for all disgruntled employees.'

Source : publisher's blurb

'The Library is destroyed.

'The worst has come to pass. The monstrous sorcereress Bernadette has revealed her final plan. Apophis, the god of chaos. destroyer of the sun, is coming. Lark’s oldest friend is dead and his allies in ruin. These are truly the end days.

'They say the cornered rat is at its most dangerous. Bettina, his muscle, now favoured by the lion deity, grows stronger and wilder every day. Scarlet has taken command of the few raged magicians and sorcerers as she can, but can Lark trust her?

'And out there somewhere, driven to madness, Jon the Hollow, in service to darkest forces, more lethal than ever. And out for Lark’s blood.

'But there’s a secret place, a City beneath the City, that holds the final answer Lark needs to defeat the ghosts of his past and the horror that’s coming.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Renowned artist Grania, famed as a painter of light, arrives in a sleek space ship from Lost Earth, ready to embrace New Ceres and its New Enlightenment in its entirety – its 18th century set up, its coffee houses, its gossipy salons, and its obsession with a low-level approach to tech . . . But is she really ready for its cutthroat society, its strange food issues or for Livia? Livia who toys with lives on a whim, and will stop at nothing to realize her dream society.

'When Grania marries Dal and sets up her own political salons, the stage is set for a battle of wills and poisonous chaos ensues.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'The year is 2035, the story starts with the discovery of the body of long since dead politician Kevin Rowe. The man convicted of the murder, based on sketchy evidence, could not possibly have done it. Kaz Ingham from NSW Premiers Office, competent but with no police experience, is directed to liaise between the NSW and SA police forces. All parties assume that her lack of experience will likely lead the investigation to a dead end…'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'A wounded flying hero struggling to accept his destiny, a shy girl of dark, mysterious secrets unaware of the power within her and a lonely youth out to prove himself worthy of his warrior father. A race with dragon DNA suffer under malevolent overlords, dreaming of a hero to set them free. But what they get is a handsome young joker more interested in breaking the rules than breaking free his people.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Nadia Valinsky was a student teacher in Moscow until Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union. Determined to defend her people, she joins the Air Force; where the famous aviator Marina Raskova is recruiting women for three fighting regiments. After rigorous training, and in nothing more than canvas and wood biplanes, Nadia and her friends are sent to the front line, where they'll become the legends history calls The Night Witches.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'The O'Hara family has lived on Lake Road for generations-since 1825, in fact. Their fates have been as varied as the lake's depths, but 1975 was a pivotal time in the life of the family. It was the year that Lily O'Hara was born and her mother, Moya, and brother, Brannen, disappeared. It was assumed that the two had drowned, but the bodies were never recovered. Her father, Cillian, could offer no explanation for the disappearance of his wife and son. The police and locals believed he was guilty of murder, but without bodies no charges could be laid. The young father attempted to raise his baby daughter with the help of his unmarried brother and sister, Darcy and Billie. The weight of loss and presumed guilt drove Cillian to take his own life when Lily was only nine months old. The novel commences with twenty-six-year-old Lily watching the now diminishing lake and thinking about her life. She tries to avoid dwelling on her family's demise. Billie and Darcy are now dead, and she knows little about the events from 1975. But the past can never be truly silenced, and the noise of those terrible losses roars back to life when bones are discovered in the drying mud of the now-empty lake. Lily is an archivist and curator. In her working life she makes sense of the past lives of other people by assigning meaning to the artefacts they leave behind. It becomes her mission to make sense of her father's actions by examining what evidence remains. She will also come to accept that she, like all of us, has been shaped by the past. She must decide if she will be consumed or strengthened by what she finds out' (publication blurb).

'How do you help a man that doesn’t want to be helped?

'A man used by Aliens as an incubation tank, who believes his only friends are Aliens, finds himself thrust back out into his natural environment.

'He becomes an Outcast when he finds himself back amongst humans, unable to adjust to life without his Alien overseers.

'Alone, Ale stands between two opposing forces – Aliens and Humans. His allegiances to both are stretched to breaking point.

'How can this damaged Human protect his loved ones from an Alien force so powerful that they dominate our planet? How can one man make the difference? Can a man, this broken, find love again? And where?

'This is his story.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

''Year Twelve is the most important year of our life.'

''Getting a good ATAR is the key to your future.'

'This is what Paddy Cowen has heard year in and year out from teachers and career counsellors since starting high school in Melbourne.

'Paddy had a troubled childhood. His dad died in war before he knew him, he lost his best friend, and his mum got cancer. Scared and confused, he made a promise …

'Four years later, Paddy is about to begin Year Twelve, suffering from PTSD and bipolar disorder. Bullied and feeling pressure to attain a good ATAR, all he wants is to get through the year with a happy ending. This takes on a new meaning when he meets Ashi, a girl who seems bound to bring down the guard that Paddy keeps between himself and others. When he finds a journal written by his father hidden in his back shed, a chain of events is set in motion that will challenge everything Paddy thinks he knows about his life and the people closest to him.

'Paddy will uncover family secrets, battle his mental illness and the pain in his past, experience the hardest loss, and have his will to keep a promise put to the ultimate test. He will begin to understand the complexity of human nature, while trying to find what truly matters to him.

'In a year in which all most teenagers are just trying to earn a good ATAR, attain their licence, and plan a wild schoolies trip, the events that take place for Paddy will alter the course of his life forever.

'Entering adulthood, Year Twelve will turn out be the most significant yet for Paddy Cowen, but it will have little to do with school.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Wither, book two in the Lily O'Hara series, explores the power of the monster hiding in plain sight. A power afforded him by the silence of others.

'Lily O'Hara faces the pain of buried pasts. She is no stranger to delving into secrets and is drawn to the unknown story of a young fisherman who takes his life and leaves a cryptic message about the truth killing him. Max Fraser, best friend of her husband Phillip, received the letter and asks Lily to help him decipher it and come to understand what precipitated the suicide.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

''Tis the doing, not the deed, follows Apolline a headstrong French lawyer, and her mild-mannered Australian husband, Parry, an investigator for an art auction house, as they investigate the provenance of paintings (belonging to a deceased estate) by two 20^th-century Australian artists, before the works are put up for sale. There is also uncertainty regarding the provenance of similar works in museums that were victims of Nazi appropriation during World War II.

'In that deceased (Styming) estate there are not only artworks missing but also one of the heirs. Apolline flies to London to finalise the Styming inheritance only to be held prisoner by three of the heirs who demand she allocate them greater shares of their father's wealth. Apolline is rescued, the Styming heirs are arrested and the family's art collection withdrawn from auction.

'Six months later, while Parry is visiting his seriously-ill mother in Australia, the mysteries surrounding the Styming art collection re-surface. Although Apolline has promised Parry not to risk her safety again by trying to find the missing artworks, she cannot resist the temptation and is caught in a dangerous intrigue that leads to a dramatic and explosive conclusion: the artworks are found and saved but the Styming house is destroyed.

'More dangerous yet, is the moment when Apolline faces the white-hot fury of Parry who learns of her activities. 'Tis the doing, not the deed combines flawed allegiance, greed and warped ambition in a tale of love and hate, dominance and disobedience that spans a century: from World War I to the present day.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

 (Publication summary)

'The Fear Clinic. A safe place. A place where phobias are treated. Erica's parents are sure it's perfect, that Erica's younger sister Missy will be freed of her fear of the dark. But when Missy shows no signs of improvement, Erica's not so sure. And when she takes it upon herself to investigate, she finds answers that she could never have expected.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Lark’s back in the City

'Back working as sheriff for the Library.

'Mountains of the Mind – A Polack Retrospective contains never before published early work from Dr Polack, prizewinning published pieces and brand new short stories written especially for this book. It will surprise and delight fans of her previous 6 novels and non fiction publications, and introduce new readers to the complexities and subtleties of Dr Polack’s short stories. Traversing the mountains and valleys, and following the twists and turns in time and place you will return again and again to the stories in this book. The paths to the top of these mountains are many, and the views from there are spectacular.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.