Cirrus@Austlit

'Rohan and Annie, two young lovers and students, arrive in Madras, India, from Australia and, after spending the night, fly to Bangalore, where they are billeted at a guest house. Rohan meets Dan at the Music Institute, who shows them an apartment in the Old Palace that has recently become vacant. Annie wants to sign the lease, but Rohan is hesitant. Eventually, they move into Apartment 7 and as Rohan thrives, Annie struggles confirming a fortune teller's prediction.

'Rajinder, a Bombay-born fellow student, invites Rohan to spend the mid-term break with his wealthy family and attend Bollywood parties. Rohan has a brief but memorable affair with movie star Padma Lotus at one such party. Unbeknownst to Rohan, photographers capture his image leaving Padma's penthouse in a limousine, and a newspaper publishes an article linking him to the star.

'Despite disappointing his parents and Indian Guru, Rohan travels overland on his motorbike with his new 12-month visa to join the free and easy beach scene in Goa. He meets academic Suellen, who questions his life direction and professional abilities. However, a concert performance confirms his talent and leads to the formation of a new music group, Hibiscus, which becomes the most sought-after live act in Goa for the tourist season.' (Publication summary) 

'Who is the real Sabine?

'Is she the young lawyer destined to follow in her father’s footsteps or is she something more?

'And what about Max, the young barrister who has befriended her? Intelligent, good looking – really good looking - and keen to spend time with her. Is he too good to be true? What really motivates him?

'The sudden death of the Judge Sabine’s father brings change. Sabine starts to question her career path. Is this really what she wants to do? Her mother Anna, who had given up her career as a ballerina for marriage to the Judge now wonders if it is too late to follow her dreams.

'Never one to refuse a challenge Sabine takes charge – to sort out her mother, her colleague and finally herself.'  (Publication summary)

'It was only when I surrendered to the pain and allowed myself to break that I realized nothing could genuinely harm me.

'There is a bitter sweetness in possessing the knowledge of hindsight, understanding that simultaneously, knowing nothing matters, yet equally everything is essential to know.

'Encompassed by the essence of the universal law of Ying and Yang, losing myself became the soul key to finding my way back home.' (Publication summary)

'The man, 'Thunderbolt', walks on the plains, in the distance with his chestnut-coloured horse. He wears his cowboy hat and holds his horse with a long rein behind him. You can see him walking into the horizon, with his head bowed, and a beautiful sunset in the background.

'He is The Australian Bushranger!' (Publication summary)

'War baby Helen Yeates was a latchkey kid from the working-class Brisbane suburb of Annerley, discovering an escape to paradise in a dark cinema. This memoir captures a significant social and cultural history of Brisbane, drawing on her love of film in a highly original, evocative way. She falls in love and marries in the late 1960s, on the cusp of a time of swinging sexual liberation and radical politics. Surviving a devastating car accident, an addiction to prescription drugs and a traumatic marriage, she becomes a passionate feminist and leftie, navigating her way through a confusing world of changing ideas and morals. This memoir reveals a colourful life across the decades, in relation to love, sex, amnesia, brain damage, loss, education, partying and politics, with films illuminating everything.

'As an Australian pioneer of secondary and tertiary film and media studies, she traces the highlights of a career nurturing young filmmakers and future educators. The book also reveals amusing encounters with international celebrities, a quick trip to Hollywood to hire a famous film director, and mis-steps with singer Bob Dylan and French actress, Isabelle Huppert.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Gritty and unflinching morsels of crime fiction rage across these pages. There's nothing warm and cosy here, but then that's not the reality of policing: cops deal with the darkest aspects of humanity and then have to live with that exposure. Some of those cops become writers.

'When crime fiction is penned by authors who have worked and risked their lives as cops at the coalface, the stories that emerge deliver exquisite realism and brutally honest emotions.

'The fifteen authors featured in this first-of-its-kind anthology have variously worn their uniforms and carried their badges across law enforcement in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia, as they have served and protected their communities.

'These short stories are as varied and vivid as the hard-earned experiences of their creators. The settings include the past, the present, and the future. The plots have murder aplenty, corruption, drugs, paedophilia, mental health, and suicide. The line-up of protagonists includes uniformed officers, detectives, and criminals, amongst others. The actions, the observations, the reminiscing, and the self-reflection of these fictional characters bring the reality of the police experience alive on the page. It is those brushstrokes of daily police life that bring a special and unique flavour to this assortment of crime fiction.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

' My life has provided me with some wonderful experiences and opportunities to meet remarkable people along the way. Having been raised into a loving family and taught right from wrong from an early age I have lived my life appreciating true values including discipline, respect and good manners.I have been extremely fortunate to be able to fulfil my dreams in my sporting and working life and have competed with and against some of the finest, most talented individuals in the areas of Rugby League, Auctioneering and Real Estate services.The opportunities to travel have provided me with introductions to a vast array of people from all walks of life, many have become lifelong friends. Above all I have been blessed to be a part of the most loving and supportive family and extended family that any person could wish for.I hope you enjoy the tale of this magnificent life that I have been afforded and I look forward to a continuation of the life experiences that I am so fortunate to endure and enjoy.'

(Publication Summary)

'In the early 1800s an evil demon came to Queensland's beautiful Wunyami Lake inside the body of a migrant worker employed by landowner Patrick Sullivan to dig his private canal at the northern end of Lake Wunyami. The canal gives the spherical lake a bottle shape and the neck is called Sullivan's Neck. The demon has murderous fun body hopping whenever a host died until the indigenous owners of the land intervened and called upon the haunted spirits of Lake Wunyami and their guardian warrigal spirit to imprison the evil foreign demon. Peace reigns for longer than a century until 1981 when the demon is accidentally released by a descendant of Patrick Sullivan and malice, murder and mayhem once again infects the good folk of Wunyami; by 2004 a demon possessed host has established a nation-wide drug network based in the Wunyami National Park rainforest and the Wunyami Crystal Caves. Detective Inspector Samuel Steadman of the Queensland Police Service arrives incognito in Wunyami on the day the local church minister's teenage daughter is strangled; Sam has bought a lakeside cottage in his guise as a retiree and he has taken long service leave to hunt down the Wunyami drug dealers who had his niece Kathy murdered in Brisbane. Danger and murder continue apace in Wunyami and he becomes involved with the powerful Sullivan family. Sam has trusted allies in his elderly next-door neighbour, two local indigenous elders and twelve year old precocious Jana Sullivan. Sam is forced to change his utter disbelief in the occult when he saves the lives of each of his allies. Sam Steadman has solved the killing of his niece and witnessed the destruction of the drug dealing empire and the death of the demon host but he will return often to Wunyami because he has a small but a terrifying suspicion that the evil demon may have body-hopped into a living body outside the Crystal Caves...Sam Steadman is now a firm believer in the occult.' (Publication summary)

'On Saturday 31st October 1998 a sex-worker died in the inner Brisbane suburb of Woolloongabba with her head inside a plastic bag. The media surmised that Halloween had activated a switch in a warped psyche but events are seldom what they seem in this smoke and mirror tale of murder and madness and the body count continued to rise. During the next ten months five more working girls die a breathless death and the name Bagman appears in the media but the murders may be the work of a new crime cartel that is intent on controlling the recently legalised sex-trade in the river city. A CD filled with stolen cartel data falls into the hands of private investigator Mac McNab as he watches River Fire pyrotechnics at Southbank Parklands with his young grandson Paul. Mac hides the CD before he is murdered by the cartel and days later the cartel kidnaps seven years old Paul who is soon rescued by Mac's colleagues but the shadowy Bagman does exist and the serial killer is obsessed with single mother Cassie McNab and her son Paul. Murder and madness rise to a crescendo on Halloween night 1999 when Cassie is drugged and wakes in a bed beside a mummified corpse wearing green pyjamas.' (Publication summary)

'The story is set in south-western France about 41,000 years ago, and the seasons are just starting to cool. A clan of Neanderthals is living peacefully, unaware that life is about to change dramatically for its Clan members.A scouting party of modern man has left Morocco and travelled through Spain, to reach the Neanderthals' area for the first time. This is a momentous new experience for the Clan members, who call these new people 'Outsiders'. The Outsiders arrive with a strange religion, and this serves to further complicate this encounter.The story is told by one of the Clan females, Ula, who describes what happens to the Clan in the year that follows this encounter, whilst the Outsiders are living in their area. There is a great fight, but some of the Clan members manage to survive. You will be touched by their courage and tenacity, as they rebuild their lives.Definitely expect the unexpected in this story, as the book aims to humanise the Neanderthals and cast aside old clichés and past stigmatisations of them. Readers are invited to consider the uniqueness of the Neanderthals, and they are presented as a loving, intelligent and courageous group of people.The author believes that the Neanderthals deserve our greatest respect, as they managed to survive living in small, isolated clans, sometimes in very harsh climates, for over 200,000 years.' (Publication summary)

'The inspiring story of the faith, hope and love of a poor Irish family, buffeted by the conflicts of early 19th century Ireland, sustained through the rigours of the voyage to Australia on a crowded migrant vessel and, after years of perseverance, finding fulfilment as settlers in the rugged beauty of the south coast of New South Wales.Jamie and Mary Graham and their children represent thousands of families who came to Australia in the mid nineteenth century as government sponsored immigrants. This novel of historical fiction is inspired by the few facts that are known of the Graham family. But the surfeit of information about life in mid-19th century Northern Ireland, in the Colony of NSW and the conditions endured by passengers on migrant vessels during the voyage to Australia, enables us to accompany the Grahams in our imagination on the adventures of their lifetime. The motivating theme of this novel is the question; what caused families like the Grahams to abandon their native surroundings, to subject themselves and their children to the hazards of a four months ocean voyage, and to risk the uncertainties and dangers of the primitive colony at the "bottom" of the world? The wonderful nation that is Australia today, owes a great deal to the character, sacrifice and hard work of thousands of settlers who came as assisted immigrants on fragile sailing ships in the mid nineteenth century. Jamie and Mary Graham represent that generation of migrants who are an inspiration and they should be celebrated.' (Publication summary)

'This story is a children's fantasy including Australian nature aspects on the topic of the newly discovered Wollemi pine. While Wally is magic, the story includes descriptions of the native bush, and its creatures. Mimi is also fantasy in that he derives from Aboriginal legends. The story starts in a narrow valley (gully) in the Wollemi National Park, where the original Wollemi pines were discovered...' (Publication summary)

'Jack Molay is a direct descendant of Jacques de Molay, the last known Grandmaster of the Knights Templar. In 2144, Molay launches Quest, a live weekly-broadcast game show that chronicles a planet-to-planet tournament between six super-humans, known as The Galactic Knights.

'Rumours that Molay is the custodian of the Knights Templar intensify when it is revealed that the propulsion system for Excalibur, Molay’s starship, is actually the lost Ark of the Covenant. The maligned tycoon falls under investigation and is accused of having a secret agenda: to create a new super breed of Templars.

'Quest becomes the top-ranked TV show of all time and The Galactic Knights skyrocket to fame. This pinnacle of acclaim is suddenly marred, however, when one of the knights takes a fatal fall. Circumstances surrounding the loss of the knight are suspect and soon it becomes apparent that the fall was no accident.

'The Intergalactic Bureau of Investigation is brought in when attempts are made on the lives of the remaining knights. With the realisation that the mastermind behind the killings has to be either one of the knights or Jack Molay himself, the investigation manifests into a classic who-done-it.

'Murder inQuest is the first in the series of books featuring Jack Molay and his Galactic Knights. Could there be clues hidden within the futuristic narrative that will eventually reveal Molay’s real quest?

'Will the Knights Templar rise once more? ' (Publication summary)