Cirrus@Austlit

'Norma Hemming (1928-1960) was Australia’s first significant female science fiction writer. This volume brings together all the nineteen stories she published in the 1950s, before her untimely death from breast cancer. Also included are two previously unpublished plays, originally performed at Australian science fiction conventions in the 1950s. She is now commemorated by the Australian Science Fiction Foundation through the Norma K. Hemming Award, inaugurated at the World Science Fiction Convention in Melbourne in September 2010.' (Publication summary)

When Julian Galveston, well known for his history with women, sets his sights on Meryl, her sister Christine responds to her brother-in-law's plea for advice. Letting herself be courted by Julian, Christine travels with him to Paris, Rio, and the Mediterranean, and explores the reaches of her own heart.

When Kay's fiancé refuses to marry her until the mystery surrounding her family is completely resolved, she travels into Africa in search of the truth. But her encounter with the Tuareg people of the Sahara Desert (and, in particular, with Alim Ibn Enian) leaves her radically transformed.

'Carefree, content, young Kerry Derwin wanted life to go on forever just the way it was. To Kerry, love was a lot of nonsense. Certainly she wasn't interested in marrying and settling down. And every one in the village knew it.

'So she wasn't very pleased at the upheaval caused by the arrival of a film unit making a movie on the moors. As for the star of the film, Paul Devron, he was conceited and a confirmed ladies' man. Kerry had no intention of adding herself to his long list of conquests.

'But that, of course, was before she actually met Paul Devron...'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

Stephen Barrington's sister Anthea maneuvers Stephen and the all-too-willing Laurel into an engagement. Laurel knows (and believes that Stephen knows) that Anthea is trying to deter Roberta Fransom from making a play for Stephen. But Laurel also knows that she's no deterrent for a determined Roberta.

'"The ship is due to sail," Ruiz said softly. Quite involuntarily, Leigh leaned her head back against his shoulder and his arm tightened around her, while they both watched the distance from the dock imperceptibly broadening, like a chasm between the old life and the new, and Leigh tried not to think that the new life was only for a while and that one day she would have to cross the chasm and go back to the old life.

'Leigh's marriage to Ruiz Aldorest was purely a business arrangement so made the Ruiz could comply with the terms of his grandfather's will and inherit the large estate of Carastrano in Mexico. The intention was that after a short time at Carastrano, a quiet annulment would be arranged. But now Leigh was not at all sure that she wanted their marriage to end.'

Source: Publisher's blurb (Harlequin edition).

'The scar that marked Andrew Dalwin's face was a slight thing compared to the scar that a woman's fickleness had left on his heart and his feelings. How Trina Meriton overcame his suspicion and distrust and brought him back to happiness is told in a pleasant story, set in Australia. Is Trina Meriton the woman to give him back joy?' (Publisher's blurb)

'Little orphaned Peter Balgare was no relation of Aileen's, but she felt responsible for him. Peter's father, she knew, had relatives in Spain, but he had never wanted to have anything to do with them - and when Aileen met Peter's uncle, the haughty Duarte Adriano, Conde de Marindos, she could easily understand why, and saw no reason why she should hand Peter over to him. But Duarte Adriano was a force to be reckoned with - as Aileen discovered before long!

'Was there any hope for their love? Only a miracle could bring them together. Duarte Adriano was wealthy and arrestingly attractive. He might have been perfect had he not seen women simply as adornments! Besides Duarte was tied by a family-arranged engagement.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'"Love comes swiftly, at first meeting. There is an attraction that grows undeniably stronger until it is a fire inside. You do not believe in love like that?"

'Morgana Carol never had been in love like that, and, hearing Felipe's words, she knew that now she never could be, that even if such a love did come her way, she must somehow find the strength to withstand it. A lovely tropical island provides the background to this poignant story of a nurse who, knowing that the future could not give her the same things as it did to others, found herself in the very situation she wished to avoid.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.