Published...Or Not

'The Glow' is a wonderfully spooky children's story (also for adults) by Sofie Laguna.'The Secret History of the Rainbow Trout Hotel' is a quirky novel about discovery where the protagonist, Andy Lightfoot, discovers new people, new ideas and new situatons. The author is David Metzenthen. 

'After The Rain' addresses the foundations of uncertainty within lives and even countries and is the debut novel of Aisling Smith. Lorraine Peck continues the crime saga of drugs and money which are all part of a violent crime family in 'The Double Bind'.

'Search History' by Amy Taylor is a sharp and funny debut novel about obsession and desire in the internet age. Catherine de st Phalle entertains us once again with familiar characters in 'Call Me Marlowe' where we find individuals and countries resemble each other when they try and avoid or escape reality.

Robert Gott's novel, 'Naked Ambition', mocks politicians, fundamentalists and public relations experts who all have a habit of over exposing themselves in one way or another. Claire Christian is the author of the contemporary and progressive new novel, West Side Honey, which is an inclusive, gently subversive and joyful rom com.

‘Where Light Meets Water’ is a big historical read. Susan Paterson has written about a sailor and the sea and the artistic talent that he shares with the woman who fights for him even though her own artistic abilities are overlooked in a time when class and gender were paramount.   The complex and transformative nature of desire is seen evolving with all its passion, jealousies and insecurities in...

Every family is different and in Jacinta Halloran, ‘Resistance’ it’s a therapist’s job to decide if a mother and father are fit parents but with so many other family stories in the book, how can anyone decide what makes a good parent. Dominic Smith explores just how much our past can haunt us in ‘Return to Valetto’ where long buried secrets from World War Two in an almost abandoned Italian village...

Angela Buckingham and Robyn Bishop talk with Lisa Moule about their short stories in the anthology, 'It's All Connected' released by Spinifex Press.

'Deep', by writer illustrator Jess McGeachin, plumbs the depths of the ocean, of space, of the jungle and even our own subterranean world of subways and sewers. The snippets of information will interest young and old alike.'The Tea Ladies’ are a group of older women who team together to solve this pot boiler of kidnap, murder and arson. Author Amanda Hampson has them handling organised crime and s...

Pip Williams returns to Oxford after ‘The Dictionary of Lost Words’. It is 1914 and through the eyes of Peggy Jones we see the impact of WW1, war refugees and the Spanish Flu in class and gender, town and gown and on her own ambitions and desires or restrictions in ‘The Bookbinder of Jericho’.

We meet Lisa Moule, the new co-presenter on Published or not. Big banks, big bucks, big business and big problems are written about in a satirical way by Robert Verlander in ‘Dazzled by Dollars’ David talks about the upcoming Sisters-in-Crime event, 'A Life of Crime'.We all talk about the sessions we would enjoy at the Melbourne Writers festival.

What could be so important in a family that one member would be ostracised.  Zoya Patel has the mother and sisters explain their reasons, but will it be possible for the family to reengage in ‘Once a Stranger’.                                                                                                                                       Anthony Hill has us travelling with Matthew Flinders ci...

‘Seven Sisters’, a psychological thriller by Katherine Kovacic, takes domestic violence to a new level when women exact revenge for their lost sisters who were all killed by their respective partners. Seven murders are surprisingly easy to accomplish when everyone provides alibis for each other. Lenny wants to ignore her past and continue teaching through the day and at night playing scrabble with...

The malevolent side of the internet and social media confronts us in 'Dark Mode' by Ashley Kalagian Blunt when the psycopathy of a marginalized few is unleashed. What are the flow on effects on classmates when a Year 10 student is abducted and how are the stresses dealt with by family and especially the girls who question their role in society? ‘The Gaps’ is winner of the Prime Ministers Literary...

Gregory Day’s, ‘The Bell of the World’, resonates with the interconnectedness of life’s elements; music, literature and nature. 

The consequence of doing ‘The Favour’ turns mild-mannered Doctor Jude’s life upside down. Nicci French has written a crime novel where the reader is concerned for Doctor Jude’s own safety, in this murder investigation.   Ronnie Scott’s novel, 'Shirley', toys with the assumptions surrounding social conventions and how individuals shape identity but it also plays with the reader’s expectations by pl...

The climax of The Death of John Lacey happens in a church. Through the book, Ben Hobson has us question the ethics, justice and prejudices in early Victorian gold rush times with the settlers and aboriginal communities.         Paul Ashford Harris takes us on a journey through the lives of Gertrude Bell, William D’Arcy and Sea Lord Jacky Fisher in ‘Love, Oil and the Fortunes of War’. Each altered...

Graeme Simsion counterpoints the formulaic with the organic in ‘Creative Differences’ when the practical Scotty provides writing advice to his partner, Emily, who is more creative. Will their relationship survive different approaches to generating a novel? Grief and love and the wonderful little details that make up a life are at the heart of Paul Dalgarno’s book ‘ A Country of Eternal Light’

When there is a murder in a hospital, the police think they have an open and shut case, but a psychiatrist who was a patient in the hospital and knows everyone involved, including the police, believes the wrong person has been convicted in ‘Locked Ward’ by Anne Buist. Catherine Johns’ novel, ‘Maggie’, delves into the ramifications of an illicit relationship between a convent school girl and a youn...

Lyn Drummond  has lived and worked in many places around the world. She has written about the people, historical and contemporary who live there too, in ‘Painters, philosophers and poets sustain a seven-year cycle’ .      The formative stages of Ned's life as an adolescent in Tasmania hunting rabbits to his adulthood accounting for a changed world and the benefit of hindsight make for Robbie Arnot...

Women sing for friendship, fun and fury in ‘The Angry Women’s Choir’ by Meg Bicknell and readers laugh and learn about activism for women’s rights and how to be a positive role model. Chris Flynn, once again, is at his anthropomorphic best in the short story collection, ‘Here Be Leviathans’, where even objects and not just animals have voices, feelings and opinions.

'Left/Write/Hook' is an anthology of works generated in Donna Lyon's writing workshop which is giving voice to victims of abuse. This year Fin J Ross won the highly prized trophy from the Sisters in Crime. Her short story ‘Tuesday Jocks’ is one of the winning stories in ‘Scarlet Stiletto: The Fourteenth Cut’.

In "Day's End", Garry Disher, once again, develops the case load of Paul Hirschhausen in the rural South Australian town of Tiverton where isolation masks a myriad of social ills; a disappearance, a body in a suitcase, drugs, cybercrime, nationalism and the public reation to Covid.

This is the third year that this fine collection of short stories has been handsomely published. Three of the authors Cate Kennedy, Lisa Moule and Scott Limbrick talk about their entries in ‘The Furphy Anthology 2022’  

We are floating along in the universe between the horizon and the stars after an epic inundation in Allen C. Jones' novel, 'Her Death Was Also Water'.'The Stranger' is what every closed patriarchal community needs and Katherine Hore has written a whip-cracking, smart feminist Western.

When a feisty Palestinian girl befriends a Zionist the consequences are dire in The Olive Tree by Miariam El Houli.(Dean Publishing)The centrality of cricket to the well being of not just individuals but society in general is at the heart of Inga Simpson's novel, 'Willowman'. (Hachette)