My literary fiction thriller manuscript “Where Cyclones Go to Die” is longlisted for 2022 Grindstone International Novel Prize. Thank you Grindstone Literary. And thank you for judging the competition blind (i.e. no names or gender visible). Of the 26 finalists, approx 20 are women. 1300 entries. Winner=Jess Richardson “Parhelia”, 2nd=Anna Harvey “World of Men”.
The Styx
by Patricia Holland
Everyone controls Sophie. She can’t walk and she can’t talk, but behind her disability hides a keen intelligence. Living on The Styx River cattle station with her father and a nanny, Sophie is acutely aware that she is a non-person. She feels as voiceless and isolated as the wallabies of The Wall, an eerie wilderness of basalt lava tubes forming a natural stone labyrinth that protects its remote lushness from anyone foolish enough to wander in. [… more]
Published by Lacuna Publishing
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The Styx glows gravitational attraction
THERE is talk of mining The Styx.
Bad idea. [… more]
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I acknowledge Australia’s traditional custodians, and specifically the Gangulu people and country where Sophie rests, the Woppabura people of the Keppel Islands whose country I look out to every day from my house, and the Darumbal people of the Central Queensland region where most of my writing takes place. I pay my respects to past and present Indigenous communities, to Elders past, present, and emerging, and to Indigenous Australians’ rich culture of art and storytelling.
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Beach horse photographs by Petra Vee, on location at Kinka Beach, Qld, Australia, June 2021. Barefoot Photography. Email: barefoot-photo@hotmail.com.