Danielle Binks - I write books for children and young adults and short stories for grown-ups.

The Monster of Her Age

The Year the Maps Changed (US Edition)

The Year the Maps Changed

Last Night At The Mount Solemn Observatory

Begin, End, Begin: A #LoveOzYA Anthology Summer Edition

Begin, End, Begin: A #LoveOzYA Anthology

Follow @DBNKS

The Israeli newspaper Haaretz published an analysi

The Israeli newspaper Haaretz published an analysis by Yagil Levy, a sociology professor at the Open University, who found that in Israel’s ongoing slaughter and bombardment of Gaza: ‘… the civilian proportion of total deaths rose to 61%, in what Levy described as “unprecedented killing” for Israeli forces in Gaza. The ratio is significantly higher than the average civilian toll in all the conflicts around the world during the 20th century.’

Higher than the average civilian death toll in all conflicts of the 20th century... And this atrocity is being conducted by one of the strongest military industrial complexes in the world. They have the ability to limit the number of civilian deaths. They are choosing not to.

Calling for anything less than ceasefire and end to the occupation is inhumane and indefensible.

#Repost @madalyn.drewno with @use.repost
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Normalize standing up for Palestinian human rights by posting and sharing about Palestine on social media, going to protests, and talking about Palestine with others.
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#illustrationart #ceasefirenow #protest #artspeaks #mixedmediaillustration #MadalynDrewno

Two things: 1. I saw the most beautiful jacarand

Two things:

1. I saw the most beautiful jacaranda trees the other day, outside the school of my last author talk for the year. I wrote a book called ‘The Year the Maps Changed’ so when I talk to students I discuss the themes; one of which is why maps change, who changes them. I show a corner of Europe’s map sped-up with territory coloured in, and how much the map changes from 1879 to 2017 and I ask them: “why?” And they all know. They run through WWI and WWII and because of my book they know Yugoslavia is now the former. And they know that USSR is Russia and I ask them about that, and if the map could change again; are there any wars happening where the lines might be sadly redrawn? “Ukraine!” yes. And on this day a kid said “Israel,” which isn’t on this corner of the map I show. And someone else said; “Israel and Palestine,” and I said yes, there’s more war. More land.

2. I saw this paragraph from ‘Journal of an Ordinary Grief’ by Mahmoud Darwish and thought it was painfully beautiful;

“A place is not only a geographical area; it’s also a state of mind. And trees are not just trees; they are the ribs of childhood. The tears flowed freely from my fingers as the bus passed quickly by. Upon our return, the sadness of my childhood came back. This dream standing before me, why didn’t I just wrap it around myself even once so I could say I have felt the joy that kills? The soldiers were guarding the dream, but I will enter it when they sleep.”

So now #JacarandaTrees and #MahmoudDarwish are side by side for me.

💜💜💜

#Jacaranda #JacarandaTree #JournalOfAnOrdinaryGrief #Tree #Trees

It’s my bestie’s birthday today. #CarlyFindl

It’s my bestie’s birthday today.

#CarlyFindlay - one of my favourite people in the whole world; she’s funny and fearless, thoughtful and outspoken, an all-round wonderful human being.

I wrote to @carlyfindlay on her FB; it’s been a hectic handful of years only because we’re both on our paths and doing our thing 👏 but I’ll always cheer you on, just as you do me ❤️

Love you, superstar! 💜

And here’s a pic of us at Sarah Firth’s launch - Carly in a colourful dress with purple sleeves and green boots, holding a champagne flute, and I’m wearing a long blue keyhole dress from #JillianBoustred - we are both curly girlies 🌀🌀

I adore @jessesmess’ illustrations. And every so

I adore @jessesmess’ illustrations. And every so often she puts up mini drawings via her @etsy shop to buy.

The other week I saw an insta post from Jess, saying; “World on fire, kind of seems a bit silly posting fluffy bunny drawings etc. however my stress release is painting round tiny birds, and I needed to do a big batch as stress is high! ❤️‍🩹”

I felt that. And I do love a Superb Fairywren. But I couldn’t believe when I was lucky enough to snap this one up (they sell out like hotcakes!)

World is still on fire, but seeing this little cutie calms me. Thanks, #JessRacklyeft 🥰🐦

Framed by ‘Above The Mantle Frameworks,’ Frankston ✌️

#etsy #watercolour #australianbirds #SuperbFairywren #Fairywren #Bird #Birds #AustralianBird #AustralianBirds

Yesterday 700 people in Gaza were killed in 24-hou

Yesterday 700 people in Gaza were killed in 24-hours. Any time you hear of a new death toll - somewhere in the vicinity of 20,000 - remember that’s overwhelmingly civilians. Women and children. Don’t fall for the lines about “human shields” — they’re still human. They just want you to care less about them.

And those who are still buried under rubble of bombed-out buildings can’t be counted yet, and maybe they never will as the Israeli tanks now roll in …

Reports are coming out that Israel - with one of the richest and most sophisticated military industrial complexes in the world - could limit the number of civilians they target, but they won’t. They aren’t. America and allies - Australia among them - can call for restraint, but Israel has been told there are no red lines, so why would they pull back now? Destruction is the point. Retribution and collective punishment. War crimes. And every western democratic nation “stands” with them. Permits this. We are all complicit by extension of our governments.

Anyone calling for anything other than a permanent ceasefire and end to the occupation should be treated with contempt.

War on terror has never been won with more war or more terror. It’s just death.

We can and should say that what happened on October 7 was a travesty and a tragedy but wreaking more death and destruction in retaliation does nothing but spread misery.

Here’s a piece by @yaraghabayen - a burning woman wrapped in a 🇵🇸 flag and the words, “must we all burn to be seen.”

Lovely event last night - the Melbourne launch of

Lovely event last night - the Melbourne launch of Graham Akhurst’s #LoveOzYA debut ‘Borderland’! And I was very honoured to be moderator ☺️

‘A heart-pounding eco-horror gothic specfic by Graham Akhurst, the brilliant mind behind #Borderland, a coming-of-age YA-fiction gem. Brace yourself for a fresh, mind-bending tale exploring Indigenous identity, the impact of colonization, and what happens when you take a stand.’

The launch was thanks to @_aaausa and @auroraeducationfoundation and held at the beautiful @thecapitolrmit.

‘Borderland’ is out now with @uwapublishing and @paperback_bookshop was our wonderful seller last night — thank you!

🐦‍⬛🖤🐦‍⬛

“A hell of a debut novel from a writer once daring, insightful and heartfelt.”
— Markus Zusak, Author of ‘The Book Thief’

🐦‍⬛🖤🐦‍⬛

#Borderland #GrahamAkhurst #LoveOzYA #Book #Bookstagram #AusBookstagram #HorrorNovel #YAbook #YAbooks #AusLit #AussieReads #Reading #Read #YoungAdultBooks #AussieYA #IndigenousYA #OzLit #FirstNationsFiction #FirstNations

Seems an appropriate time to be reading ‘Before

Seems an appropriate time to be reading ‘Before the Next Bomb Drops: Rising Up from Brooklyn to Palestine’ poetry collection by Remi Kanazi for #ReadPalestine. It’s published by @haymarketbooks, 2015.

🇵🇸🍉🫒

we are the boat / returning to dock / we are the footprints / on the northern trail / we are the iron / coloring the soil / we cannot / be erased
— from ”Refugee"

#RemiKanazi's #poetry presents an unflinching look at the lives of Palestinians under occupation and as refugees scattered across the globe. He captures the Palestinian people's stubborn refusal to be erased, gives voice to the ongoing struggle for liberation, and explores the meaning of international solidarity.

In this latest collection, Kanazi expands his focus outside the sphere of #Palestine and presents pieces examining racism in America, police brutality, US militarism at home and wars abroad, conflict voyeurism, Islamophobia, and a range of other issues.

🇵🇸🍉🫒

What a time to read this timely collection; poems like ‘An Open Letter to Campus Zionist Groups and University Chancellors’ are full of frustration (so let’s have a thought / experiment on tolerance) and reading as it plays out in real-time in the here and now adds a layer of desperation. ‘This Poem Will Not End Apartheid’ is hard to read and realise just how long these comparisons have been going on, unheeded and unheard — and it’s definitely positioned for an American audience especially, asking and begging them to listen. ‘Nakba’ yanks you into a historical retelling that’s intergenerational trauma handed down and expressed so viscerally …

This was published in 2015 and the reason it reads so timely is a devastating and frustrating one, but necessary to confront.

💣 💣 💣

#BeforetheNextBombDrops
#BeforetheNextBombDropsRisingUpfromBrooklyntoPalestine #Bookstagram #PoetryBook #Poetry #PoetryGram #PoemGram #HaymarketBooks #ReadingPalestine #ReadPoetry #ReadPalestineWeek

Henry Kissinger died, and to celebrate I decided t

Henry Kissinger died, and to celebrate I decided to support my fave local #Vietnamese restaurant — #YummyPho.

In the immortal words of the late, great #AnthonyBourdain; “for me, a good bowl of #pho will always make me happy.”

#Bourdain also wrote of Kissinger: “Once you’ve been to Cambodia, you’ll never stop wanting to beat Henry Kissinger to death with your bare hands. You will never again be able to open a newspaper and read about that treacherous, prevaricating, murderous scumbag sitting down for a nice chat with Charlie Rose or attending some black-tie affair for a new glossy magazine without choking. Witness what Henry did in Cambodia – the fruits of his genius for statesmanship – and you will never understand why he’s not sitting in the dock at The Hague next to Milošević.”

Kissinger was - as Rolling Stone succinctly put it - a “war criminal beloved of America’s ruling class.” Kissinger ran interference on Lyndon B Johnson’s peace talks in Vietnam, prolonging the war by 4 more years and costing hundreds of thousands more lives. And as Aljazeera explained; “Kissinger’s expansion of the [Vietnam] war set the scene for the genocidal rule of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, which seized power from a US-backed military regime and went on to kill a fifth of the population – two million people. Cambodians had been driven into the hands of the communist movement by Kissinger and Nixon’s carpet-bombing campaign, which killed hundreds of thousands of people. To this day, people are still dying from unexploded US ordinance.”

Kissinger’s hands are all over modern US politics and foreign policy in particular, much to their detriment. Remember that as Israel begins its bombardment of Gaza again (and this video from @motaz_azaiza of two mothers playing with their babies in the bombed-out rubble) — and both the United States and allies (including Australia) keep perpetuating the lie that you can bomb for peace. That a war on terror can be won with more war, and unleashing more terror on innocent civilians.

Anyway. Happy pho, and good riddance to Kissinger 🖕

I only wish Anthony Bourdain was here to revel in the epitaphs for that war criminal.

#Murray - #doggo of Jack Russell/dachshund variety

#Murray - #doggo of Jack Russell/dachshund variety (#jackshund) looking cute. #dog #dogsofinstagram

It’s dreary weather all this week, which might b

It’s dreary weather all this week, which might be the perfect time to recommend you ‘The Lucky Shack’ by Apsara Baldovino, Illustrated by Jennifer Falkner from Working Title Press (@harperkidsau)

🏚️🌊⚓️🛶🎣💛 Blurb;

A timeless message of hope - of love lost and found again - this story is a stunning debut that will warm your heart.

“I am a lucky shack.
I spend my days watching boats bob gently
under puffy clouds, on a sparkling sea.”

Surrounded by natural beauty, a seaside shack is lovingly cared for by a fisherman, until one day everything changes.

‘The Lucky Shack’ is a heartfelt and uplifting journey through the seasons, the cycle of life, and the beauty and power of nature. If you are brave enough to let the light in, love and gratitude will triumph.

🏚️🌊⚓️🛶🎣💛

This book is so beautiful; it gives heart to inanimate objects and natural places, but more than that it tenderly folds in themes of tragedy and loss alongside hope and grief … really complex emotions to communicate to kids in such a gentle and loving way. It also opens readers up to the possibility of renewal and boundless love … all playing out in this rich and wild, rugged landscape gorgeously illustrated by #JenniferFalkner.

It’s a stunning #PictureBook, and even more impressive for being a debut by #ApsaraBaldovino! I can’t wait to see what she does next. Highly, highly recommend! 👏

🏚️🌊⚓️🛶🎣💛 #KidsBooks #AusLit #KidLit #OzKidLit #LoveOzKidLit #illustrator
#PictureBooks #ChildrensLiterature #YesKidsBookstagram #Book #Books #Bookstagram #ChildrensIllustration #KidLit #KidsBookstagram #TheLuckyShack #Yellow #YellowRaincoat #Joules #JoulesClothing #RainyWeather

Sometimes I love the art - and sometimes I love th

Sometimes I love the art - and sometimes I love the art *and* the description of it by museums.

This is a perfect example;

Ernest Martin Hennings' “Passing By,” 1924, from the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

@mfahouston describes the artwork thus, on their website;

“As tightly woven as a fine tapestry, Passing By shows people of the Taos Pueblo moving through a glade of cottonwoods in the brilliant autumn sun of the Southwest. The figures and landscape are integrated as one.

Exhibited in the 1924 Venice Biennale and the winner of the gold medal in the 1926 exhibition at New York’s National Academy of Design, Passing By is among the finest paintings produced by Taos Society artist E. Martin Hennings. The Taos Society of Artists was the first art colony established west of the Mississippi River, its roots going back to 1898. Following the development of railroad travel and tourism in the Southwest, artists rushed there and embraced Pueblo culture and the dramatic colors and topography of the desert region.

Shimmering like a golden screen shot through with vivid notes of blue, this painting presents a dramatic backdrop of aspen trees against which three Taos Pueblo Indians pass by as if in a timeless procession. All three men are wrapped in woven blankets and wear silver adornment, long braids, and modern clothing. In Passing By, Hennings presents a solemn, dignified image of an enduring native culture.”

🍂🍁🍂🍁🍂🍁🍂

#PassingBy #ErnestMartinHennings #MuseumOdFineArtsHouston #Art #Artwork #Painting #Gold #SoMuchGold #TaosPueblo #Autumn
#TaosSociety

I promise that I’m finding a balance and making

I promise that I’m finding a balance and making room for stuff that has made me happy. Here goes;

I heard about this book set in Montana 1886, ‘Kit McBride Gets a Wife’ … about a frontier town run by four brothers and their obstinate little sister who’s sick and tired of cleaning up and cooking for them, so places an ad for a mail-order bride to take at least one of them off her hands, and get herself some help.

Except there’s a mix-up with the “bride” that comes, a case of mistaken-identity even as a romance still blooms.

Given that ‘Calamity Jane’ is one of my favourite movie musicals of all time, and this premise sounded like it’d scratch that itch in a new historical romance, I was all in.

And then imagine my surprise when I discover the author is also not American writing about Montana, but South Australian (with an appreciation for the American West!)

This was really fun, and one aspect that crept up on me was how much I loved the 14-year-old sister, Junebug - who has some beautiful turns of phrase (unpolished they may be) and felt like a combo of Scout Finch meets Jennifer Holm’s ‘May Amelia.’ I LOVED her! Just look at this passage; “Junebug had been nine when her mother died. Old enough to remember her, although her memories were bitsy and jagged, like clay smashings after you’ve dropped a pot. Just bits of broken clay that couldn’t carry water no more.” 🥹

Second book is ‘Marrying Off Morgan McBride’ about Junebug pulling the same trick again and getting a mail-order bride for her eldest brother and father-figure, that lands him with an independent young woman who’d like to avoid spinsterhood.

These books *tickled* me. They’re funny and lightly steamy, the female characters are not your typical historical heroines, but women with nuance and backbone. I really really hope we get more books of the 2 other brothers, and Junebug!

Highly recommend!

🩵
#MarryingOffMorganMcBride #KitMcBrideGetsAWife #AmyBarry #TheMcBridesOfMontana #Romance #RomanceBooks #RomanceReads #IReadRomance #Book #Books #bookstagram #Bookish #Reading #RomanceBook #WesternRomance #HistoricalRomance #HistoricalRomanceNovel #Novel #BerkleyRomance #HistoricalRomanceReaders

Okay Instagram algorithm. #Flowers. Picked for m

Okay Instagram algorithm.

#Flowers. Picked for me. #Roses, #Lillies and #Carnation. Orange, purple & yellow 🧡💜💛

Happy?

And now a #poem —

‘Oh Rascal Children Of Gaza’
by Khaled Juma

Oh rascal children of Gaza.
You who constantly disturbed me
with your screams under my window.
You who filled every morning
with rush and chaos.
You who broke my vase
and stole the lonely flower on my balcony.
Come back,
and scream as you want
and break all the vases.
Steal all the flowers.
Come back …
Just come back …

Heartiest of congratulations to the @pweanthology

Heartiest of congratulations to the @pweanthology and *especially* their magnificent teacher, @michaelamelbourne 💗

‘What You Become: An Anthology’ is a collection of short-form writing by the 2023 class of RMIT Professional Writing and Editing (PWE) Students, many of whom I have taught across two-years now.

The Anthology has been a staple of #RMITpwe since I was a student there, but in recent years it’s morphed into a full-blown book that captures the voice and talent of Australia’s next generation of emerging writers … if you are in the publishing industry I urge you to snap up a copy in-store or online from champion of new talent, @readingsbooks 🧡🩷

BLURB;

What happens when change is inevitable? You fear. You deny. You revolt. You choose. You evolve. You accept. You embrace.

Journey through the works of 46 emerging and established writers from RMIT University's Associate Degree in Professional Writing and Editing as they search for answers in this thought-provoking anthology.

Each story traces a new path. Each ending leads to a question: How do you live with what you become?

🧡🩷🧡🩷 and this year the students were lucky enough to get @clairegcoleman to provide the introduction, which is truly wonderful.

Congratulations to all - writers, editors, & publicists alike! - for ushering this work into the world. It will be both a time-capsule of your time learning at RMIT, and a testament to how far you’ve all come in finding your voice.

Now, to go forth and use it!

🩷🧡🩷🧡 #WhatYouBecome #Anthology #PWEanthology #RMIT #RMITProfessionalWritingAndEditing #PWEanthology2023 #ShortStory #ShortStoties #Poetry #AusBookstagram #AusLit #AussieReaders #bookish #bookme #books #instabooks #instabook #reading #totalbooknerd #reading #read #bibliophile #bookworm #bookstagram #book #bookblogger #book #bookphotography #ClaireGColeman

Because of Us This morning I learned the English

Because of Us

This morning I learned
the English word gauze
(finely woven medical cloth)
comes from the Arabic word غزة or Ghazza
because Gazans have been skilled weavers for centuries

I wondered then

how many of our wounds
have been dressed
because of them

and how many of theirs
have been left open
because of us

Em Berry / @skinhungry

🕊️🫒🍉

#BecauseOfUs #EmBerry #Poem for #Gaza, inspired by @crutches_and_spice observation on the #etymology of #gauze ❤️‍🩹 #poetry for a #FreePalestine #Ghazza #FreeGaza

#Purple #Flower with a yellow centre. From Wikiped

#Purple #Flower with a yellow centre. From Wikipedia; #Clematis is a genus of about 380 species within the #buttercup family, #Ranunculaceae. Their garden hybrids and cultivars have been popular among gardeners, beginning with Clematis '#Jackmanii', a garden staple since 1862; more cultivars are being produced constantly. They are mainly of Chinese and Japanese origin.

… and a poem;

‘Fuck Your Lecture on Craft, My People Are Dying’

by Noor Hindi

Colonizers write about flowers.
I tell you about children throwing rocks at Israeli tanks
seconds before becoming daisies.
I want to be like those poets who care about the moon.
Palestinians don’t see the moon from jail cells and prisons.
It’s so beautiful, the moon.
They’re so beautiful, the flowers.
I pick flowers for my dead father when I’m sad.
He watches Al Jazeera all day.
I wish Jessica would stop texting me Happy Ramadan.
I know I’m American because when I walk into a room
something dies.
Metaphors about death are for poets who think ghosts care about sound.
When I die, I promise to haunt you forever.
One day, I’ll write about the flowers like we own them.

Let me just hand-on-heart say; I’ve been *loving

Let me just hand-on-heart say; I’ve been *loving* @midnightsunpublishing’s picture books lately. ‘Satin’ by Sophie Masson and acclaimed illustrator Lorena Carrington was *phenomenal* and now there’s ‘Raised by Moths’ by Charlie Archbold, and Michelle Conn (illus.)

✨✨✨✨

‘Willow jumps on the Ferris Wheel and is intrigued to see a boy surrounded by moths.

As they travel high above the fairground he tells her the reason why the moths love him so much: he was raised by moths.

Wonderfully fantastical and thought-provoking with stunning illustrations, “Raised by Moths” is quite unlike anything you’ve read before.’

✨✨✨✨

I loved @readingskids review; ‘This is a magical story of the relationship between animals and humans, as well as a whimsical adoption tale. The vivid lights and magical colours of the fun fair are captured beautifully by debut book illustrator Michelle Conn. For ages 3+.’

The story really is heartfelt; a very big concept communicated magically and tenderly, and with illustrations that seem to *glow*. The sky is this peachy-pink-purple for sunset; with the moths represented delicately as lace.

And I was lucky enough to nab a @hillofcontent bookshop signed copy that came with a postcard and bookmark 🥰 This is one of those picture books that I love so much, I’m going to keep a copy for me - but no doubt I’ll have to buy more for my “aunty Dan gift” repertoire 👍

Stunning - hats off to #MidnightSunPublishing for continuing to open up the Aussie picture book space and play out in left-field ❤️

#CharlieArchbold #MichelleConn #RaisedByMoths #KidsBooks #AusLit #KidLit #OzKidLit #LoveOzKidLit #illustrator #PictureBooks #ChildrensLiterature #YesKidsBookstagram #Book #Books #Bookstagram #ChildrensIllustration #KidsBookstagram #book #Adoption #AdoptionStories #AdoptionStory

‘The Liberation Anthem’ – A Poem 🇵🇸 @

‘The Liberation Anthem’ – A Poem 🇵🇸
@palestinechron
By Samah Sabwai 🍉 @samah_sabawi

To the people of Israel who fear our freedom: Don’t be afraid, we will liberate you too.

This is my rendition
Of an anthem to be sung
That day you and I
Will stand side by side
Shoulder to shoulder
Watching a new dawn
Wipe away
Decades of hate and savagery
The day I rise
From the ashes of your oppression
I promise you I will not rise alone
You too will rise with me
You will be liberated
From your own tyranny
And my freedom
Will bring your salvation

This is my rendition
Of an anthem to be sung
I’ll craft new words of expression
Outside of this suffocating language
That has occupied me
Your words,
Are like your walls
They encroach on my humanity
I am more than demography
I’m neither your collaborator
Nor your enemy
I am not your moderate
Not your terrorist
Not your fundamentalist
Islamist
Extremist
Militant
Radical
I am more than adjectives
Letters and syllables
I will construct my own language
And replace your words of power
With the power of my words

This is my rendition
Of an anthem to be sung
I don’t want to obliterate
Nor humiliate you
I refuse to hate you
Don’t care to demonize
Or Proselytize
Or theorize
Your intentions
Every breath you draw
Reminds me you are human
The sound of your beating heart
Is a rhythm familiar to my ears
You and I are no different
We are made of blood and tears

This is my rendition
Of an anthem to be be sung
I will resist and soar
Above your matrix of control
With the power of my will
Your wall will fall
And the concrete that once segregated us
Will be used to rebuild homes
Your bulldozers and your tanks
Will dissolve into the earth
The sap will return to the olive trees
The gates will open wide for the refugees
We will be free
I will be your equal
And only then
You will be mine
My other self
My fellow human being

– #SamahSabawi is a writer from #Gaza currently living in Australia. Poem available from #PalestineChronicle [dot] com

#TheLiberationAnthem #LiberationAnthem #APoem #Poem #Poet #Poetry #Palestine #PalestinePoetry #FreePalestine #PalestinePoem

Upcoming event — BORDERLAND — an in conversati

Upcoming event — BORDERLAND — an in conversation with Graham Akhurst

🔅🔅🔅

Monday, December 4th
5:30 PM – 6:30 PM

The Capitol Theatre @thecapitolrmit
113 Swanston Street
Melbourne, VIC 3000

🔅🔅🔅

With me moderating! Very appropriately in-conversation with my author I rep as @jacintadimase literary agent, Graham Akhurst.

Graham is an Author & Lecturer of Australian Indigenous Studies & Creative Writing, a Kokomini writer who grew up in Meanjin. Graham began his writing journey in a hospital bed in 2011. He read and started journaling between treatments for Endemic Burkett Lymphoma. As a @fulbright_australia Fulbright Scholar, Graham took his love for writing to New York City, where he studied for an MFA in Fiction at Hunter College. He is a board member for @fnawn_network - First Nations Artists and Writers Network - and Varuna, @varunawritershouse.

#Borderland published with @uwapublishing is his first novel — A heart-pounding eco-horror gothic, coming-of-age YA-fiction gem. Brace yourself for a fresh, mind-bending tale exploring Indigenous identity, the impact of colonization, and what happens when you take a stand.

If you’d like to book your place and come along — https://americanaustralian.org/events/borderland/ — @_aaausa @auroraeducationfoundation

🔆🔆🔆🔆🔆🔆🔆🔆🔆

#Borderland #GrahamAkhurst #LoveOzYA #Book #Bookstagram #AusBookstagram #HorrorNovel #YAbook #YAbooks #AusLit #AussieReads #Reading #Read #YoungAdultBooks #AussieYA #IndigenousYA #OzLit #FirstNationsFiction #FirstNations

Many moons ago (September 2022) I posted the news

Many moons ago (September 2022) I posted the news that Paullina Simons had signed with @jacintadimase Agency to sell ANZ-rights of her new work … #PaullinaSimons: she of #HistoricalRomance I’ve *inhaled* in my reading life once I discovered ‘Tully’ in my 20s. This was EPIC. Monumental. 🥰

Well. An update.

‘Light at Lavelle’ is out now - having found the perfect publishing home with @macmillanaus, and a generous publisher and editor in @adnlloyd.
Here’s the blurb; ✨✨✨

It is 1929. The world is about to change.

Finn Evans is a successful Boston banker harboring a secret that threatens to unravel his carefully constructed idyllic life. Isabelle Lazar, a young Ukrainian farmer, endures unspeakable hardships in her homeland as she fights to save her family from the Soviet Union's iron grip. Barely escaping the Terror-Famine, she washes up alone on America's distant shores.

Fate throws Finn and Isabelle together just as the stock market crash causes a devastating collapse of his world. Amid the Great Depression and the trials of their new lives, an undeniable connection grows between them that they both must hide.

As their intertwined destinies hang in the balance, they discover that even those who have lost everything still have something left to lose.

‘Light at Lavelle’ is the breathtaking epic love story from the worldwide bestselling author of ‘#Tully’ and ‘#TheBronzeHorseman.’ Paullina Simons weaves an unforgettable tapestry of #love, hope, and fate, showing us that sometimes the greatest battles are fought within our own hearts.

✨✨✨✨✨

And here’s me, adding the very special #LightAtLavelle to the STACK of @paullinasimons books in my collection. A very happy and personally special addition 🥰

To think; from chatting and signing, to meeting in New York last year (hanging out in the Algonquin Hotel, no big 💅🏻), to — *the* book is HERE! It’s here and it’s epic and romantic, tender and tragic … it’s the perfect book-club read, Christmas gift, summer-holiday binge-read. All of it!

And I’m very proud to have played a *minuscule* part in bringing it to Oz.

✨✨✨✨✨✨

#bookme #books #instabooks #instabook #reading #reading #read #bookstagram #book

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