I’ve always written fiction. Right through my academic career novels and stories were bubbling away and I amassed folders of written and typed manuscripts and then computer files. I just had to wait until I could emerge from my scholarly disguise.

My first book of collected short stories, Revolutionary Baby, is out now. Read about it on this site.

Previously I experimented with two short fictions, to see what was involved in self-publishing. A children’s book, The Priceless Princess came out in 2017 and is still available as an ebook and paperback. It’s a great read for children 8-10 or so, about a Princess who discovers her own powers, communicating with animals. The gorgeous original cover by Keith Draws is unique in the genre of Australian children’s fiction. Contact Blackwing Press if you would like to make a bulk order of these very unusual books: they make a great end-of-year present for keen young readers in your family.

THE PRICELESS PRINCESS.  A book for children aged 8-10. E-book and print versions available. The Princess’s website is here. Print 106 pages. ISBN 978-0-9953633-1-1.

SUBURBAN GIGOLO:  A cat’s eye view of life in the Inner Western suburbs of Sydney – a fun short read with a serious message. e-book available through Amazon and other e-book retailers. Paperback: Print 72 pages. BOC5BGLGR9 (D2D) available through Amazon and others.

PUBLICATION ON HOLD:

RADIANT SANDS

A book of fictional stories, Radiant Sands reflects on mid twentieth century life on the First Nations frontier in Central Australia. It draws on my experiences in Central Australia, working as an academic anthropologist, a researcher for Land Claims on behalf of the Central Land Council, and as the Anthropological Advisor to the Royal Commissioner James McLelland during the Royal Commission into British Nuclear Testing in Australia. These stories reflect aspects of life for both non-Aboriginal and First Nations people in the fraught era when the idea of Land Rights was radically new and calls for reconciliation and justice were still in their infancy. Planned publication in 2023 was put off due to issues arising from the Australian Referendum. It did not seem appropriate or desirable to publish these stories embedded so firmly in a White Australian context and so out of alignment with the profound difficulties being encountered at the level of national consciousness in that year. Whether they will ever be published now is uncertain.

WORKS IN PREPARATION:

BACKEDDY: WOMAN AND RIVER.

A fictional novel set around the site of my family’s house on the Hawkesbury River. It will be accompanied by an experimental book, FLUVIAL, with historical facts, snippets of memoir, local stories, poems and photographs of life on the river.

FICTIONS UNDER A DIFFERENT NAME: I decided not long ago to use a different name for the new fictional works I was working on. The first books in the series Orphans of Apophis will be published shortly, probably under my birth name, Annette Arnold.

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