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Born: Established: 2007 Wavell Heights, Northgate - Nundah area, Brisbane - North East, Brisbane, Queensland, ;
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1 y separately published work icon Thank You Josh Langley , Josh Langley (illustrator), Newport : Big Sky Publishing , 2024 27476228 2024 single work picture book children's

'Can you really change how you feel with only a thought? You sure can!
Learn how to turn a grey day into a Yay day.
Turn a frown into a smile.
And discover the power of a simple thank you.

'Exploding with joy and hope, Thank You will support children (and parents) through tough days and anxious times.

'‘Thank You’ is the perfect antidote for growing anxiety in young minds. Packed with practical "Thank You" empowers kids to discover their own superpower and find strength in their words and actions.' (Publication summary)

1 y separately published work icon Power and Obsession Catherine McCullagh , Newport : Big Sky Publishing , 2024 27473139 2024 single work novel historical fiction

'She eyed him nervously, this man who could end her life without a second thought. She had been complacent, lulled into forgetting the immense power he wielded over her ...

'London, 1941, and in the battered capital of occupied Britain, Emilia Shaw works as a translator for ruthless SS General Oskar Voigt. But Emilia is also a resistance spy, desperate to avoid the scrutiny of Voigt’s security chief, Irish policeman Brendan O’Connor, and his brutal offsider, SS Colonel Hans Morser.

'Promised the crown, the Duke of Windsor returns to London, unleashing a wave of violence from the resistance. The Duke pressures the puppet government for his coronation, but finds himself at the mercy of Hitler, the supreme kingmaker.

'As the violence escalates, Emilia is hunted by both the SS and the resistance, caught in the crossfire as the country threatens to implode. Ultimately, its fate lies in the hands of one man — the most unlikely of them all.

'Power and Obsession is the vividly imagined tale of an occupied London, a dark labyrinth peopled by the sinister, the smug and the sadistic. Yet it is also a gripping tale of reckless audacity and the obsessive search for justice.' (Publication summary) 

1 y separately published work icon Easy Target : Taming the Black Dog Adam Blum , Newport : Big Sky Publishing , 2024 27180579 2024 single work autobiography

'‘I was an easy target. You didn’t have to be a trained sniper to take the shot.’

'Easy Target is the inspirational story of a young man’s journey from being an easy target and victim of bullying to forging fortitude and resilience in order to battle the bullies and the black dog of depression.

'Adam tells his story with raw honesty which at times is heartbreaking and at other times, hilarious. Easy Target outlines the real-life steps Adam has taken in order to overcome his darkest days, change his mindset and transform his life.

'With contributing chapters by best-selling authors, this book is about change, hope, and belief for a brighter future. “' (Publication summary)

1 y separately published work icon Revenge of the Chick-Oats Aleesah Darlison , Newport : Big Sky Publishing , 2024 27180413 2024 single work children's fiction children's

'Get ready for a feathered adventure with Romeo Fortez … the cutest sloth EVER … and the world’s most daring superhero!

'Romeo’s nemesis, the unhinged Professor Ian Weird-Warp, is at it again. Bent on revenge, he concocts a quirky catastrophe. Mixing chicken and goat genes, he spawns a gang of eccentric chick-oats and they’re on the loose in the Big Apple, destroying everything in their path all the while chanting, ‘Berk-berk-baa!’

'As the team faces off against Professor Weird-Warp’s sinister demands for Romeo’s surrender, they must hatch a brilliant plan to thwart the mad professor’s wicked schemes once and for all.

'Can this unlikely crew save the city from the clutches of the chick-oats?'(Publication summary)

1 y separately published work icon Murder in the Pacific : Mt Yasur Matt Francis , Newport : Big Sky Publishing , 2024 27054484 2024 single work novel crime

'In the heart of Vanuatu's Tanna island, Hu Lee, the leader of an aid agency, meets a tragic end, fatally stabbed amidst a tsunami evacuation drill. With no witnesses, Sergeant George Long, visiting for the wedding of Constable Jayline Oli, is thrust into the role of lead investigator. Ordered by his superiors in Vila, he delves into a perplexing case that draws the attention of the Vanuatu Government, police force, and Chinese Embassy.

As George and partner Jayline Oli dig deeper, a web of debts owed to Lee surfaces, revealing a growing list of potential motives and suspects. Their path to the truth is fraught with obstacles. Hindered by uncooperative local law enforcement, an unexpected visit from a Chinese Embassy official, and the unsettling possibility of family involvement, George and Jayline must traverse Vanuatu's rugged terrain – from the historic town of Lenakel to the summit of Mt Yasur, an active volcano.

'As the investigation unfolds, George's mixed heritage adds another layer of complexity, further entangling him in a case that becomes increasingly personal. While George's own life unravels and with stunning landscapes as a backdrop, the duo races against time to untangle a web of secrets and deception …'(Publication summary)

1 y separately published work icon Murder in the Pacific Matt Francis , 2023 Newport : Big Sky Publishing , 2023- 27054452 2023 series - author novel
1 y separately published work icon Stacey Casey Michael C. Madden , 2023 Newport : Big Sky Publishing , 2023- 26343570 2023 series - author children's fiction
1 y separately published work icon Mackie & Jack Jan Smith , Greenway : Palmate Press Australia , 2000 Z1918755 2000 single work novel historical fiction

'A true and moving story of love, war, courage and indomitable spirit…

'One day the tall, gaunt father came to the house with the new wife and called the puzzled seven-year-old to him. She had never seen him before… ‘I am your father and you will call me Father, and this is your new mother and you will call her Mother,’ he said. Then he went away again, leaving little Bell with confusion in her mind and emptiness in her heart.

'In Mackie and Jack, the author travels with Mary ‘Bell’ Todd on a journey to remember a lonely childhood, a wartime marriage and what it took for her to succeed as a woman alone in a man’s world of livestock breeding in Australia. Empowered by inner strength and resilience, she confronted her challenges and overcame them.

'In 1942-1944, Mary’s husband, Squadron Leader Jack Todd faced challenges of another kind. Armed with bombs, depth charges and mines, the Catalinas of 11 and 20 Squadrons, Royal Australian Air Force, took the war directly to the Japanese by reaching out from Cairns in flights across the Pacific. From these squadrons alone, 187 men did not return.

'Jack Todd piloted the ill-fated mission of Catalina A24.34. Jack’s story is one of courage, leadership and valour in a war against an enemy that showed no mercy.

'An outstanding account of Australian war history and that of a woman who brushed aside those who stood in her way.'   (Publication summary)

1 y separately published work icon Vanished : True Stories from Families of Australian Missing Persons Nicole Morris , Newport : Big Sky Publishing , 2023 27569435 2023 selected work biography

'They just vanished …  Disappeared. Gone. Lost. No answers. Still missing.

'Imagine the pain, confusion and emotional roller-coaster that families experience when a loved one goes missing.  What would you do? How would your family cope?

'This is a heart- wrenching collection of true stories told through the eyes of family members who have experienced the trauma of a missing loved one. It follows their journeys from the desperate searches in the first days, through the Police investigations and, in many cases, the heartbreak as the years roll by without any news.

'These stories are just a glimpse into ten of the thousands of missing persons still out there, waiting to be found.  From two young girls who might have been early victims of Ivan Milat and a woman who was last seen walking alongside a Victorial highway to a teenage boy likely murdered and fed to crocodiles in Kakadu and two Tasmanian men who disappeared under strange circumstances ... the cases are all different, but the impact on the families devastating.

'Nicole Morris is the founder of the Australian Missing Persons Register.  She has written this book to develop awareness of the plight of the courageous families of missing persons and raise public awareness to  help find those people who seem to have vanished into thin air.' (Publication summary)

1 y separately published work icon Australia's Trail-Blazing First Novelist : John Lang Sean Doyle , Newport : Big Sky Publishing , 2023 26656273 2023 single work biography

''Writer, journalist, barrister, larrikin''Who was the first Australian novelist?

'John Lang, born in a Parramatta pub in 1816 with the convict ‘stain’ upon him, was a singular character. The first native-born person to have a novel published, he was also a newspaperman, a classical scholar and translator, barrister, celebrity, jailbird … enigma. He was hugely energetic, capable and original, but he also had his demons. 

'A larrikin polymath who refused to be bound by convention, Lang didn’t just want his allotted portion – he wanted all of it. He got a lot of it, too, but not the chalice of immortality. 

'Lang was a serial pioneer. In literature, he also wrote the first ‘detective novel’ in English, the first convict-system satire, the first Indian travelogue by an Australian, and he created the template for the bush novel. In journalism, he was the first Australian to launch and run a newspaper overseas. And in law, he was the only barrister to ever defeat the mighty East India Company in an Indian courtroom. 

'So why have we never heard of him? 

'This long-overdue biography explores answers to this revealing question as it tracks Lang’s rise from those humble beginnings to fortune and fleeting fame. Author Sean Doyle tells the riveting story of Lang’s remarkable life and times across three continents in the age of Empire, when the modern world was young …' (Publication summary)

1 y separately published work icon Ted Watts' Diary Steve Matthews , Newport : Big Sky Publishing , 2023 26515541 2023 single work novel historical fiction

'Ted Watts’ Diary is a coming-of-age love story.

'An orphaned seven-year-old English boy arrives in Sydney to be adopted by his ne’er-do-well Aunt during the early 1900s. The story finishes 60+ years later, after we have followed Ted’s tumultuous journey into manhood. Ted Watts’ Diary has everything a ripping Australian yarn should have, and more: larrikins, mateship, humour, heroes and villains, whores and brothels, retribution, tears and laughter, thieves, spies, war and tender love.

'Ted’s difficult initiation into adulthood in Sydney leads him to Corowa, NSW where he meets and falls in love with Maddie ‘Dimples’. Before he settles down, Ted wants to follow his destiny – go to war and return to Corowa a hero. Like most young men, he has a problem expressing himself, so he promises Maddie he will write his life story in the pages of an old bible given to him previously by a dying old soldier from the Boer War. Under-age, Ted enlists and Dimples promises to wait for him – forever, if she has to. He undertakes to return with the bible, complete with his life story.

'Much of the story unfolds through the eyes of Gertie, a German woman living in Bremen who finds an old bible among the WW1 paraphernalia belonging to her deceased stepfather, Ernst Bauer. This point of view allows us to witness the Great War from the German perspective as well as the Allies’.' (Publication summary)

1 y separately published work icon Stacey Casey and the Lost City Michael C. Madden , Newport : Big Sky Publishing , 2023 26515399 2023 single work children's fiction children's

'Stacey Casey’s father is a terrible inventor. But now, despite years of failed inventions, he has created a functioning time machine. Well…kind of!

'Stacey Casey is a fun and adventurous middle grade series that will take kids on a wild ride into the past.

'Oliver is lost in time, now Stacey must find a way to save him without falling into a deadly trap or destroying the universe. With the help of an old man version of Oliver, the characters must travel back to 1964 to rescue him, and to stop an evil woman from stealing a powerful artifact and taking over the world. A dangerous quest that takes them to a place outside of all time and space. Stacey and her friends team up with the world’s most famous philosopher, Plato, to explore the lost city of Atlantis.

'Oh yes, and there’s the small problem of the dinosaur, Cooper, who they accidently kidnapped from the cretaceous period.

'How are they going to get him back to his mum?

'A thrilling adventure, or just another day in the Casey household?' (Publication summary)

1 y separately published work icon Jimmy Sharman's Boxers : Australia's Legendary Travelling Boxing Troupe Stephen McGrath , Newport : Big Sky Publishing , 2023 26387191 2023 single work biography 'Jimmy Sharman is a conundrum. Raised in a large poor catholic family, becoming a tent boxer at age eleven. He blinds another boxer and is racked by guilt for the rest of his life yet develops an extremely profitable and popular showground fixture. We learn about Sharman's boxing tent spruiking, his unconventional business habits, his furious temper, his leadership and diplomacy. Sharman was twenty seven and medically fit when the war started. We learn the real life stories of several indigenous boxers who were openly defiant against the intense racism they encountered. We meet clumsy Billy Grimes (the flat foot kid) who went on to win several Australian titles. We see an unlikely friendship develop between Rud Kee a Chinese boxer and Sharman. As losses at Gallipoli and the Western Front grow, townspeople begin to question why a troupe of young men is fighting for profit while others are dying. Soon there are few men left, Sharman struggles to find challengers, recruitment propaganda and white feather campaigns intensify. The conscription plebiscites' bitterly divide Australia. Then great personal tragedy visits Archie and the troupe. This story is the result of a remarkable new discovery in Australian history, a true story about how Jimmy Sharman navigated his Boxing Troupe throughout the First World War despite; the war fervour, the conscription debate, pressure to enlist, accusations of cowardice and the tragic loss of so many to the war itself. Based on extensive research of real people and real events, this story tells how Jimmy Sharman managed to continue to tour throughout the war and created an unbeatable boxing troupe of White, Chinese and indigenous boxers, training them to be the most famous of all the Australian Travelling Boxing Troupes. This is an incredible, true and uniquely Australian story, it is beautifully told, giving us deep insight into the struggles of extraordinary people in extraordinary times.' (Publication summary) 
1 y separately published work icon Who's the Gang on Our Street? Susanne Gervay , Nancy Bevington (illustrator), Big Sky Publishing , 2023 26380647 2023 single work picture book children's 'Who are smart, naughty, love playing tricks, flashy, very loud, but need lots of affection? What’s an Australian icon, millions of years old, fast and loves to rock and roll?   Another fun and fact filled book from one of Australia’s much-loved authors.' 

(Production summary)


 
1 y separately published work icon Ghosts in the Fog Nathan Best , Newport : Big Sky Publishing , 2023 26227898 2023 single work novel thriller

'Damien Hunter has escaped to the frigid and untamed Russian-controlled Arctic, leaving behind the Taipan Organisation. Scarred and traumatised from combat missions without end, Damien conceals himself among the offshore workers on the Nevzgody gas platform.

'For the glory of Chechnya, fanatical separatist leader Sheikh Taimieov plans a terrorist strike against the heart of Russia’s economy. He entrusts his loyal commander Talhig Chechenskiy with the perilous mission in the unforgiving and unprotected Arctic gas fields.

'Major Georgiy Urvantsev commands an Alpha Unit of Russia’s federal security service, the FSB. Warned of a terror attack, Georgiy feels like he is chasing ghosts, locked in a running battle with Talhig’s fighters. Georgiy must engage all his skills and resources to defend his country.

'Damien is thrown into combat when he is caught up in the assault on the platform. Unbeknown to Damien, Taipan accepts a contract to take back the facility and inserts a team. Damien is forced into a mission he wants no part of. He and Taipan 21 form an uneasy alliance out of necessity. Unlike the men of Taipan 21, however, Damien tries to save lives while engaging the fanatical fighters.

'The Russian Arctic is stained by the devastation of this conflict.'(Publication summary)

1 y separately published work icon Murder in the Pacific : Ifira Point Matt Francis , Newport : Big Sky Publishing , 2023 26227808 2023 single work novel crime

'Esther Paul is 12 years old. She is reported missing on Vanuatu local radio. Two days later her body is found floating in the sea. Senior Constable George Wong of the Vanuatu National Police Force drops his current case to  investigate her disappearance and tragic death. Limited forensics in Vanuatu means George and Probationary Constable Jayline Oli do not know if they are looking at a murder or an accident. The wound to Esther’s head suggests the later.

'Given the precarious state of the Vanuatu Police Force George and Jayline have their work cut out, being transported in Port Vila's most decrepit and unsafe taxi van driven by Jayline's aspiring boyfriend.  George's own unrequited love for a Vanuatu radio neewsreader also impacts the investigation.

'From Mele Beach at one end of Port Vila to Pango at the other, George and Jayline experience Vanuatu’s broken roads, empty restaurants, confusing cultural norms as well as the extravagances and corruption of foreign aid as they attempt to solve the mysterious death.' (Publication summary)

1 y separately published work icon Mars Mission Aleesah Darlison , Newport : Big Sky Publishing , 2023 26226871 2023 single work children's fiction children's science fiction 'The year is 2088. Eleven-year-old Nash now lives full-time on Misty Space Station with his father, Orson. His best friends on the holiday spaceship are Raj and KC.  When a distress signal is received on Misty Space Station from a colony of researchers and scientists living on Mars, Captain Malik decides to send an urgent supply mission.  Given the vast distance to Mars, the only way Nash, his brilliant father,  Orson, and the Space Kids can reach them in time is using an experimental technology: a powerful space cruiser that travels faster than any vehicle ever invented before.   Their courage, teamwork, and resourcefulness will be crucial if they have any hope of completing their daring supply and rescue mission' (Publication summary) 
 
1 y separately published work icon Resistance and Revenge Resistance and Revenge : A Vengeful Occupier. A War of Resistance. A Fight to the Death. Catherine McCullagh , Newport : Big Sky Publishing , 2023 25779082 2023 single work novel historical fiction

'Rural England, 1941 and Louisa Carmody is trapped in a dirty war of resistance as her country struggles under the heel of a brutal invader. In the dilapidated local village, trust is in short supply and the need to survive trumps all loyalties. From the crumbling mansion that is her home a ragtag resistance group pits its meagre forces against the might of the invader. 

'Hunted by the enemy and betrayed by informers paid in blood money, the resisters know they cannot win. But they can exact a bloody revenge and it is this that drives them ever harder. Louisa can feel herself change because she too seeks revenge ... Resistance and Revenge is the story of a village in the grip of occupation and of those who have the courage to fight back. It is also the story of ordinary people, of people damaged by war, but determined to win back their freedom, no matter the cost. But in this war within a war, the cost may also involve sacrificing their own humanity.' (Publication summary)

1 y separately published work icon Hitler's Tractor Jan Smith , Newport : Big Sky Publishing , 2023 25779021 2023 single work novel

'If we must look for demons in our lives, we may also try to destroy them before we die. In James Twining’s life the demon of his declining memory, like Don Quixote’s windmill, is a tractor. Forged in Germany, the machine came to be known as Hitler’s tractor – it ploughed, sowed and reaped. But did Hitler’s tractor have a sinister purpose?  

'This is a story that takes the reader through chapters in the lifetime of one man – childhood, adolescence, a professional life and finally old age when he struggles to remember. 

'It tells of hardship farming in 1930s Australia, the confusion of a boy’s conflict with a teacher traumatised by war, his artistic mother’s battle against the unforgiving land, a father who dreams of something better, and a marriage under strain.
But glowering over an apparently simple tale is the ‘evil one’ – the German tractor that seems to have an unimaginably dangerous machine-like power over those who would dare to stoke its fire and tame its strength.

'Character rich and sweeping from the Depression years to the Australia of today, Hitler’s Tractor speaks to the strength of human spirit when faced by adversity – drought, flood, cruel fate and the futility of revenge. It is a poignant, beguiling and exquisitely told Australian story' (Publication summary)

1 y separately published work icon The Shar-Wolf of New York City Aleesah Darlison , Newport : Big Sky Publishing , 2023 25691551 2023 single work children's fiction children's 'In this origin story, pygmy sloth, Romeo Fortez, is born on remote Escudo Island. At his naming ceremony, a once-in-a-millennium event imbibes him with powers of speed, intelligence, and irresistibly hypnotic good looks. When Romeo moves to New York he discovers that Professor Ian Weird-Warp, a geneticist obsessed with splicing animal genes together, has unleashed a gigantic mutant shar-wolf on the city. With the help of some new human and animal friends, Romeo forms a team of crime fighters to save the city from the evil Professor Weird-Warp and his mutant creation.' 

(Publication summary)

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