Good Me Bad Me
Ali Land
ISBN: 9781405923910
$20
340 pp
Penguin 2017

What makes someone a bad person in the eyes of others? Annie has become who she is largely through her mother’s habit of killing children in her home in the west of England and making Annie watch.

In her mid-teens Annie finally ‘escapes’ and goes to the police with her blood-chilling story. She feels that this makes her a good person, though she is conflicted about standing up to her mother. Her mother is arrested and held in custody pending trial, and much of this thriller is set in the time between the arrest and the trial. Annie is to be the main prosecution witness and is sent to live, incognito, with a family in London for her own safety – only a few people know what and where she has come from. (more…)

Where do you hope your life will go? Why do you want it to go anywhere?

Humans have the ability to imagine almost without limit, including imagining things and places. It allows me to ‘pretend’ that I am somewhere other than where my physical body is right now; it allows me to hope that I can escape from the place where I am sitting, at this moment in the present. (more…)

It is March 2028 and, I think, time to review ten years since marriage equality was voted into law in Australia. One thing that has become clear is that in Australia, unlike in any of the other nations of the world that allowed it, the consequences of marriage equality on its society have been ‘interesting’. This is on top of the fact that Australia lagged behind the other countries. (more…)

MO-BE-US (the future does not exist)

The theme of this essay is contained in its centre. There is no time; therefore, there is no future.

MO‑BE‑US?

MO: Modus Operandi – how we operate in the world; how we make sense of it.

BE: Beginning-Ending – our concept of flow; a construct.

US: Unifying Semantics – thoughts communicated through words in an attempt to reach consensus about reality. (more…)

Captive Prince Trilogy – Prince’s Gambit, Kings Rising
C S Pacat
Penguin Viking 2013-16
ISBN: 9780143799597 / 9780143799603 / 9780143799610
$19.99 each
262/376/341 pp

This trilogy is, at heart, a complex love story. We see it develop through the three books, heartrendingly and carnally. It is no ordinary romance, but one beset by intrigue, power, false starts and danger. (more…)

There is a story, hopefully not true, about a man offering to register the birth of his un‑partnered sister’s girl-and-boy twins. He names the girl Denise and the boy Denephew. (more…)

Security Myth

How secure are you? What does this question even mean? We think about security in relation to our finances, our work, our family, our abode, our country and our health – basically in relation to our entire lives. (more…)

Disenfranchised

For most of recorded human history leaders of humans have ruled without a ‘by your leave’. Most have been men and most leaders have inherited their power or have taken it by force. There have been exceptions, both in paths to rulership and that a few of the rulers were women; and some rulers were benevolent. (more…)

Rat City
Ree Kimberley
ISBN: 9780995387003
$3.99 (e-book)
Published by Maree Kimberley, 2016

Teens and adults inhabit different realities, ‘created’ from within – they see the world differently and react to it accordingly. These worlds often don’t meet, which makes it hard for adults to understand their teen children and vice versa. When these worlds intersect, there is some possibility of communication but that possibility is often hindered by walls of expectations and preconceptions. The adults have a longer lifetime of experience than the teens and use this to make themselves right. Sometimes it takes an ‘outside’ adult to help parents understand that what their teen child is telling them s/he is experiencing is a valid take on the world. (more…)

The Loss of Nuance

What has happened to subtlety? Where has the ability gone to see anything other than black and white? They seem to have disappeared, along with humour. Maybe they’ve all gone on a cruise and will return, refreshed and reinvigorated. (more…)