Tortured Willows


Book Description

The willow is femininity, desire, death. Rebirth. With its ability to grow from a single broken branch, it is the living embodiment of immortality. It is the yin that wards off malevolent spirits. It is both revered and shunned. In Tortured Willows, four Southeast Asian women writers of horror expand on the exploration of otherness begun with the Bram Stoker Award-winning anthology Black Cranes: Tales of Unquiet Women.Like the willow, women have bent and bowed under the expectations and duty heaped upon them. Like the willow, they endure and refuse to break.With exquisite poetry, Christina Sng, Angela Yuriko Smith, Lee Murray, and Geneve Flynn invite you to sit beneath the tortured willow's gravid branches and listen to the uneasy shiver of its leaves.




Unquiet Spirits


Book Description

From hungry ghosts, vampiric babies, and shapeshifting fox spirits to the avenging White Lady of urban legend, for generations, Asian women's roles have been shaped and defined through myth and story. In Unquiet Spirits, Asian writers of horror reflect on the impact of superstition, spirits, and the supernatural in this unique collection of 21 personal essays exploring themes of otherness, identity, expectation, duty, and loss, and leading, ultimately, to understanding and empowerment.




Crawlspace


Book Description

A young girl trapped by generational trauma and an unexpected pregnancy struggles to realise her dreams in the final volume of Mag Vann’s InSecurity Triptych. In 1987, baby Marlene witnesses her father mutilated in a Port Moresby compound invasion, giving rise to a deep psychological scar and a powerful family secret. In 2012, Marlene finds her perfect match in awkward hacker Andy, an American running from his past and desperate for a visa. Their relationship survives on necessity and petty scams, but visa troubles and an unplanned pregnancy threaten their budding engagement. With Marlene’s family watching and struggling to support their daughter, Andy suggests a daring con that could set them up for life. Marlene will sell others out to achieve her dream, but she’s about to learn everyone has secrets and Andy’s are darker than most. Could achieving her dream life come with a price tag even Marlene is unwilling to pay? For fans of Claire Mackintosh, CL Taylor, and Gillian Flynn, Crawlspace is the third book in the InSecurity Triptych — fast-paced and provocative psychological thrillers you can read in a single sitting.




The Herons Return


Book Description

After the death of his wife in Europe Jamie Jordon returns to New Zealand to discover his grandparent’s apple orchard has become an abandoned quarry. The laid-to-waste landscape is a disgrace that Jamie vows to remedy. Hard-nosed businessman, Terry McKechnie, is responsible for this environmental vandalism. He and Jamie’s ex-girlfriend, Liz Lawrence, have a marriage of convenience, but Terry wants more and becomes violent when Liz refuses. Jamie decides to restore the worked-out quarry and turn it into a top-class resort and country club, and when Liz leaves Terry he offers her employment. Suspecting the pair have become more than work colleagues, Terry’s drunken retaliation backfi res and Liz’s hopes for a better life are shattered.




The Climbers


Book Description

When Sully's status is challenged by new kid Nottingham, the only way to prove who's best is a race to climb the unnamed tree ... In this compelling story of teenage rivalry and friendship, award-winner Keith Gray captures the subtle agonies and reality of life growing up in a small town.




One Step Closer


Book Description

"And what if each poem I write Is a step Closer to death?" One Step Closer To Death; is a stirring collection of poems that speaks to the heart of anyone who has ever felt lost or broken. Through the themes of heartbreak, family discord, and shattered friendships, these verses explore the darker side of human emotions and the impact of personal struggles. Honest and raw, this book invites readers to reflect on their own journeys and find meaning in the midst of pain. From my heart to yours, may these words be a lantern in the dark.




Grotesque: Monster Stories


Book Description

In a collection inspired by the mythologies of Europe, China, and her beloved Aotearoa-New Zealand, four-time Bram Stoker Award®-winner Lee Murray twists and subverts ancient themes, stitching new creatures from blood and bone, hiding them in soft forest mists and dark subterranean prisons. In this volume, construction workers uncover a hidden tunnel, soldiers wander, lost after a skirmish, and a dead girl yearns for company. Featuring eleven uncanny tales of automatons, zombies, golems, and dragons, and including the Taine McKenna adventure “Into the Clouded Sky”, Murray’s Grotesque: Monster Stories breathes new life into the monster genre.




Damnation Games


Book Description

A horde of criminally good horror writers took a walk down the mean streets of crime. Their task: to make your blood run cold, to scare you witless and to make your skin crawl. The rising dread of a good mystery doesn't need anything supernatural to keep you on the edge of your seat. But put the two together - crime fiction and horror - and all sorts of nasty business can come out of the woodwork. Sometimes literally. The stories herein include urban monsters, outback ghosts, contemporary lawyers, near-future police, and Victorian era mathematicians. Our Damnation Games are played by 19 Aussie, Kiwi and international authors: Gemma Amor, Joanne Anderton, J. Ashley-Smith, Alan Baxter, Aaron Dries, Gemma Files, Geneve Flynn, Philip Fracassi, Robert Hood, Gabino Iglesias, Rick Kennett, Maria Lewis, Chris Mason, Lee Murray, Cina Pelayo, Dan Rabarts, John F.D. Taff, Kyla Lee Ward, Kaaron Warren.




A Grammar of Being


Book Description

Recently I said to my father, who is on the cusp of turning ninety, You should write down all the wisdom youve garnered in your long life so my brothers and I can learn as much as possible from you. My father pondered that for a minute and then said, Too late. I dont remember. A Grammar of Being is my effort to preemptively address this issue with my sons. Im a youthful sixty-something, but if Im going to say anything substantive to them, I can see that Id better say it now. Essentially, these are notes in the form of chain-linked poems, speculating on what it means to exist. What is being? How and why, can or should we make ourselves into persons? What kind of persons? Ive spent my entire life pondering such things, and I have no conclusion. None at all. I only have provisional insights of a thoroughly dubious nature. That, and a huge thankfulness for the process, accompanied by bouts of mild anguish. I love my sons more than I love myself, which is saying a lot. I wanted to say something to them. This is it. Perhaps it will be interesting to other folks as well.




The Good Life Gets Better


Book Description

The sequel to the bestselling book about leaving the UK for a new life in the Yukon, Dorian and his growing family get gold fever, start to stake land claims and prospect for gold. Follow them along the learning curve about where to look for gold and how to live in this harsh climate. It shows that with good humor and resilience life can only get better.