Charming the outback by Leesa Bow

“When jaded city girl Maddy McIntyre packs up and leaves Adelaide for a new job in the country, it’s not only a chance at a fresh start. Six months ago, the first guy she’d ever loved shattered her heart before moving home to Broken Hill. Deep down inside, Maddy is hoping that living in the same town will give her an opportunity to prove to Luke that she’s one temptation he can’t resist.

But when she arrives in Broken Hill, Luke White is not the same guy she knew in the city. And it soon seems very clear that he doesn’t want her there. Although Maddy settles in quickly, excelling at work and partying with her new friends, she can’t understand why Luke is remaining so distant. Particularly when all her instincts are telling her that they’re meant to be together – and that…

 Some Veil did fall by Kirsty Ferry

“What if you recalled memories from a life that wasn’t yours, from a life before …?
When Becky steps into Jonathon Nelson’s atmospheric photography studio in Whitby, she is simply a freelance journalist in search of a story. But as soon as she puts on the beautiful Victorian dress and poses for a photograph, she becomes somebody quite different …
From that moment on, Becky is overcome with visions and flashbacks from a life that isn’t her own – some disturbing and filled with fear.
As she and Jon begin to unravel the tragic mystery behind her strange experiences, the natural affinity they have for each other continues to grow and leads them to question … have they met somewhere before? Perhaps not just in this life but in another? ”

Some veil did fall is a wonderful time-slip novel, that is impossible to…

Was there toilet paper on the Titanic? Or any boat of its era?

One of the fun parts of writing historical fiction is researching some of the everyday details you normally wouldn’t think about. Setting a story on a ship makes it just that little bit harder. Was there toilet paper? Or plumbing? Or electric lights?

Now, my Turbulence and Triumph series involves the Trevessa, a steam-powered cargo ship built in 1909, which makes it Titanic‘s contemporary. Still, a huge luxury cruise ship built in the UK is still very different to a cargo ship built in Germany, even if they travelled the same shipping lanes.

Imkenturm, later the Trevessa

Yes, there most certainly was toilet paper on the Titanic – and on the Carpathia, the ship that rescued the survivors from that disaster. The captain of the Carpathia confiscated all stationery from the ship’s staterooms…

What do all these opening lines have in common?

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife. —Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice (1813)

Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. —Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina (1877)

It was a wrong number that started it, the telephone ringing three times in the dead of night, and the voice on the other end asking for someone he was not. —Paul Auster, City of Glass (1985)

The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel. —William Gibson, Neuromancer (1984)

They’re all telling more than showing the reader anything. They also happen to intrigue the reader, show off the author’s voice, and be really compelling openings to strong books. So why does telling–the narrative voice–have such a…