The Earl’s Shadow
Who or what is the ‘shadow’? How does it affect so many?
Parramatta 1860s
Charles is the Earl of Coxheath and spends his youth as a convict in Parramatta; he had no idea he was an Earl. He had minimal education and few social skills. His eldest son Charlie is no different.
Now faced with his own mortality, Charles has to work out how to live the remainder of his life after a near-death experience. He is called to step way out of his comfort zone in London. His action will change the world for many. The echoes from the past still haunt Charlie. London is calling the family, and they can’t postpone the trip. How does Jim, the Cobb and Co coach driver, fit in? And precisely what is ‘The Earl’s Shadow’ that he speaks about? What happens if the ‘Shadow’ is gone?

Diamonds, love and money… but there is much more to life.
Parramatta 1850s
Luke, the youngest Lockley son, has completed University, and his life has no direction. No job, no money, and no love. Desperately alone, he prays for guidance. How can Luke trust that God has a plan for him if he can’t even find a job? He does the only thing he can … he prays. Within a week, life has changed … oh, how it has changed as his brother Wills turns up with a suggestion. Would Luke be interested in joining the expedition with John Evans? Reverend William Clarke needs assistance on a Government Mineral Survey. The challenge, adventure and finds are life-changing for many. However, it gives Luke meaning, purpose and direction. The condition of his heart problems also takes a turn. Can he walk away?

Gold is found, and so is love
Parramatta 1840s
How can a question change so many people?
It’s the 1840s, and discoveries across the Blue Mountains continue. Major Mitchell’s new road is complete, and towns are planned and being built. Abundant land is available for those who want it.
William “Wills” Lockley, 18, has laid a solid foundation for a respectable career as a blacksmith, but the Lockley lust for adventure flows deeply within his veins. He dreads the monotony of work at the blacksmith’s forge and yearns for adventure in a new frontier. Wills meets six Englishmen who have the means to make his dreams come true. What they discover changes the Colony and their lives forever. Gold fever ensues. Now on the road West, Wills has to deal with an uncertain romance. Does she even want him?

Hands upon the Anvil
A blacksmith’s life and love are more than work
Parramatta 1830s
Eddie Lockley’s parents were transported for their crimes. Can a steadfast lad rise above his origins and guide others to succeed in a land of opportunity?
Ten-year-old Eddie longs to help his mum and dad. Living in a convict town with his family, the keen youngster has been working with the local blacksmith since his sixth birthday. But when a lieutenant doesn’t stop abusing his older brother, the young boy yearns for the day when he can stand up and end the torment. Though he’s thrilled when his mentor offers to send him off to learn his letters, Eddie fears he won’t be around to watch his sibling’s back. But as he takes on the biggest adventure of his life, the brave believer soon discovers God is looking out for everyone he loves. Does this young man in the making have what it takes to change everything for the better?

England 1800s - Parramatta 1808+
Katy is mourning the death of her husband after he dies in a shooting accident. Barely coping, she awaits the birth of their child. If it’s a girl, she must hand the family home to her husband’s brother. The day after giving birth to a daughter, she and her daughter are left on the side of a road. She collapses and is found by someone she thought had died in a fire ten years before. Perry, badly scarred himself, nurses her back to health. They marry and move in with her widowed friend, Mary.
After some years, she discovers her husband and friend in each other’s arms. Now living in a love triangle, she flees. Grasping the only straw available, she intentionally gets arrested and is sent to a colony far away. By doing this, her marriage can be annulled.
What happens in the Colony is different from what she expects. Governor Macquarie comes to her rescue.
But what of Perry and her children?

Parramatta 1828 – England 1840s
In the Parramatta Female Prison, Amelia awaits her assignment. Forced to leave the relative safety of gaol, she is assigned and now faces her worst nightmare. A foul man claims her and makes her life a living hell. Then her world goes black. A glimmer of hope arises when she hears from her brother, Jim, who has enlisted a friend to help her. She writes to Jim, pouring out her heart and telling him of the horrors of her new life. He encourages her to stay firm in her faith. All she can do is pray. When Major Ned Grace, her brother’s friend, enters her life in Parramatta, he starts to ease her path. Things have changed, as now she has a child in tow. How can Amelia forge a new life for herself? What man could want her with her background and a child at her side? Who is the gentleman who turns her tears of sadness into tears of great joy?

Annie White is released after serving seven years as a convict in Sydney. She gets a visitor who, with his help, starts a baking business. She is then asked to assist another sick man, Sam Corbett. Annie nurses him back to health, and a relationship develops. They settle into a life together, barely making ends meet; she realises she’s expecting a child.
Sam has his past laid bare and must adjust to the revelations. They both must face their accusers and find that the answers to their questions are not what they thought. Their life experiences seem to cling to them, and unable to shake it they finally, they end up back in England, facing their ghosts and discovering they are not who they think they are. How can they turn their anger and spite into love and forgiveness? The Dance of Life goes on.

A love so strong it saved a nation.

Few love stories make the ranks of legendary--Cleopatra and Mark Anthony, Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, Louis XV and Madame de Pompadour. The story of Philippe and Margaret deserve to be on that list. Based on real people and true events, their story will take you on a journey that will leave you breathless.

Temple Preston’s sense of duty and bittersweet memories tie her to Folly Park, her family’s crumbling ancestral plantation in Virginia, now a cash-strapped tourist attraction. When her research assistant, a Black PhD student, discovers that Temple's ancestor—the wife of a Confederate general—gave birth to a biracial baby during the Civil War, the two embark on a quest to uncover the house's secrets. Further revelations fuel the growing tension in Temple’s hometown as a Black activist and Temple’s own race-baiting brother square off in a local campaign for mayor. Faced with threats and betrayal, Temple must decide how much she’s willing to lose to tell the truth.

Spanning a decade, this novella tells of an Irish emigrant’s hopes to escape an entity he blames for the losses of his wives and children, his struggle with drink for his painful scoliosis, and doubts about God’s love.1867, New York City, is where Mick Muldoon and his shifty sister, Orla, live in a sordid tenement on the Lower East Side. Widowed Mick was a tenant farmer in Ireland and sheltered from the seedier side of life. Beyond uncomfortable in the brothel, he’s eager to find work and support himself without his sister’s aid. Worse than Mick’s physical pain is his belief in the curse of an entity only he can see. He immigrated to America partly to escape Mister Death and blames him as the reason he’s lost wives and children. Mick's brother, Ed, arrives from Canada with plans to purchase farmland together. In Minnesota, Mick realizes his heart isn't finished with love and marriage.

It is said that history does not repeat, but rather it rhymes.Today, Spain is a modern, civilized, and progressive society, and it is difficult to imagine that less than 100 years ago that father was set against son, brother against brother, and neighbor against neighbor, in a fight to the death. But yet it was. From 1931 to 1936 Spain descended into chaos, disorder, and widespread violence, and then, from 1936 to 1939 a horrific Civil War erupted and over 500,000 Spaniards were killed.In Holy Ghost, the reader follows three exceptional young people through their journey into this inferno. The characters in the book, with their differences in upbringings, outlooks, and attitudes, highlight the creaking fault lines in Spanish society...the fault lines which cannot hold. Back and forth the forces good and evil push against one another. Holy Ghost is a mirror of our time.

An epic tale of intrigue, betrayal and revenge, set in the turbulent era of sixteenth-century Japan. Sakichi is a provincial Samurai boy who reluctantly becomes ensnared in a conspiracy by a Shogun determined to reclaim his power. It is within this developing turmoil that events emerge to forever shape Sakichi's life. With his life now shattered, Sakichi discovers he is adopted, and his biological mother is a ruthless assassin,who is determined to prevent him from discovering the true identity of his father. With such high stakes at play, Sakichi's life is placed in grave danger. Rival factions compete with each other to assassinate him and his mother before he discovers the truth. Should the identity of Sakichi's father become common knowledge it would not only threaten the rule of a powerful war lord but plunge the nation into greater turmoil and bloodshed.