I stayed up very late last night but I went to bed happy having finally done the hardest part of my novel the brief parts of the book proposal to send to agents and editors.

I have my 7 word, 25 word and 150 word descriptions down pat.  Now I just need that fantastic book deal :-).


“Children begin and then try to stop an escalating culture of payback in this compelling story of treachery and love during European settlement of Australia.”

My book is called Dreaming Billabong. It is complete and consists of 100,000 words.

Dreaming Billabong fits firmly into crime genre.

Type of Book:  Crime fiction involving an inland Australian family.

 

Readers of my book would also read, The Help by Kathryn Stockett, A Painted House by John Grisham and To Kill a Mockingbird by Lee Harper.

Brief 150 word description of the plot:

            1880-81, The Peaceful inland settlement of Fife Springs erupts following a chance encounter between a naked Alan Fife and Charlotte both 10.

Following the birth of his half brother Aboriginal Australian Kanga, Alan swears vengance.

            1945s -1953’s --- Eight years in the life of Kanga’s grandson, Jarrah 13. --- Eight years punctuated by the Stolen Generation and post-WW2 European migration. Alan and Kanga are now embittered old men. Alan’s grandchildren Emily 8, her brother, Harry 14 are in danger. Alan’s son, Ian Fife, the Cattle King, wants to protect them but it is Jarrah’s cultural heritage and Emily’s innocence that combines to end the terrible culture of payback.  

            Dreaming Billabong explores big themes, and Shell chooses to tell it by showing the effects crime has on children. The result is a tough and tender novel of the struggle for justice for race and gender, and the pain of growing up.