So much to say about this book but let’s start with the basics. It’s the first book in the two-part series set in the Dungeons and Dragons playverse. This book was first published in 1978 and was the first D&D book, the sequel Return to Quag’s Keep was published the year following ...

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While I have internet I’m taking the opportunity to do this summary for you. It should have appeared yesterday but that’s another story. A is for Debra Adelaide B is for Jesse Blackadder C is for Isobelle Carmody D is for Ursula Dubosarsky E is for Hazel Edwards F is ...

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Thanks to some friends I’ve now got an author for Q. Tarella Quin Daskein often published under her maiden name of Tarella Quin. You might know of her good friend and illustrator, Ida Rentoul Outhwaite. Quin wrote many fairy stories. They number amongst the best in Australian literature at the time. Her ...

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Picnic by Fay Zwicky Poetry is an interesting creation. It’s something I have issues with but also great admiration for anyone who can write it. Fay Zwicky has spent more than 60 years writing poetry and in 2005 the committee of the Patrick White Award decided her efforts had not been recognised ...

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Not enough exclamation marks for my liking today. Looking at me I’m sure I look cool, calm and collected but this weekend is Oz Comic Con and I’m going, not only that but they’ve been kind enough to give me media accreditation. So, just because I can and because I have ...

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eat first, talk later by Beth Yahp Yahp has the sort of writing experience I’m jealous of. She lectures in Creative Writing at the University of Sydney, if she were in lecturing at Deakin in Burwood then she’d end up being one of my lecturers. I find that a bizarre thing that ...

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I’m stretching a point here as I really can’t find a female Australian author with a surname beginning with X. I’ve tried and friends have tried and Xanthé is the best we can come up with. And just to push the point I’m breaking my unwritten rule of using the surname as reference. ...

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Bilby Secrets by Edel Wignell & Mark Jackson Edel Wignell, her name caught my eye and when I googled her story caught my brain. Read on MacDuff! Some little facts Her first name rhymes with medal. She lived on a sheep farm in northern Victoria when she was little. She was ...

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Passion Play: The Oberammergau tales by Valerie Volk I’ve found some absolutely fascinating people for today but I’ve gone with Volk for the useless reason that she was born near where I live and she was born in the same suburb as Sandy Stone, Barry Humphries fictional character. But also because ...

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I’m getting up to the interesting letters of the alphabet and just to illustrate that point I find the most interesting name with a fascinating history. She’s only had a handful of books published but this one has just gone on my GoodReads Want To Read list. It seems Tansley’s had an ...

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Multicultural Me by Taku Scrutton Today I’m celebrating multiculturalism alongside Taku Scrutton. She’s still young but has packed a lot into her young life. Scrutton moved here from Zimbabwe at the tender age of 19, she came alone leaving behind parents and siblings. Since she came here in 2002 she’s ...

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Mawson’s Forgotten Men edited by Heather Rossiter It’s always the unsung people who have the most interesting stories and it’s lovely to find Rossiter agrees with me. What would be even better is to find this book available for sale so I could link to it but, alas and alack, ...

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Sort of but not really. This is my third cycle through the alphabet, I’ve had issues with various letters but have managed to sort something out at some point, today it’s just not happening. I’ve found one ‘writer’ for Q who has won several awards for best unpublished manuscript but I can’t actually ...

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The Word Ghost by Christine Paice If I were a poet like Paice I’d be composing this article in rhyme but poetry and I rarely agree so I’m afraid the words will have to be slung together in a different way. Having bribed her family to live with her in ...

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Mietta’s Italian Family Recipes by Mietta O’Donnell I never thought I’d have such trouble with O. I found it a challenge to find someone with this letter for whom I could actually find something to write. It seems a travesty to refer to her as O’Donnell when she is iconicly known by her first ...

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