Children’s Fiction

Boy of the Mines

"How do you reckon you'd go catching a goat?" asked Henry.
"Which goat?" asked Sam.
"The King of Mine Flat Mob," laughed Henry. Sam looked puzzled but Joe slapped Henry on the back and laughed too. They forgot all about Gilbert, Jacca and their work troubles for a while.

Eleven year old Henry Harper hates school. There are other things he'd rather do like make billy carts and enter goat races.

But at Moonta during the 1880's boys often had to become men overnight and when Henry's father is killed, Henry must find a job to help support his mother and three sisters. Working in the giant copper mines isn't easy. Not only that but he has enemies who want to see him sacked.

Join Henry as he tries to stop the two bullies, faces life as the man of the house and hatches his plan to catch his very own goat.

Loranda Publishing 2005

Piskey Trouble

Friends can be found in different places and it’s not always wise to mock what we don’t understand.

Joey Simons is in all kinds of strife. It was bad enough when his teacher said he had to work with Amber – and having to research HER favourite topic, Cornish piskies, was even worse.

Strange things begin to happen and Joey can’t seem to do anything right – until he and Amber sort out the piskey trouble.

Loranda Publishing 2005

Smokestacks and Sails

Charlotte sucked in a deep breath and closed her eyes. Out on the water, well away from the smelter’s giant chimneystacks that billowed smoke day and night, the air was fresh and salty...

Charlotte Martin loves the sea. As the daughter of the harbourmaster she knows every ship that comes and goes from the port of Wallaroo. Bored with her lessons at school, Charlotte instead yearns to join her brothers’ rowing team. They allow her to secretly practise with them, but this was the 1880’s, a time when girls were not allowed to row.

To add to her worries, the sinister Edgar Cudlip soon discovers their secret, and Charlotte and her friend, Megan, become entangled in a series of events that finds them in trouble - up to their necks!

Equilibrium Books 2009