Until now, Danielle de Valera's been best known for her short stories, which have appeared in such diverse magazines as Penthouse, Aurealis and the Australian Women's Weekly.
All in all, she's had a chequered career. She's worked as a botanist, an editor, a cataloguer for the Queensland Department of Primary Industries Library and the John Oxley Library, and on the main floor of Arnott's biscuit factory.
The manuscript of her 1st ever novel (then titled Love the People!) was placed 2nd to published author Hugh Atkinson's in the Australia-wide Xavier Society Literary Award for an unpublished novel - in those days, there was no Vogel Award for Unpublished Writers under 35. After that, she abandoned writing for 25 years to raise her children, whom she raised alone.
She resumed writing in 1990, somewhat behind the eight-ball. With Louise Forster she won the Australia-New Zealand-wide Emma Darcy Award for Romance Manuscript of the Year 2000 with Found: One Lover.
That first novel, Love the People! was shortlisted for the Byron Bay Writers' Festival Unpublished Manuscript Award in 2011, and for the UK's Impress Prize in 2012, under the title A Few Brief Seasons. It's due out here in October 2021 under its final title Those Brisbane Romantics.
A freelance manuscript assessor and fiction editor since 1992, she has won numerous awards for her gritty, streetwise short stories. MagnifiCat, a departure from this style, is her first published novel. It was followed in 2017 by Dropping Out: a tree-change novel in stories - to put it another way, a collection of linked short stories.
For more information on this author, see Smashwords iInterview. There's lots there.
About that Name
Danielle de Valera's father claimed he was related to the controversial Irish politician Eamon de Valera on his mother's side. But he told some tall tales in his time, and this is sure to be one of them. Born Danielle Ellis, she found that this name was replicated many times on the web. In searching for another under which to write, she first tried her mother's maiden name, Doyle, but there were a number of those, too. What to do? Then she remembered her father's story and chose it as her writing name. But she feels any real connection is unlikely.
Short stories. 212 pages. When undercover narcotics agents Michael O'Neill and sidekick Baby Johnson are sent from Sydney to the Northern Rivers of New South Wales to bust a heroin dealer so big everyone up there calls him 'God', they fall in love with the area and decide to drop out. Johnson is pursuing his interest in Star, another urban fugitive on the run from a violent marriage to Wayne, 'God's local dealer. O'Neill, still suffering post-traumatic stress as a result of his experiences in the Vietnam War, hopes to live a quiet life in the bush with long-time girlfriend Azure. Although they arrive with high hopes and meet many colourful characters, life in the country does not turn out to be as idyllic as they'd imagined. A character-linked collection of stories by an award-winning Australian short story writer.
Título : Dropping Out: A Tree Change Novel-in-stories
EAN : 9780994274540
Editorial : Danielle de Valera
El libro electrónico Dropping Out: A Tree Change Novel-in-stories está en formato ePub
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