curtis brown may newsletter

1 Curtis Brown Australia / Rights Newsletter / www.curtisbrown.com.au

Curtis Brown Australia

May Newsletter

Curtis Brown (Aust) Pty Ltd | Literary Agents

PO Box 19 | Paddington NSW 2021 | Australia

T: [61 2] 9361 6161 | F: [61 2] 9360 3935

E: [email protected] | W: www.curtisbrown.com.au


| Fiction | 320 pp | April 2015 |

THE FALLS Cathryn Hein

An uplifting story of healing and hope from the

author of Promises, Heart of the Valley, and Rocking

Horse Hill.

Published by: Penguin | Paperback

Rights available: World excl. ANZ; Film/TV

Agent: Clare Forster ([email protected])

Description: For as long as she can remember,

Teagan Bliss has wanted to manage her family's

property. She's invested everything in the farm,

knowing that when her parents retire she'll be ready to

take the reins. But when a family betrayal leaves her

reeling, Teagan is forced to rethink her entire future.

Heartbroken, Teagan flees to her aunt's property in the idyllic Falls Valley. Vanessa is warm

and welcoming and a favourite of the locals who drop in regularly for cocktail hour.

Teagan soon catches the attention of sexy local farrier Lucas Knight, and with a new job,

new friends and the prospect of a new relationship, she slowly begins to open up again.

But the village is a hotbed of gossip and division and when Teagan gets caught up in town

politics, Lucas and Vanessa become concerned. As the tension in town escalates, Teagan

must decide who to trust. But when she realises those close to her have been keeping

secrets, the fallout may split Teagan apart forever.

Praise for Promises:

'Uplifting . . . A moving emotional journey towards forgiveness and hope.' Bronwyn Parry

'A top read . . . Cathryn Hein had me from the first page.' Toowoomba Chronicle

'Take two feuding families with a dark history, add two beautiful offspring from those families,

and let the angst-ridden romance begin.' Cosmopolitan

Cathryn Hein was born in South Australia’s rural south-east. Armed with a Bachelor of Applied

Science (Agriculture), she moved to Melbourne and later Newcastle, working in the

agricultural and turf seeds industry. Her partner’s posting to France took Cathryn overseas for

three years where she began to write. Her novels include Promises, Heart of the Valley,

Heartland, Rocking Horse Hill, The French Prize and The Falls.

mailto:[email protected]


| Fiction | 478 pp | May 2015 |

Season of Shadow and

Light Jenn J McLeod

Are some secrets best kept for the sake of others?

Published by: Simon & Schuster |Paperback

Rights available: Film/TV, Audio


Description: Sometime this season ...

The secret keeper must tell.

The betrayed must trust.

The hurt must heal.

When it seems that everything Paige trusts is beginning to betray her, she leaves her

husband at home and sets off on a road trip with her six-year-old daughter, Matilda,

and Nana Alice in tow.

But stranded amid rising floodwaters on a detour to the tiny town of Coolabah Tree

Gully, Paige discovers the greatest betrayal of all happened there twenty years earlier.

Praise for Jenn McLeod:

‘Captivating’ The Australian Women’s Weekly

When Jenn J. McLeod quit Sydney’s corporate communications chaos, she bought a

little café in a small town and ran a unique, dog-friendly B&B in country NSW. Home

now is a fifth wheeler caravan, her days spent writing heart-warming tales of Australian

country life. Readers and reviewers alike enthusiastically received Jenn’s debut, House

for all Seasons, placing it at #5 on the 2013 Nielsen’s Best Selling Debut Novel list.

Season of Shadow and Light is the third book in her Seasons Collection, with a fourth

Seasons Collection novel due in 2016.



| Fiction | 384 pp | May 2015 |

NORTHERN HEAT Helene Young

A story of love and courage in Australia’s tropical

north.

Published by: Penguin |Paperback

Rights available: Film/TV


Description: In steamy northern Queensland,

Conor is rebuilding his shattered life. Working at

Cooktown's youth centre has given him the

chance to make a difference again, and the

opportunity to flirt with Dr Kristy Dark. The local GP

is hiding her own secrets and struggling to raise

her feisty teenage daughter alone.

When a severe cyclone menaces the coast, threatening to destroy everything in its

path, tensions come to a head – and the weather is not the only danger. Cut off from

the world and with her life on the line, Kristy will have to summon her courage and

place her trust in Conor, or they'll both lose someone they love.

Praise for Helene Young:

'This amazing writer of romantic never ceases to thrill.' Good Reads

'I don't think there's a better romantic suspense writer out there at the moment.' 1 Girl 2

Many Books

'Helene Young just keeps getting better.' Write Note Reviews

'Helene Young has been compared to Nora Roberts . . . and she doesn't disappoint.'

New Idea

Helene Young has won the Romance Writers of Australia Romantic Book of the Year

Award in 2011 and 2012. She was also voted favourite romantic suspense author by the

Australian Romance Readers Association in 2010, 2011, 2013 and 2014, and was

shortlisted for the same award in 2012. Burning Lies was shortlisted for the 2013 Daphne

du Maurier Award Mystery/Suspense in America. Her new novel Northern Heat, was

published by Penguin in 2015.



| Non-fiction | 376 pp | May 2015 |

BLACK WIDOW Carol Baxter

Fast-paced and surprising, this story of Australia's first

female serial killer is as exciting as it is thought-

provoking.

Publisher: Allen & Unwin |Paperback

Rights available: World excl. ANZ, Film/TV, Audio

Agent: Tara Wynne ([email protected])

Description: Two inquests, four trials, three hung

juries and the executioner...but was Louisa Collins

really a husband killer? Was she the callous

adulteress, drunkard and liar known as the Botany

Bay Murderess and the Lucrezia Borgia of Botany Bay? Or was this mother of seven

a spirited and defiant woman who was punished for breaching society's

expectations of womanly behaviour?

Compelling, freshly told and richly detailed, Black Widow uncovers the truth of a

story that challenged the morality, the politics and the notion of law in an Australia

on the edge of nationhood.

Carol Baxter came to history through genealogy and, accordingly, has a different

approach to most academic historians. Her focus is upon narrative history, primarily

the story of ordinary individuals who made an extraordinary impact on our world.

Her first, critically acclaimed work, An Irresistible Temptation, was published by Allen

& Unwin in November 2006. Breaking The Bank, the exciting true tale of Australia’s

biggest bank robbery followed in 2008, and the story of Australia’s most successful

bushranger, Captain Thunderbolt and his Lady, in 2011. In 2013, The Peculiar Case

of the Electric Constable: a true tale of poison, passion, and pursuit was published

to international acclaim. In 2015, Allen & Unwin published Black Widow: the true

story of Australia’s first female serial killer. Carol Baxter is an adjunct lecturer at the

University of New England and a Fellow of the Society of Genealogists.



| Biography | 384 pp | May 2015 |

THEA ASTLEY:

INVENTING HER OWN

WEATHER Karen Lamb

Finally, the first biography of one of Australia’s most

beloved novelists.

Published by: University of Queensland Press |

Paperback

Rights available: World excl. ANZ; Film/TV, Audio

Agent: Fiona Inglis ([email protected])

Description: Thea Astley: Inventing Her Own

Weather is the long-overdue biography of

Australian author Thea Astley (1925–2004). Over a fifty-year writing career, Astley

published more than a dozen novels and short story collections, including The Acolyte,

The Slow Natives and, finally, Drylands in 1999. She was the first person to win multiple

Miles Franklin awards – four in total. With many of her works published internationally,

Astley was a trailblazer for women writers.

In her personal life, she was renowned for her dry wit, eccentricity and compassion.

Although a loving mother and wife, she rose above the domestic limitations imposed

on women at the time to carve out a professional life true to her creative drive.

Karen Lamb has drawn on an unparalleled range of interviews and correspondence to

create a detailed picture of Thea the woman, as well as Astley the writer. She has

sought to understand Astley’s private world and how that shaped the distinctive body

of work that is Thea Astley’s literary legacy.

Karen Lamb teaches literature and communication at the Australian Catholic University

and has held teaching and research positions at the University of Queensland, Monash

University and the University of Melbourne, where she taught in literary studies, media

and communication, and cultural studies. Her research interests include Australian

literature, life writing, and the cultural context of authorship. She has edited a book of

Australian short stories, and published book chapters and articles on Australian authors,

including a book on Peter Carey. She lives in Sydney.



| Memoir | 336 pp | May 2015 |

NELLIE’S VOW Leonie Binge

A poignant tribute to one young woman’s

extraordinary fortitude in the face of unimaginable

misfortune

Published by: Arbon | Paperback

Rights available: World excl. ANZ; Film/TV, Audio


Description: Nellie’s Vow is an uplifting true tale of

triumph over tragedy. Confronted by one

devastating blow after another – including the

sudden death of their beloved father, the

crippling mental illness suffered by their mother, the vicious abuse dished out by

their stepfather and years of loneliness and deprivation at a Narellan orphanage –

the four Peisley girls seem destined for a life of despair and hardship. But with

courage and conviction, Nellie is able to lead her three younger sisters – Kathleen,

Clare and Millie – to lives filled with love, optimism and the strength and enduring

comforts of family.

Brimming with historical detail – from fascinating chronicles of country life to heart-

rending descriptions of Depression-era Sydney – Nellie’s Vow is a rich tapestry that

interweaves a tragic family saga with national and global events of the early

twentieth century. Sepia photographs of the people and places in the story bring

the narrative to life.

History enthusiasts and those who enjoy moving family dramas will be enraptured

by the twists and turns within Nellie’s Vow. From 11-year-old Nellie’s powerful

promise that she would take care of her sisters to the moment she is finally able to

welcome her youngest siblings into her marital home.

Leonie Binge grew up in the western suburbs of Sydney in a typical middle-class family.

After listening to tales of her mother and aunt growing up in an orphanage during the

Depression and how their older sister tracked them down, determined to find and care

for them, Leonie promised she would one day write their story. Leonie, a teacher, lives

in Melbourne with her husband and three children.



| Fiction | 480 pp | April 2015 |

Secret Keeping for

Beginners Maggie Alderson

Is it ever better to tell?

Published by: Harper Collins |Paperback

Rights available: Film/TV, Audio


Description: Even the closest families have secrets

... it's when they are shared that things begin to

change. The lives of three very different sisters

collide in this witty new novel from bestseller

Maggie Alderson. Recently divorced Rachel is

juggling her new dream job in interior design PR

with the demands of two young daughters. She's

full of creative ideas but - even with a colourful childminder or two - some days she can't

make it into the office on time and in matching shoes.

Tessa, a talented muralist, is feeling flat. Her kids are growing up and she's feeling upstaged

by her husband's new-found celebrity as the host of a reality TV fireplace restoration show.

Everything turns on its head when she gets a surprise from her past.

Youngest sister Natasha leads a glamorous jet setting life - she's one of Vogue's favourite

make-up artists who regularly creates the looks for the biggest shows in Paris and Milan.

Single and childless, she's been focused on her career - but when the lie she's concealed

for years threatens to come to light, the truth will make her question everything.

Meanwhile their mother, Joy, a hippy vegetarian caterer, is carefully ignoring the letters

that keep arriving at her door... And everything lurking beneath the surface of this

seemingly happy family is about to come out...

Maggie Alderson is the author of seven novels and four collections of her columns from

Good Weekend magazine. Her children's book Evangeline, The Wish Keeper's Helper was

shortlisted for the Prime Minister's Literary Award. Before becoming a full-time author she

worked as a journalist and columnist in the UK and Australia, editing several magazines,

including British ELLE. She writes 'The Rules' style column for the Sunday Age and a blog at

maggiealderson.com.



| Memoir | 320 pp | May 2015 |

OUTBACK MIDWIFE Beth McRae

Call the Midwife meets In the Middle of Nowhere in

this heartwarming memoir of an adventurous Aussie

midwife's life 'catching babies'.

Published by: Random House Australia | Paperback

Rights available: World excl. ANZ, Film/TV, Audio

Agent: Pippa Masson ([email protected])

Description: Outback Midwife is the story of Beth

McRae's 40 years as a midwife, from her terrifying

first day witnessing a birth as a naïve student nurse

to her training as a midwife – the days when the

words ‘birth plan' were unheard of and what

women wanted was a long way from being part of any plan – to the outback.

Beth's career of catching babies takes her from the city to the bush, bonding with

people from all walks of life at one of the most important moments in their lives. But

there was one more frontier she was determined to conquer.

At an age when most people are thinking about slowing down, Beth decides to

move to a remote Aboriginal community in Arnhem Land to embark on a whole

other adventure.

Beth McRae began her training as a midwife at Preston and Northcote Community

Hospital in Victoria, and went on ‘catch babies' all over Australia. After 30 years as

a midwife and many trips to the outback corners of Australia, Beth was ready to

embrace life living and working in a remote community. This leap of faith led to

some unforgettable and unbelievable experiences working with Australia’s first

people and Beth has loved every minute. She married her army boyfriend 41 years

ago and is mother to two daughters, Lauren and Clare, and grandmother to four

grandchildren, Eva, Declan, Layla, and Chloe.




AUSTRALIAN FARMING

FAMILIES Deb Hunt

Inspiring true stories of life on the land from all

across Australia.

Publisher: Pan Macmillan Australia |Paperback

Rights available: Film, Audio

Agent: Pippa Masson

([email protected])

Description: The inspiring true stories of

Australian farming family living and working

our great brown land.

Through fires and floods, draughts and

dramas, these multi-generational families thrive and survive in some the harshest

conditions in the country. As they say, there's no sick pay out in the bush. On million

hectare properties hours from the nearest town, these families face the elements as

they plant, harvest, graze and muster battling the bush to eke out a living from the

toughest climate of them all.

In this moving and enjoyable portrait of bush battlers, Deb Hunt explores the spirit of

the outback through its hard worn inhabitants. From ringers, gardeners and cooks to

jackeroos, jillaroos and stockmen all are like family and everyone has a story to tell.

Deb Hunt has worked as an actor, writer and journalist in the UK and Australia. Her

work has appeared in House & Garden magazine, Sunday Telegraph, Body+Soul

and Esprit. She spent two seasons with Shakespeare in the Park in London and five

years writing stories for the Royal Flying Doctor Service. Her story The Man with No

Eyebrows was runner up in the Alliance Cornhill Short Story competition and her

play Clean Sweep won Best Script, Best Production and People’s Choice Award in

the Broken Hill Short and Sweet Play Festival. Her memoir, Love in the Outback, was

published by Pan Macmillan in May 2014, and she is currently working on a book

about Australian farming families.



| Adult | 304 pp | April 2015 |

GUILT Matt Nable

A powerful novel about the hope of childhood and

the disappointment of adulthood.


Rights available: World excl. ANZ; Film/TV

Agent: Pippa Masson ([email protected])

Description:

Guilt starts off with a group of friends getting ready for

an eighteenth birthday party. Life is exciting and the

world is at their feet. Jump forward twenty years and

they are all struggling with where they are at. Tommy

has just got out of prison. Lani, the girl he loved at school, is unhappily married to a

cheating husband. Another friend, Julia, has only just moved out of home to live with

her fiancé. And Paul – the high school hero of whom everyone expected great things

– is living a totally ordinary life of marriage, mortgage, kids. Where did it all go wrong?

Something happened at that party that changed their lives forever. This agonising

novel examines the layers of loyalty and jealousy, the headiness of youth, and the

inescapable taste of guilt.

Praise for Faces in the Clouds:

'Nable vividly brings to life the issues that families must face when confronted with

disability . . . Faces in the Clouds is a very satisfying book.' Mark Rubbo, Readings

'Echoes of Tim Winton's Breath and of the coming-of-age narratives of Peter

Goldsworthy.' Australian Book Review

Matt Nable is a writer and actor. He wrote and starred in The Final Winter (2007), an

independent Australian film that has since been released internationally, and has also

appeared in Riddick alongside Vin Diesel, East West 101, Underbelly: Badness and

Brothers in Arms: Bikie Wars. More recently he has starred in Winter and Gallipoli and

has also secured a major role in the hit US series, Arrow. With his wife and three

children, Matt divides his time between Sydney and Los Angeles. He is the author of

the novels We Don’t Live Here Anymore (2009) and Faces in the Clouds (2011). Guilt is

his third novel.




THE DIRECTOR IS THE

COMMANDER Anna Broinowski

A unique journey inside North Korea’s propaganda

machine.


Rights available: North America, Translation, Film/TV


Description: Determined to stop a coal-seam gas mine

being built near her inner-city Sydney home, Anna

Broinowski, in a world first, went to North Korea to meet

the masters of propaganda filmmaking, wanting to learn how to make a revolutionary

drama in which 'heroic workers' overthrow the 'evil gas miners' – all executed in the Dear

Leader's proudly melodramatic style.

The Director is the Commander centres around the bizarre twenty-one day shoot that

Broinowski did in North Korea in 2012. The trip is set against a parallel exploration of the craft

of North Korea's until-now hidden filmmakers and their lives in Pyongyang, and a broader

analysis of propaganda in general: both in its ham-fisted North Korean form and its infinitely

more sophisticated but no less pervasive incarnation in the corporate West.

Funny, multi-layered, and utterly compelling, The Director is the Commander is a gripping

account of an extraordinary trip inside a nation we can usually only see from the outside

looking in.

Anna Broinowski is a filmmaker, writer, and rock violinist, who likes to explode cliches about

the East. She toured her bilingual play The Gap to Tokyo, and uncovered Japan’s queer,

drug and Otaku subcultures in her first documentary, Hell Bento!! Subsequent films include

Forbidden Lie$ (about hoax-author Norma Khouri), and Helen’s War (about anti-nuclear

crusader Dr. Helen Caldicott). Anna’s films have won the Writer’s Guild of America Best

Non-fiction Screenplay, the Rome Film Festival ‘Cult’ Prize, a Walkley Award, Best Director at

Films Des Femmes, an Al Jazeera Golden Award, three AFIs, and a Moscow Film Critics’

prize, which is a hollowed out wooden elephant. The hollow is for burning bad reviews.

Anna was born in Tokyo and grew up in the Philippines, Burma, Iran, and Canberra. At 19,

she hitchiked to Darwin and was kidnapped by truckies. This made her drop law and do

what she does now.



| Young Adult | 188 pp | May 2015 |

THE IMPOSSIBLE QUEST #4: THE

DROWNED KINGDOM

Kate Forsyth

The fourth in a five-part series, the journey continues in the

darkness of the Witchwood

Published by: Scholastic Australia | Paperback

Rights held: Film/TV

Agent: Tara Wynne ([email protected])

Description: Quinn, Sebastian, Elanor and Tom have

found a dragon and conquered the dreaded Beast of

Blackmoor Bog. Only one item remains on their impossible quest - the scale of a

sea-serpent.

Now they must journey to the drowned kingdom, where they will face their

deadliest challenge yet. And there they will uncover the truth behind all that has

happened... the truth that will change everything.

Also available in the series:

Kate Forsyth is the bestselling and award-winning author of more than twenty books, ranging

from picture books to poetry to novels for both children and adults. Kate's books have been

published in 14 countries around the world, including the UK, the US, Russia, Germany, Japan,

Turkey, Spain, Italy, Poland and Slovenia. She is currently undertaking a doctorate in fairytale

retellings at the University of Technology, having already completed a BA in Literature and a

MA in Creative Writing. She lives by the sea in Sydney, Australia, with her husband, three

children, a rambunctious Rhodesian Ridgeback, a bad-tempered black cat, and many

thousands of books.


http://www.kateforsyth.com.au/

curtis brown may newsletter

Documents