Finalist, Best Novelette/Novella, Sir Julius Vogel Awards
Title: Would She Be Gone: A Censored City Novelette (#1)
Length: 14,800 words (Novelette)
Date Published: October 2019
Themes: Near future Sci-Fi, censorship, mental health, processing mother’s suicide.
Available from: Amazon (Kindle and Paperback editions).
And for schools and public libraries, it is available from Wheelers.
Review at Aust Crime:
“Now I will admit that I'm normally more than a bit disinterested in dystopian futuristic stories, they aren't my cup of tea at all, but WOULD SHE BE GONE worked for me. Partially it's because it's cleverly constructed, particularly given the shortness of the novella, to provide character development and personal background information, alongside a good plot that is part detective thriller, part dystopian horror, part sticking it to the authorities. There's touches of humour, sadness, romantic attraction and more than enough intrigue to keep you guessing.” Karen Chisholm
WHEN THE STATE STEALS YOUR WORDS, YOU STILL HAVE YOUR VOICE. WHEN THEY STEAL YOUR FAMILY, WILL YOU HAVE THE STRENGTH TO USE IT?
In the near future, the Librarian Algorithm enforces tailored censorship to protect citizens from stories and words that could cause trauma or crime.
Detective Virginia Wright is going undercover in the criminal world of spoken poetry to hunt down suppliers of illegal open-access e-readers. She has buried herself in her work ever since her mother died. But when her remaining family are arrested for literary solicitation, her world starts to crumble. And when the man she is supposed to arrest gives her the most precious gift of all, her moral compass is sent spinning.
The Censored City series: A post-analog world on the tipping point of Orwellian dystopia and the women whose choices will determine which way it falls.