Stella by Starlight

When Charles Lawson, formerly a notorious heroin dealer known as God, is released from jail after ten years, he lives quietly in a small apartment near the sea, with his two cats. When Lawson's eye specialist diagnoses him with macular degeneration and says he will be totally blind in a few years, Lawson devises an elaborate plan to commit suicide while making it look like an accident. Trying to execute his plan, he meets Star in the dunes. Caught in a violent marriage with Wayne, she had been planning the same thing. Perhaps they will be able to save one another.

Danielle de Valera is best known for her short stories, which have appeared in such diverse publications as Penthouse, Aurealis, and the Australian Women’s Weekly. She started writing poetry at thirteen (she was a moony child), and got her first taste of publication (albeit self-) when she and three other Year 11 students founded a high school magazine called By the Way, where she had a full page, 2-column spread of school gossip, which she wrote in the manner of the Hollywood columnists of the day, Hopper Hopper and Louella Parsons, complete with her own byline. Heady stuff in those days for a 16-year-old.

MagnifiCat, her first venture into indie publishing, is the result of her ongoing love affair with the far north coast of New South Wales, Australia, where she has lived since 1977. See Smashwords interview at: http://bit.ly/tigerbk

Location: Australia