Last Train to Parthenia

Short story, 18 pages approximately. One night, while working on the inner-city circle of StateRail, Sydney, Bob Johnson is hit by a train, In the last seven minutes of his life, before his brain shuts down, he believes he has finally reached the mythical kingdom of Parthenia.

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