My latest novella has been published.
The title is:
- Beach Fossil: An Investigation Into Strange Discoveries At Beaumaris Bay
Here’s the cover:
Here are some links:
It is on Google Books and GoodReads.
No Audible version yet, but I will soon. It will take some work.
It came together really fast and after the first few iterations I had little to change.
It is also the shortest and the simplest novella so far.
Like the previous two (All Our Eyes and Squidstone Hollow) it is epistolary, although this one is based on blog posts from 2020, journal entries from 1960, and letters from 1859.
A few really good “photos” in there too!
Here’s the blurb from the back cover:
Some secrets refuse to stay buried beneath the sand.
When Melbourne’s suffocating COVID lockdowns trap 13-year-old Jack Hunter indoors, he stumbles upon an unlikely escape: fossil hunting along the rugged shores of Beaumaris Bay. What starts as a reluctant distraction from endless Zoom classes quickly spirals into a mystery as Jack unearths a peculiar artefact that defy explanation: a rock laced with metallic veins, heavy with secrets the tides can’t wash away.
But Jack isn’t alone in his fascination. Generations before him, others have been drawn to the same windswept bay. In the 1960s, a young girl named Eleanor Whitby uncovered a similar enigma, catching the eye of shadowy strangers. A century earlier, a Victorian scientist stumbled upon something even more confounding, igniting suggestions of lost histories. Each discovery hints at a thread connecting past and present, a puzzle buried in the sand that refuses to stay hidden.
As we dig deeper, the stakes rise. Strange visitors cast long shadows, and the artefacts seem to pulse with questions: What links these finds across time? Why do they stir such unsettling interest? Told through a mesmerizing tapestry of blog posts, journal entries, and faded letters, Beach Fossil unveils a tale of curiosity and wonder, where every stone turned could unearth a marvel or a mystery too vast to grasp.
Step onto the shores of Beaumaris Bay, where the past whispers through the waves.