Books

Rumors of Her Death is out now!

booktopia \ dymocks \ bookshop.org \ Amazon \ barnes & noble

In this kaleidoscopic psychological thriller, a man haunted by his girlfriend’s suicide dons a revolving door of identities in a futile attempt to outrun his past. When the man calling himself Archie Leach begins spotting his dead lover at random locations around the city, he must finally stop running and face the truth―which may not be quite as he’s remembered it all these years.

An American living in Australia, Archie’s had so many aliases that when he wakes up handcuffed to a hospital bed, he almost forgets which one he’s supposed to use. With his delivery job derailed by a brief and inconvenient death, he’s earned the wrath of his underworld boss, landing him an exorbitant repayment plan and the commandeering of his apartment for everything from corpse storage to Tuesday night yoga class.

While recovering from his injuries, Archie is roped into dog-sitting for his new neighbor, Nisha, and a reluctant friendship ensues. She introduces Archie to the strange world of the Orrery, a nine-story mecca of surreal hedonism whose ninth level promises to hold the answers they’re both seeking. But Nisha has spun plenty of her own deceptions, as Archie realizes too late. At this rate, they may both end up dead without ever knowing who’s been fooling whom.

amazon / dymocks / Bookshop.org / Barnes and noble

Lenore is a professional mourner with the unwanted gift of a peculiar variety of precognition. She spends her days pretending to grieve for strangers and her nights genuinely grieving her recently deceased boyfriend. When Lenore is hired to attend the funeral of wealthy businessman Elliott Brindle, she discovers that she not only is the sole attendee but that, as a result of a curious stipulation in the will, she is now the heir to his estate.

Upon inspecting his open casket, she finds a small gold watch in his mouth, engraved with the name of his missing daughter, Riley. She discovers that her newly inherited house is filled with all manner of strange secrets, not least of which is the cryonically frozen corpse in the backyard shed. Her arrival at the house instigates an encounter with Brindle’s former colleague, Csaba, who controls a cult of cryonics-obsessed aristocrats who want to find Brindle’s long-lost daughter for a variety of bizarre and sinister reasons.

Meanwhile, Lenore’s brother Darius is working on the set of a mysterious film that seems to never finish production, and whose lead star has been invited to be the cult’s spokesperson. Lenore and Darius soon cross paths with an alarmingly pallid young man named Orin, who is also trying to come to terms with a recent death; his own. As the threads of their stories bind together and the search for Riley continues, Lenore discovers that there is far more to the cult-and to Riley-than any of them could have guessed.

19½ SPELLS DISGUISED AS POEMS


The first thing you should know about this book is that it’s DEFINITELY NOT a collection of actual magic spells because magic isn’t real, obviously. Disguising spells as a collection of poems is the kind of wickedly brilliant thing that only an absolute supervillain would do, and this poet is not any kind of supervillain. He’s an actual poet who’s won awards and everything and certainly wouldn’t disguise a series of spells as a collection of poems about zombies, monsters, and rapping grandmas. What a ridiculous suggestion!

 

DKL Killing Adonis FINAL

Killing Adonis is now available worldwide in paperback, hardcover, and audiobook! Grab it from Amazon, Poisoned Pen Press or wherever else you buy your books. Unless you buy your books from Esther’s Esoteric Erotica Emporium, because they don’t stock it for some reason.

 

Stendhal syndome final Cover

STENDHAL SYNDROME

STENDHAL SYNDROME: Feelings of increased heart rate, dizziness, disorientation, amnesia, hallucinations etc. in response to immense beauty present in either artistic works or the natural world.

A collection of poems, short stories, lists and rants by J. M. Donellan, author of Killing Adonis, 2015 Australian Poetry Slam national finalist, and one half of electronic/spoken word duo Poetry is Dead.

COVER -1 jpg
TWELVE

A series of images and texts that intertwine to tell stories of hope and loss, land and sea, death and rebirth. Paintings by Wendy Donellan showcase her exquisite use of colour and light to examine places and people both real and illusory. These images capture Australian and French landscapes and characters as they were, are, and as they exist in the realm of the imagination. Accompanying these images are a series of vignettes and short stories by her son J. M. Donellan, author of Killing Adonis and Stendhal Syndrome. These stories are presented both as text and audio recordings to create a multi-sensory exploration of the worlds into which the viewer is invited to explore.

Audio recordings of these stories can be streamed on soundcloud and downloaded from bandcamp.

 Killing Adonis_JM Donellan_3D

KILLING ADONIS

LIGHT DUTIES
LARGE PAY
NO QUESTIONS ASKED … OR ANSWERED

After seeing a curious flyer, Freya takes a job caring for Elijah, the comatose son of the eccentric Vincetti family. She soon discovers that the Vincetti’s labyrinthine mansion hides a wealth of secrets, their corporate rivals have a nasty habit of being extravagantly executed, and Elijah is not the saint they portray him to be.

As well, Marilyn Monroe keeps showing up, unaware she’s very much deceased. And there’s something very strange about the story that Elijah’s brother Jack is writing …

Killing Adonis is a tragicomic tale about love, delusion, corporate greed and the hazards of using pineapple cutters while hallucinating.

Zeb-front-72dpi

ZEB AND THE GREAT RUCKUS

“This is a story  made from pieces of all the dreams you had when you were asleep, but then forgot when you woke up.”

Hello! You are reading this in order to determine whether or not this book will be of interest to you! Well, congratulations, you obviously have fabulous taste! Zeb and the Great Ruckus is a story about magic, music, fireworks, bewilderbeasts, clockwork birds and weaponised toffee. It has some funny bits, some scary bits, some sad bits, and a rather large bit about a cave-dwelling ruttersnarl which we would tell you about but we don t want to give away the ending. If you like the sounds of any or all of the above, then this is the book for you! If you would rather read a complete history of European haberdashery, please consult your local book emporium.


A BEGINNER’S GUIDE TO DYING IN INDIA

 “It’s 9:36am and my house is on fire. My name is Levi. Welcome to the ruins of my life.” 

Winner of the 2009 Interactive Publications Picks Best Fiction Award. Part comedy, part tragedy, part henna-drawn thriller peppered with romance and intrigue, A Beginner’s Guide to Dying in India is a spiritual journey across the continents of the soul. Commencing in Australia and traversing toward the climactic scene in the snowy mountains of Northern India, this novel crosses exotic external and internal terrains with humour, sharp wit and a resonance that expands with each chapter. While confronted with mounting grief and loss in Australia, Levi is suddenly called to India by his brother and delves, though somewhat reluctantly, into the shifting sands of his own spirituality. In fulfilling his dying brother’s wishes, Levi embarks on a path intersecting with adventure, new found friends, a treasure trove of riches (and not just the material kind).