\u201cFucking mozzies\u201d muttered Bob half asleep as he swatted another of the bastards with his hand. \u201cAnd fucking flies!\u201d he yelled, batting away another attacker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Can\u2019t stand it here<\/em>, he thought bitterly, knowing he couldn\u2019t voice his hatred of this new homeland out loud. Surrounded by Sheena\u2019s Australian family who were all thrilled to have her back, had put paid to that. Christmas here was all wrong. Blazing sunshine, barbecued seafood, chilly salads \u2013 where was the tradition in that? He missed carol singers, his mother\u2019s crispy roasties and the possibility of sledging in the snow. What he\u2019d give for a Baileys to hand, the EastEnders Christmas special blaring and a box of Quality Street to while away the afternoon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n Oh well, it was only a temporary trial. Bob was on a spousal visa which he would not<\/em> be extending after the two long years were up. Even the beer is too cold<\/em>,he reflected as he swigged from his stubby, drifting into a sweaty slumber.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sheena put in her iPods to suppress the growl of Bob\u2019s snoring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She helped herself to an oversized spoon of passionfruit pavlova, sighing as it dissolved in her mouth. Sheena hadn\u2019t realised how much she missed ripe tropical fruit. Starting Christmas day gorging on a box of mangoes had taken her back to her childhood. Biting into the skin, letting the nectar drip down to her elbows while feasting on the fibrous amber flesh. Then running into the warm sea to wash it all off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Something in the eucalyptus scented air had ignited her creative synapses. Since returning, every swim in the azure water, every inhalation from the ylang ylang tree and even the crunch of scorching white sand between her toes had blessed her with new story ideas. So many narratives in fact, that she mentally arranged them into a series.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sheena took in a sharp breath of humid air and commenced a pitch to her publisher.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Outback Mysteries<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Book 1 \u2013 Tis the Season<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Kylie and Matt move to Australia from Wales as a last ditch attempt to save their decaying marriage. Kylie is thrilled to be back in her hometown, while Matt misses his family and all things familiar. Following a humid day decorating their rental home for Christmas, they embark on a cooling walk in the Daintree rainforest. Only one of them returns, staggering into town with torn clothing and no memory of the day. The other is never to be seen again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What happened on that walk \u2013 are the local detectives capable enough to investigate? Can indigenous locals provide any insights into this walkabout gone wrong?<\/p>\n\n\n\n ======================================================================<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sheena looked up from her notepad to the familiar fuchsia pink of Queensland dusk. The rhythmic thrum of cicadas calmed her breathing. She turned to Bob, prodding his wobbly sunburnt belly with her pen. The resultant ripples both fascinated and repulsed her. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBob, Bob, come on wake up! It\u2019s the perfect time for a bushwalk.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cFucking mozzies\u201d muttered Bob half asleep as he swatted another of the bastards with his hand. \u201cAnd fucking flies!\u201d he yelled, batting away another attacker. Can\u2019t stand it here, he thought bitterly, knowing he couldn\u2019t voice his hatred of this new homeland out loud. Surrounded by Sheena\u2019s Australian family who were all thrilled to have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10158782359051062_103813597863211":"","twitter_1225722811282530305_1225722811282530305":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1490,1773],"tags":[729,567,102,333,95,829,8,7,20,167,1784,1783,14,1782,11],"class_list":["post-2587","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-1490","category-dec-2025-tis-the-season","tag-another","tag-bob","tag-christmas","tag-fucking","tag-had","tag-hand","tag-he","tag-her","tag-his","tag-into","tag-mysteries","tag-outback","tag-she","tag-sheena","tag-was"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbrNJE-FJ","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2587","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2587"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2587\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2588,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2587\/revisions\/2588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}