Excerpt from From Whence They Came

As Penelope and Hannah made their way to the Captains dinner, Morgan, the black bearded, heavy set man, spoke to his cabin companion.

“That's them...Those pair of birds will bring us a big ransom, and a good price on the slave market in Africa.”

Holding the cabin door just slightly ajar, the pair watched the women as they passed along the passageway. Morgan was thinking of the treatment that the younger, Hannah might get from him before he relinquished his control over her, and the thought filled his mind with the most evil of ideas.

(book yet to be edited)

Sailing on the Brigantine 'Emma' to Australia Charles Bevan Baker and other paying passengers are confronted with a drama that could lead to the worst possible nightmare for fellow friends and passengers.

How will this drama be resolved? Will we lose Penelope and Hannah to the slave trade in Africa? 

This book, the third in the Outback Adventure, is being written now, the second book, From Lotus to Lignum is in the hands of the editor/publisher, Fiona Gatt, and will be available for the readers in a few months...Then the wait for "From whence They came" will tidy up the series.

Why are romance and the Outback so entwined?

It is a good question as to why the Outback of Australia and the rugged areas of other places seem to draw themselves to romance.

Maybe it is the contrasts of harshness and soft love, opposites attract and soft love is not really a trait of nature when she hands out her lessons on life in the wide brown land.

I love a sunburned country
A land of sweeping plains
Of ragged mountain ranges
Of droughts and flooding rains
I love her far horizons
I love her Jewel-sea
Her beauty and her terror-
The wide brown land for me.

Dorothea  Mackella, in this second verse of her great Australian poem epitomised the love that one can feel for the Outback. It shows that the spirit of the land is not  only in the animals and the long born indigenous people, but can raise in the hearts of the settlers, the graziers, bushmen of all working codes, and it is soon felt in the hearts of the traveller if they let themselves be adopted by the Outback Mother, Nature herself.

In my own heart comes the feeling of wonder at nature's hand; how a land like ours can supply all that the rest of the world holds, and yet retain its own individuality.

I know that there is always the thought, when nature is good to you, that you could hug her, you could love her for her kindness, and that is how we develop true love for the women that gave us the opportunity to feel true love as was meant for man and woman.

I have been subject to some terror, things that I thought I would not come out of, and in the end, all the terror and fear had been washed away by a sweet girl, cotton wool soft, hair of golden strands and eyes so blue that I had ridden over my fears to accept the love, the surrounding place and the situation.

Having passed that test of returning from disaster, and being blessed with that beautiful angel, a bush girl, an Outback classy lass, I know why the Outback is an ideal platform for fair-dinkum, joyous love stories.

From photographer Tony Feder

I challenge you to seek the Outback , to sit at Emily's Gap, at the Alice, see the colours change against the rocks as nature practices her painting technique.  To fathom the Katherine Gorge. To stand on the Black Soil Plains and see an unbroken horizon in the full circle of land as though you are standing on a plate that could easily flip you off into the cathedral sky of the night. I challenge you to see these things and not feel a greater love for the person of your desire.

Believe, the Outback begs for love stories.

[Peter Rakes Romance Adventure novel, The Outback Story - The Loves and Adventures of 'Tiger' Williams, is available now on Amazon]

So Lucky for an Old Bloke

I am really amazed at this whirlwind spiral from a non-published writer to being able to feed my ego on the wonderful cover of my very own book.

'The Loves and Adventures of Tiger Williams' has been a long road, a road with many personal feelings and recollections of events, many of which are not in the book, but were evoked during the compilation of the fictional version.

Fiona Gatt, my Publisher at MetaPlume hit the Outback atmosphere nail right on the head with the cover of this story. The colours are the perfect depiction of the Outback at that time of the evening.

The sillouette of the loving couple and the dog are in perfect unison with the story, and the mystery of why "Tiger Williams" will hopefully create that curiosity of those that like a good yarn.

Fiona, I dip's me' lid to ya' girl.