Mandy Partridge's Blog

After much stuffing around, "Murder at the Town Crier Tournament" is nearly ready to publish.
Set in Devon, England, this adventure takes place at the International Town Criers' Tournament, in 2025.

Twelve o'clock and all's not well!
Town Crier's daughter Julie and Detective Tom must catch the killer before he wipes out the Competition.
Canberra Town Crier's daughter, Julie Belltower, accompanies her mum Jennifer to sunny Devon in England, for the Armada Cup, with Criers from Britain, Canada, the USA, Bermuda, New Zealand and Australia. One Crier is stabbed with a sword, and another poisoned at the Criers' luncheon, and everyone is afraid.
Plymouth police detective Tom Courthope and his small team are overwhelmed by a professional criminal on a final spree, and the media are drawn in to the small towns for the vicious competition. A prize of a hundred thousand pounds has attracted the finest Criers, but the conman has planned to terrorise Plymouth, Kingsbridge and Dartmouth with his gun.
Police Prosecutor Sarah Saxby joins the team, and Julie spends the rest of her "holiday" seeking a serial killer's family and previous victims. Still, nothing is sexier than gun shops, dodgy boats, chartered planes and a mystery to solve.
​​​​​​​Oyez! Oyez! Oyez!

I will put "Murder" on a Goodreads Giveaway, as soon as the publishing is completed.
I will also release this book as an audiobook, after one of the Sisters In Crime, who is hearing impaired, asked me to produce one. Another close friend is a bit dyslexic, but loves audiobooks, so I'm learning how to do it this time.
If I am successful with it, I will make audiobooks of all my other works which I still own the copyright to.
I'll plan a Brisbane book launch, too, after rowing season is done and dusted.

I've been shadow banned on the Meta platforms (Facebook and Instagram) for posting about world peace.
Here is my post.
In the name of the sacredness of human life, let us end religious states like Israel. Let it be forever wrong to preach religious superiority over other people, to preach hatred and killing in the name of any God. No chosen people- only People. End Israel. Stop the Genocide in Gaza. Stop the bombing of Iran, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen. No nuclear bombs for Israel. No nukes for the USA, the UK, France, or anyone. Ever. Anymore. No more war. Peace. Netanyahu is the Devil and Trump is the Antichrist. Anthony Albanese, it's time to say no to Evil, and stand up for Humanity, not to lie about nukes or WMDs again. It's time to end the AUKUS alliance, like New Zealand ended the ANZUS alliance. No alliance with murderers, liars and land-snatchers. It's time to stand up for what is right, stand up against the Slaughter in Gaza. We beg you, do what you know is right. Don't lead us into hell with murderers, but deliver us from Evil. For the love of Humanity. From an ordinary citizen who can tell right from wrong, please, let's be on the right side of history. Please.

I'm giving away 100 ebooks of 'Acid Pops', the final book of the 'Mirella Castle Investigates' series.
In "Acid Pops", Mirella cracks the case of the Acid Casualties. A mad romp across Australia, tracking dealers, guarding Elise, while doing wild shows.
Mirella Castle is the intersex investigator, based in Brisbane, Australia, and this adventure takes her to Nimbin, Canberra, Boomerang Beach, New South Wales, and London, England, Paris, Milan and Split, Croatia.
Mirella works both protecting Elise Forsyth as her bodyguard, as well as performing in her troupe, the Beast Parade, in festivals across Australia and Europe.
Skye takes Mirella to the Pro Surf competition at Boomerang Beach, and accidentally draws the hitmen looking for Elise, directly to him and Mirella.
Best friend, Shayna Yindi joins the troupe for the tour, but they are also trailed by the Hairdresser's Widow. Mirella will need all her friends from Steen the Biker, the hot men from the Fizz, to the Alcoholics and Narcotics Anonymous group to crack the case and keep her friend alive.


On the personal front, I've been performing as the Town Crier for Queensland Day, with Vulcana Circus, and with Mosaic Multicultural Choir; as well as the various writing projects, three books and a play. It's also rowing season for my daughter, and my mum has moved to a new house, waiting for her gorgeous apartment to be finished. I think I've given up on the publishers again, after still more time wasted applying to them, with the wonderful help of the Australian Society of Authors. I learnt a lot, but I'll just stick to self publishing for now, where I can say what I want, and not have to write to a formula.
I've also had a spate of emails from men pretending to be famous writers, English, Chinese and American. When these email chains disappear, I realise that it is just sad people playing games, but how bizarre? Goodreads must catch them and delete their fake profiles. It's a bit like how Myspace used to operate, I think I had Prince Charles write to me back then, haha.

Catch ten of us "old girl" acrobats, performing at Vulcana's 30th Birthday Party, at the Colmslie circus space.
Happy to be asked to join the "old girls" troupe for a scene in the 30th Birthday Show. We did a two hour training session, and afterwards, I was so sore, I could hardly walk up the steps.
We did duo and trio tricks, and could pull off all the basic ones, and a few hard tricks.
The Colmsie circus space is the old hockey club at the Colmslie Sports Reserve, Lyton Road, Colmslie, (Brisbane, Australia). The new Vulcana space has two big rooms, enabling aerial acrobatics, as well as ground acro and dance training. Vulcana used to operate at the New Farm Powerhouse, Brisbane.
Being an old hockey club, there is a kitchen, so a bar and some food will be available.
I performed in Vulcana Circus shows in 1997 at the Princess, "Lifeblood", 1998 at La Boîte, "Fire In the Belly", 2000 "I'd Rather be a Cyborg than a Goddess" at the Powerhouse, and touring to Mullumbimby Circus Fest.
I'm old now.

As my 'currently reading' list shows, I've just been to the annual Lifeline Book Fair, and come back with as many books as I could carry.
Focusing on Australian, Brisbane and First Nations writers, I also found some British and American writers that I like. Last year I'd found a Ruth Parks, and this year I found two of her husband, D'Arcy Niland's books, 'Dadda jumped over two Elephants' and 'The Shiralee'. I found an illustrated biography of Miles Franklin, to sit next to her works- a literary award was named after her.
I found Delia Falconer's Sydney, and a collection of short stories she edited. Brisbane writer Kim Wilkins' 'Rosa and the Veil of Gold' now sits with 'Resurrectionists'.
I found another Peter Carey book, to join the shelf of his great works. I was lucky to meet Carey the year I edited Semper Floreat, the UQ magazine.
I also found another Colleen McCullough, to go with her motley collection.
This year, the First Nations books I found were mostly nonfiction, but I am just as interested in this important research as in fiction.
I found another Armistead Maupin book, and I was excited to meet Armistead at a Brisbane Writers Festival one year. I had bought his first four books at a church school fete, tied together with string.
Armistead was out of print at the time, so his queue was short, and we chatted for ages. I told him I was glad the four books were tied together, so I could grab the whole series. He thought they were tied up so no-one would look inside, at all the terrible sexy rainbow stories. We laughed about book bondage, and if it was anally retentive, or what?
I also found a bunch of plays, so my play and film script shelf is slowly filling up too.
Re-arranging my bookshelves according to publishing house has helped me to understand the publishing industry too, and I realised that while half my favourite authors are with the big houses, half are not, and publish with many small companies, or self publish.
There are probably 3000 books between the house and the shed now. I'll have to give some back to Lifeline, a worthy cause, at any time of year.

I have a few literary projects on the stove at the moment, it's a bit like juggling.
Completed books, seeking a Publisher, are 'Skinsuit 2222: the Serfs Uprising', which is speculative fiction set in Meanjin Australia, and 'Murder at the Town Crier Tournament', a murder mystery set in Devon England.

Books I am in the process of editing are 'Spike', which started as a short story, and was short-listed for the Scarlet Stiletto Awards, I finally came up with an appropriate conclusion, and 'Jetset Gypsy'.

Undergoing a complete rewrite is 'Swampy', now a narrative nonfiction/ memoir set in Brisbane from 1985 to 1999. Radio 4ZZZ FM will celebrate 50 years on air next year, and Heather Anderson is publishing a book to mark the occasion.
I gave Heather a couple of chapters from 'Swampy', concerning the Victoria Brazil attacks on 4ZZZ in 1988/ 89, and my management of the acid house club, 'Euphoria'. Heather is contacting as many past and present 4ZZZ workers, to get a fully rounded history of the big events the Zed's at three studios, and the market days and concerts which Zed's Promotions Co-ordinators ran. I'd like to publish 'Swampy' to coincide with December's 50th celebrations, if I can.
I've been laughing and groaning reading all my old journals, and putting the important characters and events into my own book, 'Swampy'. Pre-internet culture in Meanjin/ Brisbane was weird- small events in random places, where the visual arts/ performing arts/ music/ nightclub/ hair and fashion worlds collided, organised by phone calls to share-phones, posted invitations, posters and handbills, and word of mouth.
'Swampy' was partially published in serial form in Semper Floreat, UQ's newspaper, when it was still a fiction MS, with historical fiction woven through it.
As I re-read the story, what struck me was that the really unusual thing about the journals, was the dreams predicting the close future (5 to 10 Years), rather than any made-up flashbacks to the past. The fictionalisation about the 4ZZZ weakened the story. I had fictionalised for legal reasons, at the time.
So the 'Swampy' story has lost the fiction, and the historic bits, but gained from the realness of these stories, and the editing powers I have acquired over decades of writing.
It's been hilarious making time-lines, then listing the dozens of newspaper and fanzine articles, theatre and art performances, band and circus gigs, and seeing the photos and publicity, kept in folders, clippings from so many publications which are long gone.

My other project is a two-hander play, under the working title of 'It's Complicated'. I've written a lot of plays, and only about half have ever been performed, and none have been published.
I've had a read-through and a bit of a photo shoot with my friend and fellow actor, Mark Love. Mark has been my Companion, notably for King Charles' Coronation at Government House. He did a Drama Teaching degree, and sings and plays piano, and is just excellent to work with. We hope to present this play on stage, as a couple of theatres in our city encourage local playwrights with competitions for a place in their production schedule.
I found the script to another play called 'Schoolies Week' when I was going through my old manuscripts and clippings.

I have been pitching the first two books, Skinsuit and Murder, at The Australian Society of Author's online speed pitching events. If these, and my numerous query letters do no result in commercial publication, I will self-publish one or both books with KDP in 2025.

Then I will start pitching for 'Swampy' and 'Spike', after they are both finished with the editing process.
As usual, I am seeking test readers or beta readers, who are willing to spot typos, plot holes, or bad spelling.
If you'd like a PDF copy of any of these upcoming works for a test read, please send me a personal message.

Please do not send a PM if you want to hit on me. I am married, and this is Goodreads, not Grindr.
If you want advice on what to read, I'm just going to say, read one of my books, or one of the over three hundred reviews I've written here, dude.

To my test readers, or any reader who has given me a rating or review, I say, thank you very much.

I'm giving away 100 copies of 'Wizz Fizz: Mirella Castle Investigates' on Goodreads Giveaway until the 15th of October 2024.
This means that American, Canadian and British readers can apply to win a free E-book.
https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/sh...
Australian readers can write me a personal message, for a pdf review copy, and I'd really appreciate feedback.
Recent feedback tipped me off to a major typo in 'Kandy Krush', involving most of the Table Of Contents listing the chapters of 'Wizz Fizz' instead of 'Kandy Krush'.
The software I use is weird with lists of numbers and words, and somehow, the TOCs were mostly swapped out. I have fixed this problem, which has only occurred in existing Print On Demand paperbacks. Future POD paperbacks will all have correct Table of Contents.
My daughter and I just did an amazing six night tour of New South Wales. We drove from Brisbane to Moree, where we stayed in a cabin with thermal artesian spring spas and pools; and counted 27 dead kangaroos on the way.
Then, on to Parkes, with its Satellite Dish, and the annual Town Crier competition, we counted 107 dead roos that day. We drove through the Blue Mountains, and stopped at Katoomba to see the Three Sisters national park. Stopped counting roos, but thought about the living emus, pelicans, rabbit, sheep, cows, lamas and birds, and the lizard we'd swerved to miss.
Staying at the Hotel Bondi, Sydney looked just amazing. We walked the famous beach, and swam at the Icebergs beach pool, and shopped for swimmers for J, who has swimming this term at school.
Driving home over the Sydney Harbour Bridge, and through the Brisbane Waters national parks was so scenic, and the traffic was dogsh*t.
Coffs Harbour is a perfect half way beach spot, where the mountains meet the ocean, like an undeveloped Rio de Janeiro. Gorgeous walking along the Harbour to Muttonbird Island, and sweet swimming at Jetty Beach.
The Pacific highway was great, but I don't know if I'll drive the Gore or Newell highways again, after nightmares of dead kangaroos.

I wrote a short review for David Knijnenburg's book, "An Australian Christmas Murder" here on Goodreads.
Then I was asked to write a longer review of this terrific book for Australia's Q News, our LGBTIQ newspaper and online news source.
My 500 word review will appear in the next issue. I'm so excited, I haven't had any print journalism published recently, so I'll nip in to the Valley to grab some copies when it comes out.
As a middle aged writer/ performer, my early CV/ Bio is all clippings from newspapers and magazines, and photographs. Now it's all online stuff, so some printed work is a nice change these days.
Go David! The book is fab, and would make a terrific play or film. I can't wait to read what Knijnenburg writes next.

Mandarella Publishing and Productions are launching Mandy Partridge's new book, "Acid Pops".
It's the final of the "Mirella Castle Investigates" series of racy crime novels set in Brisbane.

The Launch will be at the Cave Inn in Woolloongabba, from 6 till 9 pm on Wednesday, the 26th of June, 2024. Mandy will give a brief author talk, then play a short set with her band, the Little Bignotes. Patrick and Warren will also play live music.

It's free entry and finger food, with drinks and pizza available from the bar. There is ample parking near the old Broadway hotel (which burnt down).

Mandy decided to wrap up her "Mirella Castle Investigates" series, before all her characters went over to the dark side. Mirella cracks the case of the Acid Casualties, following the supply chain to Nimbin, Canberra and beyond, in her search for the Acid Queen.
Mirella works as both bodyguard and performer, for Elise Forsyth's Beast Parade, who tour to Glastonbury and the Euro festival circuit. Murri friend Shayna and Wanda the Blonder join the troupe, as do two hot men from the Fizz, adding live music.
The Hairdresser puts a Hit out on Elise.
Skye takes Mirella on their first road trip together, to cover the pro surf comp at Boomerang Beach. He inadvertently draws the hitmen away from his sister, and directly towards Mirella and himself.
It's a high octane romp through the underbelly of the Brisbane live performance and crime scenes. Some dreams are achieved, some are dashed, and the world opens up for Mirella and her friends.

Hey, American, Canadian and UK readers, I'm giving away 100 Ebooks of "Acid Pops", the final of the "Mirella Castle Investigates" series.
Mirella cracks the case of the Acid Casualties. She links the Acid King deaths of the 90s to the Acid Queen, now living in rural Nimbin. Mirella follows the supply chain to Canberra and beyond.
Evan from Harrison Hair has put a hit out on Elise Forsyth. Elise's Beast Parade travel to London for a string of festival gigs, and Mirella travels as a performer and her body-guard. Wanda the Blonder, Murri friend Shayna and the hot men from the Fizz join the Beast Parade, adding live music.
Skye invites Mirella to the Pro Surf Comp at Boomerang Beach, so they take their first road trip together. Skye accidentally attracts the hitmen away from his sister, directly to Mirella and himself.
An action-packed romp around Brisbane, and the World opens up for Mirella and her friends.
https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/sh...