Stories by @sallyodgers

Trinity Street

Tell and Camena were inseparable until the arrival of the mysterious Gerhardt. Now you can never see Camena without Gerhardt. Gerhardt is from the 27th century and on a mission - he wants high-IQ Camena for recovery into the future and the donation of her genes for the betterment of humanity.

Pen and Ink

Pen has been widowed for three years when she wishes for a companion.

Performing Pippin Pearmain

Pippin was a child star who became a character actress. Then, her mother and her agent died in the same week. Pip became a recluse but now she's being pulled out of her comfort zone into a life of fantasy which includes two talking cats!

Calico Calypso

Kris is in the doldrums. Then one day an annoying old friend invites him to a club. Kris arrives early and a pretty calico cat comes to sit with him. Later, the enticing Calypso Lindon dances in the spotlight. What's the connection?

Chateau of the Roses

Meeting an old schoolfriend set Dove on a quest for her past. Her father was an ordinary Aussie bloke. What could he possibly have to do with fairy tales and a mysterious chateau in France? A chance meeting with her best friend from schooldays gives Dove Larren the opportunity to step back into her comfort zone more than thirty years in the past. With Jags, she need not be the CEO of Rosa Columba, or dodge speculation about her personal life. Jags has no idea of Dove’s status, and Dove knows nothing of Jags’ current life. The weekly meetings at Sydney’s O-Quay Café are relaxing fun, but one day the old friends start speculating about names. The inspiration for Jagger Michaela Stone’s name is easy to spot, but why would beer-and-football-loving Eric Larren and his comfortable wife Barb choose to call their child Dove Rose? With urging from Jags, Dove calls her mother to give her the third degree. When Barb Larren finally admits the source of the name, Dove and Jags are off on a quest to find out the truth about a mysterious forebear and how the Larren family is linked with a chateau in France. At first, it seems an ordinary story of a French émigré, but things take an unbelievable turn. Dove thinks she has found an answer, but how can she be sure when Barb has no idea and Eric isn’t around anymore to ask?

Shadowdancers

Pirimba Raven's accident left her family in turmoil, especially her mother and her younger sister, Eden. Meanwhile, far away, another young woman is so badly beaten she has lost her mind. Her friend ShuMar will do anything to save Pirry --even welcome the girl who looks just like her.

Elysian Dawn

Elysian Dawn…the legend begins Marianne Arcadia expected to marry Jeremiah and raise a family. Edsen Balm had no more hope than to stay close to Marianne. Jameel Singh intended to travel home to Terra to meet his fiancée’s parents. Hanaka Moon meant to oversee the next generation of ship-born and pass the mantle of healer to her daughters. Meera Singh wanted to prove herself as the brightest new diamond in Mother Shiva’s crown. Cornelia Conti hoped to get her embroidery done and to find a shampoo that didn’t contain Stay-colour. All their plans crash-landed with the starship Elysian Dawn but that, as they say, was just the beginning.  

The Blue Castle

Valency Stirling lives a life of quiet desperation until a visit to her doctor gives her the courage to take control of her life. Knowing she hasn't long to live offers her romance in the blue castle of her dreams.

Floribunda and the Best Men

Plus-sized florist Floribunda "Flori" Alexandris has no idea why Pen Swan should invite her to be a bridesmaid at her wedding, but she agrees anyway. At the church, she encounters the two best men; the biggest Scottish ginger she's ever seen and a cool blond Sir Galahad type. She has no idea which one she should shake hands with first, or whose hand to accept for the bridal waltz. Flori likes the look of them both, but that's nothing to their magnetic reaction to her. How to choose? The men have their own creative solution, but there's something exceedingly odd about Hamish McTavish and Gervais St Clair. They don't offer to drive her van, and when she runs off the road in the middle of the night, no mention of women drivers crosses their lips. So that settles it. They can't possibly be human.

Three Mages and a Margarita

Tori is a waitress whose firecracker temper loses as many jobs as her red-headed appeal gets her. Having blundered into the guild of the Crow and Hammer, she lands a new gig as a bartender, and three new and devoted friends in Aaron, Ezra, and Kai. Her dream job comes with a large helping of danger, and a built-in use-by date when the Powers that Be must inevitably discover Tori can’t legally work for the guild because she’s not a mythic. Or… can she possibly get a new classification?

Replay

A curse (or maybe a blessing?) sent Saxon girl Aelfthryth, and her boy husband, Hereweald, tumbling through time. They wake anew in each century, and live for a brief time under different identities. To occupy a tedious captivity in their current incarnation, Aelfthryth tells her story to her fellow captive, the mysterious Saranna.

Sam and the Sylvan

Sam Silver has never fitted in. For one thing, she is still being carded in her thirties. Sometimes, she feels like a stray cat--willing to take whatever she can get. When Sam meets Oash, she finds herself, for the first time, unwilling to snatch whatever is on offer.

Performing Pippin Pearmain

Eccentricity is Pippin Pearmain’s lifelong stock-in-trade. She used to be a niche-market performer, but at sixty-six, she hasn’t worked in a decade. That doesn’t matter to Pip. She has her cosy life at Lemonwood Cottage, an interesting friendship with Mister Clancy next door, walks on the beach and occasional stoushes with the officious and the annoying. She enjoys her regular ballet practice, and her daily battle with the bad-tempered lemon tree in the garden. Pip has two cat companions, and if they choose to communicate with her in Cat-Morse about things no cat should be concerned with, well—no one else needs to know. Above all, she has her green-penned bucket list. That is unique.

Anna's Own

Teenaged Anna Bailey is transported to Van Diemens Land for attempted murder. Once arrived, she is taken into service by colonial settlers Jane and Charles Colby. When her sentence is served, Anna marries Jack "Mad Jack" Kelly, and travels with him to his remote property, Kelly's Kingdom. Fire, loss and tragedy follow, but Anna refuses to be beaten. She's determined to have something of her own.