Showing results by author "Sally Cook" in All Categories

Wearing a Cape tells of a job working with clients from 50 different nationalities. Going to court with them, representing them at hearings, being with a murderer, and held captive by two psychotic clients - one of whom burnt an old people's home down. It is about working with the repressed, the under represented, the unfortunate and the fortunate. It portrays the stamina to work where there are courtroom threats, gifts of kindness, conflict, and resolution.

Walking Towards Gold tells the story of the author's pioneer colonist forebears who arrived in newly formed Adelaide, South Australia from Portsmouth, in June 1838 and how thirteen years later three of them walked 580 miles from Adelaide to the Victorian goldfields pushing a wheelbarrow.. There are intrepid accounts and interesting descriptions of early Adelaide and life on the Victorian goldfields. This is part of the Downer family's story.

Mirrors is a look at the panopoly of mirrors we confront in our modern daily life - for better or worse. Ongoing self reflections are unavoidable and come in all forms from the expected to the unexpected.

Who's at the door tells the story of two dogs crashing through a beach wedding, of their rambunctious play on the sand, of another family dog knocking over a Christmas tree and eating all the chocolate decorations, of a guinea pig wearing sunglasses, of a rabbit wearing dolls clothing sitting in a pram and a Mexican walking fish blowing bubbles in a book case.. Not to mention a child and goldfish in the same outdoor bath.

Ask The Agent is an amusing look at some aspects of selling a house including when the wrong house is put up for sale, when the back of a bus is one way to see a dream home, when a kitchen leaks badly before an Open For Inspection and when a young couple render their house with mud, poo and glue.

Spiders sometimes create terror, admiration and fascination and in this account spiders are heroes and victims. They induce one arachnophobe to pull over in blind panic as one of their members crawls out from behind his car pedals while he is driving at speed along a country road. Another toys with a spider, bouncing it up and down on its web as if it were a yoyo. Spiders create strong reactions in many of us. This story takes us into their web of life.

The author has a bad bout of insomnia and tries all sorts of ways to overcome it through a varying list of remedies. She knows that kangaroos are grazing on dewy grass just over the road and that she has a blanket of brilliant stars above her house but these comforting images do nothing to take her into sleepy oblivion. In this humorous account she recalls her miserable journey.

Roadworks and train station overhauls are confusing this author who has driven into oncoming traffic, avoided a kangaroo crossing a new roadwork barrier, got lost and couldn't find her train station carpark and who believes her amygdala must be growing as she negotiates new roundabouts, traffic lights, new road hazards and witches' hats. Follow her journey.....

Two near death experiences in one lifetime both involving loud, unexpected bangs. The author survived both a car collision and a plane catching fire and recounts the events with dramatic sound effects and clear recall.

This story tells the frustrating but sometimes humorous journey of the author's interactions with the virtual world where she combats chat bots, racks her withering brain for passwords, almost has a hissyfit at the supermarket checkout, accidentally buys online goods she doesn't want and gets all scrambled regarding pins, passwords and cyber theft.

Two young lovers have a number of adventures together, much to the approval of those around them. They watch movies together, dance together, share beach and park catch ups, frolicking like no others. But one evening one of them becomes stuck under an old building where not even the fire brigade nor the emergency services can get them out. But as the last light fades there is a solution.

Cafe Noir tells the story of an intimate online friendship between two artistic women who never meet but sustain each other emotionally during the rigors of COVID lockdowns. They share so many highs, lows and confidences from one personal bubble to another. It seems the perfect sustainable friendship until something goes wrong, with only one of the women truly understanding what is happening.

This story tells of a powerful older woman who has maintained her life through the war years and beyond via her love of reading and poetry. But 88-year-old Harriet is something of an enigma even to her daughters and granddaughter. Unusual events happen during this tale of love and loss even beyond Harriet's eventual death.

Melody's Radar tells the story of a downtrodden single mother who is sick of being pushed around and takes matters into her own hands. She tries to set a good example for her five-year-old daughter Amelia but the trouble is that Melody doesn't know when to stop. Her intensity becomes scary for anyone who is on her radar but her lack of personal understanding means she doesn't fully grasp the affect she is having, sometimes causing menacing ripples.

This story tells of a twenty-year-old girl who is house-sitting for six months in a seemingly calm and pleasant neighborhood where nothing peculiar seems to happen. That is, until Mandy hears screaming in the night, hears wailing and moaning during a heavy thunderstorm, feels an earth tremor beneath her feet and feels a man breathing over her in the night. And she has no one to confide in. She may be hypersensitive but does she catastrophize events or are they really happening and not very far below the surface?

Rhythm of Fire tells the story of 11-year-old twin boys who inadvertently kill an old woman. She dies of smoke inhalation in her rural shop crammed with Christmas decorations, A complex story unfolds leading to her identity and some unexpected developments following her tragic death.