Prize-winning author Chloe Wilson’s stories will pin you to the page.‘Chilling, funny, and razor sharp – a writer in control every step of the way. How I relished this extraordinary and original collection.’ Sofie Laguna, Miles Franklin winner for The Eye of the SheepFirst published in Granta Magazine, the title story takes us into the cold war of a contemporary family: a missile-making mother doubts her husband’s guts and the steel of her son, until a playground incident escalates and brings them into the most surprising of alliances.Needle sharp, effortlessly surprising and beautifully controlled, every story is transfixing. A young couple move into a house in which there’s been a recent murder, and fall under the spell of their peculiar, commanding neighbours. Two sisters are determined to detoxify themselves into perfection. A diver pushes herself and those around her to higher and higher jumps. Interspersed with these transfixing tales are lightning strikes of flash fiction: we glimpse a leopard in the apartment next door; plants grown out of a strange and miraculous soil; the spirit of a girl who’s been thrown down a well. At each turn, Chloe Wilson offers a unique insight, a tear in the veil of our comfortable moral certainties. Hold Your Fire exposes the battles we wage beneath the surface.

    Not the name you’d expect from someone on the run from the paranormal mob.You know, ogres with machine guns, kind of mob.But when the unborn ashes of the Phoenix ask for help, well, what’s a girl gonna do? I stole her urn from the mob and went on the run.Now I'm hiding in small town Indiana, where I work as a medic for fantasical beasts. I should be safe here, right?But the mob aren’t the only ones looking for the Phoenix.An ancient evil is searching for her in hopes to usher in Armageddon.Now I have a choice to make: abandon the Phoenix and run, or stop these supernatural bullies and beasts from harnessing the Phoenix’s magic for evil.Like I said, what’s a girl gonna do?Meet Frances, the latest hero in the GoneGod World. Frances a paranormal medic, treating the mythical creatures who now walk among us. If you love Mercy Thompson, Buffy or Katrina Darling, then you’ll absolutely love this unexpected heroine.

    Jack McPhail is a man on the run from his past, a drifter who lands by accident in a sleepy outback Australian town called Banjo Crossing. Jack - almost despite himself - becomes slowly drawn into the town, its community, its characters and its concerns.He's on the brink of falling in love with Mardi, a young widow and owner of the local coffee shop, when the community is confronted and divided by an unexpected development. A coal mining company has come to town, intent on buying up the local properties to build an open cut mine. The town of Banjo Crossing rallies together to fight off the threat. Jack wants to help out his new friends, but if he does, he's at risk of his past being exposed. Having his secret out there could change everything for him. Will he help them out, even if it costs him his second chance at happiness?'Highly topical and engaging ... incubating a mystery which must not be revealed until the exact psychological moment ... entertaining and charismatic' Adelaide Advertiser