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R. Bownds Author - March Newsletter 2026 - Plenty of Freebies
Published 8 months ago • 3 min read
Hello to all my newsletter readers it's time once again to touch base.
It's hard to believe the first three months of 2026 has almost gone already. Nine more months like this and we'll be looking down the barrel at 2027 before we know it. I think our fast paced, rush here, rush there world today leaves us wondering ... where does the time go?
I still plan on releasing books 4 and 5 of The Mara Mysteries this year all going well.
Signed and Unsigned Paperbacks
I have paperback copies signed or unsigned of all my books available through my website or direct through my Payhip store. Including glossy cover paperback copies of the short story Murder on the Murray.
Murder on the Murray is also available as an ebook when you sign up to my newsletter. If you don't have a copy as yet grab yourself one. You won't get double newsletters if you're already a subscriber.
The recent floods through the outback of South Australia reminded me of several incidents back when we trapped rabbits in the 60s. This is one of those times.
The creeks through the outback are mostly dry unless spring fed but the lesson well learnt is never to pitch camp in a dry creek bed even if its the only source of shade available. One such time with no rain forecast my father decided for the comfort of the family and against his better judgement he did just that. We setup camp beneath several gum trees on a small raised patch of gravelly ground in the centre of an extremely wide dry creek bed. We camped there for several days, no rain, scorching hot and shade ... until.
One morning we crawled from our beds to find our little camp perched on an island in the middle of a fast rising creek. Luckily at this time the water wasn't anymore than knee high and us kids and Mum waded through carrying camping gear while Dad and my brothers hitched the car to the caravan and drove it, the truck and our trapping vehicle across.
What to remember in that country is, there may be no rain where you are but don't for a moment believe you are safe from flood. Those creaks come down fast and the storm the water came from could be miles away but it'll be upon you in no time.
The Mara Mysteries - Books 1, 2 and 3.
The Mara Mysteries Additional - A Weekend at Joe's
Check out this Australian mystery author. If you're into Aussie crime his DI Stratton series could be right up your ally.
S.J. Thiessen
Mystery crime author
Simon James (S.J.) Thiessen is a Tasmanian crime fiction author based in Hobart, where he lives with his wife Jane and two of their four children (the eldest two sons having left home to make the same mistakes Simon made at their age). After a career spent founding businesses, advising leaders, and consulting on workplace culture, Simon eventually admitted something to himself: he didn’t just want to write a novel—he wanted to be a novelist. The result are the Detective Inspector Terry Stratton mystery crimes; a growing series of Australian crime novels set firmly in lutruwita / Tasmania. Stratton is a detective who struggles with politics, distrusts authority, and prefers uncomfortable truths to convenient answers. Unsurprisingly, Simon relates. The series began with Crossing the Patriline, a prequel novel, and continues with Aether and Degrees of Retribution. While each book stands alone, the series builds a wider world of recurring characters, long grudges, and professional rivalries—where past decisions echo loudly into the present. Simon’s stories are shaped by his enduring love of classic and contemporary mysteries, and by themes he returns to often: justice and power, belonging and inclusion, dyslexia, identity, and resistance to systems that protect themselves before they protect people.
Hello Reader it's time once again to touch base. My father was a farmer who turned his hand to anything where he could make enough money to feed the family. We trapped rabbits throughout Victoria, New South Wales and South Australia. Mined gold for some time in Western Australia. Dad also farmed wheat and sheep in Western Australia until a flood wiped out the crops and the bank threatened to foreclose. This was back in the 60s. Dad sold the farm, paid off the bank, and we moved back to South...
Hello Reader it's time once again to touch base. I was sitting in the car outside the chemist yesterday, waiting for my partner to return, when a young man came down the street pushing a shopping trolley loaded with empty cans and bottles. He carried an overstuffed backpack on his shoulder and wore clothes which appeared to have been slept in. He paused at the street side garbage bin in front of our car and went through its enclosed rubbish searching for those empty treasures. We have our...
Hello Reader. Continuing our 1969 Queensland adventure. After cutting East, we headed north from Miles through Taroom and across the mountains towards Cracow. It wasn't raining in this part of Queensland, and the roads were dry, dusty, potholed, and rough. The mountain road, no wider than two vehicles. A sharp drop off on the downside and a steep bank of rocks, trees (both alive and dead) and underbrush on the other. Dad out in front with the car and caravan, my brother Des in the centre...
