What is Paint, Passion and Promises about?
BLURB– Paint, Passion and Promises – Romance in the Outback
After fifteen years living in Sydney, Joe Willer returns to his rural Queensland hometown of St James. His aunts, Bess and Anne, now in their mid-seventies, need him and he accepts Anne’s offer to work in her law firm for a year or two.
Joe remembers St James as a town full of people, expert at minding each other’s business. He fears little has changed. Nick’s Café thrives. The pubs do brisk business. Conversations begin with the weather, and Nora still spreads gossip.
Joe soon regrets bringing his long-term male partner, Ali, for a week’s visit, afraid locals will realise they’re more than friends.
Three days after arriving in St James, Joe finds his seventy-five-year-old aunts collapsed on their kitchen floor; Anne appears dead, Bess barely conscious. As Joe awaits information from the hospital, the story unfolds. Long kept secrets are revealed and Joe’s world fractures when Ali returns to Sydney. Will any of their lives ever be the same again?
Paint, Passion and Promises – Romance in the Outback is a story about love, relationships, trust and belonging.
What’s special about this book?
Paint, Passion and Promises is set in outback Queensland in the fictional town of St James. Three relationship narratives are interwoven throughout this novel. The story of Bess Willer, a famous Australian artist and her lifelong partner, Anne Samson, a successful lawyer, is one of these narratives. The relationship between their gay nephew, Joe Willer and his partner, Ali is a second thread and the third is that of St James local identity, Birdie Watson. This saga spans seventy-five years from 1940 to 2015.
Narrated by the five main characters, Paint, Passion and Promises is about the anguish of forbidden love and relationships, rural life in Australia, acceptance, tolerance and forgiveness.
Australian art is a theme central to this book. Famous Australian artists including Brett Whiteley and Charles Blackman cameo in the story line and connect with both Bess and Anne. These are fictious encounters, but they enrich the storyline.
Where did the inspiration come from?
This photo popped up on social media in the lead up to the 2017 Australian marriage equality plebiscite. It was captioned ‘Marriage equality now!’ I saw it and the germ of a story popped into my head. I started writing, researching and plotting.
How did you come up with the settings?
From 1979 to 1983, I was a one teacher school principal at Wycombe State School on the Ardlui property. My twenty students came from the surrounding, cattle and sheep properties. St George was our main commercial centre and I visited it every couple of weeks to shop and socialise. They were four of the most memorable years of my life, so it is not surprising that I included these properties and this town in the book, but renamed.
Bayu and I had a magnificent holiday is Paris and Giverny back in 2013, so I had to include these places in the book. I’ve also enjoyed some holidays in Sydney and this also was included. All other places resulted from research and the suggestions of friends.
When will Paint, Passion and Promises be available?
The launch of my book on Amazon is scheduled for the 20th August, 2026. The launch price will be about AUD$5 for the e-book and AUD$20 plus postage for the paperback.