This collection, and its companion piece, No Time for Pity and Other Tales, covers wide-ranging motifs: humour, crime, fantasy, family, and childhood themes. Several stories are located in the outback areas much loved, but seldom visited, by Australians-they are often regarded as the "real Australia," where men are men...etc.

But there are humorous tales too, though readers should remember that one man's funny story is another man's blank stare.

Then there are ghosts, but not of the sheet-flapping variety; and slices of life seen through the eyes of children.

Where would story writers be without crime? What happened in "Townhouse" to create the cold chill? Why was that young man shooting like a maniac on the rifle range in "Come to the Fair?" And what is the dark secret in "Fruition?"

In a lighter vein is "In Memoriam"-would you have handled Margot's problem with such grace? And there is unfulfilled yearning in "The True Romantic" and "Waiting."

All that is needed now is a comfortable chair, a warm fire and a glass of something cheering, or perhaps plenty of sunscreen and a shady umbrella on the beach, and these stories wait to help you pass an enjoyable hour or so.

An Empty Bottle is a collection of short stories that would otherwise have been consigned to the realm of forgotten things. Written over many years, many published around the world and others achieving awards in Australia, they cover aspects of life and living from humour, crime, and retribution, love and hate, children and the elderly-something for just about anyone. There is even a fairy story for adults in there. This is the third collection gleaned from a busy writing life, No Time for Pity and Standfast appearing a few years ago. Barbara believes that readers still enjoy short fiction, but it is not easy to find. For the busy person, the young mum, the city girl, the elderly, and those who just don't have a long attention span, the genre still offers a happy hour or so curled up with a book. Reading is one of life's true enjoyments, whether it is done with an old-fashioned collection of bound paper or one of the new electronic gadgets. Long may it last

An Empty Bottle is a collection of short stories that would otherwise have been consigned to the realm of forgotten things. Written over many years, many published around the world and others achieving awards in Australia, they cover aspects of life and living from humour, crime, and retribution, love and hate, children and the elderly-something for just about anyone. There is even a fairy story for adults in there. This is the third collection gleaned from a busy writing life, No Time for Pity and Standfast appearing a few years ago. Barbara believes that readers still enjoy short fiction, but it is not easy to find. For the busy person, the young mum, the city girl, the elderly, and those who just don't have a long attention span, the genre still offers a happy hour or so curled up with a book. Reading is one of life's true enjoyments, whether it is done with an old-fashioned collection of bound paper or one of the new electronic gadgets. Long may it last

This collection, and its companion piece, No Time for Pity and Other Tales, covers wide-ranging motifs: humour, crime, fantasy, family, and childhood themes. Several stories are located in the outback areas much loved, but seldom visited, by Australians-they are often regarded as the "real Australia," where men are men...etc.

But there are humorous tales too, though readers should remember that one man's funny story is another man's blank stare.

Then there are ghosts, but not of the sheet-flapping variety; and slices of life seen through the eyes of children.

Where would story writers be without crime? What happened in "Townhouse" to create the cold chill? Why was that young man shooting like a maniac on the rifle range in "Come to the Fair?" And what is the dark secret in "Fruition?"

In a lighter vein is "In Memoriam"-would you have handled Margot's problem with such grace? And there is unfulfilled yearning in "The True Romantic" and "Waiting."

All that is needed now is a comfortable chair, a warm fire and a glass of something cheering, or perhaps plenty of sunscreen and a shady umbrella on the beach, and these stories wait to help you pass an enjoyable hour or so.

When the Nazis come to power, KLARA HOFFMAN is just past 30, daughter of a well-to-do Jewish cloth manufacturer. Heinrich, her fiance, becomes a Nazi, and she breaks off their engagement. Jacob, her young brother, dies from a beating by a Nazi official, and on November 12, 1938 her father, Ernst, dies following the violence of the "Night of Broken Glass." Klara's brother Erik and her sisters have already left for the Americas. But Klara is sponsored by an English family, the Furlongs. She has to leave her mother, who eventually dies in the Auschwitz death camp. In England, Klara watches as war draws nearer. She strikes up a lasting friendship with Eleanor, the Furlongs' 10-year-old daughter, in time becomes a cafe waitress, and hopes to marry a British soldier, who is killed in North Africa. As the years pass, she allows herself to become a 'character'. Eleanor comes back into her life as a young mother of two. Klara (now known as Clare) briefly returns to the Furlongs' when she becomes homeless. Eventually she enters a retirement home where she makes cautious friends with an elderly artist inspired to return to portraiture by the strength and suffering he sees in her face. Klara's story poses the question: was Klara as much a victim of the nazis as if she had died in the gas chamber? Perhaps her survival argues that everyone who survives mankind's inhumanity is one more proof that the human spirit cannot ultimately be crushed. There is tragedy in Klara. But it is nt gloomy. It is a fictional biography based on a true story: Klara was sponsored out of Germany by the author's parents in 1939. What is known of her life is used, and the known episodes are linked with fiction based on fact.

Jeanne-Marie marries a German officer against her parents' wishes and finds herself embroiled in the passions and tragedies of wartime Europe.
Eventually arriving in Australia, she makes a new life for herself - until the past catches up with her. It falls to Margaret, her young colleague, to unravel the final mysteries.
Books by Barbara Yates Rothwell
Dutch Point (The Lagoon Press: 1998): More than 3 centuries of W. Australian history mingle with the fortunes of the Burleigh family - shipwreck, murder and suspense combine to create a vivid picture of the developing life of a colony founded in 1829.
Coulter Valley (Trafford Publishing in cooperation with The Lagoon Press: 2004): Tom resolves to unravel the paradox of the Coulter Valley artists, gifted, yet damaged by a despotic father. But what of the Aunts, sad Bernice and vindictive Sophie! Can the Coulter family survive exposure?
Klara (Trafford Publishing in cooperation with The Lagoon Press: 2005): Nazi racial policies disrupt Klara's Jewish family life. Sponsored to England, she becomes part of the Furlong household. But rescue is one thing: making a good new life is another.
Coulter Valley, Klara and Ripple in the Reeds can all be ordered in any quantities from Trafford Publishing. In small quantities only (up to 20) they are available from The Lagoon Press. Dutch Point is only available from The Lagoon Press.
Trafford Publishing: www.trafford.com
[email protected]
[email protected]
The Lagoon Press: http: //thelagoonpress.iinet.net.au
email: [email protected]
Phone: 61 8 9561 1125

When Tom decides to write the history of his artistic family, he finds himself embroiled in the strange situation at Coulter Valley, the family's old home, where elderly aunts Sophie and Bernice still live.
Artists Tom and Edith, young Tom's great-grandparents, raised their four children as 'a family dedicated to art', isolated from the adverse influences of the outside world, and young Tom's research gradually uncovers the results of this dedicated, rigid attitude.
Will his investigations end in tragedy? Or will family soidarity triumph?