Great news for all the many fans of internationally best-selling Australian rural author Rachael Treasure. A collection of her short stories is due to be released on the 3rd October and is available for pre-order now.

A diary farmer's daughter searches for love in a city pub, a grieving widow heals her heart and her community, a cheated wife finds the ultimate revenge.

This collection features stories full of warmth and heart and humour, and with characters as diverse and colourful as the Australian countryside itself.

Laugh and smile your way through this collection, which includes the favourites 'The Girl and the Ghost-Gare Mare' and 'The Evolution of Sadie Smith', as well as some new stories never published in book form. So sit back and enjoy the special 'Treasure' take on the world.

If you haven't read any of Rachael's best-selling rural novels, I can highly recommend that you give them a try. Each novel is also available as an audio cd as well, which are perfect for those long drives to country shows.

Jillaroo
The Stockman
The Rouseabout
The Cattleman's Daughter

After the death of international racing mystery writer Dick Francis last year, his son Felix is contining on in his fathers racing crime tradition.

The latest book to be released is CROSSFIRE when a soldier returning from the Afganastan war uses his military training to step in and help his race-horse trainer mother solve the problems of why her horses have all suddenly stopped winning.

CROSSFIRE was co-written with Felix's father Dick, however the next book to be released GAMBLE will be Felix's first solo attempt. It should be available in paperback from October 2011.

Born in Wales in 1920, Dick Francis was a champion Hunt Club jockey who won more than 350 races in his long racing career. He is probably best known however, for the race he didn't win while riding the Queen Mother's horse "Devon Loch". The horse fell for seemingly no reason in the final run to the winning post in the 1956 Grand National leading the Queen Mother to famously say "Oh well ... that's racing!"

After a serious riding accident he turned to writing, and has continued to produce a book every year since his first novel DEAD CERT in 1962. Thankfully, his wonderful legacy of writing and crime fiction will continue on with his youngest son, Felix.

 www.dickfrancis.com/site/DIFR/Templates/Home.aspx?pageid=3&cc=GB

It's been a long wait, but we finally have a new computer game is being released in the next couple of weeks.

The games are getting harder and harder to find as a couple of the big distributors have gone under in the last twelve months leaving a big gap in the market. There hasn't been anything new in horsy games for ages, but this one looks like it might have been worth the wait.

Two earlier games, G1 Jockey and Gallop Racer have now been merged once and for all into one game, bringing easier control functionS and smart new graphics.

It will be availabe in two formats XBox 360 and Nintendo Wii, and will be brilliant for getting you in the zone for the upcoming Spring Racing Carnival. I can imagine it also being lots of fun in two player mode at your next Melbourne Cup party too, so make sure you get your copy nice and early.

There is a website where you can find more information, screenshots and trailers so go in and check it out! CHAMPION JOCKEY WEBSITE

PRE-ORDER XBOX 360 GAME
PRE-ORDER NINTENDO Wii GAME

Expected arrival date 22nd September 2011

I've just heard from author Karen Wood who writes the brilliant Diamond Spirit series. She has just finished her as yet un-named book 4 which will be out next March, and is currently working on book 5. I'm so excited as I thought the series was finished. I can't wait :-)

I just love this series of books but BE WARNED … By chapter three in the first book, I was crying my eyes out! One of the worst nightmares of any horse-owner or horse-lover comes to pass (an encounter with the dreaded cattle grid) and Jess, the heroine of the series, has to deal with total disaster. On top of all that, she has a terrible falling out with her best friend Shara who appears to be keeping an awful secret from her.

This is at the start of a brilliant adventure series that will have everyone begging for more. The stories are fast-paced and exciting and so vividly Australian. The heat, the flies, the smells and assorted characters are all so typical of riding and competing with horses in Australia’s harsh climate, and will make you think you really are there experiencing it all.

Throw in a villain, some treachery and a dash of romance and who could want more?

This is a great series for teenagers and one that mum’s will thoroughly enjoy reading as well.

BOOK 1: DIAMOND SPIRIT
BOOK 2: MOONSTONE PROMISE
BOOK 3: OPAL DREAMING

 www.diamondspirit.net/joomla/

Being a big fan of Australian racing mystery author Peter Klein, I was very excited to hear that his next book RING OF FIRE was due for release ... but it seems to have completely disappeared.

It was due for publication release on the 1st August (which was very timely for the horse's birthday) but is showing on the distributors data base as being out-of-stock. When I phoned the publisher to see when I could expect my copies, the telephone operator told me it had been completely cancelled. HOW BIZARRE!

I'll keep on the case and see if I can find out more as I know there will be a lot of anxious fans waiting to see when they can get their copies.

In the mean-time you might want to re-visit his earlier novels PUNTERS TURF and PUNTERS LUCK his original "John Punter" novels in anticipation of this forth-coming release.

Here is a new series for children from across the channel in New Zealand.

This new PONY TAILS series by AMY BROWN is a fast-paced adventure series, but it also has plenty of tips and advice about riding and caring for your pony, woven into the stories.

I read a lot of the Pullein-Thompson's sisters books when I was a child, and still remember a tons of tips and lessons from their stories. It's a great way of learning without actually realising it, and this is a series I can recommend for the tween age group.

BOOK ONE: JADE AND THE STRAY
BOOK TWO: JADE AT THE CHAMPS
BOOK THREE: JADE AND THE HUNTER

It must be fate. After a family tragedy, Jade Lennox has moved to tiny Flaxton to live with her grandfather. A whole year in the middle of nowhere, and the future looks bleak. Until, that is, she finds someone else who is lonely and despairing - a pony under a death sentence. Jade can't let the black pony die. But what can she do?