“He reached behind and undid the sports bra” is a pivotal line in Marian Matta’s prize-winning story, “Danny Boy”.

It’s the line I asked the author about on Thursday August 22 in an online Spineless Wonders Book Club meeting via Facebook.

As the book club’s lively discussion highlighted, it’s a very intriguing story.

Marian Matta was joint runner up for the Carmel Bird Long Story Award along with Joanna Atherfold Finn for her story Jesus Sandals and Anchovette. Felicity Volk’s story Go, You Are Sent Forth was the award winner and my story, “Shooting Star”, was shortlisted.

Prize-winning and shortlisted stories are being released over coming months as Amanda Lohrey Selects … a series of digital eSingles by Spineless Wonders, host of the Carmel Bird Award and a publishing company specialising in Australian short stories.

Marian’s story is on sale here http://spinelesswonders.tomely.com/danny-boy and on the Spineless Wonders website. You can buy one story or subscribe to the whole series — it’s great value!

My story “Shooting Star” is scheduled for release on October 1.

It is likely I’ll be part of an online book club conversation about the story around that time — so stay tuned for dates.

You can also join the Spineless Wonders Book Club to take part in discussions and to be offered the chance to win free copies of the stories.

Please consider buying all or some of these great stories — especially mine!