AWW Feature & Giveaway: Helene Young, author of Burning Lies

Please welcome Helene Young!

I am thrilled to have Helene Young stop by Book’d Out today to celebrate the release of her newest novel, Burning Lies. Helene lives in Trinity Beach, on the edge of the Great Barrier Reef in North Queensland. Her work as a senior captain with a major regional airline takes her all over the east coast of Australia. She is the RUBY-award-winning author of the popular romantic suspense novels Wings of Fear and Shattered Sky. In 2011 she was voted by the Romance Writers of Australia as the country’s most popular romance novelist. I  had the pleasure of meeting Helene earlier this year and she is a delightful speaker who I admire.

Burning Lies is an explosive story of peril and passion set in Australia’s tropical far north. My review appeared earlier today where I rated it 5 stars, praising it as a fast-paced story with an exciting blend of action, adventure, mystery and romance and you have the opportunity to WIN a signed edition.

Today Helene asks about the future of books. Read on…

Our Disposable World

I don’t know whether it’s because my ninety-year-old mum is staying with us, but I’ve been contemplating our disposable world.  (Please don’t take that the wrong way – I’m not thinking of disposing of Mum any time soon!)

Born in 1922 Mum is of the generation that perfected the art of being thrifty.  She experienced the hardship of the Great Depression in the 1920s and ‘30s and just when she thought it couldn’t get any worse along came the Second World War.

The hard lessons learned then are still carved deep into her psyche. Recycling wasn’t something she did because the council gave her a separate bin to fill. Recycling happened because everything needed to be used until it had no further purpose. As bed sheets became threadbare they were turned into pillowslips. As those pillowslips became tatty they then became dusting cloths. Soap was hoarded, boiled down again and reshaped into new cakes.

Long pants became short pants as the knees wore out. Socks were darned, patched, then unraveled and used as stuffing in cushions. Clothes were let out to make room for growing children – lace added length to skirts. As the youngest in our family I spent more time in hand-me-downs than in new clothes. (That may explain my love of new clothes now!) Nothing was thrown out until it had truly worn out and even then it probably ended up on a fire as fuel.

Except for the books.

My parent’s house is still full of books despite their best efforts to convince me, and my siblings, to take them home. Books were passed from hand to hand, loaned out, given away to a good home, but never ever thrown away. Stories were read and reread, savored again and again, as covers became ragged and pages speckled with age. That’s a habit I’m very proud to say I have adopted myself and I don’t see it changing any time soon.

Or will it…

The other day we took our old washing machine to the dump and I was struck by the size of the pile of white goods looming over the car. Is this what will happen to books and stories in the future? The rise and rise of e-books means millions of e-readers will one day be contributing to landfill. If I throw an e-reader out does that mean I’ve thrown out books? How will I pass a beloved story on to a friend?

So far I haven’t had to deal with the dilemma, but I’m sure I will in the future. What do you do with books when you’ve finished reading them? Keep them, give them away, sell them? Or have you already adopted new technology.

Burning Lies is available to purchase

@Penguin Australia I @BoomerangBooks I @Booktopia

via booko

@Amazon {Kindle} I @Google Play

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1 signed print edition of

Burning Lies by Helene Young

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