Welcome to Teaser Tuesday, where I share snippets from new and past releases and works-in-progress, and occasionally nag author buddies into doing the same.

What’s news from the Hein house? Well, not a lot because I’m currently in outback Queensland where we’re helping out my parents-in-law for a few days. As you’d expect when you’re north of the Tropic of Capricorn in November, it’s hot.

Speaking of hot (oh, I luuuuurve a good segue), have you snapped up your hot-priced copy of The Country Girl from Amazon’s Australian store yet? There are only days left to run on this promotion so make sure you do before it returns to normal price.

I mentioned this on my Facebook page, but I’ll mention it here too because I’m about to give you your first sneak-peek of Scarlett and the Model Man and with Facebook only showing a teensy percentage of page posts to followers, you probably missed it.

At the end of October, I travelled up to the Maitland Regional Art Gallery to see the Nightingale and the Rose exhibition, featuring artworks by two-time Archibald Prize winner Del Kathryn Barton. When I originally came up with Scarlett’s character while writing Eddie and the Show Queen, I used Barton’s style as the inspiration for Scarlett’s, although Scarlett’s works are a bit more… erm… risqué. Those who have read Eddie and the Show Queen will know what I mean.

The Nightingale and the Rose is a collaboration between Barton and filmmaker Brendan Fletcher, and brings to life Oscar Wilde’s fairytale in an animated work. It was gobsmacking. The colours were incredible, the intricacy of the works and their animation mesmerising, and Wilde’s short story tugs hard at your emotions. I could so easily imagine Scarlett being involved in a project like this. Perhaps if she gets a mention in another Levenham Love Story, she will.

This video gives a taste of the film Barton and Fletcher created.

And now for a taste of Scarlett and the Model Man. This is first draft stuff, so please forgive any awkwardness.

In this snippet, Sam goes snooping in Scarlett’s artworks and gets more than he bargained for.

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He wandered over to the wall of propped canvases. The colours were incredible, vivid and almost glittery, as if a series of jewellers’ trays had been upended and swirled about. Sam glanced at Scarlett and found her watching him as she poured water.

He gestured at the paintings. ‘May I?’

‘Sure. Knock yourself out.’

He crouched to flick through a layer. The first was painting of a woman standing in a whirlpool of colour that made him think of the oily rainbows that sometimes appeared in spilled fuel. The woman was strangely proportioned – her head overlarge, her body thin but with dramatically defined muscles. She had a sheet draped over one shoulder, her neck long and stretched as she stared at something behind her.

The next painting was of a green-eyed, dark-haired woman, her body pale and arched and surrounded by alien plant life that was creeping hungrily toward her. One arm was lifted as though beckoning the viewer to join her in her fantasy world.

Sam swallowed and flicked quickly to the next painting, and wished he hadn’t. The scene was similar but this time the green-eyed woman’s eyes were closed and her lips open, as though on a sigh. If that wasn’t disturbing enough, her thighs had been eased apart by plant tendrils that had wrapped around her ankles. In the swirly green and browns of the surrounding forest, hooded eyes glowed.

Sam jerked upright and shoved his hands deep into his jeans’ pockets. Now was not a good time to be thinking about naked women, and especially not naked Scarletts.

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He he. I love that scene and can’t wait to share more of Sam and Scarlett with you.

Scarlett and the Model Man will release in 2020. If you want to be the first to hear about it, join my newsletter team. It’s where all the cool people are!

You can also meet Scarlett in Eddie and the Show Queen. Check out its book page on this website for the cover, blurb, links and an excerpt.

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