Culinary school dropout Callie Giordano never intended to wind up in a small town with a terrible name, but after surviving a serious cycling accident in New York City, she needed a change of pace. At 26, she is now the sole doughnut entrepreneur living in Fly-Debate, Maine. But Fly-Debate isn't just a one-stoplight town deep in lobster country. It's also home to the cast and crew of hit historical heist TV series, Hidden Cove. Beckett Brown, its star, may as well have a resume that says 44, single, and nesty, but between his celebrity status and a reputation for falling too hard and too fast, dating feels impossible. At least until he meets Callie. That Special Something is a high-heat, queer M/F romance featuring large quantities of sugar, bird watching, and more plastic prop lobsters than you can shake a net at.

Inside Mummy's tummy is a Special Something. What, wonders her little girl could it be? It wriggles and kicks. Could it be a hippopotamus, or a dinosaur, or a cheeky monkey that will tease her when she's trying her best to be good in the car?

Every Friday is 'special day' in Charlie's class at school, when everybody takes in something special to show the rest of the class. Charlie can never find anything special enough to take, until one day he has to look after his baby sister.

Gabriella I can't stand him. Jamal Holmes. My best friend's cousin. So what he may be able to help me finally make the move to get my business off the ground. He's a pompous jerk and judgmental to boot. At least, those are the very excuses I tell myself to avoid his help at all costs. Now, if I could just get my silly body to stop reacting every time he's near. If I could manage to control my erotic thoughts whenever he opens his mouth or tosses one of those goofy grins my way, everything would be just fine. Only if he didn't look so damn good in everything he puts on... JamalI can't stand her. Gabriella, Gabby for short. She's brash, snarky and seems to have it out for me. A damn she-devil. I don't give a damn how great her legs look in the tight jeans and leggings she wears. Or, how appealing her mid-section appears in the halter tops she frequently dons. Nor do I care that her smooth, brown skin always looks good enough to taste. She's a pain in the ass. At least, I thought she was until I started getting to know her. The real Gabby, and not the defensive, sarcastic, she-devil she initially hid behind to put up a wall between us. Slowly, I start to realize I get under her skin just as much as she gets under mine. And once we finally begin to break those walls down, we are both surprised by what's underneath. Neither of our attitudes, or our pasts that come back into our lives can come between what's inevitably ... Something Special.

This story was first published in Winter's Tales No. 3 in 1957. It was also published in 1959 in Japan in an English language textbook with Japanese annotations.

Something Special, Something Rare presents outstanding short fiction by Australia’s finest female writers. These are tales of love, secrets, doubt and torment, the everyday and the extraordinary. A sleepy town is gripped by delusory grief after the movie being filmed there wraps and leaves. A lingering heartbreak is replayed on Facebook. An ordinary family walks a shaky line between hopelessness and redemption. Brilliant, shocking and profound, these tales will leave you reeling in ways that only a great short story can. Kate Grenville * Mandy Sayer * Penni Russon * Favel Parrett * Tegan Bennett Daylight * Sonya Hartnett * Isabelle Li * Gillian Essex * Brenda Walker * Gillian Mears * Fiona MacFarlane * Joan London * Karen Hitchcock * Charlotte Wood * Tara June Winch * Cate Kennedy * Alice Pung * Anna Krien * Delia Falconer * Rebekah Clarkson ‘This collection is a fantastic line-up of some of Australia’s best writers who simply happen to be women ... the themes explored are as wide-ranging and eclectic as the writers.’ —Sunday Age ‘All the stories here justify that use of “out-standing” in the collection’s subtitle. If pushed to choose one standout, for me it is Favel Parrett’s ‘Lebanon’, which in its three pages manages to convey more emotion than some stories do in 300 ... This beautiful meditation on loss and belonging evokes the Australian tyranny of distance and is a fine example what the short-story form can achieve.’ —The Australian ‘Perfect fodder for a Sunday arvo on the couch, these charming, funny, touching short stories from well-known Australian female writers are what winter was made for.’ —Cosmopolitan ‘A wonderful selection ... the strength of the collection is that it doesn’t define the Australian woman writer as a particular situation and includes writers from various social and cultural backgrounds.’ —Artshub

Rosy knows there's something special out there for her, she can feel it every time she looks up at the stars. But what is it? Where is it? She can hardly wait and decides to listen to that little voice inside her telling her to go out and find that something special, something great!

Journee's Quest to Something Special is an imaginative exploration that leads one little girl to find exactly what special is!

This volume is a project in systematic theology: a rigorous engagement with the Christian tradition in relation to animals under the doctrinal headings of creation, reconciliation and redemption and in dialogue with the Bible and theological voices central to the tradition. The book shows that such engagement with the tradition with the question of the animal in mind produces surprising answers that challenge modern anthropocentric assumptions. For the most part, therefore, the novelty of the project lies in the questions raised, rather than the proposal of innovative answers to it. The transformation in our thinking about animals for which the book argues results in the main from looking squarely for the first time at the sum of what we are already committed to believing about other animals and their place in God's creation.