COMING SOON AS PAPERBACK AND E-BOOK

DELETING VINCENT – A FEMALE KILLER’S CONFESSIONS

In this psychological thriller Ashli, a seemingly normal young woman confesses her abhorrent thoughts and describes the planning, psychological conflict, and horrific murders of five men. She writes to take responsibility for her wrongdoing and to understand who she is, in an attempt to change herself for the better.

Ashli’s psychological descent lay dormant for five years after she saw an old lady dead on a bed surrounded by empty opioid packets. The weary response by police who so casually concluded suicide reminded Ashli of her best friend’s death, also presumed suicide. She never believed it. Debbie’s aggressive fiancé Vincent had murdered her. Vincent is alive and Debbie is dead. The seed for revenge became irreversibly planted until the day finally arrived when Ashli began deleting Vincent.
Framed within the taboo intrigue of staged suicides, the author pulls no punches in presenting the blurry boundaries of establishing homicide and suicide or “huicide”. After reading this book every suicide will leave you wondering was it suicide or was it really huicide?

Edited by Ex Prosecutor and Forensic Editor Karin Cather

I wrote Deleting Vincent to draw attention to the hidden crimes of staged suicides. While working for government as a researcher into suicide deaths I formed the view that this type of homicide is potentially, vastly under recognised.

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COMING SOON AS PAPERBACK

SIGNPOSTS TO THE PAST – STORIES OF PLACES AND STREETS OF BOUDDI PENINSULA

This local historical book is researched and written by my late mother, Beverely Runcie (BA,GRAD DIP ED, M LIB) who resided at Killcare. Mum was an active member of the Bouddi Society and I have edited her comprehensive book, contributed photographs for illustrations and updated content given she passed in 2022 and it is now 2025. My daughter, Kalena Webb has designed the book cover and created and formatted the interior design.

Signposts to the Past explores the fascinating ways places and streets have acquired their names within the Bouddi Peninsula, a coastal region bordering Broken Bay in New South Wales. Associated stories are told of Indigenous and non-Indigenous people. Historical images and present-day photographs illustrate the lives of people within this stunning coastal landscape.

The Bouddi Peninsula lies on the north side of the entrance to Broken Bay where the majestic Hawksbury (Deerubin) River joins with the sea, on the east coast of Australia. The history begins with some place names given to the area by Indigenous Australian people before white settlement. Then, subsequent place names were given in the twentieth century. Only a few places named by the original Aboriginal people of the Bouddi area survive. In the twentieth century some Bouddi streets were named using Aboriginal words which were not of the area. Place names and street names all have a story to tell. For instance, Turo Park was named after Turo Downes a much-loved Aboriginal man who lived in the area for many years. The Peninsula includes the small communities of Hardys Bay, Killcare, Killcare Heights, Pretty Beach and Wagstaffe. Most of the area, however, is taken up by the 1532-hectare Bouddi National Park which begins at south MacMasters Beach and stretches to Box Head, about 10 kilometres in distance.

Street names and places are presented alphabetically with historical details about their beginning and subsequent history.

Even though Mum is not physically with us, it has felt like the three of us have been working together as a trio with her fascinating and beautiful book.

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STAGES OF SUICIDE – HOW TO HELP YOUR MIND

Available in Paperback and E-book

Non-fiction

Rockpossum Publishing

E-Book with link to printable resource tool

Paperback Available Now 

 

Details

This is a short explanation of the six stages of suicide with practical activities to help you prepare and assist your mind in the event it becomes irrational and unsafe.

Roy Baumeister, a social psychologist described these stages that people experience prior to carrying out suicidal acts.

Included is a mind-monitoring tool to assist you in identifying if your mind is displaying signs of reacting within the various six stages. This tool provides actions you can do to support your mind. A link to a printable PDF of the tool is included.
At the end of this guide, you can find a list of help crisis hotlines for various countries.

My original article is independently described as a:

“Very good report, written in a humanistic way. The observed stages of suicide are of serious scientific interest, i.e. can help in preventive terms”.

I wrote this after my associated short article from 2019 continued to sustain a lot of interest with people globally. I researched suicide in my local region over a ten-year period and contributed to the Parliamentary Inquiry into Suicide Deaths in Australia.

The more you understand how your thoughts and emotions respond in irrational ways the more you can transform your actions beyond the influence of an unhelpful mind to that of a supportive mind and live freely and fully.

Review

“Stages of Suicide is an excellent insight into the though patterns of those dealing with suicide. Each stage very well describes the kind of thoughts, behaviours and emotions one feels as their condition continues, which I found extremely accurate and relatable. As for someone who has experienced these stages second hand, this is an incredible tool that can help non-suicidal people understand what it is like to be suicidal which I believe is one of the most important things for dealing with suicide on the larger scale.

After each stage there is a ‘prepare your mind’ section which works as a helping hand/’what to do about this’ counterpart of the stage. I found this to be really useful in not only making the content a lot less daunting and overwhelming to take in, but the reader is reminded that regardless of what stage you find yourself or someone close to you in there is always a solution to help you get out of it, which is exactly how this book approaches the terror of suicidal ideation.

Moreover, the mind monitoring tool at the end seems incredibly useful to help the user understand their own thoughts and emotions as they go through stages as well as help to generate some rational thinking patterns.

Overall this is an extremely insightful and practical helping hand for those dealing with suicide. Definitely recommend this to anyone who are either going through it or know someone who is, this book can help!”

– Rhys Jones

Buy Now!

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FISHPOND

FOYLES

BLACKWELLS

GARDNERS

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WALMART

APAPEA

SUPERBOOKDEALS

BOOKS-A-MILLION

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Now Available 

STRAHAN’S MAMMALS OF AUSTRALIA 2023 4th Edition

New Holland Publishing

$199.99 AUD  Hardback

Rock Ring-tailed Possum Petropseudes dahli

Scaly-tailed Possum Wyulda squamicaudata.

 

ORDER YOUR COPY HERE

Scaly-tailed possum, Wyulda squamicaudata

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WILD – LIFE DEATH ENCOUNTERS WITH WILD ANIMALS

Adventure Memoir

Rockpossum Publishing

E-BOOK or PAPERBACK or Audio

Details

The compelling, dramatic series of white-knuckle encounters with a medley of wild animals keeps you turning the pages, feverish to know how Myfanwy manages to escape alive. A risk taker, she likes living life on the edge and in this adventure-packed memoir, you’ll discover how in the remote forests, deserts, and oceans of Australia, she sidestepped death not once but multiple times. If you fear snakes, spiders, sharks or dogs, this book is for you.

These stories span her childhood to adult encounters. They include incidents while traveling with her family to remote locations in Australia, to close calls with wild animals during biological fieldwork in Kakadu National Park in the Northern Territory. Other incidents happened while surfing and riding her beloved horse.

Myfanwy’s curiosity and depth of understanding the behaviour of animals, is reflected in the way she describes these contacts with wild animals. Her stories interweave a love of animals and nature, with adrenalin and adventure.

Reviews

• Maria said of Cujo- the Attack “I could picture it as if I was there”.
• John said of El Toro – “Very clever and brave – El bloody Toro made me laugh aloud. What amazing bush experiences of wildness you have had – so exceedingly rare – I am jealous. I also learnt that you need agility to catch Rock Possums, so that’s one career lost to me.”
• Ben – “Great stories about spideys, I love them myself!”
• Bronwyn said of Eaten Alive- “Fantastic story!”
• Angela said of Eaten Alive – “Oh wow a compelling story! Interesting behaviours demonstrated in the part of both fish and human!”

More Reviews

Helen Menzies

5.0 out of 5 stars Journeys with Myf

Reviewed in Australia 🇦🇺 on 17 October 2021

“It seems to happen in my life that I set out for an adventure and it’s dramatically rearranged by the gods into one of those deep priceless experiences.”
So says Dr Myf Webb in Life Death Encounters, and it’s no exaggeration. The book is a stirring tale of derring-do, told in an authentic down-to-earth no-fuss Australian voice.
“I … reflected on how I had somehow survived three direct active threats on my life by three very different types of animal, a Great White Shark, an Eastern Brown Snake and now a wild buffalo bull.”
To that list of adventures the spellbound reader can add spiders, wild horses, wild donkeys, beached whales, the hunt for secretive possums as part of her doctorate work, and being thrown from her horse when it was attacked by a bull-Arab hunting dog intent on murder.
Phew.
Most of these stories were written by Mfy Webb during her year-long treatment for cancer. In a lifetime of challenges this was yet another to overcome. The details of that adventure are yet to be published, but readers of Life Death Encounters will know to anticipate another inspiring journey of curiosity and courage“.

cristobel

 

4.0 out of 5 stars A wild ride

Reviewed in Australia 🇦🇺 on 18 October 2021

“It’s not often I find myself holding my breath as I read a book, however in the opening story of Wild: Life death encounters with wild animals, I was doing exactly that.

The shark encounter at Murramarang Beach raised those old fears which were embedded into everyone who watched the 1975 classic, Jaws. I watched that film as a child and was terrified for some time of the overcast days at the beach, when you couldn’t see what was under the surface. Even though I know Dr Myfawney Webb, and am familiar with many of her stories of an adventurous life, I was still riveted to the pages of my kindle as I followed her narrative of the shark encounter.

Myfawney has a knack for bringing you into her experiences, through the truth of the tales within this book and the authenticity of her voice.

It’s a real talent to be able to convey emotions such as desperation, fear, sadness and terror while staying true and real to her story.

Dr Webb has achieved this, and it was a real joy to see her stories brought to life with such passion.

I can highly recommend this book to any lovers of adventure, wildlife, Australian experiences and those who like to read a book perched on the edge of their seat”

menace aforethought

 

5.0 out of 5 stars Wild by Nature

Reviewed in Australia 🇦🇺 on 3 October 2021

“It’s wonderful to see these works collected into a book. These are stories not just of the wild, but of the inner being, how we tread our path through the world, how we learn about ourselves and how to become a fully engaged person through challenges that we sometimes seek and which are sometimes thrown at us by life.
The stories not only surprise with the breadth of Myf’s experience from her work as a mammal specialist, travelling and living in remote Australia, but also in her love of animals and the wilderness in general. She takes on an immersing ride surfing, fascinated by a shark attack until the reality of the risk finally hits home. ‘This is the first time in my life I have completely and absolutely maxed out on exerting my body physically.’ We are there with her, feeling that intense moment, the stress of trying to get back to shore when there are no waves to help and splashing could be the worst possible idea! Fortunately, this is followed by ‘White and pure EUPHORIA’, and she is safe on the shore. But danger was never far behind her in the bush while she studied mammals, or even when she was young, and being confronted with angry brown snakes as well as death adders, yet that didn’t seem to faze her. Although she has learnt to respect the angry brown snake a little more over time. I remember going out with her and her reptile specialist husband, Johnno, on one of his field trips to collect death adders near Darwin. My partner John and I were in the back of the ute as he drove along a road between rice fields where he would jump out from time to time and bag one, only to toss it in the back with us! One thing I learned from our early time living in the upstairs flat from them in Glebe, where they were breeding Funnel web spiders to feed his study animals – death adders – life was never dull around Myf! A photo of her in the book, smiling while a python winds itself around her neck is a classic!
Whale rescues and her surprise at the bond she formed with one, her hundreds of efforts trying to trap wild Rock-ringtail possums in Kakadu, and I know she had to wear beekeepers kit at least at times to protect her from swarms of killer mosquitos, lost in the Kimberly among ‘dodgy mineshafts’ with a ‘team of blokes’, ‘waking up in the morning, la de la de la, walking down the sandy creek bed,’ and being confronted by a wild buffalo, one of the most dangerous animals you can encounter in the bush, the scientist in her even taking in that he pawed the ground with his left foot, so perhaps one part of the 7% of ‘left-handed’ creatures! How she escaped this situation is classic. She came off less well when her horse she was riding was attacked by a dog, ending in a 15-kilometre trek with a broken arm and a one-handed drive to hospital!
“But I don’t want to go among mad people,” Alice remarked.
“Oh, you can’t help that,” said the Cat: “we’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad.”
This quote from Alice in Wonderland seems particularly apt when I think of how Myf has crashed her way through life to contribute enormously to our understanding of the natural world, and perhaps this is how people have to be to do this work. So, it is not surprising that she has fought cancer with the same chutzpah, and now has given the world a wonderful collection of stories from her adventures to inspire new generations to get out there and go for it“

EG

5.0 out of 5 stars “Great read!”

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on 14 June 2022

 

Verified Purchase

“Loved this quick read. Interesting”

 

Beverley Runcie

“As an animal behaviourist, Myfanwy has spent much of her time in rural Australia and shares with us some of her adventures. 

I admire Myfanwy who has come across unexpected and dangerous situations with our wildlife, and remaining calm, she has been able to react with quick thinking, courage and determination.

These stories should inspire urban dwellers that much can be gained by stepping outside their cosy world.”

Buy Now!

THE MAMMALS OF AUSTRALIA, 3RD EDITION

Scent-marking and vocal communication in the rock-haunting possum Petropseudes dahli. By Myfanwy J Runcie, Chapter 33

In

THE BIOLOGY OF AUSTRALIAN POSSUMS AND GLIDERS 2ND EDITION

(Eds R.L Goldingay and S.M. Jackson) pp. 401-412. 2004 (Surrey Beatty & Sons, Sydney)

DETAILS

“The possums and gliding possums comprise one of the most significant elements of the Australian environment. They occur throughout the Australian continent but are particularly widespread and abundant in the forests of eastern Australia. As a consequence, they have had lead roles in the long-term conflict over forest management. Many species have been severely affected by habitat fragmentation and several species have been identified as key indicators of predicted climate change. Morphologically and ecologically, possums and gliders are spectacular and intriguing. One is the only true marsupial hibernator, another is the most vocal of any marsupial, and several have a membrane between their limbs that enables gliding flight between trees. They range in size from the diminutive 7 g little pygmy-possum to the hefty 5 kg spotted cuscus. This book provides a substantial insight into the lives of Australian possums and gliders. From a consideration of their evolution, diets, and physiology, to assessing their population response to habitat structure and habitat fragmentation. The conservation status of all living Australian species is reviewed, and various environmental management strategies needed to provide population recovery are identified. The 46 chapters of this book collectively provide a definitive account of the scientific information that has accumulated on Australian possums and gliders over many decades.”

OUT OF PRINT

The rock-haunting ringtail possum Petropseudes dahli dens in rock torrs and conducts its nightly activities in social family groups. Detailed observations of six wild possum groups and opportunistic observations of another 10 wild possum groups over three years revealed an extensive communication system. To read about their communication, read below.

To download the PDF about Scent-marking and vocal communication CLICK HERE

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