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As a short story writer and poet with more than 50 years of experience, I’ve been writing fiction since I could hold a pen but entered the arena of published authorship rather late in life. That can certainly be ascribed to being a late bloomer in practically every other part of life as well. I’m very happy to have been scooped up by my Irish publisher Tirgearr Publishing, who also hold my feet to the fire as I can be an erratic writer and tend to stray off into lapses of prolonged procrastination. But writing stories is still the reason I jump out of bed with a smile on my face each morning because there’s nothing like an uninterrupted stretch of good keyboard imagination and sizzling hopes of reader satisfaction. When I’m not writing or thinking about writing, you can find me at the paid job at my local university translating stuff and recruiting international students, experimenting with organic food in my kitchen, stretching my old bones in Yoga or glued to WhatsApp exchanging funny messages with my grown-up kids. But writing is the real deal for me; I’m on a mission to become a seasoned writer of series about women who are faced with impossible choices in life and still they crack it, whether they perish or not. I write both contemporary and historical fiction, books that can be quite dark and gloomy but I make sure the faith in redemption always keeps hovering over my heroine. My first book Casablanca My Heart was released by Tirgearr Publishing in 2015. This was a book testing the waters, as I called it now, and a far cry from how I’m developing as a writer. But we all need that debut that makes us slightly shudder later on in our careers. The first book of the trilogy of The Jenna Kroon Series, The Cottage on The Border was also published in 2015. The second book, The Farm on Nieuw Land Road, is currently entering its final stages and will hopefully be published early in 2017, followed by the third book The House on Broadway also in 2017. I’m a passionate believer in gritty tales. I don’t believe life, real life, is ever easy, or long-term perfect, or happy-ever-after. A stiff degree of tragedy and drama makes my own blood cringe and sing simultaneously. So yes, you’ll need some stamina to stomach my stories.

Jenna's earliest memory is of her mother's feet dangling in dust motes, as a three year old left orphaned while her mother's corpse hung from a beam. Her mother committed suicide, that's how she escaped and freed herself. When her own life falls apart Jenna's earliest memory becomes her anchor, she too wants to be free. Vincent Van Son is Jenna's adopted brother, her psychiatrist, perhaps her only friend. He takes her to the Cottage for recovery, determined to rescue his sister from herself after her failed suicide attempt. The cottage on the border is at Oud Land, and is the location of many dark secrets. Jenna's close call with death leaves her open to the psychic world, and in this cottage in the onset of a misty winter, Jenna hears them, the voices of the past, memories of what happened on the border. It becomes a journey to herself. She has to listen, to witness, she has no choice. Their stories are her story, and it is a long heritage of murder, deceit, ethnic discourse and betrayal. Perspective returns to the introspective prima ballerina, she has learned the truth of her family, of this cottage of psychic confessions. She alone emerges from the rubble of six decades of troubled family history, a lone phoenix. The Cottage on The Border is a tale of murder, mystery, intrigue, familial despair, heartbreak, and spiritual resurrection.

Kindle Price: $4.99

Category: Literature & Fiction

Heather Simpson takes a cruise to get away from her husband. Far away from judgmental eyes she meets Ghalib, a French-Moroccan aristocrat who seems to know everything about her and has been eager to meet her for years. When the ship docks in Casablanca Ghalib invites this soulful author into his home and into his heart. Returning from Morocco to every day life, Heather faces a dilemma. Sometimes it seems we are destined to meet the love of our life for only a fleeting moment, leaving us thinking, 'Did fate work so hard to bring us so little or is there more to come?' This glorious romance will take you to the exotic, stranding you in love's oasis, feeling as if you too have captured the diaphanous emotion of soul-love, questioning your choices and your destiny.

Kindle Price: $4.99

Category: Literature & Fiction; Romance