It is monsoon, August 2008. Ruth Connor arrives in the hill station of Mussoorie to be with her father, Dr James Connor, before he dies. She was expelled from Oaklands boarding school here in 1984, after which she turned her back on India, family and faith, blaming her parents’ service to God for her sense of abandonment and subsequent destructive life. Hurting and bitter, grieving a secret miscarriage and the end of her dancing career, she wants apology and vindication.
Meanwhile, James waits for her in turmoil. He has carried a secret burden of guilt all his life which pushed him to extremes of sacrifice in his efforts to atone. He knows that by laying down his life for India he harmed Ruth, and now yearns for her forgiveness and healing. But reconciliation appears impossible. James’ emotional poverty renders him unable to speak, while Ruth’s anger and pride make her impenetrable.
Between them comes James’ companion, Iqbal, a charismatic being who adores the Doctor-ji and fills his home with flowers, singing and fine food. Ruth is mystified by his presence with her severe, ascetic father, especially when she discovers he is Muslim, but he soon wins her trust.
About the author:
Merryn Glover is a writer and teacher. When she’s not hoofing it round the globe with her family, she can be found in the Highlands of Scotland, her adopted home. Born in a former royal palace in Kathmandu to Australian parents, she grew up in Nepal, India and Pakistan. Whether travelling or at her desk, crossing cultures is her life. Her writing includes journalism, fiction and drama. Her stage play, The Long Way Home, was performed in Scotland in 1997 and broadcast on BBC Radio Scotland the following year. Her radio play The Colour of Light was broadcast on Radio Scotland in 2009, and Immaculate will be broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on the 2nd of November 2011. In 2004 she was awarded a Scottish Arts Council Bursary for a collection of short stories set in Nepal. These and others have been published in several literary magazines including The Edinburgh Review, Wasafiri, New Writing Scotland, Chapman and Northwords Now. Four have been broadcast on Radio 4 and she has placed highly in numerous competitions, winning both the Jo Cowell Award and the William Soutar Prize. Merryn is also a qualified secondary teacher in English, Drama and Dance and has a passion for stimulating imagination and creativity in others. She is a member of the Scottish Society of Playwrights, the Highland Literary Salon and The Society of Authors.
A PURE DOUBLE CROSS
Book One of the American Spy Trilogy
by John Knoerle
Cleveland, Ohio, 1945. OSS agent Hal Schroeder returns from a harrowing two-year stint behind German lines. The horrors of war have left him bitter and cynical. He is recruited by the FBI to infiltrate the local mob. The feds have concocted a sting operation to nab elusive mob boss Teddy Biggs and they want Hal to execute it. He agrees.
But Hal Schroeder is no longer interested in being a hero. Hal Schroeder is interested in a fat payday.
"Hal Schroeder is destined to join the ranks of great characters in American Fiction."
Stephen L. Smoke, Editor-in-Chief, Mystery Magazine
FALLING LEAVES AND MOUNTAIN ASHES
by Brenda George
Starting in 1899, this 40-year saga is about a brave young mountain woman, Mary Harley, who elopes with Zachary Thomas to the dreaded Claw Mountain. The mountain is inhabited by a wild, violent and lawless clan known as the “Buckos”, who are engaged in a vicious 30-year feud with the neighbouring Galtreys.
With undertones of the mystical and the spiritual, this story is set against an authentic background of mountain life and is a rich weave of humour and heartache, love and violence, courage and brutality, feuds and strong family ties, and is set amongst the raw unspoiled beauty of the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, the famed summer mountain resort of Skyland and Washington D.C.
"Brenda George weaves an elaborate tapestry of rich, compelling characters, and a passionate story of love, courage, violence, heartache and humor. Her writing is lyrical and visual – a movie in the making! Don’t miss this compelling, page-turning read!"
Annette Handley-Chandler – ex-literary agent, Hollywood screenplay agent, Emmy Award winning producer, writer, USA.
JOSIAH'S KINGDOM Trilogy
The Divine Dawning - Book I
by Glory Keverne
(Author of the internationally acclaimed 'A MAN CANNOT CRY')
Set in Colonial Africa in the forties through the life of one man, The Divine Dawning captures the early stages of the epic soul journey we are all destined to make. Embroiled in breath-taking adventure, metaphysical mystery and lessons in elusive love, Daniel Lasky, a 27-year-old Great White hunter, takes the reader on an unflinching expedition through humanity's traditional minefields of sin and suffering. Famous for shooting lion, the Apache trained tracker is commissioned to find the grave of a Christian minister last seen in Northern Rhodesia 30 years before. What he finds in a lost valley of the cursed Shinshika mountains, challenges the very basis of Orthodox religion, containing the power to transform humanity and save the planet. The revelation shatters Daniel's cynical world view, triggering his own, dimly discerned, Divine Dawning..
"The theme of spirituality and the devastation of the environment is incredibly powerful and inspiring." (Stanley J Corwin - Book Packager and Film Producer, USA).
"Glory Keverne is a master of description and a master storyteller." (Julian Bach, legendary New York Agent and former editor of America's original LIFE magazine).
BYRON
A novel by Robert M. TUCKER
Set in the turbulent '60s, BYRON is a young woman's powerful story of growing up in a
southern mill town.
This poignant dramatically intense novel is rich in colourful characters brought to life in lovingly narrated detail and cultural texture that resonates with current issues of gender, racial and religious intolorance.
"A beautiful, evocative novel of love and life in a small southern town in America ... reminiscent of To Kill a Mockingbird" (Stan Corwin, author of 'The Creative Writer's Companion').
