About
ADULTERY, ALCOHOLISM, MENTAL ILLNESS - These are social issues that can take a devastating toll on families.
The characters that I write about are not perfect. They are far from it, actually. Even heroes have a chink in their armor. It's what makes them human.
My stories are filled with emotion, intimacy, drama, and hope. If you like these things and don't mind a few racy scenes or a sprinkling of profanity here and there, then my books are for you.
I have written three novels: "After All Is Said And Done", "The Monster of Silver Creek", and the recently released "Seasons of Darkness".
Late at night, you'll find me holed up in my office/closet gleefully typing away on my keyboard. It's a place where tall, dark, and handsome meets high drama - and is located just underneath the winter coats. :)
The Daughter of the Sea and the Sky
Description
<p><em style="color:rgb(24,24,24);font-family:Georgia, serif;font-size:13.63636302947998px;line-height:17.563634872436523px;">After centuries of religiously motivated war, the world has been split in two. Now the Blessed Lands are ruled by pure faith, while in the Republic, reason is the guiding light—two different realms, kept apart and at peace by a treaty and an ocean.</em><br style="color:rgb(24,24,24);font-family:Georgia, serif;font-size:13.63636302947998px;line-height:17.563634872436523px;" /><br style="color:rgb(24,24,24);font-family:Georgia, serif;font-size:13.63636302947998px;line-height:17.563634872436523px;" /><span style="color:rgb(24,24,24);font-family:Georgia, serif;font-size:13.63636302947998px;line-height:17.563634872436523px;">Children of the Republic, Helena and Jason were inseparable in their youth, until fate sent them down different paths. Grief and duty sidetracked Helena’s plans, and Jason came to detest the hollowness of his ambitions.</span><br style="color:rgb(24,24,24);font-family:Georgia, serif;font-size:13.63636302947998px;line-height:17.563634872436523px;" /><br style="color:rgb(24,24,24);font-family:Georgia, serif;font-size:13.63636302947998px;line-height:17.563634872436523px;" /><span style="color:rgb(24,24,24);font-family:Georgia, serif;font-size:13.63636302947998px;line-height:17.563634872436523px;">These two damaged souls are reunited when a tiny boat from the Blessed Lands crashes onto the rocks near Helena’s home after an impossible journey across the forbidden ocean. On board is a single passenger, a nine-year-old girl named Kailani, who calls herself “the Daughter of the Sea and the Sky.” A new and perilous purpose binds Jason and Helena together again, as they vow to protect the lost innocent from the wrath of the authorities, no matter the risk to their future and freedom.</span><br style="color:rgb(24,24,24);font-family:Georgia, serif;font-size:13.63636302947998px;line-height:17.563634872436523px;" /><br style="color:rgb(24,24,24);font-family:Georgia, serif;font-size:13.63636302947998px;line-height:17.563634872436523px;" /><span style="color:rgb(24,24,24);font-family:Georgia, serif;font-size:13.63636302947998px;line-height:17.563634872436523px;">But is the mysterious child simply a troubled little girl longing to return home? Or is she a powerful prophet sent to unravel the fabric of a godless Republic, as the outlaw leader of an illegal religious sect would have them believe? Whatever the answer, it will change them all forever… and perhaps their world as well.</span></p>
Story Behind The Book
The mind is a beautiful thing. It can be a restful place to retreat at the end of a long, hard day, and at times be absolutely overflowing with joyful thoughts, imagination and wonderment. It can also be a dark and lonely imprisonment, full of terrible sadness laced with incoherent ramblings, and impossible delusions of grandeur.
Bipolar disorder affects approximately 5.7 million adults in America. Of these persons, nearly half of them will try to commit suicide at least once in their lifetime. Women however, may attempt it two to three times. These statistics alone are a heartbreaking fact - but add a name or a face of a family member to it, and it becomes devastating. Mental illness not only touches those who have it - it consumes their loved ones as well, leaving a haunting impression long after they are gone.
In Seasons of Darkness, I explore the dynamics of one fictional family living with such an aftermath. Everett Harrington, a no-nonsense businessman, should have taken Natalia's behavior that night as a sign of things to come, but hadn't. When it came to her, he found himself unable to think clearly. It was on a scorching afternoon in late July that he had stood at the altar with her, making a promise in front of God and her parents to love her for better or for worse - and it was ten years later, on a rainy morning in September that he'd buried her. The days in between had been filled with brief intervals of happiness...and long periods of hopelessness.
Now, left alone to raise a son he can't talk to and a daughter that he wants nothing to do with, he chooses to spend his evenings drowning his frustrations in a bottle of scotch, leaving him without the ability to control his temper.
Forced to grow up in a hurry, nine-year-old Ethan Harrington quickly learned to build a wall around his heart, vowing never to let it be hurt again. Now sixteen, and still ravaged by his mother's death, he struggles to live among the shattered remains of a family that was never functional to begin with.
As Ethan and Everett try to move on, Natalia's life is tenderly told through their eyes in vivid flashbacks that weaves throughout the book. A story of hope - even in the darkest of times, this is a coming-of-age novel that depicts the sometimes difficult and oftentimes complex relationship experienced between father and son when tragedy strikes.
