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Bio | After a career spanning academia, commercial real estate, international executive recruiting, and career-transition coaching, I returned to my first love—writing fiction. A believer in second chances, I tend to explore themes of redemption and reinvention. In my debut novel, The Moon Always Rising, Eleanor “Els” Gordon, a young Scottish investment banker, restarts her life in the tropics after tragic losses and gains the courage to open herself to love again. Having become obsessed to own a derelict plantation house on the Caribbean island of Nevis, Els sinks her savings into renovating it only to discover she’s cohabiting with the ghost (jumbie) of the former owner, legendary drunkard, womanizer, and rumored suicide, Jack Griggs. Jack’s jumbie can’t leave this world without Els’s help in making amends with women he wronged in life. Els can’t remake her life in this world unless she heeds the jumbie’s prodding to unravel family secrets about the mother who abandoned her as a toddler. With a spicy stew of ethnically diverse characters and an immersive setting, The Moon Always Rising offers readers a page-turning mini-vacation from the issues of our day. At the same time, it tackles discussion-worthy topics including mother-daughter relationships, trusting new love after trauma, the repercussions of impulsive decisions, workplace sexual harassment in the pre-#MeToo era, the social and economic legacy of colonialism, and Caribbean history, cuisine, and small island politics. My husband and I have visited Nevis, where much of this novel is set, annually since 1996; the rest of the year we live on the island of Martha’s Vineyard. One of my greatest joys as an author is meeting with readers, in person or virtually, and learning from their questions and reactions. |
Awards | Winner, Women’s Fiction, 2020 National Indie Excellence Award Winner, Cross-Genre Fiction, 2020 American Fiction Awards |
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