AUTHOR

 

When Barry, the on-again-off-again boyfriend I met when I was fifteen, attended a course in the United States, he asked if I'd like to come along. Well, goodbye newspaper, hello New York. When Barry returned home, I stayed on, sleeping on the floor of a generous friend of a friend.

 

Out of money and missing home, I flew back to South Africa. First night home, Barry took me to dinner and proposed - again.  This time I was ready.  We were married a month later.  We spent our honeymoon in Mozambique, one of our favorite places, and the setting for my third novel, SEARCHING FOR A SHADOW.

 

When Barry was offered a job at Scripps Institute of Oceanography in California, we had two children under the age of six. We raised them in San Diego. I worked for a defense contractor, writing, editing and illustrating proposals. We camped every summer across the Western United States and in Baja, Mexico - the setting for my second novel GUADALUPE'S GIFT.

 

Now retired with two grown children, a daughter-in-law and two grandsons, Barry and I are free to do what we love. We're still traveling. I'm also writing and doing yoga, Barry's painting and swimming, and we're both gardening and babysitting. Life is good. Very good.

I was born in South Africa and grew up during the Apartheid years. I spent many happy summers on my uncle's farm - the setting for my first book, MARULA RIDGE.

 

At twenty-one, I sailed to England and spent a year hitch-hiking around Britain and the Continent. It was the most exciting and educational year of my life.

 

Back in South Africa, I got a job on a newspaper. I wrote two weekly columns, surprised that I actually had a talent for writing. The Editor, Donald Woods, was later placed under house arrest for his anti-Government stance. His story was portrayed in the movie, Cry Freedom.

A LITTLE BIT ABOUT ME

 

 

 Luis Alberto Urrea                 Hummingbird’s Daughter                

 

 Isabel Allende                         The Island Beneath the Sea, House of Spirits, Daughter of Fortunte 

 

Donna Tartt                            The Goldfinch, The Little Friend, 

 

Anthony Doerr                       All the Light We Cannot See

 

Jess Walter                             Beautiful Ruins

 

Richard Russo                       Empire Falls

 

E.L. Doctorow                        The March, Ragtime, Homer and Langley

 

Henning Menkel                    The White Lioness, Italian Shoes

 

Alexandra Fuller                    Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight

 

Carolina De Robertis           Invisible Mountain

 

Carlos Luis Zafon                 The Shadow of the Wind

 

Erin Morgenstern                   The Night Circus      

 

Greg Hurwitz                           The Crime Writer     

 

Ann Tyler                                  Accidental Tourist, Breathing Lessons, A Spool of Blue Thread

 

Sue Monk Kidd                       Secret Lives of Bees, The Invention of Wings

 

Barbara Kingsolver              The Lacuna, Poisonwood Bible, Pigs in Heaven, Animal Dreams, The Bean Trees

 

Tana French                          In the Woods, Faithful Place, Broken Harbor, The Likeness 

 

Ann Patchett                          Bel Canto, The Magician’s Assistant, State of Wonder

 

 

 

 

MY FAVORITE AUTHORS