A Mysterious Island full of Magic and Misery

 It's been a long time since I published another book despite being asked by friends each time they meet me or my husband,  'Is Loretta writing another book?'  And I am touched that they are even politely interested. and have missd my outpourings!  

The answer, up to now, has been a fervent 'No!' because I really wanted to stop writing, stop living in a world of images, fantasies and ideas and actually be here and in the Now.  Very Zen, you might say.  Well, yes, and to be honest I have never felt more peaceful and happy despite pandemics and lockdown strictures.  I pottered round the house, cooked splendid meals in a newly designed kitchen and gardened, often twice a day, for several hours.  I lost weight too which is always a bonus, especially as a lot of people have actually put weight on during lockdown. 

So what has changed things?  I was approached by an interesting new style of publishing called eglobal creative publishing.  It's intended to appeal especially to Asian and South American markets but it is available to anyone who wants to sample a few free chapters and then opt to buy the book a chapter at a time or the whole lot.   It's a great idea as long as the first chapters are riveting enough to entice a reader to carry on.  I have to hope this is true of the book I decided to give them to put on this platform called The Glass Madonna.  But as it's a non-exclusive contract, it is also available in other ebook forms such as Kindle, Nook, Apple, Kobo for Western readers.  The first time I've ever gone as wide.  It's actually rather fun and exciting.

The story takes place mainly in Crete and especially on the strange and mysterious island of Spinalonga which lies off the coast near Elounda.  I visited this island in the late 1970's with the family when we were on holiday in Crete, a marvellous place.  At that time tourism had hardly begun to take hold in Greece and Crete was peaceful and as yet undiscovered.  An old fisherman took us over to see the island and there was only one other couple there.  It was so quiet, so forsaken, crumbling, overgrown and eerie.  I have always been fascinated by ruined and deserted places. 

I knew this island had to have a good adventure story in it and sat and wrote this novel in a slightly different form shortly after our return.  The children loved my tale which was all about the supernatural, magic and mystery.  The main character is a fragile young girl who becomes caught up with the sad destiny of a Greek villager whose parents died as lepers on the island.  She feels compelled to help him and is drawn into a terrifying adventure.  Nothing like Victori Hislop's The Island.  

Sadly for me, I left this story along with several others I had written at this time after a few feeble attemtps to find a publisher.  There wasn't any easy self publishing then!  Life was just too busy to deal with it all.  So fair enough, Victoria got there first and she does have a husband and a foothold in publishing and believe me, that helps a lot!  And hers is a great book.

But The Glass Madonna, though it has a similiar setting, is absolutely nothing like The Island.  It's a coming of age story and may not appeal to everyone but I hope the mystery and the strange characters will lure you all into a new adventure.