"Clarah" - the curse of begrudgery: welcome to the third book in the series - "The Tamar Prophesy" The story line differs from its older paper siblings, yet for those of you who have read books 1 and 2, it contains common threads, known places and familiar characters. Welcome back to the strange mansion known as Darwydden and the demonic foursome who strive to break through its invisible borders. Clarah has an Irish tinker father, and a true-blood Romany mother. She lives with a Gypsy vitsa, a community that collectively travel the North Yorkshire circuit. Clarah is different from her female contemporaries. Often described affectionately as a feral cat, she shuns their world of fake tans, false eyelashes and acrylic nails. Clarah is one hell of a gutsy lady...out-spoken, feisty, yet humorous. Set between 2014 to 2016, this is a modern-day story of prejudice, abuse, betrayal, jealousy, crime, murder, hauntings, superstition, witchcraft, alien worlds, creatures from the devic kingdom and stomach crunching bigotry. This is also a tale about the concept of pre-determined destiny. Does such a thing exist, can it be changed, and if so, what are the consequences? Six numbers on a lottery ticket change the lives of Clarah's Gypsy family, however their lives do not change for the betterment. As misfortune and tragedy beset them, they blame the evil eye of jealous onlookers and the curse of begrudgery. Fearing yet more unwanted consequences of their new fortune, the travellers leave the sanctuary of their close-knit vitsa, and settle amongst the gaje, (the non-gypsy community of settlers). However, things are not as they seem, being neither real or imaginary. Clarah finds herself in a strange realm of existence. Science fiction now kicks in with a hard-supernatural punch. Caught in the limbo of a humdrum world, a single event changes the entire course of Clarah's life. This event alters her destiny to such a profound degree, that it also alters the course of humanity and worlds beyond worlds. This story challenges the concept of time travel, causal loops and questions the theory of a predestination paradox. It quizzes the validity of the free will versus a fate set before birth. Are we really all bar coded for a preordained life? What Clarah then becomes, will enter the realm of the super-extraordinary. Who Clarah then meets, enters the dominion of the super-impossible. What Clarah then does, is beyond the imagination. The question is - will Clarah ever return to just being Clarah, and if she does, at what cost? To pour oil on water, she is also tangled up with the enigmatic prophesy of Tamar, so the decisions she makes are not just life changing, but history changing. Will the fuzzy laws of quantum physics give Clarah back to herself? It is a conundrum.
About the Author: I was born in the Lancashire mining town of Leigh, back in the days of black & white TV and when children played out, climbed trees, scuffed their knees and made dens. Enid Blyton was my heroine, and I have often aspired to write an adult version of "the secret seven". Some of us never really grow up... My father died when I was a baby, and so as a child I was raised by my Grandmother Florrie Gibbons. She lived in Howe Bridge near Atherton and was a loving intelligent lady. She was also an avid reader, who went through about 5 books a week. Every night she read to me, and so by the time I started school at 4 years old, I could already read and write. It didn't give me any advantages over the other kids at Pennington school, but none the lass I thank her. With her encouragement, I have been writing books from about the age of 6. These were for my own entertainment and not for public consumption. It has taken me a long time, (and life has a way of creating other priorities to distract us), but eventually I decided I should publish. With a love of history, mythology, theology, genealogy, the paranormal, gothic mansions and anything that involves secret tunnels - I was destined to be a science fiction writer. I like to add authenticity to my books, by using well researched chronicles, and then scattering a thimble full of fairy dust to magic the facts into a story. I hope you enjoy CLARAH - book 3 of the Tamar prophesy series.