What’s next for me? A lot I’m excited to say. Having my youngest son start High School two weeks ago, has been another one of life’s milestones I would have loved to share with Mum, and  another one as equally as huge, and dear to Mum’s heart, is my eldest son starting at Oakwood school next week!

My goals for the next six months, and sooner if my grieving brain will allow, is to revise  The Given, finish The Guardian and get ready to start Sins of Sorrento and the follow on book set in my childhood hometown of Glenormiston South.

But before all that, I am getting ready to release Thirteen and Underwater.  I have had many people reach out to me, once they  heard I was writing a book about the worldwide epidemic that is Anxiety Disorder, and their support has been overwhelming and heart warming.

SYNOPSIS:

THIRTEEN AND UNDERWATER is an emotionally charged true story, based on a young man’s dark journey of anxiety.

Told with a mother’s insight, Thirteen and Underwater  divulges a life full of love and laughter and reveals the tiny claws of anguish that turn into sharp talons of despair, as her beloved son grows from childhood, into a defeated teenager, grasping at the reins of uncontrollable anger and isolation. As his mother, fighting to do what society expects of her while facing the encalculable loss of her son’s sense of self, the writer questions herself constantly with the emotional draining barrage of, “What am I doing wrong?” Yet she tells their story with characteristic candour and humour.

This is the story of one family’s survival, reflecting billions in the worldwide epidemic. It explores how anxiety can severely affect not just a little boy trying to fight the unseen predator that is mental illness, but the entire family. It is an inspirational story of one family’s refusal to give into the nightmare caused by anxiety.