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NoraD

rank: 5327

Last week's position: 5305

first registered 07.05.09

last online 128 days ago

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about me

I'm Irish, but have spent most of my life outside the country, currently dividing my time between Ireland and Germany.
Have worked as an English teacher and a textbook editor/author. Now free-lancing, which facilitates the 'dividing my time' bit., plus writing for fun.
I like music, choral singing, beer, wine, whiskey, chocolate, cats, arguments and puzzles.
If you don't like the latter, maybe you'd better steer clear of my stories: All that detail may be too much for you, since you can't know what's important and what isn't.
But if you do like puzzles, I hope you'll enjoy reading my stories as much as I enjoyed writing them!

favourite books

Restricting myself to 16 (sort of), I come up with the following cross-section -

Fiction:
George Eliot. Middlemarch (1872)
Mark Twain, Huckleberry Finn (1884)
Dorothy Sayers, Gaudy Night (1935)
Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1979 - 84)
Umberto Eco, The Name of the Rose (1980/83)
Roddy Doyle, The Commitments (1988)
Ruth Rendell, Road Rage (1997)
Michael Frayn, Headlong (1999)
J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2000)

Faction:
Anonymous (actually: Joe Klein), Primary Colors (1996)

Non-fiction:
Brenda Maddox, Nora (1988)
Stephen Pinker, The Language Instinct (1994)
Alison Gopnik (et al), How Babies Think (1999)
Bob Dylan, Chronicles (2004)
Brian Sykes, Saxons Vikings and Celts (2004)
Andrew Sachs, Musicophilia (2007)

my websites

    

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Self-publish with CreateSpace

my books

Light and Shade

Nora Donovan

An Irish rock band ... an enigmatic producer ... some local protesters ... and a suspicious death in their midst. Can Tim solve the mystery?


When rookie Garda Tim O’Driscoll is assigned to inform next-of–kin of the death of a local musician, he smells a rat. The man’s fall from the battlements of a renovated Norman castle in County Limerick seems to suggest accident or suicide. But Tim has acquired troubling information on the internal tensions within the folk-rock band who were employing him there at a recording session.

Since the death occurred in a different district, he has to use all the means at his disposal (including family connections) to nose in on the investigation. Few of those involved are completely above suspicion: the drunken, hot-headed guitarist replaced for his unreliability … the enigmatic blind producer … the glamorous lead singer … her lover … a dodgy archaeologist … The possibility of mistaken identity casts suspicion on a local environmental group.

In the end, Tim breaks through a web of multiple deceit to get at the truth – and to save the life of someone who unknowingly holds the key to the mystery.

But whether guilty, innocent, or otherwise, no one can escape the shadows of the past ...

NOW AVAILABLE ON AMAZON!



 

Borderlines

Nora Donovan

A firebrand Green Party politician crashes her BMW on the transit autobahn. Was the Stasi involved? And who else wanted her dead?


The year is 1989 … and ex-Garda Tim O’Driscoll finds himself stranded in the shadow of the Berlin Wall. To augment his meagre bartender’s salary, he takes on a job doing what he does best: investigating. Hanna, the intriguing but infuriating American who lives upstairs, seems to thinks that there is more to the politician’s death than meets the eye. The victim just happens to be her ex-husband’s ex-lover … Soon Tim is up to his ears in family tensions and political intrigues. Narrowly avoiding trouble while investigating among East Berlin dissidents, he finds himself in even deeper water in the West, being arrested on suspicion of murdering hapless artist Carlo. Fearing that Hanna may be playing a double game, leading to this second death, Tim resolves on his release to continue snooping on his own behalf. The key seems to be a mysterious message relayed over the border by Hanna’s own daughter. This takes Tim on a risky foray into East Germany proper. With explosive knowledge, but an expired day-visa, he seems trapped ... then world events take over. Saved by pure chance? – or has he unwittingly played a part in the revolution?

 

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latest

ndayery wrote 90 days ago

(rafica_4ndaye@yahoo.com) My name is rafica i saw your profile toda....

ndaye wrote 124 days ago

(rafica_4ndaye@yahoo.com) My name is rafica i saw your profile toda....

Ariom Dahl wrote 131 days ago

hello Nora, Sorry, I managed to acquire a very full WL and have be....

a.morrison712 wrote 132 days ago

No problem. Looking forward to it!

KirkH wrote 133 days ago

Thanks Nora

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my comments

latest

I wrote 134 days ago

Having skimmed the first four chapters, I'm now going to go back, read it for fun and continue to find out what this is all about ... Stays on my WL until then! Just a few initial comments: At first I was (and partly still am) a little confused about the characters' nationality and language. Mayb... view book

I wrote 134 days ago

Excellent idea, promises to be a lovely book for young people. I do think, however, that it would benefit from toning down the dogmatism. Instead of stating your theories as bald fact, you could say (possibly just once, at the beginning) that this is how things may/might have developed, or even prob... view book

I wrote 520 days ago

Have just dipped into Chapter 1 to see if it deserves a place on my Watch List - it does! Very intriguing (why the lower-case "god"?). More when I've read more ... I must admit, however, that I tend to find present-tense narrative rather tiring, so if I should drop out, that'll be the reason! view book

I wrote 834 days ago

Sorry it took me so long, Freddie. I've kept you waiting so long, I'll make a special effort to get past what is a real barrier for me: present tense narrative! I know it's supposed to create a sense of immediacy. But - as I've just explained to the writer who was just ahead of you in my backl... view book

I wrote 835 days ago

Have finally mader a start on "Houses of Sand". Excellent descriptive writing, which makes it easy to immerse oneself in this strange culture. The slave girl is promising to be a wonderful character ... Will hang on in there, find out what happens next ... May make my shelf, when I've created a b... view book

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