Thank you for finding your way to my author page. We lovers of the written word have so many choices as to which authors to support, which genres we like, and which new books to explore. And is there anything more exciting than discovering a new author?
I’ve been very blessed to have words – writing them, editing and reading them – as a huge part of my life for the better part of my life. I consider it a privilege to be a writer. And I feel just as blessed to be an avid reader. I believe the two go together. So I hope that you enjoy exploring my work. Please join me at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books on April 20-21, 2024 at USC where I will be an exhibitor.
My newest title is available for presale on Amazon Hamilton Heights and Sugar Hill and Barnes & Noble
I am pleased to share that Fordham University Press has announced April 2, 2024 as the release date of my historical nonfiction book about this storied neighborhood in Harlem that traces its development from the seventeenth century until 2023. The hardcover version is available for presale on the Amazon and Barnes & Noble websites.
This is the neighborhood where Alexander Hamilton built his home, The Grange, in 1802, which is still there and now a historic landmark. Hamilton Heights and Sugar Hill were also home to Duke Ellington, George Gershwin, Thurgood Marshall, and Norman Rockwell. George Washington camped out there in the Mount Morris Mansion in 1776 after his first successful encounter with the British – The Battle of Harlem Heights – at the outset of the American Revolution. There is a lot of incredible history and architecture there.
Please read my interview in the Fordham University Press Blog
My 2018 nonfiction book Senior Services for the Financially Challenged is available on Amazon.com in both the print and Kindle versions, as well as Barnes & Noble. The book guides readers through accessing an array of social services available to low-income families. It helps guide them through finding Assisted Living Facilities that can be paid for by Medicaid and getting free help in their homes from the Department of Aging. Please buy a copy today and share on your social networks to help get this important information into the hands of struggling families and caregivers.
On July 15, 2017, I had a table read of my new play “Just a Note” at the James Bridges Theater at UCLA’s School of Theater, Film and TV. It is my first foray into writing for the stage, but I am encouraged to see where this leads. The play is quite similar to – and a homage to – “Love Letters” by A.R. Guerney. But there are marked differences as well. Please contact me if you would like to receive some pages with the thought of possibly staging it.
PURCHASING MY BOOKS: In the world of self-published authors, Amazon.com has now established this wonderful platform to help us realize our vision of being published. You can find my books on Amazon.com.
The South Africa of His Heart is my first memoir, published in 2007. It covers selected aspects of a thirty-year period in my life – starting at age twenty-two. It concentrates mostly on my relationship with my first husband, a South African expatriate during apartheid.
It is 1976, the American Bicentennial and the summer of the Soweto student riots in South Africa. The massacres sparked world awareness of the horrors of apartheid and, many believe, were the catalyst for the eventual fall of apartheid fourteen years later when Nelson Mandela walked out of prison.
A twenty-two year old woman enrolls in a college prep program in Harlem and meets a South African expatriate thirty-plus years her senior. He is there teaching English. Amidst the turmoil of that summer, they fall in love, marry and make plans to move to Nigeria.
Set in New York, the Caribbean, London, South Africa and Los Angeles The South Africa of His Heart is a moving thirty-year memoir about how the circles in life can lead us to astounding places-often by chance. Ms. James shares the true story of the lifelong impact her South African husband made on her life.
What unfolds is a touching, unconventional love story about dedication and a spiritual connection that bridged their physical separations. In a series of fateful discoveries, many years after their last encounter, she uncovers surprising and profound revelations about her first husband.
EXCERPT:
Our lives are made up of both reflections of what might have been and acceptance of what is, on the steady progression of the years we build with the ones we love, and the fantasies of the ones we wished had loved us more or differently. But then, in between that steady progression of sure and comfortable years, we have days or nights that are made up of magical encounters with beautiful people, encounters that change the course of our lives, and that make up the memories we recall in our last breath.
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