Victoria's Vegetarian Victuals

We are so excited around here that we can hardly see straight. My mother’s novel, Merlyn, was published on January 22, 2002!

Here’s the press release!

A Father's Legacy
Powerful Magic and Unfettered Evil Haunt the Daughter of Merlin -Tir Nan Og, Central New York- Arthur. Guinevere. Lancelot. Camelot. Excalibur. Merlin. The legend surrounding King Arthur is one of the most well known and fascinating parts of British Lore. A tale of love, life, and honor, nothing captures the imagination more than the story of Merlin, Viviane, the Lady of the Lake, and the mystery of the magic that connects them all.

Steeped in mystery and differing narratives, piecing the life, death, and power of Merlin together is no easy task. Author J. M. Smith willingly tackles the mystery of Merlin and brings the legacy of his magic, life, and captivity into the 20th century in the phenomenal new novel, Merlyn (now available from 1stBooks Library).

Merlyn is the story of Merlyn Kathleen Ryan. Her father is unknown at her birth, but mystery soon gives way to clarity for the reader. At the tender age of fifteen, Merlyn learns the truth of her ancestry and her paternal connection to the ancient sorcerer Merlin. Born to accomplish a task begun centuries earlier, Merlyn must overcome the dark powers of the enchantress Viviane and recover the famed sword of the Lady of the Lake.

Set across numerous continents and landscapes, Merlyn encapsulates the entirety of human existence within its pages. Friendship, love, hatred, defeat, success, passion, and faith are all brought to life as Merlyn follows her destiny.

In David Spicer's review of Merlyn, he says. "Merlyn and her friends move through modern times marked out by the ancient festivals. Pursued by Viviane and her evil recruits, they travel the world searching for the sword that will provide the key to undo her father's incarceration. J.M. Smith's book is a wonderful concoction the ancient and modern, myth and magic, science and human emotion."

J.M. Smith has been a professional writer since 1970. She is a graduate in Journalism and English Education from Douglass College and Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey. She is an accomplished and oft-published author, beginning when she was only 17. Since that time, she has published everything from poetry to fiction to non-fiction. Smith was also a contributor to both the United States Navy Diving Manual and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Diving

Manual. After spending ten years researching and writing, Smith is proud to give Merlyn to the world.

If you'd like, you can get the book at the publisher’s website or it will be on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and 25,000 other bookstores in March. Just search for Merlyn by J.M. Smith.

Now, Merlyn lives on an island in the Caribbean. She is a vegetarian, and Sally Anne Brown, her cook and good friend, knows Merlyn’s weakness for crepes and things like that. Merlyn can do all sorts of magic, but all the same, she is a girl who loves her apples, cheese, and chocolate!

So here are some of the favorite treats at Avalon House, on the Bluff at Cayman Brac. (Don’t bother to go there and look for the house. I think that it is invisible!)