Going With the Flo
An underlying theme ...
In Jane Austen's Bookshelf, its author Rebecca Romney observes ...
For women in the eighteenth century and in the twenty-first, the fight for autonomy is one of the most important themes we explore.
Florence Dombey Creations
disconnected and drifting
Whirlwinds, Waves, and Willow
Whirlwinds, Waves, and Willow
THE WILLOW CHRONICLE (Prelude)
Disconnected and Drifting (two novels in one book) is a character-driven work of Literary Fiction set in 1955 and is the prelude to THE WILLOW CHRONICLE.
Part 1 begins as a police drama set in Lewes on the Delaware Bay, which focuses on the murder of two young boys; the story also explores why Carl Meyers —
THE WILLOW CHRONICLE (Prelude)
Disconnected and Drifting (two novels in one book) is a character-driven work of Literary Fiction set in 1955 and is the prelude to THE WILLOW CHRONICLE.
Part 1 begins as a police drama set in Lewes on the Delaware Bay, which focuses on the murder of two young boys; the story also explores why Carl Meyers — Lewes Police Chief and Willow Benton’s father — decides to leave Lewes in search of Willow's mother, Laura Benton, who had left Meyers without a trace in 1939.
In Part 2, Meyers' search for Laura leads him to Port Townsend on the Olympic Peninsula where he becomes involved in the investigation of three murders. Willow is introduced in two cameo appearances as this part of the novel duo reveals the significant consequences of her parents' reunion, which inspire the subsequent volumes in The Willow Chronicle.
Whirlwinds, Waves, and Willow
Whirlwinds, Waves, and Willow
Whirlwinds, Waves, and Willow
THE WILLOW CHRONICLE, VOL. 2
Whirlwinds, Waves, and Willow is a character-driven work of Literary Fiction, which begins in 1956, when 17-year-old Willow Benton finds her hometown — Port Townsend on Washington's Olympic Peninsula — has become claustrophobic due to the arrival of her father who her mother had told her had died in WW II. Bam
THE WILLOW CHRONICLE, VOL. 2
Whirlwinds, Waves, and Willow is a character-driven work of Literary Fiction, which begins in 1956, when 17-year-old Willow Benton finds her hometown — Port Townsend on Washington's Olympic Peninsula — has become claustrophobic due to the arrival of her father who her mother had told her had died in WW II. Bambi Macey, a year older, has her own problem: an unwanted pregnancy. It is the start of an epic journey when the two girls decide to run away to the South Pacific aboard a stolen 60-ft yawl.
From the 5 STAR ONLINE BOOK CLUB Review:
“Whirlwinds, Waves and Willow” is a beautifully crafted story ... From the start, this author’s expert writing is evidenced by the way the story completely engrosses a reader in it ... Following the lives of the characters was made easy, thanks to the proper character development in the book. Willow’s rebellion with her new friend, Bambi, is typical of their ages; Laura’s dissatisfaction with her husband and (his) reactions to all these happenings, coupled with the death of his best friend, made relating to the characters very natural. The way emotions flowed from one character to the next made relating to the story easy and made me eager to learn what happens next. This was crucial to the overall excitement the story contained.
The mystery element of this book was what I enjoyed the most. There was no unnecessary bombardment of characters to conceal the culprit in the aspect of "who-done-it,” and I appreciate such straightforwardness. This eliminated any sense of bloat in the story while streamlining it in a way that never felt tiring. The suspense did not feel too dragged on and the elements that led to it did not seem redundant. All these are testaments to expert and mature storytelling, and I commend the author for taking the time to do that.
When it came to describing the boats at sea, most of the references used would only be understood by people familiar with sailing, a demographic I don’t fall under. As a result, I was thrown overboard in this aspect. Besides this, there was no other aspect of this book that I did not like, leading me to rate it 5 out of 5 stars. My limited knowledge of sailing narrowed my enjoyment, which was in no way the fault of the book. Additionally, the proper editing, with just a couple of typos, adds to the book’s professional attributes. There's a lot of mystery, sailing and elements of romance in this book. Readers who enjoy such topics would appreciate it a lot.
From the Self-Publishing Review: "The narrative is remarkably detailed and well-researched, seamlessly diving into nautical terminology and sailing lingo that feels authentic and colloquial. From multilayered narrative musings and creative descriptive passages to explosions of raw emotion that reveal the unbridled ugliness of human nature, there is attention to nuance in every aspect of the prose. This captivating story is an ambitious, unpredictable, and undaunted examination into the dark corners of human connection, resulting in an intimate and revelatory novel."
A quote from Whirlwinds, Waves, and Willow:
When aboard a large yacht, blanketed by a cold black night and reaching in a steady wind at near hull speed, it feels as if one is flying through space and not floating upon a living sea. The illusion exhilarates, impassions, and inspires. At such times, there is little said among shipmates, the bond of camaraderie being born without saying, and on such nights, a sailor may feel like a solitary and insignificant fleck of earthbound stardust beneath the infinite stars that fill the blue-black sky, which spreads from horizon to horizon. The constant, yet ever unique, gurgling of waves parted by a racing hull assaults the ears; you see waves rushing by with the breathtaking but illusory speed alluded to; there are rattling whispers in the rigging and canvas caused by the wind. Rare sprinkles of light appear against the sky or the black silhouettes of mountains that ring sections of the horizon ....
At sea
Whirlwinds, Waves, and Willow
Found and Lost in Paradise
THE WILLOW CHRONICLE, VOL. 3
Within The Willow Chronicle is an epic, three-volume, coming of age story that begins in Whirlwinds, Waves, and Willow, is followed by At Sea, and concludes with Found and Lost in Paradise.
At Sea, a character-driven work of Literary Fiction, finds two young American women who have begun a great adventure in
THE WILLOW CHRONICLE, VOL. 3
Within The Willow Chronicle is an epic, three-volume, coming of age story that begins in Whirlwinds, Waves, and Willow, is followed by At Sea, and concludes with Found and Lost in Paradise.
At Sea, a character-driven work of Literary Fiction, finds two young American women who have begun a great adventure in 1956 by escaping from the puritanical world of small town America to what they hope is a liberating world of French Polynesia aboard a stolen, 60-foot yawl.
In At Sea and later in Found and Lost in Paradise, Willow "Billie" Benton and Brittany "Bambi" Macey endure tumultuous months that erase whatever remains of adolescent innocence. Under the mentorship of Oliana Teriierooiterai, the last Marquesan Chieftess on Hiva Oa, Willow and Bambi learn to cope with a world where the only restraints to satisfying their desires are consent and imagination.
The inclusion of significant doses of greed and betrayal, a touch of cannibalism, and a beautiful and faithful mahu — a third gender person named Mahana who becomes a friend and lover to them both — creates a story set in a world that is far different from the America that Billie and Bambi have left behind. But there remains a greater world to which they must return, a world where conflicts are resolved by fate, courage, perseverance, and a strategic return.
A quote from At Sea:
Bambi rises in response and attempts to embrace Willow, but Willow shoves her so hard that Bambi falls backwards and lands with a thud that awakens Oliana. Willow grabs a pareo that is lying on the floor and runs naked into a rising wind presaging a squall line that is blocking out the stars as it approaches. Willow leaps from the porch and hits the grass running with the pareo still in hand and streaming behind her. She is perhaps a hundred yards from Oliana’s bungalow when a deluge descends from the advancing cloud, but the wind and cold rain against her bared body do not stop her. She knows where it is that she is running to but she does not know why. And she does not stop running — this tall, striking young woman, this former record-setting miler at an American high school — until she is standing on the black sand beach at the head of Taha Uku ... Willow stands, for she knows not how long, in the drenching rain until its enveloping cold causes her to shiver uncontrollably. The sensation awakens the part of her that wants to live, and she realizes that stretching out in front of her is Taha Uku, a warm and welcoming womb offering an escape from the chilling rain. She drops the pareo onto the black sand and strides purposely toward the low and lapping waves of this finger of the Pacific. The equatorial warmth of the saltwater that caresses her feet and calves draws her forward until only her head is above the water. After a moment, she dips beneath the surface and revels in the warmth that erases the rain’s chill. Seconds later, she rises until her face feels the cool wind that follows the squall. She slowly spins around as she treads water and stops spinning when the Ultima Thule, which is now more visible in the diminishing rain, is in her line of sight.
Found and Lost in Paradise
Found and Lost in Paradise
Found and Lost in Paradise
THE WILLOW CHRONICLE, VOL. 4
See preceding description of At Sea.
A quote from Found and Lost in Paradise:
It is early morning in Puama’u, which is still in the shadow of Hiva Oa’s backbone, but the gleam from the arc of the sun that has just breached the rim of the Pacific’s eastern horizon is coloring the sky a pastel rose, a hue that su
THE WILLOW CHRONICLE, VOL. 4
See preceding description of At Sea.
A quote from Found and Lost in Paradise:
It is early morning in Puama’u, which is still in the shadow of Hiva Oa’s backbone, but the gleam from the arc of the sun that has just breached the rim of the Pacific’s eastern horizon is coloring the sky a pastel rose, a hue that suggests itself in the light seeping through the windows of Oliana Teriierooiterai’s bungalow. Brittany “Bambi” Macey lies on her side on a sleeping mat within the confines of mosquito netting, and her bare skin perceives the hint of dew that has settled onto it. As her head rests on the crook of her right arm, she cradles Rebecca Rowena Randall Macey with her left hand as the baby noisily and happily suckles at her mother’s breast.
There are other morning sounds, distant sounds like the gentle pulsing rush of Puama’u’s diminished surf, which, in the perpetual lee of the island’s high ridge does not benefit from the constant push of the trade winds. Complementing the rhythm of the surf, the fronds of the plantation’s palm trees rustle in the moderated breeze, and there is another sound coming from within the cocoon of the mosquito netting: the rhythmic purr of Oliana’s, sleep-subdued respirations. But Bambi’s senses are tuned only to her baby, the feel of her little one’s soft, smooth, and warm skin, the still novel sensation of Becca’s eager mouth drawing sustenance from her mother’s breast, and every tiny twitch or stretch the baby makes.
Each time Bambi has engaged in this simple and ubiquitous motherly experience — one as old as the species — she has been brought nearly to tears by an awareness that she is fulfilling some predestined, almost sacred charge, and each time, she has been reminded of her own mother, a mother who had left her as a small child with no explanation, never to be heard from again. Each time Bambi has looked into the blue eyes of her daughter, every time she has held Becca to her breast, she has felt a gaping wound in her soul beginning to heal, the horrific pain of her mother’s abandonment lessening with each assertive suckle upon her breast, but as she has felt the hurt diminish, it is supplanted by a growing anger toward her mother. The high heat of that anger is hardening her determination — no matter what twists and challenges she will have to face in the months and years ahead — to never abandon the tiny soul she is cradling with her hand.
CONSUMMATE CONFIDENCES
Found and Lost in Paradise
CONSUMMATE CONFIDENCES
THE WILLOW CHRONICLE, VOL. 5
Long Bright River
meets
All Fours
in 1957
Set in 1957, Consummate Confidences is a tale of secrets, each a filament in a complex web woven by clever spiders that connects Brittany Alistair (Bambi) Macey, Mirabelle Rhodes, Carl Meyers, and a number of young women, a brother, and a young doctor in a web of sexu
THE WILLOW CHRONICLE, VOL. 5
Long Bright River
meets
All Fours
in 1957
Set in 1957, Consummate Confidences is a tale of secrets, each a filament in a complex web woven by clever spiders that connects Brittany Alistair (Bambi) Macey, Mirabelle Rhodes, Carl Meyers, and a number of young women, a brother, and a young doctor in a web of sexual intrigue and murder, which is complicated by Carl Meyers' and his ex-wife's familial connections with The Crew, a crime syndicate in Baltimore that is affiliated with the Mafia's Five Families in New York City, a syndicate that reaches across America to require that Meyers fulfill a favor that he cannot refuse.
The 1950's was a time when sexual behavior among the middle class was seldom if ever mentioned, let alone discussed, even among friends. And a woman's fear of being exposed for breaking sexual taboos, especially in small town America, was one of the emotional forces intended to and effectively does diminish the personal power of women. An irony of the time is that this tsunami of disempowerment occurred during the fifteen years that followed World War II, and those war years were years when the War Machine--which had been created by the war that required it--empowered over 6 million women to work in factories to provide the human power that the Machine needed to win that war.
Consummate Confidences is set in Port Townsend and describes the interactions of key protagonists in The Willow Chronicle during the months they waited with little hope for Willow Benton's return from Honolulu aboard the Ultima Thule, weeks during which murder and the three-thousand-mile-long arm of a Baltimore crime syndicate intruded into the provincial world of Port Townsend.
Bambi Macey, having returned from a months-long escape to French Polynesia with Carl Meyers' daughter, Willow (Billie) Benton, has returned to Port Townsend, her hometown on Washington's Olympic Peninsula. Despite the scandalous nature of the escape, Bambi has been cautiously welcomed back by the citizenry of Port Townsend, where Bambi and her eight-month-old daughter, Becca, are establishing a life in Bambi’s father's house, which has been vacant due to his incarceration for manslaughter. Meanwhile, Willow, along with Mahana Tetuanui--hers and Bambi's friend and lover--having left Honolulu in early July aboard the sixty-foot-yawl that Willow and Bambi had used to run away, is long overdue when Consummate Confidences commences.
From the outset, Bambi's sexual proclivities--honed within the vestige of ancient Polynesian Culture in which Willow and Bambi had been immersed for months--drive and complicate Bambi's relationships in the ultra conservative 1950's, including a relationship with a member of a group of young women who are Bambi's age and who have been engaging in highly secret sexual experimentation that began in their early teens. What Bambi learns about this group drags her into the investigation of murders of young women in Port Townsend and Seattle. Bambi becomes involved in the investigation as a result of the immediate support and intimate friendship Carl Meyers and Mirabelle Rhodes had provided upon Bambi's return to the States. Meyers, who has become a friend and confidant of the PT Police Chief, had been a police officer in Baltimore and Lewes, Delaware, and as such the chief requests Meyers’ involvement in the investigation of the murders.
From Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities:
A wonderful fact to reflect upon, that every human creature is constituted to be that profound secret and mystery to every other. A solemn consideration, when I enter a great city by night, that every one of those darkly clustered houses encloses its own secret: that every room in every one of them encloses its own secret; that every beating heart in the hundreds of thousands of breasts there, is, in some of its imaginings, a secret to the heart nearest it!
Storming the hill
Found and Lost in Paradise
CONSUMMATE CONFIDENCES
THE WILLOW CHRONICLE, VOL. 6
The writing of this literary fiction/suspense/thriller has just begun.
Set in Port Townsend, Seattle, Baltimore, and Biafra, Willow Benton finds a new mentor and more at the University of Washington in the personage of Sydney Ackroyd. Doctor Ackroyd, a woman who is a world-renowned economist, was born and nam
THE WILLOW CHRONICLE, VOL. 6
The writing of this literary fiction/suspense/thriller has just begun.
Set in Port Townsend, Seattle, Baltimore, and Biafra, Willow Benton finds a new mentor and more at the University of Washington in the personage of Sydney Ackroyd. Doctor Ackroyd, a woman who is a world-renowned economist, was born and named Sidai in Maasai Land, was orphaned at three, and was adopted by an English missionary doctor and his wife, who raised Sidai as Sydney in Cheltenham, where she graduated from the Cheltenham Ladies College, after which Sydney attended Oxford University where she earned a doctorate in economics with honors from Oxford University.
In Storming the Hill, Willow will be reunited with Huamanava Tetuanui, who we first met in At Sea, which is volume three of The Willow Chronicle. He will be captaining a new vessel, the Mahana II, which is being built in Baltimore for Willow's Pinctada Shipping Ltd. The ship is intended to revolutionize the shipping and passenger trade along the West African Coast but an unexpected humanitarian mission arises first.
Storming the Hill should not be anticipated as a story about a single act like that of an army marching up an incline to capture a foe’s flag; rather, the story I have in mind is not unlike thousands of stories already written, stories that include a metaphorical massif composed of the immeasurable mass of millions of insecure males’ inflated egos that are piled one upon the other, a cumulative mass of toxic masculinity that has been wreaking havoc in the world — including making the slog of women’s empowerment ridiculously difficult — since the beginning of Civilization. Joining the large body of authors who have brought to light and celebrated the inherent tenacity of women — in the face of the disgusting toxicity of a critical mass of insensitive and aggressive men — is the underlying reason why I am writing
Storming the Hill.
Family intrigue, an intense sexual relationship, a vicious civil war, and of course, storming the hill 0f toxic masculinity's efforts to dis-empower women will, I hope, make Storming the Hill an irresistible read.
THE DEEPEST ABYSS
THE DEEPEST ABYSS
THE DEEPEST ABYSS
THE WILLOW CHRONICLE
VOLUME "LAST"
If time and life allows, the author hopes there will be additional volumes written for The Willow Chronicle that will precede this "last" volume.
The Deepest Abyss is the last episode of The Willow Chronicle, which begins in 1955 in Lewes, Delaware, and concludes there in 2016. In the intervening years, W
THE WILLOW CHRONICLE
VOLUME "LAST"
If time and life allows, the author hopes there will be additional volumes written for The Willow Chronicle that will precede this "last" volume.
The Deepest Abyss is the last episode of The Willow Chronicle, which begins in 1955 in Lewes, Delaware, and concludes there in 2016. In the intervening years, Willow "Billie" Benton, has traveled the world in vessels large and middling but at 77, she must come to grips with how to deal with legacy and relationships juxtaposed against aging and death. Billie knows full well that she is uncertain about what her life has meant, but she is determined to live whatever life she may have left as though there are only 24 minutes remaining.
Billie has been a resident of Manhattan since 1970, but Lewes has been her second home since 1973, By the time we join her in The Deepest Abyss she has decided to settle permanently in the first town in the first state.
The sea and Lewes are inseparable because of proximity, but the town’s existence and longevity are due to the pre-eminence of the Delaware pilots that have been guiding shipping in the Delaware Bay and River estuary since before the Revolution. Like the town, Billie has been intertwined with the sea her entire life, but her life has also been intertwined in relationships with significant women who complicate her attempts to unravel what should be important at the end of one’s life, including understanding her role as a mother and understanding how to best apply the power her great wealth provides.
The Deepest Abyss is set in the few days before and after the 2016 Presidential Election, which makes the story relevant to what is happening in America in 2024.
UNci
THE DEEPEST ABYSS
THE DEEPEST ABYSS
Abridged from the 5 Star
Dombey's Unci is a powerful and gritty exploration of the interconnections between family, identity, and the struggles of contemporary life ... It is unflinching in its portrayal of childhood abuse and its lasting scars, which makes the novel a poignant reflection on identity, cultural heri
Abridged from the 5 Star
Dombey's Unci is a powerful and gritty exploration of the interconnections between family, identity, and the struggles of contemporary life ... It is unflinching in its portrayal of childhood abuse and its lasting scars, which makes the novel a poignant reflection on identity, cultural heritage, and the spirit of resilience. Dombey's writing is superb and delectable, and the novel stands out in its originality and in the emotional currents that move the plot forward.
From an SPR review of an earlier edition of Unci that had been published under another title:
The author has plumbed the depths of human darkness and resilience in what is a gritty, visionary novel, an intersecting tale of disparate lives in the deadly orbit of fate. Scrawled across the canvas of New York City and far beyond to realms past reality in the Connecticut countryside, The author has crafted a spiraling story of redemption, destiny, and survival.
After the high society son of a cleric is attacked by a gang of homophobic skinheads, Unci and her granddaughter Martha Beauvais bring him home like a wounded animal, across state lines, where he embarks on a journey of healing and self-discovery he never expected. Bound inexplicably to Martha and Unci, through visions and a soul-linked instinct, David is a complicated figure, battling demons of shame and guilt, with a lovestruck ironworker — Martha — for a guide.
Martha is an imposing and enigmatic character, with a streak of compassion and curiosity. Unci is a similarly unique slice of magic, seeming to flit between dreams and reality, and the dynamic of matriarchal solidarity between the two is empowering and refreshing. Together, they seek out the maniacal subject of their dark dream world, where they must stop a crusade of evil haunting the most innocent souls of Manhattan. This is an intentionally genre-defying work of literary fiction with a kaleidoscope of narrative threads that clarifies into an unexpected conclusion.
The author's attention to detail is evidence of the research and preparation that was put into this book, and the nuance of Native American philosophy, ritual, and tradition is compelling and adds another powerful layer of meaning. The narrative voice effortlessly slips into other cultural backgrounds and contexts, from high rises in Central Park West to the haunted bedrooms of childhood memory, seamlessly bouncing from one plot piece to the next with a true sense of believability. This is all important to the character development that is the soul of literary fiction.
The author has created vivid metaphors and a lyrical, reality-catching edge to the prose, which allows for tapping into the desperate sickness of a murderous zealot and the ancient wisdom of a mystical healer while allowing the author to build the world of the story in as immediate and immersive manner as is possible. The author also dissects the quiet insecurities of writers desperate for validation and includes the overlapping visceral danger and soul-freeing liberation of the LGBT experience. The author has also addressed a number of other important psychological conditions, emotional dynamics, and traumatic blocks explored through these characters, from repression and PTSD to parental failings and grief processing, with the hope that “Unci” will be both insightful and exhilarating for a wide range of readers.
Traveler
THE DEEPEST ABYSS
THE PROMISE
Traveler is a character-driven work of Literary Fiction, a tale about Sue Reinhardt and Mimi Smithson, two teenagers who fall in love in the summer of 1962 only to be unwittingly separated for decades shortly afterwards.
Sue was raised in Blain, a small village at the end of a valley bordered by the Tuscarora Mountain in Pennsylvania, whe
Traveler is a character-driven work of Literary Fiction, a tale about Sue Reinhardt and Mimi Smithson, two teenagers who fall in love in the summer of 1962 only to be unwittingly separated for decades shortly afterwards.
Sue was raised in Blain, a small village at the end of a valley bordered by the Tuscarora Mountain in Pennsylvania, where she grew to adulthood in a world confined to the stifling isolation typical of rural America in the 70's and 80's.
In 1969, Mimi, after having hiked the Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine following her graduation from Penn State, returns to her high school alma mater in suburban Harrisburg as a teacher and track coach.
Already stressed by a complicated sexual relationship with her landlord, a psychiatrist named Lydia, Mimi is caught in a compromising position with a girl on her track team, which drives Mimi toward a maelstrom of events that leads to a murder for which Mimi is blamed. In deep panic, Mimi disappears onto the Appalachian Trail for three decades where she becomes known as The Traveler.
In 2001, The Traveler wanders into Blain and Sue’s Tuscarora Hotel and Café with her sidekick Grits, a large black dog of indeterminate lineage. In their teen years, Sue and Mimi had been intimately linked to Charles Miller, who is now the multi-term Harrisburg Mayor. Despite his having a penchant for graft and a problematic wife, Miller decides to run for Governor of Pennsylvania in 2002 as a step toward a Presidential run in 2008.
The past collides with a turbulent present when Traveler, Sue, Lydia, and Charles converge at a campaign rally in Blain.
THE PROMISE
THE PROMISE
THE PROMISE
A COLLECTION OF SHORT STORIES
The Promise provides a variety of genres and forms in this collection of short stories from the short, short story (Relationship Thing and Brothers) to longer reads (The Favorite), but each story in the collection is character-driven and reflects upon the human condition, with the inner stories of complex char
A COLLECTION OF SHORT STORIES
The Promise provides a variety of genres and forms in this collection of short stories from the short, short story (Relationship Thing and Brothers) to longer reads (The Favorite), but each story in the collection is character-driven and reflects upon the human condition, with the inner stories of complex characters often driving the plot using a style that is layered and complex. Written with an eye to themes that relate to events connected with the Twentieth Century, each story contains events and characters that deal with themes readily relatable to readers of any age.