I like to write one trilogy every year. My current book is the first of a trilogy based on three sisters who grew up in foster care.

The discovery that Winnie, Vivi and Zoe have a rich grandfather might initially seem like good news when the young women approach him for help to save the foster parents they love from losing their home. But Stamboulas Fotakis is only willing to help if his grandchildren agree to wed men of his choosing because the way he sees it, their lives are a mess and it’s his job to sort them out.

I dreamt up the back story over the summer in France and got it in shape when my editor was visiting me in November. Now I have started the first book and am slowly piecing together a story for the other two sisters. There is nothing more delightful than dreaming about blue Greek skies in the cold damp fog of typical Irish wintry weather.

Winnie is a cook and she fell in love with her boss and had his child. She left him for a very good reason but not one I wish to share now because it would be a spoiler.

Winnie’s grandfather attempts to coerce and bribe my hero, Eros Nevrakis into marrying Winnie but Eros will be neither coerced nor bribed and it is the news that he is a father which sends him hotfoot to London to see Winnie again.

Winnie marries Eros, believing that she will be leaving him immediately after the wedding, legitimising her child but not actually being ever being a real wife but nothing goes the way it was planned.

There is a lot of unresolved bitterness and anger between my protagonists. Eros won’t talk and Winnie can’t trust a man who broke her heart and seduced her into a relationship she regrets. Eros won’t admit even to himself that he has emotions but he has one very deep aversion and it is broken marriages, which is going to put him in the hot seat whether he likes it or not.

UPDATE (August 2018) : Winnie and Eros’s story will be called “The Greek Claims His Son“.

Excerpts From the Book

If only…:

If only he had known they were out there, orphaned and growing up in state care, he would’ve given them a home and raised them. Sadly, he had not been given that choice and his granddaughters had suffered accordingly. But he didn’t blame them for their chaotic lives, he blamed himself for throwing his youngest son, Cy out of the family for defying him. Of course, twenty odd years ago, Stam had been a very different man, he conceded wryly, an impatient, autocratic and inflexible man. Possibly, he had learned a thing or two since then. His late wife had never forgiven him for disowning Cy. In the end all of them had paid too high a price for Stam’s act of idiocy.

Trilis Island:

Eros saw a small stocky bearded man with eyes as sharp as tacks set in a weathered face. His hair and his neat little beard were white as snow but there was no suggestion of Santa Claus about him. Eros took a seat and refused refreshment, keen to get down to business once the usual pleasantries had been aired.

‘You want Trilis back,’ Stam remarked, startling Eros with that candid opening and the complete lack of any social chitchat. ’ But I want something else.’

Eros leant back in his chair, long powerful legs carefully relaxed in pose.’ I assumed as much,’ he quipped.

……

‘My granddaughter is a single parent, who needs a husband. That is my price for the island of Trilis. If you agree to marry her, no cash need change hands. ’

Stunned by that bald assurance, Eros straightened in his seat.’ You want me to marry your granddaughter?’ he exclaimed, so taken aback by the idea that he could not even hide his consternation.’ I didn’t know you had one. I’m sure I read somewhere that you had no relatives left alive…’

‘Until recently, I thought that too,’ Stam admitted equably.’ But then surprises are the joy of life, don’t you think?’