Going back in time with historical fiction author Donna D Conrad on Book Lights
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Donna Conrad is an award-winning author, journalist, activist, and teacher. Her core values revolve around the concept of individual empowerment, a sustaining ideal running through the books she writes. She is a multi-genre author with books published in historical fiction and memoir.
Her first book, “House of the Moon: Surviving the Sixties,” is an award-winning memoir that explores life in the tumultuous decade that changed the world.
Her upcoming four-book historical fiction series, The Magdalene Chronicles” has been acquired by Cold Creek Press. Book One, “The Last Magdalene,” will be released on April 9, 2024, and has won 5 national pre-publication awards.
She lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and their three cats. When she’s not writing, you can find Donna cruising the back roads in her black-on-black Miata MX-5, Maya – named for one of her favorite poets, Maya Angelou. You can learn more on her website:Â https://donnaconrad.com/
And for more about our host Lisa Kessler visit http://Lisa-Kessler.com
Book Lights – shining a light on good books!
Here’s a look at Donna’s latest release THE LAST MAGDALENE:
The Last Magdalene is superbly conceived, and serves both as immersive entertainment and a needed corrective. Ms. Conrad has produced the finest novel of the Biblical Era I have read – Octavia Randolph, author of The Circle of Ceridwen Saga
An enthralling tale of the many faces of love – and its ultimate triumph over prejudice and hate.” – C.C. Humphreys, author of ‘Vlad, the Last Confession’ and ‘Someday I’ll Find You’
The Last Magdalene does for the New Testament what The Red Tent did for the Old Testament.
The temple of Asherah has existed in Jerusalem for hundreds of years, disguised as a benevolent society for widows and orphans. Within the sheltering walls, priestesses are taught to honor the goddess through rites of passion passed from mother to daughter and from priestess to priestess. Into this world, Miriam of Bethany, is born.
Miriam longs to become The Magdalene, High Priestess of Asherah, as her mother and grandmother before her, but learns she is to marry an obscure rabbi from Galilee, Yeshua bar Yosef. Determined to control her own life, she runs away and is brutally attacked in the streets of Jerusalem. Broken in body and spirit, she resigns herself to her fate.
Yeshua, hailed as the Messiah, teaches love and acceptance, and places Miriam in the forefront of his followers. Together they find the courage to face the hostility of the priests and the brutality of Roman occupation. But Rome is a power unlike any the world has known, and Rome deals harshly with those who oppose its rule.
The Last Magdalene is an exquisite story of passion and love, and the lasting power of one woman’s voice that refuses to be silenced.
