The Series

Novels in the contemporary series Half Lives are in various stages of planning, researching, writing, and editing.

Coming Unstuck

She lost her job and found her life.

A strange letter sends a woman in the throes of a midlife crisis into the past; what she learns enables her to move into the future.

Kit O’Donnell, an ambitious and creative woman who has always lived to work, despairs when, at fifty, she is made redundant from her remote job. A new role – if she could even find one – would require her to leave her beloved cottage in rural West Cork, rented from a quirky retired nun and protected by the Aos Sí.

While Kit attempts to put her life back together, a stranger comments on the curious necklace owned by Kit’s Korean-born adopted niece. The necklace was the only information about the infant’s identity; the comment offers a new lead. When a mysterious letter containing the same symbol arrives, Kit suddenly has a purpose: follow the clues, which promise an opportunity to revisit prior paths not taken.

In Seoul, Kit meets Minnie Lee, a twenty-four-year-old Korean photographer with a huge social media following and a murky past. Despite age and cultural differences, they become friends and allies as they trace the hidden connections between past generations. Along the way, Kit rediscovers her lost passions: painting and John Min Yong Nam.

Will Kit be brave enough to choose the life – and love – she never allowed herself to want?

Old Fashioned

Marry the man her family has chosen, or reveal her secret life?

“Princess” Mimi Ko is idling in neutral. As the baby sister of a famous K-pop idol, she lives a life of luxury. She’s fed up with being a decoration, but her brother’s fame – and the expectations of their traditional family – make her ambitions impossible. Her alter ego, though, can have the life Mimi craves… as long as no one finds out.

When she meets a provocative Irish bartender, life gets even more complicated. Mimi needs to figure it out quickly; her family is selecting an appropriate Catholic husband, and her secret identity is becoming uncomfortably popular.

Mimi grapples with abandoning the gilded cage of privilege for the terrifying and exhilarating prospect of life on her own terms.

Sibling Rivalry

A Hallyu star’s compulsory military service opened a window into another world, leading him to question his choices. His sister struggles with the stigma of being outspokenly single by choice. When the star suggests the solution is simple, the siblings’ relationship implodes. He meets an older woman at a poetry reading; with her by his side everything makes sense. There are only two problems: she doesn’t know he’s That Guy, and she’s his sister’s best friend.

Distant Vision

The first novel of an Irish author is being made into a K-drama series. When the lead actor pulls out, the production is thrown into chaos. The new lead has a secret: he’s been in love with her for years. As her artistic vision collides with interpersonal and economic forces, the author learns the hard way that control is an illusion.