Around the Fire New Release Book Spotlight with Jill Ocone.

Enduring the Waves
by
Jill Ocone 
Released November 20, 2023
​Women's Literature and fiction
PG-13 or R. Two very small sex scenes not suitable for children. 
​ The story.
As Waterville High School’s newest English teacher, Kelly Lynch befriends fellow educator and James Joyce enthusiast Shannon Moran. While Kelly grapples with deep scars from her past, she struggles to balance her active life as a teacher and her stagnant marriage to shiftless alcoholic Wayne Coopersmith. Shannon’s encouragement resurrects Kelly’s passion for writing, while Kelly inspires Shannon to pursue her lifelong dream of studying in Dublin, Ireland.
After two devastating events fracture Kelly’s life, she searches for meaning in her grief by following a trail of mysterious clues that guide her from the New Jersey shore to Dublin.
Sparks ignite her long-dormant creativity and a raging inferno in her heart while on the Emerald Isle as two unsuspecting Dubliners combine forces to hearten Kelly’s awakening. She returns home to the Jersey Shore having endured the waves spurred by her past, present, and future and ready to pursue her true calling.
Get your copy here.
Amazon Paperback: https://amzn.to/46PzLlD
Amazon Kindle ebook: https://amzn.to/3QgK6BL
BN  https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/enduring-the-waves-jill-ocone/1144071717

Inspiration.
I traveled to Dublin for the first time during the summer of August 2014, eight months after losing a cherished friend. One night in late 2015, I was jolted awake after dreaming about an old woman who said to me, “Once you write CHAPTER ONE, everything will fall into place.” There was a symbol in my dream, one I had never seen before, and I scribbled a very rough replica of it.
Turns out it was a Triskele/Triskelion.
Both the symbol and the phrase "Chapter One" would mysteriously appear in my life countless times from that point forward. The universe used many additional signs to guide me to Dublin three more times in the summers of 2016, 2017, and 2018, and I trusted I was being led to my purpose. On my first trip, I planned to visit the James Joyce Centre and the James Joyce Tower and Museum, but I stumbled into innumerable additional fortuitous experiences and fell in love with Dublin more and more with each visit. My trips inspired me to begin writing what was first titled, “Finding Shannon.” When I finished my manuscript, I queried it as "Chapter One-A Novel.” The Wild Rose Press offered me a traditional publishing contract in February 2023, and after consulting with my editorial team, we agreed to change its title to "Enduring the Waves." 
The wavelike appearance of the triskelion's three spirals and the trials the main character, Kelly Lynch, endures make "Enduring the Waves" the perfect title for her compelling story. The revised title also reflects the novel’s growth into its own identity. 

Photo by Tim of EVNFLO Photography

Jill Ocone has been a writer/editor for “Jersey Shore Magazine”/Jersey Shore Publications since 2014 and a high school communications/journalism and English teacher since 2001. Her debut novel “Enduring the Waves” was published by Wild Rose Press in November 2023. Her work has also been published in Read Furiously’s “Stay Salty: Life in the Garden State,” Exeter Publishing’s “From the Soil” hometown anthology, Red Penguin Books’ “Where Flowers Bloom,” “the leaves fall,” and “‘Tis the Season: Poems for Your Holiday Spirit,” “Everywhere” magazine and elsewhere. She loves making memories with her nieces and nephews, exploring and traveling, laughing with her family and friends, and sharing her Point Pleasant home with her husband. 
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https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/199738963-enduring-the-waves