A Porthmadog author has just released her fourth novel, partly set in the area.
‘Solstice’ by Julia Ozanne, who publishes under the name J. M. Ozanne centres on the life of Wrexham-born Will Owen, 16, gifted but arrogant with a bright future ahead of him and a troubled childhood behind him.
Angry with his mother for his childhood as a young carer and craving kudos from the bad boys on the estate, he agrees to a dangerous dare. Disaster ensues, he and the gang-leader are punished and he is banished to hostile relatives in Anglesey. Nobody wants him.
His dreams of a career are shattered as he becomes a farm-labourer with a criminal record. Fear of revenge from the gang-leader haunts him as he learns to live the farming life, with the neighbouring nuclear power-station rekindling his dreams to become a scientist.
The odds are against him.
Julia “was born a Geordie” but spent her childhood in Bristol, her teens in Lancashire, her adult life on the Welsh Borders and Anglesey and now lives in Morfa Bychan, near Porthmadog.
“With the sound of the sea breaking on the bar and the gulls screaming overhead, I love it,” Julia said.
“After a varied career in nursing, followed by a degree in Youth and Community work and education, I taught English for 14 years in Shropshire then managed services in Wrexham for secondary school pupils with behavioural issues; an experience essential in creating the realism of the characters and their actions in ‘Solstice’.
“Sailing the Irish Sea from the harbour in Porthmadog and later from Cemaes Bay and Holyhead was a major part of my leisure time in adult life.
“My years in Anglesey walking the coastal path and navigating the waters off the north coast provided me with the background material for the book, where danger and excitement combined to give an appreciation of the stunning but treacherous coastline and its watery graveyard of shipwrecks.
“I developed a fascination for the nuclear power station at Wylfa which dominates the skyline, and the terrible nuclear accident in Japan in 2011.
“Following the success of ‘The Boat Shed’ trilogy, ‘Solstice’ is my fourth novel. It binds the narrative with the vulnerability, pressures, desires and disasters of adolescence, the differing dynamics of urban and farming family life, extremes of weather, the reality of living on the land and the ever-present energy concerns.”
The sequel, ‘Equinox’, is in progress.
“All my books are self-published,” said Julia, “without use of a publisher or publishing house; an adventure in itself.
“'Solstice' is set partly in Wrexham, Morfa Bychan and Porthmadog, but predominantly on the north coast of Anglesey.
“It is a contemporary, suspense/thriller adult/young adult fiction with a coming-of-age theme and a nuclear energy background.”
Copies of Julia’s books can be found in Gwynedd at Browsers bookshop in Porthmadog, the Ffestiniog and Welsh Highland Railways, Porthmadog, The Hair Lounge, Porthmadog, Select Convenience, Morfa Bychan, The Book Seller, Pwllheli and the Old Post Office Bookshop in Blaenau Ffestiniog.