Magdalen Dugan – författare

Lift My Eyes fictionally portrays the life of celebrated feminist painter Matilda Lotz. The daughter of a faithful Christian family of German immigrants, Matilda is only six when she is caught up in the bloody Battle of Franklin, only ten when she and her family are pursued by the Ku Klux Klan and forced to flee from Tennessee to California. Like Joseph sold into slavery in Egypt, no adversity can crush her. The talented young artist becomes the protégé first of Penelope Hearst and later of French feminist painter Rosa Bonheur. No typical Victorian woman, she overcomes both sexism and self-doubt to paint dukes in England, counts in Hungary, and Bedouins in North Africa. She refuses to marry until fifty-five, when she falls in love with another painter, a Hungarian nobleman. But when a second war, the Great War, strips her of nearly everything, Matilda is challenged to one final battle – with her own heart.

How much is possible in our lives? Do we really have choices? Can our mistakes be forgiven?

Tricia, Jonathan, and Jana are hopin gthat their lives can be ore than the hand-me-downs they appear to be. In the early 1970''s they deal with cultural forces as turbulent, an dsometimes as dangerous, as the Vietnam War itself, As their stories undold, they discover possibilities that often surprise them.

Breathing: The Way is Book One of the series, In Heaven or on Earth. Book Two is titled Homeless: The Trut? (Genesis Publishing 2023). Book Three is in progress.

Magdalen Dugan is the author of Lift My Eyes and several "slim volumes" of poetry, as well as book reviews, essays, and articles. With an MA in English from U.C., Berkeley and an MFA in Writing from The University of San Francisco, she has taught literature and writing in the San Francsico Bay area for many years. She is currently writing and teaching in northern Texas.

Who would purposely join a cult? Who would commit years of his or her life to enduring lies and manipulation? Perhaps discening a cult from a legitimate organization is more difficult than we imagine. Tricia Riley certainly finds it so. How will she determine her choices from day to day? How will she ultimately learn to define herself?

Magdalen Dugan is the author of Breating: The Way, Book one of the series In Heaven or on Earth. This novel, Homeless: The Truth? is book Two. She is also author of the novel Lift My Eyes and several "slim volumes" of poetry, as well as book reviews, essays, and articles. With an MA in English from U.C., Berkeley and an MFA in Writing from The University of San Francisco, she has taught literature and writing in the San Francisco Bay area for many years. She is currently writing and teaching in northern Texas.