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These are FREE Gifts for YOU, our Friends From all of us. |
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If you hunt around through the Menu buttons on the LHS,
Based on a true story!
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Why
do we
Low-Carbers know her as
*
Jungle Jen? |
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 How many girls dream of what they will wear on their wedding day, what they will look like as they walk down the isle on their dad's arm with the string quartet playing a wedding march while their mom sits in the front row, dabbing her eyes with a tissue, sobbing (not so quietly) and up ahead of her stands the priest, her groom, the bride's maids, the best-man? What happens if, to get all that, you have to marry someone you like (even a lot), someone your mom likes even more, someone fabulously wealthy, connected with royalty and who can give you most everything material you will ever want - but he's not your true-love, not the man you dreamed would be standing there waiting for you? What leads up to this? Well, let's just say that you're 16 and you fall in love, but nobody else takes it seriously - except a mother who thinks that she knows what's best for you and your future. So she works tirelessly to foil any and all attempts at being with your true-love, and insists that you date, love and marry her choice of husband. What if you resist all her pressure? Well, if the mother is obsessive and controlling, always getting her way within her family, that epic battle of wills can get extremely ugly - sometimes even downright deadly! But it's your life, and you have to stand your ground - in this case for 7 years, 7 months and 7 days till marriage #1 ... But she denies you a wedding, a dress and your dad's participation. Then, even when it seems you've won, what if this mother just redoubles her efforts and will stop at nothing to see your marriage and family destroyed, you broken and forced to live back with her again - alone, without even your children, totally under her control ... or failing that, she wants you dead. What then? That battle of wills has raged on for 43 years, and counting. Even with death staring her in the face, the old "queen" is still as angry and aggressive as ever. She's hounded her older daughter across 3 continents, driving her to the brink of suicide several times - then callously redoubled her efforts to push her over that edge, disowned her and gave her dad an ultimatum - "Forget about your daughter and grandchildren - or else I will leave you!" For 2 sisters life couldn't be more different. One stood up for her right to live her own life, and nearly died. The younger one gave in to her mother's pressure, ending up with no life or family of her own, a totally broken person who, now in her 50's, is her mother's captive. She was forced by the mother, to abort her first son, married secretly, had another little boy and lived far away from her mother. But her mother worked tirelessly to sabotage her marriage, driving her to suicide, is phoned by the RCMP and told her daughter is not expected to live, is unmoved, leaving her to die alone, far away, in hospital. The RCMP then notifies her older sister and she immediately flies out to be at her sister's bedside, until she (miraculously) awakes from her coma days later - then the mother swoops in removing her to the other end of Canada, forcing her to cede custody of her little boy to her husband. Both sisters have had to deal with a very destructive mother, but even though the older sister also had everything thrown at her, she found the way out, escaped and survived. Jungle-Jen has lived in a variety of cottages hidden deep within forests - but always, the queen managed to find her and then all of hell broke loose. As a result, she's moved a lot! She's owned properties hidden deep within the forests of the Niagara escarpment (just above Niagara falls) and in Western Montana, Florida, Hawaii, British Columbia, Alberta and now, finally, S. America (in the middle of a very dense Jungle). It's been the safest place yet, as it's one of the most inhospitable and pristine Jungles left in the world. The old queen is turning 83 and bubbling over with rage and frustration at having been outwitted by her daughter - but is just not able to search all of S. America for her - time's run out! So Jungle-Jen is finally safe. The flip-side of all of this is that life's been dangerous, but also an adventure. When she left BC, in W. Canada, it took 23.5 days and 11,000km to drive to her new home in the Jungles of S. America, and though this epic family voyage was fraught with new dangers, with every couple of days and 1,000km, the relief from the old persistent dangers posed by such a relentless foe, was tangible and very welcome! So now you know a little more.
Sweet 16, an unforgettable summer romance, a private "secret
place"-but then the agony of love-lost, an honest, passionate
love-letter ... and 43 years later a wish comes true:
When you wish upon a star ... it matters not who, or where,
you are! Everything your heart desires
will come to you ...
Eventually. Christmas 2013 will mark 43 Christmas eve's since Elizabeth and Nicholas met at 15/16 - only 1 of which was spent apart (because of wars, not by choice) ... and during that first Christmas, which is summer vacation in the S. Hemisphere, while everyone was heading for the golden shores of the warm, fun Indian ocean, Nicholas took Lizzie in the opposite direction - upstream, in a canoe, rowing her deep into the canyons, until all that could be heard was the birds ... and the approaching sound of their "secret place". There, all alone, they got to swim, and laugh and dream together. There they learned everything about each other that they could - well, at least as much as was expedient at their age. As for the rest, they developed a rather novel coping strategy, described in "Summer Love" Vol-1 - which served them well for at least a few years. The waterfalls pictured above are twin waterfalls, cascading down the cliffs, side by side. The river feeding it splits in two around a small hill in the jungles high above. Thus two waterfalls coexist, forever, some 100 yards apart. Both of them have pools ideal for swimming in, then the river flows from those pools and joins up again some 200yards down-stream. The waterfall on the right is called "Romeo" .. and the other one? Why "Juliet", of course. And that is where this 43 year old love-story ends "happily ever after" ... in a land "far, far away". That is where our Jungle Jen ended up, for 7yrs already, this Christmas. But really, it's exactly the way it all began. Life's come full-circle. Love's come full circle. Vol-1 "Summer Love" introduces the characters, and naturally it starts off very gentle (they're only 15 & 16) - but as the series progresses, they mature, as in real life, and the passion between two healthy 17/18/19/20/21 year old sweethearts intensifies, testing their combined wills and self-control. So they develop a rather novel coping strategy - but as we all know those only last "so long", so what then? Well, there's one sensible last, permanent solution ... a wedding, but the problem is Nicholas is definitely NOT the approved choice of "the Queen" (in this story, that's Elizabeth's extremely controlling mother) and so, after so many passionate summer romances, she forces Lizzie to leave Africa, for good, to far-away Canada, separating the two lovers forever. Nicholas sells all he has and travels to Canada to rescue Lizzie - but is defeated by yet another of the queen's terribly cruel plots. Lizzie pleads the case for their love - to no avail! So, in utter desperation, as he is forced to leave Elizabeth behind in Canada, Nicholas says to her: "Lizzie, You know I love you - I always have, and I always will! So I will wait, faithfully, for you in far-away Africa, for 7 years, 7 months and 7 days from the 21st of Dec 1971 - the day we first met. That's Saturday 28th July 1979. On that day I will return to our secret place - together with you, or alone without you, one last time. You will either break my heart irreparably, or make me the happiest man alive. Now Lizzie, it's all up to you. You have to set the date for our wedding - anytime from now till then, sooner rather than later. Find a way to return to me in Africa, please ... come with me to our secret place again - we still have one of our 7 wishes left to make! Please return there, with me, and let's make that one last remaining wish together ... and if you do, I solemnly promise that I will love you, and only you, passionately! Devotedly! Forever!" Well, remember now, in Vol-5, "The queen's proposal", Lizzie ends up engaged to her mother's choice, Charles (in the book) in real-life a spoiled school-chum of Prince Andrew, a Londoner with a very rich dad. At the back of Book-5, is a copy of a page in Lizzie's passport showing her leaving Africa in Oct 1978, entering as an immigrant into Canada 2 days later, then travelling to London, England in December 1979. So the big question is: Can a teenage summer-love last the ravages of time and distance - and the determined opposition of a mother and her chosen son-in-law? Can it mature and grow into an adult love? Can it ever blossom into marriage? Did it ever really stand a chance? Well, life's been an adventure ... and were it not for a very determined old matriarch who has never flinched in her determination to control her daughter's life, this would be a 2-page short-story - and not stretch to 7 novels. But, as in all fairy-tales, it's unflinching evil that drives these stories, and in real-life that's exactly what happened too! It's tough to rise above all of life's challenges, at the best of times, but if a parent is determined to control, or failing that to destroy the life of a child - and if that child feels bound by the "Honor your parents - or else!" command, it becomes an almost impossible task! Well, there is one small glimmer of hope - and it's a perfectly acceptable out ... what happens when a parent (in their zealousness for total-control) formally (and I mean formally!) disowns a child, saying: "You are no longer my daughter, I will forget I ever had you - and get myself another daughter!" Those are terribly cruel words (and they were her exact words) designed to break the last remnants of resistance of a daughter, and dutifully delivered to Elizabeth by the Royal Canadian Mounted police, no less (and how exactly this queen cons them into being her henchman, is unbelievably canny). Those words broke the real-life Elizabeth's heart. But God's really expert at picking up the pieces of a shattered life and providing a much better option - what if then, instead of pleading with her mother, finally, that daughter simply accepts her fate? Is she still bound to do as her mother demands? What of her mother's demands that she steer well clear of God, Jesus, Christianity etc? Is she still honor bound to respect her mother's wishes? Was she ever - even before being formally disowned? Well, Lizzie is, by the very words and demands of her birth-mother, no longer her daughter - officially! Thus by all that's fair and decent, she is free to finally pick up the broken pieces and go on to live her own life ... AND for once in her life, she had no impediment to joining God's family! Elizabeth is one of the first characters in these novels to ask to be adopted into God's family - and it was a life changer! In fact, it was a story changer! Without her doing so, this story was set to end abruptly - and to do so very sadly! Some parents just plain old work for the "other guy", as the queen in this story did (and still does at 83!) Sometimes we really do need a new loving, functional family to replace a totally dysfunctional birth-family. Well clearly Lizzie's life went from nice, to lovely, to challenged, to sad, to horrible, to bad, to better, to good, to wonderful, to awesome ... and finally, to happily ever after in a land far, far away! A real-life fairy-tale ending! But what happens to the loose ends? Does Lizzie make it back to Africa from Canada in time to marry her true-love, Nicholas - or does he end up alone at their waterfall on Saturday 28th of July, 1979. Does Lizzie end up breaking his heart? Well, book-7 is called "Reunited", and it does contain many opportunities for reunification - but thanks to the villains, it also contains many real-life obstacles designed to foil true-love from ever winning. There was no slam-dunk in the offing, not by any means, as in real-life, evil villains do not just give up and go away - they always find ways to get their way and sabotage any happily ever-after. Every victory comes at a very steep price, and defeats abound. Evil people see that as their "Job #1", and it seems they take it very seriously. Everything Lizzie and Nicholas try, is ultimately thwarted! So their own "best-efforts", fail - but not for a lack of trying. But let's not forget that miracles can and do happen. So with only hours to spare and with all human hope dwindling fast, exactly 7 years, 7 months and 7 days after they first met and fell in love, there's only one last-ditch, long-shot, slim chance remaining - to pull victory out of the jaws of so many years of cruel defeats ... and so it was that, on Sat 28th, July 1979, just a few hours before the clock struck midnight to end that final day ... well now, why should I tell you what actually happens next - Read the books ... but do be prepared to be exasperated - and above all, be really thankful that for you it wont last quite as long as the 7 years, 7 months and 7 days it actually lasted for Elizabeth! PS. Ultimately, the RCMP, realizing that they've been used for evil purposes, make amends to Lizzie for their monumental gaff - and they end up playing a pivotal role in Lizzie's escape to freedom ... but you'll have to wait until book-7 and book-8 to find out just how that happens. It's a sad fact that evil drives the human story. It forces us to constantly react, adapt and strive to just just survive - let alone to thrive. But without it, there's also no story. It's worth noting that in real-life, to date, 6 of the 7 wishes from the 1970's that Elizabeth and Nicholas made in their "Secret place", have come true, some rather mysteriously - nevertheless, they can now be legitimately disclosed (and they are, starting in Vol-2) ... BUT the final (the 7th) wish, has not come true yet, so it will remain a secret for many, many years to come (at least I pray that remains the case) - but destiny demands that one day that it too will come true.
(1) Click on any cover (below) to go
directly to
* Jungle Jen's a sweet, humble person, a popular Low -Carb Blogger, founder & team-leader of Low-Carbing among Friends and the author of 4 National best-sellers plus six other Cookbooks, yet there are as many books written about her, as by her. Why is that? Well, she's way too shy to have done any of this herself, but her author-son, a best-selling author of SciFi books (currently #222 and #326 in all of AMAZON - but that changes daily) started interviewing - then writing, and this series was born. �
The first 5 novels are available now. By the end of Aug
a 6th novel will
be available as Kindle and Paperback
The 7th novel in this series is done (due for release 2014). It brings about an interim-conclusion to this story- 7 years, 7 months & 7 days after it starts in the beautiful Wilderness National Park along the Indian Ocean, at the tip of Africa, it ends there too, in a most romantic way! |
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*EXTRA* Imagine Jen's surprise and joy when, scanning YOUTUBE last night (Aug-2013), I found and showed her this video (ABOVE) made by a birdwatcher of the "secret place" - where it all began, back when it was only accessible via a long canoe trip, very well hidden, virtually unknown. At long last we were al least virtually back in our "secret place" - which now, thanks to newly constructed boardwalks along the river's banks, are not so secret anymore. Imagine the feelings that overwhelmed us! After so many childhood romances there, we haven't been back there (together) to visit it in 34yrs, since July1979. We've been living at the other ends of this world, N. America and S. America. It was our own very special place every summer of our youth, and now we finally get to see it again. But don't forget Lizzie and Nicholas' first wishes in their "Secret Place" ... just maybe they did true - in a most unexpected way?
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For the curious, one of these cars is a "clickable link" to a mini
fairy-tale ...
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KINDLE editions
Y
Then, in V-1 (and each sequel) you'll get instructions
how to get the next 4 books FREE!
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