the author
The author, Joe Rogers, has had poetry published in both the English and Irish languages and having completed a playwright's course at The University of Liverpool, was successful in the Merseyside Festival of New Writing when his play Work of Fiction was performed at The Everyman Theatre, Liverpool.
His historical novel, The Diary of a Scullery Maid, although written in English, is spiced with a modicum of Gaeilge - the indigenous language of some of the characters whose linguistic rights were once denied them but are now safeguarded by the European Bureau of Lesser Used Languages, an international organisation working to - among other things - protect the languages of more than 40 million minority language speakers living in European Union Member States. The novel which deals with the Boer War and its aftermath including the beginnings of revolution in Ireland and the decline of the aristocracy has been nominated in the Top 100 Books of the Historical Novel Society's Book Section.
The Changeling, book one of a two part series, is a magical tale for children of all ages and tells how Shauna, eldest of five adopted children, is kidnapped by fairies and a lookalike changeling left in her place.The changeling, Dylis, and her magic are an instant success with the children, but unfortunately the dimwit fairies in charge of the changeover inadvertently kidnap five-year-old Sierra as well, and in the first of many adventures, the changeling and children set out for fairyland to rescue Sierra.Their search uncovers a plot hatched by the outlawed elves on lonely Rombauld's Moor to annihilate all of fairyland. Further evil is afoot with the witch, Ratstails, and her legion of man-eating crows on guard at the entrance to the Ancient Alchemy where the world's only two-headed dragon is being cloned from dragons' bones making the adventure even more perilous.
Although written in English, some of the dialogue in keeping with the characters ethnicities, is spiced with a little Spanish, Irish, Turkish and the Kalabari dialect of the Ijaw people of Nigeria in the hope that the multicultural elements will help fill a vacuum in the children's market.
