After years of academic writing and literary critique, Justine Saracen saw the light and began writing fiction. With eight historical thrillers now under her literary belt, she has moved from Ancient Egyptian theology (The 100th Generation) to the Crusades (Vulture's Kiss) to the Italian Renaissance. Sistine Heresy, which conjures up a thoroughly blasphemic backstory to Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel frescoes, won a 2009 Independent Publisher's Award (IPPY) and was a finalist in the ForeWord Book of the Year Award. The transgendered novel Sarah, Son of God followed, taking us through Stonewall-rioting New York, Venice under the Inquisition, and Nero's Rome. The novel won the Rainbow First Prize for Best Transgendered Novel. Beloved Gomorrah marked a return to her critique of Bible myths--in this case an LGBT version of Sodom and Gomorrah--though it also involved a Red Sea diving and the hazards of falling for a Hollywood actress. Having lived in Germany and taught German history, Justine was well placed to write her three previous World War II novels: Mephisto Aria, (EPIC Awards finalist, Two Rainbow awards, 2011 Golden Crow n first prize) Tyger, Tyger, Burning Bright, which follow s the lives of four homosexuals during the Third Reich (2012 Rainbow First Prize), and Waiting for the Violins, a tale of the French and Belgian Resistance, which just appeared. Her work in progress, provisionally titled, The Executioners, tells of two women who take revenge for those who cannot.
An adopted European, Saracen lives on a charming little winding street in Brussels, venturing out only to bookfests in the US and UK, and to scuba adventures in Egypt. When she's home and dry, she listens to opera.
