Mala Naidoo

Poetry celebrating the value of a mother mourned, loved and cherished. Poems offering healing comfort during times of grief. The evocative emergence of memory through poetry in tribute to a selfless life in service to faith, family and community.

Across three generations in colonised South Africa's sugar fields, a woman must face her past to improve the present challenges she is called to clarify. The old hand of time ticks on, until, decades later the truths she concealed demand to be heard to expose her lifelong angst for a forbidden love. Milly, Candace, and Sugar weave their family ancestry through letters and journals from the grave. Forgiveness is necessary to mend the broken walls of a silent, closed family, suddenly thrust into sinister revelations and heart-wrenching loss for those closest to them. Family drama on power, deception, and the aching need for self-determination.

Will renewal be their claim or a struggle to attain?In their quest for renewal, four women tussle with the challenges of a dysfunctional family, work pressure, reputation, unknown genealogy, violence, and confidence building.Sasha, Moira, Ruby, and Rosa face diverse haunting situations from their past and present lives. Gripping personal stories told through honest fictional voices, but will decisive action set them free? Stories underpinned by the cruelty of fate, chance encounters, and the desire for autonomy and self-regard in the wake of crumbling confidence. What will these women from different walks of life choose as paths that defy their destiny?Long short stories that entertain and reveal the need for honesty in coping with vulnerability and the dire need for redefinition.

Time and Place are reflections of the past, present and future. Poems include meditations on dawn, the sea, a walk down the corridors of history, and grief as life's raw pain, truth and beauty. From city streets to country life, the ocean and mountains, to the impermanence of life, is evocative for the current times.

Viola Bardo, vigilante justice seeker and music teacher is caught between leadership, and serving justice, when her shocking past catches her off guard. Will truth and justice, in her personal life, invite sorrow or joy?In a small mining town, nestled along a stunning coastline where poets and novelists seek creative refuge - young women mysteriously disappear at dawn. Blackwater Ridge's secret lays locked in the old abandoned mine. A tight-lipped community spanning many generations, from the mine's hey days, is tested when suspicion hovers over the caravan parade passing through town.Viola returns to her home school, Blackwater Ridge Performing Arts Academy, as acting principal when unexpected challenges confront her. She struggles with the demands of leadership, grief, and her need to serve justice. When her secret past, surfaces, she is an emotional wreck. Will she muster the strength and courage to maintain her life's calling?Meet the charming townsfolk of Blackwater Ridge who gather at Dukes Bar and Grill, where truths emerge under the watchful eye of owner, Ellis McCrae.

A music teacher, closet poet, and justice seeker-how far will she go to protect family honor?Viola Bardo's much-awaited Christmas break at her father's art gallery is not what she expected when a web of deception triggers a series of events and uncanny revelations.Past and present collide across two countries in a bizarre twist at Galleria Bardo. The city street art and an enigmatic night wayfarer haunt her in the obscure laneways of her paternal ancestral home. Viola grapples with her stifled emotions when her father's once-popular gallery falls prey to an underbelly movement during his artists in residence program.Can she protect her father as a lone private investigator, or will her heart cloud her judgement?Who is the stranger with the sad familiar eyes, lopsided gait, and swishing ankle-length coat-lurking wherever she goes?

All She Had Was Twelve Days...Viola Bardo has creativity in her blood and justice in her soul.She's a music teacher, single, happy, and on the hop as a seasoned exchange teacher.Aurora Days is the story of Viola's exit from Sydney to Athens in a time-tense search for justice when a foreign ambassador appeals for the return of his six-year-old son.Is Viola's dual life as a schoolteacher and vigilante law agent questionable? Will she blow her cover and never teach again?She's tough but never cruel, she's an idealist with vulnerabilities that add to her charm. Her sweet tooth and poetic side are secret addictions until Sebastian enters her world with his heart-wrenching past, and the endearing personality of a little brother.Viola Bardo is every student's and school principal's dream teacher, although she is never with them long enough in her gallop across countries - wherever the call of justice takes her. She is a friend you would invite to tea, and one you could trust - but she is a loner caught between fate and her chosen worlds.Who is the unseen doyenne Viola so loyally serves?Enter the school hallways and secret staff meetings as the investigation deepens and darkens in a deadly twist on the periphery of a pulsating metropolis.

Random Heart Poetry: Light and Shade is a collection of voices and visions on race, culture, migration, gender, family, seasons and more on everyday experiences that speak to the soul in 'aha' moments. Poems range from haiku form to sonnets and free verse.While the shade poems capture moments of angst the light poems offer inspiration in embracing the beauty of life as one to be celebrated.Random Heart Poetry reflects on the ordinariness of life experience illustrating Perfection in Imperfection and All Lives Matter.

Two women face a life of torment when challenges beset them in a country ravaged by politically ignored gender-driven crime. A mother's strength and courage in overcoming horrific loss and the dangers that befall her daughters are shrouded in one haunting, untold secret. Escaping to a new country cannot erase the memory and pain of past traumas as both women attempt to forge ahead in their careers. As sisters from different cultural backgrounds, their reactions to their inner demons and commitment to others reveal the essence of their souls as their mothers' daughters."Souls of Her Daughters" is a novel woven through complicated relationships with sisters and friends in their poignant personal stories. Through tears and laughter, they share the light and dark in their fight for survival from a crippling past which binds them together.Will they survive the demons that return, uninvited to persecute them?A tale of terror, untimely loss, compassion, friendship and a mother's undying love.