Dan Djurdjevic

I was 18 when my father died. He was 48. It makes for easy arithmetic - 30 years between us, almost exactly. This year I'm 50. I'm now 2 years older than my father was when he died. And I've come to a realisation - a powerful one I can only relate via analogy. But first, some background: My father was mysterious figure for most of my childhood: a man who was just as likely to say something profound, if brief, as he was to become irritable. I learned early on to give him space. For most of my life, he was a person I feared as much as loved and respected. You see, I don't think my father knew how to be a parent largely because he had come from a broken home - torn apart by World War II and by the oppressive communist regime that followed it. He had scars - and we, his family, could feel them even if we couldn't see them - or know what they were. So my father didn't know how to "be" with children. With adults, he was the ideal companion - a raco...

"Girl in the Attic", my fourth work of fiction, has been published by Pikkeljig Press ! The blurb is as follows: Rose lives with her mother Valerie in a run-down cottage in an old part of town. Rose steals things. Valerie drinks. That's just the way it is. Whenever Rose gets caught, Valerie banishes her to the cramped, dusty attic - often for weeks at a time. Then one day Rose decides she's going to change her life: she's going to close that attic door forever. And that's exactly what she does. So why do the police suddenly want to speak with Rose again? Why does she have a shiny new watch she can't recall buying (or stealing!)? For that matter, why can't she seem to remember speaking with some people, being at various places, taking up smoking or making particular sketches and notes in her journal? And why is it that, as Rose lies awake at night with her covers pulled up to chin, she can hear something - bumps, shuffling steps and a girl...

I've finished my fourth work of fiction "Girl in the Attic", netting a record number of online readers and very encouraging and enthusiastic messages from fans. Thank you everyone who has joined me on this journey over the last two months. If you haven't gotten into it yet, now is your chance - click on the image below or go here . The blurb is as follows: Rose lives with her mother Valerie in a run-down cottage in an old part of town. Rose steals things. Valerie drinks. That's just the way it is. Whenever Rose gets caught, Valerie banishes her to the cramped, dusty attic - often for weeks at a time. Then one day Rose decides she's going to change her life: she's going to close that attic door forever. And that's exactly what she does. So why do the police suddenly want to speak with Rose again? Why does she have a shiny new watch she can't recall buying (or stealing!)? For that matter, why can't she seem to remember speaking with some...