Naomi

“A new trunk had grown, covering the scar of the burn with thick new growth. Not hiding it, no, for the past could never be hidden, but embracing it with new hope and new dreams so that both past and present formed one unified trunk that continued to shelter our people as we lived on in the shadows of the great Blue Mountains that had seen an eternity and stood ready to face another.”
― J A Croome, The Sand People: a collection of magical realism and other stories

“I know this one truth: some people, ignorant of the miracles love performs, might think I am disabled, trapped for a lifetime in a useless body over which I have so little control. But Mama knows, and now Papa knows, too: mermaids are real; they exist to bring love and laughter, happiness and hope into a world that has forgotten that miracles happen in the most magical ways. And I am a mermaid.”
― J A Croome, The Sand People: a collection of magical realism and other stories

“I was neither a victim nor a prisoner, even though I lived like one, and there were days when the loneliness and loss tore at my heart. My voice, my song, my essence were mine and mine alone.”
― J A Croome, The Sand People: a collection of magical realism and other stories

“Do not be afraid. Do not be afraid of the vast silence.” | Kaggen said. “We all must walk the lands of dust until the seventh silence comes, and then we leave, our footsteps blown away on the wind, carried into the hearts of our children and our children’s children.”
― J A Croome, The Sand People: a collection of magical realism and other stories