Colette Obrien
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I have a master’s degree in clinical psychology and have practiced as a psychotherapist for 30 years. My emphasis is in depth psychology: dreams, and myths, and with an emphasis on the development of the feminine; in ourselves individually and as a collective.
Being a scholar of ancient feminine based cultures, I’ve spent many years researching and studying matriarchal cultures beliefs and practices. My novels combine that scholarship with my expertise as a therapist I have also been a travel writer and photographer for 25 years-- publishing in newspapers and magazines in the United States and Canada. I live alone, high on a mountain in Mill Valley, California with my dog and cat. My three grown children live nearby.
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Echo the Ancients
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Historical Fiction
The Minoans lived on the island of Crete from 4000 to 1500 BC, when they disappeared without a trace. In Echo the Ancients, fourteen-year-old Gloria is living there in 1954. Her father is studying the archaeological remains of the ancient culture that was rediscovered in the early twentieth century. Although the Greek island in the Mediterranean Sea is bright and sunny, Gloria lives under the dark shadow of her emotionally and mentally disturbed mother. Worried about his lonely, withdrawn daughter, Gloria’s father hires a local woman, Andromache, to be her tutor and companion. As Gloria struggles to discover who she is and where she’s going while meeting the demands of her mother’s illness, Andromache brightens her world with an intricate tale about people in a fascinating culture that worshipped the Great Goddess and valued love, community, art, and nature. 
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The Nobility of the Robe
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Historical Fiction, Thriller
Richly detailed and epic in scope, The Nobility of the Robe brings to life the power of two passionate personalities committed to realizing their dreams. Combining a real historical character with a modern-day thriller, the novel dances across the time/space continuum faster than the speed of light. Iceland, 2009--Claire Blaise is a brilliant physicist whose passion is to travel to the past, but when her highly sought technology is stolen and her life threatened, she’s swept into an international intrigue that spans the centuries where her true purpose and the love of her life await her. The Marais, Paris, 1600-- Against the backdrop of the degenerate 17th Century in France, Angelique Arnauld is sent to become the abbess of Port Royal Abbey at eight years old. Conspiracies, arrests without charge & kidnapping encapsulate the romance and terror of her life as she fights for what she believes is right--reforming the abbey. In the next 40 years she becomes instrumental in improving conditions not only within her own abbey, but in the Catholic Church in France. Famous in her lifetime, she aligns with others in a movement known as the Jansenist Heresy. When Claire is able to travel to the past, she meets Angelique and discovers a passionate love for la Mere’s brother, Antoine; a writer and orator for the Jansenist cause. Aligned with Angelique, Claire must uncover the secrets buried in the 17th Century and the chilling truth that threatens her life in Iceland in the 21st. 
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The Jaguar's House
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Historical Fiction
In the complex world of the Ancient Maya, a pair of female/male twins are found abandoned in the jungle. It had been foretold that such twins would bring their people into a new age. The Jaguar’s House tells the story of Balamka, the female of the twins, determined to discover her parentage and her true identity. Aided in her quest by the sorceror, Nagual, who teaches her the power of natural forces, she comes to understand both who she is and what she’s meant to do. Against the backdrop of the threat posed by an invading culture from the west whose purpose is to reinstate human sacrifice, Ms. Obrien crafts a riveting tale of one woman’s determination to know herself, to know love, to offer help to the suffering and return her culture to right relationship with the gods. Drawing on the mythological and spiritual beliefs of the Maya, the story masterfully dramatizes events that could lead to a new golden age. Rich with passion, the lives of the people of another place and time are told. |
