"Author's Den is truly a global village, uniting writers and readers worldwide. I write multi-cultural novels with exotic and diverse themes, ranging from political to spiritual. Thanks to my website at Author's Den, I've been discovered by readers from as far as New Zealand, Bosnia and Albania!"

Kristina's odyssey began with her birth in Rome, Italy. Her father Sami Alberto (aka S.Vendresha), was a freedom-fighter, journalist and editor, and her Austrian mother Geraldine von Landeck, an opera singer and his best comrade-in-ideals. Sami and Geraldine settled in Rome, Italy, at the end of the IInd World War.

However, later on, due to political persecution, the threesome had to leave Italy and settle in Turkey, because Turkey gave them sanctuary. Growing up in Istanbul, in the 1960s, Kristina fell in love with exotic Turkey and her gallant people, and burned to reach out and contribute to their society in a positive manner. She was a child film-star and later a poet and a journalist and published a daily column in the major Istanbul daily. A die-hard romantic and idealist, imbued with a can-do, will-do spirit, she strived, to the best of her abilities, to champion the rights of the down-trodden.

At the age of 17, she defied her parents, eloped and married a Turkish artist more than twice her age, who had convinced her that he shared her inclinations. The union produced a much beloved son, Faik Bekem. However, the April-December marriage of an artist and writer, was soon confronted by the realities of life and sunk in stormy seas. After her arrival in New York, she restarted her life virtually from point zero. In time, Kristina married her blue-eyed Hibernian, Michael O'Donnelly (which led her to travel throughout Ireland and thus causing her to fall in love with the Irish people as well). Meanwhile, she worked for the New York Daily News as an advertising rep., and trailblazed as a newspaper union officer (The Newspaper Guild of America). Not surprisingly, her experiences in this electric environment inspired her to write the contemporary novel, Ride the Eagle (published by Worldwide Library). Readers called this novel "... a piece of Americana and a celebration of idealism." Ride the Eagle was sold in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, England, Spain, and Australia. Later, going independent, she launched her own art and graphics company. She continued to write for two international newspapers while she freelanced as a magazine editor and book reviewer. The opening chapter of another novel, titled Children of the Eagle, about present day Albania/Kosova, was serialized in two newspapers, The Turkish Times, published in Washington D.C. and read worldwide, and Illyria, published in New York City, N.Y., also read worldwide.

And so, Kristina's quest to touch and perchance to help heal, the Universal Human Heart, goes on ....

Visit Kristina online at http://ladyliterature.comKristina's novels are available at major online retailers such as amazon.com and barnes and noble, and e-books through www.booksforabuck.com

However, readers can acquire the print version of her novels, autographed and at the best possible cost, right here, at Author's Den Bookstore :-)