Wings-Press Order Here!! Wings ePress Inc. Category:  Mystery/Suspense Publisher: Wings ePress ISBN-10:  1597059471 Type: Fiction Pages: 269 Copyright: March 15, 2005 Nautical Fiction Ireland, West Coast. Meg, in a moment of madness, throws caution to the wind. Too late, she discovers she's cast off a lot more than merely a life of drudgery. Naively believing anyone can sail, she flees from Scullymór in Connor Gorman's thirty-two foot sloop. After a horrific week lost at sea, she is washed up on a barren island where an unexpected discovery puts her in far more danger than she ever thought possible. Only one person can help her.... ONE Cool Atlantic waters swirled around her bare feet; the ocean swell, barely perceptible within the sheltered inlet, rose and fell against the slick wooden pilings. Meg shuddered as an icy current suddenly snaked about her calves, a sharp contrast to milder Gulf Stream coastal temperatures. Further along, on the pontoon at the end of the short pier, the yacht strained to go with the tide. The ropes groaned in protest every time the ocean sucked greedily at the hull. From where she sat, the plump straw-haired woman could see the smooth slope of manicured lawn sweep up towards the house standing like a brooding sentinel on the crest of a small incline. Half hidden by huge banks of flowering rhododendron, the building appeared to reprimand her for those few stolen moments of respite, and feeling duly admonished, she lifted her legs up onto the warm wooden surface and began to dry off the salty wetness with the sleeve of her jumper. In another hour the conger eel would be back from the city, her beady eyes searching the nooks and crannies for any microscopic particles of dust Meg might have inadvertently overlooked. The conger eel. Pulling the apron strings tightly about her, she chuckled. The similitude had come to her one day when Helen Featherstone had slithered out of the darkness of the back hallway and caught Meg dreamily perusing the dramatic seascape which rolled across a framed canvas hanging in the stairwell. Fixing the domestic help with a withering look, the would-be lady of the manor had dared her to dally one instant longer, a challenge the weaker of the two knew wasn’t worth facing. Instantly resuming her menial duties, Meg cursed herself more than the other woman, wishing she had enough guts to fling the dusting rag into Featherstone’s smarmy mug. Yet, as always, common sense prevailed. Jobs were hard to find in the small south-west coast community, the men living from the sea, and the women from the men. Not professionally, of course, heaven forbid! Security lay in marriage (a myth most young girls blissfully relied on) and those who failed to pull a husband onto land and come forth with a shoal of offspring, were forced to seek employment in the local fish factory, doomed to while away their working lives pulling the viscous entrails out of mackerel. Faced with this choice, the dumpy blonde figured cleaning toilets and polishing silver for a conger eel was a far better bet. What was bitter fate for some, was blessed fortune for others, and Meg was one of them. In short, she had no more intention of marrying a local fishmonger than flying to the moon, and a lot of hard work and perseverance had gone into seeing it stayed that way. While not glaringly apparent to others, Meg had her sights set on higher things; a job in the city, a man who wore a tie to work, a fancy detached house in a tree-lined residential area. And a boat. REVIEW by Angela Verdenius - Wings ePress author - Soul of a Witch Two totally loveable characters are brought together in a riotous love story of dreams, ambitions, and plain old down-to-earth laughter. The Irish village comes to life around them, and the villagers are people who might very well live next door to you. Trisha FitzGerald-Petri shows nautical knowledge, and a razor sharp sense of humor, and has the ability to make you laugh out loud at the characters, while cheering them along the whole way. This book is a keeper, and I whole-heartedly recommend it for those who like their romance liberally sprinkled with wit, and Irish flavor, and a darned good story to boot. It’ll leave you with a smile on your face.              Excerpt Another shadow came and went. A few seconds later, an elongated form appeared directly off the starboard bow, remained for a few moments and then, as swiftly as it had come, vanished yet again. Meg started. That couldn't be the dark outline of a submerged rock, she considered nervously, the yacht was barely moving. Floundering head to wind, there was no forward motion, only the crab-like sideways slithering as the ocean gently pushed the sloop along with the swell. Clíona lurched unexpectedly. A lone gust hurried through the shrouds and along the mainsail. Staggering, Meg dropped to her knees on the foredeck and stretched out towards the bows, her nose peeping over the toerail just in time to see a black shape duck underneath the hull. Biting her lip, she screamed silently. There was something out there. Something big and dark and menacing. And it was following her.

Review by author Michael Murphy (Try and Catch the Wind, Wings ePress February 2007) and Critique Club member
When Meg Barry begins a journey of self-discovery, she does so with a splash, or nearly so. She steals her employer's yacht and casting off, sets sail, with only library books as a guide. Meg survives north Atlantic storms, fear and self-doubt. With spunk, courage and resolve, she discovers the person she was meant to be and finds love and future in the process.

Trisha FitzGerald-Petri's novel, Casting Off, is filled with vivid imagery, colorful Irish characters and a heroine the reader will root for. The novel follows Meg as she battles to survive and find her destiny.

Gripping suspense and subtle humor puts the reader at sea with her. Get ready to learn about sailing, along with Meg.
The novel has cross-genre appeal with action, suspense, and romance. Casting Off will be available from Wings as an October selection. Be ready for it, the novel is quite a ride.



Jeanette Cottrell, Reviewer, eBook Reviews Weekly,
Casting Off is a true nautical adventure. I could feel Meg's dawning horror, her sense of helplessness at grappling with unfamiliar equipment, as well as her stubborn determination to get out of this alive. I treasured the fact that, unlike in most romances, her motive was not track down a man, but to find herself. The sea leaves a sailor precious few self-delusions.

Ms. FitzGerald-Petri has written a compelling novel, by turns humorous, frightening, and touching as Meg and Connor find themselves-and each other. I'll warn you now, you'll wipe a lot of salt spray out of your hair! However, if you're willing to learn a bit about yachts, sail along with Meg on a voyage of self-discovery. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.



Reviewed By JoEllen Conger, author of Queen of Candelore, Right of Passage and Return of The Goddess (www.congerbooks.com)
Author/Reviewer JoEllen Conger served as the first woman Commodore at Moss Landing Yacht Club in California, the first in fifty years, and has cruised and raced on the open Pacific Ocean from San Francisco to Mexico. She and her husband also day sailed a 40-foot trimaran off the coast of California and Hawaii.
Staff Commodore Joan C. Powell


If you’ve ever been caught in a raging storm at sea, Trisha FitzGerald- Petri’s vivid writing style will bring back every one of those exciting memories; CASTING OFF is a can’t-put-it-down type of book - a masterpiece of story-weaving. I consider this book a definite keeper.

Once the small-village woman, Miss Megan Berry had made up her mind, nothing, but nothing, would stand in her way, not even morality. Stealing her employer’s 32’ sloop, Cliona, took more fortitude than she had expected. The only thing she knows about sailing is what she has read in a borrowed library book. Yet, she thinks she has discovered freedom as the tiny vessel sails past the harbor’s headlands. What she finds is more adventure than she had ever bargained for.