For her first novel, Nita Hughes challenged herself by traveling between two time frames, 13th-century France and the present day in the same location. Hughes will be reading from “Past Recall” on Thursday, January 15, 7:30 p.m. at Village Books, 1049 Swarthmore. The story begins during the Inquisition, which is a threat to Clotilde de Mirepoix and her husband Jean, who possess the Cathar treasure, a set of manuscripts whose power they describe as so important as to change the world. Clotilde and Jean vow to return in the new millennium to unveil the treasure when the earth’s destiny looks darkest. The power of the Cathar treasure threatens the world once again in modern times when photojournalist Dana Palmer’s quest to find the treasure leads to her own peril. Hughes, a former international banker who lived in Australia, the Philippines and France, retired in 1994 to live in Maui and write. “I always was a closet writer and so after I retired I learned the craft. I read everything I could get my hands on, took a class and read novelists whose work I admire, such as Isabel Allende and Amy Tan.” Enjoying her new life in Maui, Hughes takes walks on the beach and a daily swim, but sticks to a disciplined schedule, writing from 10 till 1 and returning after a break at 3:30. A former Malibu resident, Hughes and her husband Douglas have three children who live on the mainland. She is already working on her second book, “Safe Haven,” which is loosely based on her time in Manila, when the Marcos’ government was overturned in 1992.
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