Stones Corner, Turmoil: Revised Edition October 2025

This story comes from a place that was never simple, and never pretended to be.

Stones Corner: Turmoil, winner of the Indie Author USA Award, is set in Northern Ireland during the Troubles, where ordinary life carried on in the middle of tension, fear, and moments people learned not to talk about. This isn’t history from a distance, it’s how it felt to live through it.

At the centre is a young woman trying to find her way in a world that doesn’t offer easy answers. There’s nothing heroic about it, it’s the quiet, everyday fight to keep going, to hold on to who you are, and not let everything around you pull you under.

The people here aren’t perfect. They make choices they don’t always understand at the time, they carry things they don’t say out loud, and they learn to live with fear sitting beside them, even when they refuse to accept it.

There’s love in this story, but it isn’t neat. There’s conflict, but it doesn’t always come shouting through the door. Much of it lives in families, in communities, in the looks, the silences, and the things left hanging between people.

If you’ve read Milkman or Say Nothing, you’ll recognise the world, but this is fiction that stays close to the ground, close to the people, and close to the truth of how those years were lived day to day.

This isn’t about taking sides. It’s about what it cost to grow up in that time, and what people carried with them long after.

Some parts are hard, because the time was hard. At its heart though, this is a story about people, how they endure, how they change, and how they hold on to each other when everything around them feels like it could slip away.

This is the first book in the Stones Corner series.

Born and raised in Derry, Northern Ireland, Jane left for London at seventeen and spent over three decades working across the corporate sector before returning home. Her writing is rooted in lived experience and extensive research, focusing on the real-life human stories of ordinary people caught up in extraordinary times.She's the author of the Stones Corner series - Turmoil, Darkness, Light, and Hope - a sweeping, emotionally driven saga set against the backdrop of the Troubles. The books, based on true events, offer a raw, unflinching exploration of sectarianism, injustice, and the resilience of the human spirit. She's been a finalist for the Indie Author Awards USA and am an approved author with Northern Ireland Libraries.Her next book, due for release in 2026, tells the untold story of Project Children - a real initiative that brought children from both communities in Northern Ireland to the United States during the Troubles. Drawing on over 50 first-hand interviews, it's a powerful and hopeful narrative about escape, kindness, and the innocence of youth in a divided land.Jane is actively involved in literary events and festivals, including Féile an Phobail, the Letterkenny Literature Festival, Dingle Lit, John Hewitt Summer School and the 50th anniversary of Project Children in Monaghan. She also speaks at book clubs and schools, and is passionate about giving voice to those too often overlooked in Irish history.