Lyn J Pickering

The civil war in Lebanon and the invasion by Israel impacted me greatly as I had left Lebanon only a short time before the war. My brother and I hitchhiked from London to Beirut in the early 1970s and fell instantly in love with the Middle East. Lebanon is an amazing country; dramatic, beautiful, and rich in history. At that time tourism was not at a great height - at least not in the mountain areas where we lived, and the people were warm and hospitable. We stayed in an ancient house that clung to the hillside in a village called Shimlan, below us were silver/green olive groves, and, way beyond, Beirut lay like pink coral with one arm reaching out into the Mediterranean Sea.

I left the Middle East behind reluctantly, made a bit of money waitressing in London, and then traveled back to South Africa by Land Rover as chief cook and bottle washer with a group of guys. At this stage, I was writing only poetry and a shaky travelogue dictated by the rough terrain.

My first novel was called The Single Leaf, from a poem by the Lebanese writer, Khalil Gibran. I was saddened by the civil war, and this book was drawn out of a deep sense of impotence as I watched from a distance, a land engaged in a death struggle.

This was still the days of typewriters and my final draft, when completed, was sent without making a copy, to publisher in Lebanon. It was never heard of again. I had earlier copies which I buried in a bottom drawer and left there along with my dreams of a writing career.

No writer can be buried forever and I began work on Opus Dei a few years later. Nimrod Twice Born developed in parallel, the two books taking more than 30 years to the point of publication. My understanding of the strange twists and turns of world events was developing as I researched the books and every triumphant "finish" was met with the realisation that there was still more to be revealed. What began as a simple story, in the case of Opus Dei, became something darker and more sinister - a battle of the gods, with only one possible outcome.

Nimrod Twice Born grew from two distinct sources which, which, bound together, fitted into place like a jigsaw. However, it made for a long read and, after many years, CONSPIRED is the result of disentangling the books.

Conspired reveals the arcane machinations of Heinrich Himmler, leader of the SS during WWII as he manipulated Adolf Hitler from his Wewelsburg Castle. What transpired is being felt with the rise of the 4th Industrial Revolution

The Herodian Document will be released shortly. The magician, Simon Magus, entered into a conspiracy with Herodias, wife of Herod, to create the "sacred" relics at the time of Christ's crucifixion.

Read Opus Dei, Conspired, and the Herodian Document - you will never view the world in the same way again!

I am married, I have six children and ten grand-children and I live in Hilton, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.

Lyn J Pickering