Debra Daniel perfectly captures what it is like to be a twelve-year-old girl in a particular place and time, while also touching upon the universality of that precious age between childhood and teenager. Interspersed throughout In the Dark Eyes of the Rabbit is advice on how to live from Retta’s mother, father, and grandmother, bringing to mind Jamaica Kencaid’s “Girl.” But it is Retta herself whose voice rings loudest as she is “lost to the wonderment of life and love and dying and secrets and truths and how people sink and how they float…”
— Ann Hood, NY Times Best Selling Author of The Stolen Child and The Book that Matters Most

“Debra Daniel has a rare knack for combining depth and humour, substance and charm. In the Dark Eyes of the Rabbit is at once a tender depiction of the dynamics of a family, a vivid coming-of-age narrative, an unforgettable portrayal of a grandmother, and an astute study of fracture and repair within relationships. It’s warm and funny and poignant — I immediately wanted to read it again.”
— Michael Loveday author of Unlocking the Novella-in-Flash and Three Men on the Edge

“I loved this novella-in-flash on many levels. I liked its close focus on the life of a family in the USA in the 1960s and how they navigate day-to-day situations. I liked the POV, in the strong and believable voice of a twelve year old girl and the way she thinks about her family and relates to them. The adults are flawed but believable — a fearful grandmother who makes doom-laden remarks and has many strange habits, a self-preoccupied mother, a father who spends much time away from the home and an aunt who reveals family secrets. The novella is moving, and also has humour — a great combination. The use of the rabbit motif threading through, adds a further depth. In the end, the family, in crisis, does pull together.”
— Jude Higgins, author of Clearly Defined Clouds and founder of the Bath Novella-in-Flash Award

Paperback ISBN 978-1-915247-70-4; 133mm x 203mm; 132pp

£11.99 GBP

A FAMILY OF GREAT FALLS is a trip back in time, a story of love and loss and family, a perfect gem of a book. Debra A Daniel makes you smile and yearn, breaks your heart and lifts you up.
~ NY Times Bestselling author Ann Hood, The Knitting Circle and The Book That Matters Most

Debra A Daniel is a natural story teller. I was immediately drawn into A Family of Great Falls and involved with the characters’ lives. Beautifully written with humour and heart, this novella focuses on the daughters of an undertaker in the USA, in the 1920s and 30s. For them, death is a part of everyday life. The story is also about identity, how in different ways, the girls and their mother are determined not to succumb to the wishes of others when personal tragedy affects their lives. I was rooting for them all the way. And that is further testament to Daniel’s skills as a writer.
~ Jude Higgins, The Chemist’s House

In A Family of Great Falls, the eponymous town is home to siblings Willie and Jeanette and parents, Pearl and Henry. It is 1928 and Henry owns the local funeral parlour. The family are on the cusp of change; prosperity and social standing beckon, but there is indeed, a fall ahead. This novella is a triumph, showing the range of the form to encompass an epic tragedy, the minutiae of personal grief and resilience, and moves across decades with the lightest of touches. I was utterly absorbed.
~ Alison Woodhouse, The House on the Corner

Two sisters growing up with a sense of the potential promise that life may hold, as well as the dark realities that are unavoidable with a father who, as an undertaker, is the ‘keeper of the dead’ and a brother buried in the town cemetery. Oh, and a name that must be buried and farewelled, too. Tender but not sentimental, this is a balanced set of stories that reveal the bonds of sisterhood and the way two young girls face the hardest challenges.
~ Michelle Elvy, the other side of better and the everrumble

Paperback ISBN 978-1-912095-47-6; 133mm x 203mm; 132pp

£11.99 GBP

An ‘ensemble cast’ novella with a fresh and original concept — a sequence of stories about a teacher’s pupils at a school. The students’ eccentricities, rebelliousness and vulnerabilities are depicted with warmth, fondness, and very often, an absolutely heart-breaking poignancy, as in the case of the child with brittle bones, or the young boy grieving his sister. There is black humour too, in places, and endings that are intensely lyrical. The characterisations are superbly individualised, vivid, inventive and memorable, and are written with beautiful variety of expression. A novella of immense charm that has real emotional substance.
—Michael Loveday, author of Three Men on the Edge

Early on, one of Debra Daniel’s wonderfully eccentric characters says, ‘Don’t try to figure out how it’s done. Just let it be magic.’ That turns out to be good advice. The Roster magically evokes the multifarious milieu of the school playground and the early-grade classroom. It’s filled with quirky and unforgettable characters—hyperactive twins, a boy with Tourette, a brittle-boned girl confined to a cart—all beautifully rendered through the wise eyes of a primary school teacher. These are stories told with love and wonder. They’re magic.
—Luke Whisnant, author of In the Debris Field

Paperback; ISBN 978-1-912095-95-7; 196mm x 134mm; 58pp

£7.49 GBP
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