Johari's Window

Sometimes when we are searching for our future, the future finds us - 'Johari's Window' is a love letter, a game, and a fictional romance. It tells the story of Suzy, a university student and young woman from Middle England. She is attractive and intelligent, but her reckless, impulsive nature brings about romantic disappointments. One of her suitors is the erudite Dr Raven, who is an ambitious, mercurial charmer, but emotionally reticent. He is a strategist who tells her that, "Someone else got there first". Their encounter is a turning point in Suzy's life, which propels her on a soul-searching quest for romance. An unintended consequence in her search for meaning leads to self-discovery and self-actualisation as a writer. Her journey is a Dantesque passage through trials and tribulations. Her memories look forwards as well as backwards. Suzy's epiphany at a window is the moment when the subtleties and layers of meaning in language and memory are truly revealed to her. It is the language of the body which makes us human. Suzy discovers the human capacity for many kinds of love, which sustains her, in the infinite chambers of the heart.

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgements 7 Prologue 9 The Colour of Sunlight Streaming through a Water Bubble 11 A Kind of Blue 15 Yellow 17 The Colours He Is 22 Rhythm 25 The Colour of a Rose 27 Blue: Midnight in Winter 28 An Encounter 33 Bohemia 36 The Colour of Sound 44 Home 45 Abroad 52 The Year of Wearing Black 61 Vanessa 65 Upstairs, Downstairs 68 Rain 71 A Deck of Cards 73 St Tropez 75 Challenges 77 The Joker 78 The Shaman 79 The Silver Screen 81 The Graduation Ball 83 Ties That Bind Us 86 The Stargazer 89 Just a Number 92 Losses 96 Bohemia Revisited 101 Nice Work 104 V 108 The Enemy I Loved 114 A Secret of the Heart 117 Danger 118 Deja Vu 122 Birds of a Feather 130 The Past Comes Back 132 The Enigma 138 Survival 143 Watercolours 146 Journey Beneath the Stars 149 Granite and Rainbow 151 A Song 154 The Swing 155 The Dark Lover 156 The Aftermath 160 Landscape 162 The Dance 165 Black and White 167 Journeys 169 Breaking Away 177 Transformations 181 The Awakening 183 The Colour of Money 186 Scorpio 198 Out of the Darkness 200 Memories 201 A Young Love 209 Photos 211 The Colour of a Shot-Silk Curtain 214 Initiations 218 The Window 220 The Colour of Ice and Fire 222 Masks 224 Angela 228 Snow 234 Art and Life 240 The Bullet 245 The Gatekeeper2 47 The Return 255 Crescendo 256 Magic in the World 258 The Return of Snow 261 The Epiphany 263 A Beginning, a Song 267 About the Author 269

About the Author :
Suzy's first published piece of writing was a poem called, 'Chess Board World', which appeared in a school magazine. Although she continued to write as a hobby, it was not until she went to university that her second chance came; she entered a poem called, 'Love in Autumn', in a national writing competition, and it was put into a poetry compilation by Forward Poetry. A second poem, 'Crystal', was also published at this time. Suzy was delighted, but the book had limited success. She had to bank the royalties cheque, (for just over one pound), she was so poor. She had wanted to frame it! By the time Suzy was a postgraduate, she resolved it was time to write the story of her life in a fictional memoir. She was inspired by the work of Joyce and Woolf, and became interested in such themes as memory, identity, landscape, sexuality and the body. After her MA course, Suzy had a dual career as a teacher and estate agent. During a spell teaching abroad, she put pen to paper and wrote her first draft, carrying the manuscript through customs at Seoul and Heathrow airports in her hand-luggage, such is the extent of her technophobia. She says the act of writing and producing a novel is like giving birth, and regards her debut novel 'Johari's Window' as her first baby. She intends to have more children!

Review :
I was moved by the plethora of imagery that decorated the emotional journey in this timeless novel. Suzy Davies takes her readers to many places new to them, yet stunningly recognizable, in many emotional contexts, through her inimitable style and creative conviction, with a passion that resonates with hope and possibilities. Unknown shimmering dreams echo within the heartfelt parameters of her carefully constructed boundaries, universal, and personal, dominated by pervasive longings for true love. A gradual and natural, yet deliberate cultivation of perseverance captivates the reader with the promise of convictions that grow, while she harbors them just below the surface of her tribulations. Davies is a passionate, innovative, insatiable literary architect and I look forward to reading more of her work. I should also state here that Suzy is my fiancee and, that I am looking forward to our marriage more than anything else. Craig Fleming, Creative Consultant at Jake the Good Dog, LinkedIn review