Celebration resident Barbara Kroon realized a long-standing dream last year when her first novel, The Sleepover Clause, and then her second romance novel, And He Cooks Too, were published. She plans to share what she learned from her experience with other locals on Wednesday, Oct. 2, when she presents a program on self-promotion to the non-traditional students in Stetson University’s Lifelong Learning session at the Stetson Center at Celebration at their monthly meeting.

Later in October, Kroon will offer a three-part course, “What a ‘Novel’ Idea!” also part of Stetson’s Lifelong Learning program on the Celebration campus. The course is aimed both at readers of romance novels as well as those who have always wanted to write a novel but didn’t know where to start.

“Everything seems to be coming at once,” Kroon remarked of her fall plans. “But I thrive on pressure. In addition to these speaking and teaching commitments, my third novel, Driven to Matrimony, The Wild Rose Press, became available in the Amazon Kindle Select program on Sept. 25 with five free days Nov. 12-16.” The worldwide release date is Jan. 15, 2014.

“This next book is shorter than the first two at 52,000 words,” she noted. “I’m testing the market to see how readers react to this length.” The down side is, unlike the first two books, it won’t be available in print-on-demand format.

Kroon, whose pen name is Barbara Barrett, set this third book on a fictional island off the coast of South Carolina where Dina Maitland heads to clean up her movie star mother’s latest fiasco, her engagement to a 20-year-old film student. Along the way, she almost literally runs into the father of the groom, Ben Cutler. Single father Ben can ill afford time away from his business, with competitors threatening to appropriate his new product, yet his son takes priority. When they team up to prevent the nuptials, they wind up in a more personal alliance of their own.

For more information about Barbara Barrett’s books, go to www.barbarabarrettbooks.com. For more information about Stetson University’s Lifelong Learning program at the Stetson University Center at Celebration, located at 800 Celebration Ave., Suite 104, contact Toni Castillo at [email protected], or call (321) 939-7630.