Sharon R Anderson, author of Jangala: A Wild Place In The Heart

Sharon Anderson has published short fiction in The Carolina Quarterly at The University of North Carolina and Writ, The University of Toronto Quarterly and won poetry contests at The Toronto Small Press Book Fair, Poetry Corner and Festival of Voices. She has a book of poetry which she intends to publish after she has completed the publication of her next three novels, all of which are written and require only finishing touches. Her next novel, which she will publish with iUniverse, is set in New York City where she lived, for three years, in the heart of Manhattan's theatre district at 48th and Broadway. Invited by the giants of the women's movement, Barbara Ehrenreich and Barbara Seaman, she came to New York City to promote her work on mitral valve prolapse in an effort to help people with this heart problem. It was here also that she started the first mitral valve prolapse support group and its newsletter in North America.

Her pioneering work on mitral valve prolapse brought information to the public for the first time on this little-known but most common heart disease that affects millions of people around the world. Mitral Valve Prolapse: Benign Syndrome? is available online at e-reads.com and her website, www.roseofsharonbooks.com. Sharon's work on MVP earned her high praise from the medical establishment and many speaking engagements throughout North America, as well as internationally, including The Women’s Health Conference in Beijing, China. For this commitment, that involved visits to four cities in China, Beijing, Shanghai, Suzcho and Xian as well as Hong Kong, the International Conference on Women's Health offered her a a scholarship of $1000.

Praise for Mitral Valve Prolapse: Benign Syndrome? came from some of the most respected researchers in heart disease, including the following:

"I find your book and your whole endeavor re MVP remarkable in that you have probably read more on this subject than anybody else - including myself and all other cardiologists - who have been intimately involved in the field for decades."

Dr. J. B. Barlow, Professor of Cardiology, University of the Witwatersrand and Johannesburg Hospital, Johannesburg, South Africa.

"This is indeed a revealing expose of an often misunderstood syndrome depicted in detail with passion and deep personal concern.  It is a factual, hardhitting, informational book, verbally illustrating the pitfalls of commission and/or omission in the diagnosis of mitral valve prolapse.  The author is to be complimented in converting personal experience, backed with sound scientific knowledge, into a book of this nature.  It is hoped that the publication of this book will have a profound bearing on the prevention of the complications associated with heart disease."

Dr. Barry S. Krasner, M.D. Former Director of Cardiopulmonary Medicine, Memorial Hspital of Green County, N.Y. Assistant Clinical Professor, Department of Anesthesiology, Albert Einstein College of Medicine/Montefiore Medical Center, N.Y. and Director Ambulatory Infusion and Pain Clinic, Valatie, N.Y.

"Sharon Anderson is an exceptional and truly extraordinary cardiac patient.  She has a brilliantly logical and inquisitive mind.  She has written a fascinating, compelling and informative book...a beautifully written book which is difficult to put down..."

Dr. Benedict Kingsley, former Adjunct Professor of Medicine (Cardiology),former Assistant Professor of Diagnostic Radiology, Hahnemann Medical University and Trustee and Program Director National Foundation for Non-Invasive Diagnostics, Princeton, NJ.

It was Dr. Benedict Kingsley who trained Sharon in Cardiac Ultrasound for which she was awarded a certificate from the National Foundation for Non-Invasive Diagnostics,in Princeton, NJ.

"A magnificent piece of work.  It humbles my peers' efforts in its encyclopedic coverage of the subject."  Walt Weaver, M.D. M.S., F.A.C.C.

"Thanks to the groundbreaking work of Sharon Anderson, mitral valve prolapse now needs to be considered by women as a condition for which they are at risk of being undertreated."

Cynthia Pearson, former Director of The National women's Health Network News.

"Sharon Anderson is a woman with a cause...to make MVP a household word...Mitral valve Prolapse:  Benign Syndrome?...tells the dramatic story of her own illness and her gradual enlightenment until she became an expert...Unlike many self-published books, this one is remarkably well-written and well-documented and has been well-reviewed in a variety of media."

Leonore Fleisher, Publishers Weekly.

Mitral Valve Prolapse:  Benign Syndrome?, which reads like a novel, also tells the tragic story of a friend, beautiful, brilliant, young attorney, Margo Halpenny, who contracted Infective Endocarditis, as Sharon did, but who was not as lucky. All MVP patients are at risk of Infective Endocarditis, a severe cardiac infection caused by dental or surgical work without antibiotics. Margo died after a horrific illness and valve replacement which was performed in an effort to save her life.

Sharon holds a BA degree from The University of Toronto and a Masters Degree from McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. 

During her postgraduate studies of King Arthur, his knights of the Round Table and their quest for the Holy Grail, writing became her passion. Sharon's Masters Thesis on the famous love affair between Lancelot and Guenevere awakened a hidden talent for powerful characterization and conflict, as well as a fast-paced, intense narrative that keeps the reader turning the pages. After reading the trek through the desert in Jangala A Wild Place In The Heart, Fred Flahiff, former Professor of English at the University of Toronto, commented, "When I got out of the desert, I was literally staggering."

Sharon Anderson is also an accomplished pianist who studied under Antonin Kubalek of the Prague Conservatory in the Czech Republic and performing artist, Julie Holtzman of New York City. Her favorite performance work is On An Overgrown Path, a set of ten dramatic, often nostalgic pieces, by the Czech composer, Leos Janacek. They are also the favorite pieces of her pianist heroine, Anna Rachel, in Love In The Gardens of Manhattan, which will be her next book.

Sharon has been reviewed in The New York Times, Publishers Weekly, Buffalo News, The Princeton Packet, Our Town (New York City), The National Women's Health Network News, American Scene and The Ottawa Citizen