Iris, the Bewitched

From SFGate online: John Milton Kimbro, a prolific author who used various pseudonyms to write more than 80 books, finally hitting his stride in a series of 40 gothic romance novels starting with "Augusta the First" and ending with "Belinda the Impatient," died Dec. 26 (2004) in San Francisco at the age of 75. ~~~ He wrote under at least eight different names -- Ann Ashton, Jean Kimbro, Milt Jaxon, Charlotte Bramwell and Zoltan Lambec, among others -- but his most enduring pen name was Katheryn Kimbrough, author of the Gothic series published under the umbrella title of "Saga of the Phenwick Women." ~~~ His Phenwick books were published for about seven years, starting in 1975, and attracted a wide fan base among gothic novel devotees. ~~~ "He was very popular, and many people were addicted to his series because the characters were so vivid," said Kristi Lynn Glass, publisher of Gothic Journal. "The readers just wanted to continue the story from one book to the next." ~~~ The saga created by Mr. Kimbro starts in the middle of the 18th century and tells the story of various Phenwick men and women down through the ages, in a milieu of "castles, mansions, foreign countries, secret passageways, hidden treasures, ghosts and spirit communications, the occult or black magic, piracy, telepathy, possession, witchcraft, reincarnation, Satan worship, religious cults, leprechauns, worldwide shipping, family successes/tragedies, war, and much more," Gothic Journal says. ~~~ Mr. Kimbro was born in Los Angeles and raised in the suburb of Monterey Park. After high school in nearby Alhambra, he attended Pasadena City College, then struck out on the writing trail, essentially writing about "anything and everything," as his brother Jim Kimbro put it. ~~~ In between his writing, Mr. Kimbro also appeared in the Broadway musical "Oliver!" in 1963 and 1964 and wrote some plays himself...