1891. A runaway boy happens upon a young girl, all on her own with mysterious powers. She needs to learn to live safely around people and he needs to hide from his past. He brings her to Summerland, CA, a brand new town, a spiritualist colony attracting many kinds of seekers, including psychic investigators, oil speculators, the recently deceased, and these two stray children in need of a family.The History of this NovelThe 19th century saw widespread interest in spiritualism. Family members yearned to communicate with dead loved ones and hired mediums to serve as go–betweens. Intellectuals like French astronomer Camille Flammarion sought evidence to prove the existence of a spirit world, which some called "the Summer Land". Meanwhile, in Sweden, the painter Hilma af Klint would soon be receiving artistic direction during séances.Spiritualist colonies sprang up around the United States, and entrepreneur Henry Lafayette Williams established the town of Summerland, California as one. To join Summerland's colony, spiritual seekers came from all over – right about the time that the locals discovered oil.Here, then, is a work of imagination built on historical foundation. Settings and incidents in this novel – plus some characters and dialog – got their starts in the 1800s and this novel takes great care to respect the factual. Nonetheless it is fiction. ... Concert stage, dark except for a deep blue spotlight. Singer drops to one knee and his narration evolves from murmur to rant. "This is the story of a man who got what he wanted but he lost what he had. He got what he wanted but he lost what he had. He got –" ...It goes on forever. It's mesmerizing. Uncomfortable. Confessional.Pretty sure this memory is from the time I saw James Brown, decades ago, but the lost identity of the singer isn't the point.I've spent my life gazing across some fence or other, admiring greener grass over yonder. I've acted on so many impulses to jump the fence. No complaints, but it has sure taken me a long time to appreciate where I'm standing right now. And nowadays that blue spotlight chant fills my head whenever I contemplate a new jump.Sometimes I jump back.I was a low–budget television producer until I wrote a psychological thriller, "Was It A Rat I Saw", which Bantam–Doubleday–Dell published in hardcover in 1992. Soon after that I became the mother of twins, jumped into graduate school, and became a disaster scientist. I dabbled in academia, government research, and consulting.I stopped writing fiction for nearly two decades, until I noticed how much I missed it. I resumed writing novels with the literary fiction "Scar Jewelry" about a family with secrets that started in the era of Los Angeles punk and persist for decades. I'm in the midst of a speculative detective series FRAMES, with "Nica of Los Angeles", "Nica of the New Yorks", and "Boredom Fighter" so far. I've just completed a nine-novella series, the young adult paranormal horror romance, "DDsE".Funny. Back in the day, I had a single book idea at a time. Now I'm flooded with them, can't keep up with them, though I write just about every day.I live in southern California. I had to leave for five years to confirm this is where I belong. I live with multiple cats, comfortably close to my twins and granddaughter. Like my life paths, my friends and family are all over the damn place. I like to visit them, spend time at the ocean, explore cities, and go out to hear live music.
