| IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT: May 2003 ~ I now have my own domains! This Tripod site will remain but it will no longer be updated. For the latest updates, go to http://www.lanettecurington.com and http://www.laniaames.com. Thank you! |
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 Contemporary romantica, rated Hard R, paranormal fantasy. Available from Ellora's Cave Brief excerpt below. |
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March 22, 2003 February 2003 February 6, 2003 December 25, 2002 November 1, 2002 October 22, 2002 |
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"Statuesque" synopsis:
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The weathered peak of the rock formation pointed toward the sheer blue cloudless sky. Lia Morgan shaded her eyes against the sun and studied it. She thought it was shaped a little like the prow of a gigantic ship tipped back and half-buried in the desert sand. "This is it!" Mac shouted and started climbing for a flat table of rock at its base. Lia watched him. She had been half in love with Mac Taylor since she first met him in college. He had taken her under his wing, showed her how to have a good time, and promised her adventure. Mac had partially filled a void in her protected and pampered life, and Lia was grateful for their friendship even if a little disappointed it hadn't gone further. Now thirty, he was five years older than she, but he had bummed around a few years before settling on studies in anthropology, specializing in archaeology. He liked the past, he said, better than the present. In many ways, Lia agreed. The past seemed more interesting and less complicated than the present. Ancient civilizations and antiquities had always interested her, but even so, she hadn't followed that course of study. She had majored in the more practical business and marketing, going for a lucrative career instead of adventure. Yet here she was, spending another vacation following Mac in search of the lifesize statue of Zamar and the elusive Zamarians. If Mac had ever asked her outright, she would have told him she didn't think the statue or the Zamarians existed. All he had was a few paragraphs in a musty old tome written in the latter half of the nineteenth century by a quasi-archaeologist that everyone else in the field considered a nutcase. She couldn't blame him for getting his hopes up when he'd discovered a map in yet another batch of scrolls he'd picked up on the black market. Usually the disintegrating sheets of papyrus were nothing more than bills of lading or a merchant's daily tally of goods bought and sold. Interesting because of their age, but nothing unique. Until the map. How had anything as unusual as the map passed through the hands of a pirate who should be on the lookout for something more valuable? Mac had explained most black marketers were ignorant illiterates looking to make a quick buck. She supposed he was right. Mac looked back and waved at her to get moving. Lia started climbing over the rocks to reach the flat table. As she laid her hands on each timeworn boulder, they seemed somehow familiar. She shook her head and continued climbing. How many rocks had she and Mac clambered over the past few years? Too many, and they were all starting to look alike. Whether this led to the cavern Mac sought or not, she hoped this put a rest to his search once and for all. She reached the flat top and stood, looking at the sand spread out as far as the eye could see. The sun hung low in the western sky to her right, even though it was still early in the evening. Mac had insisted they do this in mid-autumn, on the night the Zamarians held their sacred ritual when the sacrifice of a virgin would bring the statue of the god to life. The mid-point between the autumnal equinox and the winter solstice. The night the boundary between the natural and the supernatural was most easily crossed. It was quite fitting they commence this crazy search on All Hallow's Eve—Halloween night. The jeep, a few yards from the base, suddenly looked out of place. "Magnificent view, isn't it?" Mac said. Lia barely managed a nod. The scene before her wavered as if it were going in and out of focus. She placed a hand on a nearby boulder to steady herself. Dizziness swept over her and she wondered if the desert heat had finally gotten to her. She heard Mac climb down the other side of the flat rock and knew she should follow, but her legs seemed rooted to the spot. "C'mon, Lia. I found the entrance," he called to her over his shoulder. She opened her mouth to call out to him for help but couldn't speak. The landscape before her blurred, went black, then... The setting sun burns the desert fiercely with its red and orange golden glow. She lingers on the flat rock waiting for the sand to swallow the fiery orb. She has managed to escape her guards once again, but it becomes more difficult each time. Although her shoulders are burdened with great guilt, her heart is light because she will soon meet with her lover—the boy who was her playmate in childhood and the man who became a priest because she could never wed. A lover who is not a lover, she muses as twilight settles across the stretch of sand. She scrambles from the rock, into the hidden entrance... "Lia!" A hand clamped on her shoulder, and she nearly jumped out of her skin. Breathing hard, she whirled to face Mac. "Are you all right?" he asked, but his dark green eyes were narrowed. She had first fallen for his eyes. They were almost jewel tone, like emeralds. An unusual combination with his jet-black hair and swarthy skin. "Yeah," she said breathlessly, as if she had been running. The vision jarred her, but for some strange reason it didn't really frighten her. She sensed a deeper meaning behind it, but a meaning she couldn't quite grasp. Lia brushed past Mac and leapt from the table of rock. She wound her way through the jumble of boulders, heading straight toward the entrance. She waited for him to catch up. He looked at her, his head tilted to one side, a strange look of expectation on his face she couldn't explain. "How did you know where to find the entrance? You can't see it from up there. The way it's hidden behind that outcropping of rock, you can't see it until you're right on top of it." If she told him about the vision, he would think she'd gone mad, wouldn't he? She'd never kept a secret from Mac. But now...something deep inside her warned her not to tell.
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 If you like this excerpt or you've read "Statuesque" and liked the story, please click the button above to visit BitBooks.com and rate it. Thank you! |
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Statuesque excerpt ©2002 Lanette Curington. |