From that first glimpse of Cille DeSanto, she and Red Rocks would be forever linked in my mind. Both harbored old mysteries, the kind that would naturally entice a woman alone who has withdrawn from the world.
Red Rocks was once designated one of the seven natural wonders of the world, with its massive sandstone formations and rock walls jutting high up into the Colorado sky at odd, dramatic angles. At the time I gave it little thought. It was simply a good place to get a tough workout.
​
​
​
To fully experience Red Rocks, I learned, you have to go there when no one else is around—very early in the morning or at night. If you will stand alone a while in absolute stillness among the giant stone structures, they will give you a sense of the primeval and of being outside of time. You can start to feel and smell and taste history through the ages. And after a while, all that is artificial or extraneous in you will be stripped away.
​
Welcome...
My upcoming novel, Starlight in the Garden of Stone, tells the tale of the unusual friendship of two women writers. Adrienne has been struggling for more than a year to move beyond her husband's shocking death and the disturbing unanswered questions he left behind. When a mysterious woman named Cille DeSanto befriends her and offers her refuge from all that torments her, Adrienne's life changes forever. And not at all in the way she'd hoped.
​
The novel deals with one of my favorite themes—the dark secrets people keep from those closest to them. How they fester and haunt and finally boil over, often with devastating consequences.
​
As you can see from the excerpts of the book, I like to write stories in which the setting is central to the plot and the characters. In Starlight, the towering presence of Red Rocks hovers over all the action. Click here for more about Starlight in the Garden of Stone.
​
I called out—no answer.
The white, single-story house stood in solitude, so still, like a painting. It looked as though it had been baked in the sun since the beginning of time, just like Red Rocks, which towered over the view to the north.
​
A slight scraping sound came from behind the house. The pain in my ankle had tightened its grip. I limped around the corner, where a low rock wall led to a flagstone patio. There, at the other end, a slender woman with beautiful thick hair pulled into a loose braid was tilling a narrow strip of earth in a rock garden. She faced away from me and didn’t sense my presence.
​
Instead of calling out to her, I just stood there, with the fresh scent of herbs and rich soil enveloping me. I couldn’t draw my eyes away from the woman. In that moment I experienced an intoxicating sense of timelessness, and of isolation from the rest of the world.
​
Their friendship has trapped her between two worlds, where it's impossible to distinguish between reality and illusion, truth and deception.