The music spilled from the heart of the baby grand and poured its sorrow on Ella until she didn’t think she could bare the terrible loneliness of its mournful sound another moment.  Her eyes welled with tears. Her own deep, unrelenting sadness came to the surface and ate at her heart.  The piano stood in dignified repose like a stalwart soldier waiting for orders, but all the while knowing there will be no further orders, no further requests for its talents.  Ella felt the love of her life had done the same to her and she, like the piano, must press on with whatever dignity she had left.  How long would the piano suffer like this?  How long would she?  

            When Nickoli completed the song and the notes died under the falling snow, he returned to Ella and took her in his arms as if guessing how sad the piano made her feel.  He whispered close to her ear.  “She still has hope.  She still sings.”  

The Dark Isle

Jade cannot help falling in love with the whimsical Nimway prince whose magic lies in his voice. Prince Gabriel is being held prisoner by Jade’s mother, Mahara, the malevolent queen of the Dark Isle. But time is running out. Jade risks her own life to seek help from her enemy, Prince Raphael. Prince Raphael and the king of Valmora gather a small band of brave warriors consisting of humans with special gifts to take the Dark Isle and free Prince Gabriel. Among the humans is Raven who once ruled Valmora and narrowly escaped the enchantment cast over him by Mahara, the witch queen. And he has a secret. A boy with a violin, his brother, a troubled man who shift shapes into a Hawk and their sister who never wanted to be there go against the deadly evil of the Dark Isle. Can they save the prince or will the light in their world go out for all time?

Status: In rewrites

Lake of Sorrows

Hawk is a troubled man with a secret. Emma is a burned out doctor weighed down by emotional baggage. Can they forget the past long enough to save Hawk's brother from dying under the curse of the Lake of Sorrows? Or will the secrets hidden the Lake of Sorrows swallow them all under its evil curse? Is it too late for redemption? Is there a chance for hope and love?

Is time running out for the boy under a curse, the brother who's determined to find a cure and the woman who wants to save them both?

Status: In rewrites

_{^{The Light of Valmora (present WIP)}}

_^BLURB:

To free his father from the witch-queen of the Dark Isle, Falcon must find the legendary Light of Valmora that lies hidden in the darkest place on earth—right under the witch’s feet.  To complicate things further, he is falling in love with Izabelle, the Gypsy woman who loves his brother, Peregrine.

Once rejected by Peregrine, Izabelle wants revenge.  But when she tries to use Falcon to initiate her plan, everything gets out of control along with her heart.

Could death be the price Falcon must pay to save his father, protect Izabelle and keep the Light of Valmora forever shining?

Excerpt:

With waning strength, Falcon tested the chains that secured him to the marble.  Despair threatened to overtake him when he realized there was no chance he could free himself.  At least he had the advantage of the daylight hours before his tormentor returned to invent a plan.  It cheered him to a degree to see the magenta veins of the sun pulse into the grey light of morning.  If he must die, he preferred to die with sunlight on his face, not in the darkness of Mahara’s tower as she used and tortured him ruthlessly.

He realized many others must have occupied this tower room before him and there was no telling how many had suffered and died here.  Would he be among the numbers of those who would never see home again?  Falcon fed on a thread of hope, gulping it down with a prayer that maybe-- just maybe, he might yet be saved though he knew his prospects were dim.

  As dawn turned darkness to dim light, the soft sound of water hitting stone in slow regulated beats drew his attention.  He licked his cracked, blood-caked lips.  Water, he needed water.  He mustered enough strength to turn his head toward the noise.  Pain burned a path from a deep gash in his shoulder and ran up to his right cheek with the movement from that small change in position.  He ground his teeth and released a groan, like that of an animal caught in a snare.

It took a moment to focus his eyes as another spasm of pain coursed through him.  He realized with unbridled horror, the sound he heard was his own blood dripping from the gapping wound in his right chest where Mahara had pierced his flesh with an onyx sword.  As he managed to fight against the slicing edge of pain and turn to his side, he was able to gaze over the edge of the marble slab to watch as his blood ran over the edge of the altar and dropped with a dull splash in the crimson pool that grew minute by minute on the stone floor below.

Falcon shuddered at the sight.  He realized with sinking certainty that his wound was mortal.  His life was approaching its final hour.  Death was riding toward him on its ebony steed, its dark cloak billowing in the wind created by the speed of its ride.

“Don’t be in such a hurry,” he rasped as if he could speak to the phantom.  Hysteria bubbled up from the depths of his chest and he laughed at his own predicament, a hollow sound that echoed harshly against the ancient stones. 

It was not death that occupied his thoughts now--it was regret.  I wish I had told her.  As his life force bled onto the floor, he gathered all the power he possessed to say the one word where all his being gathered.  It was not a word but a name.  Before darkness claimed him, he wanted with all his might to speak that beloved name.  “Isabelle.”  The name rode on a raw gasp of breath and ricocheted off the stone and pain to soothe him as he sank into the void.