A full moon,
A silver key,
And the passion of two young lovers
will bring hope to a defeated kingdom
and, through their sorrow, deliver a king
who will change its fate.
Vivid visions have haunted Andrea since her arrival in northern Spain. In her visions, the ruins of the medieval village she’s excavating comes alive, and, around the fires burning in the no longer buried hearths, she sees people dressed in furs sharpening old fashioned swords.
Even more upsetting for her that the headaches her visions leave is the fact that Julián appears in them—Julián, the king from her world whose rejection she is trying hard to forget.
But when a slide bury Andrea under the mountain, Julian comes searching for her. Soon after they are reunited under the mountains, the full moon opens a portal and sends them back a thousand years into the past, to a time right after the Spaniards have been defeated by the Arabian invaders.
Separated by a bitter winter, Andrea and Julian are caught in opposite sides in the battle between the Spanish last unconquered settlements and the Arabian army. A battle for survival that will determine the fate of a kingdom and demand of them the ultimate sacrifice: As the Arabs close on the mountains, Julián makes a decision that will break Andrea’s heart and change them forever.
I was born in Galicia (Northern Spain) and went to college in Madrid, where I finished my Ph.D. in Biology. For the next ten years, I worked as a researcher both in Madrid and at the University of Davis in California.
My writing career started when I came to live in Pennsylvania in the 1990s. Following my first sale, a magazine article on latex allergy, I published four books for Chelsea House (Facts on File): Heroin, Ritalin, Mad Cow Disease, and Lung Cancer.
My Young Adult novel Two Moon Princess, (the story of a discontented medieval princess, eager to live life on her own terms, who lands in modern day California) was published in 2007 by Tanglewood Press. It was recognized with the bronze award by the ForeWord Magazine in the Juvenile fiction category. It’s also available now as an e-book.
Two Moon Princess won first price in the 2015 Latino Book into Movie Awards, family and children category.
Immortal Love, a paranormal romance, (Crimson Romance, 2012) follows my adventures in search of a literary agent in a contemporary alternate world where the late Spanish poets Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer and Federico García Lorca are immortals.
Immortal Love is available in Spanish as Bécquer eterno.
The King in the Stone, a sequel to Two Moon Princess, will be published shortly.
For information about my writing/editing/translating services, please go toWriteEditPublish and espressolattetranslations
*What would you be doing right
now if you were not an author?
Apart from writing fiction, I am also an editor and a translator. So,
even if I wasn’t an author, I would still be doing my favorite thing: playing
with words.
*5 years ago: what were you
doing?
I was promoting my YA fantasy Two
Moon Princess and editing its sequel that would eventually become the
current version of The King in the Stone.
*Do you have a certain writing
ritual?
*What has been the toughest
criticism given to you as an author?
Many of my fellow writers at my first critique group used to tell me I
couldn’t write in English because my first language was Spanish. I thought
their criticism was totally undeserved. When I won second place in a short
story contest we ran anonymously, I felt validated.
*Is there an author you'd like
to meet?
Jane Austen. I love her wit. I think she would be a great person to have
as a friend.
*Biggest writing pet peeve?
It’s incorrect to say: “Tying his shoes, he ran downstairs.” As you can
imagine, no one can tie his shoes and run downstairs at the same time.
* Do you read other's reviews
of your books?
Yes. Absolutely. Even the negative ones, especially those. I may learn
something from people’s critiques that will help me improve my writing.
Fav Color: Blue
Fictional Character you'd like
to spend the day with: Tyrion from Game of Thrones.
Fav food: Chocolate
Fav song and/or singer: Take this Waltz by Leonard
Cohen.
Guilty pleasure: Ice cream
A flash of lightning shatters the
sky and, almost immediately, the deafening explosion of close thunder shakes
the ground. Andrea looks up. Dark clouds, heavy with rain, have turned the day
almost to night, shadowing the valley below and hiding the peaks beyond.
She
takes a deep breath, and looks around. She is standing by the tomb of the king,
but she has no recollection of leaving the camp or climbing the mountain. The
last thing she remembers is Kelsey's voice, so eerily clear through the phone even
though she was six thousand miles away, telling her about Julián.
Andrea
moans at the memory and, bent in two by the sudden pain the memory has brought,
leans forward. Images of the man she has tried so hard to forget flash through
her mind. Julián bleeding in her arms, an arrow through his chest. Julián by
the broken arch telling her how much he loves her. Julián rejecting her,
stealing the ring from her finger . . . From the slab that covers the tomb, the
lying figure of the king carved in the stone stares at her with unseeing eyes.
Another
lightning flash streaks the sky and the earth trembles under her feet as
thunder rolls once more over the mountains. Heavy drops fall on her face, washing
away her tears.
Andrea
forces her mind to reason. She has no claim over Julián. He broke their
engagement and made it clear he didn’t want to be with her. That was the reason
she left California these three weeks past. Whether he’s with Kelsey now or
with somebody else should make no difference.
But
it does. She can’t lie to herself. She’s hurting too much to pretend anymore.
The truth is that moving to Spain has changed nothing. She has not forgotten Julián.
His memory has haunted her dreams every night, stolen itself into every one of
her waking thoughts.
Her
hands clenched into fists, Andrea hits the stone, swearing at Kelsey for her
betrayal. How could she? Kelsey is her cousin, her confidant. Kelsey knows how
much she cares for Julián. How much she wants him back.
Not anymore. Knowing he doesn’t
love her is one thing. Learning he is with Kelsey quite another. Now, at last,
she will forget him.
She
turns her back to the tomb, and starts toward the trail. But the rain has turned
the soil to mud. Loosing her footing, she falls down.
Spitting
water and dirt, Andrea scrambles to her feet. By the light of the next
lightning flash, she sees the gap on the mountain, an open mouth calling to
her, and dives through the sheets of water pouring from the angry sky toward
the wall. The rope she remembers from the previous evening is still hanging
down into the cave. She grabs it in her slippery hands and climbs down.
She
has barely reached the ground—welcome, dry ground, firm under her feet—when
the mountain shakes again. Andrea stumbles and, falling on her knees, raises
her arms over her head, a weak protection against the gravel falling around her
like solid rain.
When
the noise finally stops and Andrea opens her eyes, the cave is in total
darkness. Has she gone blind? she wonders as she fights back her fears. I'm not blind, she reassures herself. That’s absurd. But if she isn’t, why is
it so dark?
She
looks up, squinting her eyes. But it’s useless: no ray of light steals through
the wall of rocks. The opening is gone. Of
course, the thought breaks into her mind. The earthquake has provoked a slide and closed the entrance. A wave
of panic washes over her as she realizes she’s on her own. No one will ever
come looking for her. Why should they? She told no one where she was going when
she left. She’s buried alive and this cave up in the mountains of this world
that is not hers will be her grave.
Andrea
screams, a name, a broken word, a feral cry for help that, as she fears, dies
unheard against the cavern’s walls.
No comments:
Post a Comment