Reading about the author's experiences in the woods of the Pacific Northwest gives us a glimpse into things unseen. The woods evoke mystery, and the creatures she encountered there give us a deeper glimpse into the true nature of reality.
My husband Jerry and I stayed busy seven days a week running our commercial construction company. After we moved out to the country, we enjoyed the peace and quiet during our off-work hours. More than a decade later, extraordinary things began happening. “There was one big question I asked myself over and over, but I knew an answer was not forthcoming. I was all alone—or was I … ?”
The mystery gives us a look into the world of fashion and how our clothes are produced, and also the evolving world of cryptocurrency. Is crypto a grift? The question isn't answered in the story, but it does give us insights.
When gallerist Celeste meets an old friend at an art show, the artist explains that someone has jacked one of her fashion designs, and soon Celeste’s bestie, Truman, is on the case, diving headlong into LA’s fashion industry to investigate. Truman and Celeste soon get entangled with a hinky company run by a trio of enigmatic lowlifes who produce a very unusual fashion line. Are they full-on grifters, or just not that competent? Truman goes undercover with an industry supplier, and Celeste agrees to work for the trashy fashion folks, digging deeper into their secrets and getting way too close…
The writing has a sharp, almost punk sensibility that gradually gives us insight into the characters. It's an engaging dive into dealing with trauma without being lurid or maudlin. Even though the characters' experiences are far from my own life experience, they are relatable in the very real ways they navigate the world, and confront familiar human dilemmas.
It’s June 2020, and on top of the Covid shutdowns and racial justice revolution, Billie Knight’s dad just died. She soon realizes he wasn’t the one who hurt her when she was a kid—but then who the hell was? Billie, a fifty-year-old muralist and art teacher, sets out to solve the mystery of her trauma—from the off-grid queer community she built on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula, through Seattle’s autonomous zones and underground theaters, to her wild childhood home of Humboldt County—with her long-lost bestie, Randall, as her partner. Between stakeouts, suspect-snatchings, witness interviews, and flashbacks, Billie and Randall must also confront…
On a weekend break in the Mojave, psychic investigator Mason stumbles across the story of a bygone journalist, Geraldine, who expired in the desert on her way to one of the early flying saucer meet-ups. Unable to shake the pointlessness of the tragic tale, Mason trades a favor with his psychic-world mentor, Hanh, who sends him to the East Coast to attend a wedding where he doesn’t know anyone. Wracked with guilt about his role in disrupting the event, Mason grapples with the cost of intervening in Geraldine’s life, and gains new resolve to change the outcome. With help from his mid-century friends Billy and Flattop, and with the unflagging support of his boyfriend, Ned, and their roommate, Peggy, Mason shifts to Geraldine’s era, and on a long road trip to Landers, manages to rearrange things enough to shake the foundations of his own timeline.
