SUNSET

Long shadows sprawled over the surface. I savored my favorite part of the day, the last hour before sunset, from the wooden steps that led to the water. The puckish deities that had pestered the land since morning, the breeze and the heat, had gone to torment other places and realms. Puffs of harmless gnats swirled in the quiet air, and the kids played badminton on the packed dirt road.

The finest afternoon of the season.

The darkest hours of my life. 

SOUL OF THE UNBORN   ON AMAZON

American college students. Russian countryside. A guide addicted to supernatural energy. Their professor wants to help her, but maybe he is saving a monster.

GARDEN

The stars had faded, and the night had lost its charm. Hushed gloom still wrapped the apple trees, but soon the skylark would announce the birth of a new day. I was so fatigued I felt lightheaded. I closed my eyes and inhaled the silence.

SOUL OF THE UNBORN      ON AMAZON

SOUL OF THE UNBORN: Can you call yourself human is supernatural forces control your every breath, every emotion, every desire?

MOLE CRICKETS

Mole crickets lived underground in my garden. I didn’t encounter them often, but I knew they were there, the unsightly nocturnal creatures. Just like some of my secrets, burrowed deeply in my soul. 

SOUL OF THE UNBORN      ON AMAZON

SOUL OF THE UNBORN: Can you call yourself human if supernatural forces control your every breath, every emotion, every desire?

BANYA

I pressed my back against the fence of the last house. The packed dirt road that circled the village glowed as if made of chalk. A ravine slashed through the field in front of me and flattened out as it reached the river. The moon, bright as a projector, illuminated the placid water surface and somebody’s log sauna, banya.

No dogs. No dead body.

SOUL OF THE UNBORN       ON AMAZON

American college students. Russian countryside. A guide addicted to supernatural energy. Their professor wants to help her, but maybe he is saving a monster.