Book Synopses for Works in Progress

Inspired by paleoanthropological evidence, cutting-edge DNA science, past-life research, Black Sea mysteries, and Ukrainian mythology, Spinning Stardust combines a speculative pre-historic woman’s journey with a modern-day woman’s awakening experiences.

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 Book 1: Spinning Stardust

Synopsis

Anastasia Sophia is a college student and aspiring teacher whose outer life appears normal, while her inner landscape is an enigma. When she bakes cookies, visions of feeding children poison flash in her mind. As she studies for finals, she feels as if she is being sliced open. Songs play on endless loops in her head. Attempting to unravel the mystery of her delusions and sensations, Anastasia begins journaling.

February 22, 1999

I want a place where I can write everything. Anything. Uncensored and unedited. 100% me. “Super-Secret Diary” sounds more appropriate for a tween than an over-responsible, sensibly employed college student.  But, since it is super-secret, I shall indulge my whimsy. I shall embrace my inner Harriet. Only I shall spy on myself, turning the magnifying lens inward, discovering me. 

~ * ~

Makosha is nine, and Perun twelve, when their village is destroyed and their families and friends vanish. Though they have prepared for this moment all their lives, once alone, their knowledge of symbology, stars, and languages is useless. Within a few years, their mission is forgotten. They remain bound together by misery and habit. One night, Makosha decides to free them of one other by leaving.

She is found by Iljan, who brings her to his community, where Makosha learns to love and to live. When Iljan is killed a few years later, Makosha’s foster mother tells her that she is not meant to stay with her new family and Makosha is alone in the wilderness again.

~ * ~

Spinning Stardust weaves the stories of two women. Makosha grows, roams, and connects to the Earth. Anastasia Sophia mines fields of perception and consciousness to discover where, and whom, she has been. Makosha’s story is told in the form of journal entires. Anastasia Sophia tells her story from the present, reflecting on her long-ago life.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ * ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Book 2: Coming Out of Hiding

Makosha

From afar, the Learning Center in the Sun glows golden. It resembles twisting coils, stacking and folding upon themselves, like a big beautiful brain. The hum of its vibration penetrates each cell as one approaches. It smells of heat and manuscripts. It tastes of metal and meadows. It feels alive.

My parents delivered me to the entrance portal of the Center on my thirty-third birthday, the traditional age of admission. I was chosen after an eleven year contest of intellectual prowess which was, it turns out, as much about persistence, determination, and application, as talent or ability. I watched friend and foe drop out of the race through the years, choosing pleasure outings over nights of study, recreation over recitation of lines, relationships over sovereignty. I cannot say why I persevered so intensely, nor how it was that I made it to the finish line (which was also a starting gate), surpassing so many others. I was smart, but not the smartest. Strong, but not the strongest. I was neither physically nor mentally nimble.

Over the years, I discovered that it is my nature to finish what I begin, to plow through to the end, even when doing so is illogical, and to claim responsibility, whether or not it is mine to claim. These traits later indicated my aptitude for pulling the thread to Earth, for twisting, twining, and weaving it into the fabric of humanity, tens of thousands of years after others would have withdrawn and abdicated. But that’s getting ahead in the story.

Anastasia Sophia

“I am Anastasia Sophia. My name means Resurrection of Wisdom. It implies personification of deep and ancient knowing. It foretells the rise of me.”

So Anastasia introduces herself to the world on the About page of her blog, through which she plans to reflect upon her conscious, subconscious, and superconscious experiences, write about her nighttime dreams and the visions that pop into her head throughout the day, and her study of linguistics.

Anastasia’s blog, Rational Empiricism, is intertwined with the story of Talitha Ray, who lived on Earth so long ago that archaeologists have not found evidence of her people. Talitha tells us of her studies in the Learning Center in the Sun, of forgetting and of letting go, and of her journey to Earth.

In Book 2, Makosha’s story travels to an earlier time. We learn the origins of the Sun Tribe and how they came to be on Earth. Anastasia Sophia’s story moves forward. She takes her musings from journal to blog, as she discovers more of herself, and shares her discoveries with the world.