'Sarabande' follows the phases of the moon

With this post, I’m continuing a series of excerpts from each chapter of my contemporary fantasy Sarabande. Chapter two of the novel is called Light Quickening, referring to the crescent moon.

While the dark moon, or new moon, represents potential, like a seed in the dark of the earth, the crescent moon symbolizes a time to move forward with the ideas, projects and growth that waited in the absence of light. According to Nicoli Ann Bailey’s Personal Lunar Cycles, during the days of the crescent moon, “The symbolic seed establishes its root and stem structure. Like pioneers settling new lands, these individuals must forcibly clear the way so they can actively build new structures to contain their purpose.”

Excerpt from Chapter Two

The nearly level plains were yellow and infinite in the remains of the afternoon sun. Raven watched her from a bleached-out fence post outside her window. He hopped off the top of the post on both feet, then landed again. She looked closer to see if a dog or a cat prowled the tall grass. Quiet Earth, not even a breath of wind, only the technology-based hum of cars and trucks on the highway. A raven’s eyes are black, or almost black, alongside its thick beak, and though the bird was here, just here past the jagged tear in the window screen, she projected closer into that darkness and felt the rough caress of his fluffed-out throat feathers when he spoke. His voice gurgled like the outflow of water beneath the nose of the glacier in the vast womb below the Angel Wing. She heard a strident urgency in Raven’s call, and—within her heart—a warning.

You can read a longer sample from Sarabande on its page at Smashwords.You can buy the book in multiple e-book formats on Smashwords for only $4.99, and at the same price for both Kindle and Nook.

Publisher’s Description

After her sister, Dryad, haunts her from beyond the grave for three long and torturous years, Sarabande undertakes a dangerous journey into the past– to either raise her cruel sister from the dead, ending the torment…or to take her place in the safe darkness of the earth. Sarabande leaves the mountains of Montana for the cornfields of Illinois on a black horse to seek help from Robert Adams, the once powerful Sun Singer, in spite of Gem’s prophecy of shame. One man tries to kill her alongside a deserted prairie road…one tries to save her with ancient wisdom… and Robert tries to send her away. Even if she persuades Robert to bring the remnants of his magic to Dryad’s shallow grave, the desperate man who follows them desires the Rowan staff for ill intent… and the malicious sister who awaits their arrival desires much more than a mere return to life.

From Midwest Book Review

“Torment is not something one wants to live with for long. ‘Sarabande’ follows the story of the titular character as she copes with calls from beyond the grave from her dead sister Dryad, as she travels the American west and Midwest to find the truth behind her voices, to either return her sister to life, or to take her place in the beyond. An original work of contemporary fantasy with plenty of original ideas, ‘Sarabande’ is an excellent choice that is very much worth considering for any modern fantasy fan.” – Midwest Book Review in Small Press Bookwatch and The Fantasy/SciFi Shelf, November 2011

Contemporary fantasy for your Kindle.

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~ by knightofswords on March 3, 2012.