Jake Ingles finds 2000 year old codices at a dig in Ireland. He senses a presence when he begins reading the life story of Etianne, a disciple of Christ's. The ancient woman communicates with him, and he wants to see her. He scans the area. She crushes his hand. Jake falls in love with Dr. Kaitlyn McKenzie who cares for his hand. Jake still communicates with Etianne and reads more about Etianne being stranded in Britannia. Etianne dresses as a man and destroys pagan altars. Felonius the Roman commander plans a human sacrifice to trap the 'man' leading the renegade Britons . Jake inherits a Training Center in the Colorado Mountains where Terra Forces will drop future colonists in space pods. The colonists will survive much as early pioneers did and adapt to a life with minimal resources in space. Etianne insist that God wants Jake to manage the Center. The space pods are dropped, and Admiral Lloyd's son is injured. The boy's mother demands withdrawal from the program. General Habib tells Jake the problem is his, "Take care of it." Jake arranges Halloween parties for the personnel at the Center. They follow an old Welch custom of writing their names on stones and throwing them into the bonfire. According to the old superstition, anyone whose stone can not be found the next day will die before the next Halloween. Jake promises to revoke the curse and and substitute working a double shift that day. Two stones are missing. One was Jake's. Kaitlyn is upset about it, but she returns to Ireland to perform a difficult surgery on a toddler with deformed legs. Jake plans to take the Lloyd family out of the space program. When he gets to Site Two, Zorah, the brilliant young woman commanding Site One has learned about Site Two and is there. Jake orders her to return to her Site then decides it is too dangerous for her to be snowshoeing alone. He follows and begins running toward her when he hears a cougar growling . . .
As an entrepreneur I was president of three privately held corporations. After I sold my business, I taught Creative Writing as a volunteer at a Senior Center in Nevada for two years. I also worked as a volunteer for five years at an Oregon elementary School tutoring individual K-5 students in reading and writing. One girl complained that I had not been able to help her because I was busy. When I said we would work next week, she complained, "Next week hasn't been invented yet!" My new motto: Write it now! Next week hasn't been invented yet. At the present time, I am teaching a creative writing class for seniors at the Community Center in Lakewood, WAshington, USA.
