About eight months ago, a group of authors tossed around the idea of tackling a series of novellas with the same setting: a centuries-old inn on the cliffs of northern California, one handed down by the same family for generations. Fast forward to September, and our stand-alone stories began their roll off the virtual press.
Now it’s my turn, and I couldn’t be more thrilled.
The Seas of Time Blurb
In 1858, a ship carrying ice from Alaska wrecked off the coast of California, and little does Taliah Keldan realize how that tragedy will impact her life in 1972.
When Tali decides to quit college and become a civil rights activist, her disappointed parents encourage her to think it over. What better spot for contemplation than at her aunt and uncle’s Harbor Pointe Inn, a charming seaside getaway with its own lighthouse? The place is under renovation and empty of guests. All she’ll have to deal with is the construction crew.
But the inn is far from peaceful.
Tali discovers an old Bible hidden in the lighthouse keeper’s cottage. Strange prayers angle down the margins, all but one ruined by the sea. When she deciphers the crude writing, a dark portal gapes open to a pre-civil war night when an escaped slave in a foundering ship prayed to his voodoo God. A winged creature emerges from the watery void, and her stay transforms into a nightmare.
With the aid of the construction foreman, Tali is determined to send the beast back through time, a choice that will risk their lives, test her convictions, and change her future.
An Early Review
Thank you to Staci Troilo for the beautiful early review:
I love a good time-travel story. I also love a good monster tale. I prefer character-driven fiction, particularly fiction with a strong message, and I am eternally appreciative of lovely prose. Just one of these items is enough to entice me to read a title. How many does this novella have? Let’s see…
Tali, the protagonist, lives in a world where laws protect her on paper but not in reality. The color of her skin has always made her aware of social injustices, and now she’s leaving college to wage the discrimination war on the battlefront. This is a choice her parents disagree with, so to compromise, she takes a month to consider her options. She spends that time property-sitting for her aunt and uncle, owners of the Harbor Pointe Inn and surrounding property.
Harbor Pointe has a bigoted officer. The inn is being renovated by a surly contractor who’s not much better. Imagine Tali’s surprise when she realizes she may need one or both of them to help her. Why? Because she’s managed to summon a monster to the cottage.
If you’d told me someone could craft a time-travel story that takes place in two eras, mixes voodoo and science fiction, provides a social commentary advocating tolerance and equality, and does it all seamlessly through beautifully crafted descriptions, I’d have been skeptical. If you’d told me not only would all that happen, but I’d fall for the monster? I’d have laughed at you.
Yet it’s all true.
The Seas of Time is a powerful blend of magical spells, mythical creatures, and important issues as relevant today as they were when the story was set. Wrap it all up in a time-travel tapestry, and don’t forget the word-smithing brilliance of the author, and how could you have anything but a winner? Highly recommended.
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Thank you for stopping by to help me celebrate.
And if you decide to pick up this quick read, I hope you enjoy the adventure!
The Harbor Pointe Series
Myths of the Mirror 