Anonymous

Hi and welcome to my webpage! I'm thrilled to be a part of the MWA website!

My debut novel, CAST THE FIRST STONE, will be released in March 2009 from Five Star. If you like to read about the Great Depression, murder and the ancient art of dowsing, I think you'll like my book.
Now I'll bet the word "dowsing" stopped you, didn't it?!
Dowsing is a technique that historically has been used to find water, minerals, or missing valuables. Dowsers have even been known to find missing people. Many people have the image of a dowser walking around in an open space, like a field or meadow, using a forked stick, called a divining rod or a dowsing stick while they look for water. Now days, geologists use sophisticated digital equipment to find water, oil, coal etc, but "back in the day", many people relied on dowsers to do that for them, especially when they'd purchased land without a well. My great-grandfather, so our family history says, claimed to be a dowser. I have to admit, his talent did not pass to me; I've tried to dowse, but only ended up wandering around with a stick dangling from my hands, feeling like an idiot!
But the main character of my book, Trini Bates, is a very talented dowser. She not only uses a divining rod to find water, but she also map dowses for a missing person. A crystal, her mother's dowsing stone, is tied to a string. Trini suspends the crystal above a map, and with it, finds the location of a body: her brother's bootlegging partner. Her brother is arrested for the murder, and it's up to Trini to save him.

I'm currently at work on a manuscript that is set current day in the Pacific Northwest.

I'll be updating my progress, and I hope you'll visit my page often!