What a fabulous cover...
and
a great story...
Shadow and Light Blurb
When night
falls over Meso and does not end, Chancellor Kaliana and Master Ganshi must
find the cause. As they search for the truth, they discover more than science
can explain. Within the night lives a boundless sexual energy, turning scholars
into seducers and musicians into man eaters. Beneath the earth a fire moves and
rumbles, bringing forth a creature that will envelop and consume all that call
it. In the endless night, all boundaries are broken. Can Kaliana and Ganshi
overcome the onslaught of lust long enough to restore the balance between
shadow and light?
10 Things to Know about Minister
Ganshi from K.R.R. Bridgstreet's Shadow
and Light
1. Ganshi is the Minister of Harmonies
at the illustrious Music and Mathematical Conservatory of Meso, which he earned
through sheer vocal talent.
2. His sexuality is entirely the product
of urban legend, as no one at the Conservatory has ever witnessed him dating or
with a partner.
3. Ganshi hates the design of flush
toilet systems. It's the only thing he gets angry about.
4. His uniform is a blue Master's robe,
with nothing underneath.
5. Ganshi's vocal talent is rivaled
closely by his MacGyver-like ability to put together disparate parts into
something that works.
6. When he was a young boy, Ganshi lived
by himself in the eastern forests until he wandered to the Conservatory. He
can't recall how he ended up in the forests or why he was there.
7. Music turns him on, but he keeps this
fact to himself.
8. Ganshi's eyes are also a mystery.
They are dark brown, but they have streaks of green and yellow, which is very
uncommon in both the eastern and western lands.
9. He practices meditation in order to
relinquish his desires and aversions.
10. Ganshi secretly takes on
administrative duties of his boss, Chancellor Kaliana, so she may focus on her
studies. He has never told her this.
Shadow and Light Excerpt
When
the sun shone, it flooded the valley with a beam that struck and splashed
between twin mountains. It danced outward, skittering through the mountain
valley toward opposite civilizations advancing. The peoples moved each to the
other, slowly, like seeds in the earth waiting for the right combination of
warmth and moisture to coax their substance from the soil.
To
the east, light meandered over green terraces that descended between rock-lined
funnels, joining the streams that irrigated miles of pasture, and wound a slow
and steady route to the geometric city of Meso. A solar system of paved streets
orbited a central blinding compound of glass, stone, and steel. The people of
this city reflected their own reverence for the aesthetic machinations of the
universe they tried to emulate. Their lines were sharp. Their angles pristine.
Their movements productive and efficient. Sunlight that did not succumb to the
walls of glass enclosing the structure melted over the bodies of these people.
The rest flowed over the sharp angles and refracted, fractioning crystalline
and settling over the far eastern forest, where it disappeared into the maze of
trees.
Light
spared none in the west. The earth cracked beneath its weight, crushing
moisture from rocks and opening the veins of plants, desiccating. It painted
self-portraits on jagged sunset bluffs, gazing into the mirror of dominion. The
light enveloped completely any river that once shaped the red and orange
cliffs, leaving a dusty trail for rodents and lizards dashing in and out of
shade. Men and women scratched hoes in the dirt, pulling free meager crops that
seemed as if they sprouted old and worn. The men and women lived, and the
children played and learned, among a vast cornucopia of poisons and potions.
They
were hard, shaped by the same wind that aged the banks of empty riverbeds. The
people's hard-bought respect approached religious devotion to the dry land.
Sobered by the relentless light, the people of the western border mercilessly
clung together, commanding of the earth just enough to survive.
This
is the light from which the young man traveled.
It
happened at Two Mountains Standing, under the moon of the summer solstice.
Presiding over the ceremony, the moon bathed the dancers in the pale white
reflection of the sun. The dancers disappeared and reappeared in flickers of
shadow and light, reflections of the red and yellow fire surrounding them and
within them. Their bodies surged, throwing black shadows across the sacred fire
circle and onto the two mountains framing them. The moon smiled down on the
shadows looming giant on the mountainsides, mimicking their owners' frenzied
movements.
The
shadows came together and parted, came together and parted, circled and leapt
over the fire, leaping from mountain to mountain. Sweat ran down the dancers'
arms and legs and they pounded it into the packed earth. A turbulent, wordless
harmony brought forth the incantations. Curved backs raised heaving breasts
higher, spines rippled, and hot, slippery tits bounced in the bodies' rhythmic
undulating.
In
the center of this frenetic circle a man lay, immobile. He was a stranger to
this place. A solid short mound of earth covered each of his arms; his legs
extended toward the sacred fire and also disappeared into the earth. When
dancers leapt the fire, they sometimes landed on his submerged arms and legs,
pounding them deeper into the ground. The man's eyes stared unblinking up at
the moon. No lines marred the man's face, which was dark and unmoving. A braid
ran down the back of his head, and the tail of it fanned out loose behind his
shoulders where he lay. His eyes were fixed on the moon.
There
was no telling how many dancers circled the fire. Sweat poured from their
bodies, turning the packed earth to mud. The mud splashed with each pounding
step, covering the dancers' legs and the silent man with specks of reddish
brown. Sweat turned the specks quickly to streaks, which ran down their bodies
like tears. Harmonies rose in pure ecstatic emotion, and hands began to smear
rivulets of mud over the arching and writhing bodies.
K.R.R. Bridgstreet Author Bio
Between
writing and slinging organic veggies at local farmers' markets, K.R.R.
Bridgstreet teaches English Literature and Composition to unsuspecting college
freshmen. Bridgstreet and her partner live in the woods in central New York
with their cats and chickens. Visit krrbridgstreet.com for news on latest releases
and upcoming books.
