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by Ann Levingston Joiner (Author)
"This land, this valley, these hills, is this not a special place?" "It is home." "More than home, Maria." Daniel spoke with an intensity she had not heard from him before. "It is a sacred place. Do you not feel it?" "I feel it," she whispered. In 1852, a feisty young Spanish woman named Maria Isabela Antonia de Pineda y Soldana rode onto the Texas Hill Country land owned by Daniel He-Who-Rides-Two-Horses Thorne-Redstone and into his herd of wild mustangs. Neither of their lives would ever be quite the same afterwards. The Comanche had taught Daniel how to gentle a wild horse. Would those lessons carry over into gentling a spirited, independent, and intelligent young woman? Redstone's Valley, the first in a trilogy of novels set in the Texas Hill Country, and revolving around its legendary Enchanted Rock, tells the stories of Daniel and Maria as well as those of Daniel's close friend and business partner, Jake Holder, as they cope with the trials of living in an isolated area of Union supporters in the middle of the state of Texas from the 1850's through the Civil War - and beyond. In the heart of the Texas Hill Country lies a gigantic pink granite batholith, stretching above the surrounding landscape, and visible for miles: the legendary Enchanted Rock. To the Comanche, it was their Medicine Hill, their sacred Singing Rock. To the Spanish Conquistadores, it was La Roca Encantada. Today it is believed to be one of Earth's power points - a healing energetic vortex that many believe may contain portals leading into other worlds and times...
Author Biography
Ann Levingston Joiner is a native of Orange, Texas, where she lived through her mid-thirties. At that time, she was a stay-at-home mom who spent her free time volunteering and writing poetry in a spiral-bound journal. After returning to college during the late nine-teen seventies, she moved her children to Houston and began her career as a high-school English teacher. Teaching in experimental programs, she wrote curriculum, authored textbook supplements and conducted workshops to help students develop their writing skills. Before she retired in 2002, she developed the English and Language Arts portion of her school's computer-based credit recovery program. During the years of her teaching career, she pursued an interest in comparative mythology, particularly focusing on the works of Joseph Campbell and the Hero's Journey. After retiring, she moved to San Antonio, Texas, to be closer to her children, and to pursue a new career as a writer. Her published works include two poems, "Lady Audrey" and "The Rest Home," and a non-fiction work, A Myth in Action: The Heroic Life of Audie Murphy. Now a grandmother, her current interests include genealogical research and writing fictionalized stories about the lives of her ancestors. She is also working on a series of fantasy western novels, set in the Texas Hill Country and involving its legendary Enchanted Rock.
