To celebrate the release of
Mary Pax's newest series,
The Rifters, she's having a grand giveaway. Post a short tale about your summer trip to Settler, Oregon any time between now and October 31st, 2014, email her the link, and be entered to win one of two $25 Amazon or B&N giftcards, a signed book, or the digital versions of the first two books in the series. Click
HERE for all the details.
There was nowhere better in the world
to dig for fossils than Settler, and thankfully most paleontologists
didn't know it. I've seen a few amateur diggers over the years, but
they certainly couldn't understand what priceless finds they might be
making.
I did. I made my career off them.
Every year in early autumn, I'd come to
Gold Lake and pitch my tent. Not once have I left empty-handed.
This year I had to attend an important
convention during my usual dig time, so now I was hammering away
under the mid-summer sun. Eagerly yet carefully. I found a set of
raptor - at least I was pretty sure they were raptor - footprints that would win me enough fame to oust the director
of my department. I chuckled at the thought of getting rid of the old coot.
Five prints already uncovered and the
next ones in the path were open to the air. I swiped my brows and
took a long drink of water before I moved to the sixth one.
Funny. The rock was a different color
here.
No, wait. That's mud.
The tracks are fresh.
The Gold Rush trickles to a fool’s
quest and a string of stagecoach heists. In 1888, Earl Blacke decides
to make a new start and become a better man. He escapes into the
mountains, heading north. In the wilds of Oregon, a rift inside an
ancient volcano opens and sends him into the future, into the present
day. It also shaves forty years off his age, forty years to live over
again and atone for what he’s done.
Starting over is hard to do. In
current day New York, Daelin Long’s dream job at a publishing house goes
the way of the dinosaurs her sister chases. With no money and nowhere
else to go, Daelin accepts the librarian position in her sister’s dinky
town in the middle of Oregon. Nestled inside ancient volcanic peaks, the
town of Settler holds onto many secrets. Residents roam the streets
with weirdly fashioned devices, and odd lights pulse in the night skies.
People whisper of a phantom outlaw and start dying, murdered and
missing their heads. On top of it all, Daelin’s sister is missing, and
Daelin doesn’t know who to trust.
Earl knows more than he’s saying.
He shares a notorious history with the phantom, one he’ll see remains
buried. Keeping Daelin’s sister’s secrets is his only chance at
redemption, and the only way to keep this world safe.
