Publisher's Synopsis
Like Canterbury Tales, The Antiguo Cuentista Trilogy-Birding 101 Paradise Pond, Dancing Flowers - Chasing Moon, and Cruising for a Bruising-provides adult vignettes of a group of travelers. Unlike Canterbury Tales, they don't tell stories to win a contest, they live their stories, and the prizes are happy, contented lives.Though their lives are constrained by laws, conventions, traditions and more, they're human, and humans don't have the best track records when it comes to facing temptation. They take inordinate risks while pursuing their dreams. Those who play by the "rules" find it's no assurance of success, because rules are subject to change.But why make things easy? The pilgrims in the Antiguo Cuentista Trilogy encounter obstacles to achieving their goals. Trolls and fiends lie in wait. Even the best wander and aren't true to their ideals as their lives intertwine with those of their fellow voyagers.The tales are also travelogues. Readers of Birding 101 Paradise Pond will discover feathered wonders that boggle the imagination, as they tour birding sites along the Great Texas Coastal Birding Trail. In Dancing Flowers - Chasing Moon, they'll mentally wriggle their toes into New Mexico's white gypsum sands and tour venues in the state's verdant mountains. With Cruising for a Bruising they'll enjoy shipboard games and exciting excursions in the ports of call.Magical realism plays a part. One can expect a ghost, a seer, and a witch or two. The good news is that those in the trilogy are mostly benevolent. So long as the characters stay on their good sides.Be forewarned. The plots and scenarios are for mature readers. A little religious, a little salty and quirky, suspenseful and thrilling, they are mostly fun and pleasant reads. And since Antiguo Cuentista wants his tales to be enjoyed by everyone, abridged versions that eliminate the colorful language and evocative and graphic scenes are, or will be, available.Tale 2 Dancing Flowers - Chasing MoonBack in Port Aransas with his RV friends a year after his birding misadventures, Jim Smith feels safe. Marsha is with him, so what could go wrong? Pretty much everything, when he takes mystical Maggie Saunders' advice and refuses to take Marsha to Alamogordo, New Mexico, to babysit a second cousin he's never met. And he doesn't just make Marsha mad, he makes her crying, silent mad.In nearby Corpus Christi, two young academy dancers answer an online add for an lucrative exotic dancing gig. One does it as a lark to win a bet with a friend. The other needs money to support her desperately poor family. The last thing they remember is walking back to the parking lot after their auditions.On her flight to Alamogordo, fellow passenger Manny Montoya helps soothe Marsha's hurt feelings. They discuss the eighteen-year-old dancers gone missing, and she mentions that the second cousin she's going to babysit, Moon Ellsworth, is also a dancer. The next day, she's stunned to discover that it's Moon's eighteenth birthday-and astonished when Montoya joins the party.Marsha's fury at Jim doesn't abate when she discovers that being vindictive has its rewards. Outrageously handsome Manny Montoya is rich, romantic, and loves to dance. Jim isn't and doesn't. What's to decide? The downside? Montoya isn't whom he portrays himself to be, and the dance he leads Marsha and Moon on proves deadly.When Jim travels to Alamogordo, Marsha rebuffs him, and he falls in with the wrong crowd-two of the skeletons from the previous year in Port Aransas. But the bad crowd might be the best to be in when he becomes the person of interest after a dog digs up Marsha's bloody clothes in the desert. And POI for the missing Texas dancers. The bad news is that miracles are difficult to achieve, and fate is often capricious.So, take care. The Tularosa Basin provides prickly settings for a thornier tale, when our pilgrims fail to heed the proverb and trek where angels fear to tread.
