Maranther's Deception

All I wanted was to show Leigha my favorite dunes deep in the Sonora Desert in northern Mexico. I was excited for my wife to see the beauty I’d seen so many times when I went there alone. As luck would have it, thirty miles from civilization a gale force wind came up and buried our car in the sand. After a horrible night in the car, we hiked across the dunes and up a long canyon to get to the nearest phone.Was it all a dream? Half way up the hill, on the second day of walking, the winds came up again and by luck, I stumbled upon six abandoned adobes. We took shelter and I don’t know how, but sometime during the night Leigha disappeared. The next morning, while looking for my wife, I met an old woman sitting in front of a fire. Without moving her lips, the old woman spoke in a booming voice. “I am the medicine woman Maranther. You and your wife have been separated for now. When you have proven yourself, the two of you will be reunited.”“Proven myself,” I screamed. “I’m not some high school student.” Before I could shake the truth out of her, she faded and vanished.I spent three days alone in the settlement where I struggled to stay alive. I was stuck waiting to pass some trumped up test of that damn woman. When I met the native’s who built the settlement, I realized that Maranther had cast me adrift in some kind of time loop. While sleeping, I leapt years, first into the past, eventually turning around toward the present, then to the future and back again. It was insane, but after a month of being jerked around by that old woman, I figured out her method, found my wife and we got the hell out of the desert. That night both Leigha and I spent the night inside of a mammoth structure in, of all places, Yuma Arizona. At least we were out of Mexico and out of that woman’s influence, we thought.

From the Publisher

Singing Reed Press is excited to announce with the publication of Maranther's Deception, we are printing our titles on 100% Post Consumer Recycled Chlorine-Free Paper.

From the Inside Flap

During a vacation in the Sonora desert, Martin and Leigha Vandorfor are mysteriously separated. Caught between fear, exhaustion, and the scheming medicine woman, the couple struggles to find each other and escape the desert before it's too late. LOST IN THE DESERT: only their past can save them before the future runs out. Nik C. Colyer spent much of his life traipsing through the desert back country of southeastern California. His love for the land and respect for its dangers inspired this novel.

About the Author

Nik C. Colyer Nik Colyer was born in San Francisco in 1948 and raised in the East Bay. During his late teens and early twenties, he owned Cycletherapy, a custom Harley shop where he built choppers for local biker personalities. When he left the world of motorcycle repair behind, he’d saved enough money for a year at a Community College, where he immersed himself in the world of art; drawing, painting, sculpture and ceramics. In 1974, at the age of twenty-four, he relocated for a year to a commune deep in the forest of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, a move that shifted his view of the world forever. Having struggled with the written word his entire life, Nik, ironically, found himself living in the only space available at the community: the library. During his first winter, with no electricity and 3 feet of snow, he consumed volumes of tattered paperback novels. Until the snow melted, Nik shared imaginations with Steinbeck, Ken Kesey, Frank Herbert, Jack London and more. It was this experience, discovering the world of reading, slowly devouring each author’s work, which would later awaken Colyer’s own storytelling curiosity. Henrioulle Publishing Group launched Nik Colyer’s debut novel, Channeling Biker Bob Heart of a Warrior (2001) and the sequel, the second in his planned four part series, Channeling Biker Bob 2 Lover’s Embrace (2003). In 2004, Singing Reed Press published Colyer’s first book of poetry, Kicking Ass and Taking Names and in April 2005, his third novel, Maranther’s Deception. Singing Reed Press has an anticipated release date of spring 2006 for the third in the Biker Bob series; Channeling Biker Bob Magician’s Spell. The author has lectured on a variety of topics from taming the inner critic, opening the space to be creative, to developing and honoring the unique communication pathways between men and women. Nik and his wife Barbara, live in the forest north of Nevada City, California. They share their property with an assortment of raccoons and pesky squirrels, the occasional bobcat and periodic visitations by the neighborhood bear. . .

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