The Dark Lady's Stone

The gods are not what we think.

In this well-researched medieval fantasy, when the High Priest to the god of Fire and Light commands destruction of the Dark Lady of Death’s Standing Stone, the young troubadour, Sir Loriano of Vayne, does not anticipate that his proposed epic of the battle between Light and Dark will place him on a sword’s edge between rival gods. Only a shaman storyteller knows the lost road to the Stone, and Loriano is the only one he trusts. Loriano must risk death by fire to keep the priests from igniting a catastrophe for both gods and men.

With a BA in Creative Writing from Goddard College, Christie Maurer lives in the Monterey Bay area with her husband and two cats. She belongs to Broad Universe for women Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror writers and is the newsletter editor for Monterey Bay Chapter of Romance Writers of America. Her novel first chapter "Masquerade" won first prize in the 2004 Win-Win Conference Persie contest. She has published alternative fairytales in mytholog.com and a ghost story in the fall 2012 White Cat Magazine. "The Whitewood Kitarra," which introduces Sir Loriano of Vayne and the Karaskan court, appeared in the Spring 2013 issue of American Athenaeum's Sword and Saga Press and is now available as a stand-alone.
Christie loves history and has read extensively about 12th-14th Century Europe, especially the Albigensian Crusades, which destroyed the Cathar movement in Provence. Besides being a fan of '60s music (Dylan, the Beatles) she enjoys early music. Reading J.R.R. Tolkhein's Lord of the Rings was a turning point in her life. Currently Terry Pratchett, Agatha Christie, Laurie King, J. K. Rowling, and Patricia McKillip are among her favorite authors.
She has created a fantasy world with a 2,000 year history, including wars, religious and cultural movements, gods and goddesses, disasters--natural and man-made--where diverse characters play out their loves and hates, conflicts and triumphs. She plans for several more stories, some with Sir Loriano and some set in an ancient world where men and women Chosen by the goddess contend for ascendency.

Paperback price is currently $14.95.
The Dark Lady's Stone is also available in e-book format on Kindle, Smashwords, Nook, Kobo, Sony, and iBooks for $2.99.