A Book: Three Abrasions of LeAnn's Fate

A tale of romance, and let downs of LeAnn Steon, a beautiful, petite woman with auburn, thigh length hair, and green eyes.
LeAnn has a passion for ballet, Equestrian activities, and goes through three different relationships, that leave her with a son, and a dangerous situation. Not knowing which relationship got her in the situation, LeAnn hides, but everything catches up, taking her deeper into a sinister plot. Questions arise about her parents, who she thinks is Susan, and Lester Steon, but a photograph opens up the past connected to arms dealers, and a scientist named Dr. Vaughn Sternson.
When agent Daniel Guertson, and Randy Burke come on the scene, she's taken on a roller coaster ride between lies, and hope.

LeAnn turned the key, and noticed it turned too easily. Usually it took a little bit of force to turn the lock. She paused, listened, but heard nothing so she continued, opening the door wide.

Freezing in her steps, the first thing she noted was that her dog Hermit did not greet her as usual. This told her that something was very wrong. Undecided if she should look around or leave, she stood silent for a long moment waiting to see if she heard the dog in another part of the house, or if someone was there.

Holding her breath, her heart skipped a beat, time seemed to slow as she listened intently.

The Lieutenant motioned to his leader that the golden retriever had been trapped in the room with them behind a box. His leader quietly pushed the box to one side so the dog could run out into the hallway. He then quickly ran to meet his master, wagging his tail as he went through his usual greeting dance around her.

"AH! You are here. Where were you fella? You've never done this before." She breathed in relief speaking aloud to her pet. Still unnerved by his change of character, she glanced around the room profiling every object for displacement.

She saw a desk drawer that had been left open. Retracting from her pet, LeAnn slowly backed toward the door, her eyes frantically searching every corner of the room. The door shut behind her, trapping her inside. Turning in a panic she saw a tall masked man in black pushing against the door with a gloved hand.

Lurching forward, she tried to run for the kitchen in hopes of reaching the sliding glass door leading to the back yard. The man at the front door bellowed to his fellow invaders for help.

Terror raged through LeAnn raping her mind of logic. She couldn't think. Reaction was all she relied on in this terrible moment. This was a nightmare manifesting in reality. Disbelief confused her thoughts. Only one thought remained. She had to get out.

Managing to slip from the grip of the man at the entrance, she made her way into the kitchen. Dashing past the pantry toward the sliding door, she failed to see the black silhouette of yet another man dart out from the niche next to the dining room.

This book is now available in soft cover, or on Amazon Kindle, or there is a link from my website at www.sincityartist.com.

This book has been in the works for over a year, with the final portions added on in the last four months. I am now working on another novel, Wilting Corn, a story about some scientists who are commissioned by a private firm to weather the cold Arctic to do preset lab tests. Here is a short prelude to the book.

Wilting Corn by Marilyn Fritz, copyright © 2016

I remembered this was one of the things I loved about the Arctic, at the same time hating the bitter cold. After pausing a moment to marvel at the icy wonder, my senses piked with acknowledgement of precious time wasted. Waving, I prompted our team to move on. We made our way to the ice shelf, not even sure what we were searching for. Personally, I felt like it was another planet far removed from anything I ever encountered before. If I had my way, I would be back in California, on a sandy beach in the warm sun.

But here I am, here we are, on the edge of a giant ice shelf, chancing that we are subject to calamity, but these are just my thoughts on the edge of the universe. Then it comes. The ice beneath vibrates, the rocking motion almost knocking us off our feet.

The ice cliff sheared off straight down, crashing into the freezing water below, echoing a deafening sound through the crisp air. "Wait! Stop! Get back!" Harsh winds whipped and howled, swirling around me. I shouted. "NO! More of the ice is going to sheer off, get back!" My voice seemed to blow right back into my dense fur parka, and face mask that was also embedded under two thermal hoods. I tried to get everyone's attention by waving my cold stiff arms, then pointed my bulky double layer gloves toward the edge of the ice range. In a party of ten, six of the people were dangerously close to the fracturing ice shelf. I tried to communicate the pending calamity, difficult since my voice was already hoarse from yelling over the wind, now forcing it over the noise of the icefall. Sheer-offs are multiple, a domino effect occurring in a matter of seconds of one another, I had to get their attention quick.