Set in contemporary Central Coastal California, this raw sequel to BLOOD RED SYRAH follows a curious commune of mind-bending wanderers into the caverns of their psyches. Plagued by the bloodlust of an invisible psychic demon who calls herself Syrah, a loco south-of-the-border drug cartel, Big Tobacco executioners, and a white neo-nutsy militia loner, these seekers face evil and bliss in ancient sand dunes where an aging hermit grows the most potent pot plants on the planet to make his unique cannabis-infused weed wine.
Despite mounting chaos the tribe finds solace in the spirit of the Dunites, an underground society of bohemian visionaries that once found refuge in the mystical Oceano dunes. Guided by Maya moon goddess Ixchel, whose sacred energy lives in Isla Mujeres, the Island of Women off the Yucatán Peninsula coast, Latina death saint La Santa Muerte, and Sinaloan narco savior Jesús Malverde, these unlikely voyagers join forces to realize their sacred dream of harmony and truth in a world gone mad.
Buy Signed CopyOutlaw journalist turned outlaw novelist, I'm an outcast who's always willing to fight the establishment. In 1991, while working as a columnist at the Times Leader in Wilkes-Barre, PA, police charged me with a felony for doing journalism in hard coal country. Prosecutors dropped the charge and the Scripps Howard Foundation awarded me a national journalism award for "outstanding service in the cause of a free press."
Resigning in 2002 after 17 years at the newspaper, I moved with my partner, Stephanie, to the California Central Coast. While working for a small daily, I covered the Michael Jackson trial, the Hells Angels and the Mexican immigration struggle in which I sided with the Mexicans. New owners at the paper fired me in 2006. When we returned to Northeastern Pennsylvania, I hosted a daily local news talk radio show for a decade before corporate bosses fired me for my unrelenting search for truth.
Our home in the Historic Hill Section of Scranton, PA, is a century-old house loaded with love, stained-glass windows and the original quartersawn oak staircase and pine floors. We hide out there and keep a peaceful Japanese Zen garden in the back.