Outskirts Press, INC.

A Quirk of Fate, A Journey Begins

Talia, an eccentric artist, lives in the quaint town of Corrales, New Mexico with her partner, Renie. For the past twenty years on December 15, Talia has lit a candle to mark the day she had to leave California to start a new life, leaving behind her five year old daughter, Sophie. But, through a quirk of fate, Talia is catapulted into an unfolding saga that compels her to revisit her unconventional past, revealing truths that change the lives of everyone involved. This provocative, emotionally charged novel delves into the inner worlds of people grappling with painful paradoxes of life, and like the walking fish, they must find ways to adapt in order to survive. PRAISE FOR WALKING FISH! I savored the complex and surprising inter-relationships of these families, each unusual (but believable), as the characters, risking the dangers of change and the necessity of testing experiences move out of their native elements to find ultimately satisfying resolutions where doors are open into the new and unfamiliar. Phyllis Hoge Thompson, poet, and author of The Painted Clock: Memoirs Of A New Mexico Ghost Town Bride. - Joanne Bodin’s tale of a woman reinventing herself and taking charge of her life, is a balm for the soul. Sean Murphy, author of The Hope Valley Hubcap King and The Time of New Weather. www.murphyzen.com.

EXCERPT FROM CHAPTER ONE Wooden shutters banged against the thick adobe wall outside Talia’s bedroom window. Wrenched out of sleep, she opened one eye to a ray of muted sunlight that had made its way along the top of the teak dresser, then over a quartz crystal that sat beside a framed photograph of her daughter, Sophie, at age five. Talia rolled out of bed, picked up a book of matches, and lit one, then held the match over a lavender-scented candle sitting on the dresser in front of the crystal. The candle flickered for a few seconds, then steadied into a pear-shaped flame illuminating Sophie’s picture. Talia had done this exact ritual each December fifteenth for the last twenty years. It was her way of commemorating the day she left Los Angeles to start a new life. The last time she saw her daughter.