Artemis in the Desert

A drawing-room courtship on motorcycles in sage country… A second chance at love? Or a soggy motorcycle journey from Tumalo to Denio to Winnemucca to Zion, while the White-Bone Demon seeks to destroy hope? Eliot Arden is a Seattle artisan and handywoman. Her put-together life worked well until she met Destiny, a teenage orphan who needs stability and mentoring as an artist. Eliot needs cash, right now, to secure Destiny's future. A short-term job slams Eliot back a decade, riding her rebuilt BMW R100RS down the road not taken. Sean Frederick Wentworth, the manga artist, has the artistic career of his dreams. He's producing a new mini-series that tells his mythic story backwards: the journey through the U.S. West that was the creative genesis of his famous steampunk characters. The only catch: a demonic ex-partner who seeks to destroy Sean's new project. Ten years ago, Eliot and Sean enjoyed a brief affair of the heart. However, they couldn't conquer the contradictions: artist versus artisan, East Coast versus West Coast, fame versus solitude. On this new Journey to the West, though, dreams and desires might heat up like red slickrock in the sun. Or is that fire sparked by a 900cc bike sliding sideways down a backcountry highway? Artemis in the Desert is a workplace adventure story—where the workplace is a motorcycle journey across the American Great Basin. This story includes colorful language and sexual situations, plus humiliating scenes where motorcycles are dropped by the riders. Annie Pearson's Rain City Comedy of Manners series explores misadventures in contemporary Seattle among people whose work drives their hearts' desires, often in conflict with possible love affairs. When odd things happen to quirky people, can they survive the wretched comedy of romance under grey skies? Rain City Comedy of Manners Series: #1 The Grrrl of Limberlost (Sam and Matt: a cyberthriller on Puget Sound) #2 Artemis in the Desert (Eliot and Sean: a Jane Austen adventure on two wheels) #3 Nine Volt Heart (Jason and Susi: a musical ride through Seattle's backstreets) Each book can be read as a standalone story, with no cliffhangers. Later books do not reveal the stories of earlier books. Each is a He Said/She Said story, recommended for readers 18+.