By Kristy McCaffrey
A popular tourist destination is the Four Corners area in
the southwestern U.S. Here, one can occupy Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, and Colorado
at once.
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My husband and I at Four Corners on a chilly New
Year's Eve. |
Within this expanse are four prominent landmarks: Monument
Valley, Canyon de Chelly, the Painted Desert, and Shiprock.
Monument Valley is located on the Arizona-Utah border on the
Colorado Plateau, and the Navajo have preserved the area as a vast tribal park.
The iconic sandstone buttes and spires rising from the ground have become
famous worldwide, due in part to filmmaker John Ford who featured the area in
many western movies in the 1940's and 1950's.
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| Monument Valley |
Canyon de Chelly (pronounced 'de shay') National Monument is
located in northeastern Arizona within the boundaries of the Navajo Nation.
Rock art and other excavations reveal human habitation for at least 4,500 years,
encompassing not just the Navajo but the ancient Anasazi as well. In the 18th
century this became a major stronghold of the Navajo—the high canyon walls offered protection and the
streams helped grow corn crops and peach trees. Today, Navajo still live here.
 |
| Canyon de Chelly |
The Painted Desert, approximately 120 miles long and 60
miles wide, is composed of stratified layers of easily erodible siltstone,
mudstone, and shale. The layers of rock contain an abundance of iron and
manganese, which cause the varied colors of the region. This area also includes
the Petrified Forest National Park, a landscape frozen in time for more than
220 million years, revealing colorful petrified wood and animal fossils. How
does wood become petrified? Long-ago floods carried timber onto a plain, then,
over time, minerals in the water replaced the wood cells, filling the spaces with
quartz and jasper crystals.
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| The Painted Desert |
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| Petrified Forest National Park |
Located in northwestern New Mexico, Shiprock rises 1,583 feet on a desolate plain and is
visible in all directions for many miles. It has great religious and historical
significance to the Navajo people.
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| Shiprock |
~ Now Available in Print and Digital ~
Cowboys, Creatures, and Calico Vol. 2
Haunted tales of romance set in the Old West
Includes my short story
"The Crow and the Coyote"
In Arizona Territory, Hannah Dobbin travels through Cañon de Chelly, home to
the Navajo, in search of a sorcerer who murdered her pa. Bounty Hunter Jack
Boggs is on the trail of a vile Mexican bandito, but with the shadows of
Hallowtide descending, more dark magic is at hand than either of them know.
What better way to spend Halloween than with some handsome
cowboys and feisty heroines who are determined to fall in love despite their
supernatural powers—or lack thereof. Halloween's a good time to take a chance
on love—and to see what these Cowboys,
Creatures, and Calico Vol. 2 stories might reveal to the unsuspecting
reader—YOU!
Cheryl Pierson's Spellbound
will have you on the edge of your seat as safecracker Brett Diamond and witch
Angie Colton take on a border gang leader who is pure evil. Can Angie's
supernatural powers save them? No matter what, Brett and Angie are hopelessly spellbound.
C. Marie Bowen's Hunter
and Lily Graham is an unforgettable tale of a beautiful school marm's love
for her children that surpasses all. When a Cajun bounty hunter known only as
"Hunter" shows up, Lily knows he, and no one else, can help her save
a young girl.
Have Wand—Will Travel
is Jacquie Roger's offering about a handsome young mage, Tremaine Ramsey, who
has a wand and knows how to use it...sometimes. Will his magic be strong enough
to pull off a daring rescue of his father from the evil Gharth? Or will he need
the warrior Nora's love to help him see his Fate through?
Will Kaye Spencer's character, Mercy Pontiere, be able to
break a centuries-old curse and find true love all at the same time? It all
depends on Reid Corvane and what he'll do For
Love of a Brystile Witch.
In Kristy McCaffrey's story, The Crow and the Coyote, Hannah Dobbin is after an evil Navajo sorcerer
who murdered her father, and she's determined to see him dead. But she'll need
a bounty hunter—The Crow—to help find this vile man. With Hallowtide upon them,
more evil is afoot than they can handle; but love will find a way.
A failed bank robber, Tombstone Hawkins, along with a fake
gypsy fortune teller, Pansy Gilchrist, set out to make both their deceased
fathers proud in one final spectacular heist. Family Tradition is Kathleen Rice Adam's tale of the discovery of
true love amid the commission of a crime—or the failure to commit a crime—while
being overseen by the ghosts of the couple's fathers. How can there be a happy
ending? It's Halloween, and anything can happen!
Happy Halloween!!
