Six Sisters, three stories, one theme: Know Thyself. A Gathering of One: Twins, Patrice and Danielle began battling in the womb. When hard-headed, 3-year old Danielle drinks Drano while Patrice watches in horror, unable to stop her, the battle becomes a war. Patrice triage's the situation, making Danielle vomit to rid herself of the poison, but the damage is done and the blame squarely laid on Patrice's shoulders, assuring the sisters remain on a lifelong collision course. Anger, jealousy, and indignation may have sparked their dysfunction, but duty and familial obligation keeps them tethered long after the bonds of childhood have morphed into the shackles of adult responsibilities. May the best sister win. List of 55: Following her mother's death, Belinda manages to survive childhood despite her sister-turned-caretaker, Simone's long list of no's: no money, no car, no electricity, no food, and ultimately, no Simone. Belinda's abysmal treatment at the hands of the reckless and psychologically abusive Simone left layers of scar tissue so deep she needs an excavator to remove them. Poised to make a life-altering change on her 25th birthday, Belinda accidentally runs into her future ex-husband, Ted, who, because of his own complicated past draws to her like a shyster to a Ponzi scheme. Canny judgment and diamond-like determination may have gotten Belinda to adulthood, but can she survive the onslaught of attention from Ted who is both charming and abusive in equal amounts or will she succumb to the pattern begun in childhood? The Quality of Light: Do the dead dream? Yes. They dream of living. Ellie finds this out too late and now her husband and daughter, her two best loves, are left to fight like the bitterest enemies. From her perch in the ethers and sometimes through the actual live body of her sister, Celia, Ellie watches their lives unfold, but Doc can't see past his rage and the cruel fate that left him with Harley who even under the best of circumstances barely tolerated him. Before Ellie's death, husband and daughter vied for her attention, dismantling each other with verbal fisticuffs. After her death, anyone could see that Doc was going to ditch and run, leaving Harley with Celia and Doc a free man, but fate, or perhaps Ellie intervenes through Twila Fuller, rancher, political activist, and self-taught expert on all things related to hydraulic fracturing. Everything about Twila is big: her ranch, her ideas, the level of contamination in her groundwater, even the cancer in her body. As Twila's influence draws Doc into Ellie's former world, he must make some tough moral decisions and perhaps even finish the work Ellie started. Will Doc's newfound passion lead him back to Harley, to Celia, or to Ellie, the dead woman he loves more than life? The answer lies somewhere in the light. Six Sisters reverberates with healing truths, reawakening us to our resilience, our reliance on each other, and the ancient wisdom rooted within our hearts.
About the Author: Pam Lazos' passions run deep and wide, however for brevity's sake, let's just say, mainly: her family, writing, and the environment. She is a former correspondent for her local newspaper (Lancaster Intelligencer Journal); a literary magazine contributor (Rapportage); on the Board of Advisors for the wH2O Journal, the Journal of Gender and Water (U of Penn); a once and sometimes editor and ghostwriter; author of a children's book (Into the Land of the Loud); and of the novel (Oil In Water), about oil spills and green technology, posted by chapter on her lifestyle and literary blog (Persephone's Stepsisters) co-authored with friend, Cynthia Gregory; and, because it's cool, a beekeeper's apprentice. By day, she toils as an environmental lawyer, chasing eco-scofflaws; in her spare nano-seconds, and with the blessing of her family, she writes. Her heart embraces these ephemeral joys and more, especially laughter.