As of February 25, 2012, my first eBook has been published on Amazon Kindle Publishing. If you have a Kindle (or Kindle Fire) be sure to check it out:Amy Jennings, a nineteen-year-old physical science major enrolled at the local university, is having a bad day. First she breaks up with her boyfriend. Then gets into an argument with a classmate. Then stresses out over mixing school work with her part-time waitress job. Just as she believes she's getting a handle on life once more, the night brings an unspeakable horror. She meets with an unknown assailant in the dimly-lit parking lot after finishing the late shift. The next thing she knows, she's out cold. And when she wakes up, she discovers giant human fingers bearing down on her naked body. After a frightening period of orientation, she soon learns that a madman in her neighborhood possesses the means of shrinking humans down to doll size, and has used that means to kidnap Amy and make her into a helpless, hand-held pet for his amusement.
Dr. Marj Edison suspects antiques dealer John Palatino to have stolen her miniaturization device, but cannot prove anything, and fears going to the police. So Marj enlists the aid of Amy's sister Lisa to do some snooping around Palatino's place of business, as well as hire four sharp college undergrads to break into Palatino's house. One way or another, all vital clues pointing to Palatino's new sick and twisted hobby involving young coeds, would be uncovered.
But the best of plans do not always succeed.
While Palatino's collection of shrunken females continues to grow and local police become more suspicious regarding the disappearing persons, Lisa gets closer and closer to the dangerous truth. Meanwhile, the shrunken Amy begins to lose her sanity as she undergoes a bizarre form of obedience training. Unless someone on the outside can rescue her and the others, they will forever remain five and half inches tall, and nothing more than mere playthings known as Palatino's Pets.
Palatino's Pets. Only $1.99. Comments and criticism welcome.
2 comments:
Hello,
I read that you studied with D.Johnston Hays and was wondering if you would tell me something about him or her. I own a beautiful watercolor of a rabbi that I bought in the 1970s in Laguna Beach, CA by D.Johnston Hays and am curious about its origins. Thanks!
Debbie Lux
Debralux@sbcglobal.net
Hi, Debra.
D. Johnston Hays is (or was) also known as Doris Gordon, at the time that I knew her.
I was one of Doris's students during the period 1983-88, studying pastels. During that time, she lived in Crestline, California, but was teaching some evening classes in Riverside. Here is what a printed bio of her reads, which I believe she herself wrote in 1984:
D. Johnston Hays, B.A., a nationally known watercolorist, is also a highly praised pastel and watercolor portrait artist in Southern California. Born in Clarksville, Texas, she began her art career as a portrait artist at Six Flags Over Texas in 1965. In 1972 she moved to Southern California and continued to do portraits on Catalina Island. She began to sell her watercolor paintings through galleries from Los Angeles to San Diego, plus many have been sold through galleries nationwide.
Starting at a very early age, Doris taught herself how to paint in watercolor, oils and pastel. She attended such schools as Dallas Art Center, North Texas State University, Orange Coast College, and finished her B.A. in 1983 at California State College in San Bernardino. Through her studies she developed her technical skills in the areas of sculpture, ceramics, printmaking and teaching.
Ms. Hays moved to the mountains in 1979 and the beautiful environment that means so much to her has inspired many of her paintings and sculptures. Her art has a naturalistic style as she paints her impressions of the world, The human form, flowers, butterflies, faces, animals, rocks, and trees are some of the images that she combines in her paintings. She points up the beauty in life with a message that is unmistakable. The sensitivity in her work allows one to feel love of the past and present, and dream of the future.
Anyway, during about 1989 Doris moved back to her home state of Texas. After that point in time I lost track of her. As recently as 2005 I started looking for her on the internet, but had no luck. I'm guessing that by now, she has passed away. The biggest problem in trying to find information about her life (or death) is that she used more than one name. Nonprofessionally she was known as Doris Gordon, but that probably changed after her divorce. She may have gone back to her maiden name, but I never learned what that was and, hence I have no idea which name to search. Her professional name of D. Johnston Hays is an amalgamation of a former husband's name plus a randomly chosen name.
Doris seemed to always be on the cutting edge of any new technology. When do-it-yourself video became more and more affordable, she put together a how-to video for working in pastels, available on VHS (although not mass-marketed). This suggests to me that the next logical step for her would be to establish a website on the internet. But I have never been able to find anything at all about her anywhere on the internet, other than scattered instances of people who have bought or sold pieces of her artwork. Again, I'm assuming she passed away (or became very infirm or incapacitated). If there is any logical starting point to do a search for more information, it would no doubt be in Clarksville, Texas.
I hope this helps!
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