Artemis in the Desert

A second-chance at love, Jane Austen style, on motorcycles. Or is that fire sparked by a 900cc bike sliding sideways down a backcountry highway? Or is it merely a soggy 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. 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.