Melia in Foreverland / Book Vine Press (ePub)

Tragedy is part of the human condition and there are no facts, only opinions, for why there is so much misery in the world. These realities are addressed by a teenage girl when her beloved cousin renounces God following the shocking death of a family dog. One night, while searching for answers in her father's library, she dreams a dream that is not all dream. Thus begins the magical journey of Melia and her little dog, Schnapsie, from their home in Orion, Kansas to a succession of welcoming stars on the back of the fabled white-winged horse, Pegasus. With Dante as her guide, Melia sees for herself the ways of God as taught to her by notable immortals - in particular, Virgil, Aristotle, Galileo, and Darwin, among others - after which she is introduced to immortal family members, beginning with her earliest literate ancestors and ending with bygone pets. What she learns are divine truths, not the earthly views of wise men, and she writes everything down in a notebook given to her by Sir Issac Newton. When she awakens the next morning, the notebook is on her bedroom bureau along with other unearthly keepsakes from her overnight trip. More confident now, she steps back into her world and sets off to reassure her cousin and anyone who is willing to listen that everything is going to be all right.