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Destiny’s Consent spans 1913 to 1970, and is the story of a woman of Rom, Angelica Grastende, as she relates the grand adventure that has been her life. Angelica is a natural born seeker, who suffers a great misfortune at an early age, and becomes alienated from her roots. In a grand series of evens, she becomes lost, found, defeated, and finally exalted. Along the way, she finds a series of mentors, a few bona fide wizards, as well as a few scoundrels as she hurtles pell-mell through her life in search of a destiny.
The four books, which comprise Destiny’s Consent, are a mythical road map for those who become lost during the pursuit of their own lives.
Book I: The Gypsy’s Song
In Book I, a Gypsy girl lives an idyllic childhood within her Rom klan in 1913 Europe. With the onset of ‘The Great War’, this all changes, as the persecution of the Gypsies becomes increasingly more violent.
A great misfortune befalls the klan with a terrible reprisal, forcing Angelica and her family upon an odyssey, taking them across the Atlantic Ocean to 1920′s America landing jobs in a small traveling circus. Angelica’s father becomes the lion trainer; her mother works with the elephants; her Grandmother Lena is the carnival’s fortune teller and Angelica flies high on the trapeze until she falls, wrecking her shoulder.
The Gypsy’s Song is a historical novel, a rite of passage and a grand adventure all rolled into one book.
Read excerpt from The Gypsy’s Song
Reader’s Comments for The Gypsy’s Song
Book II: Lions and Gondolas
In Book II, Angelica, her lion-tamer mother and Gypsy sorceress grandmother are ‘on the lam’ with two stolen lions. A portentous Tarot card reading guides them to California where Angelica’s heart wholly embraces the magical alchemy that was 1920’s Venice. No longer defined by her Rom klan, Angelica begins the search for her destiny.
She is befriended by millionaire-wizard, Abbot Kinney, whose dreams have built Venice – a Renaissance City on the Pacific. Inspired, Angelica is catapulted into the exotic worlds of the 1920’s: Prohibition; the fight for women’s suffrage; the full-throttle recklessness of early aviation; as well as the mystique of newly-born Hollywood.