The Caverns of Sedona
"The Caverns of Sedona" is a labour of love, combining two of my passions – cave exploring and the red rocks of Sedona – into one novel. When I started it two years ago, I began with a simple premise: If an entrance to the fabled Caverns of Sedona was discovered, what then?
I had a beginning but no ending. As the chapters unfolded, I got to know and love the characters: Peter Mason, a retired cave whisperer; Henry Garrity, a professor of Geology at Northern Arizona University (NAU) obsessed with finding the fabled Caverns of Sedona: Jan Evehema, a geology student at NAU, computer genius, and a member of the Hopi Nation: and Gabriel Kavalier, a geology student at NAU and drone pilot. I walked with them as they explored the caves and suffered with them when disaster struck. I had no idea how the story was going to end. I had to let the characters figure things out as they went along. So exciting!
Here is an excerpt from the beginning of the book, which is told from the perspective of Peter Mason, who has the uncanny ability to sense and seek out caves. Over his illustrious career as a cave whisperer, he made many astounding discoveries of cave systems the experts insisted did not exist or came up with additional chambers and passageways to systems the experts claimed were fully mapped and explored.
"Despite all these underground achievements, by the time I turned 65, it seemed all the world's major cave systems had been discovered and fully explored, and the world had moved on. My three lovely children had moved out to make their own lives. My beloved wife Anna passed away. My books stopped selling. My phone stopped ringing. My inbox received only junk mail. I sat in an empty house, wondering if my life was over.
"Then, I received a phone call from Henry Garrity, a Geology professor at Northern Arizona University (NAU). He had injected argon gas with a distinctive radioactive signature into a blowhole north of Flagstaff and detected traces of the same gas four months later in a newly discovered blowhole near Sedona – 40 miles away! This was the first solid proof of the legendary Caverns of Sedona. Would I care to join him in further research? I jumped at the chance.
"It was night when I arrived in Sedona. As I drifted off to sleep, I thought I could hear a faint voice calling to me, 'Come to us.' I assumed it was the world-famous red rocks of Arizona. But I was wrong. It was the Caverns of Sedona."
I invite you to join me in the adventure of a lifetime.
If you are a reader, you can order the book from Amazon. If you are a bookstore, please contact me directly. The book retails for $19.95. The first five copies are free; additional copies will be shipped to you for $10 each (minimum order 10, payment in advance, free shipping).
James Gregory
james_gregory@primus.ca
