When Alexandra Brighton first takes the eyes of Ramey Sandeley she is newly married and believes she is in love with her husband. She has been taught to accept a superficial concept of what love means, and her husband,Matthew Brighton, has the perfect pedigree. He is highly attractive, successful, well educated, and offers all the worldly goods one could desire. Yet, when she looks into the eyes of Ramey, she feels a dormant part of herself come alive, and nothing matters except the wild brilliance of this feeling. Ramey is also wildly handsome, successful, and newlywed. But there is a vast difference between the two. At their first meeting something both terrible and wonderful happens.

 
For the first time in her life, Alexandra comes viciously alive and experiences an explosive desires to run away with this stranger and free herself of the material world.   She's seized by fantasies of riding with him on a winged Pegasus or flying carpet to a world devoid of society - where there are only the two, nature, and nothing else but candlelight, moonlight, bonfires, forbidden writings, crashing waves, thunder, chilling rain, strange bazaars, burning sands, exotic plains, skin on skin, dangerous animals, bareback rides, swinging through trees, danger, inside and out.

 
In a startling flash, she realizes she is daily judged and heavily reined in by the world around her and nearly owned by a husband who is more master than equal lover. It's now infinitely clear she doesn't even know her husband, let alone understand the nature of his soul. Yet Ramey speaks to her without words - and those unspoken words are powerful. Alexandra has found a true love for her lost soul, but the possibility of their union cannot be achieved until she has claimed the right to this kind of love. And, this will involve many years of great hardship, trials and sorrow.

 
True Love comes unexpected and unbidden, and when it strikes it  both destroys and creates. It will not be denied. For those who settle for less there is no journey. For those who are bestowed the gift and choose to follow, there is a heavy price to pay. It will be nearly thirteen years before Alexandra once again lays eyes on the man who destroyed what she believed an idyllic life, and awakened the brutality of  true love.  Her days on Black Lake will further peal away the layers of her encased soul to release the divinely idyllic within - the spot where True Love unites. 

Anastasia Blackwell

Alexandra encounters a number of female predators in her journey through Black Lake. In the beginning she is as drawn in by the predatory women as the males. However, as she evolves she learns to disengage and reclaim a more powerful womanhood, based on a higher purpose and the values of dignity, self respect and a desire to foster the best in all relationships.

Female predators in the wild can be as vicious as any male.  They come in many forms, from the vicious wild cats to the shy Black Widow who catches her prey in a messy looking web, and who may or may not kill and eat her mate after he has helped her reproduce.  The human female predator can be just as vicious and toxic.  These women are not usually particular about prey - they can be any sex, race or age, as long as they feed their needs.  However, it is the mate who must be particularly careful - for she is unquenchable.   The dominance of the female predator is often masked, camouflaged to fit in with the territory. Like all successful predators, this kind of female knows how to spot vulnerability, and neediness.  Then, when the guard is down, she goes for the jugular.

          But, first there is the stalk - she feeds your ego, laughs at your jokes,  understands your needs, sexual and otherwise.  What you don't know is she is a master at camouflage and subtrefuge.   She's an emotional roller coaster, exciting, intriguing. Or perhaps the girl is quite demure - it all depends on the nature of the hunt.  Regardless of  manifestation, she will become a mirror of what you are looking for, and understand and need you like no other. This is the early part of the stalk.  Once she's got you by the neck, you won't see her look at you with enticement.

A predator never looks into the eyes of the prey once the victim is taken.

 At journey's end Alexandra will have outwitted one of these predators and guided another to gain what she desires through self actualization.

ALL  GLORY COMES

          FROM

DARING TO BEGIN 

At the moment Alexandra Brighton takes the eyes of Ramey Sandeley in the desert, she sees all the mysteries of the universe and also a terrifying demon that mirrors something she fears in herself.

When I first began to fly on the trapeze, I was dealing with my own fears, while attempting to fully understanding and convey the fierce struggle Alexandra was undergoing. One day, after weeks of failed attempts; I forced myself to disengage my fear and trust another to catch me in mid air. I came home after my first catch and wrote this:

It stood high above me, this wild and beautiful creature - a species unknown to me before this moment. Its body was powerful and crouched in a manner unlike a human animal, and had the most magnificent pair of wings of had ever seen. My mind could not comprehend the attraction for this strange being - yet something in me did. I wanted to escape, to bolt to safety, because it terrified me in a way I wanted to be terrified - but dared not! I gazed into unfathomable eyes that brought to life a darker being lurking within me. In that moment, I realized my demon must be released, or it would devour me from the inside out.

The creature beckoned me to ascend to its perch. Fighting against a wall of near impenetrable fear, I began the climb, beyond mortal heights, to the place where only creatures with wings would dare to land. When I reached edge of the pedestal, he pulled me up and drew me against him. The energy radiating from his body was overwhelming. The intensity of my internal struggle forced me into a fugue state, with flashes of dreams, as though I were about to fall into a deep sleep.

"Take the leap," I heard it say from somewhere far away.  "Accept your fear. It will always be with you, but you must learn to make it your friend. I promise I will catch you. Give me your trust and you will be safe." The creature descended and I was left alone - standing on what seemed the earth's highest peak.

 Nearly drunk with trepidation, I let out a strangled cry and jumped with wild abandon into the abyss.  Flying into the void, like a bird taking its first flight from the nest,  I soared into the sky for a breaf moment and began to fall. As I began my descent, I felt the grasp of the most powerful hands imaginable.  It was the first time in my life I felt the grasp of hands that pulled me up. My heart exploded in that moment, as I looked up into the eyes of the Creature. We flew together, in union, in an eternity of seconds, until he told me I was safe to let go.