"What ails you Lodestone?" Sheer'An asked, "you look like you have lost a battle with the demons of hell." "I have," Lodestone said morosely. "Mother wishes us to spend several weeks with her at Battleplay Hall. She wants to make sure that you and the rest of my 'fasting family are properly introduced to our Clan." "Your mother wants to meet all of us?" Sheer'An exclaimed, "this could be a very big problem indeed." Thus begins one of the most challenging adventures that Sheer'An and her family have ever undertaken. Lodestone, Sheer'An's mate, Highborn, Mage, Scholar and reluctant leader of the Battleplay Clan has always been at his arrogant mother's beck and call. "Your Lady Mother has no respect for you," May'lin said. "If she did you would not be subjected to this ordeal. You have told me you wish to be independent. You never will be until you are able to confront her in a manner that she understands. In order to win freedom from your mother's domination you will have to beat her at her own game." Lodestone vows to do that. In the month that follows, with his birth sister's help and his 'fasting family support he will tear the structure of his Clan apart and rebuild it in an image that all of them can accept and encounter adventures and surprises that will change all of their lives. Meet the Family is marks a turning point in the lives of everyone in Sheer'An's family. As is and has always been true of this unusual family, strange twists of fate will lead them to the heights of triumph and the realization of who they really are and show them a little of just how much they are going to affect the future of Cel'mystry. Other books in the Cel'mystry series include A Bard's Eye View, A Great Red Bow, The Only Road and Demons of the Islands.
About the Author: Monica Ponder's avocation is Nursing. Having made the difficult transition from bedside care to administration, she has provided a number of clinically related articles and educational pieces for use by her place of employment. Monica's vocation (and method of retaining her sanity) is creative writing. Her genre of choice is fantasy but she has dabbled with poetry, song lyric writing and other types of fiction all of which have (mercifully) remained unpublished. Monica is a voracious reader, a sometime participant in Medieval Reenactment, a passionate fan of Filk (a form of folk music which primarily uses science fiction or fantasy subjects and parody as its major themes) Music and an ardent pursuer of anything offbeat and nonconformist. She lives in Montgomery, Illinois with her two dogs and an eclectic assortment of better than ordinary neighbors. S.P. Nash is a person who values anonymity highly; so highly in fact that many people, including some of his co-workers wonder sometimes if he truly exists as a person or if he is in reality a pooka in human form. Like many authors Mr. Nash resisted the urge to write anything other than the most essential life-related notes for many years. He started giving in to the temptation to write creatively when he reluctantly consented to act as the "detail man" for the first of the Cel'mystry Chronicles. It took several years for the transformation to be complete, but the urge to be creative finally eroded his sensibility to the extent that he has agreed to "come forward" and let the magnitude of his contributions to these books be revealed. Mr. Nash is a voracious reader, a passionate fan of Filk Music, a sometime Medieval Reenactor, a martial artist, metal smith and jewelry maker by past history, a full time collector of eclectic ideas and unusual concepts, and a highly intelligent man with an engineer's mindset and an attention to detail that borders on being obsessive. Mr. Nash lives in a section of Aurora, Illinois where his presence will attract the least amount of attention.