Moon in Bastet by E.S. Danon - Book Blitz + Giveaway
MOON IN BASTET
by E.S. Danon
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GENRE: Magical Realism, Jewish Fiction
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BLURB:
A memoir turned into thrilling fiction; Moon in Bastet is based on the life of author E. S. Danon. The story follows a fourteen-year-old girl named Eva, an orphan living in the Negev desert of Israel who is working as a custodian of Cirque Du Christianisme. Her life is controlled by a volatile drunk named Bella who favors a group of equally volatile teenage bullies over her and her own safety or sanity.Bullied, neglected, and alone – Eva’s only friends are an odd, thirteen–year–old Sephardic boy named Jack and a small cohort of Bedouin sister-wives. On the brink of giving up on life, Eva stumbles upon a mysterious cat in the middle of the desert. Or really, did the cat stumble upon her?Together they must fight to stay alive, win the battles thrown at them, and Eva must learn to not only lean on others but to trust in herself.Filled with mystery, magic, and symbolism – Moon in Bastet is a story of resilience, survivorship, forgiveness, and women empowerment. This is a work filled with Jewish mysticism that can be enjoyed by people of all races, ages, and religions everywhere.
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EXCERPT
Mist twinkles atop the desert sand as a cohort of camels take their morning
promenade. A girl runs past them, chasing the rising globe of fire.
Her breath labors as she slips on a rock.
“Ugh!”
A perfect little scrape forms on her knee, but she continues onward and unfazed.
Her skin is olive tinted; her head covered by a canopy of endless brown, curly
hair. On her face sit two prominent beauty marks, on either side of her mouth.
She is slender and not yet fully grown, but by no means does she have a frail
frame. She wears a beige, spaghetti strapped dress that is knee length and
complete with a secret pocket - all of which is covered in dirt. A headband
woven from plants and flowers sits around the girl’s head.
This girl is named Eva.
She sprints up another dune’s side, her dress ballooning around her as she sits
suddenly with crossed legs. The mirage of the sun’s gaseous performance begins
to play on the horizon; another Israeli sun rise in the Negev. Like toy
soldiers, the sun’s rays advance in a medley of oranges and yellows. Pink is
usually reserved for sunrises - however on this day, a rosy aura is cast around
the girl as she grabs a rock and casts it towards the sun: This is how a desert
girl skips rocks. Next, she takes aim at the arse of the nearest camel.
The rock misses by centimeters, causing a fuss amongst the cohort, but Eva’s
almond shaped, brown eyes glisten.
“G-d! Adonai! Where are you? I see you in the colors of the sky!” Her voice
echoes as her eyes drift upon the sunrise. “Why are you ignoring me like
everyone else does? I feel you in the warmth of light but where are you? Why
haven’t you rescued me yet?” She shivers and brings her bare feet in closer to
herself. “Can you at least give me a jacket? You’re not very gentleman-like, you
know… it’s really chilly this morning.”
Eva puckers her lips in defeat, and then meditates in the following silence,
focusing on the warmth ricocheting from the sand and onto her goosebumps.
“Well at least my cramps are gone,” she says once her anxiety diminishes –
massaging her lower stomach, happy that her most recent predicament has gone
away. “But yet I still must deal with the cramp of life: being unheard and
misunderstood.”
Reminded of the reason why she came to pray in the first place, Eva turns to the
sky and gives a cloud a dirty look. “G-d, you have approximately twenty-four
hours or I will throw rocks at every camel that I see! I can’t survive in that
stupid Circus another day.” She throws a finger towards the unsuspecting cloud
in the sky and pauses, thinking of a way to coax G-d into saving her.
“You know what - if you like your camels so much, then you better get me out of
this place!” Shaking her head, she mumbles, “I’ll just throw rocks at each of
their heads. Not like they would care. They’re already dumb… dumb camels.” She
looks at a moon shaped scar on the top of her hand, given to her by one of the
water-hoarding creatures several years ago.
“Dumb camels,” she repeats.
Silence again is all that responds to Eva once she finishes speaking to herself.
She slumps over, shrugs, and decides to head back to her home that sits
half-a-mile away from the dunes.
Her feet slip on the sand, causing her to lift her left hand to her face. She
huffs as she thinks of her favorite book; reading it gives her solace in her own
solitude. Eva sighs, feeling stuck in an ocean made of sand and trapped with her
own imaginary desert marlin. She’s already picked out several camels to act as
the sharks.
Ironically, one of the camels spits at her as she passes – as if asking,
“Where’s your rock – dumb human?”
“Rude,” she mutters in response.
Eva finds her way to a camp studded with only several architectural structures
that is surrounded by seven-foot-high wall made of sand. There is only one exit
and one entrance, a sky-high rectangular structure made of wood that suffices as
a gate. As she skips under it, a sign that reads Cirque du Christianism sways
after her.
Officially home, she is welcomed by an array of Circus tents.
Her lazy footsteps saunter past the main tent to her right, soon halting as she
approaches a much smaller blue tent. Looking back towards a white tipi, she can
feel her body tensing as she holds her breath before leaping forward in front of
the blue tent.
I hope he doesn’t attract attention to me.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
AUTHOR Bio and Links:
Elizabeth Danon received her B.S. in Marine Science from Stony Brook University
before working as a Marine Biologist for the National Marine Fisheries Service.
She traveled the U.S. Eastern Seaboard and Gulf of Mexico: collecting data
aboard commercial fishing vessels and dredges.
When that didn’t pan out to be the glorified job that she expected, finding
herself covered in shark snot and fish scales daily, Elizabeth became a
technical writer. In her spare time, she began doing standup comedy after taking
comedy bootcamp with the Armed Services Arts Partnership. At this time, she
married the most wonderful man who also provides most of her joke writing
material. Unfortunately, because he’s Indian he has also enabled her Maggi
addiction… Like she needed that on top of her already long-standing iced coffee
issues.
Her favorite show is Schitt’s Creek, as she feels a special bond to her fellow
comedians - and Sephardic brethren. Growing up half-Jewish herself, Elizabeth
eventually converted to being full-Jewish with Temple Israel as a student of
Rabbi Panitz.
Her enriched, but complicated, heritage has been an inspiration for most of her
creative writing. Being an Aries, she has always felt like a leader and has
therefore integrated her feminist beliefs into her work, albeit dropping every
women’s studies course that she ever elected in college.
Additionally, her writing has an unmistakable international presence. Elizabeth
wanted to discover as much as she could about her Sephardic Heritage and went on
Birthright, followed by her independent travels to over ten other countries…
carrying nothing but a red bookbag.
Website: https://linktr.ee/esdanon
Goodreads:
https://www.goodreads.com/esdanon
Twitter:
https://twitter.com/esdanon_
Buy Links:
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GIVEAWAY INFORMATION
THE AUTHOR WILL BE GIVING AWAY:
a $10 Amazon GC
6 Comments
Thanks for hosting!
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome!
DeleteThank you so much for helping us celebrate the debut novel, Moon In Bastet by E.S. Danon! We’re excited for the official release party tonight and you’re more than welcome to join us online at 7pm (EST) on the authors Facebook and/or Instagram socials. We appreciate you!
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DeleteThank you for the share! I’m still pinching myself that the release is finally here.
ReplyDeleteYou're very welcome! :) Congrats on the new release!
DeletePlease try not to spam posts with the same comments over and over again. Authors like seeing thoughtful comments about their books, not the same old, "I like the cover" or "sounds good" comments. While that is nice, putting some real thought and effort in is appreciated. Thank you.