News 

Stonewiser: The Call of the Stone has been named a national Gold Medalist in the 2010 IPPY Award for SFF. The IPPY began in 1996 and has grown to be the largest international/regional book competition available for books that are independently published. bit.ly/8X2PVb

Stonewiser: The Call of the Stone has been named a finalist in the 2009 ForeWord Magazine Book of the Year Award in the SFF category. Dora's first book, Stonewiser: The Heart of the Stone, was a finalist for the 2008 award and won the Benjamin Franklin Award for Best Debut Novel.

Mermaid Press Publishes Dora Machado’s Sequel

Stonewiser: The Call of the Stone

In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act.—George Orwell

In her second installment of The Stonewiser Series, Dora Machado combines a fast-paced fantasy adventure with an examination of the human condition.  Following her widely acclaimed first novel, Stonewiser: The Heart of the Stone, Machado picks up with her young and reluctant heroine, Sariah, running for her very life.  After being banished from The Guild for revealing the truth in the stones, or the lies in history, she goes on a quest to determine the truth and complete the mission the stones have given her.  It is easy to disappear into the world Machado has created—fantastical and yet familiar. 

As a young woman and a recently freed slave, Sariah is a reluctant heroine. She carries the emotional and physical scars from the abuse of her masters, suffers the rejection of her fellow wisers, and questions her faith and her purpose not only as a servant to the stones, but also as a woman, a lover, and a future mother.  Her past is far from perfect and her future is uncertain.  With a price on her head, she is attacked by eels, hunted by The Shield, imprisoned by The Guild, and persecuted by her own people.  Due to her undying hunger for the truth, Sariah is an perpetual outsider.  One cannot help but root for Sariah, identify with her, and fall in love with her unfailing determination.  She is an unlikely heroine, the due north in a land with no moral compass. 

Forsaken by her own, Sariah overcomes obstacles to overlook prejudices, forge surprising friendships, and endure both personal and physical hardship.  Her journey takes her to the far corners of civilization, to places once forgotten and people misunderstood for centuries.  Internally, she makes the transition from headstrong maiden to wise mother, from young woman to maturity. She is the spark for a revolutionary change. While confronting the evil around her, Sariah serves as the epitome of the pursuit of good, the embodiment of truth, and the symbol of hope for a world that lies in shambles, not so different from our own. 

On October 26th, 2009, the winners of the Dear Reader Contest sponsored by AuthorBuzz.com were notified via e-mail. The lucky winners won an autographed copy of Dora Machado's award winning fantasy adventure novel Stonewiser: The Heart of the Stone

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