Episode Five - "Down a Darque Path"

By Shannon Muir

Sometimes the biggest mystery of all is unraveling your own past to catch your own demons, as Myanna learns while she evolves on the path to eventually become the premier private investigator of THE WILLOWBROOK SAGA. Myanna Moore learns what her paternal birth grandfather has been up to, and begins to realize what's at stake as she goes "Down a Darque Path" in this fifth part of the serial. Backed with new novelette, SHARDS OF TRUTH.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Shannon Muir
• Release date: Dec 31, 2017
• ISBN: 9781310872730

Shannon Muir

SHANNON MUIR's short stories include suspense and mystery elements such as those found in her first full-length story from Pro Se Press, CHARLES BOECKMAN PRESENTS DOC AND SALLY IN "THE DEATH OF BUDDY TURNER". Additionally, she's written short stories for Pro Se Press such as “Tragic Like a Torch Song” in THE DAME DID IT from Pro Se Press, "Pretty as a Picture" in the anthology NEWSHOUNDS, “Tropical Terror” in CRIME DOWN ISLAND and “Hidden History” in EXPLORER PULP. She’s also written the Single Shot New Pulp tale “Ghost of the Airwaves,” a short story offered in electronic format only from Pro Se Press.From her personal self-published projects, her best known titles in this area include the rural crime series THE WILLOWBROOK SAGA.In other genres, Shannon's published short stories include “Meeting the Monster” in the Emby Press anthology SUPERHERO MONSTER HUNTER: THE GOOD FIGHT and "Cover Story" in ARIA KALSAN: MYSTERIES OF THE FUTURE.Shannon holds a BA in Radio-TV and English from Eastern Washington University in Cheney, Washington, which she considers to be her hometown. She also holds an MA in Communications from California State University, Fullerton, along with additional education in screenwriting, project management, library technician studies, and most recently a certificate earned with distinction in General Business with Emphasis in Marketing from UCLA Extension. Currently, she is working on a Masters of Library and Information Science at San Jose State University.She is married to FLYING GLORY AND THE HOUNDS OF GLORY collaborator and fellow author Kevin Paul Shaw Broden. They live in California in the United States.She is a member of Sisters in Crime (national, Guppies, and Los Angeles, where she also served on the Los Angeles board for a two terms beginning in 2018), as well as the Toastmasters4Writers Chapter of Toastmasters International (where she serves as chapter Secretary), Women in Animation, and a Professional member of ASIFA-Hollywood.

Book preview

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COPYRIGHT

A MYANNA MOORE: HAUNTED BY THE TRUTH Serial

EPISODE FIVE – Down a Darque Path

A THE PULP AND MYSTERY SHELF Web Serial Compilation

By Shannon Muir

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2018 Shannon Muir.

Includes never before released novelette SHARDS OF TRUTH Copyright 2018 Shannon Muir.

First Smashwords publication May 2018.

This ebook is for your personal enjoyment only. It may not be given away or resold to others. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please purchase your own copy from Smashwords or vendor partners. If you want to share this work with others, please purchase a copy for each person. Thank you for respecting the hard work of artists and creators.

All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

COPYRIGHT

TABLE OF CONTENTS

MYANNA MOORE EPISODE FIVE - AUTHOR’S NOTE

MYANNA MOORE EPISODE FIVE – CHAPTER ONE

MYANNA MOORE EPISODE FIVE – CHAPTER TWO

MYANNA MOORE EPISODE FIVE – CHAPTER THREE

MYANNA MOORE EPISODE FIVE – CHAPTER FOUR

MYANNA MOORE EPISODE FIVE – CHAPTER FIVE

MYANNA MOORE EPISODE FIVE – CHAPTER SIX

MYANNA MOORE EPISODE FIVE – CHAPTER SEVEN

MYANNA MOORE EPISODE FIVE – CHAPTER EIGHT

SHARDS OF TRUTH – DEDICATION

SHARDS OF TRUTH – AUTHOR’S NOTE

SHARDS OF TRUTH – CHAPTER ONE

SHARDS OF TRUTH – CHAPTER TWO

SHARDS OF TRUTH – CHAPTER THREE

SHARDS OF TRUTH – CHAPTER FOUR

SHARDS OF TRUTH – CHAPTER FIVE

SHARDS OF TRUTH – CHAPTER SIX

SHARDS OF TRUTH – CHAPTER SEVEN

ALSO BY SHANNON MUIR – MYANNA MOORE: HAUNTED BY THE TRUTH EPISODE ONE

ALSO BY SHANNON MUIR – THE WILLOWBROOK SAGA: THROUGH THE GENERATIONS

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

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MYANNA MOORE EPISODE FIVE - AUTHOR’S NOTE

It’s been a bit of a delay between part four of this serial and the release of this installment, which was originally scheduled for late 2017. This will be the last installment of the serial released on the web first and then in print form; the remaining ones will be in e-book form only. Also, as I’ve stated elsewhere, I’ve also decided against releasing them in a compilation.

The largest reason for the delay, however, involved two things. One involved me realizing this needs seven parts instead of six. The other is a shift in how I decided to handle the backing stories. Here’s insight as to why I feel that a change in approach is required.

Backed with this is a new novelette, SHARDS OF TRUTH, which I wrote expressly for this collection to bridge the old material previously released and the ones that were partially completed and never released. It takes place immediately following the events of where I ended Book 2. As I looked at the two remaining unfinished volumes of the TRUTH series, as well as how the web serial experiment evolved, I realized I needed a very focused bridge between the next chapters of material. ON THE SEARCH FOR TRUTH was intended in part to be an experiment about doing a book with a highly unreliable narrator that I believe achieved mixed results. Additionally, the last chapters of ON THE SEARCH FOR TRUTH end with the lead characters living in conditions that are nothing short of slavery. This absolutely serves key as to her warped views of relationships as an adult, and I wanted to take a breather in approaching that before moving the greater story forward. Though such situations are depicted here, I do not personally endorse them and the greater arc I am shooting for is about finding healing and change. However, the arc admittedly is a slow-moving one.

There are still a couple more episodes of the web serial to release, but right now I don’t have a firm schedule for those. I want to release them when I know the material is right and not rush them, or the completed backing novels that match. After finishing SHARDS OF TRUTH, I know I need to revisit quite a bit of that material and make some editorial decisions.

Thank you as always for the support.

Shannon Muir

Glendale, CA

May 2018

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MYANNA MOORE EPISODE FIVE - CHAPTER ONE

Myanna just pieced together that the grandfather she’d just met, Seárlas Donagh, also killed the man who held the woman who raised her as his prisoner.

It had to be done, and I know that’s not enough, she heard him say as her eyes remained covered by the blindfold he’d requested she wear for the trip. Having her vision blocked allowed her to concentrate on the tone of his words. She did not doubt his sincerity.

We will speak no more of it, she told him.

They continued to drive on in silence, for how long Myanna could not be precisely sure but she wouldn’t doubt over an hour passed.

Do you ever resent not really being one of Firinne’s children? Seárlas asked, finally. Truth had two boys and girls before you that Edana was convinced would save the world, and many after. Now that you know you are not really part of that family, but instead kin to the man Truth loves, how does that make you feel?

Normally, I’d say that was an odd question to ask,