My RAY BOOKS
Ray 1: Quest for the First Hive
Ray's father, Fa, has disappeared; he has not returned from his last adventure. This and a seriously ill friend puts Ray into a major funk. During this time Ray goes to the Toronto Zoo where she develops a unique relationship with a Giraffe. While there Ray learns of a plot where a corporation is genetically modifying bees to pollinate only their crops. This leads Ray to Africa where she meets Ulanglabila - a Medicine Man who points the way to a lost city under the Kalahari Desert where the Queen of Queen bees lives in The First Hive. Ray meets many allies and dangers on her adventure to warn the Queen of Queens, including Tuliliki, a honey guide, Xhabbo, a Kung San tracker, Praying Mantis who sacrifices his life for them, and a honey badger with a surprising ability to put bees to sleep. The Queen of Queens and Ray devise a plan that will thwart the plot to control the pollinators. After facing her fears and learning to share her story Ray returns to Mt. Albert with a pet Meerkat and a new-found confidence.
Ray 2: Butterfly Bard
Ray initiates a Monarch rescue at a cottage on Lake Erie, igniting a desire to follow the Monarchs all the way down to Mexico. Ray claims there’s a new lead that points to Fa’s last whereabouts being in Mexico. After this near-disastrous attempt at deception, Ray renounces her mischievous ways, briefly, and Geordie agrees to pilot the Lishman’s new Magnetic Nuclear Resonance (MNR)-equipped ultralight, called the Q-Bee, down the spine of North America with Ray as co-pilot. They encounter such beauty and such danger; meet allies and adversaries on adventure after adventure following the ‘Butterfly Way.’ At one point over Abilene Texas all four of the major Monarch flyways converge over Dyess Air Force Base right in the middle of the test of a new START-mandated single warhead ICBM launch. Monarch Watch is not monitoring the Military or flight communications channels and the Military is not following the progress of the Monarch Migration. After forty million years of migration an unparalleled extinction event is about to take place and only Ray and Geordie, following the Monarchs in their Q-Bee, can change the course of history. They do so with some remarkable help from a young member of Monarch Watch and her father who works inside the silo at launch control – and who risks being court-martialed to save Ray, Geordie and the Monarchs. In story after story they learn about the amazing Monarchs, self-awareness, storytelling, the Sacred Quest, intentional communities, drug cartels, the Catholic Church in Mexico, including the secret link between the Tibetans and the Four indigenous traditions in Mesoamerican culture. During all of this they participate in a number of remarkable indigenous ceremonies and meet real traditional elders.
Ray 3: Shambhala and the Pearl of Great Price
Inspired by true events, in this latest adventure Ray's Grandmother has lost her will to live. The key to Ray’s Quests are that she brings something back to life. This time it’s the seemingly impossible task of a Grandmother with dementia. Along the way Ray meets a River-Keeper who has a key to a storage locker left for Ray before her Fa disappeared seven years ago. The contents lead her to Nepal and the search for Shambhala and Pearl of Great Price. On some of the greatest adventures thus far Ray meets a host of remarkable people, including the caregiver for Alexandra David Neel (the greatest explorer of inner and outer realms), a Bon Shaman and an adventurous friend named Devi, while at the same time learning about the geography and politics of Nepal. After saving her Mother from the most dramatic moment in the history of Nepal, and parachuting into the Yalbang Monastery where Ray literally runs into the Buddha and meets a Lama who offers remarkable teachings and helps her realize that her very own 'Grandsy' is an awakened one, a Bodhisattva. On the final adventure to the Kingdom of Lo with the Honey Hunters Ray is lead to the entrance of Shambhala where she discovers that within her own heart lies the Pearl of Great Price, which has the power to bring Grandsy back to life.