Welcome to Jay's Lighthouse
Goddess Chosen
Charles Redmond (nee Montrouge) was radicalized as a youth on the back streets of New Orleans to become a death squad member in Haiti for the Duvalier dictators. He turned state's evidence and was given a new life by the Americans. He has always practiced Voodou, and suffers with the guilt of what he did in Haiti. In his import-export business he encounters Joseph, an eccentric who is collecting religious artifacts. His frightening behavior leads Charles to believe Joseph is a Voodou demon sent to seek revenge on Charles for his past sins. Joseph is instead the henchman of Silas Alvarado. Charles seeks help from Samantha Mauwad, a psychiatrist who also happens to believe in Voodou. Silas' plan to convert the Haitians gives Charles the chance to redeem himself to his religion by trying to stop the madman's plot. Charles is driven by his need for redemption.
Silas Alvarado is the reincarnation of an ancient Egyptian High Priest named Royarna. He was brought back to Earth by the Goddess Isis to capture and seize the keys of creation from the Hebrew archangel Sammael (aka Lucifer). Sammael sabotaged the conflict in Exodus from inside the court of Ramses. Royarna was his pupil and witnessed it. Sammeal is the only creature that has ever shown the magic of creation to mankind when he performed the miracles against Moses. Isis wants revenge for that defeat and sent Silas as her champion. Silas' plan is to convert the followers of Voodou in Haiti to the religion of ancient Egypt, since Voodou is in fact the successor religion that was bastardized by Christianity. By converting the Haitians, Silas hopes to build a belief power base to bring back the Egyptian gods. His plan is to capture Sammael and extract his secrets. He is driven by revenge.
Goddess Daughter
Randolph Macklin is one of the world's foremost experts in human genetics. He developed the ability to use viruses to insert whole libraries of genes into living bodies, thus changing them to eliminate genetic diseases. His wife Cheri was an international diplomat. When she was killed in a car accident in Malaysia, Randolph took his teenaged daughter Desiree to stay with Randolph's friend and business partner Young Nae Yoon who lives in Malaysia. He awakes in Young Nae's beach house with a four month gap in his memory and his daughter is in a coma. He seeks psychiatric help for his memory loss from Samantha Mawad, who moved to Malaysia after the events of Goddess Chosen.
Young Nae Yoon is Randolph's lifelong friend and very successful business partner. He tells Randolph that after his wife's accident, his daughter was bitten by a snake and went into a coma. He says Randolph started drinking and Young Nae let him do so in grief. He blames the memory loss on the alcohol. But as Randolph traces the events on that missing time, the details fall apart. Randolph's discoveries are at the center of a horrific secret. Randolph is driven by loss. Young Nae is driven by power. Both are overcome by too much power driven by too much passion.
Goddess Rising
Desiree Macklin is Randolph's daughter who survived the genetic experimentation of Goddess Daughter. She emerges resurrected by the goddess Erzulie, who is the Voodou inheritor of the goddess Isis. She has the ability to heal wounds and diseases. She vacations in Ireland after graduating college. When she encounters Joseph, who is now a free agent Egyptian demon, her connection to Isis blossoms. When Desiree tells Sanantha that she met Joseph, she flies to Ireland to protect Desiree. She also meets a young man named Alec who has uncovered much of the magic that Silas used. He is a ghost hunter and they explore the myths around Saint Patrick. When they find possible demonic interference, Desiree is glad for the help she has from Joseph and Sanantha. Desiree is driven by curiosity, but her Isis host is seeking justice.
Benito Nomini is actually Sammeal in human form. When he sees Desiree is the avatar of Isis on Earth, he revives his ages old plan to ruin the Egyptian pantheon. He tried in Exodus, he has tried numerous times throughout history, but this time he thinks he might actually succeed. He sees those gods as blasphemous for their independence from God. He insinuates himself in Desiree's circle, seducing Sanantha and giving Alec abilities far beyond what the young man can handle. This parallels what he did in Exodus where he showed the Egyptian temple godlike powers to antagonize Moses, then withdrew them. That prompted Ramses to overreach and fail. His plan is to do the same with Alec and Desiree.
Mermaid Steel
Chielle Mmava is a weaver in the offshore village of Celedan. She is one of the Merrow, a race of dolphin mermaids. They worship Rorra, a goddess who may be the sea itself, by a credo of allowing events to occur naturally with faith that Rorra will provide. They have no personal property - everything is based on community. They coexist with the human onshore village of Saint Rochelle under a treaty that prohibits trade to preserve their undersea way of life. They are well aware that humans seize things to own them. A particular hindrance is their inability to smelt steel underwater.. Therefore they scavenge scrap metal from human castoffs. This has led humans to think of them as theives. The hundred year treaty has bred huge distrust on both sides of the surface. Chielle learns Saint Rochelle has a new blacksmith, and she tries to befriend him to learn metalworking.
Sten Holdsmith is the new blacksmith in the coastal village of Saint Rochelle. He has set up shop on a wharf to be close to his biggest clients, the fishing fleet that supports the town. When he nearly drowns in a boating accident, Chielle rescues him. Their conversations highlight how far the two villages have grown apart. The fishing fleet moves to seize more fishing grounds from the Merrow, who then revolt. But humans have rifles while the Merrow have spears. Sten, who has a dark past and holds justice issues very seriously, goes to the regional court to ask for a reevaluation of the treaty. This sets off a series of responses that drive Chielle and Sten closer together while driving the villages further apart. Sten uncovers the history of how the current race of men came to drive out the indigenous people who used to get along with the Merrow.
The Mirror's Revenge
Snow White has married her prince and become the queen of the combined German kingdoms of Lusinia and Peldor (by marriage). She is plagued by nightmares and is falling into exhaustion. She thinks this is caused by the six months she was under the Sleeping Death. Doctors can only sedate her so she seeks help from the church. But the church sees her as touched by evil and unclean. She finds a mad nun named Catherine who tries all the latest (circa 1600) alternatives like hypnosis. They find she is being haunted by the spirit of her dead father's archenemy King Krosus.
King Krosus is the dead king of Malruvia which borders Lusinia. Krosus and Snow's father King Ludwig were archenemies and killed each other in battle. Krosus is a sorcerer and imbedded himself in a magic mirror. He managed to find his way into Ludwig's widow's castle and he became her confidant. He convinced her that Snow White was a threat and coerced her into trying to kill Snow (which would end his enemy's bloodline). Having failed with the Queen, Krosus now haunts Snow and again plots to kill her. By manipulating people, especially women, he manages to get himself into the hands of Sister Catherine, who is treating Snow.
The Insane God
Sarah Meyer is a sixteen year old transgender girl. She lapsed into schizophrenia at age nine after being in a car crash that killed both her parents. She has been hospitalized ever since. Her older brother Nate survived the incident to grow into a very cynical, very independent man. The hospital allowed her to transition to female in hopes that it would help her mental illness. One day Sarah spontaneously is cured. Nate traces her cure to a necklace a nurse gave her. The psychotic visions are replaced with visions of horrific looking gods floating in space. Nate traces the vision to a cult in the Arizona desert. They gained the visions after encountering a meteorite that is made of the same stone as Sarah's necklace. They learn that there is another cult that wants to kill them, and they are driven by necklaces made from a different meteorite.
Colonel Jefferson Davis (nee Pierce Clayton) is a far right wing cult leader operating from his family plantation in Tallahassee, Florida. He has the source meteorite from which he makes necklaces that convert mental patients into hate-filled soldiers that he sends out to kill the other cult. Sarah's meteorite converts mental patients into followers of a god that requires love even in the face of death, the insane god. Davis' stone creates devotees of the love god's enemy, and fills them with xenophobic hatred. These two gods killed each other in outer space eons ago. Their shattered bodies are now falling to Earth to revive their battle. Davis experiments with the effects of his stone and ends up being transformed himself into a monster of enormous power.
The Dove and the Crow
Willa Freedlund was working as an adjunct literature professor at a collage in Boston when she was kidnapped by a magic portal that transported her to the world of Hern. She is a divorcee with a habit of men who disrespect her. Nobody took her seriously in her old life. Naomi Delacor is a witch on Hern and a recent widow. Hern is a near exact parallel world to Earth at about 1800. Willa falls through from Switzerland and lands in a similar countryside with no idea who moved her. Hern is ruled by mercurial gods that parallel the gods of Ancient Greece. Willa is very familiar with the Greek gods, and many other Earth folktales. Naomi takes her in and helps her adjust. Willa learns that Hern is in danger as the chief gods are withholding their magic, and that magic holds the world together. The gods have gone to war and the planet is suffering the consequences. Willa convinces Naomi that Earth myths that mirror this kind of problem apply. This leads to a quest to free an enslaved goddess and restore the power the planet needs.
Gand is the Hern god of death. He has loved Filada, the goddess of the planet, for eons. His more powerful brother Hulud, the god of the sun, also loved Filada. A hundred years ago, Gand gave Filada a gift. In a fit of jealousy, Hulud imprisoned Filada, which put the two brothers at war. Gand has finally killed Hulud. Now he regrets this and has withdrawn. Filada also mourns Hulud, as she loved him anyway, and has also withdrawn her magic. The seasons have stopped which has created overwarming and hurricanes, and the ground is collapsing under quakes. When Willa and Naomi retrieve Gand's long-lost gift, Gand must chance convincing Filada of his love. Thus the story is entirely about healing, healing Willa's lack of confidence, healing Naomi's loneliness, and healing the planet's magic.
Paintings created using filters from
Pixel Force Photo to Sketch.