The Bedtime Story of Falling Rock: A Tale of True Love

In 1818, in the foothills of present-day Marin County, lived the Miwok. They were peaceful hunter-gatherers who had many villages in the land stretching from Sonoma County to San Francisco. They possessed a vast knowledge of their environment.

Tamalpais and Falling Rock were childhood friends who fell in love. When Tam became sick with severe asthma during a pollen bloom, her father, Chief Marin, declared a contest for a medicinal herb, with Tam's hand in marriage as the prize.

Falling Rock, deeply concerned for Tam's health, embarked on a quest to find the root. Ignoring the rules of the contest, he set out alone. He rescued captured men from a rival tribe and reached the Emerald Falls. Despite initial failures, Falling Rock dove into the pool, rode a turtle to the bottom, and retrieved the Elecampane Root.

Falling Rock and Tamalpais' story is a twining tale of two lovers whose souls skipped together amongst many lives. This is the story of just one of their lives.

Based in Northern California, Justin Kerson is a healer using mixed-media art as his tool to remind us of our true self and all our potentiality.

Eloy Bida is a Native Illustrator and digital marketing consultant, a descendant of the Indigenous people from South America. He studied Fine Arts, but was repeatedly enraged and disappointed to only be studying models with European features, and learning only about European art history. Bida left the program and began to self?study, exploring themes of ethnomusicology, indigenous languages, pre-Columbian mythology, and Indigenous music and arts.

An artist and designer by trade, Paul Nylander helps make the world a better place one well-crafted book at a time. Through his design studio, Illustrada, he works collaboratively with authors, artists, businesses, and indie publishers to create informative, expressive, and insightful design for their intriguing books. His work covers a wide range of cover and interior design projects, from hand-printed fine press books and other artist books, to commercial nonfiction, children's, poetry, and fiction projects. Continuously curious about the world, his journey has spanned from science and engineering, to photography and design, all in his quest to open communication channels and get people thinking. Prior to Illustrada, Paul founded and managed the U.S. arm of a German measurement instrumentation manufacturer, focused on marketing and customer training. His work in publishing and editorial design started much earlier, moonlighting in design while completing his Ph.D. in physics.