Double Dare II, A Shaman Appears

In Double Dare II, A Shaman Appears, the members of the chosen family celebrated in Double Dare find themselves dealing with the unthinkable, a global pandemic that changes life for everyone. Each couple is forced into isolation, eliminating the regular gatherings that helped form the family. Distance grows, up to three thousand miles in one instance. Raphael, one never to be denied what he seeks, eventually finds a way to defeat the pandemic's mandated isolation. But even Raphael can't defeat the virus itself.

There are dark days in this, the age of COVID. Especially after the murder of George Floyd and the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement, which galvanizes the family in support of Niki. And leads to more than one shocking encounter while protesting in the streets.

But not all days are dark. A new member is welcomed into the family, someone who brings a peaceful continence and a measure of lived experience which is appreciated by everyone. Through it all, love grows. More dares are issued and performed. Secrets are revealed. And despite it all, life gets better.

Michael Curless lives, hikes, dines, and writes in San Francisco, the crazy, wonderful, diverse city he loves. He spent many years, maybe too many years, in the advertising game, sometimes writing copy for print, radio and television, which was preceded by a period of feature writing for a periodical during his undergrad years. The author then took a break from all that to take over a bed and breakfast. As one does. Where he collected enough anecdotes and personal stories to fill a a dozen novels.
 
That was interesting.
 
Now, he's back to writing. And reading. Full time, as it were. And incorporating a few of the lessons he's learned on the path to the life he dreamed about living all those years when he was doing something else. He doesn't teach writing, like many writers. He just writes. Although he was privileged to sample the offerings at the esteemed University of Iowa Writers Workshop. Maybe it helped. You be the judge