Our present lives are constantly being affected by events that have long passed. Even when the past is unknown, the hands of time have a way of reaching into our lives to guide us down paths we might never choose to follow.

In Message Stick, author Laine Cunningham takes us into the remarkable, yet very real mythical world of the Australian Aborigine. A culture that exists between the delicate balance of the tangible world and the realm of spiritual consciousness. It’s a world where those with a greater understanding of the past are more likely to survive while the ignorant must guard themselves from that which is unknown.       

In a story involving a battle for sacred artifacts, the author’s in-depth knowledge of cultural history paints a surreal landscape in a place where anything is possible. Her exquisite eye for detail transports us to the exotic, and sometimes treacherous, outback where good and evil frequently collide in a conflict of wits, magic, determination and will.

With Message Stick, Ms. Cunningham has given her readers the unique privilege of enjoying two tales in one. There is the intense psychological battle between the ruthless and the innocent framed within the mysteries of a culture time has chosen to forget but which is not yet forgotten.   

Michael Rhys Scott
President of Swan Press