Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Heart of Stone
    Heart of Stone
    Heart of Stone
    Ebook42 pages36 minutes

    Heart of Stone

    By Thelma Mariano

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Following a wager of the gods, a statue of Aphrodite springs to life. She has thirty days to find true love or return to stone.

    After two hundred years trapped in granite, Daphne will do anything to stay alive. However, she's past her prime as a woman and her face is pockmarked after prolonged exposure to acid rain and pollution. Without the advantages of youth or obvious beauty, how can she attract a suitable partner in so little time?

    In a world of instant gratification and hookups, is it even possible to find anything real? And do so before the month runs out?

    Desperate for answers, she turns to others for advice and looks for love in all the wrong places. With days, then minutes remaining to her, she must listen to the wisdom of her now-fragmented heart.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherThelma Mariano
    Release dateJul 30, 2018
    ISBN9780463437810
    Heart of Stone
    Author

    Thelma Mariano

    Thelma began writing fiction in the confessions field, where she sold over 40 stories to women's magazines (such as True Story, True Confessions and True Experience) put out by NYC publishers in the days of mass readership. SeaStruck, a paranormal romance, is her most recent novel. She also authored two other novels, ConneXions (psychological suspense) and Night Cries (women's fiction). After a long business career, she left to become a life coach and motivational speaker. For 10 years, she encouraged others to go after their dreams. This led her back to her OWN dream of working on fiction, as both an author and editor. Thelma likes teamwork and enjoys working with other writers to help them strengthen and improve their work. It's natural for her to inspire and motivate others. She recently launched a website to offer her services as a Freelance Editor for writers of women's contemporary fiction. You can visit her at www.thelmamariano.com or contact her by email at thelma@thelmamariano.com. Thanks for stopping by!

    Read more from Thelma Mariano

    Related to Heart of Stone

    Related ebooks

    General Fiction For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      There Is No Crime Here

      Jul 18, 2023

      There Is No Crime Here
      5 min read

    • Article

      The Island (catullus 64)

      Mar 1, 2022

      Back then the evergreens tumbled downriverfrom the glaze-white runoff to the boot-stirred puddlesof amber young men who fulfilled our destiny,who clambered into ships, on horses, and in wagonspainting the newfound landscapes ours.Our calling was nobl

      9 min read

    • Article

      Novel

      Jul 1, 2020

      The first time he stared down a barrel it was his fingers cradling that clot of steel, and I do mean stare down, because he was sitting cross legged, the pistol was in his lap, he watched both his thumbs flutter around the stiff trigger. It was very

      1 min read

    • Article

      The Fenland redoubt

      Oct 5, 2022

      The Fenland redoubt
      4 min read

    • Article

      A Watery Graveyard Revisited

      Apr 27, 2023

      A Watery Graveyard Revisited
      2 min read

    • Article

      Apparition

      Mar 26, 2020

      Apparition
      8 min read

    • Article

      Two Poems by Joseph Brodsky

      May 12, 2020

      Two Poems by Joseph Brodsky
      7 min read

    • Article

      Six Poems

      Feb 28, 2023

      Dear C, At first Virgil’s poem is quite dull; equivocalnames of products at The Container Store: Elfa White Medium Drawer, Mesh NarrowRolling Cart (Medium Solution), Narrow Classic Mesh Box and the number of pirouetting starseach product attained. An

      5 min read

    • Article

      The Whale Who Will Come Soon

      Sep 8, 2021

      The beachfront narrows to an ocherous ribbon, belted by blue, above and below. After a while, a handful of shearwaters appear in the air above the Cat Balou. The birds flash around us; like knife-thrower tricks at a circus. Diving through the water,

      8 min read

    • Article

      Two Poems

      Jul 1, 2020

      I look to the tree line & already the leavesare ripping themselves away from their mothers. It is only August but I am already rising earlyfor a crisp moon, smoking in the rare chill of a shaded patio. My breasts have begun pickling,the fat rounds pr

      2 min read

    • Article

      The Birds at Rikers Island

      May 16, 2018

      The Birds at Rikers Island
      4 min read

    • Article

      Commonplace Book

      Jun 3, 2019

      You are old when your longtime friend Melvin, turned seventy-five, writes you in rage about becoming old. … Melvin knows nothing about old age: Melvin can walk upstairs! Melvin flies to the West Indies with his girlfriend and his wife! In your eighti

      3 min read

    • Article

      Maybe It Won’t Be That Bad

      Dec 9, 2019

      Maybe It Won’t Be That Bad
      4 min read

    • Article

      Nick Laird

      Dec 15, 2017

      I was trying to write like an adult.I had children.I was at the end of something. As I waited at my table by the window for the coffee,I saw that the sirocco had depositeda scrim of dust on the sill overnight,and it was the dark red of powdered blood

      3 min read

    • Article

      Three Poems

      Sep 1, 2022

      1. Here there’s no rainy season.Sun scalds my forehead,yet the pool is empty. Beside it,a toppled table, its glass surface shattered.The asphalt is too hot for bare feet. 2. Far away: white hillocksand white dunes under a deepblue sky. Swirling winds

      5 min read

    • Article

      Body Language

      Aug 14, 2019

      Body Language
      5 min read

    • Article

      Three Poems

      Jan 1, 2024

      “the possibility of joy in the face of death” —Georges Bataille Couldn’t get “I” nor “we” to settle down, stay unresolved in time in crisp white burial shirts could do bouts of theatrical weeping weary though exacting avant garde gestures of the carp

      4 min read

    • Article

      Commonplace Book

      Jun 4, 2018

      I like long walks, especially when they are taken by people who annoy me. —Fred Allen I have always wondered, in reading travels, at the childish joy travellers felt at meeting people they knew, and their sense of loneliness when they did not, in

      4 min read

    • Article

      Two Poems

      Nov 1, 2018

      Our house in the 100-year flood plainflooded. They say thatfor another 800 years a hurricanelike this will not come. My internetis down and my smart phone hurts my thumbsarthritic. I’m running out of data.All my books are in boxes. Please referto my

      3 min read

    • Article

      In The Thick Of It

      Feb 23, 2022

      In The Thick Of It
      3 min read

    • Article

      Until The Sea Closed Over Us And The Light Was Gone

      Jul 1, 2020

      —Dante, Canto XXVI But if the truth is dreamed of toward the morning—El Paso Although it was really last summer’s song,all this summer Despacito played on as slower then I turned myself to gazeupon Juarez. The summer everything hurts my eyes, a dozen

      6 min read

    • Article

      In Search Of . . .

      Feb 1, 2019

      In Search Of . . .
      7 min read

    • Article

      A Tale Of Two Christmases

      Dec 17, 2020

      A Tale Of Two Christmases
      7 min read

    • Article

      Four Poems

      Sep 1, 2022

      I whooshedthrough the party. I grewa set of invisible hands. I was flower girlto the Commonwealth where lovers danced a dancecalled the snowdrift. Sugar mapleshelicoptered samarasin my glass. The dogs slackenedin their webs of shade. A democracyof cl

      2 min read

    • Article

      Timeless Movement

      Jan 30, 2018

      Timeless Movement
      10 min read

    • Article

      Four Poems

      Mar 1, 2024

      I was trying to look a little less like myselfand more like other humans, humans who belonged, so I put on a skort.Purchased in another life, when I had a husband and wrote thank-you notes and held dinner parties,the skort even had its own little poc

      6 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Heart of Stone

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Heart of Stone - Thelma Mariano

      HEART OF STONE

      a contemporary fairy tale

      by Thelma Mariano

      Copyright 2018 by Thelma Mariano

      All rights reserved.

      First edition - August 2018

      Smashwords Edition - License Notes

      Thank you for downloading this ebook. This book remains the copyrighted property of the author, and may not be redistributed to others for commercial purposes. You are welcome to share it with your friends, provided the book remains in its complete original form. Thank you for your support.

      http://thelmamariano.com

      Cover art by Rae Monet, Inc.

      This novel is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously.

      Chapter One

      For two centuries, a statue of Aphrodite graced Zea Marina Square in Athens. It often drew attention, not only because of the perfect symmetry of its form, but due to its haunting gaze over the water. Through the years, the warmth of admiration from passersby fanned a tiny spark deep within the stone. In season after season of sleet, rain and searing sun, the spark grew into a faint pulse. This pulse triggered a longing for consciousness, unexpressed but real all the same.

      The shapely statue now stood alone on the upper deck of a ship bound for New York. There was no room for it in the hold, which was jammed with containers of carefully packed Greek artifacts and artwork. Securely fastened with chains and covered by a tarp, it hugged the railing.

      While crossing the Atlantic, The Blue Marlin II ran into a storm. As the ship plunged into the rising swells, the statue rocked on its pedestal and its chains clanged.

      From far-off Mount Olympus came a woman’s lilting voice, carried by the wind.

      I have felt your despair through the ages. After all, you are fashioned in my likeness. Another god and I have a wager. For thirty days, you will live and breathe as any mortal and feel what mortals feel. In that space of time, you must find true love. Aphrodite paused. If you do not, you will again turn to stone.

      A blast of cold air blew half the tarp aside. Water sloshed over the deck, leaving sea foam over the statue’s alabaster surface. Blood began to flow through its veins. A mass of tawny hair loosened from its bindings and fell like a wet curtain. Salt water streamed into its mouth.

      The statue coughed.

      Only a single steel chain still wound around her body; the remaining links had fallen around the base. After freeing herself, she stepped onto the deck. The vessel lurched in the waves and she skidded. She held onto a post to avoid being swept out to sea.

      Great Zeus! Could she really be alive? The woman stretched out both arms, then her legs, marveling at how instantly her limbs obeyed her command. Sheets of water slapped into her but she paid no heed. With

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1