FIVE WOMEN OF ADVENTURE - Five Contemporary Comic Novellas About Extraordinary Women of Adventure - Aunt Yolanda Things are not always as they seem in life. Why do people develop preconceived images of people they have never met? Ed Slaterfeld has a midlevel job at a health food company. He has a girlfriend and a reasonably good life. But he yearns for a more exciting life but is not sure how to pursue that goal. When he hastily accepts a job offer after thinking he is about to be laid off, he is sent on an assignment to an exotic land with peculiar customs and laws. It is in that land that he meets the woman of his dreams and gets into more danger and excitement than he had ever dreamed possible. The danger puts him in direct confrontation with the family of his former girlfriend. The Story of Ralphaela Whose family isn't somewhat dysfunctional? Ralphaela Hackwood becomes an overnight celebrity after winning a national singing contest. Born into a family with a century-long history of feuding with a neighboring family in the Ozark Mountains, she is also the daughter of a successful TV evangelist with a propensity for road rage. Ralphaela's father always told her she could do whatever she wanted in life as long as she never married a Glockenfelmer. Like the Hatfields and the McCoys and the Montagues and the Capulets, the Hackwoods and the Glockenfelmers are sworn enemies. When two French monks, who were brought to America to start up the Hackwood family winery get into a fistfight, it sets in motion a wild chain of events. Ralphaela's life goes through several phases including cult membership, Broadway musical stardom and finally rock-star fame until that day arrives when she decides on what she really always wanted out of life. Delphinium the Flower Child What's in a name? Delphinium Zalindero is a teenager growing up in a twenty-first-century hippie commune. Her parents are part of an anachronistic cult of flower children still chasing leftover dreams from the 1960's. Despite the peaceful appearance of the flower children, there are sinister forces at work. The young woman desperately yearns to leave her current life, get an education and ultimately change her name. Soon after her eighteenth birthday, she becomes romantically involved with the son of an eccentric presidential candidate and U.S. Senator. When she and a friend pull a prank on a middle-aged Wall Street skirt chaser, Delphinium has no idea the prank will ultimately go too far, involve the senator and his staff, but will help bring a criminal to justice and have humorous consequences. Lisa Jean Takes a Vacation Who says people who work in food service have boring lives? Lisa Jean Magnussen is a waitress at everyone's favorite restaurant in the sleepy little town of Henryville, Virginia. Almost everyone in the town knows two things about Lisa Jean - she is an avid runner and, thanks to an ex-husband's advice, she carries a concealed handgun for protection. When her gun gets stolen on a vacation trip to New York at the same time there is an international plot to assassinate the secretary general of the United Nations, her life and her friends lives are turned upside down. Marisol Decides to Moonlight Do people take on second jobs only because they need the money of is it because they need variety and excitement in their lives? Marisol and Walter Lugerweiss enjoy a good life living in a south Tennessee town where almost everyone uses some variation of the phrase, 'bless your little heart'. Marisol is a history teacher at the high school and Walter is the town's well-respected chief of police. At about the same time Walter gets asked to run for political office and Marisol takes on a second job, there are several mysterious newcomers to town. Counterfeit money starts showing up everywhere and a prominent figure is murdered. The events disrupt the quiet little town and it's residents until the culprits are apprehended in a shocki