Starlight Deep Within a Gothic Sea — John Argo

"Five Stars. Outstanding, A definite must read... a powerful book" -- Tracy Eastgate, Under The Covers Reviews, 1998 (one of many from readers and critics around the world). Personal e-mail to the author, from Ms. Eastgate: "I want to pay you a compliment. Rarely does a book EVER get under my skin or in my subconcious enough to cause dreams of any sort, but I'll tell you what, by time this morning came, I wasn't sure I wanted to go back to sleep or not ... lol ... I actually had mild nightmares last night ... I love it!!!! ... this is an absolutely awesome book." Zoë Calla, 28, is bright, attractive, happy-go-lucky, and ambitious -- but struggling with a ton of radioactive karma. She wants to be the next hot-shot news reporter in the small California coastal town of San Tomas. Her elderly mother is seeing alien ghosts, her young son Max may have bone cancer, a sinister but seductive detective named Vic Lara seems to read Zoë's mind, and handsome zoo curator Roger Chatfield is widowed and available (with a few strings attached).Can Zoë Calla save the world? Will her mother forgive her? Will her soul mate be Roger or Vic? Will Dr. Boutros save Max? Will her ex-husband, the late, violent biker and murderer, Frank, stay dead? Can she get on with life? What happens next? Read the story of Zoë Calla to find out the answers.A primordial invasion fleet from the Lesser Magellanic Cloud lies sleeping at the bottom of the sea off San Tomas -- and its pilot-avatar has begun communicating with Zoë by means of a Cold Thing that lives in a metaphoric pool at the back of her brain.When it rains, it pours. Sinister Detective Vic Lara starts circling around like a shark in the sea--and Zoë starts to realize that not only does he have a dark, overpowering romantic (dangerous) hold on her, but he knows the truth about her terrifying past, a life so horrible that she has blocked everything out.Will she continue to be drawn into the orbit of Det. Vic Lara, or will she instead gravitate toward the handsome, enigmatic zoo curator. Dr. Roger Chatfield is a widower with two children that Max befriended at school -- stunning Elisa, 13, and boisterous Rudy, 9. She doesn't trust Chatfield. He is part of the conspiratorial Burtongale family. What does he know about the six dead employees and visitors at the zoo, and who's next?As Zoë would tell it, maybe her life is best summed up by the story of her modeling job. She was called to audition, and told she was beautiful -- but alas, a foot too short and ten pounds too ‘full.' However, they would be delighted to call her to model her gorgeous eyes, hands, feet, teeth, even her golden curly hair. And then nobody ever called.This novel was written in 1990, and published online in 1996 as an HTML novel by the author (John T. Cullen, writing SFFH as John Argo). He adopted the pseudonym Argo as a tribute to the early age of Web publishing wonder, before the arrival of crime and heartbreak, when the Internet was still as new and pure and exciting as untrodden snow. Argo was the Ship of Wonder on which Jason and the Argonauts ("Argo-sailors") went in search of the Golden Fleece during the Bronze Age, over 3,000 years ago when the Pontic and Aegean Seas were the mythological outer space of their age.John Argo (John T. Cullen), a Web and digital publishing pioneer, in April 1996 became the first to publish a proprietary, entire novel online (his suspense thriller Neon Blue). Weeks later (on July 4 1996), he launched Heartbreaker (this novel) which was retitled This Shoal of Space in 1998, and later published as Woman in the Sea and more recently as Starlight Deep Within a Gothic Sea. The cover image of a woman swimming in both a sea and amid starlight has been with the story since about 1998.