Over the Moon

Over the Moon is a wonderful book that I could not put down. Diane
has a way of capturing her readers in this exciting story for young
adults to enjoy.

-Kris Davidson, compassionate service leader

Packed full of mystery, humor, and unearthly peril-readers will
devour this paranormal romance.

-Kathy Habel, avid reader and volunteer youth worker

I loved this book! It was great to read about Tiana solving her problems and coming out of them triumphantly. I love happy endings!

-Kim Lyon, college student and aspiring writer

DIANE DANIELS

This book is dedicated to my husband, Thomas, who has always
believed in me, and to my two daughter-in-laws, Angie and Reg', who
read my first draft, gave me excellent feedback, and urged me on.

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of
things not seen.

Hebrews > > : 1

When you have come to the end of all the light that you
have known and are about to step off into the darkness of the
unknown, faith is knowing that one of two things will happen;
there will be something solid to stand on or you will be taught
to fly.

-Virgil, (Roman Poet 70-12 BC)

I reclined in a lounge chair in my new backyard and gazed up at
the night sky. It appeared to be encrusted with billions of sparkling
rhinestones. Never had I seen so many glittering stars woven together
in an uninterrupted pattern that stretched and swirled across the
velvet black of the unending universe above me. In Chicago, there
was far too much light pollution, and although I loved those city
lights, I knew they couldn't compare with this luminous, heavenly
expanse. I also knew I would gladly trade all this beauty for those
particular polluting city lights. I so wanted to be back in Chicago.
Still, it was hard to turn away from the shimmering glow of these
scintillating, celestial bodies that lit up the cloudless firmament. I
was sure Van Gogh's nocturnal masterpiece, Starry, Starry Night, had been inspired by a magical night such as this. If it wasn't, it certainly should have been. Of course, Van Gogh was kind of crazy, so
naturally I would identify with him. I was going crazy tonight. Still,
I wasn't going to cut off my ear or anything drastic like that. I just
wanted to die before tomorrow.

I remembered reading that if we could count the one hundred
billion stars in our own Milky Way galaxy at the rate of one per
second, it would take over three thousand years. That was if you
never stopped to eat or sleep or die. Many of those stars could have
planets revolving around them like our sun. Some of that myriad of
faraway planets might harbor intelligent life. The universe probably
contained worlds without end, and some of those worlds might be
very similar to Earth. I might as well be living on one of those distant, random, alien worlds. That's how alone and insane I was feeling right now. Beam me up! It couldn't be any worse than moving to
Hurricane, Utah.

My sophomore year science teacher, Mr. Bennett, was some kind
of astronomical genius. He told us that if we ever made contact with
real extraterrestrials, their culture would probably be thousands, millions, or billions of years beyond ours. He made us memorize this
quotation by Percival Lowell, the famous astronomer who founded
the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, in 1894. It's funny
the things that stick in your memory. I think I can even recall it
word for word: "Now when we think that each of these stars is probably the center of a solar system grander than our own, we cannot
seriously take ourselves to be the only minds in it all." That means
we are stupid to think we are the only smart creatures living in this
humongous universe. Mr. Bennett was convinced that the universe
was teeming with intelligent life. However, because of the extraordinary and incomprehensible distances between solar systems, it is
highly unlikely that we will ever encounter beings from any of those
advanced civilizations. It is not impossible, just improbable. I guess
that means I won't be abducted by brainiac aliens tonight, as much
as I want them to take me anywhere that is light-years away from
Hurricane, Utah.