The House of Payne

“It looked at the smoking gun in its hands and frowned.  What had just happened here?  People were running and screaming everywhere.  Large men dressed in black were shouting and surrounding it.  On instinct, it dropped the weapon and turned to flee, but as it spun, more determined men crowded in.  It felt rough hands dragging it down.  It was sure to die.  It threw back its head and let out a chilling wail.  All was lost.”

In this chilling sequel to The Book of Daniel, the arrest of Justice Payne for the murder of King Daniel sets in motion a series of highly charged events that lead to a dramatic show down between reason and moral decay.  Humankind, long ago altered by the mad experiments of Father Payne, has once again divided itself into the privileged and the persecuted, with Perfections and Atrocities at either end of the social spectrum.  When the birth of Atrocities, those born naturally but without gender, begins to outpace those of Perfections, naturally born boys and girls, King Daniel outlaws natural childbirth, commanding that all babies shall again be created as clones.

Emmit Payne, now older and wiser, has raised the abandoned Atrocities in his Cave where they have been highly educated, including training in the martial arts.  An underground rebellion on their behalf has begun, and Daniel’s son, Alexander, hopes opinion will turn against the Atrocities when one murders his father in plain sight of all.  However, looks can be deceiving, and in this world manipulation is the rule of the day.  What really happened?  Is Justice truly guilty, and is Alexander the true heir to Daniel’s throne?

The battle for equality pits Emmit against Alexander who plans his attack with the help of a newly cloned and impressionable Marilyn Monroe.  Emmit’s love for Marilyn may prove to be his Achilles’ heel.  Alexander’s ignorance of whom and what he really is may be his downfall.  The calculated chess game that ensues between common man and brilliant warrior moves quickly toward a violent and unexpected confrontation that will once again change the world.

A native of New York City, Lynn R. Terelle is the author of novels and short stories, primarily in the futurism/horror genre, and a visual artist with a specialization in charcoal studies and oil painting.  She has lived and studied literature and art in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Columbia, South Carolina and Los Angeles, California at the prestigious Otis/Parsons Institute.  Painting on commission for private patrons, Ms. Terelle’s work has been shown at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and at the Lee Strasberg Creative Center, Inc.  Her talents as a visual designer were also highlighted in several productions at the Lee Strasberg theater complex in West Hollywood.

Before returning to New York City, Ms. Terelle served as Corporate Associate at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, raising funds for the museum’s many exhibits as well as for the construction and endowment of the Japanese Pavilion adjacent to the museum’s main building.  She is now President of the Charles Webb Company, Inc., a major consulting firm, specializing in fund raising for arts, cultural and historical institutions.

The House of Payne is the second book in the Daniel Trilogy following the recent release of The Book of Daniel, Ms. Terelle’s first full-length publication.  She is currently working on the third and final novel in the trilogy to be published soon.  The House of Payne continues the chronicle of the chilling impact of humankind’s efforts to manipulate and control the natural world and the life-altering effects of its’ shortsighted intrusion.