The Touchstone Diary - Book I & II: Book I - "The Red Thread" and Book II - "Bloodlines and Promises" - Paperback

by Connie M. Bickman (Author)

Now you can read Book I - "The Red Thread" and Book II - "Bloodlines and Promises" together in one volume The Touchstone Diary series presents fiction, based on historical facts and events, about the life of Jesus, Mary Magdalene and their bloodline. The author dug deep during her eight years of research and extensive world travel to discover some revealing possibilities regarding Jesus and Mary's life - before AND after the crucifixion. Along with her research, the author says many parts of the book were "channeled" as she felt she was "guided" to write much of the Touchstone series, including personal stories within the diary. In "The Touchstone Diary - Book I - The Red Thread," Michael Wilder makes an unusual promise on his deathbed to Miyah Sinclair, a mysterious healer of the ancient bloodline. Michael travels back in time through the portal of a primitive cedar box carved by Joshua (Jesus) as a gift to his bride, and connects with the healing energy and wisdom of Joshua. Miyah shares secrets hidden in the pages of an ancient diary, protected throughout the ages by her generation of healers, the family of Jesus and Mary Magdalene (Joshua and Maryum). Written by women of Miyah's own bloodline, the diary shares emotional, personal stories as these women lived through some of the most important events in ancient history, offering an alternative point of view from the feminine perspective. In "Book II - Bloodlines and Promises," Miyah shares revealing stories with her daughter, Morgan. As Morgan is being prepared to be the next Touchstone carrier, she time travels back to meet ancestral women of her bloodline and learns healing remedies from the source. Adventures continue as the Wilder family journeys to France and Scotland, including the Isle of Iona, searching for a cherished family treasure, a duplicate cedar box, carved by Joshua as a young boy, 2,000 years ago. Along the way they discover more family secrets that profoundly affect the outcome of their own lives, including a very different and alternative, yet widely documented, story of Christianity. Book III of "The Touchstone Diary" series is in progress.

Author Biography

Connie Bickman has been a writer and photographer since she can remember, and notes that she still has the old Brownie camera her parents gave her as a child. Her passion for travel has brought her to over 40, mostly third world, countries. She packed along her journals and camera as these photojournalist-based travels brought her to far corners of the earth in search of adventure and the opportunity to document native cultures, the environment, and humanitarian issues. It was through these journeys that she realized misconceptions she had about the foundation of organized religion and how often times people in other countries and cultures had much different perspectives on not only Christianity and conflicting biblical translations, but also on the original concept of the Christ story itself. This began years of research and scrutiny to satisfy her own uncertainties, which brought her to disclose her findings in "The Touchstone Diary," a "fiction-based-on-historical-events" series. Connie readily admits that writing and photography are in her blood, referring to 15 years of owning a portrait studio, and a 30+ year newspaper career, which began at her hometown newspaper. This includes an eleven year period where she was the co-owner/publisher/editor of Turtle River Press, a publication of spiritual and creative energy. She has been published internationally in books and magazines, and has won regional and international awards for her photography and writing. Her book, "Tribe of Women" (published by New World Library) received the 1999 Jeanette Fair Tau State Minnesota Women's Writer Award. Mother of three daughters, six grandgirls and one great-grandgirl, Connie currently lives Woodstock, NY. Also by Connie Bickman: - "Tribe of Women" published by New World Library, 2001, focusing on the spiritual aspect of Bickman's journeys, including photography and excerpts from her journals on encounters with bush doctors in Belize, shaman in the Amazon jungles of Peru, witch doctors in Africa and Aboriginal elders in Australia. ISBN 1-57731-130-2 - "Through the Eyes of Children" published by Rock Bottom Books, Abdo and Daughter, a series of ten educational children's books for schools and libraries on the everyday lifestyles of children around the world, which includes photography from travels to Australia, Tanzania, Russia, Mexico, Israel, Peru, Turkey, Egypt, Nepal and Equador.