A Veil of Fog and Flames

A Veil of Fog and Flames is a tale of young lives poised on a tightrope of right and wrong, their stories woven into the fabric of early San Francisco: a city that forges rules as it pleases – and breaks them as easily.

Heroes and scoundrels are not born – they are forged in the crucible of experience. Nothing anneals like living. At fifteen, Guinevere Walker and Jack Moylan are not yet galvanized for the future. In the roiling cauldron that is San Francisco of 1851 – a city devastated by suspicious fires, a dangerous brand of justice imposed by vigilantes from its formidable business community, and the cloud of slavery – the two face issues and questions that thrust them into adulthood and mold their very nature. Do they conform or rebel? Do they succumb to social conventions and restrictions? Or do they pursue their dreams in defiance of the pressures? A Veil of Fog and Flames is a tale of young lives poised on a tightrope of right and wrong, their stories woven into the fabric of a city that forges rules as it pleases – and breaks them as easily.

Lori Hart Beninger is a native Californian, residing in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband and a circle of friends, family, and goofy pets – all of whom contribute to her writing in some form or another. A Veil of Fog and Flames is Ms. Beninger's second novel, and the second volume of the Embracing the Elephant series (see Embracing the Elephant, August 2012).