Finding the Way

The time is 1250 AD in an isolated village at the foot of the Pyrenees. Old Basque folk traditions are on a collision course with the onslaught of Christianity. One night, Amika, a young woman on the brink of adulthood, is awoken by an angry mob hunting down "heretics." Amika witnesses her mother, an herbal healer, being dragged off and burned at the stake. Amika flees to the forest in terror. With the help of rescuers from both the old and the new traditions, she sets off upon a journey of self-discovery along the Camino de Santiago, an ancient pilgrimage route across northern Spain. Along the way Amika encounters danger, hardship, and fear before she meets the man and child with whom she will share her future.

Set in northern Spain in 1250 AD, the book tells the story of a Basque girl on the brink of adulthood and her quest to find a new life. She watches in horror as her mother is accused of witchcraft and burned at the stake. She knows the angry mob is coming for her next. She is forced to run from the only life she has known, into a frightening future. After her mother's torture and death Amika flees into the forest. At first, she is completely alone. She ekes out a living foraging for plants she recognizes from her mother's garden. An old woman, Ane, a devotee of the regional pre-christian tradition, rescues her and teaches her the "old ways" until they too are hunted down and jailed. Amika escapes but Ane does not. Before Amika escapes Ane gives her an amulet to place at the foot of the Cruz de Ferro, the Iron Cross, a holy site along the Camino de Santiago. A sympathetic priest who remembers Amika's mother as a healer enables Amika to escape. As the price for her freedom, he gives her four amber stones, and the mission to find four lessons along the Way of Saint James to prove there is a benevolent God. Then she must deposit the stones at the foot of the Iron Cross and give thanks. Amika undertakes a "hero's journey" to fulfill the mission both Ane and the priest have given her. The journey takes place along the Camino de Santiago, an 800-year-old pilgrimage route across northern Spain. She meets many fellow pilgrims and forms a deep relationship with a man and young girl. After are separated along the way Amika must begin a new life, pining for the man and the girl. In the end they are reunited and begin their life together.

Author Bio: Cindy Burkart Maynard is the author of award-winning works of historical fiction. Previous works include Soyala: Daughter of the Desert and Anastasia's Book of Days. She has also co-authored of two works of non-fiction about the Colorado Plateau and the desert Southwest. She has extensive experience teaching and writing about history and the natural world. She currently divides her time between Arizona and Colorado. Though set in disparate times and places, Ms. Maynard's novels have a common theme. All follow the life of a common woman navigating the turbulent waters of difficult times and explore how historical circumstances impact the lives of ordinary people. Cindy Burkart Maynard is passionate about history and the natural world. Her characters come to life showing the reader what it was like to live in another time and place. "Soyala: Daughter of the Desert," published in 2019, weaves a compelling, dramatic story of indigenous people in 1250 AD living through one of the most mysterious periods of American pre-history. Based the archeological of an ancient pueblo in northern New Mexico explores what it might have been like to live in that turbulent times - Winner of Colorado Authors League award for Western literature, and WILLA Finalist Award for soft cover fiction. "Anastasia's Book of Days" is set in the Black Forest area of Southwest Germany in the seventeenth century. Based on the purported diaries of Anastasia Burkart, the author's great-great grandmother, the story reflects the momentous changes sweeping across her beloved Black Forest homeland. Winner of the Marie M. Irvine award for Literary Excellence.