The Plateau

What if you have a half a second to stop the extinction of the human race? What if that pivotal day to save humanity depends on you saving your own life? Catherine's life and humanity's continued existence depend on her ability and willingness to believe in an altered, future timeline with a colony of Earth inhabitants. It couldn't come at a worse time. Catherine's father dies unexpectedly. The pressure of her research and advocacy work adds dead weight to her life's precarious tipping points. Catherine's losing battles includes sleep deprivation. Sleep eludes her, because when it does come, she finds herself repeatedly dreaming about standing on the same high plateau with her greyhound dog, Addy, surrounded by plants and animals and insects, and then poof! The living landscape transforms into ash.

What if you have half a second to stop the extinction of the human race? What if that pivotal day to save humanity depends on you saving your own life? Catherine’s life and humanity’s continued existence depend on her ability and willingness to believe in an altered, future timeline with a colony of Earth inhabitants. It couldn’t come at a worse time. Catherine’s father dies unexpectedly. The pressure of her research and advocacy work adds dead weight to her life’s precarious tipping points. Catherine’s losing battles includes sleep deprivation. Sleep eludes her, because when it does come, she finds herself repeatedly dreaming about standing on the same high plateau with her greyhound dog, Addy, and a stranger (Keitha) & her dog (Murphey) surrounded by plants and animals and insects, and then poof! e living landscape transforms into ash. Catherine does not suspect that she is the lynch pin, but she is the one who must stop the Machiavellians from shifting Earth’s future timeline, resulting in the colony’s extinction. But, because of her own beliefs in the Hau de no sau nee (Six Nations Iroquois Confederacy) principal that we have to consider the effect decisions have on descendants seven generations into the future, Catherine pauses and reaches back into her own past generations until her ancestor, Shi Ma, from the Lipan Indian tribe, the one who passed on her family’s oral history, reminds her that she’s connected to something beyond the people and place of her time, her now. Catherine puts this belief to the ultimate test when she learns that ‘the event’ is her own death. In order to stop it, she must walk directly into its path.

About the Author Maureen distinctly remembers the day she realized that she was no longer writing a short story. She hit insert page break, typed Chapter Two, and then went back to type Chapter One. With unwavering encouragement from Dave and the supportive presence of her adopted, greyhound dog, Kilty, Chapter Two was followed by Chapter Three and Four and so on, until Maureen knew she was writing her first novel. Most authors are voracious readers, as is Ms. Dudley. Growing up in Montana, she read books as though she would wake up one morning to find they had all disappeared. Before she reached junior high school, Maureen began scribbling her own short stories on pieces of paper, the backs of school notebooks, and sometimes just in her head. But after high school, she set aside her writing interests and focused on college. Ms. Dudley received her Bachelor of Science in Environmental Engineering from Montana College of Mineral Science and Technology. After moving to Colorado, Maureen’s career as an Environmental Engineer began with the State of Colorado. After more than two decades of working for state and then local governments, Maureen decided it was time for a change. She discovered that working in solitude suited her. With first Kilty and now Charley (pictured) at her side, Ms. Dudley has transitioned into her next career—writing. The Plateau—voices of the earth, is Ms. Dudley’s debut novel and the first book in a three-book series about our efforts to protect and preserve our natural environments; and how what we ultimately do, as either good or bad stewards of our planet, affects the next seven generations.