GOLDEN, CO October 14, 2005 – Maquoketa native, Nancy Bullock, and her husband, Warren Longwell, will be speaking and signing copies of their new book inside the Maquoketa Public Library on Saturday morning, October 22, from 10:30 until 11:30 AM. Their novel, Stonecypher Road, is already starting to attract some literary notice, but even more remarkable than the book itself is the improbable story behind it.

Maquoketa was chosen by the Longwells as their first stop on a nationwide book tour because most of the story is centered in this town, with the Decker House, the Bluff Lake Catfish Restaurant, the Maquoketa Caves, and especially the Maquoketa Public Library, all playing a starring role in the plot. As co-author, Nancy Bullock, said in a recent interview, “We didn’t write about Maquoketa out of pure nostalgia, or to try and make the place famous like the Bridges of Madison County. The fact of the matter is, there were certain twists in the book’s plot that we simply couldn’t visualize as taking place anywhere but the Maquoketa Caves and the small public library.” One thing is certain—Nancy wasn’t saying this because she was unfamiliar with other places.

A 1963 graduate of Maquoketa High School, Nancy moved in 1967 to the high mountains of Colorado. This was only the first stop on a lifetime of adventure travel that would eventually take her around the globe four times to every continent on earth, and to a third of the world’s countries. It was only natural that many of these experiences would find their way into written articles for travel magazines.

“We didn’t set out to become writers,” said Nancy, speaking of herself and her husband. “It just happened. And after our travel articles started getting published, we asked ourselves, ‘Why not try our hand at a novel?’” The stunning result of their effort was Stonecypher Road.

Like the mega-popular book, The DaVinci Code, Stonecypher Road tells a story about The Holy Grail, and comparison between the novels has become inevitable. Nancy and Warren actually wrote and copyrighted their own book a year before The DaVinci Code was published, and their version of the Holy Grail legend has nothing to do with Mary Magdalene or Jesus. Without giving away too much of the plot, it can be said that the Longwells have discovered a Holy Grail that is far more frightening and sinister than that offered by DaVinci Code’s author, Dan Brown, although readers will also find the secret of the Stonecypher Grail less threatening from a religious point of view.”

“Saturday, October 22nd will be a very special time for us,” said Nancy Bullock. “It will be the fulfillment of a dream—launching our new book, and doing it in my own hometown.”

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