
The Sunflower Paradox
by Charlie Orta
The small town of Palatial Springs, Colorado, has changed. There is an evil presence in the old and sleepy village.
During winter break from college, Maddie Porter comes home to visit before her last semester of schooling and starting her career as a veterinarian, but she arrives with mixed feelings. Losing her father only months earlier, Maddie can’t shake the sense that his death was unnatural. She questions the death certificate listing “brain hemorrhage.” She doubts even her old friend, Sheriff Ross Emerling, who had investigated her dad’s untimely passing.
Maddie begins researching his death at the local library, producing some interesting information. She hopes to find within it clues as to why her father died so young and healthy. She wonders if someone could have wanted to harm him. But one name scribbled on a piece of paper on her father’s desk reveals just how much there is to uncover in Palatial Springs.
At the same time, a young, clean-cut local man shows up at the sheriff’s office with blood all over his clothing and hands. He bears no injuries and doesn’t know whose blood it is or how it got on him. As the sheriff begins to dig into the young man’s life, he’s bewildered as to why a clean-cut kid with no record would be in this predicament. At the same time, Maddie’s mother, Genevieve, who is across town, feels an evil presence in her church, while she does her weekly cleaning.
As Maddie’s probing begets more horrific findings, she is thrust into a web of evil that she can’t seem to escape. Maddie, believing that she and everyone around her are in danger, tries to protect herself, her family, her friends, and especially a young orphan boy, Winthrop, who has innocently wandered across her path and into her heart.
The battle for the truth and survival takes its toll on Maddie, but ultimately, she discovers it is her faith that gives her the strength to fight this spiritual war to its gruesome and surprising conclusion.
Author Charlie Orta

Art being Charlie Orta’s first love, the jump to writing was more of a smooth slide. As a child, he drew pictures, and his imagination would take flight. With unusually mature word usage, he’d create a story to go with them. Raised in California and Washington, Charlie’s parents separated when he was young. His childhood was difficult, but Charlie’s art and avid reading were his escapes. Garnering degrees in music and fine arts at Cal State Fresno and a Master’s in Education at National University, his writing professors rewarded him with plenty of accolades. He became a fan of sci-fi and suspense novels. After securing a job working with kids with moderate to severe functional skill issues, Charlie was thrilled to get another credential to satisfy that position. He has worked in special education since. In the summers, Charlie would go to the California coast to write. He began writing quirky poetry about odd characters with special abilities for his students. His friends urged him to write a novel, and he did in 2005. While he started other books, The Sunflower Paradox beckoned him. He had to finish it. Charlie researched the story extensively and found the sunflower had healing properties. The prominent doctor in that research and the details about those properties in the book are real. Enjoying the interplay between darkness and light, the genre within which Charlie developed his stories came about organically. He loved horror and suspense and possessed a light in his soul for giving hope to others. It seemed redemptive horror was the best route for his pen. He believes the world wouldn’t see the light without the contrasting darkness. “There’s a redemptive quality to that. And no one is beyond redemption.” While Charlie has three books in the works, he also enjoys his life in Central California—his bearded collie, Hare, and his Siamese cat, Azzie, and hanging with his family and many friends. He continues to work with developmentally delayed young adults. He dabbles in natural medicine, loves to garden, and builds things in his backyard. And writing. He is always writing.