For your reading pleasure

"The storm hesitated as Cole shifted into reverse and backed his car away from the tool shed. Above him, the rain abated and the sky lightened just enough for him to make out the blackness of Virginia's Blue Ridge Mountains beyond the rear window.

"As a powerful backdrop to the wide-open countryside of the Piedmont, they were the western edge of the most beautiful area Cole had ever known. Every year, however, the broad patchwork of rolling fields and woods that stretched below the mountain range lost more ground to Washington.

"So frenetic seemed the pace of suburban sprawl from the east that Cole could rarely appreciate the Piedmont's majesty without worrying about its future. He often wondered how much time he and his family had to enjoy this special area before the developers with their subdivisions and theme parks and strip malls finished the destruction they had begun."

This is an excerpt from the opening chapter of "Truth to Power," the first novel by Fauquier resident Zack Ranes -- actually a pen name for the CIA veteran who has written the thriller. It is the first book to go up, in part, on a new portion of our Fauquier.com website called Literary Lounge.

We intend for this section to house many another local self-published author, giving them a place to whet readers' appetites for more, then providing information on where the books can be purchased.

Opening chapters from other writers who have shared their manuscripts with us over the last several months will be going up on the site soon.

To find "Truth to Power" and other novels as we post them, go to our website, fauquier.com, and click on Arts in the black navigation bar, which will take you to Literary Lounge. Enjoy.