Literary Las Vegas

Las Vegas resident Kathie Harrington is the author of two books on autism, "Tears of Laughter - Tears of Pain" and "I Never Told My Son He Couldn't Dance," and the children's book, "Bayo, The Boo Cow." A speech language pathologist, Harrington graduated with her master's degree from Truman State in Kirksville, Mo.

In her first novel, "To Dance with Fireflies," Harrington's heroine, Audrey Benway, leaves Las Vegas to travel to her hometown, Iowa Falls, Iowa. While there, she revisits a past filled with romance and loss. Despite her commitment to her husband and children at home, Audrey can't help but wonder what became of Stephen Grant. The man who never knew he was the father of her first child still haunts Audrey's thoughts after 25 years. When her friends tell her he recently returned to town, Audrey can't resist calling on him.

For more information on Harrington's novel, visit willowmoonpublishing.com.

EXCERPT FROM 'TO DANCE WITH FIREFLIES'

All of a sudden, there they were dancing before her. Audrey had almost forgotten about the magic of fireflies. How could she? How could anyone forget the waltzes, the two-steps, the Charleston's, the line dances, the beauty and mystery that surrounded every Midwestern summer's evening? The fields were ablaze with delight, and her eyes were glowing as bright as the lanterns that shined from the millions of fireflies dancing in the Iowa fields. They never seemed to end. Miles and miles, dances and dances, their show went on with a streak here and a bolt there. Into the bushes and out again - no rest at night - fireflies had business to watch over. The sunshine of the day would be their repose. Audrey caught them as a child. She followed them into the bushes as an adolescent. She ignored them as a young adult and even moved away from both of their homes.

How would she relate to the fireflies of Iowa today? The winds that blew through her life between yesterday and her life today were strands of memory cohesively held by her perceptions of a world that was, and the island she had fashioned. She imagined the winds calm, the past as settled, and the fields standing silent in their vigil.

However, for Audrey Benway, the winds were kicking up, and fireflies were dancing all around her.