Adira and the Dark Horse
The Romantic Spirit Collection
Dawn and Dusk Deluxe Edition
Story Playscapes is proud to present Adira and the Dark Horse by award-winning and internationally acclaimed best-selling author, Susan L. Marshall. This unique, international best-selling publication is the flagship edition of our signature Romantic Spirit Collection. Indulge in the soulful journey of Adira Cazon: the beloved person and Private Investigator through a suspenseful slow burn and fast paced, lyrical journey of Romantic spirit, courage, community and love in danger. A fusion of metaphysical mystery and small town romance, it is an atmospheric and gripping page turner in search of truth and justice.
This curated publication captures the beauty, existence and journey of the timeless Romantic Spirit in the person, the community, the mystery and love itself. It features the full, unabridged book and the addition of Susan’s metaphysical poems: A Mosaic of Dawn’s Eve and Evergold Dream. This edition is adorned with a premium hardbound cover with dusk cover art; a dust jacket with dawn cover art and premium paper for a luxurious and bespoke addition to any bookshelf.
Visit the Official Publication page for more details.
Now Available
at all good book retailers around the world.
Welcoming Readers to the Solved Labyrinth: The Metaphysical Truth Of Soulful Formalism
To my Readers, Romantic Spirit and Sanctuary Seekers,
Many of you first connected with me through my poetic and narrative etudes. Many more immersed themselves in my connections to fragments that I discovered in my outdoor playscapes. You discovered me in the textures of the world: in the light, dark and shadow, where form was infinite. I shared my ways of seeing spirit though each form I found: be it natural, cosmic or built, unravelling quotes and inspirations from my writing. It was a time of dark pandemic and together we formed a deep connection, celebrating the fluidity and sanctuary of soul through freedom of form.
For years, you have stepped with me through what may have appeared to be a mysteriously unwinding career labyrinth, spanning from classical and unique new style structures – to historical, psychological, cultural and societal research – to new world mapping – to unique metaphysical explorations and reconstructions of everyday fragments – to a new Theatre Playscapes style – to explorative poetry and children’s literature – to major The Speculative Craft: The Architecture of Soulful Formalism and Fragmentique: Susan L. Marshall’s Signature Technique essays – to always sharing the processes of my intitial concepts and writing etudes to completed published works.
Last night, I finally revealed that all the works that I have developed in my authorship career have not been unpredictable, yet part of a meticulous labyrinth of design. I stated that the metaphysical truth of all my work had always been hidden in plain sight and that Adira and the Dark Horse was actually the living proof of concept in long form of my Soulful Formalist style. It is a novel that has been celebrated widely from those initial playscapes outdoors to achieving over 100,000 readers who engaged with my Playscapes Portfolio, positioning Adira as the protagonist of her own metaphysical mystery series. The novel has achieved #1 in New Adult Mystery at Goodreads and the international best-selling acclaim of #6 Global Pre-Release and #9 Official Release positions worldwide at Alibris Global within the Visionary and Metaphysical charts.
The newly celebrated Romantic Spirit Collection: Dawn and Dusk Deluxe, Hardcover edition of Adira and the Dark Horse is designed in Soulful Formalist discipline: with a dusk case and a dawn jacket, it is there to accompany you through the days and nights of Adira’s journey – you choose your style. It also contains metaphysical poetry: A Mosaic of Dawn’s Eve and Evergold Dream (written the same time as I wrote the novel), that helps set the scene and unifies with the story.
So, it is safe to say that my writing career and its deeper metaphysical truth was never a series of separate paths: it was a singular, engineered universe.
I am honoured to officially welcome you into the full, living architecture of Soulful Formalism.
Traditional formalism has treated literature as being present without a soul. Its style is cage-like: a cold examination of linguistic structures, syntax and syllables; its context and its deconstruction locked tightly within its own pages, on a flat piece of paper.
Uniquely, form, for me is elastic. It is present everywhere: within our nature; geometry of our landscapes; weather and cosmic patterns; city grids and scapes; physical and conscious human, animal and spirit shapes and silhouettes; to built architectural scapes. It shapes our patterns of life; our topography through space leading to identity; our raw emotional stance and resonance; our connections with time and symbols; our wellbeing and our fight or flight survival responses. It actively provides us with conscious shifting contours, which help our inner Romantic Spirits navigate the world around us.
When you read Adira and the Dark Horse, you are navigating a master labyrinth that is composed in a deliberate formulaic trinity that is staple to the Story Playscapes universe. It is a cartographical grand design, where connections are fluidly woven through the:
The Natural World, Built World and Celestial Cosmos
(Macro-Geo)
The Friction of Socio-Political Ethics
(Romantic Spirit Macro-Socio)
The Sanctuary of Human Consciousness and Healing
(Micro-Soul).
These layers contain interchangeable, conscious shifting contours, which challenge form to be fluid and responsive to the Romantic Spirit’s responses to the world: the heavy structures of the world become as translucent as the Spirit would travel them. Form is not there to trap us. It is there to help us to be and to see. I design my labyrinths to open your eyes to a world of absolute opportunity and sanctuary in life itself.
Thank you for always walking with me and for trusting in the faith of my architectures to provide you with an intellectual homecoming and a sanctuary for the soul. My labyrinths are open to your warm hearts and will always endeavour to share in new ways of seeing with you.
With love and integrity,
An Emblem for Voyage: The Philosophy Behind Our Logo
At the dawning of the dawn of Story Playscapes, our logo was conceived to chart a profound rebirth of the sacred, enduring bond between the craft of the author and the attentiveness of a global readership. Grounded in a deep reverence for the classics, old symbols, and the grand Renaissance revival of art, this emblem carries forward the generous, reciprocal spirits of creator and recipient, translating the architecture of human connection into a living, visual landmark.
The design utilises the classical geometry of a vessel navigating the deep: a traditional Renaissance symbol of travel, cargo, the transport of ideas and the eternal voyage of the Romantic Spirit. Filled to an abundant crest with vibrant orange flowers, the vessel serves as a living metaphor: the boat represents the deliberate structural craft of storytelling, while the blooming flowers symbolise the vital, creative imagination being carried across the waters.
This emblem serves as a reminder that to truly ‘discover the story,’ one must honour the magnificent, dual relationship between reader and author. To offer words or a narrative to the world is a sacred act of giving; to receive them is to embark upon a boundless journey across the vast, multidimensional plains of life.
At Story Playscapes, the true narrative exists far beyond the ink on a page. It breathes within the shared connection, the ontological meanings, the states of existence, and the deep cosmic resonance that occurs when a world is shared.
The Literary Illuminations
Each text is a jewel crafted at the intersection of literary precision, visual artistry, mathematics, and science: culminating in the unique, high art of Soulful Formalist Contemporary Metaphysical Literature.
Through the structural geometry of Fragmentique, we deliberately shape the architecture of the text to capture, refract, and hold light. Within these calibrated spaces lies a hidden mystery: a deeper metaphysical truth waiting to be unveiled. We do not merely print words; we construct luminous labyrinths that challenge and inspire the discerning soul to seek the light within the shadows.
Internationally Acclaimed & Best-selling Children’s Literature
Princess Zyra’s Lost Storm:
An Australian Childhood Myth
by Susan L. Marshall
The Structural Blueprint: Susan L. Marshall’s monumental debut as both author and fine-art illustrator, using a combination of metaphysical myth and visual metaphysics to map and create its world and character architecture.
The Metaphysical Focus: Empowering childhood heroism, individual perception, and personal ontology, deeply attuned to the natural beauty of the Australian landscape.
Internationally Acclaimed & Amazon Bestsellers in Australian Poetry
Wild Soul:
Contemporary Classical Winter Poetry
by Susan L. Marshall
The Structural Blueprint: A rigorously beautiful structural composition that fuses contemporary metaphysical, non-linear poetry with classical style metrics and formal sonnet structures.
The Metaphysical Focus: Captures and cradles the raw, wild energies of winter in nature, providing a sanctuary for the Romantic Spirit and its soul.
Bare Spirit:
The Selected Poems of Susan Marshall
by Susan L. Marshall
The Structural Blueprint: Raw metaphysical poetry written in response to the heightened energetic motions of every day life. Poetry that distils and transcends sensual life impressions into a path for spiritual awakening and wellbeing.
The Metaphysical Focus: Formulated to guide the contemporary reader to alight their own perceptions and connections with their Romantic Spirit, cognitive wellbeing and love for life.
‘An Adira Cazon Literary Mystery Series’
An Adira Cazon Literary Mystery:
Adira and the Dark Horse
by Susan L. Marshall
(Paperback Edition)
The Structural Blueprint: A suspenseful metaphysical literary mystery and small-town romance. This work masterfully utilizes a postmodern literary mystery structure to map and frame two distinct worlds and multiple eras within the souls of Private Detective Adira Cazon, the silk trade, and its deep emotional resonance in Redbank and Mira.
The Metaphysical Focus: It explores the Romantic Spirit’s relentless search for truth and justice.
The Monumental Theatre Playscapes Series
This groundbreaking series celebrates the living architecture of wellbeing, aiming for a balance of cognitive and energetic explorations to performance art. Each text pairs a dynamic, non-linear play script with a monumental theoretical essay, aiming to actively empower individual autonomy and emotional resilience.
The Theatre Playscapes Series #1
Fleur of Yesterday
by Susan L. Marshall
The Structural Blueprint: The premiere publication in the Theatre Playscapes series. This volume includes Susan L. Marshall’s groundbreaking masterwork essay: Theatre Playscapes: A New Theatrical Style.
The Metaphysical Focus: It officially introduces Susan’s innovative, wellbeing centered theatre style for the young adult performer, while also exploring the scientific and emotional architectures of memory loss and plant breeding. It provides a precise, highly structured framework for performance and spatial staging.
The Theatre Playscapes Series #2
All the Hope We Carry
by Susan L. Marshall
The Structural Blueprint: A profoundly inspirational, non-linear play focused on young adult war survival through the lens of unwavering hope. It is accompanied by Susan L. Marshall’s structural essay, Theatre Playscapes of Hope.
The Metaphysical Focus: Meticulously engineered to act as an emotional support, empowering individual autonomy, personal agency and resilience for the young adult performer.
The Luminous Mosaic Pathways
We construct literary labyrinths where fragments build into unexpected pathways. Moving seamlessly from the vastness of the macro-cosmos down to the microscopic intricacies of human emotion and the Romantic Spirit, these paths converge into a unified, radiant mosaic; ultimately revealing the hidden, metaphysical truth of the soul.
The journey is yours to chart in quietude. Choose your footing and step onto the pathway of our Grand Design that calls to your Romantic Spirit:
The Master Blueprints
The Vision: Uncover the sacred historical foundations, systemic models and architectural blueprints of our craft. Trace the very genesis of Soulful Formalism through our foundational breakthrough piece: A Decade Long Commitment to the Voices of Gozo. Chart the cosmic dualities of our unique Terrestrial and Celestial Formula and examine how our speculative craft is meticulously calibrated and applied to the metaphysical mystery and
small-town romance universe of Adira and the Dark Horse. Peruse our definitive, crowning Artistic Statement.
The Pathway: [Examine the Master Blueprints ]
The My Story Meadow Soulful Literary Salon
The Vision: Step into a living Renaissance circle to witness raw writing etudes, decode structural techniques and gather with global readers to unravel the mystery of emerging texts before they meet the printing press.
The Pathway: [Enter the Salon]
The Romantic Spirit Alight Readers’ Garden
The Vision: Step into a sanctuary of quietude. Bathe in the pure light of literary fragments curated from publications for human wellbeing and explore the realms of Romantic Academia that provide the ultimate muse for the author’s work.
The Pathway: [Enter the Garden]
Explore Our Speculative Craft
The Vision: Attune your spirit to our unique speculative craft, discovered deep within our labyrinths. Each publication stands as a shifting constant, transforming reading into an active, deeply personal meditation. Discover the mysterious spiritual journeys and truths held within our pages in our famous formal essays:
The Speculative Craft: The Literary Architecture of Soulful Formalism
Fragmentique: Susan L. Marshall’s Signature Technique.
The Pathway: [Explore our Speculative Craft]
Our International
Trade Network
The Vision: Honour the wisdom of trade that crosses many channels. Disembark at our historic Renaissance ports: a dignified, pressure-free space where commerce is treated as art, providing a serene harbour for you to collect your chosen illumination.
The Pathway: [Select a Harbour]
The Living Garland: The People’s Choice Laurels, 2026
The true narrative of our work is never complete until it is received. Here, we weave together the sacred echoes of our shared voyage: a collection of the most beloved fragments, chosen by the attentiveness of our global readership this year.
“Dipping my bare brush
into your garish gold eyes,
I draw your dreams close.
They dance divinely within,
sparking silhouettes alight.”
-Susan L. Marshall (2024): Harboured Love in Wild Soul: Contemporary Classical Winter Poetry.
“Now I inhale the air, the microcosmic particles of the earth and all that I tread upon. I keep inhaling, drawing in the fragments of time that we have both make shifted our ways through. Their presence, their fleeting moments, their courage, their truths, cannot ever be captured in a single breath.”
-Susan L. Marshall (2024): Adira and the Dark Horse.
VOTED #1
“The autumn leaves remind me of my own faded memories.
The leaves hold their own precious stories,
which drift about in the wind,
finding a new place to settle
and continue to exist.”
-Susan L. Marshall (2023): Fleur of Yesterday.
Published at Vocal Media, USA.
Photo credit: Allef Vinicius on Unsplash
“To be held again, to be touched, even through absence of presence, through his cardigan, unravels my heart. Somewhere in its life filmstrip, my heart’s beats have captured something special. A deep memory, a lingering love moment, a sensation, a passion, anything that I may dare face again.”
-Susan L. Marshall (2025): Whispers of My Deep Soul … If I Could Just Return … to the Love I know.
“Whispering wind,
a quiet breath
exhaled across years
of tiny fragments of light.
Glowing in the breeze,
like silent fireworks,
accentuating my wanders
through life’s debris.”
Susan L. Marshall (2025): Whispering Wind in Wild Soul: Contemporary Classical Winter Poetry.
“I look out at the beach
as night begins to fall.
Echoes of a time
still splash in my ears.
It is persistent,
gently prying into the
silver moon of my mind,
where the tide has come
to shore and wallows.”
-Susan L. Marshall (2024): Mind Time in Bare Spirit: The Selected Poems of Susan Marshall.
Published at Vocal Media, USA.
Photo credit: Nicolas Cool on Unsplash
“If spirits could speak, they would tell you that mine rose high that afternoon, almost double circling the air. A sign that the deep pounding of my desire was enough to catch and freeze for eternity. I was totally allured by the very presence and rawness of you, as you reached for my hand.”
-Susan L. Marshall (2025): Wild Love at Christmas Eve: A Romance.
“Echoes of life call to me,
like sparks of hope in the darkness.
Times of play and freedom …
“The trees we would climb,
higher and higher towards the sky,
releasing our dreams towards the heavens.”
-Susan L. Marshall (2023): All the Hope We Carry.
“We stare into each other’s eyes for a long moment, connecting through our ache, our longing for each other. I feel a tremendous pull towards him and a longing to be held close. Sliding down onto the floor, I feel him embrace me tightly and I place my head against his chest.
“I can hear Mitch’s heart pounding strongly. “My beautiful wife,” he says softly, stroking my hair. “I love you with all my heart.”
-Susan L. Marshall (2024): Adira and the Dark Horse.
“Her long hair maps out street marks desperately. They swirl in and out of existence, depending on her memory. Her strands are like candle wicks, which burn alight with hope as they shine, waiting for his mystery to reappear.”
-Susan L. Marshall (2025): Love’s Dying Road: A Romantic Metaphysical Fiction.
“Her hot flame melts the chill
as she draws me into her arms.
Her kiss a streak of lightening,
that electrifies my deep soul.
“Undoing my shirt buttons,
she strokes my chest alight.
A pure glow that wraps her
in my deeply aroused desire.”
-Susan L. Marshall (2025): Wild Love in Wild Soul: Contemporary Classical Winter Poetry.
Published at Vocal Media, USA.
Photo credit: Allef Vinicius on Unsplash
“The music intensifies, the drum beats now accompanied by Spanish guitar. A tune that tingles deep within, alighting my desire. Our eyes stare into each other’s, bodies tingling, raw and ready. Leaning closer, he presses his hips firmly against mine. I feel his heat, his desperation, his forbidden soul.”
-Susan L. Marshall (2025): Our Forbidden Love: Its Romantic Journey Home.
“I allow myself to believe
that I just might be that bird,
taking a small adventure
across my tiny island.
“I could have wings that soar,
high above the red stained streets
into a much calmer, brighter sky.”
-Susan L. Marshall (2023): All the Hope We Carry.
“The dress I seek cannot be found.
It is tucked away deeply inside
the constant flickering shadows
of my very absent mind.”
-Susan L. Marshall (2023): Fleur of Yesterday.
“Gritting my teeth with determination, I floor the engine again, trying to gain as much distance as I can away from Redfin. Third gear it is!
“The wind is even stronger now and I feel like my hair is going to fly off my head. A strong whipping sound bursts into my ears as I floor the accelerator again, engaging fourth gear. Nouveau Road is wide and long enough to take the truck and its speed for a little while.”
-Susan L. Marshall (2024): Adira and the Dark Horse.
Published at Vocal Media, USA.
Photo credit: Олег Мороз on Unsplash
“Fiercely wilful, Lori closes her eyes, refusing to acknowledge Coro’s darkness. His searing heat scorches her icy soul. His world is one that was unwanted by her and so she had outgrown it; her spirit thriving in the comfort of her iced cold life world. She had found a new way to exist, freeing herself from the controlling story lines and sketches. It is a peace that she has nurtured and clings to dearly.”
-Susan L. Marshall (2025): Lori’s Free Will … in a World of Ice and Fire.
“When you hold me close
I breathe in your special scent.
You are my sanctuary.”
-Susan L. Marshall (2024): My Beautiful Mother in Bare Spirit: The Selected Poems of Susan Marshall.
Published at Vocal Media, USA.
Photo credit: Nicolas Cool on Unsplash
“The assured nature of you, as you shared your spirit, Renauld, in that moment that you stepped closer to me; wiping rogue strands of my black hair away from my face. Your heat, your presence, my pounding soul. The sticky afternoon air. Do you remember how we merged with the breeze as you pressed your hips against mine and swayed steadily? Did the evocative jazz music, adrift in the wind, arouse you too?”
-Susan L. Marshall (2025): Wild Love at Christmas Eve: A Romance.
“Grasping hold of the stair case hand rail with both hands, I take a deep breath. It takes a lot of strength to lift my body weight off the balcony and swing it across to the staircase. Somehow, I succeed, landing my feet successfully on a single step.”
-Susan L. Marshall (2024): Adira and the Dark Horse.
“I could follow dusk always,
brushing it with stripes and dots
of simple beginnings
for us to share in time.”
-Susan L. Marshall (2024): Dusk Heart in Bare Spirit: The Selected Poems of Susan Marshall.
The Golden Apotheosis: The Gilded Ledger of Honours & Credentials
The Glistening Illuminations Awarded
Just as the master artisans of the Renaissance layered gold leaf upon their canvases to capture the light of the heavens, we ground our literary sanctuary in the permanent, gilded markers of global peer recognition. True craftsmanship is a sacred dialogue between the quiet vision of the studio and the enduring honor of the international academy.
These elite industry benchmarks, global best-seller seals and official institutional accolades stand as our golden pillars: proving that the rigorous, mathematical and artistic beauty of Soulful Formalism is celebrated at the highest echelons of contemporary classical art.
The Global Sweep: The Complete Catalogue
The Inscriptions: Securing dominant #1 through #6 Top Tier Placements across the global Goodreads Rankings of Significance for all published titles within the Romantic Academia spectrum (with Princess Zyra’s Lost Storm capturing the #1 Crown overall).