INSIDE COVER: BLOOD RIBBONED COVENANT Philosophically, ribbons are long or narrow strips which stretch the length of our time on earth. Often, these threads mark beginnings or ends in our relationships. The beginnings are fashioned by the promises we make and the ends on how we fulfill them. Some start relationships amid laughter and others with tears. Yet, each draws a line between one's self-centered past and the giving of one's self, in hope that light shines through our flesh and bones elegantly. Even if, later, we face flutters and flickers in our destinies. During life, our faces are alive with promises richly sustained by returned promises of others. This is the birthplace of our covenants. Such was a covenant forged by James Harold "Rudy" Blanco and Anne Maria Shephard. A na ve bond of love which was severely tested. Theirs were ties appearing to endure a lifetime, no matter how flailed in the fire of fate. Somewhere along the line, fate forced upon Anne Maria a decision to marry the ambitious attorney who later emerged the Mayor of New York. James could have walked away and pretended to forget Maria, but he did not. In a big metropolitan city such as New York, powers lurk behind all misdeeds, mayhem, and murders. Two, career minded, warring women played a great part in this James was a knife thrower who fitted the profile of a murderer. The powers that be promised to deliver swift justice on the accused until Hercules offered to save his tarot-gypsy-mother from crying over her son's innocent and lifeless grave. Hercules Johnson, himself, was a disgraced protagonist with problems of his own. Does he stand a chance against the trusted, four-term Mayor or those powerful people financing his campaigns? What happens to the love of two lives and everyone connected to them? What if we added powerplays by two competing visceral women? We know, where there are covenants, there are blood sacrifices Would their pains pass in the end? Would there be a better future for Rudy and Maria if they hold on to love or power and did not cut the ribbon? Let us trace the vicious splatter and viscous threads in Blood Ribboned Covenant