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The Painted Sand
2025 Storytrade Award Winner, Best Paranormal/Supernatural Fiction
We’re born. We live. We die. And usually in that order.
Or so Ruth Weber thinks before Death arrives at her hospice.
"I know you’re not afraid to die, but are you afraid to live?” he asks, setting off an irrevocable series of events which brings them both to the edge of eternal darkness.
Death is a man calling himself Mortimer Nach, and he has reasons for hanging a painting in her room that brings visions of her past…and of a life that was never truly her own. Angels and demons warn him not to go forward with his plans, but his mind is set. Death, you see, is not who he once was.
So begins a dying woman’s journey through the past she’s left behind and into the world she’s only dreamed of, and in the small time she has left, both will discover visions of themselves never thought possible. As the powers of Heaven and Hell converge on them, each begins to understand their journey’s end portends the joy and terrible costs of choices made, and of the sacrifices we’re willing to suffer for others in this thing called life.
The Painted Sand is a tale of love and pain, and of lines that become blurred.
Of the moments that make up our days from beginning to end.
But sometimes, endings aren't endings at all.
Sometimes, they're beginnings.
We’re born. We live. We die. And usually in that order.
Or so Ruth Weber thinks before Death arrives at her hospice.
"I know you’re not afraid to die, but are you afraid to live?” he asks, setting off an irrevocable series of events which brings them both to the edge of eternal darkness.
Death is a man calling himself Mortimer Nach, and he has reasons for hanging a painting in her room that brings visions of her past…and of a life that was never truly her own. Angels and demons warn him not to go forward with his plans, but his mind is set. Death, you see, is not who he once was.
So begins a dying woman’s journey through the past she’s left behind and into the world she’s only dreamed of, and in the small time she has left, both will discover visions of themselves never thought possible. As the powers of Heaven and Hell converge on them, each begins to understand their journey’s end portends the joy and terrible costs of choices made, and of the sacrifices we’re willing to suffer for others in this thing called life.
The Painted Sand is a tale of love and pain, and of lines that become blurred.
Of the moments that make up our days from beginning to end.
But sometimes, endings aren't endings at all.
Sometimes, they're beginnings.
356 pages, Kindle Edition
Published June 17, 2025
11 people are currently reading
8 people want to read
About the author
Joe Esposito
1 book16 followersGrowing up in Williamsburg, Brooklyn long before it became an "it" neighborhood, Joe Esposito was always an avid reader, stealing books off his older brother's shelves until he could afford his own. Working in his father's catering business from the age of twelve laid the groundwork for much of his life; this notion of working hard, playing hard, and giving something your best, honest effort. Although he never embarked on a writing career in the years that followed, scribbling some really bad poetry in college sparked an idea which never died out…this idea of putting thoughts and feelings to paper. And, yes, of getting better at it.
Having moved to Florida nearly two decades ago, working as a 911 Dispatcher laid bare the suffering of others, their misfortunes and problems, their tragedies, and ultimately on more days than one would care to remember, their mortality. Raising a family, and getting older himself, his life took a sudden turn during the Covid pandemic with the loss of family and friends back in New York. The idea of waiting for the right time to write quickly became an obscenely idiotic thing. Surrounded by death, yet wanting to feel hopeful, to never lose touch with the beauty and wonder of life, he began to write, quite literally becoming just a guy who wrote a book.
THE PAINTED SAND is his debut novel, an effort spanning years of his life and influenced by so many he's met, known, and loved. He still lives in Florida with his wife and youngest daughter, four cats and a dog, and can be found most days at his desk working on his next novel, in the kitchen whipping something up, or wandering around Florida.
Having moved to Florida nearly two decades ago, working as a 911 Dispatcher laid bare the suffering of others, their misfortunes and problems, their tragedies, and ultimately on more days than one would care to remember, their mortality. Raising a family, and getting older himself, his life took a sudden turn during the Covid pandemic with the loss of family and friends back in New York. The idea of waiting for the right time to write quickly became an obscenely idiotic thing. Surrounded by death, yet wanting to feel hopeful, to never lose touch with the beauty and wonder of life, he began to write, quite literally becoming just a guy who wrote a book.
THE PAINTED SAND is his debut novel, an effort spanning years of his life and influenced by so many he's met, known, and loved. He still lives in Florida with his wife and youngest daughter, four cats and a dog, and can be found most days at his desk working on his next novel, in the kitchen whipping something up, or wandering around Florida.
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August 8, 2025
great job
Joe you did an amazing job on this book. Keep at it it’s all uphill from here ! Congratulations again!
Joe you did an amazing job on this book. Keep at it it’s all uphill from here ! Congratulations again!
Displaying 1 of 1 review