A local author has just published a novel that’s been years in the making. Elizabeth Isola used to work with children on the Tohono O’odham Nation, formerly known as the Papago Indian Reservation. One day, Isola said she was driving to Phoenix when she had a vision of sorts.

“It superseded over the road,” Isola said. “There were just pages of manuscript.”

Isola said the image didn’t last very long but it still had a profound effect on her.

“I told my husband when I got home,” Isola said. “My husband said to get out the computer and start writing.”

Isola did just that and started putting to paper the story that would eventually become “My Name is Aribaal,” a novel that takes place in ancient times, around 850 B.C., when Egyptian pharaohs ruled the sands and Phoenicians ruled the seas.

For the full story, see the Wednesday, Jan. 23, edition of the Cottonwood Journal Extra.