Books

Shackled to My Father’s Sins

Can a person inherit the wickedness of an evil parent? Are we forever shackled to our father’s sins?

No one should know the answer to this better than nineteen-year-old Katherine Paddington. She finally sees an end to her own misery when her Uncle Ben is finally jailed for the murder of his brother. For the first time in her life Katherine feels free from the torment her Uncle Ben has been bringing to her life since she was a young child.

But, lurking in the coal mine shadows is none other than Ben Paddington’s very own son, Benny Bauguess.

After searching for her son’s daddy for twenty years, Benny’s mother, Trudy sees a mug shot on a news broadcast of her old boyfriend, Ben. Problem is Ben is in the state penitentiary in Wheeling, West Virginia. Trudy has not seen Ben since her son’s conception.

Benny and his mother begin a six-hundred-mile journey from Folly Beach, North Carolina to Wheeling, West Virginia to confront the scoundrel who left Trudy to raise her son on her own.

What does Benny Bauguess really want? His father’s love, or revenge on him and his wealthy family the Blackwell’s?

In this sequel to “In the Coal Mine Shadows”, Katherine Paddington knows she must start a new life after her Grandmother Mame and Grandfather Clint pass away, but will the coal mine shadows of her past with Uncle Ben control her future away from the hills of West Virginia?

Will Katherine succeed in making a new life for herself in North Carolina, away from the lies and deceit of her forefathers? Or, will the sins of yesteryear haunt her and her cousin Benny forever?

Click here to preview the first 3 chapters

Shackled to My Father’s Sins
$17.99


In the Coal Mine Shadows

In the Coal Mine Shadows is a gritty southern tale of Mame. After a coal mine explosion kills her father in 1922, young, pretty Mame Blackwell is anything but willing to accept her mother’s hardscrabble plan for farming burley tobacco in rural West Virginia. Mame soon finds out that trying to survive in a nearly deserted coal mining town, without a father in the early 1900’s is anything but easy. She’s got to find a way out of the sleepy little town of Beckley. Facing nothing but hard labor, Mame eagerly leaves on her first trip to Charleston. She meets tobacco heir Clint Paddington and sees her chance to move up in the world. While she connives to snare him, little does she know that Clint’s father, Paddy, also owns part of the deadly mine and has befriended her mother, further entangling the two families. But it is Mame’s wild, naive choices that expose both families to even deeper dangers for generations to come. Do children inherit the sins of their fathers? Are there dark forces that walk the earth? Enter lawless roustabout Jack Marsh, and watch the damage escalate as ambition and romance go awry, adding betrayal, kidnapping, rape, and even murder to the mining tragedy. Will Mame’s secrets push her to madness? Or will her solid roots in the coal mining country help her survive her mistakes? Or at least be forgiven of them?

In the Coal Mine Shadows, softcover edition
$14.95





The River Keeper

In 1940 eight-year-old Callie Mae McCauley and her family lead a simple, yet full life in the heart of the Blue Ridge Mountains in a small town called, Mouth of Wilson.

Little does Callie know she’ll never see her family again when she climbs the hill to stand on the rise above her house to get a better look at the New River. Heavy rains have her running bank full. What Callie witnesses that day will forever change her life. Orphaned at eight she must go and live with her Granny Jane. Callie loves her Granny, but she doesn’t know if she loves her enough to live with her full time.

Callie soon realizes that the shock of what’s happened to her has stolen her voice. She can’t speak. A new neighbor, Chloe Combs, and a swarm of honeybees help Callie find her tongue. A friendship between the two begins. Callie thinks Miss Chloe is peculiar, but she soon finds out that Chloe may be her only friend when her mean uncles come to claim their share of Granny Jane’s property.

Greed seeps its way into the mountains when Callie’s uncles try to retain ownership of their Ma’s twelve acres that lie on both sides of the New River. They have a plan, and they won’t let anything, or anyone stand in their way, not even their niece Callie.

When Callie ends up in an orphanage, she soon finds out that there are a lot of children in this world in worse shape than she is. But a mountain girl can’t be held inside walls of plaster and wood. A mountain girl’s got to smell the earth and feel it under her feet. She’s got to converse with the birds and listen as the river makes sweet music in her ears.

Finally at the orphanage she strikes up a friendship with a crippled boy named Hackney, and a mysterious girl named Anna. Their adventure to save the river from being dammed up by a Hydroelectric Plant begins.

Readers will fall in love with The River Keeper. You’ll experience the rich dialect of the people from Appalachia, and ride the swift rapids of adventure into the worrisome life of Callie Mae McCauley. Callie knows a girl’s got to be leathery, or she’ll be tore to pieces by the weight of all her troubles and trials.

Click here to download and read the first 30 pages of The River Keeper

The River Keeper

Soft cover edition.

$14.95


The Manger Mouse

What really happened the night Jesus was born?

Matty’s mother tells him he will take part in the most important thing to ever happen in history. Why him, a meek and lowly stable mouse? All Matty the manger mouse wants to do is snuggle into the warmth of his mother and fall asleep, but the Creator of the world has another plan for him. Will the little stable mouse surrender to his own needs or bow to the will of the Savior?

Children and adults will be touched by Matty’s brave little heart. As the story of that first Christmas unfolds, come join Matty and all the other stable dwellers, portrayed in lush and charming pastel illustrations.

The Manger Mouse, hardcover

$16.99


The Color of My Heart

Living in the foothills of North Carolina, Laura Carter has it all: a nice home, wonderful adoptive parents, two lovely teenage daughters, and a to-die-for handsome husband. As they celebrate freedom on the Fourth of July, she’s certain that nothing could ever shatter her perfect American life: Or could it?

An unexpected letter from her great-grandmother brings Laura face-to-face with her birth family. At their first, shocking meeting, she receives a stack of diaries that trace a heartbreaking voyage from Africa to Jekyll Island, Georgia, via a slave ship. Thanks to the missionary who lived with her ancestors in Africa and taught them how to speak and write English, Laura holds in her hands a gripping record of their lives.

Could the realities of her mixed-race heritage destroy her family? Laura tries to live honorably, but her husband resists, and daughter Lakin has her own secrets. Lurking in the shadows is a small group called the brethren. The brethren’s dirty deeds are meant to preserve the purity of race in a South that still wears old patches of hate. Will they succeed in chopping down Laura’s family tree, or will the newest branches have a better chance at peace and acceptance in a more open-minded South?

Click here to download and read the first two chapters of The Color of My Heart!

The Color of My Heart, softcover edition

$14.95


Guardian Spirit

A little girl’s world should be all sugar and spice and everything nice, but that is not the case for twelve-year-old Sadie Madison. She, her mother Millie, and little brother Sammy have all felt the strong hand of Brad, Sadie’s abusive father. After many failed attempts, they escape to the childhood playground of Millie. From Texas to North Carolina, they travel to the cabin in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains, back to the memories that were left behind when Millie’s mother left with her over twenty years before.

Millie longs for her cherished Grandma Ann, but can she risk contacting her? Brad might be watching. Besides, her grandmother hasn’t even looked for her, has she? She might not even care anymore. Will their lost spirits find a way to reconnect? How long can Millie hide her family before Brad finds them? And what horrible things will he do to them if he does? The image of five-year-old Sammy’s battered face flashes before Millie, fueling her resistance and determination. Who or what can save them? They need a miracle.

As the summer of 1968 comes to a close, Millie knows they can’t winter at the cabin. It would be much too dangerous with only the fireplace for heat. The children need to be in school, and she has to find a doctor to renew her prescription. She can’t risk doing without her cancer drug. Once Brad finds his family though, all Millie’s other worries become insignificant.

In the local town, the Cherokee medicine woman Nyoaka feels their presence and the upcoming arrival of, the evil one. She has the gift of visions. She knows that her grandson Doctor Lewis Townsend will at long last come to the end of his trail of tears. With this new family he will find forgiveness and healing if they, especially the girl Sadie, also believe. Sadie, too, has the magic.

The Madisons walk as the proud Indians did all those years ago on their horrible Trail of Tears. Millie, Sadie and Sammy willingly leave their home to escape torture; the Cherokees were forced out of their homes and into the torment. Both tribes endure suffering and humiliation, neither deserving. The Madisons believe in guardian angels. The Cherokee believe in the Guardian Spirit. Are they one and the same? Can the Madison family survive the clash of wills as good collides with evil? How can the painful tears of yesteryear become tears of joy for the Cherokee? Can a long overdue reunion of souls bestow a miracle of healing? A journey that started 130 years ago will finally come to an end.

Sadie’s Indian name is, Wakanda, which means possessor of magic power. Will this young girl be able to harness that power in time to help the Guardian Spirit save them? Yes!

Guardian Spirit, softcover edition ? $14.95

Click here to download and read the first 5 chapters from the book!

In the Press…

Guardian Spirit mentioned in an article about Domestic Violence in Ms. Magazine!

Watch the Guardian Spirit book trailer!

YouTube Preview Image