Sounds of Moonlight 

Now Available: Click on Sounds of Moonlight link on my home page

This is a true event: In 1906 on the eve of Easter, three black men were hanged and burned on the town square in Springfield, Missouri.  Men, women, and children dismembered the bodies and stole their trophies.  There was never an explanation of how the mob got started in this small mid-western christian community.  The National Guard was called to restore order. There was a trial, but no convictions, and it was determined that no white person would ever be convicted of murdering a Negro, and so the matter was dropped. Why this happened is still a mystery, and undoubtably will always remain so.

This novel mixes fact with fiction. In 1906 there was very little animosity between Negros and whites in Springfield.  The black community was small in comparison, and there had been no hangings or murders of blacks in decades. How this happened will never be explained, but this story takes a different slant on hatred and prejudice.

Three children grow up together on neighboring farms just outside of Spingfield. Luke and Amber are white, and Levi is black, but becoming friends at such an early age left them unsuspecting of the real hatred that lay dormant in their youth. As they matured they became more aware of the bias that separated their lives, but they refused to acknowledge the bigotry, and instead flaunted their friendship, and this would be the catalyst that would send Levi into the hands of an angry mob. 

Now Available.  Under contract with PublishAmerica

Charlie's Hope

Charlie Stinson is a small Kansas boy with a few problems.  He's not growing just right and he can't seem to learn like other kids, but he has a good heart and a lot of courage.  He loses his family in a  flood and is sent to live with his uncle in the Ozark mountains.  Beryl Stinson, a bitter and brutal loner, has no interest in the boy and plans to put him in an orphanage, but Charlie misses his family and only wants to live with his uncle. The small community they live in rally around Charlie and ostrasize the old man, but he continues to live up to his intentions.  Beryl takes the boy to the orphanage on Thanksgiving day, but Charlie refuses to stay and runs away in the darkness of a snowstorm.  What happens on that night will change both their lives, and prove that the innocence of a child can be stronger than the hatred of an old man.