Prelude to Alvina and Jed

California 1901

It was a dusty old room, musty and stale. The floorboards creaked and heaved underfoot something terrible, but you know... with a room full of dancers and a fiddle or two playing one never notices these things. Jedidiah loved to dance. That is with me only and in the shelter of our own home.

Jedidiah, I miss him so. His name means 'beloved of the Lord', or 'blessing', the name given to King Solomon, of course King Solomon - the second son of King David. Jed was certainly a blessing to me. I loved him so.

We never made an issue or really thought much of it - the fact that our skin colors are different. I only noticed the softness in Jed's dark eyes, the gentleness of his hand and the love he gave me. Only in the presence of more than one African American did I see how pale my skin was - as pale as the dough to make bread, inherited from my English ancestors.

My ancestors were a slender, thin bunch with long oval shaped faces and that long, linear nose. The shape one sees in so many of those old paintings. In my youth my hair seemed to fade into some sort of yellow-beige. You know, from warm summers out of doors or plodding in the garden patch. But as I got older it dulled into non-descript brown, absent of any particular character. That is before turning this silvery-white... I say with a subtle sigh.

That was fifty-six years ago... or sixty. My memory slips easily these days. Sometimes I don't know if my thoughts are dreams or actual memories. Jed nudges me from heaven and tells me "to get the story right".

"Yes, dear. But look Jed, see how your grandson wins over the room." I have to feel pride. David, our first born, turned out to be everything we wanted in a child. His son, Matthew, turned out the same, a practical and honest man that runs the farm well...

P.S. As soon as I wrote: Jed nudges me from heaven and tells me to get the story right - well, I knew I had Alvina's story to tell. The words that form prose are given to me from heaven above. I have felt this gift of creativity from as far back as I can remember.

Alvina and Jed

At this time I am only 50 pages into writing this book about an inter racial couple in 1840, but am pounding out the pages. My sister provided me with the idea of this story from a dream she had. She could see the California ranch in her dream and their well admired son dressed up at a masquerade ball.
I'm also pushing Compensation to Rausi - searching for an agent, re-writing, tweaking and just plain driving myself nuts. A perfectionist thing.

Free-spirited Alvina crosses the boundaries of civilized standards in pre-Civil War Philadelphia when she falls in love outside her European race. As a debutant in the house of her aunt and uncle she becomes fascinated with the stable groom. Jed, orphaned from birth, is a free man. However, having never known his parents he hasn't a clue to his age. But Jed has ideas of his own, dreams of the far west, of owning a ranch and being liberated from socialized restrictions. Together these two teenagers battle corrupt slave hunters, pass through the Underground Railroad, battle elements of nature and the hard Oregon Trail in search of a dream.

Alvina and Jed is an epic adventure narrated through the eyes of Alvina. Through their struggles to tame the land, and their undying love for their children, these pioneers pave the way for the next generation to thrive.

Courtiers

Groomed for his position as knight with England's finest in the year 1411, Sir Michael Berkeley of Gloucestershire achieves a cherished dream as guard to his majesty King Henry IV. Within months of initiation his world is turned upside down by a golden haired beauty that is new to the court of Lancaster. Seventeen year old Daphne, betrothed to ill-tempered Lord Smythe of Oxfordshire.

Sir Michael and Lady Daphne swiftly fall hopelessly in love under the veil of secrecy - as ill-fated courtiers in the king's court. Sir Michael is then called away to Calais by orders of Prince Harry. The prince's attempt is to out maneuver his father, the king, in order to gain the throne. Daphne then realizes she can no longer stay safely within the walls of Windsor. Within a year her life falls into deep despair as Lord Smythe's wife in a house of dark secrets.

In late summer of 1415 Daphne meets a wealthy older woman from near Stroud in Gloucestershire. Can this mysterious woman who cares so much for Daphne's well being help before its too late? Or are the woman's efforts to late as word from France and the battle of Agincourt seem gravely discouraging.

Follow this epic escapade of two young people searching to find their way through a maze of traumatic events unavoidable to basic survival in harsh medieval England.

Blue on Blue

Blossoming young love tugs on heart strings like no other.

Sadly Sophia doesn't seem to get a break in life, being born into a struggling family with a father that lives on disability - from a farming accident that took the use of his legs. It doesn't help going to school with the rich kids from Kentucky's horse plantations.

Set amidst miles of black fence stretching across Kentucky's thoroughbred country, wealthy plantation kids taunt and nearly break Sophia her senior year. Until Cody Masterson, star quarterback of the football team - and eldest son of the prestigious Masterson horse farm - intervenes. He sees a beautiful girl cowering behind the veil of sadness and wants to do more to help.

But after graduation new challenges arise. With a football scholarship in hand Cody leaves for football camp at University of Kentucky. Sophia is left alone to rise above the ashes left in the wake of her brother Jimmy's horrible disaster. Can she pull herself up after graduation? Will she ever find true love again?