Rebel Traveler
The year is 1861. Dan Fields, a Corporal in Stonewall Jackson’s Rebel Army, is marching near Bath, Virginia. At the height of a blizzard, he touches the cross at his neck and remembers his Granny’s warning: “You won’t die in this war, but you may wish you had. You’ll be picked up by a powerful force and set down among outlanders.” Seeking refuge, he stumbles into a cave, and suddenly finds himself in 2010. Cold and starving, Dan takes shelter at the farm of beautiful Allie Johnson, who saves his life. But Dan has been followed into the future by his nefarious cousin, Dillon, who wants the cache of gold hidden by Dan during the War–and wants Dan’s girl as well. Dan must fight the effects of living in a time not his own, and in the process somehow neutralize his ruthless enemy from the past–or both he and his newly beloved may be swept away by the…REBEL TRAVELER.
Between River and Mountain
In 1861, sixteen-year-old ROB JOHNSON’S father and older brother are killed by the Yankees. Left alone, his main goal becomes saving the family farm in a mountainous border region of Virginia near the Potomac River. FANNIE is an ambitious beauty who wants Rob to help her carry messages from Southern sympathizers in Maryland to the Confederates. His childhood friend, NATE, who has no loyalty except to himself, finds that the war offers many opportunities for profit.
By fall, Rob realizes that defending the farm from raiding parties is hopeless and joins the Confederate Army. His adventures as a soldier lead him to LAURA, his first love. During Stonewall Jackson’s Bath-Romney campaign, Rob and his fellow soldiers are captured, then rescued by Rebel Rangers. Joining the Rangers, they tear up rail tracks and harass Federal supply lines.
Hearing that Laura is pregnant and stranded in Richmond, Rob sets off to find her. Along the way, he helps out a Quaker family. He becomes a conductor on the Underground Railroad in exchange for their assistance in locating Laura. When she has a baby girl, he doubts that the child is his and leaves them with the Friends. Because of his attraction to a Quaker woman, ABIGAIL, Rob finds that he is no longer welcomed by that community. She is married off to a church elder and he re-joins the Confederate Army. He never stops caring for Abigail, but when he hears she’s had a son, he thinks he’s lost her.
Rob and his comrades are captured and sent to Point Lookout Prison in Maryland. In 1864 they are forced to work in the smallpox “Pest House” and meet an Irish orderly, TIM, who helps them escape.
Returning home, Rob finds that Morgan County is controlled by hardline Northerners who are bent on settling scores and exacting revenge from their Rebel neighbors. He realizes his war didn’t end at Appomattox. Stripped of his civil rights, Rob fights to save his farm from confiscation and sale. Hearing that Laura and the little girl have smallpox, he helps them, but Laura dies. He promises to care for the child. Returning after the funeral, he finds that his farm has been sold at auction and is held by tenant farmers. Now he must deal with the duplicity of old friends, as well as his own failures. Rob struggles to regain his land and make a new life for himself and the child.
Wicked Women
If you’re poor in the hills of Appalachia and don’t have the skills to succeed in the 21st Century, what path is left? You do whatever it takes to survive. Survival, not always easy in hill country, is the common theme of these three stories from West Virginia.
WICKED WOMEN: When a man wrongs a women in these hills, there’s only one thing to do: get even. When you have no cash, no connections and no clout, this is hard. But, with the help of a little mountain magic and timeless rituals, these women find self-reliance, self-esteem, and best of all – revenge!
NOTHING MORE TO LOSE: Clint has never had a run of luck in his life. When his grandpap dies and is buried in the rocky ground, Clint is set adrift. Unable to find work, he resorts to robbing vacation homes along the Cacapon River shoreline. He meets Alison when she catches him robbing her uncle’s cottage. Her run of bad luck matches his own. She comes from a missionary family and sets out to save Clint, but this proves to be no easy task.
ROSIE AND MAC: Rosie, a young Italian girl planning to become a nun, and Mac, a shiftless Morgan County boy, are thrown together when a hot car delivery goes wrong. Running from the Mafia, they flee to the mountains. On his own turf, Mac easily eludes the mob. He’s attracted to Rosie, but realizes she won’t be interested in a guy like him. Their flight to safety is a West Virginia odyssey.
The Water Raiders
Dan Fields, the soldier swept through time from the Civil War to 2010 in Rebel Traveler, has settled into a new life with his wife Allie and their teenaged daughter Anna. Now, in 2028, the nation is gripped by severe drought. West Virginia is one of the few places which still has an abundance of water held deep in its mountain aquifers. Water is money, and money is power, so formidable forces collude to steal this resource and sell it to desperate customers far away. One faction of the water raiders is led by Dan’s cousin Dillon, a dangerous warlock with a gang of thugs. He works with other criminal masterminds — human and otherwise — to highjack Morgan County’s precious water.
Federal and state authorities cannot prevent the thefts, so the Fields family and their allies must act. An ancient tribe of Fey live in the mountains around Dan’s ancestral farm, and as guardians of the natural world they lend their magical powers to his cause. Dan’s daughter Anna has inherited the Fields’ family gift of knowing, and her power grows as she reaches adulthood. Spell work comes naturally to her, and her abilities attract the attention of a young Fey prince. As tension between the raiders and the defenders mounts, each side brings its own magical and strategic skills to the battle for the water.