Novels

Bear Creek was my first novel and still my favorite of the five novels. A
quixotic Methodist pastor arrives in Michigan's Upper Peninsula during
prohibition to replace the previous pastor who is now weaving baskets in a
downstate sanitarium. The new pastor is tormented by a beaver with ADHD
and a congregation divided by prohibition. The women of the church are
determined to stamp out all traces of alcohol. The also expect the new
pastor to run the "Ollies" out of town. Polly, Molly, and Dolly collectively
known as the "Ollies" have no last names or visible means of support
leading the women of the church to think they are "soiled doves." (96,302
words)

Cold Turkey is a bit of a sequel to Bear Creek. The time is the present. The
protagonist is a descendent of the main characters in Bear Creek. Like
Bear Creak, this is a humorous novel, but also a political satire. An LBJ
style Democratic president is convinced by the CIA that Finland is trying to
claim Michigan's Upper Peninsula as a Finnish colony. The president
declares war on the U.S. and attacks the Upper Peninsula. The Yoopers, as
the natives refer to themselves, repulse the invasion in twenty-four hours
without firing a shot. (74,302 words)

Miracle in Cade County was to be a Nicholas Sparks style love story; but,
after I killed my third person, my friends told me I could no longer call it a
love story. I guess I will have to settle for a mystery with romantic
overtones. In the story, a man with a ski mask brutally rapes the
protagonist and then intimidates the protagonist into accusing her
boyfriend of the rape. He serves five years in prison and returns to find
his old girlfriend with a four-year-old daughter—the product of the rape.
When the rapist tries to silence the protagonist by killing her, she must
turn to her old boyfriend for help, which begs the question: Is the old
boyfriend's love stronger than his hate? (66,888 words)

Super Mensa is a novel that pits the power of money against the power of
knowledge. Mensa is an organization of intellectuals who have I.Q.s in the
top two percent. Within Mensa is a subgroup of individuals (fictional) with
I.Q.s too high to measure. They have I.Q.s that are one in three million. They
are the Albert Einsteins and the Isaac Newtons of our day. They are the
Super Mensa. Anastasia Petrova, a twenty-three-year-old Russian nuclear
geneticist, is one of the elite who is forced to match her wits against the
power of an international drug and arms peddler's vast financial empire.
The world is their stage, and the fate of a young infant is their prize. (92,942
words)

Chogan and the Gray Wolf occurs 100 years B.C. (Before Columbus) and
life is good for ten-year-old Chogan until a Grizzly bear terrorizes their
Indian village along the southern shore of Lake Superior. Their wigwams
are crushed under the bear's massive weight, and precious strips of meat
hung on racks to dry are destroyed. Despite the danger Chogan ventures
into the forest of virgin white pine to check his snares and discovers an
orphaned wolf cub. Chogan adopts the young wolf cub knowing the wolf
must be returned to the wild at the end of the summer. The wolf cub grows
to adulthood, and the time comes when Chogan and the wolf must part
ways. Even after returning to the wild, the wolf doesn't forget his friend.
Chogan had saved the cub's life, and now it is time for the wolf to return
the favor.

This novel is a unique hybrid between fiction and non-fiction. Interspaced
among the pages of historical fiction are eight one-page essays with
captivating line drawings by Julie Mowen. Each essay covers a cultural
event or skill essential to survival in early America. A dedicated web site
with color photographs provides further detail to each essay. To see
sample web pages click here. (50,000 words)

Chogan and the White Feather is the second in the Chogan interactive
historical novel series. The village bullies continue to torment Chogan and
Kanti, and in a moment of anger, Kanti challenges Ahanu and Tarragon to a
canoe race. The two bullies are bigger and stronger than Chogan and Kanti.
It will be a race Chogan and Kanti have no chance of winning. But the race is
the least of Chogan's worries. Kanti develops blood poisoning from a cut on
her hand, and Mother and Grandfather do not expect her to survive the night.
Only Migizi, the bald eagle spirit, can save her. Migizi is the family totem
and protector of the clan. To save Kanti's life, Chogan must obtain one of
Migizi's tail feathers, and that will require venturing where he most fears to
tread.