Three divergent paths leading each of them to Alaska.
One common goal — Leave unhappy pasts behind and forge new futures in the land known as the New Frontier.
Join them, in these three stand-alone novels, on their journeys to Alaska — a land where love and legends come to life.
Breaking Free Series
Three stand-alone novels tell the stories of twin girls and their older brother as each struggles to find their own way and create their own paths to happiness after growing up in a dysfunctional family. Forced to bond together as children, now each must independently overcome the challenges facing them as adults.
Appalachian Gold
Searching for love and legends in the North Georgia Mountains
An unexpected inheritance from a distant relative in Georgia launches Adam Sanders on a quest to find his roots and self-fulfillment. A chance encounter on a mountain trail with Jordana Lasher and her son Jeremiah sets him on a path where native love and legends become intertwined. Using clues from the past to guide them, they discover that a variety of secrets can be hidden in the earth. The Southern Appalachian Mountains provide a spectacular and scenic backdrop for their journey.
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Colors Of Alaska
Three different women.
Three dissimilar backgrounds.
Three divergent paths leading each of them to Alaska.
One common goal — Leave unhappy pasts behind and forge new futures in the land known as the New Frontier.
This boxed set of three full-length novels blending romance, suspense and mythology can be purchased for about half the price of purchasing them individually.
Meagan Turner is the first to arrive. Abandoning a career that had become unfulfilling, she finds herself in a world completely different than the one she left behind. A world where she has trouble telling what’s real and what isn’t.
Diane Taylor joins her friend Meagan to pursue a new life and career. Her past catches up with her, forcing her to forego her independence and seek help from others. When she finally allows herself to fall in love, life threatens to take it all away.
Alicia Scallan just wants to get away and forget about what happened in high school. Slowly she learns to trust and risk her heart again. A journey into Alaska’s interior teaches her what is truly important in life.
Join them on their journeys to Alaska — a land where love and legends come to life.
Judging Jordan
Coming Soon
A loner by choice, Jordan Lassiter hasn’t spoken to either of his parents in thirteen years. He thinks he is content simply using his prolific computer skills in his role as a CIA agent. When he rescues Feliciana Castro from an attempted assault, he discovers what has been lacking in his life. What he hadn’t realized is how his job would put his newly found happiness in jeopardy.
Excerpt from Chapter 1
Jordan stood on the fringe of the open space. Moonlight broke through the clouds, illuminating the surroundings. A young girl with a gag over her mouth was tied to a tree. Three men stood nearby, a blanket spread out on the ground in front of them. They passed a bottle of orujo back and forth. Each took big swallows, bolstering their courage for what was to come. He looked closer at the men. They wore uniforms of the local police.
Cursing under his breath at his bad luck, Jordan vanished back into the trees and quietly communicated his intent to his two colleagues. They unrolled the mask portion of their balaclava hats and pulled them down. Now, only their eyes and mouth were visible.
Jordan walked into the clearing. No one noticed him. The men were focused on their drinking, and the girl’s head drooped down. She seemed resigned to her fate. He stopped about twenty feet away from the men and uttered a single word in Spanish. He didn’t yell. He didn’t need to. The command in his voice carried loud and clear.
“¡Basta!” Enough!
The girl’s head snapped up. She stared at him. He didn’t look at her. His attention stayed focused on the three men in front of him, watching for their reaction.
The biggest of the three, a sergeant according to the insignia on his uniform, looked at him for a moment. His large gut, barely concealed by a shirt struggling to contain it, hung over his trousers. A leer spread across his face as he handed the bottle to one of the others and took a step towards the intruder.
“You! Do not interfere. You have no business here. This is a police matter.”
“Funny. It doesn’t look like a police matter, and I’m making it my business.”
The sergeant pulled a revolver from a holster on his belt. He no sooner did than two red dots appeared, one centered on his forehead and the second on his heart. The other two policemen saw the dots and knew what they meant; their sergeant was targeted by infrared scopes mounted on high-powered rifles. They moved away from him and looked around for the source.
“Drop the pistol or you are a dead man,” Jordan said. The threat was unmistakable.
Healing Hayley
Hayley Lassiter is a beautiful young woman on the run. She doesn’t know where she’s going, but she’s desperate to get away. A chance encounter with Ryan McCarthy, and the terrifying events they both witness, sets her life on a different course. Just when she thinks she’s found the love and future she so desperately desires, fate throws her yet another curve. She finds herself a victim of the greed of a multi-billion-dollar corporation. Determined to never give up, it will take every bit of courage she can find to overcome the obstacles placed in her path.
As Hayley and Ryan surveyed the surroundings, the little girl impatiently shifted from foot to foot. She snapped her fingers and pointed to a door on the back wall. She went behind the counter and indicated they should follow her. Opening the door, she slipped inside. After hesitating for a few seconds, they went through the door.
This room was much smaller and darker. A window on one wall was covered by heavy red drapes. The door closed behind them and the room plunged into blackness. A candle flared to life, it’s flickering light dimly illuminating the round wooden table upon which it rested. An old woman sat behind the table. A dark scarf framed a face creased with wrinkles. Long silver earrings dangled from her ear lobes. She was wrapped in a deep purple robe embellished with gold symbols. Her arms were spotted with age marks and her hands gnarled, but she still managed to shuffle a deck of cards. Despite her obvious age, her dark eyes sparkled brightly in the candlelight. She pointed to two chairs sitting across the table from her and gestured for the couple to take a seat. They silently obeyed. When they were seated, the old woman continued to shuffle the cards without saying a word. The only sound, besides the ruffling of the cards, was the occasional squeak of a ceiling fan slowly rotating overhead.
This is all getting just too spooky, Hayley thought to herself. I’m definitely curious, but I wonder if maybe we’d better leave. The woman stopped shuffling the cards and stared directly at her. When she finally spoke, her voice crackled, sounding as ancient as her appearance looked.
“You have nothing to fear from me, my dear Hayley Lassiter. I am only here to help you find your true way on the journey that lies ahead of you.”
“Who are you? How do you know my name?”
“My name is Josephina, and I know many things. How I know them is not what is important. What is important is what you will do with what I am about to share with you.”
Ryan didn’t say anything, content for the moment to simply observe the interaction between Hayley and Josephina. Because of his Irish upbringing, he readily accepted the existence of entities that most Westerners disavowed or condemned. Despite his belief in Catholicism, he also believed in witches and faeries and all sorts of creatures. I wonder if this woman is a witch? The moment the question formed in his mind, he found himself the recipient of her attention.
“No, Ryan McCarthy, I am not a witch. I am a seeress. I have the ability to see things most people cannot. Here, let me have your hand.”
Guarding Genny
A plane crash killed Genny Stevens’ husband. Two years later, the insurance company claims the crash was no accident and demands their money back. Taylor Coleman, a private investigator hired to prove her husband’s innocence, soon finds himself trying to protect Genny and her two young sons, because someone has a different plan for her – a plan that doesn’t include her staying alive. Pitted against the resources of a billion-dollar-a-year corporation with secrets to conceal, and trying to straddle the worlds of mysticism and reality, Genny wonders if help from any source can possibly arrive in time.
The private jet took off from Denver and began the ascent to an assigned cruising altitude of 35,000 feet on its scheduled flight to Houston. The pilot, Tom Hawthorne, turned to his co-pilot shortly after the wheels were up.
“Looks like a pretty smooth flight ahead today.”
He switched on the intercom to the cabin
“Is everything okay back there?”
Robert Stevens, one of the three corporate employees on the flight, looked around the cabin. His two traveling companions had already reclined their seats and their eyes were closed.
“Everything’s fine. My cohorts are grabbing a little shuteye. I’ll probably join them shortly.”
“I’d like to do the same, but someone has to drive the bus.” Tom jokingly replied.
He had just switched off the intercom when the bomb in the cockpit went off. With a flash of light and a thunderous noise, the powerful explosion blew off most of the plane’s nose. Both pilots were killed instantly, although it really didn’t matter whether they were alive or not because the Gulfstream IV was no longer capable of flying. With all controls and communication equipment destroyed, the plane’s forward momentum ceased. It nosed over, turned into an unguided missile, and dove straight down more than 17,000 feet before hitting the ground at a speed of over 500 miles per hour. The plane buried itself into a deep crater, and the recently filled fuel tanks erupted in an enormous fireball. If there was any consolation at all for the three passengers still alive in the back, it was that the time from the initial explosion to impact was mercifully brief.
Green Skies
Alicia Scallan flees a devastating relationship in California looking for a new start in Homer, Alaska. Her solitude is interrupted when she finds herself embroiled in a mystical quest. Entering into an alliance with Barry Mitchell, a young man with an even more troubled background than hers, the two embark on a life-changing journey into Alaska’s interior. With guidance from a Native American shaman she learns what is truly important in life must begin within.
That night Alicia dreamed she was outdoors in a vast, open space. It was nighttime, and the sky was completely filled with stars. There was no moon, but she was still able to make out her surroundings clearly, in large part due to the bright, flickering starlight that reflected off of the wintry landscape.
She was dressed warmly, seemingly unaffected by the cold temperatures of the night air that enveloped her. She exhaled, and her breath was visible as a white vapor. She cautiously took a step. The top layer of the snow crackled, but her boots did not break through the icy crust. In spite of the frozen landscape, it felt to her as if she were walking on a giant sponge; the ground seemed to give way, silently absorbing each footstep.
She was completely alone and had no idea where she was, yet she was strangely unafraid. She thought she heard a noise in the distance and stopped, cocking her head and listening intently. She heard no further sounds, not even the wind, and resumed walking.
In the distance she could see the jagged silhouettes of mountains jutting up as if reaching skyward in a desperate attempt to escape the earth’s grasp. The twinkling starlight that bounced off of the snow-capped peaks served as a beacon, drawing her towards them.
There. She heard the noise again. She focused her attention in the direction from which she thought it had come. Finally she was able to make out the outline of a large bull caribou standing about a hundred yards in front of her. The animal stood still, watching her intently. Her hand immediately went to her chest, and she was reassured to feel the fox necklace she wore around her neck. The caribou remained motionless, staring at her as if waiting for her to make up her mind.
She walked towards him, and the caribou patiently waited. When she was only a few feet away, he turned and slowly began leading her in a different direction than the one in which she had originally been heading. As they moved across the barren landscape, the animal periodically looked back, making sure she continued to follow him, before resuming his steady pace.
Blue Ice
Diane Taylor is at a crossroads when a job in Homer, Alaska catapults her life in a new direction. Taking up where her friend Meagan Turner left off, she tries to separate fact from fiction as she struggles to fulfill the mystical quest she is given. She joins forces with Mark Freeman, but someone else has a different future in mind for her. Has she come this far in her search for happiness only to find what she wants most has been cruelly ripped from her grasp?
Shawana lay on the bed. She had appeared ancient the first time they met, but she had aged considerably since then. She gestured for all of them to pull up chairs and sit beside her and then took Meagan’s hand in hers.
“So you have fulfilled the first part of the prophecy. When I first saw you, I knew you were the one and that you would be successful. When you found the heart by the river, I saw it happen in my mind.”
She shifted her gaze to David.
“And this is your salmon lover to whom you have given your heart. In doing so, you returned his heart to him. I also saw it when you rescued the young girl child from your sister the bear.”
Her attention moved to Diane.
“And you, what is your totem?”
“I thought it must be the wolf, but lately I’ve been finding myself being pulled by the beaver.”
“And what brings you here at this time?”
“Last night I dreamed I was here with you, but the reason I’m here in Alaska is to fulfill my own purpose by helping others discover theirs.”
As the words poured forth from her mouth, Diane was astonished to find they rang true. She had intended to say she had come for Meagan’s wedding.
Shawana gave a slight nod of approval.
“You are both the wolf and the beaver. You will require the power and assistance of both totems on your journey ahead.”
She sighed deeply as if trying to gather more energy before continuing.
“Now I must entrust the two of you with more of the prophecy, for it is your destiny to continue on the path without me from this point forward.”
Black Diamonds
Meagan Turner’s cruise to Alaska takes an unexpected turn when she finds herself caught up in fulfilling a legend to reunite two Native American lovers. When David Solomon, the man she saw in a dream, appears in real life, she is faced with a choice. The path she pursues leads her on a journey of self-discovery and exploration testing her courage and willingness to follow her heart. The town of Homer provides a scenic setting for a captivating tale of romance and intrigue.
She was standing near a river, amid a scattering of pine trees set back a short way from the river’s bank. Although it was the middle of the day, the sky was dark as storm clouds moved rapidly overhead, propelled by the wind. As she watched, a raven flew towards her from the far side of the river. It was carrying something in its talons although from the distance she couldn’t tell what it was.
A bolt of lightning lit up the sky and snaked its way down towards the ground, striking a large pine across the river. The crack of thunder was instantaneous. A wisp of smoke arose from the tree and small flames could be seen.
When she looked up again whatever the raven had been carrying was no longer visible. The bird dove down to the shore and frantically flew in circles trying to locate its lost cargo. After several unsuccessful attempts, it flew directly towards her. Its frenzied cry assaulted her ears as it circled her once and then flew back towards the shore. When she didn’t move it repeated the process several times, each time amplifying its calls and its efforts. Finally, it flew off into the distance.
As the rain enveloped her she looked up to the sky. She couldn’t tell if the wetness on her face was from the rain or the tears streaming down her cheeks. Meagan awoke with a start. She felt the dampness on her pillow and her face. What a strange dream she thought to herself. I wonder what it meant. Glancing at the clock she saw it was only 4 am as she turned over and settled in to an uneasy sleep.
Appalachian Gold
An inheritance from a distant relative in Georgia launches Adam Sanders on a quest in search of his roots and self-fulfillment. A chance encounter on a mountain trail with Jordana Lasher and her son Jeremiah sets him on a path where native legends and love become intertwined. Using clues from the past to help guide them, they discover that a variety of secrets can be hidden in the earth. The Southern Appalachian Mountains provide a spectacular backdrop for their journey.
Jordana Lasher stared at the computer screen as if by doing so she could will it to change. Despite her efforts, the bottom line in the spreadsheet she had created remained the same. As near as she could calculate it, she had approximately six more months before she would hit the wall. Even if she cut her already meager expenditures for entertainment and recreation for her and her son Jeremiah back, it would make no difference. If nothing changed, she would have to sell the vineyard at that point. When that happened, the dreams she and her husband had shared, and those of his parents before him, would vanish as if they never existed. She didn’t know how she could stand for that to happen.
Intellectually, she knew it wasn’t her fault. But that didn’t make her feel any better. And how was she supposed to tell Jeremiah that all the time and effort they had spent trying to make the vineyard become a reality were over. Even worse, how would she explain that the only tangible thing left of his father would soon be gone because when the vineyard was sold they would have to find somewhere else to live. If they could only manage to hold on for another two years she could make it work, but figures didn’t lie and there was no way to last that long. Besides, once the first harvest finally did come in, their expenses would have to increase significantly when they at last began the actual winemaking process. Sighing, she again thought back to how she had reached this point.
