About the Books

Shining Water’s world was changing.

When the Lakota girl was just a baby, her mother died from a disease brought by white settlers. Now, her father, the son of a Lakota medicine woman and a Scots fur trapper, has married a homesteader. And he expects Shining Water to leave her grandmother’s tipi to live with him in the white woman’s sod house.

When the Chokecherries Bloom is Shining Water’s story – a year in the life of a Lakota girl on the Dakota plains. A year of growth and transformation as she learns to adapt and thrive in her new world.

Although When the Chokecherries Bloom was written for younger readers, almost anyone can relate to the challenges that Shining Water faces.

The Civil War ripped the state of Missouri in half – just as it ripped apart the nation.

After their parents died, Charlotte Ward’s brother enlisted in the Union Army against her wishes. Disguised as a Union soldier, she followed him into battle, determined to bring him home. Lizzy Ward remained on the farm, at the mercy of Bushwhackers and Jayhawkers who terrorized the Missouri countryside in the name of revenge.

Their world in tatters, the sisters journey to Dakota Territory to leave the past behind.

But the war follows them to the frontier.

Medicine Creek Claim is the story of two courageous sisters who start new lives on the Dakota frontier. Each in her own way finds a new purpose, a new life and a new love.

Medicine Creek Claim is the third book in the award-winning series “On the Dakota Frontier.”

Like many Americans, Civil War widow Katie Rose Kelly was determined to build a new life for herself after the devastation of war. She was drawn to the Dakota frontier, where she claimed 160 acres and became a sheepherder.

But that was just the beginning of her journey.

As a woman alone on the wide-open prairies, she fought nature as well as powerful cattle ranchers who saw sheep as competition for grazing lands. With grit and determination, Katie built a new life, fostered new friendships, and kindled new love.

The Civil War created countless spinsters and widows. Anna Olson was one of them.

With no prospects for marriage and family, Anna pins her future on the frontier and heads west to stake a claim on the wide-open prairies.

“Most women go from their father’s house to their husband’s house,” Anna said. “Here, I have my own house. I am my own person.”

But the Dakota Plains are not empty.

 Anna’s new life collides with a Lakota warrior. Two Hawks MacKenzie, the son of a Scots fur trapper and a Lakota woman, takes an unusual interest in his new neighbor. In turn, Anna begins to the see the land through the eyes of the Lakota people.

Together, they forge a bond that could connect their two worlds – despite prejudice and intolerance they encounter.