On the rugged Oregon coast, mail carrier Mary Gerritse is no stranger to hardship. With her daughter betraying her, her husband John escaping to sea, and her heart carrying fresh sorrow, Mary finds herself stretched thin in every direction. When she rescues a stranger from the shore, his talk of petroleum investments begins to feel like providence. Hoping to secure her family's future while her husband is away, and to soothe her grief, Mary mortgages their property and puts her trust in th...

"An unforgettable story of hardship, survival, and the bonds of family, based on true events. Tabby's indomitable spirit proves that women, as well as men, helped to tame the West."--Suzanne Woods Fisher, bestselling author of Anna's CrossingTabitha Brown refuses to be left behind in Missouri when her son makes the decision to strike out for Oregon--even if she has to hire her own wagon to join the party. After all, family ties are stronge...

Adversity can squelch the human spirit . . . or it can help us discover strength we never knew we had.In 1844, two years before the Donner Party, the Stephens-Murphy-Townsend company leaves Missouri to be the first wagons into California through the Sierra Nevada. They enjoy a safe journey--until October, when a fierce mountain snowstorm forces difficult decisions.The party separates in three directions. Some go overland around Lake Tahoe. Others stay to gu...

**Follow three women from three eras in the Pacific Northwest as they discover a place where miracles really happen—based on true stories.1901:** Plagued by loneliness on the Big Muddy Ranch, a sheepherder’s wife awaits the outcome of her husband’s trial for murder. He is sentenced to life in prison—and she to life without him. But a startling event could redeem their pasts and transform their future.1984: Against a backdrop of attempted murder, federal ind...

In 1911, Carrie Strahorn wrote a memoir entitled Fifteen Thousand Miles by Stage, which shared some of the most exciting events of 25 years of traveling and shaping the American West with her husband, Robert Strahorn, a railroad promoter, investor, and writer. That is all fact. Everything She Didn't Say imagines Carrie nearly ten years later as she decides to write down what was really on her mind during those adventurous nomadic years.Certain that her husband wil...

Based on historical characters and events, A Gathering of Finches tells the story of a turn-of-the-century Oregon coastal couple and the consequences of their choices, as seen through the eyes of the wife, her sister, and her Indian maid. Along the way, the reader will discover reasons to trust that money and possessions can't buy happiness or forgiveness, nor permit us to escape the consequences of our choices. The story emphasizes the message that real meaning is found in the re...

BASED ON A TRUE STORYIn a land occupied by foreign powers and torn by confusion and conflict, a mother seeks to weave her family and her past into a fabric that will not tear.Their Lives Were Woven by Wars and Wilderness Places, and Tied by the Peace of Family and Faith.As the 1840s bring conflict to the Pacific Northwest’s rugged Columbia Country, new challenges face Marie Dorion Venier Toupin: the wife, mother, and Ioway Indian woman who crossed the Rocky...

Based on the life of Marie Dorion, the first mother to cross the Rocky Mountains and remain in the Northwest, A Name of Her Own is the fictionalized adventure account of a real woman’s fight to settle in a new landscape, survive in a nation at war, protect her sons and raise them well and, despite an abusive, alcoholic husband, keep her marriage together.With two rambunctious young sons to raise, Marie Dorion refuses to be left behind in St. Louis when her husband heads We...

Continuing the Tender Ties Historical Series, Every Fixed Star brings readers more of the dramatic, fictionalized account of Marie Dorion: the real-life woman who was the first mother to cross the Rocky Mountains and remain in the Northwest. In Book Two of the series, Marie learns the value of a tender heart, the faith of distant friends, and the act of holding life’s circumstances in open hands.Following the family tragedy, the great battle for survival, and the test of f...

Three very different women. One dangerous journey. And a future that seems just out of reach.Letitia holds nothing more dear than the papers that prove she is no longer a slave. They may not cause most white folks to treat her like a human being, but at least they show she is free. She trusts in those words she cannot read--as she is beginning to trust in Davey Carson, an Irish immigrant cattleman who wants her to come west with him.Nancy Hawkins is loathe ...

"Jane Kirkpatrick puts flesh and blood on the bones of history. Set against an authentic nineteenth-century background, this is a superb story of a woman's struggle to triumph over time and place. . . . A memorable book."--Sandra Dallas, New York Times bestselling authorEliza Spalding Warren was just a child when she was taken hostage by the Cayuse Indians during a massacre in 1847. Now a mother of two, Eliza faces a new k...

One woman, an impossible dream, and the faith it took to see it through, inspired by the life of Hulda KlagerGerman immigrant and farm wife Hulda Klager possesses only an eighth-grade education—and a burning desire to create something beautiful. What begins as a hobby to create an easy-peeling apple for her pies becomes Hulda’s driving purpose: a time-consuming interest in plant hybridization that puts her at odds with family and community, as she challenges the ea...