About Tangled Roots

A family saga of migration and striving, where historical fiction meets up with genealogy, brought to life through the longings of young hearts

Tangled Roots is a thoroughly researched history-comes-alive-in-fiction story of immigrant families settling in the rich farmland of the Susquehanna Valley in 1750 colonial Pennsylvania. It tells the first-person stories of Mary, her youthful passion constrained by tradition and family expectations; Alex, a Scotch-Irish indentured servant who introduces her to secrets of the land and of the heart; and Matthew, Mary’s level-headed stepbrother who longs to win her affection. Set against the social issues of Native American oppression, slavery and indentured servitude, the novel is rich in historic detail and the longing for love, justice and family in a new land.

At the center of the story is an old family cross, brought back to Britain after the Third Crusade. Even as the unique histories of Mary, Alex and Matthew shape their experience in the American colonies, so their futures are touched by the iconic cross that changed hands in the Holy Land during the Crusades, reemerging on a 17th century plantation in Northern Ireland and yet again in the forest surrounding a small farm in Lancaster County at the edge of the Pennsylvania colony.

About One Summer in Arkansas

This is a story of place, in the tradition of Southern fiction, with vivid images of Arkansas and the values of small-town life

It is 1990, the stock market is soaring and Lee Addison is on a fast track to success in Silicon Valley. Just out of law school with a job lined up at one of the best firms in the Bay Area, he is positioned to join the ranks of young elites who will shape the 21st century.

But standing between him and his shining future is a promise to spend the summer back home in Riverton, Arkansas.

He is unprepared for the siren pull his hometown still holds on his heart, as he grapples with his sister's troubled adolescence, ethical questions relating to the drowning death of a black youth and the weight of his ancestral legacy.

To make matters worse, the allure of a rekindled relationship with Annie Rayburn threatens to disrupt his carefully planned future.

It is a tale of crisis and survival and the universal struggle to tap into values that will hold fast against the uncertainties of time.

Acknowledgements

• Winner, General Fiction, 2013 USA Book News Awards

• Winner, North Texas Book Festival

• Honorable Mention, San Francisco Book Festival