Saturday, July 27, 2013

Looking for a children's book?

My new boy adventure story is now available in paperback!




Wow, it is super thrilling to hold this book in my hands.

I started writing Saving Miner's Gulch when my oldest son was studying the Gold Rush era in fourth grade. His fantastic teacher, Mrs. Fraye, made history come to life for her students and unwittingly taught this old dog new tricks. I was mesmerized when my son came home with his school projects. I had no idea California history was so exciting. (I must have been absent when my teachers talked about this stuff!)

Imagine what it must have been like in 1849 when the call went out--Gold Found at Sutter's Mill!

Do you think you would have left your family behind to board a ship on the East Coast and sail for months all the way around the tip of South America (the Panama Canal did not exist then) just to go to California? If you survived the treacherous journey by sea and arrived in the tent city of San Francisco you would them have to buy gear and hike miles and miles inland to stake a claim. You'd stand knee-deep in freezing water day-in-day out swirling water in a pan searching, praying, desperately hoping for a little color in all that muck. You'd be hungry, dirty, bone-tired, and lonely. Most likely, you'd pay far more for supplies than you'd ever find in the water. Would you have done it? Gold. Nuggets just sitting in the water waiting to be picked up. Tantalizing, isn't it?

I wanted to write a kid's book about the Gold Rush that would portray the adventure, and danger during this remarkable period in US History. I also wanted the book to be fun.

I hope you will enjoy the story about Jack, a teen miner forty-niner ghost who was sucked into the wild west gold frenzy but never got a chance to tell his tale until he joins forces with two present day brothers to stop very dangerous bad guys from destroying an old mining town.

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