The Pearl of Delphine

Welcome to Delphine on the Nigh; a world of waterways and canals, and bridges and boats.  A place of Old-Family politics and government corruption, where everyone is on the take, and survival depends on how much you can steal. 

And no one knows this better than sixteen-year-old, Sela J’honair. 

Orphaned by tragic circumstances, Sela dreams of a world where she can feel safe; a future off-world where she can raise the child growing inside her without having to look over her shoulder or worry about where her next meal is coming from.

Her twin brother, Corin, though, has plans of his own, and seems determined to get himself killed courting one of Delphine’s highborn heirs, all in the name of revenge.

When Sela is caught skimming off her employer, her only recourse is to head into the swamps of Delphine, along with Corin, to pick up an assassin bent on murdering the very same family Corin has pinned his sights on.

But this man Sela was sent into the swamps to find? A stranger: injured, and beautiful. A man who plants a seed of doubt in Sela’s mind and leaves her wondering if he might not be the assassin she was fated to meet?

A man who just might steal her heart, If Corin doesn’t get them all killed first…

Vandemere

Trick rider in a traveling circus, seventeen-year-old Vandemere (Vandy) Petruska is caught between two worlds. As Vandy Davidson, he lives the legacy of the father who abandoned him, performing on his beloved horses in the circus ring. But he’s also his Romanian mother’s son. As Vandy Petruska, he seeks to deny the tarot magie his mother has gifted to him. But as the magie’s power over him grows stronger, he becomes aware that the bad luck in his life isn’t an accident. When his Romanian ancestors immigrated to America on the back of a trick horse, they brought something with them. Something evil. Now this evil is attacking him, and Vandy will have to learn to accept his mother’s magie if he is ever going to defeat the entity that has marked him for death.

Set against the harsh and unforgiving landscape of the 1930s American Southwest, Vandemere is a lyrical coming-of-age story that infuses magical realism into a young man’s journey towards manhood.

Fire Horse

Seventeen-year-old trick rider Vandy Petruska is no stranger to the paranormal. When he inherits his Romanian mother’s tarot magie—a psychic ability that allows him to see into the minds of man and beast—Vandy soon realizes there is a family curse attached to it. The evil entity his ancestors brought with them when they emigrated to America has targeted Vandy for revenge, and it will stop at nothing to end his life.

After breaking his leg in an accident in the circus ring and losing his mother to cancer, Vandy is forced to travel to Arizona, to confront the man he despises the most, his own father. It is here amid the shifting sands of the desert that Vandy learns the war he’s been fighting isn’t always the one he sees on the outside. Forgiveness is a powerful weapon, and with the help of his beloved horses, and a traumatized Apache Native, Vandy finally understands the ally he needs to defeat the entity attacking him has been there all along.

Set against the prejudice and hardships of the 1930s American Southwest, Fire Horse evokes a powerful message of hope and forgiveness, and a young man’s journey into adulthood.

A History of Lightning

Born with a debilitating heart condition, thirteen-year-old Teo Shaw’s dream is to leave Oklahoma and head to California to see the ocean before he dies. It’s 1933; the family farm is in ruins, and Teo’s father, Dax Shaw—a traveling physician, and laudanum addict—is gone most of the time, leaving Teo responsible for keeping his ten-year-old sister Soraya safe. During the brief periods when Dax is home, he bullies his son mercilessly, even forcing him to pretend he’s a girl for reasons Teo doesn’t understand. Lacking the resources to flee with his sister, Teo has no choice but to remain under Dax’s control.

When a bolt of lightning gives him a supernatural ability to heal the sick, Teo’s gift attracts the attention from an ever-widening circle of gossip and newspaper articles. Then a stranger arrives at the farm, asking for help. Teo, Soraya, and their father are drawn away from everything familiar. Long buried secrets begin to emerge, and Teo is faced with a terrifying dilemma. Should he take Soraya and escape to California alone? Or turn his father into the authorities and tear the family apart, changing their lives forever?