Literary Fiction from Taft Hill Press

It’s 1964. Agnes May, 16-year-old Arkansas runaway with scant hope of ever realizing her dream – much less deciphering what it might be – encounters a couple from Michigan along the road. They convince her to go home with them.

As their adopted daughter, girl matures to woman. Through sheer grit, she successfully makes her way in the adult blue-collar world. It's a new era, when a strong woman could win tacit approval, and even acceptance, in the manufacturing culture of the 1970s and 80s.

Her company's wealthy owners take notice, and slowly develop a plan. In exchange for this impressive young woman’s loyalty and complicity, she could potentially earn for herself a level of wealth and social position she’d never imagined. The good life – hers for the taking, if she wants it.

But, having proven herself all along by way of accomplishment, is Agnes May also strong enough to resist cashing it all in – abandoning an emerging vision of the person she could be?

Publisher Taft Hill Press, 2026. ISBN 9798234021793 LOC 2026903309

Available at Amazon including e-book, and Barnes and Noble; locally, at Bassett's, TAG, the Book Bar.

Kirkus Review verdict: Get it.

Literary Fiction from Bottom Dog Press

Rural northern Pennsylvania, 1960. Four boys, self-proclaimed “Dumble-Doers of Wilmot County,” do dumb things together, just like any boys in that zone where childhood starts to fade and a kid starts to feel adults moving in on him.

It awakens every urge, thought, possibility, and surprise that twelve-year-old boys would experience. But the desire to be grown up brings with it the challenge of learning how dangerous the adult world is.

For Eugene Ahern and friends (as they puff stolen Pall Malls from their stash in the milkhouse cupola), innocence of pick-up baseball games, swimming naked in the pond, finding more clever ways to disrespect parental and official authority—all must succumb. Meanwhile, Agnes May, the kid-brat from sixth grade—well, one day, Eugene holds her hand. She even smells good.

Can they get out of the way of grownups trying to re-exert control over them? And a sinister adult predator who’s been lurking close by all along.

Publisher Bottom Dog Press, 2017 ISBN 9781933964133

Available at Amazon including e-book, and Barnes and Noble; locally, at Bassett's, TAG, the Book Bar.

History the Ottawa County Historical Society

The first comprehensive history of Ottawa County, Ohio in over a hundred years.

Includes hundreds of photos, illustrations, and tales provided by numerous folks and institutions, throughout Ottawa County. This is a coffee-table style book that graces close to a thousand living rooms and libraries in northwest Ohio. Written in a narrative style that tells the story of Ottawa County from a human perspective, from original people, to settlers, to the County's founders, to present-day citizens.

Donning, 2016 ISBN 9781681840741 LOC 2016030812

Available at Amazon and Barnes and Noble; locally, at the Ottawa County Historical Society, https://ottawacountyhistory.org/