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See upper left hand side of this page to click on Works and/or BlogNotice: The publisher has raised the Kindle edition of my books, Ride a Shadowed Trail and Maggie Rose and Sass from $9.99 to $22.46. At Barnes and Noble the NookBook price for Ride a Shadowed Trail is still $9.95, but Maggie Rose and Sass is $24.95. Click on Works upper left hand side of this page for new print prices for my books purchased through me.
************************************************************************************************ Crossed Trails, a sequel to Ride a Shadowed Trail, will be released by Whiskey Creek Press in June. The story takes Josh to Virginia City, Montana where a Nez Perce woman and her baby, an old washerwoman, a little girl of white and Chinese heritage, a lovely redheaded woman, the editor of the local paper, and a murder charge all intertwine to change Josh's life. (See WORKS for a sample of the first Chapter.) ************************************************************************************************ 
Wishing You Home Illustrator: Michelle Meade Chapter One: Fear Hits Home Bobby Benton, Jr. ran up the sidewalk and burst through the kitchen door. His mother standing at the sink, turned quickly, a handkerchief clutched in her hand, her eyes wet with tears. “Oh, Bobby!” she said. Cold fear washed over him and even though he knew what she had to tell him, he said the words anyway. “Tommy’s uncle was waiting after school, Mom. Tommy ran over to him and then they left. Tommy didn’t even look back at me.” “I know, Bobby,” his mother said. “They heard today. His father was killed.” Bobby stared at her, the word killed… killed… bounced in his head like a rubber ball. A sick dizzy feeling washed over him and hot tears filled his eyes. For this he knew, if Tommy’s dad was dead then his could be ,too. His mother held out her arms and on stiff, wooden-like legs he staggered into them. Best friends since they were boys, his father and Tommy’s had gone to fight the war together, leaving on the train the same day, both leaning out the window, waving goodbye as the train rolled down the tracks taking them away. His mother and Tommy’s mother shared letters from their dads. They were in the same outfit. They were in boot camp. They were shipped overseas, the boat ride, long and boring, had taken almost a month to cross the ocean. Although they never mentioned the fighting in those letters, he and Tommy imagined their dads fighting side by side, bullets flying through the air, the Germans falling like the stack of dominoes his dad liked to set up and with one little flick of his finger watch them fall back upon the one behind, until they all lay flat. Bobby and his friends often played war in an open field bordering the small creek at the park. Their fingers squeezed imaginary triggers on stick rifles as they belly crawled or hid behind the brush and the sparse growth of trees. Despite it’s name there wasn’t a lot of trees in Elmwood, Kansas. Some of the boys had brothers, and dads, and uncles fighting the Japanese and others, like Tommy’s father and his were fighting the Germans, so they traded off, sometimes shooting at and pretending to be the cowardly, rotten, stinking, mean Germans and other times the lowdown, dirty, cowardly Japanese. Bobby only vaguely remembered his parents hunched over the radio listening in horror on that December day in 1941 when Japanese planes sneaked over the ocean to Hawaii and dropped their bombs on American ships anchored at a place called Pearl Harbor. But the grownups sure remembered. They said that attack by the Japanese brought America into the war. President Roosevelt called it “A day that will live in infamy.” Now, in this spring of 1945, Bobby was ten-years-old and America had been at war for nearly four years. Bobby sat beside his mother at the funeral, but not in their usual church pews, for Tommy’s aunts and uncles, cousins, and grandparents took up the middle two rows. Bobby remembered his great grandmother’s funeral, the only funeral he’d ever been to. She had been in a coffin. There was no coffin for Tommy’s daddy, only a wreath of flowers and the American flag. Tommy’s daddy had died far away in Germany hit by a bomb dropped by a German plane and all that had come back to his family were his dog tags. Bobby’s cousin, Donald, had heard the men sitting around at his dad’s filling station talking about Tommy’s daddy. Donald’s dad, Joe Benton, was Bobby’s uncle, his dad’s older brother. He was too old to go to war, but his son, Joe, Jr., was fighting somewhere in the Philippines. Uncle Joe hated the Japanese for fighting his son and he hated the Germans for fighting his brother, and he hated that he was too old to go there and help them fight. Bobby knew his mom would wash his mouth out with soap, if she heard him using the words Uncle Joe used. But he said them anyway, under his breath, for he hated those dirty, rotten Nazi Germans and those stinking mean, cowardly Japanese. He was glad his little sister, Ruthie, had stayed with Uncle Keith and Aunt Ellen and their cousins on the farm. Ruthie was only four and too little to go to the memorial service for Tommy’s dad. Ruthie knew that their daddy had to be gone for a long, long time, but she didn’t know about war. She didn’t know that Tommy’s daddy was dead. Every night when his mom tucked Ruthie into bed, she’d hold Daddy’s picture out so Ruthie could kiss the glass over his face. Sometimes Bobby crept into the room when no one was there and pressed his lips over the cold glass, reciting the prayer he always said, “Please God, save my daddy. Please, God, let him come home. 
At the Authors Roundup at Colby, Ks with Daniel Oikarinen of Goodland. Nov 19, 2011
Ride a Shadowed Trail
*********************************************************************************************************************************************************** Reader's comments: 10/7/11---Eunice, I really did enjoy Ride a Shadowed Trail. It's been a while since I've read a traditional western but you certainly lived up to the best of those expectations. I also want to mention your understanding of an eight year old boy, ready to take on the management of his own life. Thank you, Jo Amazon Reviews: February 13, 2009 By N. Oswald In this book, the character, Josh Ryder, unwinds the secrets of his past with twists and turns as fluid as the movements of a desert sidewinder. This story brings Texas and the west alive with accurate details and believable events that portray life during the days of wide-open spaces and long cattle drives. Life and death, love and heartbreak, mark Josh's journey to find his father and to avenge the death of his mother. The conclusion lassos and ties Josh's experiences. As he reflects on his past he makes conscious choices about his future and leads us to reflect on our own. The words of the character, Rosita, echo a main theme in this book: "Life, she gives and takes away and in both ways she changes our journey." Excellent Fiction. October 6, 2008 By Tina Pool Ride a Shadowed Trail is a fast-paced story of a young boy growing into manhood and the challenges he faces in frontier Texas. Ms. Boeve's characters are well-developed and you immediately feel a connection to them. Each turn of the page leaves the reader wanting more. Readers of western and non-western novels will love Ride a Shadowed Trail. It's universally appealing! |
Middle Grade/YA/Adultwestern fiction
A story of murder, cowboys, cattle drives, outlaws, young love, sorrow, and joy set in 1870s Texas
History/Fiction
A pioneer story of true courage in the midst of overwhelming adversity.
Dust storms, rabbit drives, bootleggers, and hoboes all part of life in the Great Depression.
A family must go against society's laws to aid a runaway slave.
Two girls of different cultures and races learn that they are more alike than different. |
