After commencing a study of Native Americans, I crossed paths with the great Lakotah Sioux warrior Crazy Horse and Black Buffalo Woman. That a man could so love a woman that he would forsake all when she chose another, I wondered: If they were alive today, what kind of people would they be, what kind of events would they attract, and would they attract each other? And so it's no coincidence that a midnight phone call draws Elizabeth Ingham from a slow-moving dream hours before departing New Hampshire for a Black Hills venue to write a married man from her life. Urgent, her uncle asks that she give a lift to Joe Parker, an injured high-steel worker who has finally decided to quit the Boston venue and return home to South Dakota and what's left of his family. Stage set. On the road, pensive. As Brave Woman Alone with only her dog for protection, the driver confronts the subtle foe in disguise while past transgressions trigger the passenger's self-disgust and guilt on this journey of many turns. Once settled, the novelist attends the annual Powwow at Pine Ridge. Spirit befriends wanderers; and in the afterglow of the gala festivity, Joe stirs up love with the self-styled romantic only to walk another dusty trail after a lone rider scatters rose petals in the dust. Strong words of comfort from mutual friends can neither break Elizabeth's silence nor dispel Joe's fear of loss whereupon he takes to a high mountain cave. So doing, he lays down his soul and cries for a dream. In this dimension, he talks with the woman clad in deerskin and awakes with a decision to let the matter sleep. Come the 13th hour, the leading lady asks the real question.
About the Author: Short & Sweet, as a Career's Day Speaker I told a classroom of aspiring young writers that the word 'career' was not part of my vocabulary. Try adventure! Also an author of Westering themes, Louis L'amour said of his love affair with learning that school interfered with his education and, even as I can relate, I have been an English Teacher of college-bound students & remedial students classified as juvenile delinquents. Time later, to meet monetary needs after being abandoned in marriage with three small children, I bought, restored, and sold antique homes, and I even taught my kiddos how to sheetrock walls! As literistic instincts continually flared, I began writing a book about a man of a thousand dreams before working an award-winning newspaper as reporter, photographer & freelance feature writer. Roads beyond, I engaged as housekeeper, or, as I prefer defining the role, 'Keeper of the House.' On the page or on the set, the Wild West has intrigued me since I was a little girl. Thus, 'Outlaws & Angels' a Creative Nonfiction book about messengers with a message commingles thematically with the Contemporary Romance Novel, 'The Backside of the Page.' And even though romance novels are considered books for women, 'The Backside of the Page' is also a good read for men. Why? As we've all been on the backside of the page, the story includes both sides of the picture. Or, as Rod Stewart lyrically posed, "Every picture tells a story, don't it?" Subsequently, always believing that Act Three of 'Outlaws & Angels' could be a book of its own, sensed in words just so, I brought Leading Lady Anna Lee front & center in 'The Universal Casting Studio.' As I had difficulty summing up exactly how this book differed from 'Outlaws & Angels, ' upon hearing me digress, a friend said of the abridged version, "UCS is distilled down to its purest essence." So I've got Cowboys & Indians blazing trails! And O, there's another brand of four-leggeds forged in loyalty, the timely Life Segment cut from 'Outlaws & Angels' about a character whose namesake still rides the silver screen with Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid, none other than Etta Place! Or, 'Just my dog...' So saddle up & order a good read!