Once Upon a Time in the Texas Panhandle

Just when things started to look up, a tragedy struck—a tornado swept through town, knocking down barns, buildings, and killing the parents of her new love interest, leaving him to take care of his four siblings. Will Tayla see the light at the end of the tunnel or will the tornado threaten all that she worked for? Find out in the first novel in the “Once Upon a Time in the Texas Panhandle” series. Tayla wasn’t always “Tayla of the Golden Spread.” In her little town of Mackenzie, Texas, Tayla was often called “Trayla Trash” by classmates.

When Miss Julia received a phone call from her attorney, she could have never in her wildest dreams imagined what he was about to tell her. She was in a will and she had been granted guardianship of two small children—her brother's grandchildren, two young girls. But her brother had been dead for thirty years.

In 1955, Beth Dalton is a runaway bride. Her father, who owns a large ranch in the Texas Panhandle, in effect sells his daughter to keep the bank from foreclosing on his mortgage. Mr. Dalton signs a contract with one of the wealthiest oil-and-gas tycoons of the region: his daughter for the mortgage. The 45-year-old widower will take the 18-year-old beauty in exchange for his paying off her father's mortgage.

Can love restore a broken spirit? In the spring of 1950, an ex-Flying Tiger pilot came home from China to die. After flying for General Chennault against the Japanese, Howie Hill flew for Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalist Chinese air force against Mao’s Communist air force. In 1949, the Nationalists lost. Captain Hill’s family—his Chinese wife, son and daughter, and in-laws—went missing and were presumed dead, killed by the victorious Communist armies. In his P-40 fighter, Captain Hill escaped to Taiwan, but apparently none of his family or relatives had made it to the coast and the escape-boats.

Do you think it’s possible to rewrite history? Colleen Johnston believes it is. Founded on Irish teenager Colleen Johnston's interactions in 1955 with a Confederate soldier's statue in a Texas public park, this historical fiction novel ties directly into the continuing heated struggle to remove such pervasive monuments across the USA, and especially in the old Confederate States.

Do you believe in Fate? Is it possible that two people are meant to be together? That it is their Destiny? For Tammie Velarde and Grant Gibbins, all signs point to yes.

This novel tells two love stories. A single mother finds love again after a decade as a war widow. Her 12-year-old daughter falls in love for the first time. The mother, Regina Walker, was married to Tim Umezawa, who died in Italy while serving in the 442nd. In 1954, she returned to Texas from California with her daughter, Gina, who is half-Japanese. Gina faces prejudice against persons of Japanese descent.

Colm earns the respect and admiration of both Texans and New Mexicans after someone reveals he was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his bravery in the Korean War. Upon his arrival in Glenrio, he was battling suicidal thoughts, but Marta Maria’s love becomes his saving grace.

Awstin Blevens was born to a single mother—his father left them both alone in Texas to join the Navy and fight in WWII. Awstin navigated his early childhood full of hate and anger, taking up boxing and fighting other children as a way to mask his pain and suffering. Then he met Maggy, a little Hispanic girl who changed his thinking for the better. The more time he spends with her, the more he realizes that his violent actions hurt others around him. Awstin eventually gets sent to join the Marines, leaving Maggy behind. When he leaves, there is one thing he doesn't know: Maggy is pregnant.