Once in the Meadows

A Novel

It is the summer of 1953 in Las Vegas, Nevada, and 12-year-old Danny Mayfield has disappeared. His best friend Lizzy, the last person to have seen him alive, is tormented by her decision not to have accompanied him that day as he set off on what now appears to have been his last, irrevocable adventure.

Lizzy’s four-year-old brother Perdy, meanwhile, has seen something, though he isn’t sure what and could not have articulated it if he knew. Half-blind, mute and crippled since birth, Perdy—or Perseus, as his father affectionately calls him-knows only that he is afraid and that someone or something lurks nearby, threatening him and all he holds dear.

A-bombs explode, polio rages, Sammy Davis Jr. sings, corruption on the streets of Las Vegas escalates and a war sizzles across the ocean; and through it all, the Whittakers—siblings Lizzy, Perdy and Andrew and parents Ellen and John—navigate life amidst a crumbling American dream. Fierce in their determination, tender in their love, they hold tight to one another through every adversity, especially when John, diagnosed with a potentially fatal disease, comes face to face with perhaps his greatest adversary of all.

Once in the Meadows a literary novel, is not only a mystery but also a heart-rending coming-of-age tale of a family in the throes of love and loss. Told from the perspectives of family members Lizzy, Perdy, Andrew and Ellen Whittaker; Sari, the housekeeper; Mac MacGregor, the lovesick police sergeant investigating the case; and an unknown, sinister voice in the background, Once in the Meadows follows the Whittakers through a web of nerves and nostalgia to the final climactic moments when all that is sacred seems lost.

This is a drama fraught with humor and tension and a tale so imbued with love that it leaves the reader smiling at the wonder of it all.

The Mudbug and the Winged Creature

A Gift Book

Far beneath the surface of the water on the floor of a riverbed live the mud bugs, rather dreary little creatures and very mundane. Mostly, they scratch about in the sand and gaze fearfully at the dark, swirling waters around them. Day by day and hour after hour, they plod along without much joy or meaning in life.

Every once in a while, however, a strange event unfolds to disrupt the mud bug world. With no warning and for no reason that anyone knows, one of these roly poly beings begins climbing up a reed growing on the bottom of the riverbed. It climbs and climbs until it reaches the surface of the water and then, magically, disappears. No one ever sees or hears from that mud bug again…

So begins the journey of the little mud bug who is the next to go, and of the winged creature who waits for him from far beyond. It is a journey of danger and intrigue, of decision and doubt—and ultimately of the soul’s desire to discover within each of us that which propels us forward, urges us on and guides us to become, at last, who we really are.