My Books
The Yellow Rose
Historically, the term “yellow rose” referred to an attractive mulatto woman. Also, historically, the original “Yellow Rose of Texas” was for sure one by Emily West, and her story is intertwined in song and legend with the Texas Revolution of 1836. That series of battles, led by Sam Houston, made Texas a Republic, its own country, until it joined the union in 1845. The Yellow Rose is set during the revolution and supposes that Emily and Sam not only collaborated in certain incidents that gave the Texans victory but became romantically involved in the process.
The novel mixes legend with fact. No one knows for sure, despite the many tales about her that arose from her presence in Texas at the time, if Emily ever met Sam Houston or if she participated in the revolution at all. On the other hand, no one has proved the contrary. So, The Yellow Rose asks the question: What if…
Bonita (1st Book in the Bonita Trilogy)
Meet Bonita. Often reckless and often victimized, she is a deeply spiritual person who transforms herself from a rebellious adolescent into a prominent entrepreneur.
When we meet her as a twelve-year-old in 1843, her future looks idyllic—a privileged life on a hacienda overlooking San Francisco Bay. But her penchant for eavesdropping and her feisty willfulness wreck everything. She learns that she’s not who she’s been told she was, and she strikes out on her own to discover the truth. Along the way, she becomes immersed in the swirl of historical events that surround her—the Mexican-American War, the gold rush, and California's drive for statehood.
An intense romance both complicates and enhances the quest. Her search and its discoveries create fresh challenges, challenges she meets with the originality and boldness that, by that point, we’ve come to expect of this extraordinary woman named Bonita. From writer Dan Barth, author of, among other fine works, The Day After Hank Williams’ Birthday: Prose Pieces & Poems and Fast Women Beautiful: Zen Beat Baseball Poems.
This historical novel, set in Northern California in the 1840s, opens with the 12-year-old title character intent on learning how to rope a grizzly. The result is not at all what she expected. The thing she loses turns out to be more like a whirlwind. From Sausalito to Yerba Buena, up and down the San Francisco Bay, north to Sonoma, and south to Monterey, she gamely hangs on to her end of the rope. Like Bonita, readers of this Carl Brush novel are in for a wild ride.
Bonita's Quest (2nd Book in the Bonita Trilogy)
It is 1855 in San Francisco when Bonita’s Quest begins. From page one, we find ourselves in the midst of Bonita Kelly’s fight to clear her parents’ names and claim her rightful place on her daughter’s side.
The fight carries her from San Francisco to New Orleans and back again. An intriguing love triangle adds a delicious spiciness to the whole affair.
You will find yourself in the company of an extraordinary woman and will have an exciting time getting to know her as you sail the tempestuous seas of this romantic and suspenseful tale.
Nita (3rd Book in Trilogy)
1859 San Francisco. Nita-short for “Bonita,” her mother’s name-is an energetic, intelligent, precocious twelve-year-old. She yearns for adulthood and chafes at the notion that she’s a little girl, not ready for the challenges that beset her in the turmoil of this new city on the brink of cataclysmic upheaval.
Readers follow Nita through encounters with the Underground Railroad (Yes, it did operate on the West Coast.) and the forced removal and attempted genocide of the Miwok people, who are her dear friends.
All this while she navigates the challenges of her own adolescence and the violence of a California that is still something of a raw frontier. A frontier that is yearning for maturity as much as Nita herself.
The Maxwell Vendetta (1st Book in The Maxwell Trilogy)
CALIFORNIA, 1908. Andy Maxwell sets out to solve the mystery surrounding the stabbing death of his younger brother outside a San Francisco bar. He’s convinced the murder is part of a vendetta against his family, but frustration and suspense mount as he fails to convince authorities that the killing is anything more than the sad consequence of a brawl between a pair of drunks.
Andy’s quest for the motives and perpetrators behind the scheme carries him from California to Wyoming and deep into his family’s pioneer past and psyche, where he unearths disturbing secrets about his racial heritage. It also plunges him into a romantic dilemma involving a blonde debutant and an Arapaho princess. Andy’s initial purpose is to foil a conspiracy, but his journey leads him to question not only his own values but also the frontier that spawned and nourished them.
The Second Vendetta (2nd Book in Trilogy)
NOT AGAIN. It’s taken Andy Maxwell two Years-1908-1910-to help his family recover from the vendetta that nearly killed his mother, burned their Sierra Nevada ranch house, and exhumed some long-buried family secrets, including the fact that his father was black. Finally, Andy thinks he can return to the University of California and pursue his history doctorate in peace.
Not so. First, it turns out they don’t want a miscegenation mongrel in the program. Then it turns out that the marauder, Michael Yellow Squirrel, who started all the trouble, didn’t stay Shanghaied. He’s back for another try at eliminating every last Maxwell; so much for school. Then there’s the election. Reform gubernatorial candidate Hiram Johnson wants Andy to run for the California legislature to help foil the railroad barons.
Swindle in Sawtooth Valley (3rd Book in The Maxwell Trilogy)
IT’S OCTOBER 1914. Life is finally coming together for Andrew Maxwell and Theresa Many Clouds after years filled with violent turmoil and racial conflict. They have built a life as a couple, ensconced in a small house with their two adopted half-Indian, half-white children.
Andy’s pioneer ranching family is among the most prominent in the Sawtooth Valley area of Northern California. Indeed, the Maxwells were among the most prominent in the whole state. But they are envious, greedy, and prejudiced, and they won’t leave the young family alone.
A large eastern corporation wants a piece of Andy’s and Many Clouds’ land, and they’ve paid allies to help grab every inch of acreage they can. Soon, threats to the couple, their children, and their property, as well as the hostility of the law toward Native Americans, threaten their very existence.
Swindle in Sawtooth Valley is the story of the struggle Andrew and Many Clouds must wage to combat the forces that endanger everything they’ve fought for. Their family, their children, and their very existence. It’s the story of a struggle against long odds filled with romance, adventure, and suspense that will keep you reading to the very last page and then leave you hungry for more.
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