The Author
Hello and Welcome to Mighty Miss Press!
My new Spirit House series is action-oriented fiction for young adults, and the young at heart who enjoy a good mystery. Book One, Hell’s Cauldron, takes place twenty miles south of the North Dakota border and just east of the Standing Rock Reservation. The first three chapters are available on this website.
Book two takes place on a Minnesota County Poor Farm located at the very southern tip of the old Laurentian Mountain Range. Book three is in the mountains of the Northeast; book four, the Everglades; book five, New Mexico; and book six, Oregon. The unveiling of Spirit House takes place in book six. Books 2-6 are still in the writing stages.
Animals, lakes, falls, caves, lava tubes, burial grounds, deserts, and rock climbing are just a few of the challenges bringing danger to our four adventurers. Native American and Christian spirituality play a role. The four main characters are biracial – Native Americans with white and/or colored ancestries.
Hell’s Cauldron introduces Billy, a juvenile delinquent; and Andy, a rancher’s daughter. He is sent to the Hell’s Cauldron as a last resort. She is being groomed for a major ranch leadership role. Book two introduces Tina and Ace. Each lost their parents and were adopted by the couple running the Poor Farm. Andy, Billy, Ace, and Tina team up in book two and spend the next five years unraveling the puzzle that is Spirit House.
Mighty Miss, my lived adventure, was published in 2008. It exposes the challenges faced by a father/son team paddling from Itasca, Minnesota to New Orleans. I have guided for Minnesota Outward Bound both in the Quetico and Minnesota Boundary Waters. This website also contains excerpts from an unpublished collection of six short stories.
After college, I spent two years as a Scout Executive with the Minnesota Valley BSA. For the next twenty I taught English and Speech, directed plays, developed a Work Experience program and the Tonka Referral Office for the Minnetonka Schools. Two years after ordination, I took a position with the Diocese of Crookston, MN, to develop their Diaconate Formation Program. While there, I also directed the Office of Christian Service (Catholic Charities). In that capacity, I worked with leadership on the White Earth and Red Lake Reservations. My ideas for the Spirit House series began in those years. My final years before retirement were as a parish Faith Formation Director and then as its Business Administrator.
In retirement, I remain very active both as a deacon and as a writer. Jacqui and I have been married for nearly sixty years. We have five children, thirteen grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
I appreciate any thoughts you may have regarding Hell’s Cauldron or my short story excerpts found on this website.
Thanks,
Gary