Writing Samples

Heather Dawson looked forward to a week of peaceful bliss at her favorite beach resort. Sultry days sunbathing, tranquil nights and long quiet walks on the beach. The salty air and the batter of waves crashing the shoreline was just what she needed after a long, turmulous year of dealing with a classroom of pre-teens.

I tried to remain calm as I pushed back the trauma room curtain at Gaston Memorial Hospital’s emergency room and saw my son for the first time after his accident. My heart wrenched with fear. The image of him lying on a board with his head strapped down is one that is embedded in my mind and will not be easily erased.

Gray marble etched in stone
On a cold and dreary mourn
No sunshine shown that fateful day
A child was taken home.

The tiny grave, a cold damp place
Awaits the lifeless form of clay
To join God's Army at His call
Before the Judgment Day

Away up high, the angels sang
In quiet triumphant peace
Enter thou through Heaven's Gate
Your crown waits on thee.

The hardest things I have ever done was walk away from that cold, damp grave and leave my infant son on the day this poem mirrors. And now, more than twenty years later, each anniversary of his death still affects me differently. The year this poem was written was a particularly difficult one. If not for God's infinite grace and mercy to carry me through each year, I would be a basket case of emotion. I struggled with the decision to have this poem published. Yet, as personal as it is, I feel that its international audience will be able to reach many parents that have lost children, who must face the same anniversaries with similar emotions. It is my hope and prayer that God will touch their hearts as they read, and extend His grace and mercy to them as He has to me over the years. God bless!

A story about an heiress who is left her uncle's rundown ranch in Nevada. A land baron is buying up land in the area. When he learns of the untapped gold within its borders, he'll do whatever it takes to get his hands on Broken Arrow. A half-bred Navaho raised on the ranch sets out to prove to Anne Rhodes that her uncle was killed trying to protect the land, and offers her the unique opportunity of his expertise, but only if she agrees to marry him.

Set against the vast openness of the contemporary American west near the Sierra Nevada range where tempers flare with the flavor of the old west, where greed and passion run dangerously high.